Dragon Age Origins: The Origin of a new franchise

RATING: 8/ 10

PLATFORM: PS3, XBOX 360, PC
GENRE: RPG
RATED: Mature
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Buy (for PC)

SUMMARY: BioWare has done it again. Dragon Age fits nicely into the long line of well done story driven RPGs produced by BioWare. If you like BioWare’s take on RPG you will love Dragon Age. Dragon Age places you in the shoes of the epic hero and then lets you play the story how you like from there. This games content is off the charts so expect an average play through to take about 50 hours. Minus some blatant art issues this game strives close too perfection. Good luck finding a game that has a more in depth story then Dragon Age. Unless you have completely unreal expectations this game is going to amaze you.

GAMEPLAY: Dragon Age follows the tradition of the past BioWare RPGs by creating a very flexible gameplay mechanic to meet a variety of play styles. Players can choose to pause the battle at any time and issues command to there party or players can simply issues command on the fly mid battle. This flexibility gives you a wide range of playing the game as slow as a turn by turn RPG similar to old school final fantasy or dungeons and dragons all the way to playing as a real-time RPG similar to WOW. Normally I would advise against the variety of play styles as it leads to no focus on one particular style by the developer. However since BioWare is simply allowing you to control in game time the end gameplay is essentially the same. So Dragon Age has only three classes Rouge, Mage and Warrior. At first I was disappointed about only three classes because I made the assumption that tailoring ability sets would be limited. The opposite is actually what happen by reducing the base classes to only three allowed for a wider range of ability sets. For example a Mage could cover all or specialized in all the following typical classes; healer, warlock, elemental, combatant. So in essence I could be a max buff healing mage that can summon undead warrior to fight along side them. It is these small details that bring great satisfaction to players. Gameplay wise Dragon Age only really disappointed when it came to having progressive difficulty. All too often would I get easily defeated by random mercenaries after just easily defeating a much more worthy and difficult boss. An open ended game like Dragon Age must take special care when it comes to difficulty since there is no linear gameplay. The high flux in difficulty at in appropriate times just broke the immersion of the game. I expect the crazy demon boss to be a longer and more difficult battle then unnamed pick pocket I face around the next corner.

Dragon Age and BioWare also still have a way to go with AI. AI heroes in Dragon Age were sometimes not only useless but they were counter productive. I think the addition of more in depth formation controls would have easily fixed many of the AI combat issues. Playing on the PC gave you some of these features but for console players you are out of luck. The biggest issue however was the final boss battle which is becoming an all too common disappointment in big AAA games. The Final boss battle should be the climax point of the gameplay. If not the most memorable battle it better at least be extremely engaging. Dragon Age’s final battle was an over drawn out stick poking contest. There was no challenging just me sending countless AI’s off to there doom while my character pulled up a lawn chair, pull out a chilled beverage and attack from a safe distance. There was no threat no excitement no trying to fight for my life.

STORY: Dragon Age does a great job of sticking to high fantasy roots, humans, elves, orcs and dwarves, yet adding a fresh new out look to the world and its inhabitants. The World of Dragon Age is completely morally gray. This makes the world a lot more interesting because you have to make tough choices that matter. Minus the main evil threat of the story no one person or race is either completely good or bad. Your choice will greatly affect the entire game story which means your actually writing you own story. Many times pass choice will pop up in way you never expected and that’s satisfying. There are six different beginnings in Dragon Age each of them are uniquely different and each gets revisited no matter weather you choose them or not. I played through all the beginnings and I can see how each one greatly affects the overall story in its own way. It is pretty much impossible for two individuals to have the same exact experience because of all the choices and storylines. This really hits home the point that Dragon Age is your story and no one else.

The Story elements of Dragon Age however are not without flaws. Towards the end of the game many of the characters personalities seem to be wedge to fit the ending. In many cases it felt like shoot we need to fill this hole in the story so let’s do this quick dirty fix. After so many hours of Dragon Age not doing that it was all too disappointing to have the unnatural quick fixes in the stories climax and ending.

ART: Normally I don’t cover game art in these blogs because lets face it art is opinionated. What I think is a genius you might think is crap and vice a versa. However Dragon Age forced me to bring art up because they screwed up. So first to be fair Dragon Age overall is artistically amazing, some times I would forget that this was a game and not a movie. Multiple times while playing people walked in saw the screen and ask what movie I was watching. However character model bugs and glitches were so shockingly bad I have no idea how they let the game release with them. We are talking about blatant cropping of armor into skin textures, hands going right through forearms, visible texture boxes. Really come on BioWare Dragon Age is a AAA game project not your senior project you put together the night before it was due. Honestly these blatant art issues is just like taking a beautiful piece of art and dipping it in a pile of crap. Anyways it is what is.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Expect more got less

RATING: 7/ 10
PLATFORM: PS3, XBOX 360
GENRE: Arcade Style Adventure Game
RATED: Teen
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Rent

SUMMARY: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was suppose to be the sequel that allowed you to play all your favorite heroes and villains. Well they lied if anything Marvel Alliance 2 makes you mad by all the in game characters you can't play as. Marvel Alliance 2 also "slims" down on move selection and the fusions attacks are less then advertised. However putting that all aside Marvel Alliance 2 has a lot of the original game's enjoyments and a handful of cool new characters.

