Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360) Review

July 22, 2008 at 8:08 pm · Filed under Xbox 360 ·Tagged ,

Details
Format: Xbox 360
Year Released: 2008
Graphics: 7
Gameplay: 9
Sound: 5
Lifespan: Short
Pros: Expansive levels, great combat control
Cons: I was only really able to play it nonstop once

Assassin’s Creed was a phenomenal game, I was absolutely glued to my Xbox for the hours it took me to beat it. I have played games like it before (Hitman most notably) where the AI seems very…well A, if you catch my drift.

In this game, the townspeople notice when you are there, and also know if you are doing something out of the ordinary (i.e., climbing walls, running). This game’s AI was one of the most interactive I have seen, in most games, NPC”s repeat the same phrases to where it gets annoying very quick. For this game you get very close to the end of the game before you start to notice the pattern in what they are set to say.

The storyline was very in-depth seeming almost possible, (or maybe it is) and the ending has quite a good twist, but not one I exactly agree with. They leave it open for a sequel but I do feel the need for closure.

I may be a little biased, seeing as I am very in to the medieval times and others like it, but I can’t see why anyone would dislike this game. The combat mode is in 3rd person and lets you individually select enemies out of a crowd of foes to focus your fury and optimize your deadly force.

You start out as Desmond Miles, who is kidnapped and forced into a machine called the “Animus” which, using a new technology called gene mapping, lets them replay the memory of your ancestor Altair Ibn La-Ahad (Son of None) who was an assassin during the era of King Richard and the Knights Templar.

Within your first use of the Animus it is apparent they are looking for something, what that is you will have to play to find out…

More in depth of the Pro’s:

The levels are very expansive and every peak is at your whim. From the highest tower to the poor district of Jerusalem you can climb, jump, and run anywhere and everywhere. If you have drawn the attention of guards, you can blend in with priests or with the crowd. One thing I find that makes the game seem more feasible is the way the health is metered. In many games you either have a health bar, regenerating bar, or none at all. In this game, when you move off of the original memory of Altair, such as killing a guard or becoming injured, you begin to become lose synchronization with the memory and in order to get your “health” back you must regain synchronization. If you die as Altair, you are moved back to the Animus screen with a message similar to “Would you like to go back to the last memory mapped?”

More in depth with the Con’s:

This game really had no faults in my eyes, that is, until I beat the game. Meaning, I have not wanted to go back and play because I have no reason, I have finished the storyline and killed more than my fair share of Templar Knights. Most games have many side missions that can keep you interested after the main campaign has been completed, but only saving poor women and collecting the thousands of town flags remain.

This has been one of my favorite single player games in a while, so I give it an 8.5/10.

by Jonathan Setzer

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50 Cent: Blood On The Sand (PS3, Xbox 360) Review

July 22, 2008 at 7:49 pm · Filed under PS3, Xbox 360 ·Tagged , , , ,

Details
Format: PS3, Xbox 360
Origin: UK
Publisher: Sierra Entertainment
Developer: Swordfish Studios
Release: Q3
Genre: Action-Adventure
Players: TBA

“50 Cent: Blood On The Sand will have everything my fans are looking for in a 50 Cent game,” explains former king of US hip hop Curtis Jackson – ‘Fiddy’ to his friends.

An ambitious boast, perhaps, but when you consider the phenomenal sales that greeted the release of its execrable predecessor, 50 Cent: Bulletproof, it becomes clear that Fiddy’s audiences are hardly the most demanding of individuals. Evidently, the only thing that 50 Cent fans are “looking for” is that the man himself is in it. After that, all sins are forgiven.

So, is 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand the proverbial dead horse – flogged, knackered, and ready for the glue factory? The intelligent reaction is an immediate yes, and more studied observation only supports our suspicion. Take the plot (and we use the term in the loosest possible sense): Fiddy and G-Unit are playing a show somewhere in the Middle East -with any luck Sierra will sidestep a public relations disaster and keep the location non-specific – but the promoter refuses to pay. After threatening said promoter with violence, Fiddy is instead given a valuable, diamond-encrusted skull as payment, but just as they are about to fly back to America, Fiddy and G-Unit are ambushed and the skull is taken. Never men to let a show of such flagrant disrespect pass without seeking bloody vengeance, Fiddy and G-Unit begin a minor war to uncover the mystery of a skull they never really wanted in the first place.

