FatBaby's News and Reviews

This Week on Epileptic Gaming #123!

2007-06-11T14:16:00.001-07:00

Epileptic Gaming hits the internet airwaves LIVE EVERY Weekday at 7PM EST for EG #123! This weekend Kam-Ra and I went to the Region 1 Combine for DirecTV’s Championship Gaming Series, and we’ll be attending the CGS Draft on Tuesday evening at the Playboy Mansion (girls watch out! RoME will be on the case!!!)

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REVIEW: The Mark of Kri

2007-06-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

June 3, 2007

So we are going a little old school for this time... not really I guess, but it is a bit old. Mark of Kri is in the bag. I have some mixed feelings over the game. even though its pretty much a first-gen PlayStation 2 game, it looked, and played alright. However the way it plays also hurts the game. Plus, it is very short. I think I clocked out at just under 6 hours or something... so you really could finish this thing in a sitting if you really wanted to. I did get this game for free though. A friend of mine came over one day and said "Here, do you want this?... I found this just laying on the street and the game was still in it." So yeah... not a bad deal I guess. Plus it had these random glitter stars all over it so... yeah I don't know either. I really need to step up and finish some games before the real next-gen heavy hitters show up, but anyway... lets see what we got.

This is the first game I have played on my PS3 and I was able to take advantage of the upscaling that became recently available. For a first-gen PS2 game, it looks pretty decent, but there are alot of boring colors and textures. As you make your way through the game, everything just starts to look the same after a while. Maybe I just so used to the newer games that are out now... or maybe just coming from Okami, but the graphics are nothing to write home about... although the upscaling on the PS3 does help. :) It pretty much so-so I guess you could say.

The sound for the most part is pretty forgettable. Having just beating it today, if you asked me to maybe hum a tune or talk about some of the sound effects, I wouldn't even know any. So yeah.... I don't know know what much else to say here. Its pretty much your standard sword slashing and whatever. Voice acting was pretty decent though... although the guy that teaches you how to play the game... huge LOL. :)

Game play was a little interesting but frustrating at the same time. In order to attack someone, you had to "focus" on them which meant swinging the right analog stick around and then a button appears over the enemies head. You can do this up to three times, so in the end if you had three guys around you, one would have a X above their head, one with a Square, and the other a Circle. You would then just push that button over and over again to attack that person. Later weapons let you select more than one person. It was pretty interesting, but once you get towards the end of the game, the game gets unfair for no reason.

This game gets incredibly cheesy at some points. Like, you would have 20 guys all attacking you at the same time, and it would be impossible to attack with out taking damage. Plus this game has some pretty stupid pop in at the end of the game. I would be attacking somebody, and then all of a sudden out of no where, an enemy spawns RIGHT on top of me. I like a hard game as much as the next person, but its not fun when the game is hard because of how cheesy it is. Lucky the block button block in all directions so you can just hold it down when the action gets heavy, but really... I should have to wait for like 20 seconds before I maybe get a chance to attack.

Overall... I say if you wanna play it, give it a rent or find a friend that has it and just play that. I would not buy this unless you happen to find it for free. There is a sequel to this game called the "Rise of the Kasai" but I don't know if I would want to bother with it. The story really wasn't memorable at all so I think I am just gonna pass on that... unless I just find it sitting on the street. :)

REVIEW: Okami

2007-05-17T22:56:00.001-07:00

May 12, 2007

Man, I can't believe it has taken me this long to finish one game, but Okami is beaten. I feel like I have been playing this game forever. Just when I though I had beaten the game, another 10 hours gets thrown on to it, or another twist, or another whatever. Not to say that it is a bad thing, but to be honest, towards the end of the game, I was so looking forward to beating it just so I could go on to something else. I think I clocked out at around 38-40 hours which is one of the longest games I have played in a very long time. Even Zelda wasn't all that long (at least I don't remember it being all that long) Anyway, lets see what we have here...

First off the graphics... I'll be honest, when I first loaded up Okami and started playing, I thought there was something wrong with my TV. There seemed to be alot of smearing or bleeding and in general, I though that either something was wrong with the game, or something was up with my TV. I know it had a cell shaded look to it, but I did NOT like the graphics when I first started playing. However, once I started to get into the game and the further I got into it, I can not see any other way they could of done it. It fit the game perfectly and it made everything have more life to it... like you were watching a painting in motion rather than a game.... and maybe that's what they were going for in the first place. Overall, I think the graphics are very nice.

I was a little mixed about the sound though. While I loved the soundtrack and would probably buy it if I ever saw it in stores, I really wasn't digging how they did the voices. I don't know how to really describe it with out some sort of sound bite... I guess it would be like the teacher from Peanuts but not like that.... I don't know.... look on YouTube or something. Anyway, I was totally annoyed about it, and sometimes it did work very well, but after 40 hours of it, I think you can see where things were going. As for the other sound effects, they were just fine... everything fit and it worked. Really no other complaints other than the voices.

Gameplay is where the game stands out the most. What is neat about Okami are the "brush strokes" that you collect throughout your adventure. What the brush strokes let you do is they open up new abilities that can either help you in combat or maybe let you reach new areas or help you with the puzzles. For example, if I was in combat and I was fighting someone, if I drew a line through that enemy, it would act as if I had just taken a sword and slashed right through them. Or maybe there was a wall of fire in my way, well if I drew sort of a cirlce-wave shape (yeah I don't know what to call it) it would blow away the fire with a huge gust of wind and I could move on unharmed. There were all sorts of cool things you could do, and I don't wanna give to much away in case you do want to play the game later. :) I will just say that it was the best part of the game.

Overall, I recommend that you play Okami as soon as you can. With summer coming up soon, and those of you getting out of school or maybe just looking for a nice long game to play. You really can't go wrong with Okami. I think it has something for everyone to enjoy. Shame we might never see a sequel though....I thought the ending sorta left it open for one... but then again you could leave it that as well. So yeah... go play it! :)

VIDEO REVIEW: F.E.A.R.

2007-05-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

So yeah... I did one for F.E.A.R. a while back. Enjoy!

Porn Stars to Play ‘Strip Halo 3′ Live on Epileptic Gaming!

2007-05-17T16:06:00.001-07:00

That’s right cats and kitties, this one’s going to be epic! Mia’s last appearance ended with her expressing her undying love for Halo, and she said she’d get naked for Halo 3. We’re holding her to it! Low and behold, Mia has a sister that also loves Halo, and they’re going to go at it LIVE on the show on Friday!

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This Week on Epileptic Gaming #117!

2007-04-30T11:16:00.001-07:00

There is so much content on this weeks show, there is no way to fit it all in here! Make sure you hit the link to see all the juicy stuff the EG crew has in store for you!

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FatBaby's Epileptic Gaming #115 Monday

2007-04-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

This is my parody of Epileptic Gaming. I made this while the EG crew was building for China, and there was no EG on Monday.

VIDEO REVIEW: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

2007-04-15T13:26:00.001-07:00

So for some reason, I had forgotten to post this to my blog. A little while ago, I did a video review for Epileptic Gaming. I think it is pretty good, and just in case you missed it, I will go ahead and post it here. I have another one that I have already finished, but I am waiting till it premiers on EG before I post it any place else. Anyway, enjoy! :)

Epileptic Gaming: Week #113

2007-04-02T13:51:00.001-07:00

Here’s a quick break down of this week’s festivities:* MONDAY: News of the Week and Weekend Updates* TUESDAY: Call-In show w/ the RETURN of NiceGuyEd* WEDNESDAY: GRAW 2 Segment + Discussion on Console Pro-Gaming* THURSDAY REVIEWS: Call of Duty: Road to Victory (PSP) & More* FRIDAY: Free-For-All!

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REVIEW: God of War II

2007-03-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-03-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-03-16T17:50:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-03-12T17:11:00.001-07:00

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

2007-03-05T21:48:00.001-08:00

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

2007-03-04T17:10:00.000-08:00

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

2007-03-01T11:54:00.001-08:00

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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This Week on Epileptic Gaming #108!

2007-02-26T10:59:00.001-08:00

Epileptic Gaming returns on THURSDAY March 1st at 7PM EST for their 108th episode of the crazy internet TV show about gaming. Head over to epilepticgaming.com on Thursday @ 7PM EST for reviews of Crackdown (360) and Excite Truck (Wii). As always, News of the Week and Open Phones will allow you to speak your mind about the current industry news.

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EpilepticGaming 107 Special Guests - Ron Workman and Mia Rose of Whorecraft

2007-02-22T11:17:00.001-08:00

Tonight on Epileptic Gaming TV, which airs at 7PM EST on www.epilepticgaming.com, we'll feature Guest Host Ron Workman of Destructoid.com and Mia Rose of Whorecraft. Mia Rose played the Night Elf in episodes #2 and #3 in the Whorecraft series, and turns out to be quite the hardcore gamer. Join us tonight for the best 2 hours of video game comedy!

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This Week on Epileptic Gaming #107!

2007-02-20T17:07:00.001-08:00

Epileptic Gaming is a free Internet TV show about consoles, PCs, arcades, and industry news. Join us on Thursdays at 7PM EST at http://www.epilepticgaming.com for a comedic and in-depth look at the gaming industry. This week the hosts look at Vanguard for PC and also have a new Photoshop contest with lots of game giveaways!

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REVIEW: Bully

2007-02-17T11:01:00.000-08:00

February 15, 2007

So I finished up Bully the other night. I would of finished it sooner had I not taken a vacation right when I just started playing. So when I got back, I decided that since I didn't get too far into the game, and so everything would be fresh in my head, I started over from the beginning. Overall, I really enjoyed Bully. Not the hardest game in the world, but it was very fun. I didn't spend a whole lot of time on doing alot of the side missions and such, but I feel that I am not really missing anything anyway. So, lets get to it!

The graphics are decent, but not the greatest. Bully uses an advanced version of the GTA: San Andreas engine. The engine wasn't the greatest looking when you first saw it in San Andreas, and its the same thing with Bully. Its not to say that Bully is an awful looking game, it just that there is much better graphics out there. It gets the job done well.

Sound. As with other Rockstar games, they always seem to have solid sound work in all their games and Bully shows that off again. The voice acting is great and fits all the characters , and I just loved the soundtrack. Unlike other Rockstar games, Bully uses a fully original soundtrack. It fits the game perfectly and I was surprised how much I really liked it. Most of the music has a kind of bass heavy funky beat to it that just worked great with what I was doing in the game. I would love to see more of it in other Rockstar games.

On to gameplay, not a whole lot to say about it really. If you have played a GTA before, you already now what to expect. Its like a kids version of GTA. Like I said, it not all that hard, and if you really sat down with it, you could probably breeze through it in a weekend. Really, its maybe one of the more polished games I have played in a while so I really don't have anything bad to say about it. There is a TON of stuff to do... plenty of mini games and side missions.