GAMEPLAY: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 gameplay is pretty much the same as the original with the addition of the fusion attacks. You and your team of super hero friends run around the map clearing swarms of enemies with button mashing combos. While you kill enemies you build up your fusion attack. Fusion attacks are superpower attacks that any two heroes can join up for. Fusion attacks are in abundance and should be used often as they reward you with bonus revive tokens. Unfortunately many character just combine for a generic fusion attack which though effective is really boring and lame. You really have to build your team around fusion attacks in order to get everyone involved. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has so many characters you will interact with on both sides but can not play. Marvel Alliance 2 why do you tease us so you did all the work to make these characters except making them playable. Marvel Alliance 2 is also very buggy to the point that is not acceptable. Falling through ramps and getting stuck on the games art assets is to common and annoying. Marvel Alliance 2 also slims down the game in ways not need. Customizing your attacks were nonexistent and characters costume were limited to only two each. Why features like these got cut I do not know.

STORY: So the main advertisement of this game was what side would you choose. Would you be a prick and go pro registration or would you be a rebel and fight registration. This game was advertised as two games in one and again they miss lead us all. Without spoiling the story, in actuality the game really only splits for the middle third the beginning and the end are the exact game no matter which side you choose. As for the middle both sides are cookie cutters of the other so if you have played you basically have played both sides. This all an all added to the I was expecting more and got less frustration of the game. On the bright side you do get to fight against some of your favorite heroes which can definitely be rewarding.

CONTENT: So to make it simple paying extra money for download content that should of came with the original game is simple robbery. Do not expect me to pay $50 for your game to then pay another $20-$40 to really get the full game. Marvel Alliance 2 from the get go fell short on promises of a large playable character list and then now charge extra per additional character to make up for it.

Mini Ninjas: Fun in bite sizes

RATING: 6.5/ 10
PLATFORM: PS3, XBOX 360, PC
GENRE: Adventure Game
RATED: Everyone
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Rent for small kids

SUMMARY: Mini Ninjas is a cute kids version of the classic Adventure game. Mini Ninjas does not really do anything amazing or unique but it also does very little wrong. However Mini Ninjas does not do anything exciting or challenging it is the vanilla ice cream. Kids like vanilla ice cream and kids will enjoy Mini Ninjas.

GAMEPLAY: In Mini Ninjas you must defeat the evil samurai that have invaded the land using a crew Ninjas. Every Ninja has certain benefits and personal traits for example the Big Ninja of the crew is slow but does the best physical damage. This gameplay of switching Ninjas however takes to long and is not nearly as stratgeic as it should it be. Of course this is a kids game so the easy gameplay encourages that aduience.

STORY: My first impression of this game is that the story and theme would carry the game. Mini Ninjas has a great theme but does not use it. There is little interaction between the variety of ninja characters. I expected more and overall that lead me to my disappointment.

Batman: The Dark Night done right.

RATING: 9.5/ 10
PLATFORM: PS3, XBOX 360
GENRE: Movie based Adventure Game
RATED: Teen
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Buy / Rent (only cause its a short game)

SUMMARY: May I say best video game ever made based of a Movie franchise. Batman Arkham Asylum does everything right making a fun, entertaining, and all around flawless performance. I don't care who you are pick us this game and play it. Only reason this game does not get a perfect score is because the game is really short.

STORY: Batman Arkham Asylum story is the perfect example of how to tell a story through a video game. I am not going to talk about story plotlines in particular because you need to play this game and experience in yourself but what I am going to do is explain what Batman did right. This is what I call the 5 golden rules of gaming story:

1.) Thou shall not take control away from the player.

Too many games get stuck on story telling and not entertaining. If your player is force to listen to dialogue or read instead of playing your doing it wrong. Batman from the opening credits tell story through the world of Arkham. Never is a player unable to move around you are constantly playing the game as the story is told to you. This is how you immerse a player into a world and make a great story.

2.) Thou shall not force story on the player.

Yes some people love lore and a novel of story to go with their game but many don’t. Forcing too much story down someone throat is just going to piss them off and bore them. This also almost always occurs while violating rule 1. So how do you please both sides, you use selective reading. Selective reading is where the player can choose to enjoy or pass up on the extra back story / lore. Batman does this through little goodies you find throughout the world. These goodies are not required to beat the game and can be completely ignored. At the same time a player can choose to collect all these and get the entire story. See everyone wins.

3.) Thou shall only show awesome cinema scenes.

The age of how many cinema scene my game has bragging is over. Technology now allows normally gameplay to look like the movies. With that said only a truly awesome cinema scene should be in your game because a cinema scene violates rules 1 and 2. Also less is more in this category as cinema scenes should be intermission breaks for your fingers. Batman had a few cinema scenes and they were amazing not only in quality but in story.

4.) Thou shall be unpredictable.

Like any good story you shouldn’t be able to predict what is going to happen next. The moment a player realizes your using a cookie cutter story line and how it is going to end the interest is gone. Keep the player guessing excited and on their toes. Batman story was filled with enough mystery that you did not know what is going to happen next.

5.) Thou character shall be meaningful.

Players do not want to baby sit characters they could less about. If the player is not attached to a character that character better be a standard grunt. If your character has a unique image they better have unique story and personality. Villains we must hate Heroes we must love and comrades we better want to protect. Batman characters were not only classic but each of them served a purpose. Even some of the scientist and security guards who were important had names, faces and story.

