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.