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Archives for September 2008

Cleaning House (and undercutting Gamestop)

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I’ve been a little cynical lately regarding just about every area of gaming. Today, I’m going to touch on the used game market. Two words: Screw them.

With that in mind, just like last time, I’m going to make the offers here first before I go to eBay. Here’s the idea. I’ll sell the used games cheaper than Gamestop does but at a price higher than their trade-in value. The result is that we all win…if you want to own any of these titles. I’m only going to sit on this for 24 hours from the date of this post. Also, my opinions of the title follow.

Title
GS $ My$ Comments
Viva Pinata Trouble in Paradise 360 34.99 30 Viva Pinata 1 with a new cover?
Ghost Squad Wii 26.99 20 Excellent shooter. Just like the arcade.
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune PS3 49.99 40 Fun for a single play through.
Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 54.99 45 Came with the PS3. Not a fan. Don’t care.
Overlord 360 17.99 10 A fun romp good for a play through.
Bioshock 360 34.99 25 Yeah. I was shocked, and I’m not into hyper-violence.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 360 54.99 40 Sigh.

Oh, did I mention that shipping (USPS) is included in the prices above? As you can see, in most cases I’m $10 under (and still over) the market asking prices.

Site difficulties

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It seems that we are having a bit of an issue with our web host at the moment, so I apologize for the intermittent service. If you’ve tried to load the site recently, you were probably met with some for on internal server error. I’m on the case and hopefully things should be back to normal soon.

Once things settle, we’ll be coming at you with more of that high-quality blogging you know and love.

Trials 2 Gets Some Love

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For a game that doesn’t get a lot of mention in the “professional” (I love doing that now) press, it seems to have a strong online following. We gushed all over it. It’s a strong contender for my 2008 FGOTY.

It seems as if the developers are giving it a little bit of love:

  • Added new voice-overs
  • Added new language support. Now supports English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Slovak, Spanish and Swedish
  • Improved in-game chat and private messaging
  • Added new high-end graphics options, as well a new graphics mode optimized for low-end machines and laptops
  • Added 14 new downloadable tracks

RPS found it first. This has been a great week for extra game content.

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

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This is long. Forgive me in advance.

I honestly believe that Star Wars as an intellectual property has degraded in quality since 1999. The only thing that gave me a glimmer of hope was the character and casting of Mace Windu and the incredible CGI of a three foot tall green creature.

As a whole, I’ve not walked away totally satisfied. However, this is not a Star Wars diatribe.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released this week with a lot of fanfare. George Lucas even showed up at a San Fransisco Best Buy to promote the release. My local Gamestop called me on Monday and welcomed me to the midnight release of the game. I didn’t go.

This was a game that I specifically ignored the hype, “professional” reviews, and other online craziness that is associated with video games. I was getting it based on the demo alone. I had fun with the demo. It was short and the display of force powers I found to be intriguing.

Tuesday afternoon, I spent what was left of some store credit and picked up the game. Later that evening after the boys were in bed, I gave it a try. What’s this? I get to play as Darth Vader? Joy of joys.

Vader walks down the ramp of the shuttle and literally struts his way through Chewbacca’s home planet. I’m tossing wookiees and force choking my path to the goal. Along the way I notice that I might occasionally be attacked from the rear without warning or I’ll be hit from some blaster fire off screen. That’s interesting. I don’t remember that happening much in the demo? It’s no big deal. This is Darth Vader they are up against. The loss of health is minimal.

When three wookiees or more (or storm troopers–blast them! Get out of my way) show up on the screen the game pauses for a second or two. No, it’s not LucasArts bullet time. It stops. I thought I had inadvertently hit the pause button. Nope. The game is chugging. Interesting.

I reach the end of the level and toast the Jedi I was sent to kill. Cue the awesome cutscene of Vader adopting a son–which I actually find to be kind of creepy knowing that he has a son. Next, we cut to years later and the boy is all grown up now a shadow of the Dark Lord. Vader’s idea of testing him is to constantly put him in impossible situations and even have his protocol droid programed to kill him at any opportunity. The boy Starkiller’s job: hunt down the Jedi Vader is too lazy to go after.

The first real test for Starkiller is to infiltrate a Tie Fighter factory and kill a Jedi who is attempting to sabotage it. This is an awesome premise. I’m an Emperor’s Hand so I finally get to see where my favorite sci-fi ship of all time is made. Apparently, it’s a bunch of silver rooms that are connected with some silver hallways. It’s crammed full of saboteurs who have wonderful guns that shoot lasers so fast you twitch faster than Han shot Greedo. The best way to deal with them is to toss them aside with the Force. I guess using the Force takes too much concentration because you have to be perfectly still to use it. Dang. Twitching.

I enter some rooms and clear it out only to wait a second or two and it’s full again. Yay! It helps when you want to explore. Where did these guys come from? Didn’t I just toss someone here and just look away? Hey, where did these four guys come from behind me without warning? Oh, neat, two have laser Gatling guns. Twitching.