Anyway, if you are looking for a good game, I would definitely recommend that you check it out. It has a pretty good story to keep things interesting and has alot of other side missions and such that are really fun. Its a solid game and sure to keep you busy until God of War II comes out. ;)

The Epileptic Gaming Whorecraft experience

2007-02-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

I don't think I need to say anything else.

REVIEW: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

2007-01-20T11:01:00.000-08:00

January 18, 2007

And like the PS3, the first of many games on the Wii, Zelda is finished. A long time in the making, first being made just for the GameCube, then later getting ported over to the Wii as well. While I haven't played the GameCube version at all, I can't really say if it was a good or bad thing. While I did have fun game and thought it was very good from start to finish, overall, I am a little let down by it. It something I just can't pinpoint... its the little things that bring it down I guess. Lets see if I can explain why.

The graphics are pretty good, even when you compare them to the big heavy hitters of today, they look great. Everything pops with bright colors, and everything has a unique look to it. My favorite though is when you are in the Twilight Realm. I don't really know how to explain... it makes everything have a sort of off color look to it... I don't know... it just works. From an art direction stand point, this game gets top marks for sure.

The sound, to be honest, works and doesn't work at the same time. Just like other Zelda game, there is no talking... well no voice acting I should say. Well... I guess some... just no real talking. This is just fine by me, and if they just kept on doing that with future game, fantastic. However what they need to change is the music. Come on Nintendo... can we maybe step away from the MIDI for once? It is 2007 (well 2006 if you count when the game came out,) lets get a FULL orchestrated soundtrack. While I will admit that during some parts of the game, yes... I honestly think MIDI would be the only way to do it right.. its just... I don't know. Zelda just seems like to be the one game that just screams for orchestrated music and when you don't have it for a large part of the game.. it seems... weird I guess. Still works alright overall though.

Now on to controls... maybe the one biggest factor when you play this game on the Wii. I think they work just fine. It doesn't feel tacked on like other reviews seem to say, but I think it does a fine job. If I wanted to strike with my sword, I jiggle the remote around. If I want to do a spin attack, I jiggle the nunchuck around. Looking back at it... if you saw me playing it, it would look rather silly seeing me wave my hands around as I get into a fight, but what the hell... I kicked some serious ass! Other stuff like using the bow or the hookshot, even though I haven't played the GameCube version, would work the best using the Wiimote. It gives you the free range and being able to pull off some quick shots if you needed to. However the one thing that I ran into alot was when I was ready to shoot the bow off, I constantly said to "point the remote at the screen," and then me trying to find the line of sight. While it does pause the game for you, it really takes you out of it when you are in the heat of battle... or whatever you are doing. Oh well.

I think what brought the game down for me though was just the overall story. When I beat the game the first thing that I said was "That's it?" Although I clocked in at around 35 hours, I just felt really short to me. Now to be fair, really didn't bother with any side quests or random exploring. The ending just didn't do it for me too. It felt rushed for the size of this game and doesn't really explain anything afterward. "Oh yeah I kicked the crap out of Ganon. Ok everyone can go back to normal now ggkthxbye." And going back to the overall story... or overall whatever, when I got to Hyrule Castle I kept on saying to my self "Man I must of missed something... I can't be here already." I just didn't feel ready for the final boss. Like when I played OoT, you know I had all this awesome shit... the mirror shield... the magic spells and the magic arrows and whatever the shit I had. I felt ready to kick some serious ass. I just didn't get it here. Maybe it's just a personal feeling but, I really would of liked it to end differently than it did.

So to finish things up, like I said, I had a great time with the game, but in the end... I don't think it needed all the hype that it got. Game of the year? Ehhh.... I guess.... maybe. I'll let you decide that.

REVIEW: Grim Fandango

2007-01-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

January 1, 2007

Well, it took longer than I would have liked, but Grim Fandango marks the first game beaten in 2007. I would of beaten it soon if I didn't leave it just sitting around for sometimes days before I would even pick it up again. Anyway, another home run from Tim Schafer and LucasArts. While it did take me a really long time to get around to playing it, (I had to track down a copy of it!) I am really glad I did. Its one of the hardest games I have played because of just how odd some of the puzzles are. Not that its a bad thing, but you really had to think about them. For example, when I played Full Throttle it seemed really easy. It was one of those things where the puzzles were common sense... at least to me. Grim Fandango on the other hand... you just needed to think outside the box... alot.... :)

While old, the graphics still give the game a cartoony, yet serious look. Sorta like if they were going to turn Casablanca into a video game. :D The game uses a a modified version of the "Sith Engine" which was used in Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, and what also powers Monkey Island 4... I think. (It might be different but Grim Fandango and MI both look to be running the same thing.)

Sound is always something to look forward to when it comes to a LucasArts game, Grim Fandango continues that awesomeness. The voice acting is all top notch and even though everyone is dead, it really gives life to the game.... get it? ha ha ha. :) Music is also fantastic too. Nice mix of different types of genres.

If there was one thing I did not like about the game is the controls. The controls for using a keyboard just to not work well at all. Even though I used a gamepad for the whole game, even that was less than optimal. You just never seemed to go the way you wanted to go. I would always find my self going down some hallway or up a ladder multiple times just because the controls got so wonky. It didn't hurt my enjoyment of the game all that much, but I do wish it could of been better.

Overall, this is one game that everyone should play. Control problems aside, I think anyone who is a gamer would enjoy this. From the graphics to the great dialog to the game play, it all makes the game worth picking up. Could be a pain in the ass to find now, but if you happen to find a copy, I don't think you would be disappointed.

REVIEW: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

2006-12-29T15:42:00.000-08:00

December 28, 2006

And what just might be the last game I beat in 2006, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is finished. Another fantastic game from Kojima and I hope won't be the last (well you know... other than MGS4). Even though its on a much smaller format, doesn't mean that make it any less of a game. This is a true Metal Gear Solid game, and I really hope there will be more "Portable Ops" on the PSP in the future. Lets see what we got...

The PSP never ceases to amaze me with the kind of graphics it can push. I am sure you have heard it many times before, but its a damn PS2 right in the palm of your hand. That being said, the graphics are pretty much the best on the platform right now. Even though you can tell where they had cut some corners in order for it work on the PSP, you could match the graphics to MGS3 and it would be almost identical. That alone is impressive.

If you have ever played an MGS game, you know the one thing that always sticks out are how good the cut scenes are. The make you feel like you are playing a movie. While they are all there in full force with Portable Ops, they aren't what you might expect. Instead of using the in-game graphics for them like you see in other MGS games, what they do instead is almost tell it like a comic book. If you have seen or player the MGS Digital Novel, you know already what they look like. While this might be a turn off for some people, I think it does a fantastic job of telling the story, and I would love to see even more of it. Ashely Wood, who did the artwork for the Digital Novel returns and works his magic for all the cut scenes in Portable Ops. It is really a sight to be seen and is really slick how they pull it off. If you wanna see how it looks, you can look HERE. Its the first scene in the game, and if you have played MGS3, it doesn't really spoil anything.

On sound we find another great job. Again, Metal Gear Solid is just one those games that you can always count on to bring you great audio work. Form the voice acting to the music, its all here. All the voice actors that were in MGS3 return, and again, its just like as if you were playing it on a console. They did have to cut some corners though. Due to the size of the UMD disc, pretty much everything BUT the codec scenes has voice acting. You can't really blame though, its still a fantastic job.

For gameplay, there are a few niggles, but again, with the format they are on, they still pulled off a great job. For example, since there is no second analog stick, the camera controls are mapped to the D-Pad. Because of this, its pretty much impossible to move and position the camera at the same time. Also what is different is you have to hold a button to sneak. While there is an option to make it a toggle, I think it would have been a better idea to make it the default.

Also a first for an MGS game is that rather than having Snake going solo in all the mission, you work in a team of four. While it is possible to play the whole game without even using Snake, lets face... he's god damn Snake and he has the best stats out of everyone. ;) What this opens up is the ability to go in with units that you can either recruit by capturing or using the game's Wi-Fi feature and play the game in a whole new way. Lets says you recruit a enemy grunt or something. Well once he is on your side, he blends in with everyone else and is able to sneak in unnoticed to the guards. This lets you maybe plant a bomb or grab some info and get out quickly whereas if you used Snake, you might have some resistance along the way. This always didn't work the way it should though. You could just be minding your own business doing you best to not looks suspicious, where all of a sudden some guard walks by, looks at you for a second, and have all hell break lose. It also didn't make any sense where if you were caught walking around, alarms would start going off like crazy if you were spotted, yet if you were running around like a maniac, they wouldn't even think twice. It seemed really silly, and if they do make a Portable Ops 2 (Which I don't see why they wouldn't), I would like to see that fixed.

I haven't even touched the multiplayer though, and I am not sure I will.... not to say I don't want to though, maybe I will even check it out after I finish writing this, but I have this huge ass back log now after getting games from Christmas and all, I don't really have the time to focus on it. I have heard some good things though! :D That being said, after all is said and done, MGS: PO is THE reason to own a PSP. If you love MGS as much as I do, you won't be disappointed, and even if you may have never played one, you might find this fun as well. Go get it!

REVIEW: Resistance: Fall of Man

2006-12-06T17:41:00.000-08:00

December 5, 2006

And to what I am sure will be the first of many, I have beat my very first PlayStation 3 game. Finished up Resistance last night. A very solid start for Insomniac on the PS3. If you own a PS3, you really should have this game. Not just for the single player, but for the ass kicking multiplayer. While I did have fun with it, there are a few issues that I would of changed if I was in charge. Lets see if I can cover those in this review.

As always, lets start with the graphics. Seeing as how I really don't have a 360 and this is my very first game I played with an HDTV, I really don't have anything to compare it to. The graphics are very good for a launch title, and it only makes me look froward to seeing what type of stuff we will see in the future. It gives it that real life, but not really type of look. Not sure how to say it any other way. I guess if you take a game like Half-Life 2, you kind kind of compare it to that. Or something.... yeah I don't know... What most cool kids are doing this day are taking this game and comparing it to Gears of War. Well, duh, its not going to look as fantastic as Gears, but I think it does a great job of standing on its own. Give it a year and lets see where it goes. :)

Sound is great too. Every enemy sounds unique. If you hear one, you can tell what type it is and how you could use that to your advantage. Where it really shines though, are with the weapons. Every gun/grenade has its own unique sound which not only lets you know what you are up against, but it leads to some pretty laugh out loud moments during multiplayer. I think my favorite is when you throw an Air-Fuel grenade on someone and they hear the whine as it charges up. They think they better get the hell out of here before it blows up, only to realize that the thing is stuck to them and they will die anyway. What happens is that they try to get into some cover where a group of people might be hanging out, the whole thing blows up and everyone dies in the huge inferno. Trust me... that NEVER gets old. :)

As for game play, there is where I had a few problems with the game. While there are really nothing major, it does become a pain in the ass as you get further into the game. The biggest of those problems is the way the checkpoints would work. Now, like I have said before, I consider my self to be an above-average gamer. Certainly not the best, but if things came down to it, I bet I could hold my own against the best. That said, this game can be frustratingly hard at some points, causing you to restart a checkpoint over and over again to get it right. Enough times where you know where the enemies will be or what type of waves they will come in. The checkpoints and or health were always in these weird spots where it felt like hours before you even saw one. You could be doing really good only to have a bunch of dudes jump you a few steps aways and you had to restart this really huge ass level. I guess it made sense so you are forced to stay alert, but it just felt really unfair at times. Add in the fact that one of the guns can shoot THROUGH walls and I think you can see where this is heading. Oh well.