Blood On The Sand developer Swordfish Studios is taking over where Bulletproof left off – by very wisely starting from scratch. This isn’t a sequel; it doesn’t follow the story of Bulletproof, and is, according to its producer, Aaron Blean, “More exotic, more Hollywood blockbuster.” It is an immediately more appealing angle than the inner-city grime and squalor that went before, and Blean revealed to MTV that improved gameplay is top of the agenda. “The first thing people are going to notice is not only the visuals and how incredible the environments and the game models took,” he claimed, “[but also] the controls and the artificial intelligence will be much, much better than the first game.”

That may be far from an Olympian challenge, but with drop-in drop-out co-op vehicle sections and a gameplay philosophy that has been rather crudely branded ‘Gears Of 50′, there is a definite chance that 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand won’t be the abomination that the sensible part of our brain insists it will be. A sly, self-aware satire, or a horribly misjudged, borderline racist monstrosity? To be honest, we’re happy either way.

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Dark Mist (PS3) Review

July 22, 2008 at 5:10 am · Filed under PS3 ·Tagged , , ,

Details
Format: PS3
Publisher: Sony
Developer: Game Republic
Release: Q3
Players: 1

There’s something to be said for the dungeon-crawling games of the past. The type where the hapless hero stumbles upon a multi-tiered labyrinth and then embarks upon some quest to retrieve whatever mystical trinket resides at the bottom – usually around level 150 near the center of the planet. And in essence Dark Mist pays homage to his archaic style of top-to-bottom level design but with an added degree of flair and originality.

As Althemis the warrior of light, you’re tasked with pushing back the evil dark mist that has spread across her beautifully realized world. Thankfully, Althemis isn’t expected to attempt this bare handed as she brandishes a rather potent ‘Bow of Light’. Curiously, the game plays out like a traditional 2D shooter – a held fire button consistently unleashes a barrage of arrows and the shoulder buttons can be used to classically fix direction and pivot. Further depth is added via three powered attacks and an all-purpose smart bomb. But the game’s strongest point is the challenge offered by fighting the enemies and dark mist in tandem. Too many games add difficulty by lazily increasing the volume of projectiles. And although the variety and numeracy of the cutesy dark legions increases steadily as Dark Mist progresses, the ever-present threat of being swamped by the enemy-concealing mist asks the plater to do more than dodge purple bullets.

But my main gripe with Dark Mist was the method employed in clearing the mist. For a game that, especially in the later boss encounters, demands accuracy. How could it have seemed like a good idea to make the player shake the pad to execute the mist clearing melee strike? This is another fine example of bas Sixaxis implementation. But if you often get sucked into these deceptively uncomplicated PSN distractions you could end up trawling this misty dungeon all night long

Rating: 6/10

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Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)

March 11, 2008 at 5:21 am · Filed under Wii ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) by Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Wii
ESRB Rating: Teen

Features:

* See your favorite Smash Bros. character, redesigned from their most recent games, brawl onto your screen once again!
* A host of new characters to fight with, including Sonic, Pit from Kid Icarus, Wario and Diddy Kong
* More than a dozen gorgeously-rendered stages
* New special moves and attacks, including the groundbreaking Final Smash
* New items and assist trophies

Description:
The third installment in Nintendo’s popular Super Smash Bros. fighter franchise debuts on the Wii in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Loaded with all the characters and features players have loved from the two previous versions, plus much more, it is a worthy addition to the series and yet another must-have title for the Nintendo Wii.

Characters: More Than Just Mario and Friends
The lifeblood of the Super Smash Bros. series has always been the depth of the character lineup that each installment has been able to bring and Brawl not only keeps with tradition, but does it one better. Just as in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros Melee, players can expect to pit their favorite Nintendo characters against each other in head-to-head and multiplayer battles, but instead of insisting on characters exclusively from the Nintendo universe, Brawl adds variety in the form of superstars Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake from Konami’s Metal Gear franchise. This is a first-time addition and one that will delight veteran players and newbies alike. But these two characters are only a sampling of the new additions to the game’s lineup. The other ten come from classic Nintendo titles and bring the complete lineup of playable characters to a whopping 25. See the full list on combatants below:

New Comers: Pit from the Kid Icarus series, Wario, Zero Suit Samus, Ike from the Fire Emblem series, Meta Knight and King Dedede from the Kirby series, Pokémon Trainer, Diddy Kong, Lucas from the Earthbound/Mother series, Pikimin and Olimar from the Pikmin series and of course Sonic and Solid Snake.

