EA’s latest racing game, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, really delivers on the sensation of going really, really fast. I reviewed the game for The Globe & Mail.

Some people like to be in front of the pack, running ahead, evading; while others like to pursue, chase, run down. They’ll all have fun with Electronic Arts’ latest racing title, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, which puts gamers in the roles of Racers or Cops.

My coverage of Kinect and a few of the titles available at release published in the Georgia Straight yesterday.

I’ve mentioned it before. There’s something quite intriguing about interacting with the software – not all of these titles are games – without needing a controller at all.

Connecting the Kinect peripheral is simple. For those with a newer Xbox 360—the model released this summer—one cable plugged into the back of the console is all that’s needed. Older units require a separate power adapter, which is provided, that plugs into a wall outlet.

I’m very curious to see what the clever developers out there will come up with. As it stands, while the launch titles are overall very good, they aren’t anything we haven’t seen before.

All of the current generation of video-game consoles now boast motion-detecting systems. But while Nintendo’s Wii Remote and Sony’s PlayStation Move are actual controllers, Microsoft’s Kinect for the Xbox 360, released on November 4, turns gamers themselves into controllers by sensing people’s bodies and their movements. As such, Kinect-enabled games provide some of the best full-body workouts you’ll find in front of a television. Here’s a look at some of the Kinect games available at launch.

Another review in today’s The Globe & Mail. This one looking at God of War: Ghost of Sparta, from Ready at Dawn for Sony Computer Entertainment.

Poor Kratos. He’s such a tortured soul. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he butchers everyone around him with very sharp knives. In earlier God of War video games, Kratos was tricked into taking the lives of his wife and daughter. In Ghost of Sparta, a new game developed by Ready at Dawn Studios for the Playstation Portable handheld, his mother, Callisto, and brother, Deimos, are the family members who get caught up in the drama – and the horror – that is the truth of Kratos’ existence.

Today’s The Globe & Mail includes my review of Dance Central, from Harmonix and for Kinect for Xbox 360.

Do I think I can dance? No way. I’m a middle-aged white guy that grew up in Calgary. That’s a place where the population’s inability to move with any fluidity resulted in group movement along a line being classified as dancing. It’s where we spent our teenaged years slamming into each other in a mosh pit because the music was really intense and we didn’t know what else to do with our teeming hormonal energy.

CBC Vancouver asked if I was available today to speak with them about the new Kinect for Xbox 360. I was quite happy to help out.