Next is the multiplayer. I think this is the best multiplayer experience I have had in a while. Compared to Metal Gear Online, it comes pretty damn close. I haven't seen an once of lag ever since I have been playing. With all the crazy shit that can go on during a match, 40 people playing all at one time, and all the weapons, Insomniac needs a pat on the back for sure. There was a time where I would compare the net code from any Valve game to other games to see how the size up, but I think now the winner goes to Insomniac and their net code. I don't know how they do it, but they do it good. :) The one thing they really need to fix though are how the ranked matches work. As it stands now, you could get thrown into a TDM that is maybe 3v3. Sounds pretty normal. Well not when you need 2000 points to win. Each kill nets you 10 points and an assist nets you 2 or 3 (I can't remember). Then throw in your team dropping, or the other team dropping, and things can take FOREVER. Plus, if you leave a ranked game. You don't even get ANY of the credit you got while playing. Also, I haven't see anyone new join once a ranked game has started so you are left to try to duke it out. Insomniac has said they will be bringing out a patch very soon, so maybe this will fix a few issues.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for this review. I have MGS:PO sitting right next to me and I really want to play it!

REVIEW: No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way

2006-11-07T21:23:00.000-08:00

November 6, 2006

So I beat NOLF2 last night. I have to say, I had much more fun with this than I did with the first game. There was still some issues that just rubbed me the wrong way, but overall, I could recommend this game if you are a fan of FPSes.

For a game of its age, (ok its not THAT old, but I guess its old to today's standards) the graphics are pretty damn good. Monolith's Lithtech Jupiter engine gives the game a great look. The graphics just had that look to them where they just seemed to "pop" out of the screen. The game is a little on the cartoony side, and the engine does a great job of doing that. With future versions of the Lithtech engine in other games (F.E.A.R for example... that runs Jupiter Extended) you can see it just get better and better. Its no Unreal 3.0 or Source, but damn it, NOFL2 looks great!

Sound is also very nice. The music does a great job of giving it that old spy movie feel with the trumpets blaring and what have you. Voice acting is also great and really give the game its funny moments that extra edge. Not much else to say really. It works the same way as the voice acting did for Full Throttle. :)

As for game play, while it was good, I had a few issues with. Just like in the first No One Lives Forever, it is almost impossible to go through this game without getting caught. It is just so damn hard to go through this game with any sort of stealthy strategy that about 15 minutes in, I was at the point of saying "man, screw this, I am just gonna go guns blazing for the rest of the way." If you tried to snipe someone with the crossbow bolt or the snipe rife and you miss, well you better get ready for them to know right where you are and to call a bunch of friends. I guess it sorta makes sense with a crossbow bolt, you know... sorta pointing the way of where it came from, but god damn it, if I am behind cover, there should be no way he can tell right where I am. After I just went the whole guns blazing route, I had MUCH more fun with the game and didn't try to stress out if I was gonna get caught or anything. Its a little weird for a spy game... because you know... I am sure as hell Solid Snake or Sam Fisher wouldn't just go in balls to the wall, but whatever.

I know there is a multiplayer, and I hear there is some sort of co-op mode that sounds pretty interesting, but I am just gonna kee moving on. Plus, with the time that this game has been out, I wonder if anyone still plays anyway. So yeah, if you like FPSes, go ahead and give it a shot. It would be great if we could see a NOLF3 using a brand new engine, going by what T-Bird has said, I guess this will be last game. Bummer... it sorta leaves it open for one.

Pure Pwnage Episode 12 Released!

2006-11-06T18:13:00.001-08:00

For those of you not in the loop, Pure Pwnage Episdoe 12 has just been released on to the internet! If you don't know what Pure Pwnage is, well... what are you waiting for? Start watching the show from Episode 1 and see what you have been missing! :)

Castle Crashers is racist

2006-10-14T22:24:00.000-07:00

Based on a true story.

REVIEW: Full Throttle

2006-10-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

October 10, 2006

Time for an old school review! I played Full Throttle a long time ago, but never beat it. To be honest, I never got past the first area before I got side tracked. So I thought rather than letting it sit there, I was gonna load it up and play it. I am glad I played through it again. Not only is it a great game, but it let me re-live what the days of when LucasArts made some truly ass kicking games (rather than the mostly Star Wars bullshit they bring out year after year.) I guess the only really bad thing I have to say about the game is how damn short the game is. It was over before I even knew it.

Lets start off with the graphics. Like most of LucasArt's games back in the day, Full Throttle uses the SCUMM engine. So if you have played a game like Monkey Island, you should already know what to expect. This is not a bad thing by any means. To be honest, I really wish LucasArts would continue to use it. It just gives it that hand crafted look that you miss so much in many of the games you see today. There is nothing like it, and I just wish there was even more of it... oh well.

Next, sound. Great job all around. The voice acting is fantastic with and makes it even more enjoyable to play through. There are some noticeable people you may of heard of that do alot of the games voice work. Mark Hamill being one of them. Roy Conrad (RIP) who does the voice for Ben has to be my favorite though. That bassy, gravelly sounding voice is just perfect. Even though this game has a serious side to it, the voice acting just gives the humorous parts that extra punch. Its kind of hard to explain... you really just need to play it. Great music too!

And for the last part in this short review is the gameplay. Again, if you have played any type of LucasArts game before, you really know how to play already, only this is a little different. Rather than having that bar where you could choose certain options like "Pick up" or "Talk to" etc. In Full Throttle, you use a "verb coin" system (Curse of Monkey Island uses a system like this if you are looking for an example) You would hover over a certain item, and hold down the left mouse button, and a "coin" will pop up where you can choose what you want to do. Really easy to use.

Also just like SCUMM engine games, this is pretty much a puzzle game. If you aren't good at all with puzzles, you may have a really hard time trying to get through Full Throttle. That being said though, I found the puzzles in Full Throttle to be very easy. Maybe I am just used to the type of puzzles in a game like Monkey Island where you need to think outside the box a little bit, but the puzzles in Full Throttle were pretty much common sense when you where thinking about it. Not a bad thing by any means, but maybe thats why I was able to beat the game so fast. I guess if I could get through them, you can too! :)

If some how by reading this review you felt you needed to go out and just play this game, there are a few things to remember. One, your best bet is to look for it on eBay. You won't find it in stores anymore, and its getting harder and harder to find it on eBay. And two, it won't run on XP. No need to worry though. There is a great little program called ScummVM that will run the game just fine. You just NEED to have a copy of the game. :) So what are you waiting for? Play it already!

REVIEW: Company of Heroes

2006-10-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

October 7, 2006

So I finished up Company of Heroes last night. Very good game. I went into the game really knowing nothing about it, and if it wasn't for grayscale talking about it every 5 seconds, I wouldn't of even looked in to it. Well I am glad I did!

If you don't know too much about about Company of Heroes, I like to call it the Battlefield 1942 RTS. The way it is set up is pretty close to how Battlefield works. See, to gather resources, you need to capture and hold certain points on the map. There are three types of resources. Fuel, Munitions, and Manpower. So each of those has their own point on the map, or what I like to call "flags." You just need to make sure you hold the flags and to make sure those zone are linked together. I heard it is a similar system like in Dawn of War, but seeing as how I have never played Dawn of War, I can't really say. Rather than bore you with all the details, lets just get to what I thought about the game.

First off the graphics. Like I said, at first I didn't know a whole lot about Company of Heroes and everytime I saw a trailer of it, it looked like just another WWII FPS. When I found out that is wasn't an FPS and really an RTS, I was blown away. Company of Heroes has some of the best graphics I have ever seen for an RTS. The detail that Relic's engine give is insane. When you see the cutscenes and you get up close to the action while you are playing, it looks just like what you would see if you were playing Call of Duty. If you would of told me that it was an FPS, I would of believed you. This is some crazy, crazy stuff.

With that being said, you need a pretty beefy system in order to enjoy it in all that glory.... which I don't have. I mean, I have a pretty decent system, and I can run it at max settings, but if I want to play it, I need to turn a lot of the shit down. Still looks very good even with all the settings down, but no where near what it could look like.

Moving on to sound, again, another great job. The voice acting is top notch and the music is just like you would expect to hear in a game like Call of Duty. The sound does a fantastic job of giving really action packed battles. The explosions, the gun shots, your units cussing like sailors every time you give them an order, which I thought was just hilarious with some of the things that would say. I also loved how each unit/tank/etc. had their own sound and you could tell which was which. For example, if you heard a Tiger tank coming, but you couldn't see it yet, now would of been the best time to run the OTHER way. :)

Next is gameplay. Really, if you have played an RTS before, you really know how to play already. Not a bad thing in any means, its great really because it so easy to pick up and play. (At least for me it was.) What I really loved though, that I haven't seen in an RTS before is that moving your units on the battlefield has a huge impact of if you won or lost. Cover plays a huge roll in this game. If you have your units out in the open and the enemy is garrisoned in a house or behind some heavy cover, you will get your ass kicked. I have seen battles won by an outnumbered squad because they took their surroundings to their advantage. The AI in the game is smart enough to know where the best cover is, and to take it without any help from you. While you can tell them what to do and tell them where to go in the middle of a fight, the AI does a pretty good job by them selves.

Lastly, I will talk about the multiplayer. The way it is set up is very much like Battle.net. You have your ladders, and your quick play matches. You can also set up custom matches so you can just play with your friends. Pretty much your standard multiplayer like in an RTS. A good thing really. :) However if there was one thing that is a nagging issue is that there are only two sides (Allies and Axis, duh) and you can't really pick which side you want to play. Well, you can... sorta, but it ALWAYS has to be Allies vs. Axis. You can't have Allies vs. Allies, or Axis vs. Axis. I guess it makes sense in a way, but then you start to run into problems, at least for me, is that you find you are WAY better with one side than you are with the other. I guess this is one game where you just have to practice and be good with both sides. Maybe this will change in a patch in the future, but for now, I guess it really isn't much of a problem.

With all of that being said, if you are a fan of WWII games, or are a fan or RTSes, this is a great game that shouldn't be missed. Throw in a great single player game, and some ass kicking multiplayer, and you have a game that you can enjoy for a good long while. Catch me Xfire and maybe we can get a game going. :)

CliffyB: The Supermodel

2006-10-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

Oh CliffyB… what will you think of next?

