A new video has revealed more new information from Pokémon Black and White, including some of its linking functions with the C-Gear.

Morrison talks about the new series and the “apocalyptic finale” to his run on Batman.

Apparently Maryland thinks it’s a big deal…

Yet another macabre tale of the Pokemon world. CollegeHumor looks at the harsh life of a Charmander imprisoned in his Pokeball.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords truly upped the ante when it came to puzzle games on any platform. By mixing RPG and straight puzzle elements, Infinite Interactive created a game which spanned genres and captivated audiences. Does the first true sequel to their seminal classic live up to the expectations laid down by it’s predecessor? If I say no am I going to be hunted down by a band of angry trolls and two headed ogres? Read on to find out.

Puzzlers were some of the first games to capture the elusive casual gamer market; some might say they captured it before there was such a thing. My parents had wars over Tetris scores, far outpacing my brother and I. Modern puzzle games like Bejeweled have massive followings and have made companies like PopCap real powers in the gaming market. The genre, which has been a mainstay of the game industry, has seemingly made the move between handheld console, PC, and even bar-top gaming effortlessly. Defined by games with a simple goal, often without a story or other cumbersome mechanics which require balancing or testing, puzzle games have more in common with retro arcade games than the more “modern” cinematic game experiences.

I have a ton of respect for what Infinite Interactive and D3 have tried to do with the genre via the Puzzle Quest brand. Mixing puzzle mechanics with RPG-level building and character customization certainly seems like one of those “I can’t believe they didn’t think of it before” ideas. In Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, players were convinced of the epic scale of the world, and made their way from one end of the continent to the other. In Puzzle Quest Galactrix, the puzzle mechanics changed slightly and the game took some bold steps out of its comfort zone. Unfortunately, their latest effort falls short of the expectations set by their previous work and instead favors the under-developed “Quest” mechanics over the more solid “Puzzle” portion of the equation.

Puzzle Quest games are comprised of two interlocking pieces: the casual games friendly “puzzle” portion and the role playing centric “quest” wrapper. The subtle differences between Puzzle Quest 2 and its predecessors both improve and degrade the overall experience. The puzzle side of the game is a simple gem matching game where the player matches colors to gain mana for spells, attacks, and skulls to do damage to opponents. The random nature of the gem drops set up some pretty massive chains for either player. More than once I cursed the game for cheating, but enough lopsided matches happen in either direction, convincing me that the game doesn’t cheat, but plays to the level of the player, and gets lucky just as often. The A.I. in the game is competent and you will find yourself losing the odd battle to an underpowered foe due to luck more than anything else.

The spell casting system has been significantly refined and is an improvement over the original Puzzle Quest. The right combination of spells can yield impressive results at the expense of expensive mana costs and must be balanced carefully against character type and statistics. Playing as a rogue, I configured a set of spells which progressively turned all the gems to the board to purple, each spell doing damage to my opponent and creating strings of chains and extra turns, eventually leaving me with a pile of mana to use for a shield spell, doubling my hit points. The trick to this strategy is that I count on sets of gems lining up to form the proper chains and once the spell chain is pulled off, my character is drained and forced to rely on physical attacks for a few turns. It is a gamble, but more often than not it pays off and does so with a very organic feel to its execution.

On the other hand, there have been numerous battles where an early lucky move by the computer has decimated my hit points like I was a giant magical crab with a glowing weak point before I had even take a turn. The incidence of these sorts of one sided battles in either direction is low enough that it never feels like the game is unbalanced or cheap, a problem which plagues the original.

The other big change is to the loot system: gone are gold and experience gems in battle. Experience is awarded at the end of a fight based on the opponent faced. Gold and goods come in the form of self contained loot puzzles which award gold and items. The loot puzzle is unbelievably fast paced and takes place on a progressively shrinking board. These puzzles move so fast that it is nearly impossible to set up specific matches for rare or regular items and are some of the most difficult “battles” to execute in the game. Access to gold and items play an important part in the game’s role playing mechanics and give the player the ability to upgrade weapons and armor for additional bonuses.

The upgrade mechanics are also interesting. Enemies and chests can drop crafting items which can be combined with existing equipment or weapons by the blacksmith to upgrade the various bonuses. The progression of weapons and equipment feels a bit unbalanced since upgrading a decent weapon yields significantly more powerful items than can be bought or found.

Ironically it is the introduction of RPG elements which highlights why Puzzle Quest 2 falls short in several crucial ways. With any role playing game I expect some level of unbalanced play against some of the more advanced foes. This is what drives the story and makes the optional battles seem useful. Every foe faced in Puzzle Quest 2 is at the same level as your character. Even a more powerful enemy type of an equal level is not as versatile as the player character and won’t have the upgraded weapons and equipment to back them up; ultimately falling fairly easily.

I kept anticipating having to go back to my spell book to put together a killer combo to take down the boss or upgrade my weapons one more time for that extra edge in combat, but sadly I never even came close to taking those steps. This is really a shame because Puzzle Quest 2 is one of the most intelligently written games I’ve played on the DS. From farcical character names to some of the scenarios that play out on the side quests, the writing is witty and entertaining throughout.

Ultimately there is little difference between what is found playing through the story and what can be accessed from the main menu as a quick battle. This is where the Quest portion of the game could make all the difference, but well written side quests and interesting characters are not enough to encourage the player to slog through a poorly planned over-world and dungeon management system. In the first Puzzle Quest the scale of the game felt epic. Players travelled the world, fighting ogres and trolls where they lived. There were no city maps, just cities which could be easily accessed. It was very obvious where the evil was and what needed to be done to fight it.

The shift to a dungeon crawler layout means that while each section of dungeon is convincingly rendered, the overall scale seems to have shrunk and the overarching storyline is muddied by quests stemming from quests without any larger framework in evidence. The introduction of portals for quick travel to the next objective undermines the decision to make sprawling dungeons and serves to reinforce the limited scope of the world. Ultimately the whole experience lands somewhere between Diablo I and the old SSL Eye of the Beholder games. It is a confusing choice and one that makes the game as a whole seem smaller. If the designers has chosen to pull back from the single progressive dungeon early on to establish the larger world it would have really helped to hammer home the full size of the game.

If you’re a fan of the puzzle game mechanics of Puzzle Quest, by all means pick up the sequel. As a pure puzzler it is brilliant and has significant replay value. In my testing I didn’t run into any of the glitches which plagued the various releases of the original and the puzzle fighting experience is much more streamlined and fun. I’m sure I’ll continue to play the game, but see myself favoring the quick battles over the quest mode.

Tiny Cartridge retells the unsettling story of Pokemon Black.

They really should have announced that they would announce the announce date as well.

Anal retentive gamer begins his work chronicling his 50 favourite SNES games in this video/written combo. Game #50: Stunt Race FX.

Your chance to catch Legendary Pokémon Latias (SoulSilver) or Latios (HeartGold) from July 31st to August 27th

Apparently generic space marines have names…