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Archives for 2008

In from the cold

November 24, 2008 by Tony 4 Comments

I returned on Friday from the COLDEST business trip ever and am just now getting around to catching up on emails, feeds and games. I didn’t get much gaming in over the weekend, but I’ve got pretty much the whole week off, so I’m looking forward to cramming in as many games, books and movies as I can.

Thanks to my fellow bloggers for keeping the site alive and well why I was pretty much isolated from the real world while I was working in Northern Maine. Being without internet when there’s nothing else to do is pretty soul-crushing.

So I’m out of the loop right now from the video game world. I haven’t even downloaded the new Xbox 360 dashboard. But I should be caught up soon. In the meantime, here’s the fastest Super Mario speed run I’ve ever seen:

Filed Under: News

MK vs DC: First Impressions

November 23, 2008 by James Leave a Comment

Freaking awesome!!!

That about sums up my first impression.

I played through the DC story line and started up the MK side tonight. The story really works and the way it’s layed out is great too. The fighting mechanics are fun fun fun. The new klose kombat and free-fall kombat are a new and fresh addition. I’ll write up a more in depth review of the game after I’ve put enough time into it. For now I’m just enjoying it to the fullest.

Filed Under: Gaming, Previews Tagged With: MK vs. DC

[2 Minute Review] Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

November 22, 2008 by Nat 8 Comments

Note: This review is full of light spoilers but does not divulge the outcome or major points of the plot.

Can a game cause a person to embrace the dark side?

Yes, one feels the hatred flowing through them while playing this game. One also feels the elation of redemption once it’s all over.

DO: You are every Star Wars fan’s dream. Kill anything that moves using Force powers–with ultimate effect.

TYPE:
3rd person action platformer

PLATFORM: 360 and PS3 (in this iteration) (360 version reviewed here)

PRICE:
$60

MEAT: Made an orphan by Darth Vader and impressed to become his adept in the Force the player is forced (heh) to become a double agent and start an uprising for the purpose of Vader wanting to overcome the Emperor and have you rule at his side. Premise aside the game is an ongoing trial of frustration. Storm Troopers can block Force powers and unwieldy camera angles make knowing where the action is rather difficult. The camera also helps in missing numerous jumps when it comes to certain levels. Throw in a useless save system and some broken save points and you tend to know what it’s like to experience the extreme power of the dark side. On more than one occasion I felt as if I could Force pull the disc from the 360 tray. The game looks and sounds great, and only during the endgame when you have most of your powers at their full potential does the game play tend to get exciting. Perhaps though the most squandered potential of any video game moment of all time is lost during the often advertised Star Destroyer scene. You’re tasked to use your Force powers to pull it down right out of the sky. Instead of being an epic moment, it becomes one of trial and error and then develops a sense of defecating relief once it’s over. The following cut scene barely manages to cover that guffaw. However that leads me to the game’s redeeming moment: the story. Let me finish by saying that it ranks in the top three of Star Wars stories grouped with The Empire Strikes Back and Knights of the Old Republic. I’ve only done this once before playing a video game, but I teared up during the final cut scene. Maybe my frustration of playing gave way to an empathy with the frustration that the apprentice felt?

PERKS: wielding the Force in its full glory is awesome; excellent graphic design, sound effects, and soundtrack; one of the greatest Star Wars stories–is it any wonder Lucas considers the game canon?

SCREAMS: to have been play tested–by people; to have better enemy awareness; to have an enemy AI other than throwing wave after wave of troopers at you; to display real lightsaber effects and not essentially be a lit wooden pole; to not have Quick Timed Events; to have a better Force power progression; to be made into a proper movie

VERDICT:
Rent. This rating was really hard for me especially if you’ve read my previous frustrations. Rent it for the story alone. Otherwise watch the cut scenes on YouTube or read the book. If it wasn’t for the story I would have recommended that you Pass on the pain. They’ve sold over 1.5 million copies so will probably see a sequel with the same crappy game play.

Here’s my gamercard to show I completed the game.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: 2 Minute Review, Star Wars:The Force Unleashed

The Force Unleashed: Elated Frustration

November 21, 2008 by Nat 7 Comments

I’ve shared my initial thoughts about the game in the past, but recently I’ve forced myself through the pain (“I need my pain!”–sorry wrong sci-fi franchise reference) and have started to finish it.

I just completed the star destroyer level.

I want to go on record and say that it is the most wasted potential of an epic moment in a video game of all time. To put it into a frame of mind, most fans had never even thought of the idea of pulling down a star destroyer using the force. LucasArts really had something there. It really got people hyped up and was a major selling point of the game.