GAMEPLAY: Batman Arkham Asylum designed a fluent gameplay experience around being Batman. Gameplay can be broken up into three categories, combat, exploration and investigation. Combat is the bulk of game as you must fight your way through the Asylums many goons and villains. Combat in this game is not about direct contact but stealth Batman style. You quickly learn that Batman can take a beating but will not run in to a room full of guards armed with machine guns. Batman is smarter then that and so must you your wide range of gadgets to grapple, climb, and crawl your way to ambush your opponents. After all you are the dark knight and your specialty his taking out enemies before they know what hit them. There is really no one way to take out an enemy be it an inverted takedown or an explosive mine the world is your play ground. When Batman does encounter some foes in hand to hand combat you can't help but to fell if you are really Batman. Batman combos his way threw enemies keeping them off balanced and eating Bat-a-rangs for breakfast. Exploration is also tided directly into combat as you must explore your surroundings for points of exploit. Gargoyles, ledges, and vents will help batman avoid many obstacles in the world and add a very unique feel to level exploration. Batman doesn’t need doors. Arkham Island is a great world to explore and is littered with extra goodies for the completist. Investigation is a much smaller gameplay aspect of the game but still serves an important role. A few times during your journey will you need to play Sherlock Holmes and find clues to track people down. This investigation gameplay is a good addition and provides a tribute to Batman's detective qualities. I really only have two complaints about gameplay. One Batman’s detective view, can see through wall and important things highlighted, is obviously better then a normal view so from a strategic point the game gives no reason to turn it off. The only reason a player turns it off is because they want to enjoy the games artistic beauty. Second though the boss battles were good and fun they were not climax points in difficulty or combat. Your final boss should be the pinnacle of combat gameplay.

CONTENT: Batman’s only weak point is that the game is very short. Now having a short game is not bad but it helps to get more bang for your buck. Batman is loaded with lots of extra content that helps make up for its short length. The many collectible items give you a scavenger hunt replay value and if you are into lore and story they are very rewarding. Batman also has a series of challenge modes that can be very addicting. These challenge modes are short scenarios they capture the best part of the gameplay.

Ghostbusters: Making a game work out of a movie

RATING: 7/ 10
PLATFORM: PS3, XBOX 360, Wii
GENRE: Movie based Adventure Game
RATED: Teen
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Rent

SUMMARY: Ghostbusters is a successful Movie franchise that has been made into a successful game. Gameplay though slow at first does pick up to an entertaining paced half way through the game. If you have never seen the movies you probably will not know whats going on but the game's story is really not that important. Capture ghost and save the day is basically all you need to know. Ghostbusters had some flaws in it but the very cool looking characters and environments (sorry wii players you miss out on this) make up for a lot.

GAMEPLAY: Ghostbusters takes a small portion of the movie, the actual use of the guns, and creates a whole gameplay around it which is very impressive. At the beginning you only have one option for your type of gun stream which leads to very slow pace gaming (Its like fishing action is slow). However the gameplay grows on you as you have encounter more enemies and earn different choices for attacks. At the end though the game designer just punted and you quickly learn only two of the four types of gun streams are really necessary. Also the clue searching tool, basically a hot and cold game for finding stuff, often leads to you missing the action or getting ambushed by a ghost. Why use a tool that makes life more annoying and harder to reach your goal. To sum it up overall decent success but much room for improvement.

STORY: So Ghostbusters brilliantly does not try to redo any of the movies but simply continues on with the same IP. All the important characters are their and you as the new recruit makes sense. Ghostbuster however makes two major mistakes with the story. First a lot of the story is done in boring talking cut scenes where you have lost all game control. Second the plot is never really explained there are names, people and places your suppose to know about but really have no clue and just go along on the ride. In short your unattached. The dialogue all tends to drag the game down more character interaction is needed.

CONTENT: Ghostbusters does the now traditional amount of content (Story mode, Achievements, online play, video footage and gallery). Story mode is what it is and is the expected length of about 15 hours. Achievements are your standard group with a few chuckles here and there. Online play is entertaining for friends but lacks the competition on competitiveness to really shine on its own. Video footage is a given as this game has about 12 cut scenes you might want to replay. Gallery is probably the most interesting as it gives hardcore fan lots of collectible to find and funny haha moments.

Bigs 2: The modern NBA JAM of baseball

RATING: 8/ 10
PLATFORM: PS3, XBOX 360, Wii
GENRE: Arcade Baseball
RATED: Everyone
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Buy / Rent

SUMMARY: Bigs 2 is a fun Arcade style baseball game that focus on gameplay fun more then realism. Bigs 2 has a fun engaging Career mode and fun multiplayer quick play. Bigs 2 only has a few balance and feature holes that hopefully will get filled with Bigs 3 and for now can be over looked. In short Bigs 2 keeps the game simple and fun. Definitely recommend buying or renting this game.

Bigs 2 is the first ever sports video game I have enjoyed because Bigs 2 finally did a baseball game right. So most sports games try to recreate a perfectly realistic simulation of the actual sports. This is not fun with I want to play a sports for real I will go outside with my friends and play. Also for the sport of Baseball (my favorite sport) the realistic complexity makes for clunky/sloppy game mechanics that lead to crappy game play. Bigs 2 rights this ship by being an Arcade style Baseball game aka its a game not reality. All the rules and normal baseball gameplay is there but it is wrapped in action pack power ups and quick time events.

Bigs 2 has two major game modes the career mode and the exhibition game mode. The career mode you get to create your own customize player and play as him from rookie year to the hall of fame. The customization of your player is well put together and you get to choose cool things like your batting stance and your victory posse. The biggest downfall of this feature is you can only be a position player which is a major downfall. I really wanted to play as a pitcher and not being able to took a lot away from the game. Your player would also grow stronger through out the game making it really feel like your creating a star. Exhibition game mode is just like it sounds it a way to quickly play a game with your favorite players against a friend or AI opponent. The only downfall of this is that Bis 2 failed to provide up to date rosters which was annoying as many players where missing or inaccurately rated.

