Gaming

I Just Saved You At Least $20

July 21, 2009 by Nat 2 Comments

Gamestop is offering a lot of new games for $20. I personally don’t think any of the newer games are AAA titles. (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed comes close, but you know our thoughts on that title). Bionic Commando made the list.

Let me begin by saying Bionic Commando is my Forced Unleashed for 2009. Only this title I’ll probably not play through. Right now, it’s my reigning champion for most wasted potential in a game this year.

I’ll start with the gripes because it’s all I have.

The Swing Mechanic—It’s stupid. Attaching and beginning the swing is easy enough. However, when do you think would be the best time to let go and swing to the next item? No, it’s not at the end of the swing. It’s just right after the bottom of your arc. Yes, there is an indicator of when to let go, but it appears and disappears so fast…I don’t want to be frustrated playing games. Just the tutorial was an adventure in frustration. Think the platform jumping of The Force Unleashed with the repetition of Mirror’s Edge. (Ooo, two frustrations added together. Yay!)

The Shooting Mechanic—Pew. Pew. Literally. The only indication you have for hitting an enemy is that they twitch and the red bar above their head depletes. Think standing seizures. Think shooting with a BB gun. It’s what it sounds like.

The graphics—It’s hard to explain. It looks pretty, but there are times where it appears that the 3D world has been pressed flat—especially in some cutscenes.

The Level Design—This game screams to be open world. Nope. It’s linear and you’re held in place by almost invisible “radiation”. There’s nothing more fun than swinging up a building and realizing that their must be something up on top. Hey, they game is letting me get up there. It makes sense, right? Nope. Radiation. It’s like getting to the end of the maze and there was no cheese.

The Dialogue—you said the “F”-word in the intro. You’re big and bad now. Almost every time he falls he poops from his mouth. I heard it a lot.

The Arm Mechanic—Of all the gripes, this is the least. When it works, it’s awesome. Only there are times where there’s nothing to do with it. There are parts of levels where you’re just platforming, swinging to your next group of enemies. An open world street-brawler with special arm moves would have been killer. I guess I’ll go play Prototype.

I put in an honest five hours. Granted one of those hours was in the tutorial. I think I now know why it’s averaging $20 out there when it just came out in May for $60. Biggest and quickest price drop of any game this generation? Maybe so.

Take your $20 and get Bionic Commando Rearmed.

This didn’t get a full review because I didn’t finish it. I played five hours with the PS3 version. Disagree with me? Let me know in the comments.

Weekend Gaming

July 17, 2009 by Tony 6 Comments

So I’m coming home from a two-week trip for work and I have a very long weekend ahead of me, hopefully chocked full of gaming. While I’ve been on the road, I’ve had a chance for a little New York Times Crosswords on my DS, but I just haven’t had a lot of time to play anything else. So now that I’m homeward bound, I’m ready to get some heavy duty gaming in.

So what will I be playing? I’ve got the new NCAA 10 sitting on my desk, awaiting my arrival. I can’t wait for to pop that game in. In addition to that, I need to get back to the Red Planet to smash some stuff with my super sledgehammer and help out the Red Faction. And maybe if I can convince James to join me, we’ll get some quality time with Mercenaries mode in Resident Evil 5. With the kids, it will be some Boom Blox Bash Party. Oh, and I picked up Plants vs. Zombies before I left, so I need to get back to that, too.

Sheesh, that’s going to be a busy weekend. What will you be playing?

Cheap Game of the Week: Turok

July 17, 2009 by Jason O 4 Comments

Overview: Call of Duty meets Aliens meets Jurassic Park. Should be a winner, AMIRITE!?

Pricing: Turok can commonly be found used for $10 to $15 and a new copy will usually run about $20. The market is pretty saturated with used copies though, so it can be found cheap. So far the cheapest I’ve seen it was $5, but only on a couple of occassions.

Rip-Off Warning: You can easily find it for $30 new, which is ridiculous considering how cheap it is used.

