What I've Been Playing

After I beat GTA I pretty much started playing every other game I have but haven't had the time to enjoy. First I started with Uncharted: Drakes Fortune for the PS3. The game is like a big budget action movie, a perfect game to play in the summer that feels just like a good time at the movies. You are constantly running and jumping around a beautifully lit jungle, in between epic gun fights and jet ski chases. It feels like a breath of fresh air after playing a heavy RPG like Jeanne D'Arc.

Second on the PS3 is Assassins Creed. I bought this because it was $18 at Gamefly and I had a $5 off coupon for their store. So I pretty much couldn't lose. Assassins creed is a lot of fun when you are running and jumping on rooftops. Where it can get a little sketchy sometimes is the combat. In the beginning I found the combat to be pretty hard and I would constantly die. However, after I learned the counter move I found the combat to be a little too easy. There was no balance. The game looks beautiful and it is tons of fun running around the open city. I'm looking forward to spending some more time with it.

Last on the PS3 is Skate. I've been interested in Skate ever since I first heard about it, I just didn't have a console to play it on yet. Once I got the PS3 I got the Skate demo and have been playing it nonstop. I tracked down a cheap copy of the game on ebay and have been enjoying my time with it. It looks amazing and really feels like I'm playing in a skate video. The camera is down low and it is easy for you to set up smooth lines. The city is huge and as of now I cannot keep from getting lost. Hopefully soon I'll get a feel for where the good spots are.

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I loaded up Mario Kart Wii and went online with it, like we always do. We didn't realize that after a few races, two of our friends had joined us. Now I know this is typical fair for most online games, but this is not how things usually work on a Nintendo system. It was nice to see that they could effortlessly join us without forcing us to back out and accept their invitation or something like that. Our competitiveness was instantly boosted and it really made the already fun online racing a lot more intense.

I also recently found a program called Crossover which lets you emulate Windows software on a Mac or Linux based machine. I downloaded the free month long trial along with Steam, a windows application for digitally distributed games. Steam installed and worked perfectly so I immediately purchased one of the games I have been waiting to play for a a long time: Portal. glaDOS's narration and the puzzle game play are fantastic. It plays like an FPS but is really a puzzle game where you use Portals to get to hard to reach areas. I can't wait to finish this one so I can finally understand all the inside jokes on Digg.

Along with Portal I purchased Team Fortress 2. I didn't want the entire Orange Box because I already have Half Life 2 on the XBOX and also don't have much space on my Mac. TF2 is great and I really love the cell shaded look. Everything about it has a comical feel to it and the games can get pretty intense. It is a team based multiplayer online shooter. You can pick from different classes of characters including Medic, Heavy, Engineer, Solider, Scout, Demo-man, Pyro, Spy, and Sniper. I found that I got the most kills with the Solider as he has a rocker launcher, but I also really enjoyed setting up sentry guns to mow down opponents with the Engineer. Each class has it's own benefits and I have yet to figure out which one I like the best.

Finally on the handheld front I have been playing Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow on the DS and Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles on the PSP. There is a new Castlevania game coming out for the DS (and potentially Wii) in the near future and I wanted to brush up on the series. Dawn of Sorrow on the DS looks great and is really well animated. It's been a while since I have played a classic 2D sidescroller but I found it really fun and actually pretty deep. I never realized that the Castlevania games have pretty in depth inventory systems. The PSP game is a different story. I found the pace to be painfully slow as your character cannot run, and it can be difficult to land kills as you whip doesn't always hit the enemy when you think it will. I only really bought the PSP game because it contains as a bonus feature what I've heard to be the best Castlevania game ever: Symphony of the Night. I will probably stop playing the main game and jump into that after I beat the DS version.



I plan to review all of these games, eventually, as I beat them. A lot of them are fairly short and shouldn't prove too hard. Metal Gear 4 also comes out on June 12 so look forward to a review for that after I beat it, but that could be a ways down the road.

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PC/Mac, Previews, Sony

Monster Truck Mayhem

Back in the day when I used to play PC games on my Packard Bell machine, the families machine, I played a lot of racing games. Megarace, that came with Windows, destruction derby, and Monster Truck Madness got the most play time. The last title is a game I played a lot of. I loved driving off the track where ever I wanted, taking my truck off of huge jumps and hill tops.

Playing console games over the years I haven't really gotten back into racing games. I've been too busy with the RPG's, shooters, and action games. Now while I love all of the games I've been playing, I miss some good arcade racing. I was never one to like Gran Turismo games, or play realistic sports games. I always wanted everything to be way over the top, arcade, fun. When I signed onto the PSN last weekend I saw a demo for a game I knew little about, Motorstorm. I booted it up and realized it was everything I loved from the old Monster Truck racing game I missed so much, everything that is except the monster trucks.