REVIEW: Shadow of the Colossus

2006-09-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

September 16, 2006

Boy... I really don't know what to say about this game. I both really love it, and really hate it. Let me start off with why I love it.

This game just feels epic. I have never played any game like this that made me feel that way. When you see this huge Colossus just roaming the earth you can only just say to your self "oh shit." The music that is playing for each of the Colossus is great too. I don't really know how to describe it other than it makes it feel even more epic. It was also fantastic how each of the Colossus was set up. Each one played like their own level and each one was like a puzzle. Trying to figure out how to beat each one was great, and made beating them even more enjoyable. I will say though, it seemed like everytime I killed one, I just wanted to say "Man this guy sure is a real asshole, what the hell did they ever do to him?" While it does give you a reason for killing all these colossi (sp?) it just seemed pretty weak. :)

With that said, let me move on to why I hate this game. I don't know if it was just me, but never before I seen a camera system work as this one. The camera system in this game is atrocious. It was NEVER where I wanted it. When I did get it to where I wanted it, it would move to some shitty spot so I couldn't see my jump. I spent more time fighting the camera than I did trying to fight the colossus. I died more times because of this shitty camera than any other game before it. Folks, we have a winner for the worst camera ever created.

After all of the camera bullshit, I am glad that I played this game. And for 20 bucks? You should too! Now we wait to see what they can do with the PS3!

REVIEW: Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel

2006-09-17T17:21:00.000-07:00

August 27,2006

I don't know why I had this on my list for so long... its not really a game, and if anyone had the time, they could "read" the whole thing in about two hours or so. There is really nothing to it really, its just a digital comic book of Metal Gear Solid. The art is just fantastic. It really made the whole thing pretty enjoyable and it was one of those things where I wanted to keep on going just to see what the next page looked liked. Ashley Wood did a great job with and I can see why they asked him to do the cut scenes for Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops. I can't wait!

REVIEW: Odama

2006-08-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

August 30, 2006

And Odama has been beaten!

This game was a little strange for me when I first started out. For those of you who might remember, the first time I ever played the game was at E3 2004. At that time, they didn't have the microphone support added, so it was more of just a crazy pinball game. At the time I kind of just pushed it off as a "yeah it seems interesting.... but not all that great." When E3 2005 came around, it was back again, only this time it had microphone support. This was when I really fell in love with it. While I was never able to beat the first level, I enjoyed how it played and just couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Fast forward to when the game comes out and the reviews turnout to be not so hot. Even though I really enjoyed it at E3, I felt like I didn't wanna take my chances, and will just wait until it comes down in price. So about a month ago, I was just walking around Best Buy and just saw it sitting there, the same price as it was when it first came out. It was the only copy left, so I was like "Oh the hell with it," and just picked it up.

So I bring it home, and after finishing PoP3, I start playing. Right off the bat, I am doing pretty good. Playing the level way in advanced got me ready so I knew what to expect, so I just cruised right though it. When I got to the second level however, things started to quickly go down hill. Now, don't get me wrong, I like a hard game as much as the next person, but Odama is hard for a different reason. See with a game like Devil May Cry 3, you get your ass kicked because you let yourself get your ass kicked. You try and figure out what you might of done wrong, then you give it another shot only with a different plan maybe. With Odama on the other hand, you could be doing great, seconds away from beating the level and then whoops!, your Odama went the wrong way and wiped out all of your men. Its hard when it really shouldn't have to be, is what I am trying to say I guess.

There were times where I went for days without picking up this game. I would just give it dirty looks and say something like "oh man I don't know if I want to deal with that bullshit." I almost had given up hope when I just told my self I wasn't going to wimp out and then just buckle down and just try to beat it. At that point, the game just got easy for some strange reason. All of a sudden I knew what to do, the Odama went where I wanted it to go, and I seemed to be doing everything right. On maps that might of taken multiple times to play through, I finished on the very first try. It was fun again. This is what I was waiting for all this time.

With that being said, even though I enjoyed the game, the one thing that really pissed me off was the super poor AI. See, you move your troops around by giving them commands through the microphone. If you want them to go to a certain spot, you say "rally" or if you want them to push through the enemy, you say "push forward." Sound easy? Well not when you have to say.... "push forward"....."push forward" ...."PUSH FORWARD"...."PUSH FORWARD FOR GOD SAKES!!!" While the microphone worked just fine, the AI would immediately forget what you just told them, and would need to repeat it over and over again to make sure they did it. Even with that fault, that game was still pretty enjoyable.

Anyway, enough of that, lets just move on.

REVIEW: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

2006-08-13T22:18:00.000-07:00

August 12, 2006

Beat PoP3 last night. MUCH, much better than Warrior Without. Still not as good as Sands of Time, but at least UbiSoft didn't f*** it up every way imanagable. There was a much better balance of fighting and puzzles, leaning to more puzzles which I enjoyed alot. This is probably due to the fact that there are stealth kills in the game now. You can sneak up behind someone one when you see the cue, you can take them out with a "God of War style" mini game, even though you only need to push one button.

The music wasn't the giant crap fest like it was in WW, but it felt almost TOO epic sounding. I swear, they must of just copied some parts of God of War because I could of sworn I have heard some of the rifts right from it. The voice acting was also, much better than in WW. Original voice actor, yes! Anyway, much better effort with the sound in general and while there was just a little, there was almost no problems with it unlike.... you guessed it, Warrior Within.

Overall, this is what UbiSoft should of done from the start. Rather than make a quick buck with WW, they should of just taken their time and made sure they got everything right. As much as I enjoy the games that come from UbiSoft, it seems like they are turning more and more into EA. I wonder if that has anything to do with that whole EA buying a stake in UbiSoft.....

REVIEW: Kingdom Hearts

2006-07-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

Think I forgot about this thing?.... I THINK NOT!!!

July 29, 2006

Kingdom Hearts is down!

If it wasn't for the trip I took to AZ, I would of finished this game a week ago. Man... has it been that long since I took down a game? June 4th to July 29th? Oh well.... better late than never.

So anyway, overall, it was an alright game. Not the 30 out of 10 that ED wants to give it, but it was alright. I loved going to all the worlds and seeing all my favorite Disney characters, and it was just awesome to have all the great voice acting. The story was a little so-so, but it was still alright. The one world I really hated though was Atlantica. Man what a pain in the ass that world was. Really sloppy controls, and the music just drove me nuts.

Also, what I really hated was the AI. Damn it, I lost count of how many times both Donald and Goofy wanted to throw a healing potion at me. It was like they wanted to waste one just for the hell of it. Or how I would heal my self, only to have them both throw a potion, now wasting two. And another thing, you would think that in this day and age, when someone is making a game, they would put in the choice to skip a cut scene. As much as I enjoy watching them, when I have a sit through the same one 3 times just because I lost to the boss, it becomes really old, really fast. Why, why, why on Earth did Square forget about this? Did I maybe miss something and not push the right one? The only thing I could do was pause the game during a cut scene... which I will admit is really nice and wish more Devs would do that. Hell, Naughty Dog goes the extra mile and SHOWS you which button will skip it.

Oh well... my only hope is that they fixed all those problems in Kingdom Hearts II.

But anyway, I enjoyed it, and plan to play the second once I find some more time, but until then, its back to games! (Ok I couldn't think of anything good...)

REVIEW: SSX On Tour

2006-06-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

June 4, 2006

So I stopped playing SSX a while ago. Not all too sure why it took so long to write anything. I guess with Issue 7 for CoH/CoV, time can vanish pretty quick. To be honest, I can't even remember when I stopped playing... the 4th is sorta just "around that time."

Anyway, just like other racing games, I really see no "end" to them, so when finish it, I got to a point in the game where I can say that I have "beat" the game to a point... and yeah whatever... I think you get the idea.

SSX On Tour was a huge let down. They went from the awesome and fantastic SSX3, and they took like 10 steps backwards. They took everything that made SSX3 great and either got rid of it, or "update" it by making that feature worse. The two best examples is the online and the customize feature.

SSX3 had some awesome online play. Rarely any lag, always some one to play with, fun fun fun! So you think if it was that great they would put it in On Tour right? Wrong. No online play. HUGE mistake. Not only did they just get rid of one of the best parts of the game, but now I can't show grayscale how much I own him. ;) What was their reason for getting rid of it? The new shit-tastic create a character.

First off, I don't want to waste my time and make my own character. Second, if you do feel the need to shove it in everyone's face, the least you could have done is not make it a slap in the face to everyone who has enjoyed the previous games. Terrible UI and customize feature. I don't know why I feel SSX3 had a much better system, even though I think they were pretty much the same in terms of how to put shit on. It just feels like trash in On Tour.

This whole game just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I could go into greater detail on what they fucked up, but I rather just forget that On Tour even happened, and just stick with SSX3 when I need a fix.

REVIEW: Half-Life 2: Episode One

2006-06-04T11:53:00.000-07:00

June 2, 2006

Finished HL2: Ep1 a couple days ago. Awesome, awesome, awesome. I think it is better than HL2 to be honest. It was pretty much non-stop action from start to finish, and it was one of those games where I knew I wanted to take a break and maybe get something to eat, but I just HAD to keep on playing because I wanted to see what was next. It is very rare for games to have that effect on me nowadays.

My only real gripe that I had with the game is the way the flashlight and the oxygen when you are in the water share the same "power source" so when you add that with the new pitch black levels, things can be a pain in the ass pretty damn quickly.

Other than that, not all to much to say other than it was money well spent, and I can't wait for the next one.

REVIEW: SiN Episodes: Emergence

2006-05-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

May 27, 2006

Finished SiN Ep1 a couple days ago. I didn't like it all that much when I started it, but it got better towards the end. I guess my main gripe about the game is that I really had no idea what the hell was going on... well I sorta did... I guess... but not as much as I would of liked. I don't know if that was the goal for the game or what, but I guess it didn't do it for me. What also didn't help is that there would be times when some one would be talking, right in the middle of a firefight, and I miss everything they just said. The least they could of done was maybe lower the sound when someone was talking... but oh well, maybe I could go through it again with the subs on.

Also what I didn't like is why they had Blade pretty much silent thoughout the entire game. Blade should be Blade.... not Gordon Freeman. Gone were the one liners and the wise-cracking guy you all got used to in the first game, and now all you get is "Come in 'so-and-so'" or some other three word sentence. Also what didn't help was that I didn't even know how to contact anyone until maybe half way through the game. So unless I missed some story there, I don't know.

Anyway, with that being said, I did feel the game did get better towards the end. It was fun just trying to lay on the destruction as much as I could, but with only 3 guns, you could only do so much. Luckily you had nades and there always seemed to be the explosive barrel placed right where you wanted it. There were some pretty fun boss fights, and it was ridiculously easy to bunny hop, so it made running circles around people very easy.