How could they even package it and call it entertaining? Who signed off on it? It is a huge trial and error task of frustration.

The reason being that the quicktime events do not match the actions on screen. They’re just slightly off. TIP: Ignore the buttons on the bottom of the screen for the most part and just make the star destroyer look directly at you. When the light turns green, pull that sucker down.

The developers at LucasArts must have known that they had the most sucktacular epic fail of a level on their hands so they ramped up the cinematic that follows it.

Those last five minutes were better than the new trilogy movies combined.

The dialogue, plot twists, use of Star Wars cliches (and not being cheesy), camera angles, and voice acting make it one of the best contemporary video game cinematics I’ve ever witnessed.

Forget Clone Wars on Cartoon Network (they might be killing off Jar Jar tomorrow night!), Lucas should have focused on animating this story. I think it’s the best self-contained story in the Star Wars Universe behind The Empire Strikes Back.

Filed Under: Asides Tagged With: Star Wars:The Force Unleashed

Trophies Mandatory? About Dang Time

November 21, 2008 by Nat 3 Comments

Was doing my daily browsing of kotaku and found out that Sony is making trophies mandatory for PS3 games come January.

Finally.

I know of many people who choose 360 games over their PS3 counterparts just for achievements alone. I’ve had more fun with my PS3 in the last two months than any other system. Competition is good. I want to see it survive.

Filed Under: Gaming Tagged With: Sony, trophies

[2 Minute Review] Gears Of War 2

November 19, 2008 by Brock 1 Comment

Michael Bay, eat your heart out. This is the game you wish you had made.

Gears of War 2 does everything the first one did, only bigger, louder and better.

DO: Shoot, run, drive, fly and chainsaw your way through hundreds of the Locust Horde across a variety of awesome set piece battles.

TYPE: 3rd Person Cover-Based Shooter

PLATFORM: Xbox 360

MEAT: Gears of War 2 is the leaner, sleeker version of Gears of War. The cover system that defined the original game has been tweaked so that Marcus will stick to things he should stick to and jump/run/dive when the situation calls for it. The story has also been beefed up significantly in this installment. It won’t win any awards but it has enough meat to give a somewhat plausible justification as to why Marcus and his crew of thick-necked soldiers keep getting into the crazy situations they find themselves in. Gears 2 is the epitome of a summer action movie distilled into a game. Explosions abound, the stakes are high and only the hero and his giant chainsaw/gun can save the day. It works great as a way to relax your brain if you’re playing headier fare like Valkyria Chronicles or Fallout 3. Just point and shoot and wait for something to go BOOM.

PERKS: Chainsaw duels; riding a variety of ‘vehicles’; giant boss fights; a variety of multiplayer modes, including the awesome 5-man Horde co-op mode.

SCREAMS: For more chainsaw duels in the story campaign; a few less underground segments.

Verdict: Buy (esp. if you want the 5 classic Gears maps). As someone who got bored of Gears 1 about 2/3rds of the way through the singleplayer campaign, I went into Gears 2 with some trepidation. Suffice it to say, Gears 2 had me hooked from start to finish and wishing it wouldn’t end. The fantastic Horde mode helps to extend the life of the game significantly and the classic multiplayer modes are all fairly fun, at least for this gamer who doesn’t play a tonne of multiplayer things. Now hurry up and get Gears 3 out so we can see where the story goes from here!

Filed Under: Gaming, Reviews Tagged With: chainsaw, Gears of War 2, Horde mode, Michael Bay, summer action movie

What I’m consuming

November 18, 2008 by Tony 8 Comments

I haven’t done of these in a while, but I’m currently on travel in Maine and have a little time to work on this. Here is the media and entertainment I’ve been consuming lately.

My education in the Science Fiction and Fantasy “classics” continues, but I took a break to read A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trailby Bill Bryson. A very hilarious and thoughtful travelogue of a couple guys ill-fitted for the task of tackling the Appalachian Trail. Hysterical. Another side track I took was to read the classic The Richest Man in Babylon,the gold standard for teaching hard work and personal finance. I think everyone needs to read this book. I’m working on a list of books my kids will read as they grow up and this one will be at the top of that list.