In Motorstorm you drive around in ATV's, Dirt Bikes, and buggies on off road mountain top courses. The game looks absolutely fantastic on the PS3 and I was having a blast with it. I read reviews and learned that the games was disappointingly lacking in content and game modes, so I figured I'd wait until the sequel.

Well that time has come, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift was recently announced at Sony's game day in London this past week. The game takes everything from the first game, adds split screen multiplayer, more cars, tracks, and game modes, and best of all: monster trucks. I'm a sucker for games with bright colorful/tropical settings, which is why I bought Uncharted. The fact that Motorstorm now has monster trucks, and takes place in the pacific is just awesome. I'll be playing the demo for the first game anxiously waiting for the second one to come out, which happens this fall.

Labels: Previews, Sony

Mirror's Edge Footage

Above is new footage for the upcoming EA game Mirror's Edge coming out on PS3, XBOX 360, and PC. The game looks beautiful, taking place in a bright sun filled city. What interests me about this game is that it is emphasized as a first person adventure game, not an FPS. It looks to have all the great platforming moments from a game like Prince of Persia, or Mario Galaxy, but played through a first person view. Interesting. Here is a quote from an IGN preview for the game:

"The team at DICE continued to hammer home the point during their presentation that the feeling of momentum and fluid movement was very important to the gameplay dynamic within Mirror's Edge. As Faith made her landing on the adjoining rooftop she immediately sprinted toward a fence, vaulted it, slid under a set of pips and then began traversing a thin metal pipe to yet another building. It all felt like one continuous movement, similar to cycling between pieces of cover in Gears of War only a bit more natural."

The best part is that the video is all in game footage. It looks like a game I'll be keeping my eye on. Below is a screenshot of the city.

Labels: Microsoft, Previews, Sony

Metal Gear Online Beta Impressions

I preordered Metal Gear Solid 4 which got me the code to play the Metal Gear Online (MGO) beta. I created my Konami ID, which is separate from a PSN ID, sat through about an hour of updates, then finally created my character. All of the character options were pretty much just dudes in camo and cargo pants, but after all this is just the beta.

Once I got into the gameplay I found myself a little confused. I'm used to playing Metal Gear games in a certain way: sneak around, stop, take out weapon, aim at head, pull trigger, hide body, repeat. It was a little weird running around trying to navigate the infamous metal gear menus to get the right weapon out in time. I eventually got the hang of it and was cappin' fools in no time. This was made easier, and somewhat frustrating, by the fact that I could not figure out how to take auto aim off.

It was pretty fun, and different, to see the Metal Gear world in a fleshed out online shooter, there is a lot more strategy involved then normal multiplayer games. There are a ton of modes, even with the beta, I only tried out regular death match. I plan to try more and can't wait to get my hands on the full release which ships with MGS 4 this June.

Labels: Previews, Sony

Beware the Blue Shell

After seeing Penny Arcade's new comic strip this morning I became aware that I have not posted about Mario Kart yet, which comes out this Sunday for Wii. My girlfriend and I are both big Mario Kart fans and have been playing the N64 one on the Virtual Console for quite a while now. I'm really excited to try out the Wii Wheel, from what I've heard, it works pretty well. If you are a player who continually uses it you will get a golden wheel icon next to your name in online mode, thats what I'm shooting for. I'll post more about it this weekend after we've played it.

Labels: Nintendo, Previews

Want to Slaughter Zombie Zoo Animals? Then you should buy a Wii.

Thats right. The makers of the recently announced Wii exclusive shooter The Conduit have just one up'd themselves by unveiling a gory, cartoony WiiWare game with "Animales de la Muerte". The game plays like a top down shooter where you go around doing just what you'd think, killing all the zombie zoo animals and saving the ones that are still alive. It reminds me a lot of the classic Lucas Arts shooter, Zombies Ate my Neighbors. It has the same feel and style with all the unique weapons and power ups. All my dreams have come true, thank you High Voltage! But seriously, the studio has come from left field and proven that these types of games can exist on the Wii.




Along with Animales de la Muerte, they have another WiiWare game in the works called Gyrostarr. Gyrostarr will be a shooter that plays like a Wipeout or F-Zero race. High Voltage are doing great things with Wii, and I personally cannot wait to get my hand around all three of their upcoming Wii games. Slaughtering zombie zoo animals! I mean come on, you can't go wrong there.