Anyway, while it was alright, I am not all to sure I would throw down money for another Episode. Hopefuly, with the way they are able to look at stats you can upload, and just general feedback from the community, they can adjust the game to make it even better. Guess we will find out. :)

NEWS: Infinium Tries 'Phantom' Name Change

2006-05-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

Yup.. I avoided posting anything Phantom related for a while, but I thought this was funny...

However, the recent indictment of former CEO of Seattle-based Infinium Labs Timothy Roberts for running a scheme to artificially inflate the company’s stock may have contributed to the company's wish to change the company's name from Infinium Lab, Inc. to Phantom Entertainment, Inc. According to the filing: "The Board of Directors believes that the name change would be in the best interests of the Company because the new name better reflects the long-term growth strategy of the Company."

Honestly, I don't think they could of picked a better name. This whole half-assed attempt at a new console has been damn entertaining.

LINK

REVIEW: Peter Jackson's King Kong

2006-05-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

May 25, 2006

Just beat King Kong. Pretty good game. It not my Beyond Good & Evil sequal, but it was still very good. Second best movie game to date so far... Riddick being number one... although thats not really based off the movie... ehh whatever.

I really liked the way this game did things. There was no HUD what so ever. You pretty much had to rely on your gut feeling if you thought you were just about to die, or maybe needed to reload your gun. Sure there were audio cues when you wanted to know how much ammo you had, or when might be a good time to reload, but it was a nice change of pace of just looking down at a number the whole time.

Voice acting was great as well as the music. The gameplay, was alright, but I found my self wanting more and more just to play as Kong rather than do the normal on foot action. It was just awesome to kick the crap out of everything with the big guy. Oh well! :)

So on a side note.... BG&E2 plz k thx bye.

REVIEW: SiN

2006-05-20T23:03:00.000-07:00

May 20, 2006

Just beat SiN. (The first one... not SiN episodes).

Ehhh.. not the greatest FPS in the world, but it was alright. It was nice to have a "fast" game instead of what seemed like a slow pace with NOLF. When I say fast, I mean more running and gunning rather than the stealth style of gameplay I had with NOLF. Some really frustrating parts though. There were times where I would find my self up against a boss or something, only to find out that I have almost no health, or almost no ammo. It would take me more than a few times to get past it, but it seemed to get easier as I got further through the game. Maybe it was just my Quake 2 skills coming back to me or something, but it was great to have that feeling again.

Anyway, not much else to say really. I wanted to play SiN before SiN episodes, just so I could "get" the story, but after playing though SiN, I am not all too sure I would of missed the story anyway. Not a whole lot of depth to it. Oh well, moving on...

REVIEW: Killzone

2006-05-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

May 13, 2006

Killzone has been killed!

As I have said to grayscale when I was playing it, this game was the "meh" heard around the world. It was an alright game, but there were just some serious problems with it that just kept on bring it down. It seemed like after every mission, I would just be like "eeeeeehhhhhhhh" and then just continue with the game. Nothing like "oh man that mission was so sweet" or something. It was just "meh" over and over again.

First off, a "Halo killer" this game is not, and I don't even like Halo. It just felt like a pretty bland FPS with a pretty crappy story. To be honest, I didn't really understand the story until I had to look it up on GameFAQs. Before that, it was pretty much just killing who ever got in the way. Come to think of it... the only FPS that has a story that really interests me is the Half-Life series, but this about Killzone, so lets just move on.

There seemed to be a big problem with the graphics in this game. There were some huge texture pop in going on, and even then, the texture looked muddy as hell. There is something to be said when during the last level, you can't even tell where the hell bullets are coming from because the enemy BLENDS IN with the back ground they are against. This was indoors on a space station, so I don't think they were going for a camouflage thing, but it was really stupid to see a gun that seemed to be floating in the air. Plus, if you ran up too fast to an enemy to maybe pistol whip them, they would look like a big lego piece until the game was able to catch up and make him look right. This also happened with your team mates as well... even if you are standing right next to them. I don't get it.

The A.I. for the most part was alright. There were some parts where it was pretty dumb, but for the most part, they put up a decent fight. When I started playing though, I was just getting my ass worked by it. This is mainly due to the fact that this was the first time I have played an FPS using a controller in a long time. I was just wishing I could of hooked up my keyboard and mouse, but I got back in the swing of things, and I was able to deal with it. Although, now that I think about it, they were very stupid if you did a melee attack on them. What would happen is when you started your melee attack, all his teammates around him would stop shooting their weapon while they just watch their buddy get a huge gun right in their face, and then start to fire to a second after the attack was finished. So there would be times where I could be a room with a ton of enemies, and then just attack them one at a time and not even use any ammo or lose any health. This was a great way to cheese through most of the game when things were looking bad, but really, you shouldn't have been able to do this. Plus it was really funny when some one was standing too close to a wall and I was able to attack them THROUGH the wall. Awesome.

Moving on, this so for all you people that might make a FPS in the future.... when I see something that looks like cloth, such as a tent or something. I expect to be able to shoot through it, and vice versa for the enemy. I don't know how many times I had my ass saved by the little cloth tents that you would find along the way because nothing would get through them. 5 guys shoot at you? Saved. Rockets? Not even a dent. Huge ass artillery strike? Did I just hear something outside? Come on people... get with the program. Plus it doesn't help when one of the characters you can pick has a version of the M60/L.A.W. in BFV before it was patched. 800 round machine gun with a rocket launcher built in, AND I can take damage like a tank? Hell yes I will hit that shit! But ooohhh still can't shoot through that wall.....

After all that though, there are a few things I did like about the game. The voice acting was pretty decent, nothing fantastic, but it fit the characters well. The music on the other hand was great. Really epic sounding stuff although you never really heard any of it until you got to a cut scene. Never the less, it gave a nice mood to the game although I wish the gameplay would be just as epic.

REVIEW: Daxter

2006-05-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

May 10, 2006

And Daxter is down. Beat it last night. Man what a great, great, great game. I think out of all the Jak & Daxter games, this one might just happen to be my favorite. Great graphics on the PSP, great gameplay, great music, great everything. I am so glad that Ready At Dawn as able to get the whole Jak universe perfect on a handheld, and I am interested on what their next game might be. I would definitely one of the best games on the PSP, and I would highly recommend it if you are into platformers.

The PlayStation Wii

2006-05-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

The controller for PS3 has been created by refining and improving the world's most popular PlayStation controller that has shipped more than several hundred million units worldwide, while inheriting its basic concept and design. The controller for PS3 employs breakthrough technology of high-precision, highly sensitive six-axis sensing system that does not require any devices other than the controller itself for seamless interactive operation, thus eliminating additional settings to TVs. With this technology, ways to enjoy PS3 will be further enhanced by accessing PS3 through the network, while retaining the six-axis sensing capability. In addition to the "3-posture-axis" of roll, pitch and yaw, "3-dimension acceleration information (X, Y, and Z)" can be detected in high-precision and in real-time. In addition to standard key input available in existing controllers, more natural and more intuitive play will become possible as if the controller has become part of your body.

LAWL.

Assassin's Creed Trailer 2

2006-05-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

While I wait for the Sony Press conference to start:

Awwww yeah!

E3 E3 E3!

2006-05-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Well, with E3 less than a week away, and the chance that I won't be going this year, I guess I will just kick it at home and keep this site updated with all the great news from the floor. So far, there have been two games that have stood out that got me really pumped.

Assassin's Creed

From the studio behind Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia? B-B-B-B-B-B-boner!

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway

Even though I am pretty damn tired of the whole World War II genre, there just something about this game that looks fucking bad ass.

God damn it... doesn't ANYONE have an extra passes to E3!?

NEWS: Revolution has a new name.... Nintendo Wii

2006-04-27T18:03:00.000-07:00

http://revolution.nintendo.com/

While the code-name "Revolution" expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that seperates video players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games.. and each other. But you're probably asking: What does the name mean?

Wii sounds like "we," which emphasizes this console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.

Wii has a distinctive "ii" spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play. And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of video games that sets it apart from the crowd. So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because, it's not really about you or me. It's about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything.

I like the old name better.

REVIEW: No One Lives Forever

2006-04-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

April, 23 2006

So I beat No One Lives Forever today. Not bad really. Not great, but not bad. There were some frustrating parts of the game that took me a while to get through, an some of the game play was pretty lame, but I am just gonna chalk it up there with just being a pretty old game, and I am probably jaded from newer and better games. It is pretty funny though, and I found my self cracking up quite a bit. See.... we need more funny games! If any Dev is reading this (yeah right), make more games that are awesome to play, but as well funny. We need more of it!

However, there is one thing that pissed me off to no end. I would find my self trying to be as stealthy as possible, and would have my silenced pistol out. So I get behind a dude, maybe hide behind a box or something, and get a head shot in. Well for some reason, no only does the guard in the next room, hear it, but he knows RIGHT where I am. I don't know how many times I would think I got the job done only to find a guard right up my ass. Oh well... I will play NOLF2, but I am gonna move on to SiN because I have never played it. Plus I wanna get ready for SiN episodes!

I just beat Bark at the Moon on expert.

2006-04-20T21:43:00.000-07:00

Man it feels good. Now take a look at this video... I only wish I could play it as good.

And I still can't beat Cowboys From Hell or Frankenstein. Yeah I don't get it.

REVIEW: Ratchet: Deadlocked

2006-04-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

April 15, 2006

I have to say, out of all the Ratchet games, this one was over before I really even felt like I got started. Not to say it was a bad game, no, it is very good. But it felt like I was just going on my merry way, and then all of a sudden I am looking at the credits. I can't remember how long the other ones were, but I guess you could say that it was enough to really tell how short it was. If I really wanted to, and I really sat down with it, I could probably finish the whole game in a day. The story was pretty basic as well, and I have a feeling that the reason for the story and the length of the game was due to it being more of a multiplayer game. Or at least, that's what I am told. Even though, it is fun while it lasts, and the multiplayer is always a plus... although I don't think I will be playing the multiplayer in this.... after playing Metal Gear Online, I feel that every other online mode would be a let down.

Anyway, I could pretty much recommend this game to anyone, and I am really looking forward to seeing what Insomniac does with Ratchet in the future.... plus Resistance looks really awesome too.

Back online!

2006-04-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

Got my video card back from RMA. Everything seems to be running fine, if not much better. *Knock on wood*

So yeah... guess I will get back to No One Lives Forever.

REVIEW: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

2006-04-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

April 9, 2006

About time I beat GTA:LCS! Pretty good game. When I first started playing it, I was floored on how good it really looked. I was also surprised just how much stuff they crammed into such a portable game. Everything was there. The music, the voice acting, the free roaming city, etc. It was the whole GTA experience right in your pocket. Even the load times were very reasonable (They were about the same if not shorter than those in GTAIII and GTA:VC).