Returning Veteran Fighters: Mario, Link, Kirby, Pikachu, Fox McCloud, Samus, Zelda/Sheik, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Princess Peach and Ice Climbers from the NES title Ice Climber.

The Rules of the Brawl
As in previous releases in the series, Brawl places players within a different, but easy to use fighting system. Players choose a character, select one of the numerous stages–which are levels based in the game worlds represented in Super Smash Bros.– and try to knock their opponents off the screen using a range of standard techniques and combos as well as a variety of special attacks and ‘Smash Moves’ specific to their chosen character. A Smash Move can only be performed after securing a ‘Smash Ball.’ These precious items, marked with the Smash Bros. logo, fall randomly and can be used by either player, but they must be cracked open before they can be used. To keep things interesting they can also can be stolen if not used right away, so when a player sees one it must be grabbed quickly and cracked to avoid an unfortunate turn of events.

Also, keeping with the game’s “E” rating and player’s affection for the characters, instead of displaying health bars the game uses a percent system to indicate character status and strength. The more damage done to a character, the higher the percentage and the farther back he/she is knocked back when struck by an opponent.

Many Ways to Play: Multiplayer and Single Player Options
Just as in previous installments of Super Smash Bros. there is fun to be had whether you choose to fight in multiplayer or single player mode, but Brawl again pushes the envelope even further by providing additional ways to play within these areas and the possibility of others added later. Here are just a few of the modes that you can expect to see:

Multiplayer

* Standard Multiplayer Brawl – A standard battle between 2-4 players.
* Special Brawl – Take down your friends in matches which you can customize with as many rules as you would like.
* Tourney – Choose the number of players and rules you want and have at it in a round-robin battle against many foes.
* Online Multiplayer – For the first time play against registered friends or randomly selected opponents from anyplace in the world via a Nintendo Wi-Fi connection.

Single Player

* Training – Start on the path to Brawling like a pro as you learn to string standard moves together into combos.
* Classic – Fight your way through semi-randomly generated battles where each match features an arena or opponent from a particular game series and may feature unique battle conditions.
* Stadium: Target Smash – Practice your aim as you break ten targets within a set time limit.
* “Subspace Emissary” – The world of Smash Bros. is invaded by an entity called the Ancient Minister and his army, called “The Primid. As this villain starts turning characters into trophies to harness their power, declare a peace with your quarrelsome companions and work together to defeat the invaders in an engrossing side-scrolling adventure.

Stay in Control
Because the Super Smash Bros. series has a huge following and an even larger list of characters from the Nintendo catalog, it only makes sense that players may have a preference for a particular Nintendo controller from the era of their favorite game. Because of this the game’s creators have incorporated all four of the major Nintendo controllers into the mix. Whether you prefer the Wii Remote, the Wii Remote with Nunchuck, the Wii Classic Controller or the GameCube Controller it makes no difference. All four are fully compatible with all the features of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, although the handling of each is a little different. Choose the one you are most comfortable with, or explore all your options. The choice is yours.

A Barrel Full of Customization
Finally, created with an eye towards providing year’s worth of fun, Brawl comes with extensive built-in customization possibilities. Dive into the game’s seemingly endless list of game modes/mini-games, battle stages, in-game items and musical playback options to make the game your own and Brawl the way you want to.

Get Super Smash Bros. Brawl now!

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Downloads for Wii

February 20, 2008 at 5:28 am · Filed under Wii ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I just have to put this out there! I was a bit skeptical when landing to a page this morning called Feed My Wii. I decided to give it a go, since it was for such a small fee for unlimited media downloads.

All I have to say is, “Wow!”. The download speeds are crazy! It really is 300x faster than the other networks I’ve tried. Not only is the speed amazing the amount of content is huge, they sections are organized very well. I started to download everything I was interested in, with no restrictions at all, I was able to download 10+ movies at the same time!