Like the classic NBA JAM Bigs 2 rewards players with unnatural power up abilities to make the game more action pack and entertaining. Bigs 2 could use some more player vs player quick time competition but that's just the nature of baseball vs basketball. Bigs 2 also only reward these power ups to characters that have high stats in that category. So don't expect to make a magnificent catch with a character that has low fielding stats. The two major batting power ups in the game are the Big Slam and the Grand Slam. Both or deadly power ups that can evaporate what felt like a decent lead. Pitching has a similar power ups pitch mode which I rarely used cause when it cam down to it is was almost always a better move to save power ups for hitting.

When Batting the player has two type of swings a contact swing and a power swing which is all you really need. You can also angle your swing to aim where you would like to hit the ball. Batting is all about timing and the better your timing the better the hit. Also like the real sport players have power areas in which they can hit the ball better from. So if your batter is an inside powerhouse balls on the inside of the plate will be hit harder. Players will also be able to use their power up meter to get focus hits.

Pitching has a little more you can do with it. Based on your pitcher you will have a collection of up to four pitches they can pitch. The best strategy is to mix up the type of pitches plus location to keep the hitters off balanced. Throwing pitches on the corners is normally your best bet but it dose come at the risk of giving the batter a power up for throwing a ball. Their is no complex process to pitching an accurate pitch you simply have one meter that fills up and you try to stop it right at the top. If your perfect you throw a perfect pitch if you screw up your pitch will miss its target. Also pitchers will lose pitches and get tired if batter gets lots of hit off them.

Fielding is where most of the quick time arcade style of game play comes in. A normal hit require you to simply get your player to the ball to make a play. For hard hits or skilled attempts at the ball the player will be prompt with a quick time event that will test your reflexive skills. These events are self explanatory and effective in keeping the game interesting.

Prototype: Unstable Fun

RATING: 7.5/ 10
PLATFORM: Xbox 360 / PS3
GENRE: Action Adventure
RATED: MATURE
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Rent

So Prototype is hyper active ADHD brother of Infamous. Where Infamous had its steadily paced combat and storyline Prototype is simply about ripping the city apart in high speed combat. Prototype though similar to Infamous in many ways takes a completely different style of gameplay. Infamous is like a latin jazz piece where Prototype is your heavy metal rock, it comes down to your gameing style. In Prototype you play as a super human/mutant that can be describe as a Superman vampire zombie. Your not necessarily a villain but then you do kill countless people to regain health and steal identities. Combat in Prototype is mass chaos where you get to use your massively overpowered abilities to take on countless enemies. When things get to crazy you flee for your life regaining life and then return to the battle fresh. The mass chaos works for this type of game because of its ADHD flow but the mass chaos does take away any depth in gameplay. Also your power ups can make the game one sided. When you have a super powerful long range weapon that makes u pretty much invincible game balance is destroyed and the challenge is gone. Overall though I scored this game well because my little bro simply loved it and prove the point that prototype is a 10 out of 10 for the right audience. For me however I give it 7.5 out of 10 and I suggest you at least renting it.

A Wii Knock Out

RATING: 8/ 10
PLATFORM: Wii
GENRE: Arcade style Boxing
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Buy / Rent

Punch-Out is one of the better classic remakes for the Nintendo Wii. Punch-Out keeps true to the original but adjusts to the modern powers of the Wii. I was truly impressed that finally there is a Nintendo Wii game that I could stay up to the wii hours in the morning playing with my friends (yeah for puns). However hardcore gamer should be warned this is much more of an Arcade game than a Boxing game. The game play of Punch-out focuses on dodging your opponents moves and then countering. There is very little time when you get to go on the offense. As the game progress to the harder AI opponents it really becomes a game of reflexes and endurance then over all skill. If you want to experience a real life boxing game I would avoid this game. Of course Punch-Out never really trys to disguise itself as a boxing game, straight from the get go you learn that strategy is not needed. I'm sure many younger kids will enjoy this game but parents beware they might get frustrated by the later difficulty of the game. Punch-Out also optionally uses the Wii fit board but unfortunately it is only a disadvantage to using it so why bother. The stylized art and characters are a perfect match for the Wii and the games type as you battle stereotypical character from around the globe. In short however Punch-Out like many Wii games is just way to short. It is literally like a 4-5 hours story mode with a couple other option like training, online and multiplayer. The multiplayer did make a much better game play experience as it felt a lot more like a boxing game than a reflex challenge. Punch-Out had so much potentially to have a wide variety of minigames, playable character and customization that all just got left out for no reason. I was generous to give this game and 8 out of 10 cause of Punch-Out only reaches the bar and does not pass it. My hopes is that the game developers will make a sequel that will add the much needed depth to the game play and overall experience.

Bionic Commando - A harsh mechanic

RATING: 7/ 10
PLATFORM: XBox360 / PS3
GENRE: Adventure
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Only for the Serious Gamer

Good games don't always get good reviews:
So I was very shocked when I heard the initial reviews for Bionic Commando. A game that looked so cool and appeared to be a strong contender to get only sub par scoring. Well I put the reviews a side and decided to give Bionic Commando a swing before passing judgment. My finished results is a 7/10 (which for me means it is a decent game) and the only reason this game did not get a 7+ was cause Bionic Commando is freakin frustrating.

A Swinging good time:
Bionic Commando did a great job with the swinging game mechanic which is the bulk of the game. It was simply amazing flying through the beautiful levels grabbing on to piratically anything in your reach. The controls though complicated get the job done and make the game handle very well. Once you get over the learning curve you can really let loose in this game.

