Like Max Payne only with stereotypes. Mastertronic brings us Made Man, a game of climbing the ranks of a New York City mafia family.

You play Joey Verola, son of an Italian immigrant, who happened his way into the mob life. As Joey you save the life of Johnny 'Eggs' Biondo, nephew to Phil Lombardi. Phil is a high level man in the Frazone crime family. It's all very Brady Bunch meets The Soprano's.

Even though the game tells you the story of how Joey moves up through the ranks of the Frazone family it can get a little hard to follow because the levels/story actually jump around in chronological order. You start the game with the very first job Joey ever had in the mob, then the next mission has you jump back to when you first meet Eggs in Vietnam, then back to finish the original mission. The narration between missions is done nicely, via Joey telling basically his life story to the other hood in the car.

The game has some well implemented, innovative, game play elements. The cover system is done fairly well, diving into cover is a bit buggy at times though. But for the most part it works well, it feels good to be propped up behind an object then to jump up and blast your foe's head off with a sawed-off. And with destructible barricades it adds a slight challenge because you can't always hang out at the same one for a long period of time. As I found out while trying to hide behind a pallet of cigarette cartons.

The game also uses some picture-in-picture help you out along the way. It will show you the location of weapons, conversations being had elsewhere, and on occasion your enemies perspective to help you during those difficult fights, particularly with snipers.

As for the combat, what the game is all about, it's pretty straight forward. You've got guns, they've got guns, whomever runs out of ammo first loses. Luckily, ammo is plentiful. Head shots are very satisfying what with the blood splatter that follows. And if you happen just to injure your foes enough to drop them you can do a retaliation shot. Your enemy spats something unpleasant at you, you give a brief retort, then blow their brains out onto the floor.

Oh and going Rambo on everyone with dual AK-47's is a just as much fun as it sounds. Although pray to God if you run out off bullets first

Made Man is another game with a good premise, young guy rising through a strong mafia family, but was implemented in a mediocre fashion. It took the best things from games such as Max Payne and The Godfather and dulled them up. I'd say play either of those instead, but to each his own. I'll give it a 7 out of 10. Bada-bing.

Well today was the day, if you got your Playstation 3 today, most likely at midnight, then congratulations to you. And if you bought one and only one, then sold it on e-bay you should be ashamed. Though if you bought yours on e-bay for $4000+ then you should be more ashamed, for being a dumb ass. For the rest of us, looks like we have a couple more months to wait.

See you all on the 19th for the Wii launch.

The new age in graphics for your PC arrived today, with the first appearance of a video card supporting DirectX 10.

Nvidia is first out the shoot with their brand new GeForce 8800. Too bad there's nothing out yet that would actually require it's power. Nevertheless it's the first officall look at what is to come in the world of computer graphics technology. There are two 8800's being released the GTS and the GTX, it's big brother. Check the stats.

GTS

96 stream processors pitched at 1.2 GHz

640MB GDDR3 in a 320-interface

500 MHz core

1.6 GHz memory clocks

GTX

128 stream processors at 1.35GHz

768MB GDDR3 teamed up with a 384-bit bus

575 MHz core

1.8 GHz memory clocks

Not to mention the SLi capabilities along with 16x anti-aliasing. Yes you can run two in your system and never have to upgrade for a good long while.

In layman's terms what this all means is the best looking games you've ever seen. You can watch some small tech demos at the Nvidia site

Time for a focus on something a little different. Moving from the game front to the internet comic landscape.

Everyone knows of Penny-Arcade, VG Cats, and CTRL+ALT+DEL. Granted they are all pretty top notch. But if you've been to VG Cats as of recent you many have noticed their current featured comic. Gone With The Blastwave. It's relatively new one, considering the total of 29 strips, but definitely has it's strong points.

Clearly inspired by team based multiplayer games mixed with the humor that of Red vs. Blue, Blastwave brings a little more ridiculousness to a world already filled with plenty. But that's not a bad thing. I suggest you check it out.

A point-and-click comeback, Secret Files: Tunguska. Before I begin let me restate, this is a point-and-click adventure game. If you didn't enjoy games like Myst, Siberia, or The Longest Journey, feel free to stop reading now.

Secret Files, is your traditional point-and-click, hereafter referred to as PAC. That meaning you go from scene to scene collecting items, to figure out puzzles, to solve a mystery. It's a game where *gasp* you'll have to use your brain! At least for the first half of the game anyway.

In Secret Files you play as Nina, who one day finds her father missing. You must find various clues as to where he has been taken and who did the taking. The story actually pans out along the lines of The Da Vinci Code, what with big cover ups, secret societies, and shadowy figures, all of which surround one main event. The Tunguska incident of 1908, look it up. As Nina you will also team up with a number of extra characters, some of which you'll control, and they all have some sort of relationship to the missing professor.

Game play is pretty self-explanatory when it comes to Secret Files. It's a PAC game, guess what you'll be doing a lot of. For the majority of the game the puzzles are pretty straight forward, even clever at some points. Basically you have to collect objects and combine them to fulfill tasks so you can further the plot. Unfortunately because the plot is everything and clues come from what you hear in the game, every character has to say every thought that comes into their head. This would be so bad if there were any decent actors in the entire game.

For the first half of the game it is relatively obvious as to how you are supposed to use the items you acquire. I felt particularly clever when I taped my cell phone to a cat so I could listen in on a conversation. Yes you read that right. But at some point in the game the manner at which you complete your tasks goes from sensible to "how the hell was I supposed to get that?". Such as putting a spike through a painting to keep a door open. Oh yeah that's completely logical. Games like this is why we have Gamefaqs.

Secret Files isn't much to look at either, not that it has to be though. Your character moves across the, although pretty, static background looking for clues and helpful items. But is a run feature a little too much to ask for, the characters move so slowly across the screen. The cut scenes are visually pleasing but still feel sluggish. This is prevalent even when the scene is supposed to be heavily climactic. Oh and a little more animation with the characters would be nice. There is nothing worse in the game then during conversation portions where two or three characters are just standing there without so much as a gesture.

I'll toss Secret Files a generous 7 out of 10, but this one goes back in the file cabinet for me, and not even a fire proof one.