Gears of War.


I don't like such games.
It does not become fun, if you have no idea what is going on. Thats is what I really dislike about 90% of all shooting games today...

Anyways pretty good...


B

Go to Live and play coop with a human player, it will change your opinion.

Just purchased Contra 4 DS and New Super Mario Bros. (lol, no wonder the game still charts high).
So quick notes:

NSMB is awesome, just like everyone is saying. Super Mario really is a 2-D scroller and the 3-D clones will never reach the same masses as the traditional titles. Tonnes of worlds to uncover, love some of the challenges to get to collect all the stars. This game will last forever.

Contra 4 is one tough cookie. The graphics are reminiscent of the SNES era, which is not a bad thing. But, man, it's so freaking hard -- this one will last for quite some time as well.

Simpsons game

Pretty fun game I might say. It sort of plays like GTA and has almost every Simpsons characters in game. Nice overall story and great background setting. It should please all Simpsons fans. Definately worth it as a rental

8.4/10

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune:

About 40-50% through, really fun game. Also gorgeous looking. Only problem is when they go overboard with the waves of bad guys. There was one moment where like 10 waves came and I was just thinking "Enough already!" By the time this game is over, if I hadn't obliterated pirates from existence from Earth, I'll be shocked!

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

It's a really fun game.

Completed Assassin's Creed today... The game is roughly 60% brilliant and 40% utter and complete crap. It's a jarring mix. I can't think of any other game quite like it in that respect. I was very disappointed by the ending. Not because of the cliffhanger... that never bothers me in a game that you know a sequel is coming... it's because it appears they totally abandoned certain plotlines (like Lucy and her dead friend). I'm giving AC a B-, enough originality and pros to warrant playing it, but anger inducing on some parts because of how bad it can be.

My wife is finishing up CSI (Xbox 360) as I type this, but I did help her with a few of the cases. It's got flaws, but not a bad game. Getting to the bottom of each case is fun. On the downside everything feels a little too "locked in". Sometimes it gives the illusion of giving you choice, but for the most part you are on a very confined path to solving a case. And if you miss a tiny piece of evidence or lab work it can hold you up for a long time as you search for it until you can proceed with the case. But for never having watched CSI a day in our lives, it managed to provide some entertainment. I'll go with a C+.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune


After years of toiling with the Jak and Daxter series, developer Naughty Dog is back with a new adventure; Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. You play Nathan Drake: a hunter of treasures. His great great great relative of some sort (I forget which relation that is) Francis Drake was a hunter of treasures also, except in the 1500s. Apparently said relative found a treasure quite loaded with monetary value; a legendary golden statue to which he left clues pertaining to its whereabouts in his Hello Kitty diary found centuries after his death by his descendent Nathan Drake. Of course, with a treasure so lucrative there is bound to be competition, which happens to come in the form boundless amounts of killable pirates.

That is basically what you need to know about Uncharted when you pick it up. You will be traversing tropical terrain and ancient ruins whilst killing as many pirates as can be thrown at you. Sounds like a winner to me. It isn’t the most original game in its genre, but that doesn’t prevent it from being a hell of a lot of fun. For what the game sets out to accomplish it is practically flawless.

Uncharted is an interactive popcorn flick. The script is snappy yet riddled in clichés. It can be humorous listening to Nate use his quit wit to demean a baddie who just managed to get shot in the head (pointless since dead: Yes. Still funny? Yes). The supporting cast work well with Nate, setting him up for many quips, and are also quite charismatic in their own right. It’s refreshing to see a female character who isn’t a buxom blonde bombshell. She is quite cute, though… and blonde, but not the typical female you will find in games who is there for you to ogle. But for every chuckle there are twice as many deja vu moments you could have sworn you saw before, and you have, in dozens of movies. There is even a supernatural connection with the golden statue you are hunting bringing up memories of, oh I don’t know, every Indiana Jones movie. That’s not a terrible thing, though, as the story is still fun to sit through. At least some of the worst clichés, such as love triangles, were left out.