Water, Radiation and stun stick oh my:
To sum up this overall gigantic paragraph if a game makes a player frustrated so much that he or she is not enjoying the game your doing it wrong. More details keep reading:

What really killed Bionic Commando was its penalty for death combined with how easy it is to die. Now I am not saying all video games need to be easy but I do think there is a balance of how much you penalize the player for dieing. In Bionic Commando every time you die you are faced with a load screen that does nothing more then mocks you for 30 seconds. Bionic Commando had way to much loading time in general but the fact that every death meet more loading just added to the overall frustration meter. Now all of this would not nearly be that bad except for the fact that Bionic Commandos have some major weaknesses. If you so much as touch water you begin to drown which means you have about 10 seconds to figure out why you did not bring a floaty. Also no matter how clear the water is from the surface once you begin to drown it becomes muddy then the Hudson making it impossible to see. Radiation game mechanic though there to say this is not a Sandbox go away, is simply to quick to kill. I am sorry level designer I landed on a building i am not suppose to so do not freaking kill me before I can jump off the building. Lastly stun sticks seem to be the secret weapon to destroy all bionic commandos, I can take multiple shot gun rounds to the face but two taps with a stun stick and I am dead now that's retarded.

Story and Game progression no one cares about:
Bionic Commando is about a guy no one cares for trying to defeat an enemy no one cares about to save a world that once again no one cares about. Thank goodness the levels were lush a gorgeous because seeing new landscape is all I really that to look for in this game progress. From level one I had the plot figured out cause it was that much of a cookie cutter and even the little details I did not were basically pointless fluff. Really this a big budget game with a really interesting game mechanic how about spend some time on coming up with a unique story. Game progression is ok until the end when you qiuckly learned that the last two boss consist of a button mashing quick time event and a boring game of roll and then shoot. A rule of Game progression a Finial Boss should be the most challenging even in the game.

Yea for prettys:
Bionic Commando is B-E-A-Uitful. The eviornments cover a destroyed urban city, gigantic cayons and lush forest. Im really glad that my extra long loading time was going to good use because I never felt lag while playing the game. Unfotunatly the prettys are not number one for me so sorry bionic artist.

inFAMOUS: more then a funny spelled name

RATING: 7.5/ 10
PLATFORM: PS3
GENRE: Sandbox Adventure
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Rent

So first thing first inFAMOUS is spelled in an odd format and people are going crazy over it. Who cares its a name and nothing more, if you play a video game only because of how it spells its name then it sucks to be you. So anyway Infamous (yes get use to seeing the name this way) at first disappointed me. I quickly learned I couldn't use guns or vehicles in the game and that my super powers were really not all that powerful. This was similar to what I felt about force unleashed, I am this super powered hero why am I getting stunned and killed by stupid minions. So Infamous combat basically consist of you shooting opponents with electricity (very similar to a infinite ammo pistol) and sporadically using a few power up attacks (electric grenades, an electric pulse attack to know over enemies, ect...). In Infamous you always feel like your at a disadvantage because you simply can't kill enemies fast enough. I have never seen your average gang member street thug take five bolts of electricity and still stand up like their in perfect physical conditions. In short don't make grunt characters with stand more then one direct hit, their grunts and are merely there to allow you to blast away countless enemies without breaking a sweat. Infamous does have some more powerful enemies from time to time to spice things up but all to often the grunts would get in the way of the fight. Now sense Infamous is a sandbox game it does provided more then enough side missions to keep you busy tell next year. I suggest ignoring these missions because they make a already very repetitive game slow down to a crawl and really provide very little purpose as far as growth in your character. Now what makes Infamous an enjoying game and somewhat addicting is a unique storyline placed in a very well design world. You could tell that this game was structure from the world up as the game world really makes the game. Also many of the story missions set you up in situation where you really get to have fun with your super powers and blowing things up. So overall Infamous is a game that can tend to drag its feet but in the end turns out to be a fun play.

Sonic And The Black Knight:: A dull but useable sword

RATING: 6 / 10
PLATFORM: Wii
GENRE: Action
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Pass up

So I rented this game from Gamefly because I hope that if I eventually rent enough new age sonic games that I might actually find one worth playing. Well Sonic and the Black Knight was almost worth playing. In short this is like every other new age Sonic game except Sonic is wielding a sword. The game play is really simple and fast pace, which is how a sonic game should be. You basically rush through the level slicing through enemies. Some levels do force you do other small task like giving goal to villagers, apparently someone got their Robin Hood and King Arthur stories mixed up. Sonic and the Black Knight does try to introduce RPG elements in to the game but fail miserably. It almost appears they design these features and then forgot to actually make them useful in gameplay. The reason why this game was actually bearable is because the extra RPG clutter could be quickly ignored and since I was not forced to deal with any idiotic features I was left content. Forced gameplay is one of the main things that ruined Sonic Unleashed. The King Arthur story very loosely interrupted really wanted me to press the mute button. I think the day sonic started talking in his video games was his doom. However over all gameplay was decent and at times even entertaining. I hope this game is a turning point for Sonic games and that the Sonic team will soon produce a game that I can actually recommend buying.

Halo Wars: The Battle of Console RTS

RATING: 7 / 10
PLATFORM: Xbox360
GENRE: RTS
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Rent

So lets face reality here this game was really an experiment to see if a RTS game would be successful on the console. I have to tip my hat to Ensemble cause they did really almost all they could in designing a control scheme that would work. The game plays well and you can somewhat easily control your units on the map. You can basically select units in three ways, select all units, select all units on the screen (local units), and select highlighted units. The highlighted units is really the only inventive selecting as it decently recreates the drag and select of a mouse. Unfortunately there is no efficient way to select a unit by type which can be very frustrating. Not being able to select a unit by type units greatly hinders special abilities. It is obvious that abilities like grenades, ram and hijack not working well together. The biggest issue I has with the game was the ability to not queue units when I had no cash. If I want to build ten tanks I could not just queue ten tanks and as the money come in they would be built. Instead I would often have to bounce back and fourth between my troops and bases every time I got just a little extra cash so that I could constantly be producing more units. RTS games are about be efficient in your strategy and this mechanic breaks that.

