REVIEW: God of War II

March 23, 2007

God of War II is beaten! Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome. This is honestly the best game I have played in a very long time. Its rare for a sequel of a game to be better than the first, but God of War II pulls it off with ease. Like I said with the first God of War, this is hands down game of the year for the PlayStation 2. Even though this game is on the PS2, it easily stands up and even surpasses the games on the newer consoles. What a great send off for the PS2.

The graphics are awesome in God of War II, even though it uses the same engine as the first game, it looks fantastic for a PS2 game. At some spots in the game, I honestly think it looks better than something you can get on a PS3 or 360. There is nothing bad I can really say about them. Game runs very smooth and it looks great all the way around.

Sound... another home run. The voice acting is some of the best you will ever see in a game and the music is fantastic. Its interesting to note that the music in God of War II is actually composed by 4 people, rather than just 1 person. I am not all too sure what they used more than one person, but it doesn't matter its fantastic!

Gameplay is pretty much the same as in the first game, but that doesn't hurt the game at all. There are some new weapons and new magic powers you can use in the game, that for the most part, are pretty much trash. I found myself just using my standard weapon along with the lightning power the most, and really, thats all you need. The ony thing I wish they dropped was the Medusa's head power. That thing was garbage in the first game, and it is still garbage now. My only hope is that Kratos will throw it off a cliff in the next game, but honestly... that thing should been cut. ;) Other than that, I really have no problem with the gameplay, its all super fun!

Also, even though you play the game in a set path, the game is just so massive that it just really feels like you are in this free roaming world. You look off into the distance on some area, and you just know that you will be in that area towards the end of the game. It really puts you into the scope of the game and you are just this small ant compared to the rest of the world.

And that's pretty much it really... not the longest review in the world, but honestly, it can just be summed up in three words. BUY THIS NOW.

REVIEW: F.E.A.R.

March 16, 2007

F.E.A.R. is now down for the count. Took me a while to get around to playing it, but it is now finished! Overall, I enjoyed it, but thought it could of used some work in some areas. I don't know if it was me, but I found the demo of Fear to be MUCH scarier than the retail. Maybe because I was mostly playing it during the day, but it didn't make me jump out of my seat as much as it did when I played the short demo... maybe I just knew what to expect. Lets go into some more detail.

Fear uses Monolith's Jupiter EX engine, and it looks really great. Unlike Monolith's other games such as No One Lives Forever, Fear takes a much more realistic approach. The faces of the models look really great and the graphics in general make the game very dark and creepy. It also ran pretty good on my machine. I don't have the greatest machine in the world, but I was able to run everything at at least high and it run pretty smooth. Always a good thing. :)

Sound is one of the best things Monolith seems to do in all their games, and Fear is no exception. Easily the best part of this game. This game really isn't about things jumping out and scaring the shit out of you, its more about setting the mood and getting under your skin. Its one of those things where you look down a hall way, and you just think to yourself "Man, I really don't wanna go down there." The sound effects made me jump out of my seat a few times... really something to check out if you aren't into FPS really. Its that cool.

Gameplay. For the most part, very solid. The gun-play is really sweet and if I had to describe it, its sort of like Half-Life 2 meets Max Payne. The whole game takes place in the first person, (like Hal-Life... like there are no cut scenes where you leave the first person view) plus you have "super reflexes" aka bullet time when you get into firefights. The enemy A.I. is pretty smart too. They will cover when they need to and also try to flank you. You will hear them talking to each other giving themselves updates on where they think you are. Something like "He is hiding behind the wall." Its also the first time I have ever seen A.I. point out when it see a flashlight.. so you could be sneaking up to them, and then one of them might yell out "Flashlight!" and all get ready to attack. Not a huge deal, but I though it was neat.

Although, what made the game cool also hurts the game as well. The first person only view... while something like this works perfectly in a game like Half-Life, it doesn't work so well in Fear. Let me give you an example.... there is one part in Half-Life 2: Episode 1, where you find your self back in the Citadel and you are making your way on some catwalks. There is a small cue where a solider starts to shoot at you from one side of the area, and obviously, you are going to focus your attention over there and take him out. When you take him out and you are still looking over there, you see one of those flying ship things come whipping around the corner, and then you start to focus on that. While it starts to fly away, part of the Citadel blows up and just totally slams into it, and you are sort get an "Oh shit!" moment. With Fear on the other hand, I constantly found my self looking the wrong way when something major happens and totally ruining the "Oh shit" moment they could of had. I found my self reloading a sections over again just so I could see what I might of missed or where I was supposed to be looking. By that point there "scare" wasn't all that scary and was more or less a "oh.... that's it?" Maybe its just one of those things Valve has more practice with, but I thought Fear could of used a little more work... or maybe its just me.

And yeah... that's pretty much it I guess. I am interested in checking out what the expansion pack is all about, but that isn't made by Monolith so I don't know if its even worth checking out... I heard its pretty good though. Monolith sure knows how to make a kick butt FPS though, and I look forward to seeing what they make next.