Labels: Nintendo, Previews

Prince of Persia: Trademarks of Time

It was discovered that the creator of the Prince of Persia series has trademarked a new name in the franchise: Prince of Persia Prodigy. The POP team's last effort was Assassins Creed which came out to mixed reviews.

I recently picked up Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for the original XBOX and am about 75% of the way through it. I have to say that coming from the Mario and Nintendo brand of platforming, this game is a lot of fun. It's very enjoyable to run the Prince along the walls, jumping off at the crucial moment to catch the next bar or pole. They really nailed the platforming aspects on the head. My main gripe with the game is that the fighting sequences could have been a little more polished. The game's emphasis is on platforming so you can't fault it too much. However, most fight scenes lock the Prince into a fighting pose and it can be difficult to back up or run away from a group of surrounding enemies. You are constantly stuck in this fighting pose which has different movement mechanics than if you were just running around, making the Prince control like a tank. Those types of sequences are few and far between but can prove frustrating.

Super Mario Galaxy is the last major platformer I played, and loved to a great extent. I was excited to play POP but my expectations weren't that high. I have to say that I was somewhat surprised when I found huge rooms and elaborate puzzles all based around the Prince's movements. It was very well done and very fun. I've heard many things about Assassins Creed, that it is fun at first, a visual splendor, and the platforming elements are great. I have also heard bad things about the combat and redundancy of the game. If anything I will at least try to rent it. I remember seeing a screen shot for the game in some magazine a while back and thought to myself that I would get a next-gen system just for this game. I owe it to myself to at least try it, especially after how much fun I'm having with POP. Below is a screen shot from Assassins Creed.



I'm looking forward to a new Prince of Persia game, hopefully the team will take the criticism from Assassins Creed and somehow work it into this game, if it needs it. After seeing how gorgeous Assassins Creed looks, I can only imagine what a new Prince game will look like. Below I posted some pictures from another Ubisoft game, Rayman Raving Rabbids, for Wii. Part of their marketing campaign included these pictures of the star bunnies in various other Ubisoft games, including Assassins Creed, I know they're old, but still pretty good stuff.

Labels: Commentary, Microsoft, Nintendo, Previews, Reviews, Sony

The Earthworm Cometh

After Interplay sold the rights to their post apocalyptic MMO franchise, Fallout, to Bethesda, they were able to start funding some new projects after being out of business for a couple of years. They announced yesterday that they will be bringing back one of their most celebrated franchises, Earthworm Jim, with Earthworm Jim 4. They also announced that the game will appear, along with Clay Fighter, on the Virtual Console.

Normally I would pick these up in a heartbeat, but I just acquired an SNES emulator for my computer and one of the first games I've been playing through, along with Earthbound, and A Link to the Past, is Earthworm Jim. The game is a known for it's unique level design and graphical style, looking more like a cartoon than most other shoot em ups. Speaking of cartoons, the game was spun off into a series for television in the mid 90s. I remember both the game and the show very well, and cannot wait for a new entry in the series. There was supposed to be a 2.5D remake of the original game for the PSP back in 2006, which I was unaware of at the time. Now being a proud PSP owner I am a little disappointed to learn that it was cancelled also in 2006. With Interplay's new footing in the industry hopefully they'll bring that game back along with the new entry.

The upcoming game was confirmed to be Earthworm Jim 4, and not a remake, however it is still unknown what platform(s) it will be on. I'm not sure I can see Jim running around in a fully 3D world after the disaster that struck the N64 in Earthworm Jim 3D. I would love to see something along the lines of the new Sonic Unleashed, again a 2.5D game, where the character's and levels are in 3D but the game plays on a 2D plane. That would be amazing, we'll have to wait for more news to find out.

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, Previews, Retro, Sony

The Conduit: FPS for Wii

The Wii is not known for its graphical power, but that doesn't mean that it can't display some pretty impressive visuals. Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and No More Heroes all show different styles of games that work pretty well for the system. What makes these games more enjoyable is the gameplay. The Wii remote is perfectly designed for the first person shooter genre. Using the remote to control your characters sight (the camera) works flawlessly in games like Medal of Honor Heroes 2 and Metroid Prime 3. The controls are usually customizable which makes turning around on a dime that much easier, simply put it is the closest you can get to using a mouse setup like PC FPS games. As of now there haven't been many games to capitalize on this functionality.

IGN.com unveiled today a new FPS game developed by High Voltage Software, exclusively for the Wii, called The Conduit. The game puts players in Washington, DC as they face off against an alien invasion, nothing new there. What is new is that the developers designed the engine for this game, Quantuam3, from the ground up for Wii. They are hoping to make a game with graphics you don't usually see on Nintendo's console.

