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The S+V Interview: Rock Band Blitz Audio Lead Joe Kelly

The game's roots in the Rock Band franchise — and the difficulty of maintaining a song catalog that's several thousand titles deep
- By Timothy J. Seppala
- Posted September 5, 2012
Harmonix Music Systems redefined the peripheral-based rhythm genre with Rock Band in 2007. Five years, two numbered sequels and a few notable band-specific spin-offs later, their fans have a huge music library at their disposal. Thanks to smart thinking at the outset, almost all of the material from each successive game release has been playable within the Rock Band ecosystem (The Beatles Rock Band notwithstanding). There’s somewhere in the neighborhood of three thousand songs in the Rock Band catalog if you count the community-authored tracks available on the Rock Band Network store.
The problem is, no one wants to buy peripheral-based games anymore. The novelty’s over and isn’t coming back anytime soon. Despite this, Harmonix has been keeping Rock Band fresh by releasing new songs and albums each week for players to download. This is great for hardcore fans, but not everyone wants to go through the hassle of getting the band back together because they want to play a few new tracks. That’s where Rock Band Blitz comes in.

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Review: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

One of us is getting old
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted August 31, 2012
I've been playing Counter-Strike for 13 years. Not continuously, mind you (that would be weird), and less and less as the years go on, but thirteen years. Wow.
So much has changed. Back then I was a bald writer, avid pc gamer, and lover of classic cars. Now I’m... hey, wait...
Perhaps it's fitting that C-S, with its latest iteration C-S:GO, hasn't changed a bit either, save for a polish and some softer edges. Softer edges. That’s what we have in common.

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Review: Team Fortress 2: Mann vs. Machine

New mode brings some new “life” to the long-running game
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted August 17, 2012
It’s hard to believe Team Fortress 2 is 5 years old. I remember waiting breathlessly for the Orange box to come out, unable to decide which game I’d play first: TF2 or Episode Two of Half-Life. There was also some puzzle game included as a bonus, but puzzle games are lame.
Three days of nothing but the amazing Portal have since proved that last thought incorrect, but over time I came to love Team Fortress 2. I was shocked, in preparation for this review, that I hadn’t played in almost a year. Thanks Steam for making the passage of time so blatant.
Last summer Team Fortress 2 went free to play, and to mix things up (and get some players back, no doubt), they’ve added a new mode: Mann vs. Machine. It’s pretty awesome.

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The S+V Interview: Kevin Bruner on the Tech Behind Walking Dead

We talk tech and technique with the Telltale Games founder and CTO
- By Timothy J. Seppala
- Posted June 27, 2012
Adding color to the Walking Dead universe was a gamble, but Telltale Games nailed it.
At E3 this year I had a chance to preview the latest episode in the series (out today for Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 Friday) and pick the brain of Telltale’s Founder and Chief Technology Officer Kevin Bruner.

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My Favorite Games of All Time

Less a list, more a perspective
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted June 15, 2012
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A few days ago, via Twitter, S+V EiC Mike Mettler posed a question on behalf of his nephew (allegedly) asking what was my favorite game of all time. I couldn’t pick just one, so I rattled off a few of my favorites.
But the creation of that short list got me thinking: Why were these games my favorites? What about them has stood the test of time (in my mind) over countless other titles over the years?
In other words, what makes a great game immortal?

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Wrap Up: E3 2012

We look back at the annual game showcase, and let you know what we're looking forward to in the coming months.
- By Timothy J. Seppala
- Posted June 13, 2012
The dust has settled, E3 is over, and I have a notebook of nigh indecipherable scratches and scribbles left over from my week in LA. Covering E3 as one person and seeing everything is impossible, but I was able to check out a lot of very cool stuff.

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Xbox, set (at last) to take over your living room

Microsoft aims to take over the living room, make controllers and remotes things of the past
- By Michael Berk
- Posted June 6, 2011
Microsoft's keynote was the hot ticket this morning at the E3 Expo, and the company didn't disappoint. While a few had held out hopes for a hardware surprise (the company dominated last year's event with the Kinect motion controller), no such thing was forthcoming from Redmond.

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The Thrilling Dead: Dead Space 2

In Space, things go splat.
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted March 24, 2011
Dead Space 2 (Electronic Arts)
Xbox 360; also for PS3

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SXSW Interactive: MOG to stream in car
- By Ken Richardson
- Posted March 19, 2011
MOG has indeed announced that it will be the first music-streamin

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Video Game Review: Singularity

This title works better on paper than in practice.
- By Will Greenwald
- Posted September 17, 2010
In theory, Singularity, developed by Raven Software, seems like a home run. As an American soldier investigating the abandoned (but not uninhabited) Russian island of Katorga-12, you travel back in time, inadvertently change the past, and then spend the next 6 to 10 hours fighting across the island to set things straight.

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Rockstar Games releases Red Dead Redemption soundtrack, vinyl coming soon
- By sandv blog
- Posted August 25, 2010
Vinyl records are becoming a curious marketing tool for video game companies.

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Street Fighter comes to HDTVs
- By sandv blog
- Posted May 25, 2010
Marvel-licensed HDTVs were nerdy enough, but this is just over the top.

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