However, this really isn't a game that you can quickly turn on and play for a quick 5 minutes. I mean you could if you just wanted to fool around and whatever, but in terms of doing the missions, you would really need to sit down and play it. To me that really isn't a problem since I really only play my PSP when I am at home or out of town, but I don't see how anyone could really get anything done inside the game for a really short amount of time. Oh well.

REVIEW: Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence Limited Edition

2006-04-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

April 8, 2006

Just beat MGS3:S. Man, even with the second play through, I found it even better than the first time. The way that everything just comes together just puts a huge smile on my face. The new camera angle made it even more fun for me, the online mode just puts it over the top. If you have never played an MGS game, or have played MGS3 yet, you owe it to your self to pick this up. For the price its going for and with all the fantastic extras, you might as well be stealing it.

The only downside is just waiting for MGS4 to comes out.....

Video card RMA

2006-04-03T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well I won't be able to use my gaming PC for a bit. I sent in my video card for an RMA repair because it was getting some ridiculously high temps, and sometimes it wouldn't even come on when I would turn the computer on. Oh well... hope everything gets worked out ok. I sent it next day UPS, so I should get it back fairly quick. In any case, this just gives me a chance to finally sit down the my massive console backlog that I have been giving "the look" more and more. :)

Still working on Guitar Hero although, it is impossible for me to get past the last 3 songs on expert. Also I am playing through MGS3:S because it is an awesome game, and I wanna see how the whole thing plays with the new camera angle. And yes, still playing GTA on the PSP.

NEWS: Michael Jackson's Sonic 3

2006-03-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

Very interesting!

HALL OF SHAME: Advent Rising

2006-03-23T16:30:00.000-08:00

March 14, 2005

I stopped playing this game a while ago, and just now I get around to writing something about it.

Holy shit this game blows something fierce. To say that this game sucks would be a tremendous understatement. I am so glad that I only spent 10 bucks on this piece of shit, or I would of been even more pissed at my self for playing this game. The controls are garbage, the gameplay is lame, the sound is terrible; everything about this game is crap. Anyway, I rather not talk about this game anymore, and lets just say that if they really do the other two games, they put some effort in to this time.

-----------------------

Anyway, moving on, my next PC game that I have started is No One Lives Forever. I wanted to play this game because the first two times I tried to play it, I got side tracked, and never beat it. Well not this time! :) So far, I am enjoying it. It is very dated by today's standards, but like I always say, I rather have a game that is really fun than to have one that looks great.

Also, my copy of MGS3:S came in yesterday, and I have had a chance to play the online a bit. Lets just cut to the chase... if you have a PS2, you NEED to buy this game. If you don't have a PS2, you NEED to buy both. Right the fuck now.

NEWS: Starforce Enforces Copy Protection by Instant Reboot

2006-03-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

From Evil Avatar:

Futuremark has reportedly discovered a new anti-piracy system that is being used by Starforce.

Quote:
This copy protection system installs a driver that runs at the highest level of access on the system, which gives it low level access to the PCs hardware and any drivers and processes. This driver runs regardless of whether the game runs; keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity such as attempting to copy a protected disc. If something suspicious is detected, it forces the PC to make an immediate reboot, regardless of any other applications running and whether or not the user has any unsaved work.

What the hell? Do game developers even really check to see what the hell this shit does? Or do they just put this ridiculous "copy protection" on their game just because its the cool thing to do these days?

Oh, if only more people could be like Stardock.

NEWS: The Godfather Cost EA $810 Million

2006-03-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

From Kotaku:

No, really. Sure, game development clocked in around $10-20 million, but when EA announced the game would be delayed, missing the critical holiday sales period, the financial impact on the company was somewhere in the realm of $800 mill. Now at the $40 price point, EA is making it even more difficult to recover their losses.

800 Million!? How the fuck does missing the holiday season equal such a huge amount of money? Sure, I can see your self losing SOME potential revenue, but 800 million?

Wow.... good game indeed.

All up to date!

2006-03-17T17:55:00.000-08:00

THERE. Man that took forever. All up to date with all the "reviews." Now its just a matter of keeping it going...

Playing Guitar Hero right now, and it feels great to rock out with your cock out. I am waiting for MGS3:S to show up, and I really wanna get my online going in that. Playing Advent Rising on the PC, which, lets just say, sucks major fucking ass. I pretty much have stopped playing it, but haven't done a review yet. I will post one once I get a new PC game. So that shouldn't be all too far away.

REVIEW: Jak X: Combat Racing

2006-03-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

March 7, 2006

And Jak X is beaten. Not all that bad really. I kind of went into it thinking it was just gonna be some lame attempt at a Mario Kart or something, but I was pleasantly surprised. The driving was really fun, and the sense of speed was pretty damn good. Some of the racing mode felt a lot like Burnout in a way. You get pretty much endless boost, and all you really needed to do was just go as fast as possible. (There is more to it, but those that aren't familiar with the Jak universe might have it go right over your head... so I will just give you the simple idea of the mode. ) The weapons really pretty sweet as well. There was a lot of nods to Mario Kart it seemed with the weapons, (like a Blue Shell type weapon) but it turned out to be pretty good because you had a pretty good idea of what each weapon was going to do.

The only real problem I had with this game is that it would lock up every now and again. There wasn't any really spot where you would know where it would lock up, it just sorta 'happened' It was a little frustrating getting through a tough race only to have it lock up, but it wasn't that big of a deal.

Anyway, worth the rental if you are into racing games.

REVIEW: Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves

2006-03-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

February 27, 2006

And Sly 3 is down. Great game. Out of all the other ones in the series, I think this one may be the best. Lots of stuff to do, funny, and great gameplay. I think my favorite of all these games would have to be the artwork. The cut scenes are fantastic and it feels like a living comic book. Its just one of those things where you can not wait to see what the next one looks like and you feel rewarded when you see it. Its games like these where is just feels great to be a gamer. I am very interested to see what Sucker Punch will do for it next game, if they make something brand new, or have Sly start on the PS3. Guess we will find out.

REVIEW: GUN

2006-03-17T17:38:00.000-08:00

February 25, 2006

And GUN is finished. I honestly don't know how I feel about this game. While western games are probably my favorite of all genres, I felt GUN was just done so poorly, I wonder what the hell djWHEAT was smoking when he played this. The whole game felt so rushed and so poorly made, that if Neversoft made something other than a Tony Hawk game, I would question its quality before I even see anything about it.

Now that's not to say I hated the game. The music, fantastic. If there is one thing they got right, it was the music. The voice acting, again, fantastic. It seems that the only area where this game excels is in its sound. (Btw... for those of you who played it, was that Adam West right in the very beginning? Even if it wasn't, that is the only person in the whole game where the voice did not match the body) After that though, the game just slowly goes down hill.

My main beef with the game is just how sloppy the missions were and how the story moved. I played this game till I got 100%, just so I could say that I did. That means I did all the side missions and all the story missions. The side missions were pretty ridiculous in how you could just cheese your way right through them all. The Pony Express ones stick out the most in the way that if you were going fast enough, you could fling your self off the horse, go flying over a couple fences and land right in front of the guy you need to talk to. What a time saver! The story on the other hand was pretty weak. Toward the end of the game, you see a cut scene where you find out who you and how you got to where you are now, and I had a feeling that was supposed to be the big "omg I can't believe it/twist ending" or whatever you wanna call it, but it just fell right on its face. I didn't even think about that whole thing until after I beat the game. I said to myself "Oh.... ehh big deal" The boss fights where pretty pathetic as well. They all felt very anticlimactic, and you could finish them off in less time than it took you to say GUN. Boom head shot!

Before I forget, the one thing that I hated in this game more than anything else in this game is how almost NONE of the cut scenes were synced up to the sound correctly. Those of you that know me, (or maybe just by reading all of these) know that when this bullshit happens, there is hell to pay. Nothing pisses me off more than watching someone talk, or someone bang on a desk, or someone do whatever the fuck, and have the sound be a split second or more off. GUN does it, Prince of Persia:WW did it... shit, even Beyond Good & Evil did it. I can not fathom how anyone would let this get away from them. If there is anything that takes me out of the moment and lets me know that "its just a game," this is it.

Oh well, even after all of the negative stuff I have said about it, the game is enjoyable. Sure as hell not worth full price, but if you maybe find it for like under 10 bucks or something, I would give it a look.

REVIEW: Space Channel 5: Special Edition Part 2

2006-03-17T17:33:00.000-08:00

February 16, 2006

And moving right along, Space Channel 5 Part 2 is down.

Great game, just like the first one, although if I had to pick, I think I might have to choose the first one as the better of the two. Not to say that the second one is bad, just that some of the music in the first one was a little better. Not much else to say really, you know what kind of game it is and whatever, so now to move on you the next game!

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Edit: I had found a copy where disc two was working, so I just picked it up. Yay.

REVIEW: Gitaroo-Man

2006-03-17T17:31:00.000-08:00

February 14, 2006

Beat Gitaroo-Man man last night.

Man, what a great little game. I am glad I gave this game a shot. Even though it was very short, (you could finish it in a sitting if you wanted to) it was all good times from start to finish. I am a big fan of music/rhythm game, and it was great to play one that felt so different from all the other ones. This is easily one of those games that you could play everyday, and never get bored with it. It also has a difficulty that I have never seen in a game like this before. This is the only game I can think of where my hands were very, very tired after getting though that last few stages. Things just come flying at you and you better be ready for anything. If you are a fan of music/rhythm games, or just wanna try something different, I highly suggest trying this one out. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Even though I spent two days on it, I am gonna move on to my next game and just keep thing going through this backlog. This game is great to go back on when you have nothing to do, so I don't feel bad just moving on so fast.

HALL OF SHAME: Mercenaries

2006-03-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

February 13, 2006

I thought I would never put another game under my hall of shame list, but I guess I was wrong. Mercenaries is the next victim to the hall of shame. Another fine example of how having an open world in a game is not always a good thing.

Mercenaries is one of those games where if you maybe play it once in a while... lets say... once a month or something, it is very fun. Blow the shit out of anything and cause as much havoc as your bank account lets you. However, we you try to play this game once a day, you quickly find that this gets very boring. As fun as it is to roll up in a tank just after a massive bombing run, after about the 100th time, it left me with, "Ok... what else is there to do?" Blowing up shit isn't as much fun when you can do it anytime you want. GTA can get away with it because you don't have a huge ass army backing you up, and you need to earn that rocket launcher or whatever. With Mercenaries, don't have the weapon/car/helicopter/bomb you want? Hell just call up and it at your feat in 5 seconds. Rather than making you work for the huge payoff in a game, you let the game basically take care of that for you. It may work for others, but when you don't feel rewarded for blowing something up, or getting an item, it gets very boring, very quickly.