They say that the Wii is more powerful than the PS2 and XBOX yet we are still getting games that aren't even up to those standards, they hope to change that. They are also going against the paradigm that there is no market for adult oriented Wii games, which is why we don't see many mature titles or FPS's on the console. They are out there, case in point: No More Heroes, Manhunt 2, and Resident Evil 4. RE4 proved itself by selling pretty well for a game that was already released on the Gamecube and PS2. There are gamers out there, like me, who like all types of games including M rated FPS's. The developers now have a challenge, just because the game is rated M and is an FPS doesn't mean it will be good. If the games controls work perfectly like MOH2 or Metroid, and the story and gameplay are immersive, then they probably have a hit on their hands. Let's just hope they can live up to they hype they've created. I am definitely interested and if it is as good as they say it is, will definitely pick it up.

Labels: Nintendo, Previews

LostWinds WiiWare Video Unveiled

IGN released a video for the upcoming WiiWare title, LostWinds. It is a 2.5D sidescroller (where the characters are modeled in 3D, and environments are 3D, but the game moves along a 2D plane) where you control the character on screen with the wind. The wind is mapped to the wii remote, you swoosh and push the character along the screen. It looks really fun to play, and I love me some 2D action so I'm interested. WiiWare debuts in North America next month.

Labels: Nintendo, Previews

Nintendo Media Summit April 10-11

Nintendo will be holding a media summit this Thursday and Friday which will ideally lead to the unveiling of some new games. Hopefully they'll bring back some of the franchises we've been waiting for like Starfox and Pikmin. I want to see the totally revamped franchises like Kid Icarus but big announcements like those will probably not come until E3, this summer. Nintendo will not be the only ones releasing news this week, other companies like Sega and THQ will be there to show off some of their new products as well. Wired.com had a chance to talk with Telltale games, who are bringing Sam & Max to the Wii, and in the interview they discuss their new WiiWare IP and that they'll be showing it at the media summit. It's not often that Nintendo lets us into their crazy heads, so lets hope from some good news and good games to come out of this.

Labels: Nintendo, Previews

Super Dodgeball Returns on the DS

I remember back in the day playing a game called Super Dodgeball for the NES. I never really got into any sports games, I wasn't good at making plays, passing, scoring baskets, or winning in overtime. What I was good at, was throwing balls at people. Seriously. This game let me get my ball throwing on in full capacity, and now it's getting a sequel on the Nintendo DS in Super Dodgeball Brawlers. I'm not sure if they're just trying to jump on the hype train with Smash Bros Brawl by adding Brawlers, but I'll still take it. The original game put players against other countries from all over the world, in an Olympic match of sorts. It looks like the game play in this one will be the same, and thats fine by me. Below is a trailer for the Japanese version of the game, and another video with more game play elements, the japanese one is funnier though, who knows what they're saying.

Labels: Nintendo, Previews, Retro

Coloring in the Wii

THQ is releasing a new game for the Wii called de Blob. It's a game where you control a little blob of color and you have to paint the town to free it from its captors who want it to be black and white. It looks like it takes inspiration from games like Jet Grind Radio, where you go around town and spray paint on walls, except here you jump and slam into buildings, people, and other objects to color them. You can dip yourself into different colors and each time you paint an object the music gets a little funkier. It seems like it could be a lot of fun, the movement controls are done with the analog stick, but jumping seems to be mapped to the Wii remote, flicking in a direction and slamming back down. It could be fun to link jumps and combos together trying to paint as many structures as you can. I'm always interested in games that aren't necessarily casual, but don't require 40 hours of game play, massive inventory systems, and huge learning curves to play. It also reminds me of a Tony Hawk game where you just skate around town and do some random stuff. It doesn't come out until September, we'll see how the reviews shape up. The guys over at IGN seem to like it so far, and THQ knows they have a unique Wii title on their hands cause they aren't afraid to show it off.

Labels: Nintendo, Previews

Sonic Unleashed

A trailer has been leaked for an upcoming Sonic game, rumored to be on the XBOX 360 and PS3 based on the quality of the graphics, lets hope for a Wii port too. The only sonic games I've played have been Sonic 1, 2, and 3 for Genesis and Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 for Dreamcast. This is good because the only Sonic games I've played happen to be the only GOOD sonic games ever made, or so I'm told. Sonic Team has really loosened it's standards on our blue friend for the majority of his outings. This trailer looks like they're sending him back to his roots and having him run around a 2D playground of loops, springs, and coins. The game looks like it plays just like an old school Sonic game, with enhanced graphics and 3D backdrops. Hopefully this is what we have all been waiting for.

Labels: Previews, Sega