Games Cheats and Reviews

When was the last time you felt totally lost in a fantasy gameworld? When was the last time you played a game with such a well-crafted and enjoyable story that you knew you’d remember it for a long, long time? Dragon Age: Origins is that kind of game, so rich and involving that you are powerless to resist its wiles and whims, so touching and triumphant that your mind and heart will be moved. In the fictional land of Ferelden, you meet memorable characters and fight for a cause you believe in, and it’s this backdrop that makes developer BioWare’s newest role-playing game so extraordinary. Dragon Age is more than a well-crafted story, however: It’s a lengthy, intricate, and thoroughly entertaining adventure that’s easy to fall in love with.

The soul of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, a PlayStation 3 exclusive from Santa Monica-based Naughty Dog studios, isn’t its graphics, which are beautiful, believable and more often than not spectacular. Nor is it the game’s brilliant, fiercely accessible mixture of Tomb Raider-esque exploration and tense, third-person gunfights. It is instead actor Nolan North, the man who lends his voice to charming, easygoing treasure hunter Nathan Drake.

As we follow Marco Polo’s trail in a mad dash for the fabled riches of Shangri-La, visiting along the way such exotic locales as Istanbul, Borneo, and the mountains of Tibet, Mr. North gives voice to the player’s thoughts, offhandedly commenting on the dazzling scenery, muttering about always being the one who has to do the dangerous jobs, and cracking jokes Die Hard-style – "Ha! That was your neck!" – while under fire. He also likes to ham it up for the women he adventures with, using his man-boyish wiles – a mixture of affable buffoonery and adept tomfoolery – in an attempt to earn their affections.

Indeed, hardly a minute goes by in this lengthy, 12-hour story without our hero saying something interesting, important, or, at the very least, amusing. He’s the video game equivalent of Indiana Jones or perhaps Robert Langdon, only better because unlike the former he’s relevant to today’s audiences and unlike the latter he’s actually cool – the sort of guy adventure-loving men wish they could be.

Without him, it’s difficult to imagine what Among Thieves would have been like.