Feed My Wii is truly the best of the best Wii Stores available on the net, do not hesitate to get access! I suggest to do this now while its cheap!

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Age of Empires III (PC) Review

February 18, 2008 at 10:34 pm · Filed under PC ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Age of Empires III (PC)
Developer: Ensemble Studios
Difficulty: easy – medium
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Replay value: 8/10

The Age of Empire name is a long series in the real time strategy realm. With the introduction of Age of Empires 3, players are forwarded several hundred years into the future since the last game by replacing old units like catapults and swordsman for cannons and muskateers.

The game is set in the colonial age with the situation involving conflicts between the many European powers trying to take hold of the New world which is North and South America. The 8 powers struggling for control are the English, French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Germans, Portugese and Ottomans with each faction having differences in its way of economy and military. Though they are very different upon closer inspection, in combat however they share many traits that are the same like buildings and units.

The single player campaign is rich with action and relatively long divided up into 3 sections with each “act” a generation apart. Aside from the campaign, there is the play over a network mode to compete against others to build rank and chat, a skirmish mode which pits you against computer AI with 5 levels of difficulty and the map editor to create your own maps and scenarios. Theres also a history section to get in depth detail about each unit, culture, building and weapons.

The interface of the game is similar to those in the Command and Conquer series and Warcraft games with the bars on the bottom for controlling and commanding. The troops form ranks automatically with the obvious melee troops like infantry in front and long ranged attackers like artillery in the rear. This can be a bit of a drag because when moving together, they move at the speed of the slowest attacker which if you have cannons and mortar in the back, the rest of your men will follow that pace as well.

A neat feature in the game is the presence of your home city which acts as your true headquarters looking after your growing colony. In the campaign and multiplayer, you can shift back to your home city at anytime to send more men, resources, workers or just upgrade and polish units that are already available though many are exhausted after one use. Your city also will gain experience and with it, gain higher tiered upgrades for shipments.

The gameplay is fairly direct with typically players advancing through the 5 ages before launching and attack or launching it deep in the ages. A set back however is how choppy it can get when all forces collide in battle, even on good gaming rigs. So while having the best assault force is a key to winning, a good machine churning out steady frame rates is also very important. Another drag to this game is that the match only ends when the enemy’s units are all dead. It’s pretty pointless since it would have made a lot more sense to end the game when all buildings are lost especially since that hastens the pace of the game.

Those who enjoy the medieval type gameplay in RTS’s will enjoy AOE 3 and also those who are just looking for a complex game with great looks and feel.

8.5/10

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Command and Conquer 3: Generals (PC) Review

February 16, 2008 at 3:15 am · Filed under PC ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Command and Conquer 3: Generals (PC)
Developers: EA games

Difficulty: easy
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Graphics: 9/10
Replay value: 8/10

The story behind general’s are the 3 superpowers (USA, China, Global Liberation army) at war sometime in the near future. All 3 factions have there own campaign which can be played through. Other options of play include skirmishes with computer AI and multiplayer online with people across the world.

The storyline of the game is generally vague even though its clearly a war between the Middle east and USA. As such, it shouldn’t offend anyone’s morals or beliefs.The gameplay is excellent which easy to use interface and many tutorials to choose from at the beginning. Each of the 3 factions or sides have their own unique units, general points rewards and overal style. For example, USA has the highest technology spanning modern tanks and the best air force, China with its sheer numbers and excellent ground squad particularly the behemoth overlord tank and the GLA with its crafty tricks and ability to salvage other parts from fallen vehicles. The action is very fast, very fluid and packed with tons of explosions. Obviously, simple and vast forces are shown more than careful and considerate planning in CnC3.

One of the new features in this game not present in previous Command and Conquer games are the generals ability system. As you gain experience from fighting, you will rack up points which can then be used to spend on higher tier units, upgrades and devastating air strikes.

Generals has possibly the best graphics of its age and genre but you will have to have a system that at least meets the minimum requirements if not more for the game to run smoothly.

All in all, Generals is a solid game worth picking up if you enjoy RTS’s and even if you don’t, give it a whirl and you will be pleasantly surprised.

9/10

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