I had hope that Halo Wars would save itself by having a really strong story tide in to the missions. The story is good but not great in Halo Wars, it is epic but yet confusing in all the wrong ways. I expected a lot more coolness from the story I mean after all this is the time when Spartans were abundant and kicking.....well you get the idea. All together the units didn't have that coolness factor and the level were mostly quickly go save these people with a time limit before you all die. Oh well it was a good shot and because of that I recommend people at least rent this game to give it a go.

ExciteBots: Not that exciting

RATING: 4 / 10
PLATFORM: Wii
GENRE: Racing
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Don't Bother Playing

I was very excited to play ExciteBots after demoing it at GDC this year. The Wii has been hurting some time now and ExciteBots look like what was going to be a fun multiplayer experience. Well the people who made ExciteBots (to disgusted to even look them up) took what could of been a great game and destroyed it threw stupid design decisions. When you load ExciteBots without any save data the player is FORCED to play a beginner cup before doing anything else. You can't even play mutiplayer until you have done this, which means if I want to bring this game over to a friends house I either need to transfer my save game or beat the beginner cup again before we can both play. I would love to know what genius came up with this idea a multiplayer game that set up boundaries to prevent a multiplayer experience. All this is forcing player error is scatter threw out the game. Almost everything is locked including half the racer, 2/3 of the levels and 3/4 of the game type choices. If I am good at racing game of this type I must beat the entire game on easy before I can move on to a harder challenge. Instead of carefully designing a fun reward system the developers simple locked almost everything.

Anyways I going to move on from my rant and fast forward about 30 mins of beginning game stupidity to talk about the actual game play itself. So excitebots is your typical style mario kart meets X games. Excitebots you spend most of the time in air from jumps or boosting like crazy. Excitebots is all about being on the edge of control and verge of insanity. The environments look really nice and are decently themed. The power ups are way out there, completely random and feel really out of place. I admire the inventiveness but since the game is all about being as ADHD (yes I do mean the disorder) as possible it is really like chucking a barrel of paint on to a white canvas, a utter mess. The biggest flaw in the game is that there is really little interaction between players. Games like Mario Kart survive on the satisfaction of hitting another player with a turtle shell. Excitebots strength should be its multiplayer and instead that is its weakest point. The only reason I gave this game even a 4 is because there is so much potential for this game too bad it is just covered up in crap.

Killzone 2: Making War Fun?

RATING: 8 / 10
PLATFORM: PS3
GENRE: FPS
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Buy

War is not pretty or fun.....well unless your playing a video game then it is both. Killzone 2 was highlighted as the game that would prove that the PS3 is a juggernaut of raw video game power. However Killzone 2 was not a launch title so the Ps3 had to hide in the corner as the Xbox 360's Master Chief owned the fps console world. After a long wait Killzone 2 has meet all expectation of creating a truly realistic feeling fps game. Killzone 2 treats war serious and is meant for serious fps players. The graphics are simply amazing as the environments of the helghast home world make you feel like your actually on this alien planet. Killzone 2 gameplay really shines with an intelligent AI that will retreat, charge and flank you based on the combat situation. The AI makes the game feel like real war as you constantly have to struggle to gain ground and advantage positions. The levels layout though very linear makes up with combat on multiple angels. Enemies are rarely directly in front of you, you must attack enemies from above and below all while trying to not get flanked. Also many of the level wrap back and forth in a snake like way giving you lots of choices when it come to where you want the combat to take place. Killzone 2 however does fall in a bit to the now all to familiar cover and shoot gameplay. All to often can you just duck under or behind a piece of metal that protects you from all attacks. Killzone 2 story though very epic does not match with the players feelings about your comrades. The story from beginning to end feels like a classic chaotic "war is madness" movie (in particular bridge over the river Kwai) yet when tragedy hits your comrades you really don't feel attach to them. The story needs to build more on the inter character relationships if they really wanted the player to feel the pain of loosing a comrade. Killzone overall does what all games should strive to do and that is provide an entertaining and fun experience.

Henry Hatsworth a puzzling success

RATING: 8.5 / 10
PLATFORM: DS
GENRE: Puzzle/Platform
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Buy


Henry Hatsworth & the puzzling adventure is a delightful hybrid of a side scrolling platformer and bejeweled like puzzle game. As a British Adventure you accidentally trigger an artifact that releases creatures from the puzzle world into your own and now it is your job to send them back. However since this is a platform puzzle hybrid you got defeat monsters in both the platform and puzzle realms. To defeat monsters in the platform world you get to use a sword and gun to perform some pretty fun combos. Your sword is your primary weapon as the gun uses up some of your magic gauge, there are other weapons as well but Im not going to spoil it for you. So as you destroy monsters in the platform world your puzzle time gauge will rise and some of the monsters will be turned into blocks on the bottom screen of your DS. This bottom screen of blocks is constantly rising and your goal is to make sure the monster do not make it back to the top screen. This is where the puzzle aspect of the game comes in as you must match up blocks of three to destroy the monster block and collect item blocks. You can switch from the platform mode to the puzzle solving mode when ever your puzzle time gauge is not empty. The more the gauge is filled the more time you have to line up blocks. Now as you destroy blocks you gain energy in your power up gauge which lets you use weapons and your special attack "Tea Time" a powerful robot armor suit (you will have to play the game to see what I mean).