Platform: XBox 360 (Reviewed), Playstation 3, Windows

Is it worth it?: When Zero Punctuation decided to cover Turok, Yahtzee instead crucified standard poor design decisions commonly found in First Person Shooters. The reason why he chose to do it in his Turok review is because it was indeed the epitomy of poor design. Sadly, it didn’t have to be that way. A current console generation reboot of a long-running franchise, this could have been a fairly decent game without trying very hard.

There were some neat ideas, but the execution makes the game needlessly tedious. Close combat looks awesome, but when every knife kill is a cinematic where you are vulnerable to other enemies it can quickly end in your death. The perspective switches to third-person everytime Turok does an action like climb a ladder or stabs an enemy, and you’re constantly zooming back into first-person for everything else. Weapons are generic, the settings repetitive and surprisingly bland, and the attempts to make the game suspenseful often fall flat, are frustrating, or oddly generic despite the regular dinosaur adversaries.

I suppose I could cover something about the needless rip-off of Aliens and the slavish following of space marine conventions in first-person shooters, but we don’t really play these games for the story so if the gameplay is bad does it really matter how derivative the plot is?

Did I mention the game features quick-time events for struggling with dinosaurs that pounce on you? While they are not terribly difficult, they just add to the tedium. I’m not a fan of quick-time events in general, but these might have been somewhat logical had the rest of the game been better. Instead it just adds another layer of busy work into a game that already has several layers.

Final Judgement: Pass or purchase? I’d say this is a solid “Pass”. Over two hours into the game I found myself more bored than engaged with only a couple of set pieces featuring dinosaur standoffs that really interested me. The game personally set me back only $10.00, so I’m not upset with the value of the game so much as it has proven to be a poor investment of my gaming time. There are plenty of other generic bargain bin shooters available that would be a much better way to spend your time.

Treasure Hunting, DS Style (Today’s Link)

July 11, 2009 by Tony 5 Comments

[We’re going to try and roll out some regularly scheduled content. This is some of that content]

My “Today’s Link” posts will be highlighting something from another blog or site that caught my eye. Think of it as “the best thing I saw all day” kind of a post.

Today’s link is about a Nintendo DS game called Treasure World, which I first read about at Offworld.

I can’t speak with authority about this game, as I don’t own it (yet) but the gist of it is this: You “explore” with your DS, looking for WiFi hot-spots, which are “Stars” from where your DS collects “Star Dust” that you can trade in for treasures.

That probably doesn’t make sense. Here’s a quote from the Offworld post:

Here’s the storybook premise: a Star Sweep — he’s the beardy one whose facial hair not coincidentally is teased into the shape of a star — crash-lands onto Earth alongside his robo-sidekick the Wish Finder. In order to get the necessary fuel to re-power Halley, his starship, he needs you to help him collect star dust. In return, he’ll trade you some of his vast collection of some 2500+ treasures, 20 star-dust-currency-units at a time.

How do you collect star-dust? By setting the Wish Finder to hunt for treasure by taking your DS out into the wild, where it can scan stars — stars here meaning the thousands of now-ubiquitous Wi-Fi signals that canvas and cloud every major metropolitan city. The DS catalogs every signal it runs across, and will, at times, also find its own special Treasure locked away in that star, above and beyond the ones you can purchase from the Hunter.

If a premise like this doesn’t warm your game-loving heart, you are DEAD INSIDE. But it doesn’t end there, it’s actually just beginning. Read the entire Offworld article to see how collecting treasures will eventually lead you to composing music that others can listen to — online. This game is going to be insane.

I can’t wait to pick it up.

July Releases

July 7, 2009 by Tony 4 Comments

It’s that time again, the long list of monthly releases. Thankfully, July is mercifully bereft of top-tier games, so we can play catch up with all the good gaming that has come out recently.

Xbox 360 banner

Week of July 6th
The Bigs 2
Bioshock & The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Bundle

Week of July 13th
NCAA Football 10– After being burned-out on NCAA for a while, I think I’m finally taking a dive back into NCAA again this year with 10.

Week of July 20th
Watchmen: The End is Nigh – Part 1 & 2– The first one was a DLC XBLA game, right? At twenty bucks? If so, I guess this is a pretty good deal.
Rock Band: Country Track Pack– UGH. I guess it was bound to happen.
G-Force

Week of July 27th
The King of Fighters XII
Fallout 3 Downloadable Content: Mothership Zeta

Wii banner

Week of July 6th
PDC Championship Darts 2008– I just don’t know what to say. The simple fact that this game gets made simply does not compute in my simple-minded brain.