Eventually I reach the end and cinematically dispatch the Jedi. This cutscene raises the bar some more. He senses something…a presence he’s not felt. Wait. There’s nothing there at all.

Vader’s happy. His voices his pleasure by giving me a hot pilot to distract my training and sending me on a mini-vacation to a planet who’s entire surface is a junkyard. Neat. One planet is an entire desert, one a swamp, one a city, one a volcano, one an ocean, one a jungle, one a forest, one an ice ball, one a cloud, and I get sent to the junkyard. The goal: kill another Jedi.

It’s not too bad. Just a lot of jumping. Oops. Missed. It’s not too bad. Just a lot of jumping. Oops. Missed again. It’s not too bad. Just a lot of jumping. Oops. Missed again. I finally make it into a trash heap of an old space ship. Man, I hope the Rebellion doesn’t find out about these droids that “protect” the junkyard. Shoot. I hope the Rebellion doesn’t find out about any of these enemies for that matter. If they were to unify to fight the Empire we’d be goners.

I can’t think about that. I’ve got to drop this huge girder to make a bridge. Hmm. Some more droids. What’s this? A large driod? A little Force lightning should do the trick. I have no idea what “X” and “Y” are but I have to hit them before I see them. I wish I had Force insight. The first Jedi I killed was a little bit this way. I had to know what letter to hit before I saw them: A,B,X, or Y. Whatever that means.

Ok. The mega-droid is dispatched. I need to lower the girder. Yay for the Force. Now I just get to walk across. Hmm. Misstep. Didn’t see that coming. Oh well, I beat a mini-boss, it should have auto-saved, right?

Huh? I get to do it all over again? Ok. The mega-droid is dispatched again. I need to lower the girder. Yay for the Force. Now I just get to walk across. Made it this time. Oh, a jump. Here goes again…

Another ten minutes later. The mega-droid is dispatched again. I need to lower the girder. Yay for the Force (sigh). Now I just get to walk across. Made it. Oh, a jump. Here goes again.

Ok. The mega-droid is dispatched again. I need to lower the girder. Dang Force. Now I just get to walk across. Made it. Oh, a jump. Curse the Emperor!

The mega-droid is dispatched yet again. I need to lower the girder. Sense the Force my butt. Now I just get to walk across. Made it. Oh, a jump.

It’s then that I put my controller down, embrace the dark side, and literally Force pull the disc from the 360 tray (yeah, the tray on the console is not working right either). I hover the case in mid-air and place in the disc.

It goes back to Gamestop tomorrow. I’ll watch the cutscenes on Youtube. Take a breath.

This was a game that failed for me on all points. I so much wanted it to be good. One of my unwritten mantras is that I do not want to be frustrated playing a video game. Ever. I look at a video game as a place of enjoyment, a place of escapism. If I want to be frustrated, I’ll watch the news. This is something that I paid money to enjoy. A lot of money.

I think I’ve reached my limit of paying premiums for these games that consistently fail to deliver. I went into this with almost no expectations and it still frustrated me more than it impressed me. There is no excuse in 2008 to have to navigate a camera, fight crappy AI (filling a room full of baddies to compensate does not a good game make), navigate illusionary jumps, and repeat a large section over and over just to make a jump. The save feature on this game was pointless. You constantly were put back to the closest auto-save no matter where you saved.

I wanted to play this game to completion to write up a 2 Minute Review. I don’t even think it’s worthy of that. I’ll give you a 2 second review:

VERDICT: -, do not pick this game up unless you have a biblical dose of patience, like to be stabbed in the back, and then and only then see it in the bargain bin.

I hear the game has one of the best Star Wars stories that reaches a pinnacle higher than the recent trilogy or Clone Wars Crap. I should have saved my money and bought the book.

Burnout Paradise–A Whole New Game

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In what I believe to be a brilliant move Criterion has released an update for Burnout Paradise that adds motorcycles to the game.

  1. It is FREE. (Take that, horse armor.)
  2. It adds a new dimension to the game.
  3. It adds more speed. (Even when it was not thought possible.)
  4. It is very well done–right down to the looks the driver gives passing traffic.

I have played it and I claim it to be Good.TM

Euphoric Exhilaration

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In this day of mass consumerism it takes a lot for a movie, a game—anything really—to strike a chord. With movies, I can think of only four times that it has happened to me. The first time was when I was five and the credits rolled at the end of Star Wars. The second was a year later when I screamed with Luke Skywalker in the scene in The Empire Strikes Back. It wasn’t until years later that Saving Private Ryan moved me to tears in realizing if I’m earning this. I reeled in shock as The Sixth Sense shattered my perceived notions of cinema.

Last night, I was a kid again.

However, it may have been a movie like The Sixth Sense that took our public’s perceptions of cinema where people tend to over-analyze each and every movie, book, video game, and other such type of entertainment. (Thank you, J.J. Abrams and Lost.) What I’m about to mention was not accepted by the public at large. However, that’s okay. I think that it’s a cinema tour de force.

