The Bowdoin Orient

I can distinctly remember my first experience with the "Grand Theft Auto" series. A highly controversial game, "Grand Theft Auto III," was on store shelves. I remember listening to a friend claim that it had just been banned in Australia, and would soon be banned in America. A game that worried adults that much had to be worth my time, I reasoned. Due to that single enticing characteristic, the "Grand Theft Auto" series sucked me in. Now, on April 29, Rockstar Games returns us to the place where it all began: Liberty City.

On July 11, 2007, at the E3 trade show, Nintendo's press conference culminated in the announcement of its newest Wii peripheral, the "Balance Board." The board was featured alongside its flagship game, "Wii Fit." "Wii Fit" follows in the vein of the cultural phenomenon "Wii Sports" by encouraging gamers to get out of their comfy chairs and do their bodies good while playing with their favorite little time-wasters.

The weekend that Spring Break commenced, "Super Smash Brothers Brawl," available for Nintendo Wii, finally made its U.S. release after numerous delays, and the anticipation was palpable. For the first time, I went to a midnight launch of a game; I wanted it in my hands as soon as possible. I was not the only one. During the first week of its release, "Brawl" sold at a rate of 120 units per minute.

I recently purchased the Nintendo title "Zelda II: The Adventure of Link" on Nintendo's Virtual Console, a service that provides downloads of classic titles that have appeared on systems of the past. The other night, as I sat on the couch and watched my roommate futilely struggling with the game, dying over and over again, I came to a realization: Games today are just too easy. There is a special feeling that comes from beating something particularly difficult, and too few games today provide that satisfaction.

In 2007, a new hierarchy established itself in the video game industry. The Nintendo Wii remained a national phenomenon that was one of the must-have impulse buys of the year. The Xbox 360 consistently churned out hits and maintained the highest software attachment rate of any of the modern consoles despite falling behind the Wii in hardware sales. The Playstation 3 proved itself attractive to those types of people who do not like to have many games worth playing.

The real shame of the Nintendo Wii is that it is incapable of running the more technologically advanced games of the current generation. "Resident Evil 4," one of the top games of the last generation, was originally a GameCube exclusive. Yet this generation's Nintendo system can't handle "Resident Evil 5," which will appear on both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. In order to compensate for this travesty, Capcom has released a Wii-exclusive "Resident Evil" game: "Umbrella Chronicles." Although this game cannot possibly compare with a powerhouse like "Resident Evil 5," it presents a fun and mostly satisfying experience that lives up to the "Resident Evil" (RE) tradition.

As we frantically scramble to survive finals, there is one thing we can all look forward to: the sweet, sweet serenity of Winter Break. Hopefully it is a period free of deadlines, duties, and distractions that direct our attention away from that which is important to us all: video games!

Between the releases of "Assassin's Creed" (multi-platform) and "Crysis" (PC) and the introduction of the Check Mii Out channel to Wii gamers, this has been a busy week in the gaming world. It was hard to choose the focus for this week's column, but the release of "Super Mario Galaxy" for the Wii ultimately came out on top. "Assassin's Creed" looks absolutely amazing, but "Super Mario Galaxy" is just, naturally, in a stratosphere all its own.

Just in time for the Halloween season, Rockstar Games's "Manhunt 2" made its way to the Wii and Playstation 2 this week. If an analogy is to be drawn between this game and the horror genre of films, it is more like "Saw" than "Exorcist"?that is, more viscerally than supernaturally frightening. Even the "Resident Evil" series, with its zombified not-quite-human antagonists, has more to do with an uncanny kind of horror than "Manhunt 2." This game is all about the blood and guts.

September is a time for all of us here at Bowdoin to get back into the groove. We have spent our summers working hard and/or taking needed vacations, but regardless of our pasts, we have all congregated at Bowdoin to continue (or, for first years, begin) our educations. With all the bustle and confusion of moving in, choosing classes, and getting in touch with friends, it is easy to temporarily forget the world outside the Bowdoin bubble. For video game fans, this could mean missing out on major upcoming releases.

On November 22, 2005, Microsoft was the first company to enter the next generation of video game systems with the release of Xbox 360. Sony and Nintendo will now throw their hats into the ring with the release of Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. Let the console war begin.

The premise behind ABC's "Lost" is simple: Oceanic Flight 815 crashed on an obscure tropical island. The story twists and turns from there, which is fortunate for the viewers?this isn't just a "Gilligan's Island" rip-off. And "Lost" undoubtedly has its share of viewers: an average of 15.5 million per episode. The show has won industry awards such as Emmys and Golden Globes and, along with "Desperate Housewives," has pulled ABC out of a ratings slump and into the upper echelon of primetime TV. The third season, beginning October 4, promises to answer the cliffhangers from season two, while furthering the mysteries of the strange island.

Ever worry that your weekend "extracurriculars" are destroying your brain cells? Thanks to the work of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, you can give your mind the exercise it needs with the Nintendo DS game "Brain Age." Kawashima is at the forefront of Japanese research on brain imaging and turned that research into a video game, which, played daily, could increase your brainpower.