Week of July 13th
Birthday Party Bash– Yo, dawg, we heard you like to… Nevermind.

Week of July 20th
Little King’s Story
Rock Band: Country Track Pack
Science Papa– Okay, soapbox moment here. This bothers me. Why “Science Papa” and not “Science Mama”? And for that matter, where’s “Cooking Papa”? I love to cook, where’s my game? (Okay, soapbox moment over)

Week of July 27th
DT Carnage
Aliens in the Attic
Wii Sports Resort– This one is probably a pick up for me. I’m looking forward to some new Wii Sports.

Nintendo DS banner

Week of July 13th
Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery Of The Mummy

Week of July 20th
Science Papa
Chocolatier
Garfield Gets Real

Week of July 27th
Space Bust-A-Move
Sushi Academy

PC banner

Week of July 6th
Street Fighter IV

Week of July 13th
Helldorado– This game makes the list on name alone.

Week of July 20th
ArmA II

Week of July 27th
Bionic Commando
East India Company
Memento Mori

PS3 banner

Week of July 13th
NCAA Football 10

Week of July 20th
Rock Band: Country Track Pack
Watchmen: The End is Nigh The Complete Experience

Week of July 27th
The King of Fighters XII

PSP banner

Week of July 6th
CID The Dummy
The Bigs 2

Week of July 13th
NCAA Football 10

Somewhat slim pickings this year.

What are you picking up?

(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)

Want to Play Fez?

July 2, 2009 by Nat 5 Comments

We’ve been waiting a little while for this title and it appears that we’re going to have to wait at least six more months.

What is Fez? Well, it’s a 2.5D game that we’ve mentioned before (video at the link) that simply looks amazing. Since the trailer release I’ve added Polytron’s blog to my Google Reader (everyone should be using that) waiting for any type of news.

It’s a platform-side-scroller that rotates into a third dimension to perform special moves and gain access into all sorts of areas. Just watch the video.

Here’s hoping it shows up on PSN and PC.

[2 Minute Review] Terminator Salvation

June 30, 2009 by Will 4 Comments

If you liked the movie, then you’ll probably like the game.

Play as John Connor as he and his companions try to save a group of Resistance fighters that are trapped in a Skynet facility.

DO: Take cover, flank the enemy, shoot the enemy. Get out of cover, walk to the next fight. Occasionally shoot from a vehicle. Repeat until the credits scroll.

TYPE: 3rd Person Cover-Based Shooter

PLATFORM: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3, Windows DVD-ROM

MEAT: Terminator Salvation takes many cues from both Gears of War games. Each of the game’s chapters are broken up into little theaters – areas in which you are pinned down and must fight through waves of enemies until they are all defeated. Each theater is easily identified by objects that are randomly strewn about, acting as cover for you and your teammates. Your survival is dependant on taking cover as you will not be able to survive under the heavy automated fire of the machines.

As you play through Terminator Salvation’s nine chapters, you will fight the same four enemies when Connor is on-foot: Aerostats (small flying machines aka “Wasps”), T7-Ts (four-legged machines aka “Spiders”), Hunter Killers (large flying machines aka “HKs”) and T-600s (endoskeletons, sometimes called “skin jobs”). The on-rails segments feature the motorcycle-shaped Terminators and mounted turrets in one segment.

The graphics and voice work are adequate, and the controls work for the game. I found myself frustrated with the lack of a roadie run; on a few occasions I could not use the cover system to get me from one spot to the other, so I had to take a leisurely stroll through enemy fire. Since your health does not replenish until all enemy waves have been eliminated, this was very dangerous, but necessary, action to take.

PERKS: The cover system works well. The on-rails segments are entertaining and are a much-needed break from the standard gameplay. The inclusion of Moon Bloodgood’s and Common’s likenesses and voices help to tie the game closer to the movie it is based on. The achievements are easy to get; simply playing through the 6 hour campaign on Hard mode will net you 1000 points. Cooperative play through the campaign is available both in offline splitscreen and over Xbox LIVE.

