"Hey."

"Hi, did you find everything ok?"

"Yeah, I'd like to buy this game."

"Sure, I can ring you up right here"

"Thanks."

"Oh... wow..."

"What? Is something wrong?

"No it's just I can't believe someone is actually buying this game."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, the game sucks. I mean just look at how cheap the cover art looks. Also it released at such a low price so you know it's going to suck."

"Have you played it?"

"No, I never play bargain bin games."

"Well then how do you know it sucks if you never played it?"

This is an actual conversation that I had with a local videogame store clerk. I thought to myself, "You got to be kidding me. Why do guys act like they know how good a game is when they've never played it? Seriously... why?" I'm thinking it could be a bunch of different things. Maybe it makes people feel secure to show off that they're knowledgeable about stuff even though they're not. But hey, I'm no philosopher.

Actuality I think it's this -- gamers like to stick to games that they know. I mean hey, you can pretty much bank on truckloads of gamers picking up Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Resident Evil 5 the day they are released right? Why is that? Because all the other Smash Bros. titles and Resident Evil titles in the past were great games so it only makes sense that the new titles would be great games also and most of the time that's very true.

But what about the kind of games with names that you've never heard of? What about underground titles like Urban Reign and Metal Arms: Glitch in the System? These were good games that didn't sell as well as they should have, and why not? Because no one has ever heard of these titles before so there really is no guarantee that the game will be good.

Luckily for the brave at heart gamer who dares to test the waters of underground games, a plethora (that's right, I said plethora) of underground titles have been recently released, and we're going to take a good look at a few of them in this month's Press Start.

Shadowrun may sound familiar because it originally started as a Dungeons & Dragons style board game until it was made into a pretty fun role-playing game on the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis.

Shadowrun for the Xbox 360; Publisher: Microsoft Games; Developer: FASA Studio; Release Date: May 29, 2007; ESRB Rating: M for Mature; Genre: first person shooter; Players: 2-16 (system link); Support: cross platform multiplayer between Xbox 360 and Windows Vista; Online: 2-16 player matches

This Name Sounds Kinda Familiar
If the name Shadowrun sounds at all familiar, but you can't quite put your finger on it, let me give you a short history lesson. Shadowrun originally started as a Dungeons & Dragons style board game until it was made into a pretty fun role-playing game on the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. Now, more than a decade later, we finally get a continuation of this almost forgotten game franchise.

Shadowrun for the Xbox 360 is not an RPG like its SNES and Genesis predecessor. It's actually a revolutionary first person shooter. What makes this game so revolutionary is the fact that it is the first ever game in videogame history that let players play against each other across different platforms. Gamers who own the Xbox 360 version could play with and against players who own the Windows Vista PC version.

Simplicity and Complexity
Shadowrun is a lot like Counter-Strike for the PC. Shadowrun allows gamers to go online and have either deathmatch or capture-the-flag matches. At the beginning of each match players are required to buy their weapons with in-game money from a weapons menu. Killing as many opponents as possible and helping your team in any other way earns you more money, which allows you to buy bigger guns! Pretty basic.

What makes Shadowrun not so basic is that first, players must choose which side to fight for. The military corporation RNA or the strong willed renegades the Lineage. Then players must choose a race. Shadowrun allows players to choose between four different races all with different abilities and characteristics. You got the all around versatile humans, the fast and agile elves, the magically adept dwarves and (my favorite) the big honkin' tough guys the trolls.

Shadowrun players have the ability to buy magic powers like teleport and resurrection and to purchase tech enhancements, such as Smartlink and Enhances Reflexes. © Microsoft Game Studios and FASA Studio.

Here's where it gets really fun. Players also have the ability to buy magic powers like teleport and resurrection. This allows players to teleport right through a wall to escape enemy fire or to resurrect a fallen ally. Shadowrun also allows players to purchase tech enhancements, such as Smartlink, which improves your character's aim and Enhances Reflexes, which allows your character to run faster, jump higher and reload their gun faster. (Sounds like Lee Majors doesn't it?)

In addition to buying guns players also have the ability to buy a katana sword. When players equip the katana sword the whole view of the game changes from first person to third person, this gives the sword wielder a much better view of their surroundings. Now you're probably thinking "What moron brings a sword to a gun fight?" Well when players equip the katana while using Enhanced Reflexes they can actually swat away oncoming bullets.