So now that you have a glimpse of the mechanics lets talk about how the over all game played. Henry Hatsworth is one of the best DS games I have played in a while as it is very well polished and very addicting. Though the platform to puzzle game mechanic switch can tend to disrupt game flow at times by making both genres gamplay effect the other the game adds a great deal of depth. Henry Hatsworth at first might seem a little easy at first but accelerates it difficulty nicely making the game challenging for any gamer. My favorite thing about Henry Hatsworth's is that developer establish that Henry Hatsworth is a unique experience and they don't try to cover up the innovation with cookie cutter story or mechanics. The game is all well themed and provides a fun experience from beginning to end. I would definitely recommend buying this game.

Going back in Time with Chrono Trigger

So after being told by multiple I decided to go back to the classic game of Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger is a classic game that was brought to the DS to let people relive a classic of their childhood and to make some extra dough. Chrono Trigger is an excellent example of how to make a good RPG. Chrono Trigger follows the story of Chrono a young boy that quickly must arise to being a hero as he travels through different time periods in the attempt to save all human kind. Chrono Trigger being a classic doesn't fall into the all to common area of over complicated story and controls. There is no long length explanation of why the world is the way it and so on you simply begin your adventure off the bat and the story is nicely wrapped around the gameplay not blocking it. The controls are simple as well there are menus you select something and there you go. So what makes Chrono Trigger stand out form other RPGs is the unique storyline of traveling back and forth through time to unravel your quest. Also Chrono Trigger does a good job of breaking the mold of just random enemy encounter by allowing you to see monsters on the screen and try to avoid them. I highly recommend this game if you got some time to spare and are a fan of the RPG genre.

Street Fighter IV (You get what you expect)

So when I rented Street Fighter IV from Gamefly I knew I was leaving my gaming comfort zone and entering the realm of fighter games which for the most part I don't really enjoy. My one buddy was completely excited to play this game and enjoy ever minute of it. Me on the other hand just could not really get into it. Street Fighter has never looked better with its lovely HD quality models and animation. I was completely impressed as I player through arcade mode on easy as My Giant Sumo friend aka E. Honda. I manage to get all the way to the final boss before I was ripped to shreds and that was that. With the little time I spend on the game it seemed to flow nicely and the online quick battles where done in a convienent matter, to bad I got owned in every single one. Street Fighter IV over all seems to be a great fighting game, however apparently no fighting game will be good enough for me. I will just stick with my Super Smash bros, to bad SSB online play mode it worthless due to lag issues.

Ratchet and Clank bringing joy to the PS3

So this game has been out for a while now, it was launched with the ps3, but yet it still look simply amazing. Ratchet and Clank future tools of destruction is what I like to call a platformer where you get to blow everything up. Ratchet and Clank succeeds as an excellent platformer because it has a face pace fun game play mixed with exploration or a beautiful world and an interesting story line. Ratchet and Clank does a great job of explaining game play mechanics as you play the game. There is no training mission or long pages of text you have to read just cleaver game design. Also Ratchet and Clank immediately throws you in the action making the first level not just a task but an exciting experience. So as the title states this Ratchet and Clank is all about what cool weapons you can use. All the weapons in the game are different and fun to use, definitely the disco ball and transformer are on the top of the list. Ratchet and Clank may look all futuristic in HD but Insomniac has done a great job of staying true to the Ratchet and Clank style and humor. It is this style of humor that really puts the whole master piece together. The only flaw in the game (note im being super picky and it is a personal opinion) is that it was clear that Ratchet and Clank went out of the way to show off the Ps3 six axis motion control that personally felt a little clumsy. However if I was Insomniac I would have done the same as they got a good setup with Sony and should stick to it.

Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts: new tools not so good

I remember Banjo-Kazooie being and entertaining platformer that had the interesting game mechanic of you both Banjo the Bear and Kazooie the Bird. Unfortunately Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts breaks away from that past game mechanic. Banjo-Kazooie first major flaw is the very very long narrative introduction to the game. For the first 30 mins. of the game you have piratically no control of your character and are forced to listen to a very sub par story line. Banjo-Kazooie simply has to much game time when your reading text or listening to pointless dialogue opposed to actually playing the game. Banjo-Kazooie also changes the main game play removing pretty much all of Kazooie's moves and adds a vehicle game mechanic. There is potential for the vehicle game mechanic as building your own forms of transportation can be fun and the ability to share vehicle blue prints online adds to a community. However all and all the Banjo-Kazooie environment and humor is drowned out by a slow pace game that is simply not that entertaining.

Dont Water Down Wii Games!!!!!

So I am a big fan of the Wii and its innovation to the gaming world so when I heard this game uses the Wii fit board as a control I was all in. So overall Shaun White Snowboarding Road Trip was a fun game but not a great game. The controls worked well and it was fun to use the Wii fit balancing board to make it feel like your really snowboarding. The games art style and story did its work for the game but is not at all anything special. The main flaw in this game it that it just gets redundant really fast. Since your most likely only going to have one Wii Fit Board multiplayer is limited and really there is little player to player interaction (you cant directly effect the other person). The tricks are also realistic but personally I prefer the classic tony hawk games where you can grind everything and unrealistic but freaking awesome combos. Shaun White falls under the category that more realistic does not equal more fun. Also as you wonder about the title of this blog by now, So I saw my friend playing this cool snowboarding game and I asked what it was. To my surprise it was Shaun White Snowboarding. I will not to begin to rant on how watering down good games to make Wii games out of them is a crime to gaming humanity, but instead say get Shaun White Snowboarding for Xbox 360 and have a lot more fun.

Metal Gear Solid 4: The Movie or the Game?

