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Archives for August 2008

First Impressions Galore

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Yes, this is a video game blog and yes, we do play games. Honest! Here are a few I’ve played in the last few weeks.

Unreal Tournament 3

This was my first game from GameFly. I’ve never been an Unreal guy but I gave UT3 a try nonetheless. It wasn’t a bad game, I just don’t think it was for me. I gave the single-player campaign a try, but it turned out to be a series of multiplayer matches, only against bots. There was an over-arching story going on there, but I couldn’t follow it. Having Ice T narrate didn’t help things.

I gave the online play a try, but it was total mayhem. The games we played (I tried multiplayer with my bro-in-law) were just total chaos. It simply wasn’t fun. Jumping into other games resulted similarly. If I’m going to play an FPS online, I’ve already invested enough time in Halo 3. I sent UT3 back a couple days after it showed up.

Space Invaders Extreme

After reading Nat’s review, I had to give it a try. This game is a blast. The re-imagining of Space Invaders was done perfect. The sound and music was great, very reminiscent of Meteos. I love the way the rhythm was worked into the mechanics of shooting. Very slick stuff. I definitely give S.I.E. the thumbs up.

Top Spin 3

Top Spin 3 is hard. I haven’t played a tennis game since Mario Tennis on the Gamecube, which isn’t a fair comparison. TS3 is no Mario Tennis. It’s complex, its moves and controls are deep and the gameplay is over my head. Nevertheless, it looks great and plays fun.

I still wish I had some Mario-like powerups (I’d like to shoot a tennis ball through a cannon, Donkey Kong style) but it wouldn’t feel right. I should have a review of TS3 up soon.

So that’s what I was playing. Now that I beat GTA IV, I feel like a big weight has been lifted and I can get back to playing games scatter-shot like I did before.

Ouendan 2? Yes, please

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In case you never noticed. We are gaga over Ouendan.

I don’t know why, but we’ve not imported it yet. Apparently, the fine folks at Aeropause have.

I’ve spent a good day or two with this game, and I can say that it is still just as addictive as the first Ouendan. So what’s so great about this game?

The songs. I don’t think I have heard such a good collection of J-Pop and J-Rock since the first Ouendan. The story is…well I can’t say anything about the story other than it has some hilarious scenes. Who could deny seeing two creepy looking Mario & Luigi plumbers helping a little boy fix his “pipes” so he won’t pee in the bed…all to the tune of a song with …something something Baby in it!

[2 Minute Review] American McGee’s Grimm, Episode 1

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Is a developer name able to carry the weight of a game?

Yes?…No. Well, maybe…

DO: Walk all over a candy-coated countryside and stink it up by your presence.

TYPE: Third person platformer.

PLATFORM: Windows PC via Gametap.

PRICE: A misnomer. Episodic. The episode reviewed is FREE via Gametap. Otherwise $3.99 an episode.

MEAT: You take all the good that is in fairy tales and make them evil. Gameplay consists of walking around all over and “butt-stomping” certain characters or items. The more you walk around the more stink power you have. Certain characters can clean up your act, but eventually you can over-stink them. Challenge? Getting the game to run. (Yeah, it’s buggy and they even admit it before you play). Oh wait, you mean a gameplay challenge? Not a single bit. The game has an interesting soundtrack but it’s full of fart sounds and high-pitched screams. For being an “Unreal Technology” game it looks like utter crap. The style is great, but it needs polished. Yes, that is a urine stream in the pic above.

PERKS: interesting premise; McGee’s warped style; timed leaderboards; tongue-in-cheek humor; less than 20 minutes total gameplay; a speed-run game

SCREAMS: premise gets old; to look better; to not be repetitive; tongue-in-cheek humor; crashes on dual core machines; make it a challenge

VERDICT: Pass. It…uh…stinks. However, the first episode is FREE. If all twenty-three (23!) episodes follow this formula—pass the gas.

Xbox 360 on the Big Screen

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Ever want to play your 360 on a HUGE screen, say, one as big as a theater screen? Now you can (via Global Nerdy). (If you live in Canada and near a Cineplex):

Beginning on Friday, gamers will be able to book two-hour sessions at 29 Cineplex theatres across the country for $179 plus taxes. Up to 12 people will be allowed into the session to play their own games, or those from a supplied library, on the theatre’s giant screen with surround sound. The Xbox 360, however, can only accommodate four players at a time.

Why just the 360?

You Won!

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Yes, I most certainly did!

Last night I completed the story in GTA IV. I don’t have a lot of time to talk about it, but I will say I thoroughly enjoyed Grand Theft Auto IV. It has its flaws (no checkpoints during missions is criminal) but taken as a whole GTA IV was a great time.

I want to still try and complete the rest of the side quests, get all the achievements, and finally try multiplayer, but it feels good that I can now move on to other games.

Summer Vacation

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Things may get busy around here this week, as I’m cleaning out some of my old drafts, posting things I should have posted weeks (months [years]) ago. Me procrastinate? Never!

Things were slow around these parts last week as I was deathly ill last week after a bad Burger King Croissan’wich (don’t ask) and then I was busy with the kids. Things at work are crazy busy this week and I’m going on vacation next week. So I want to get out out some posts and possibly have a something queued up for posts while I’m gone. You’ll still be in the capable hands of Nat while I’m gone, and there may be a robo-post in there, but I won’t be around much next week.

The wife and I are taking a trip to the Big Apple. It’s my first trip to the New York City, I’m pretty excited.

World Golf Tour

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World Golf TourI have been meaning to blog about this for literally months. I get countless hits from Google with people searching for MMO Sports Games (I have a couple posts on the subject). I still feel strongly that eventually someone is going to figure out a viable MMO Sports Game. I think golf is probably going to be the game that succeeds in this genre. Shot-Online came close, but the cartoony golf game never grabbed me. Enter World Golf Tour.

I actually first read about WGT in Fortune Magazine, of all places. The article raves about how realistic it felt and how it is the future of online sports gaming. With that kind of praise, I had to check it out.

World Golf Tour

It’s a pretty solid little golf game. As far as I can tell, there’s only a 9-hole demo at PGA Charity site, but the company behind WGT seems to have raised a decent amount of funding, and has a backing from TaylorMade Golf (my personal club of choice).

World Golf Tour

Graphically, WGT is beautiful. The mouse controls almost feel natural. The Tiger Woods swing stick is still my favorite but WGT’s controls aren’t bad. It’s hard to gauge all aspects of the game, due to the fact that right now, you can only play a closest-to-the-pin challenge. Hopefully that will change soon in future beta tests.

World Golf Tour

I am intrigued so far. It will be interesting to see how good WGT turns out to be. With things like friends lists, teams and other options, WGT could give Shot-Online a run for its MMOGolf money.

Gobble Gobble

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I’m working to finish up the last few missions in GTA IV, but last night I decided to work on an achievement or two before I make more mission progress. I figured the “Gobble Gobble” achievement, where you have to score a turkey in the bowling mini-game, would be easy enough.

Easy enough, right. The bowling mini-game in GTA IV is atrocious. Frustration would be an understatement. After an hour of fruitless bowling, I did that which I hate — I asked the internet how to do it. I’m not a fan of the cheats but I had wasted time trying to do this, so I ended up at YouTube and found a nice little trick to get the job done.

The point of this is that if it weren’t for the achievement, I wouldn’t have spent more than two minutes playing the bowling mini-game. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.