The movie that caused my boys and I to literally stand up and cheer was Speed Racer.

It—to borrow the cliche—had it all: candy for kids, an underlying adult plot, eye candy, a mystery man, redemption, slapstick, drama, excellent sound effects, appropriate acting, an excellent soundtrack, and a monkey. A monkey!

If you have not seen this movie and you would like some escapism that doesn’t seem to care who is watching, but seems to enjoy itself then this is a movie for you. It is just self-indulgent fun. It has probably the best crescendo of excitement in a movie I’ve ever witnessed. It’s over-the-top and a blast.

I have no complaints (even with its length). We received the movie from Netflix and immediately went out and paid good money for the overpriced Blu-Ray. My one regret is that I did not experience it on the big screen.

I believe this movie will be a cult classic.

What we’re playing

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This is going to get long, as it’s a first-impressions post for some of these games, and probably more than you’d care to read. Here’s what we’ve been playing.

Tony:
360:
Soul Calibur IV– When I worked in an arcade, I was a HUGE fighting game gamer. Street Fighter 2, MK and MK 2 were my personal favorites. Since then, however, I haven’t played a ton of fighting games. I had Killer Instinct Gold and MK3 for the N64. But recently, I started picking them up again. First with DOA 3 and now Soul Calibur.

I’m still in the buttonmashing (duh) phase of my play-through, but I’m already hooked on the customization and unlocking. Can’t get enough of it. SC IV looks great and handles very well. I’m not fully comfortable with all the moves and combos but I’m getting the hang of it. I’ve got a long way to go, however. I got into a ranked game online the other night and got beat down pretty good. The guy I was fighting was pulling off five and six hit combos while I was flailing around trying to hit him.

I’ll be playing SC IV for a while.

Battlefield: Bad Company– BF:BC has been out for a while now and has received relatively good reviews. As a single player game, it’s got a certain charm that separates it from other military shooters. I’m enjoying it thus far. I haven’t given the multiplayer a try yet, and since this is a GameFly rental, I doubt I will. It’s going back in the mail soon. But still a pretty fun game.

GW2 – If you’ve seen me on Live lately, this is probably what I’ve been playing. I love the original Geometry Wars and GW2 is six times better. With the six different game modes, each one with a hook, I’m loving it. The integration with hi scores and your friend’s list is genius. Everytime you play a game, up in the corner where the high score is displayed, shows the score of whoever on your friends list has a higher score than you do. It’s absolute genius. Every time I play a game I’m reminded that I need to catch Greg on Pacifism, Kim on Evolved and Masem on just about everything else.

Pacifism, the game where you don’t get to shoot (you know, in a shooting game), is by far my favorite game mode. While they’re all a blast, I find myself playing Pacifism more than any other.

Grand Theft Auto IV– Even though I finished GTA IV a while ago, I still love to throw it in for a few minutes and get my quota of run-down pedestrians. Once I get enough sidewalk surfing, I’m on to another game.

PC:
I’ve also been playing a few games on the PC, but mostly brower-based.

Corpse Craft – This is another one of those links I saw come across the Twitter wire. I don’t remember who linked this one but I’ve been playing it non-stop. The easiest way to explain Corpse Craft is to combine Bejeweled and an RTS-lite game. Then, take those two games and throw in Zombies. Yeah, I know, your mind is blown. Just check it out.

Also, check out Whirled while you’re at it. It’s another flash-based gaming site, a-la Kongregate, complete with achievements and other perks.

The last game I’ve been spending time with is another browser based game called Fallen Sword. It’s a simple little RPG, with a bit of an MMO-feel. It’s all turn based combat and moves, but it’s a bit addicting. I always sneak in a few turns any time I sit down at the PC.

So that’s what I’ve been playing. I know Nat will be updating this post later as well with his current line-up.

(And here I am…)Nat:
360
Too Human: I think you’ve heard enough from me about it.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: I feel that this game, while good, is so full of lost potential that I hope to have it competed by the end of this week in order to get a good trade for it. There are some “wow!” moments, and there are some “what?” moments. I generally give out a lot of “sigh” moments.

PS3
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: This is a game that is just fun to play. It helps that it’s a visual treat as well.

The Last Guy, Pain, Super Stardust HD, and Everyday Shooter: I’m finding some of the offerings on the PSN Store to be a real treat. I spend most of my time here.

PSP
Exit: I played the demo on XBLA and loved it. The style. The pacing. It fits. I don’t know why I never bought it. I guess I wanted to play it on the PSP first. Finding it for $10 was the best game deal I’ve had all year. It’s my, ahem, toilet title.

PC
Spore: I don’t know why I purchased this. I’ve played it a total of five times, and I think I may be done with it. I’ve not even reached the beloved space stage. I’d rather just create creatures and vehicles.

What I’ve not been playing.
The DS or the Wii. When we do play the Wii, it’s Bloom Blox.

(…and now back to Tony: Nat)

What have you been playing?