So just to be fair and just I'm not a Metal Gear Solid fan and furthermore Metal Gear Solid 4 was the first Metal Gear Solid I played. So right off the bat I saw how nice the gamed looked and though there was a bit of a learning curve for the controls over all they where well mapped. The sneaking game play is also very well done even though my style of gaming is more geared to lets blow some stuff up. The main problem I had with Metal Gear Solid 4 is that there was more game time spent watching cinema movies then actually playing the game. I personally think the game should be more balance with the length of game play being more proportional to the cinema scenes. Of course now I must be careful passing boxes and barrels, don't want to get shanked by Snake.

Prince Of Persia: Great expectations not meet

Before I begun let me give you some perspective. I had just finish playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time over the holidays for the first time and immediately the game became one of my top all time favorites. I was pre-warned that this new Prince of Persia fell short on many things but I put all that a side and popped in the disk. If you read my Uncharted review you will know that I spoke of three things that makes a great action adventure game, exploration, story and combat. Prince of Persia is the primary example of what happens to a game when you screw one of these up. Prince of Persia exploration was not bad, the world setup worked and the world itself was fitting of a next gen title. The controls were a little clunky at times but over all the exploration experience was a good one. The compass feature was very helpful and worked most of the time. The only serious draw back to the exploration was the collection of light seeds which forced players to replay areas and dragged down a already sluggish game. Prince of Persia story also feel under the category of good but not great. The over all prince and princesses attitude were entertaining but in order to get a lot of the back story you would have to putting playing the actual game on hold which is never a good thing. The combat of Prince of Persia is what destroyed this game and removed all hopes of me enjoying it. Combat was scares and extremely repetitive. There where only two types of enemies in the game generic mini bosses and main bosses. The combat consist of the prince performing a few sword attacks, then being forced to block this would repeat over and over until finally you chipped away all the boss health. Also you could never die in battle but by pressing the wrong button the princess would have to save you and the boss would regain health. Combat was rarely a surprise and the difficulty level consist of your moves being restricted. In short Prince of Persia combat consist of you following a hidden direct of press this now and the player has no freedom to fight their own battle. Also all the great acrobatic combos that made the new age Prince of Persia games so popular is no where to be found. Prince of Persia was a failure because it forgot that combat is suppose to be fun and without good combat in an action adventure game you have a game that is boring. I sent the game back to gamefly without completing it cause of pure boredom.

Uncharted: Drake Fortune is smiply awesome

Uncharted has been one of my favorite game to play this whole gaming season. Uncharted really captures the essence of a single player action adventure game and has set a great bench mark of how this game should look and feel on a next gen console. In Uncharted you play as Drake your Indiana Jones type, an average guy but archaeologist extraordinaire. At the very beginning of the game you are introduced to the primary combat of the game which is a third person shoot and cover mechanism with of course some close range hand to hand combat. Uncharted masters the three main pillars of a great action adventure game combat, world exploration and story. Without these three things you get an unsatisfying gaming experience but when you you balance these three things correctly you have a great game. Uncharted follows the some what well know story of the lost city of Eldorado. Now don't worry I can assure you that Uncharted takes a completely fresh and new angel to this story and does not disappoint at all. Uncharted also has a very strong cast of characters that really come to life on the PS3. Uncharted exploration is an experience that matches the classic Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (if you haven't played this game pick it up now and be amazed). The world of Uncharted is vast and beautiful, really taking use of the PS3 hardware. The game also does a really amazing job of intertwining cinema scenes both big and small into the game play never breaking the experience. The controls for climbing and jumping from ledge to ledge also are well thought of making it feel really natural to use. Lastly the combat in Uncharted is both exciting and challenging. You must use your surrounds to protect yourself as you must flank your enemy be fore they flank you. The AI is all well structure as they well flank, charge and retreat just like you would expect real people to do. The combat is also filled with a ot of explosive barrels and such which helps make the experience unique and fun as this is not an FPS game but an adventure game. I highly recommend this game to anyone and I am really looking forward to the sequel.

Gears of War 2: A shiny toy with rusty parts

Gears of War 2 was suppose to be the game of year and though sales were profitable the over all gaming community was cluttered with disappointment. First of all this game is definitely a rent and not a buy with only really 7 hours of game play. So if you do the math your paying about 7 to 8 dollars and hour for this game. In my opinion this is purely wrong but of course that is the trend and this is why I rent games through gamefly now. Gears 2 is an epic storyline that does not require but recommends you have played the first game. The story however can be boiled down to one giant tease. Most of the major plots never really get solved and those that do leave you going well that was worthless. Overall game play is good but nothing really stands out about it as the game play hasnt change sense Gears 1. So in short you got an overpriced, overrated and unsatisfying game experience. But fear not my Faithful Gear followers that are cursing this very blog entry im sure Gears 3 the quest to make more money is just around the corner.

A dash of radiation: Fallout 3

A dash of radiation goes a long way with Fallout 3. So first of all Fallout 3 is a hardcore gamers fantasy of what life would be like in a post apocalyptic world. Fallout 3 is all about customization of your characters and weapons. From the start of the game you are asked to give points to different traits like knowledge, charisma, strength and so on. Though this does cause the game to have a rather slow start the story does a good job of incorporating the story in to training. However I would highly recommend an option to skip the prologue after you have played through it once to make replayability a much more pleasant experience. I soon discovered that it would require me to play this game multiple times all with different personality traits to truly experience the depth of the game. As far as game play time and interactive worlds Fallout 3 is the best choice of the year. I will admit I really just gave this a test drive around the block before sending it back to gamefly. Dont get me wrong it is a great game just not for me.