Epileptic Gaming FIVE Times A Week!

Beginning MARCH 19th, 2007 Epileptic Gaming is changing to a daily format. What does that mean? It means that EG will be on everyday that ends in “Y” but doesn’t start with “S”! Hit the jump for a full explanation of the new format…



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This Week on Epileptic Gaming #110!

This week on Epileptic Gaming we’ll be diving into the world of Sony with a review of Motorstorm (PS3) & Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters (PSP). Becky ‘Aktrez’ Young will stop by our neck of the woods to give an insider scoop on the gossip and news of GDC and finally, the FOUR C&C3 Contest Winners will be announced!



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Epileptic Gaming #109 - Command and Conquer 3 Summit Coverage

This Thursday (March 8th) @ 7PM EST on Epilepticgaming.com, episode #109 will feature news from this years Game Developer Conference, but more importantly, video coverage of the EA LA Community Summit for Command and Conquer 3. We'll give a detailed look at Single-Player, Multi-Player, Broadcast Tools, and the 3rd Race.



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REVIEW: Killzone: Liberation

March 3, 2007

And Killzone: Liberation is done... thank god. What a huge pain in the ass. This game is probably one of the most unfair games I have ever played. Lets get one thing straight. It's one thing if a game is hard because you aren't familiar with the controls, or the gameplay. Devil May Cry 3 for example... when you first start playing, that game will just keep on kicking your ass over and over until you get the hang on the controls and the style you have to play, and then the game becomes really fun... you know because you are making this shit look easy and you are pulling off these really kick ass moves. Killzone: Liberation is hard for the sake of being hard. I don't know how many times I have wanted to turn this game off because it was no longer fun to play. Some of the most unfair boss fights I have seen in a long time. Its a miracle I even finished this game. Lets see if we can get to the bottom of this...

Graphics... you know for the most part, they are pretty good for a PSP game. If you have seen any videos for the game before, you know that instead of being an FPS like the first Killzone, it now takes on a sort of top-down RPG-esque look. I think this is just what the doctor ordered for the Killzone franchise. From the angle you play the game at, it looks great, however when you get close to the action for the cutscenes, you can tell that this is a PSP game. Everything has a pretty blocky look, but it doesn't really hurt the game... you just have to remember that the game isn't play from this level.

Audio is one of the few things that the Killzone franchise has been able to get right so far. Very solid voice work, although one some of the missions when you are along side with Rico, you will find he says the same shit over and over again. All the original voice actors return (I think) and the music, while short, still has the same quality as in the first Killzone. Guns sound fine, and the explosions are just dandy too. Not much else to say.

Now for the gameplay..... oh yes the gameplay. You will die alot in this game. Maybe alot is an understatement because actually, there is no number high enough to count how many times you will die in this game. Even though Killzone: Liberation has probably one of the more generous checkpoint systems of any game in a while, trying to get from one checkpoint to the next will sometimes take a few tries. Its not the main game that I had a problem with though, its the boss fights. Hands down... most unfair boss fights I have ever seen. Let me give you an example of what type of bullshit this game likes to pull. Lets take the third boss... it turn out to be that its the walking tank thing... unfortunately for it, its been damaged and can't walk anymore. Unfortunately for you, it has all its weapons active and there is no way to get way. What kind of weapons? Well in order for you to take down this boss, not only do you have to constantly dodge its machine gun, you have to dodge missiles, a carpet of grenade tosses and these bullshit walking spider mines. Before you know it, you have more dicks up your ass that a pornstar on a bad day. This was ridiculous. You would be lucky if you maybe only got a machine gun a missile combo, but you have never been truly fucked in the ass until you got all four at the same time. There was no way to even try and avoid it and even on the off chance you did, it would do the same bullshit again. By the time I finally beat this boss (and might I add.. to even beat this thing.. you have to take out each weapon out one at a time... all while dodging everything else), I didn't even have a moment of joy... I was just thinking if this was the third boss... I can't even imaging what the final boss is like... but I continued anyway. Luckily... it was AS bad... but thats really not saying alot.

I don't know... I would find it hard to recommend this game. Although it is one of the better PSP games out there, this is really not for the faint of heart. If you enjoy a challenge, (and I do mean a challenge) then I guess you owe it to your self to at least give it a rent. Its very short though, and if you knew what you were doing, and you just sat and played it. You could finish it in a sitting. Lets just hope Killzone 2 is not as crappy as the first one and a little bit easier than Liberation... then maybe we could have a "Halo killer." ;)

Epileptic Gaming 108 TONIGHT @ 7PM EST - Internet Gaming Show

Tonight on Epileptic Gaming TV, which airs at 7PM EST on www.epilepticgaming.com, we'll feature reviews of CRACKDOWN (360) and EXCITE TRUCK (Wii). Mia Rose will return for the last 15 minutes of the show to judge the Photoshop Contest. And as always, News of the Week and Open Phones! Join us tonight for the best 2 hours of video game comedy!



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