Another gripe I have with this game is just the massive amounts of driving you have to do. Most of your time is just sitting in a damn car driving past dull landscape with no action in between. Again, GTA can get away with this, because there is always something going on in the city. With Mercenaries, you spend maybe 15 minutes driving to get to a mission contact, and then another 15 minutes driving to where the mission is. Ummm yeah..... pass.

I don't know if I was just spoiled by the end of the year awesome games (God of War, DMC3, RE4, etc.) or what, but I was really let down with Mercenaries. Lucas Arts... god damn it... either stick with click adventure games, or funny games, or don't make anything at all. A pipedream, yes, but some day... Lucas Arts will be back at the level where every one loved them and every game was solid gold.

REVIEW: I'm O.K.

2006-03-17T17:24:00.000-08:00

February 7, 2006

Oh what the hell...

I'm O.K. is down! Not a bad little game. Took me a few times to get through it, but I was able to pull it off. It plays like Metal Slug which is a big plus, and for free, you can't beat it! Worth checking out. (http://imokgame.com/)

HALL OF SHAME: Metal Gear Ac!d

2006-03-17T17:21:00.000-08:00

January 11, 2006

Its first victim will have to be Metal Gear Acid. I have no idea what the hell is up with this game. If you remember in 2005, when I made my first post about the game, I said that I really enjoyed it. I dug the how the whole card system worked and it felt really fresh. Down the line though, the more I played it, the less I enjoyed it. I felt like I was spending more time working on trying to figure out how to play the game, and less time having fun with it. I want to like this game, but I just can't.

I think a number of things have brought the game down for me. One, there is alot of reading. Not that I don't mind it, but if there is one thing I always disliked about the Metal Gear franchise, are the insanely long codec parts. (MGS2 I am looking at you). MGA plays like one big ass codec scene. You play the game for like 5 minutes , then you have to sit through like 25 minutes of talking. (Seriously) Second, there is a huge learning curve that I was never able to get out of. The way the game tried to explain everything just never made any sense to me. I couldn't under stand what the hell some of the card were supposed to do, and how to even use them. By the time I figured out how to load and a gun with bullets, I pretty much given up on the game.

Will I return to the game at some point? I don't know... I want to play it, but everytime I try to I just get bored to tears. Has anyone else played this game and had fun with it?

The Hall of Shame

2006-03-17T17:17:00.000-08:00

In 2006, I decided to make a list of the games that I never finished. This could be anything from a crappy game, to just plan not finishing it. I went ahead and called it the Hall of Shame. I wanted to call it that, because I never like to quit a game, no matter how crappy it is. There are just those games that I can't put up with anymore, and therefore, they go into the Hall of Shame.

Anyway, lets continue.

REVIEW: Resident Evil 4

2006-03-17T17:13:00.001-08:00

January 1, 2006

And Resident Evil 4 kicks it off as the first game I beat in 2006. I was surprised how quick I was able to finish this game. Not that it was easy or anything, but I found it hard to put it down. (Well that, and also the fact that I will pretty much be gone for the whole month of January working on a drydock, followed by possible jury duty in February :/)

Great game. RE4 makes the first couple of Resident Evils' look like shit. It took everything I hated in those, and do away with them. If I didn't know what RE was and you told me this was part of the same series, I would of thought you were crazy. I don't know why I was late to the RE4 party, but I am glad I played it.

REVIEW: Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening

2006-03-17T17:10:00.000-08:00

December 19, 2005

Whew.... DMC3 is in the bag. This game is not for the faint of heart in terms of difficulty. (TBird... I am looking at you NBL.) I consider my self to be an above-average gamer. Certainly not the best, but if things came down to it, I bet I could hold my own against the best. With that said, this is one of the hardest games I have ever played. I threw out more F-Bombs and curses than one person will ever go through in a year. This is one of those games where I can not fathom what it must be like on hard or even Dante Must Die (Super hard for those of you that don't know). I didn't dare take the easy route when the game gave me the chance because I wanted to do the whole thing on normal just to say that I did it.

There were at times where I questioned how anyone could get through the games bosses. I was getting my ass handed to me left and right, but the more I stuck with it, the better I got, and the easier the game seemed to get... and then I understood and why I am glad they did it the way they did. This is one of those few games where it felt beating the game ment something. It is one of those things where you feel you can walk around with it like a badge of honor or something. It felt great to beat DMC3. Those of you who have beat it will probably agree, and those of you who haven't played it should really pick it up. Even as hard as it is, this is an awesome game.

REVIEW: Star Wars Republic Commando

2006-03-17T17:08:00.000-08:00

December 4, 2005

Star Wars Republic Commando is done with. Its a fun game. The squad stuff is pretty cool, but the thing that left me most disappointed was the ending. I think it is one of the worst endings I have seen in a game for a very long time. Oh well.... it was enjoyable while it lasted.

REVIEW: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

2006-03-17T17:05:00.000-08:00

November 17, 2005

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is down.

Whew! Man, I didn't know it would take me that long to finish. It seems everytime I finish a Metroid game, I always think of sending a letter to Nintendo asking them to rename the game to Super Metroid Backtrack or something. Oh well. Over all though, good game. I am one of the few people on this forum (at least I think I am) that like the Prime series, so if those of you who might be interested, I give it a green light.

REVIEW: God of War

2006-03-17T17:02:00.000-08:00

October 3, 2005

Beat God of War. Hands down, game of the year for PlayStation 2. Fantastic story and voice acting. Great music too! They spent a long time on this game and it shows. There are things that this game does that I didn't know the PS2 could even do. Things like loading times. This is the only game that I can think of, that I could play, from start to finish in one sitting, and not see one single loading screen. When I first played the game, I remember hitting start, and already I am into the game. Everything just felt seamless. Now that's not to say there aren't any loading screens, they are hidden very well, and it doesn't even feel like it. There are some points where you might see a little "loading..." text on the screen, but it shows up for like less than a second, and I am back to playing. There is also loading when you load a game from the memory card, but I can under stand that.

Also, the way they made everything tie together in some way just put a smile on my face. I don't wanna give to much away for those of you who haven't played it/still going through it, but if I mention "the grave and the sword" I think the people who have played will know right away what I am talking about. It just feels good to play a finished game. (Unlike PoP2....) Also, beating the game lets you unlock a lot of goodies like movies on how the game was made and other awesome stuff. I love games that do this, and I wish more of them would take advantage of it. Also, watching the stuff basically gives away the story for the second game, as well as hint at what Kratos will look like on the PS3. (Again people who have beat the game and saw these things should know what I am talking about.)

REVIEW: Space Channel 5: Special Edition

2006-03-17T16:59:00.000-08:00

September 21, 2005

Finished Space Channel 5... sort of. Beat the first disk. Playing it made me remember how fun the game is. Some of the music is just awesome. Anyway, went put in the second disc, and I saw there was some sort of white stuff on the bottom of the disk... like as if some sticker was there, yet I can remove it. Put it in my PS2... comes up with the PlayStation 2 logo, but doesn't do anything after that. Guess I have a bad disk or something. I really want to play Part 2 too. Anyone want to sell me their second disc? Or maybe point me in the way of a website that has it for cheap? (I bought mine used on EB games for 5 bucks or something... if there was a site that just sold the second disc, tell me. )

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Edit: I don't need the second disc any more. You will see later.

REVIEW: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

2006-03-17T16:42:00.000-08:00

September 3, 2005

Well I beat Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Actually, not really beat, just more along the line of giving up. Why? The game won't let me finish it.

Before I start talking about that, let me go into what I thought of the game. PoP:WW is a good game. Not great, not bad, just good. When I first heard about all the changes that UbiSoft was making to this game, I couldn't understand it. Godsmack doing the sound track, darker tone, different voice for the Prince, more fighting. I thought Ubi was just playing a joke on everyone. When the game came out, I hesitated to buy it just because the demo was ok, but it was just as I thought when I first heard it... all bullshit. Terrible music, awful script/voice acting, and really weird controls. I still wanted to play the full game, but no way was I going to pay full price for it.

I was lucky enough to wait long enough to find it on sale at Circuit City for 10 bucks. Awesome deal. If you can find it for under 20, I would recommend picking it up, but anything over might leave you a little let down.

Anyway, after I got through some of my backlog, I was ready to play it. I was looking forward to playing it just because I really enjoyed the first game, and was looking forward to see how bad UbiSoft fucked everything up from my experience with the demo (don't ask me why ) So I load it up, and right away, I was treated to some alright music. It sure as hell wasn't as good as PoP:SoT (Which by the way, has some of the best music you can find in a video game (aside from BG&E ), but the intro track was alright. This is my first problem I had with the game right from the start. In PoP:SoT, EVERY song was a good song. In PoP:WW, I can think of only 3-4 song that I really liked, and only one of them was part of the new "heavy metal" style. Who ever thought that in order for the game to be darker, it needed a heavy metal sound track, needs to be fired. This is Prince of Persia Not a fucking rock concert.

Anyway, you learn to live with it and its not so bad after a while. So I am going through the first stage, and the controls feel much better from the demo (maybe because I am playing with a controller). So I am hacking and slashing and just doing whatever to get to the end of that part of the game. I was looking forward to getting to the end of this part just so I could hear what the Prince sounds like. I had heard rumors that the Prince's voice from the demo, was completely different from the final version. Thank goodness it is, but its almost bad as well. Its good because its not the god awful voice that was in the demo (people who have played it should agree with me), but bad because it still wasn't the voice of the original Prince. Now at this point you are all probably going "Oh well, you are doing an awful lot of nitpicking" and while that may be true, it still doesn't change the fact that UbiSoft fucked it up. I don't care what the hell the reason is, you do NOT change the voice of a major character. That's like Kojima deciding he wants to change the voice actor for Solid Snake. That shit won't fly anywhere, and it sure as hell shouldn't of happened here. IMO, once you pick an actor, you fucking stick with them until the game is finished with its story line (like sequels or they just stop making any new ones), or the voice actor dies. The only series that got it right was Ratchet & Clank, I didn't even realize that the voice actors for Ratchet were different until I looked it up in the manual after I got half way through the second game and thought "Where the hell have I heard this voice before..... oh wait its Tidus from FFX... I guess he did the first game as well and I didn't even know it.... wait he didn't!" (Go look it up ) So anyway, the new guy does a good job with the Prince, but to me, its not "The Prince."

So moving on with the "review," its going pretty good. I am having a much better time playing it than thought I would of, and the story, while there are a few plot hole you can drive a Mack truck though, is alright. There seems to be a nice balance between puzzles and combat, and even though there is a little too much combat for my taste in a Prince of Persia game, its not as bad as what I though it would be. It sometimes got to the point where some guys would jump out, and I would just say "oh the hell with this" and just try and walk around them. There are some new time powers that the Prince could use that I thought were pretty sweet. There is one where you can slow down time (like Max Payne), that would help you jump through blades that might be spinning too fast, or to get that extra edge on the bad guys. There is also another, while I don't think its new (you could do it in SoT I think, it just happened in a different way) where you move at an insane speed and just hack people like crazy. Good for those fights where you just wanted to get over with.