SCREAMS: For more than the six enemy types you will encounter, a longer playthrough time, more reasons to play through the game more than once (like collectibles, online multiplayer or multiple paths through the campaign) and a roadie run.

VERDICT: Rent. The game’s short length and few achievements will give Gamerscore addicts a reason to play through this game once. Fans of Gear of War will appreciate playing through a similar experience.

Gameplay impressions (Resident Evil 5 and Prototype)

June 29, 2009 by Tony 2 Comments

I haven’t posted much lately about games. It seems like I’ve been talking about talking about games, but not actually the games. So, finally, I’ve got some games to talk about: Resident Evil 5 and Prototype.

Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5 – After playing the demo a while ago, I told myself I just needed to have an RE4 state of mind to enjoy it. But it didn’t work. I wasn’t “feeling it.” Despite previous experience, I decided to grab a copy of the game and give it a try anyway. After 20 minutes by myself I realized this wasn’t going to work. The AI-controlled Sheva was frustrating almost immediately. I didn’t want to give up, though, and figured it couldn’t get any worse if I played it with James (aka Ehergeiz, who will go by James from now on, since that’s his name) so after scoring a copy for him, we decided to give it a play through together.

I will say this: this game is Resident Evil 4.5. I will also say this: this is not a bad thing. RE4 holds a special place in my heart and I love that RE5 feels so familiar. From the laser sight to the ridiculous idea that first-aid spray is a real thing, this feels like home. That being said, RE4 was four years ago. Game design has changed, for the better. When the game first cam out, gamers complaining about not being able to run and shoot made me want to scream (you try shooting a 12-gauge on the run, big guy!) but now I see what they mean. It can be frustrating. There are other little issues that crop up, but they are harmless gnats on the windshield at 55 MPH.

We’re almost done with RE5. I’m probably not going to review the game, but I would have given it a BUY rating. I am liking it very much. I miss the “What are ya selling?” guy, no matter how ridiculous the weapon upgrade system is (my revolver holds 12 bullets!). I still love this game.

Prototype

Prototype: The obvious comparisons are going to come up — an open world, a superpowered character and the opportunities for destruction abound. I can’t compare it to inFamous but I can compare it to Crackdown. The similarities are there — climbing to insane heights, jumping, throwing cars, collecting “orbs” and upgrading abilities. But where Crackdowns upgrades were limited and linear, Prototype has tons. Both games have “challenges” outside the main story-line, but again, Prototype outnumbers Crackdown in every way. What Crackdown does have more of than Prototype is charm. The satisfaction you get from climbing buildings in Crackdown is absent in Prototype. You just run up the building and you’re done. No challenge. No frustration, either, but it’s not the same. This is a feeling I get quite a bit with Prototype. I’m enjoying it, but it’s not quite satisfying.

The combat conflicts me. I can’t tell if I’m good or it’s easy. I’d prefer the former, of course, but the challenge hasn’t been there for me. I’ve died my share of times in the course of a mission, but the enemies keep you in health orbs and you can always run away (or hide in a disguise) if things get dicey. Disguise mode is a blast. Anyone you “consume” allows you to become that person. So you can blend in the crowd by consuming a bystander or you can get into an army base by consuming a soldier. It’s a riot. Especially consuming an old man, picking up a car, and run through the streets at high speed. It’s a riot.

The mission structure is fine. It’s easy to navigate your way around the city and find what your looking for. Their version of NYC lacks character that GTAIV’s had, but the game does look gorgeous.

Overall, Prototype has strong BUY potential.

Point Lookout First Impression

June 26, 2009 by Jason O 5 Comments

Point_Lookout

Calling this a “First Impression” might be a bit misleading considering I have all the achievements, even the “Bog Walker” which means I’ve visited all the locations in Point Lookout. However, until I have the time to do a longer write up this will have to do.