The game also looks gorgeous. It is definitely the best looking PS3 game I’ve seen so far, with NO frame-rate issues. (It CAN be done people… so DO it!) You will travel from one ancient ruin to another, but they all are quite detailed and so very well done that the scenery will never become boring. I also found myself being fascinated with the water. Every time there was a puddle or a river or something of the sort, I would roll around in it just so I could see my shirt get wet… no it has nothing to do with me wanting to see the rock hard abs of Nathan Drake, shut up! The animations are fluid, possibly the most fluid I have seen. Watching Nathan as he jumps from platform to platform, sometimes just barely making it by the tips of his fingers looks so good.

Of course all the previous good will the game has earned due to graphics and a script quick with the wit would be tarnished if the game didn’t play at least decently well, which thankfully it does. More than decently well, actually. The cover system works very well, which is important because you will be using it. A lot. So much in fact that you may get a tad impatient at times, as they keep sending waves of bad guys at you to be slaughtered, but they throw in enough variety of game-play so as the game doesn’t become boring. There will be a couple of vehicles at your disposal throughout the game, during the use of which you can blow stuff up (which also looks gorgeous… mmmm, burning tires flying through the air). The puzzles you will encounter in the game aren’t very challenging, many that will be easily solved because of Francis Drake’s diary, but for some reason they are oddly satisfying. Along with that there are plenty of platforming moments to be had, and it is generally pleasing to both eye and feeling. The controls are smooth enough that there are barely any moments where you yell at your character because he didn’t jump where you wanted him to jump. You will die, though, there’s no mistake about that. The game is quite challenging, but without the amount of frustration needed to have controllers heaved against walls.

The game isn’t very long, maybe about 9 hours, but this is the one case where I didn’t mind the length of a game coming in at less than 10 hours, as it didn’t wear out its welcome. Uncharted is an immensely pleasing action/shooter/platformer game. I may go play it again right now! It packs one hell of a right hook.


Score: 9.4


Hmm… that review was a tad long…

Super Mario Galaxy:


45 stars through, an incredibly fun game. Any complaints against the graphics are quite unwarranted. There are jaggies, sure, but the art direction is brilliant. I'd say it looks even better than some next gen games because of the art direction. (Resistance: Fall of Man and Dead Rising come to mind)

Using my new .1 incremental rating system, right now I would rate the game a 9.6-9.7

It was more fun, but I still had no clue what was going on. I prefer the Halo style...

Just got Xbox 360 for Christmas so I'm catching up.

Just beat Call of Duty 4 yesterday. That game was awesome. Can't wait to get Xbox Live for that one. No Halo 3 yet on my part. I'm going to wait until I go back to school for that one. But I also have Ghost Recon and the Godfather game as well until then.

Some quick thoughts on what I've played recently:

Contra III: The Alien Wars: Just as fun as all the other Contra games, but also insanely challenging. The lack of a Konami code makes it near impossible for me to get past the first couple of stages.

Dementium: The Ward: Pretty amazing graphically for a DS game and actually quite scary under the right conditions (headphones + pure dark), but it's crippled by respawning enemies (boo!) and a save system that autosaves every time you enter or exit a room (i.e. every 15 seconds) makes you restart the level from the beginning if you die, which is a chore when the levels can be nearly half an hour long a piece.

Geometry Wars:

Halo 3: A typical Halo game IMO - decent but unspectacular campaign alongside a mind-blowingly fantastic multiplayer. I imagine my glowing thoughts on the multiplayer will only glow brighter once I hook up Xbox Live.

Link's Crossbow Training: It was mildly amusing for like...five minutes. I doubt I'll ever play it again.

Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos: The Ninja Gaiden series is the video game equivalent to an abusive spouse. It will beat you multiple times and make you feel completely inferior, but you love it and will always come back for more.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles: A pretty solid House of the Dead ripoff, but it lacks House of the Dead's campy atmosphere and fast-paced action, which hurts it quite a bit.

Sega Genesis Collection: Some truly fantastic games (Sonic 1 & 2, Ristar) and some really horrid games (pretty much everything else). However, those fantastic games so good that they make up for any crap.

Super Mario Bros. 3: Not much to say about this other than that it's a classic that everyone needs to play.

The Burger King Xbox 360 Games: Eh, I got them all for $6, so I figured what the hell. Pocketbike Racer and Big Bumpin' suck beyond belief, but Sneak King is surprisingly solid and better than a lot of full-priced games.