Finally, I got back to the classic. I’m embarassed to say I had never previously read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.I recognize that HHGTTG has a place in the pantheon of Sci Fi classics, but I felt it was a tad overrated. Just a tad. It was good and had laugh-out-loud moments, but it wasn’t great. I then moved on to The Mote in God’s Eyeby Niven and Pournelle. I know I’m drawing from a shallow well at this point, but Mote is probably the best Sci Fi novel I’ve read. A story of the first contact of humans with aliens, it starts slow but finds a comfortable pace and is an excellent read. It strikes the balance between story and science that I like. It also had a “goose bump” moment that I had to go back a read multiple times. Hopefully you know what I’m talking about, a moment that takes a great book and elevates into rarefied air. (One of my favorite “goose bump moments” was in Crichton’s Timeline, when the students find the professor’s note, “Help me,” written 400 years in the past. I loved that moment.) I’m recommending The Mote is God’s Eye to anyone who’ll listen.

Having finished Mote, I’m now moving on to another couple of classics. I have both 1984 and Brave New Worldin the queue. Another book I’m ashamed to say I never read, 1984,was riveting (I just finished it) but a tad depressing. I’ve moved on to Brave New World and then it’s on to the stack of graphic novels Nat provided me with.

Not a whole lot new on the TV consumption. I’m still watching Prison Break and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox, and the trifecta of Earl/Office/30 Rock on Thursdays. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: 30 Rock is my favorite show on TV. We got hooked on Dexter earlier this year and we’re anxiously awaiting the next season (we’re catching it on CBS, as we don’t have Showtime).

On the music front, I haven’t been listening to much new stuff. The newest couple of groups I’ve been listening to have been Bodies Without Organs, a swedish Europop group I came across on last.fm. I can’t find much of their stuff on iTunes or Amazon, but YouTube has a lot of their stuff (my favorite being “Chariots of Fire“). Another group I recently start listening to is Clutch. I love the lead singer’s voice, and any band that performs a song called “What Would a Wookies Do?” is hard to pass up.

So that’s quite a bit. Hopefully I can do these more regularly so I don’t have so much to catch up on. I’ll let the other guys chime in, as well.

I’d like to know what have you been consuming?

(Image Credit: Stacks from Patrick Gray Illustration’s photostream)

Filed Under: Entertainment

Back On The WoWgon

November 17, 2008 by Brock 3 Comments

After 8 months away, Azeroth once again has me in her clutches. I should have known I’d be jumping back in as fast as possible once the new expansion hit. I love exploring new areas and about the only reason I stopped playing WoW back in March was the fact that I’d run out of new things to see.

Of course, I also needed something to play on my laptop when I can’t use the TV besides Peggle.

Filed Under: Asides, Gaming Tagged With: lack of willpower, WotLK, WoW

Overlord On The Cheap

November 14, 2008 by Nat 1 Comment

One of the hidden gems I came across this year was Codemaster’s Overlord.

The fine folks behind Steam are selling it this weekend for $9.99. I deem this price to be GoodTM.

…or if you prefer, get every game released (and soon to be) by Valve for $100.

Filed Under: Gaming Tagged With: Overlord, Steam, Valve

[2 Minute Review] Hinterland

November 14, 2008 by Nat 1 Comment

Note: with this review, we’ve moved from the “+” and “-” format in our VERDICT to Buy, Rent, or Pass.

Mix a little Diablo II, a little Dwarf Fortress, and a little Sim City and what do you get?

Hinterland—a surprisingly fun game, even without the professional polish.

DO: Build a little village all the while terrorizing the “hinterlands” with your villagers cum warriors at your side. Essentially make your tyrant of a king happy.

TYPE: clickfest hack and slash with a dose of micromanagement on top

PLATFORM: PC (Steam version reviewed here)

PRICE: $20 (via many different digital download vendors)

MEAT:
You play a character (one of many typical fantasy classes with a few tongue in cheek classes as well) that’s been called by the king to establish a village and conquer the region for your liege. Travelers come to your village and you get them to stay and perform their special skill while possibly using and training them to raid the countryside with you. One caveat: when they are with you they don’t perform their skills in the village. Your village is raided as well and you can minimally defend it. The game session ends once you’ve conquered all the regions. The replay-ability comes from all the character classes and villager skill classes. Essentially, you play for high scores—and a dragon or two.

PERKS: easy to learn, lifetime to master; humorous; variable game sessions; excellent developer support; dragons; huge replay-ability; casual or hardcore; cheap;

SCREAMS: to be less ambiguous in some parts; online leaderboards; to have specific quests (the king’s requests can go to…); to have random map encounters; to have major weapons and characters (ie dragons) not be always so close to the endgame; to be able to reuse your characters; to have a little more polish; to have a screen zoom function; to be a little more reliable on some machines

VERDICT: Buy. The next game by TiltedMill—with a little more money put into by you owning this one—will be stellar. This is an excellent independent developer effort.

Filed Under: Gaming, Reviews Tagged With: Hinterland, TiltedMill

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