Some of the maps are also pretty well made, and the way each one looks different when you travel through time is a very nice touch. But sadly, that's another problem I had with the game. For months before the release of the game, UbiSoft was say this and that about how the game is much longer than the first game, but not in the way that I am sure you would have hoped. The game is longer, which is good, but the way they made it longer is with the sand portals (which let you travel through time) and with ALOT of back tracking... and just plain lousy directions. There were two points in the game where I spent almost an hour walking in one big ass circle trying to figure out where to go. I would start in one part of the fortress, and than an hour later its "Hey what the hell... back where I started.." Now this is probably more of a fault on my part than anything else (or maybe its just the shity in-game map), but the least that UbiSoft could of done is have a little voice cue that made the Prince say "Hrmm... I seem to have been this way before..." And like I said with the whole time travel thing, its more of just a way to make the game seem longer, but I think it would have been even better if you just got to see brand new areas rather than just seeing the same place over and over again, just in different time periods.

And here is my main beef with the game. The amount of bugs, glitches, and sound problems this game has. Folks, if there was an award for the buggiest game of the year, this would win hand down. If I was in charge of of this project, I would of fired my Q&A lead on the spot. The amount of bullshit that was let through is just unbelievable. Parts of the map wouldn't show up, so if you tried to run to it, you would just fall right through the floor and die. Music would cut out or start up in inappropriate times. Very sloppy musical transitions. There would be a part where there is some nice soft music playing, and than all of a sudden the rock music would play its "section/battle finished" track. Times where the Prince would be talking, and then cut out leaving me to read the subtitles to figure out what is going on.

Another great bug would be the times where I would get lost on one of my super back track sessions, and I would get to a part in the level where the first time I played through it, the Dahaka (A big demon like guy that is trying to get me because I altered the timeline) would start chasing me, and his big tendrils would pop out of the wall and try to grab me, and then second time I went through it when I was lost, the tendrils would pop up even though there is no Dahaka around. Pretty ridiculous.

But that's not all.... the best game breaking bug of all time... the one that will NOT let me finish the game unless I do the entire thing all over again... the one that happens just as I am about to fight the final boss... the sand portal bug. As to how this one got through Q&A just boggles the mind. Before I went to go fight the final boss, I thought it would be a good idea and go back and find all the life upgrades that I might of missed. Not only would it let me have max health for the final boss fight, but if I was able to collect all of them, I could see the "right" ending (The one that sets it up for PoP3). So I went back through the game and found a life upgrade that I missed, and grabbed it. So after I had that, in order to get back to the central hall, I needed take a sand portal back to the present (I couldn't go the way I came just because of the way the level was set up). So I went to the nearest sand portal I knew and stepped right in....... nothing. "Hrmm.... ok maybe I had to go back the way I came.... maybe there was just some ledge I didn't see and I could get back to the central hall." Spent about a half an hour jumping and running around, and couldn't find anything. "Hrmm... well, maybe it was just a small glitch, I will restart the game and do it again." Did everything again, got to the sand portal and still nothing. "Hrmm... maybe there is something about the part in the game I am in where I can't use any more sand portals." "Well whatever, I don't need the life that badly, and its not all that important if I don't see the right ending, lets just get this game over with" So I restart the game, and get to where I need to go and get ready to fight the final boss. After a short cut scene I find my self in front of the last sand portal I need to get through in order to face the final boss. "Ok I get it... I must be able to use this sand portal, seeing as how I couldn't use the other one," so I walk up to it, "Hey what the fuck!?" Nothing. I could stand in the middle of the portal for as long as I wanted to, and the game would do nothing. "Hrmm... maybe there is some other portal I need to go through... ooh that's just fucking great... I am now stuck in the room with no way out" So I went to GameFAQs to see if something funny was going on, or if there was something special I had to do. The solution to fixing the problem? I had to play the entire game from the very start to fix it. There was no way in hell, after putting up with all the bullshit that this game had to offer, that I was going to run through this game again. I simply just turned it off, and decided in the case there are no games in my backlog to play, I will play through the game again and see if I can finish it.

So anyway... there is my extremely long review that probably no one will read, but damn it... it feels good to get that off my chest. I have no idea if I just got stuck with a bad press of the game, or if all the copies are like this. (I have the GameCube version). If someone else has this game let me know.. I wouldn't mind seeing if you had any problems.

To sum things up... its a good game that I recommend if you wanna play for the story, or wanna get ready for PoP3 (which is sounding better the more I hear about it.. props to UbiSoft for bringing the original voice actor back). It worth the rental, and if you can find it for under $20, then you can't really go wrong. Other than that, just pass.

REVIEW: Star Fox Assault

2006-03-17T16:39:00.000-08:00

Just beat Star Fox Assault. What a gigantic let down. When I first heard that Namco would be making the game I thought it was the greatest thing to happen to the series. Namco's experience with the Ace Combat games made me feel like they could deliver some badass Star Fox action. Boy was I wrong.

Who ever though that on foot combat would be a good idea should be fired on the spot. When you make a fuckiing Star Fox game, I expect to be flying none stop with maybe a few landmaster ones (Like in Star Fox 64) thrown in. Not once do I want to see Fox out of his ship unless he is going to get a fucking medal or something.

Hell even the flying missions are boring, yet they are the only good part of the game. The whole game doesn't even feel finished. I don't know if that game was at first supposed to be a multiplayer game only or what, but they needed way more time. Oh and what a weak ending. I am sure I can go and replay shit, but forget it.

Thanks Namco. Thanks a fucking lot.

REVIEW: Viewtiful Joe 2

2006-03-17T16:35:00.000-08:00

August 21, 2005

Just beat Viewtiful Joe 2. I thought it was much better than the first one, and I look forward to the conclusion in the story (yes... that means a Viewtiful Joe 3 )

REVIEW: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

2006-03-17T16:33:00.000-08:00

July 25, 2005

Beat Paper Mario last night. Pretty good game... its nice to beat an RPG for once

I wish they would make a remake of Super Mario RPG. That would be quite the hotness.

REVIEW: Psychonauts

2006-03-17T16:30:00.000-08:00

July 17, 2005

Beat Psychonauts last night. Another fantastic game. Play it if you haven't already.

I loved the fact that all the levels were different in thier own way and that no two were the same. Gave the feeling like you were really going through some one's very own mind. (If, you know... it really looked like that. ) Also some really funny moments. We need more of teh funnay in games!

REVIEW: Red Dead Revolver

2006-03-17T16:28:00.000-08:00

June 26, 2005

Finished Red Dead Revolver. Not a bad game... not great, but not bad. Some really frustrating gameplay in certain spots.... almost had me throwing my controler across the room. (If you have played the game, you will probably know which spots. )

REVIEW: Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

2006-03-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

June 18, 2005

"Beat" Midnight Club 3. I say it like that just because I always find it silly when you say you beat a racing game. I still have some things that I would need to unlock, but I feel I have "beat" the game to some extent... that and I want to try and move on to some other games.

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Edit: Yeah I know its not much of a review, but whatever. Great game. The Midnight Club series is up there as one of my favorite racing games.

REVIEW: The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - Developer's Cut

2006-03-17T16:02:00.000-08:00

June 5, 2005

Alrighty finished that after putting it down for a month or two.... don't know why I took a break from it, guess I just got side tracked. Awesome game if you haven't played it yet, and its worth the purchase for sure. 11 out of 10!

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Edit: For those of you new to this blog, or new to iTG, or whatever, 11 out of 10 is an inside joke. I would go into explaining it, but really, you had to be there.

REVIEW: DRIV3R

2006-03-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

April 30, 2005

Ok DRIV3R really sucks major ass. *Toss*

REVIEW: Mercury

2006-03-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

April 24, 2005

Beat Mercury last night. Overall I would say, a very good puzzle game. If you are into that sort of stuff, I would at least give it a shot. Not *MUST BUY* but worth a look if you love puzzle games.

REVIEW: Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

2006-03-17T15:52:00.000-08:00

April 17, 2005

Beat Twin Snakes last night (Just MGS1... MGS2 can seriously suck a dick).

Its odd.... I had a much harder time trying to play MGS1 than I did the first time I ever played it... Maybe I am just so used to the things I could do in MGS3 that when I got down on the ground, I felt like no one could see me, and then just find out I am in plain sight of everything. I also felt like I had more fun playing the original than I did playing this remake. Oh well.

REVIEW: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

2006-03-17T15:49:00.000-08:00

March 21, 2005

MGS3 down. Another awesome game... I think its the best one so far.

REVIEW: Jak 3

2006-03-17T15:39:00.000-08:00

March 5, 2005

Jak 3 finished. Awesome game.

Word of warning

2006-03-17T15:24:00.000-08:00

Before I continue, I just wanna remind everyone (like anyone is really reading this damn thing) that some of the early "reviews" will be like a few words long. As I got into it though, I figured I should maybe say WHY I did or didn't like a game. You will see that I have a lot more things to say about a game that I didn't like than to those that I really enjoyed. The way I see it, if you fucked something up, then you're gonna hear about it.

I will also put down what day that I beat it, but most of the early stuff, all I really have to go by is the post date, so I will go by that. It will be pretty much a full copy and past of what I had to say that day, with maybe one or two edits.... not sure yet. I wanna try to get a thing on the side bar that says what I am currently playing, but I haven't been able to figure that out yet. Until someone helps me or I figure it out, you can go to the game collection link.

ALSO, this most of the time, these are reviews for the latest and greatest games out there right now. I go though all my games one at a time, so you will see games that have been out for a while. Or whatever.

And one more thing, as for the news part of this blog, I will post anything that I find interesting, (or anything I feel like posting) and give a little comment or something. Its pretty much going to be the same damn thing as like on the iTG forums, so really.... if you already go there... then what the hell are you doing here? I will guess I will just figure out more of this shit as he continue.

Zelda Gameheadz

2006-03-17T10:11:00.000-08:00

So while I start to get my shit together so I can update this site with all the reivews and such that I have made, I thought you might enjoy this little video:

I'd love to meet Shigeru Miyamoto... he always seems to be a real genuine person.

Shit.

2006-03-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Sigh... So looks like I went ahead and made my own blog. I thought I would never do it, but... ehhh what the hell. I was bored and had a good I idea on how to not make it bullshit. Seeing as how I sort of have a mini blog already on the iTG forums, (Ehh not really, but the takedowns sorta count) I will be using my blog as my official spot as to where I will post all my "reviews" on all the games that I play. Sometime these review will be pretty long, but some times, these reviews could be as long as one word. Just depends on what type of mood I am in.

This will pretty much be a relay of everything I post on the iTG forums, so pretty much anything I say there, will be here as well. I don't know... Seemed like it could be fun. Maybe get a larger audience in the long run.... or something.

But for now, I am gonna go to bed. I will work on this shit tomorrow