I still haven't tried Super Mario Galaxy, but I can't imagine disliking it.

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction


Just a few hours in so far and oh yeah, it's awesome.

Couple of minor problems right now:
Forced sixaxis controls (most work just fine, but the gyro laser is ANNOYING)
Not as polished as previous Ratchet and Clanks. A few graphical glitches, but nothing that gets in the way.

Anyhow, other than that, I love the game.

Currently thinking 9.6

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

I am really mixed on this game because it is really fun to play with people and it's not too long so people don't lose interest. But I feel that it had SOOOOO much more potential. If it had online multiplayer it would have been AMAZING. I don't know, but I just get the sense that it could have been more.

Worth a rental if you like multiplayer minigames. Also I think it would be worth buying when the price is lowered.

Heavenly Sword initial reactions:

I penetrated Heavenly sword earlier today, only for about 20 minutes. Seems like a fun button masher. It is also beautiful. Not just talking about the graphics, but the score and story so far are quite engaging.

I finally finished Flatout: UC. It felt like I played that game for a year before I finished it. Way too long for the type of game it is. The races get mind numbingly repetitive.

Now I have to move on to something else... I'll pick up Mass Effect or the Simpsons next.

Simpsons game is way too short to worth your money. I would say you can easily complete the game in around 4 hrs if you dont struggle. There are only 12 levels and each of them takes around 20 minutes to complete. You should probably buy it used in ebay for $20 and less

Easy gamerpoints.

Not really unless you love having a good time collecting hidden items and finishing some of the missions in under 10 minutes or less. I didnt seem to get that many points completing missions

One of the achievements in The Simpsons is 'Press Start' (at the beginning of the game, in the menu, I assume) and get five points.

Final Scores for the last 3 games I have played.

1. Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: 9.5
2. Super Mario Galaxy: 9.4
3. Heavenly Sword: 8.6

Quick hits on all 3.

Ratchet and Clank Future was a stripped down version of Ratchet and Clank. Oddly enough I didn't mind. They took out the spherical worlds they introduced in Going Commando. I didn't really like those that much anyway. They were decent, but I much prefer the real worlds you explore. There were also less arena battles, though at least no insane ones like surviving 30 rounds, yeesh, and no multiplayer (the loss of which I do not lament at all). Another oddity was that this was Insomniac's least polished game. Quite a few glitches in the game, none of which interfere with the gameplay. Still an incredibly fun sequel which may be my favorite in the series due to a funnier script than the others and a deeper plot.

Super Mario Galaxy is just a lot of fun. Graphics are quite impressive for the Wii, even managing to look better than some 360/PS3 games because of the glorious art direction. Gameplay is fun with lots of stars need be collecting and a fairly decent length at 17 hours just to get 105 stars (there are 15 more... decided to wait on those). However, Spring Mario and Rolley Ball Mario can go spring and roll themselves into a fiery pit and have a slow very painful death by burning.

Heavenly Sword is too short, that's by far the biggest complaint. Can beat it in one sitting. However, aside from that, everything is great. The fighting is a lot of fun, really button mashers get too much heat! It's not that easy either. Some of the bosses can be tough, especially the last boss who took me over an hour to beat and made me want to rip off his balls and feed them to him. The biggest achievement however are the amazing production values. The graphics are impressive, especially what the developers accomplished with the facial animations of the characters. This is the best game I have seen at conveying emotions through facial movements. The score is also absolutely wonderful and helps accent those emotional moments in the story further; quite a strong story at that. (a great score can make any movie... it can also help a game out) Then there is the voice acting, which is generally just fine, but sees a great turn by Andy Serkis as King Bohan, it really felt like he was into the character and not just doing this for a pay check. Oh Serkis, how I love thee.

Full reviews possibly coming later.

Thanks for the advice... I did pick it up on Ebay after I checked the stores and it was still $60. The Ebay price is still in the $30-$35 neighborhood, but that sounded a little better if it is only a 4 hour game.... that might even be a little short for my tastes.


Does it have much replayability?

its sort of like Assasins Creed where theres one big map but you basically do nothing except to collect items for each of the 4 characters. If you want to switch around with a different character each time and roam the town, you could. It does seem fun though just to visit the other b-level simpsons characters that you see on tv. You can even beat them up but they dont die