Point Lookout is a true expansion to the game. Sticking close to what Fallout 3 does best, with some combat, plenty of exploration, and just enough story to keep things interesting. I love the new weapons and I enjoy what they did to the setting. The terrain and enemies are largely different, with a few familiar faces from the Capitol Wasteland also taking up residence in Point Lookout. On a lark I decided to go to Point Lookout with no weapons other than a Ripper and basic Leather Armor. I think this was the best idea as I had to rely mostly on what I found in the new location. Players often complain about the DLC, but if I showed up with my full kit then it would not have presented much of a challenge.

On the other hand, Fallout 3 was my favorite game last year and I’ve purchased all of the DLC, so keep that in mind. This one isn’t without its problems, but really it’s just the same problems that plague Fallout 3 in general.

[2 Minute Review] Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

June 21, 2009 by James 4 Comments

DO: Play like Diablo but with better graphics.

TYPE: RPG (Diablo with a splash of Baldur’s Gate)

PLATFORM: Xbox 360 (reviewed here), PS3 and PC

PRICE: $60

MEAT: You choose one out of six character classes. Of which the strangest class would have to be the temple guardian,”A Temple Guardian is not fully flesh or mechanical, it is a mixture, half human and half machine.” The temple guardian kind of looks like the egyptian god Horus (kind of) if you choose to go evil or Anubis if you choose to go good.

With all of the different items you come across and all of the different ways you can shape your character there is a good chance you will have a really unique character. I went with an Inquisitor that dual wielded a burning dagger and an ice shortsword. What’s cool about the game is you can choose to use any weapon you want as long as it’s not class specific.

The big let down with Sacred 2 is the parts in between quests which turns into the same thing over and over again. You get quest A and on your way to the location to finish the quest you encounter a plentiful amount of monsters on the main road the whole way there. There is a copious amount of side quests that can lead you away from the main quest which will add playtime to your total playtime. The time spent traveling can be cut down by either using a mount (different kinds of horses or class specific ones like a demon or a sabertooth tiger) or the warp gates which are scattered around the map that are usually near important locales like a town or city.

The multiplayer aspect of the game is where I think that game will shine. Having only played the game hotseat co-op for a limited amount of time I really enjoyed it with another player along for the ride, even though we had to share a screen and couldn’t seperate. Playing online multiplayer will allow the players to be in the same world while being able to roam wherever they want. This gives the game more of an open world feel.

PERKS: Having quite a bit of room to customize your character. My personal pet peeve in video games is when you equip and awesome new sword or piece of armor and then it doesn’t show up on your character, they just have the same sword/armor the whole game through. Sacred 2 did this part of the game right, everything you equip on your character shows up so I had a burning dagger hanging on my back while I rode my horse. Also if your into being into a game for the long haul then this is right up your alley. I’m not even sure how long long you could devote your time to the game but it seems like it could suck you in for a while. The world is pretty huge so the words, “NEVER ENDING!” come to mind. One of the very first things I noticed was how expansive the world was. After searching around for a few minutes in the game world I looked at the the map and only a tiny bit of the map had been lit up showing where I had explored. The world looks great from the grass blowing in the wind to the lush landscapes Ancaria looks good.

SCREAMS: LOADING! The worst time I had with loading was in a town where within 10 seconds the game had to stop the screen from progressing to load the next section of town five times. Now if you install it on the hard drive I’m sure it will help immensely with the loading issues but the game shouldn’t have that many to begin with. How about a boss fight that isn’t just some monster with a long health bar?

Give me a story to care about. The only thing that stands out storywise for the game is that they were able to get the EPIC band Blind Guardian to be apart of it. To have better detail after you zoom out, having the camera zoomed in can give you some great detail with nice graphics but zoom out to where you can actually see whats going on and you won’t be able to tell if it’s the same game. That was a major let down in playing Sacred 2, not being able to enjoy the good graphics the whole time.

VERDICT: Buy. I think you’ll definitely get your $’s worth out of this game. You can play it until you’ve discovered everything in Ancaria which will take you a long time or just go straight through the games main quests. Regardless of whether you’ll be playing the game by yourself or with a friend the enjoyment you’ll get should be the same. If your on the fence about this game I would suggest a rental and you’ll be able to get a feel for the game and whether you want to buy the game or not. I had a good time in Ancaria and I’m pretty sure you will too!

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