Posts Tagged ‘nintendo’
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Red Steel 2 [VG]
Game Title: Red Steel 2
Developer: Ubisoft
ESRP Rating: T
Genre: First-Person Shooter
System: WiiGame Briefing: You’re a wild west/samurai cowboy who is rescuing a town from a gang. Of course, this evolves deeper as the game goes on/
Controls/Gameplay: Though still not perfect, Red Steel 2 is a HUGE improvement over the 2006 release of Red Steel. Using the Wii Motionplus, I don’t think it could get much more precise.
Graphics: The cell shaded like graphics made for a nice blend of Japanese and western, which fit the game perfectly.
Audio: Fantastic sound track, one of the best I’ve heard it quite some time. It helped you feel as though you were there. No complaints in this department at all.Multiplayer: None.
Originality: Obviously they tried at this style of gun-slinging and sword-swinging in the first Red Steel, I wouldn’t hold that against them. It makes for a fun combo though, which isn’t often seen.
Personalization: You get to to choose the icon for the save file at the beginning of the game. I think that was fairly all in this category.Wasted Time: There was way too much unskippable training points through out the game. Though this is apparently only while you learn new techniques, is annoying when you need to repeat them.
Play Time: There was about 30% of our time spent doing cut scenes. This can be expected to build up the story line. I wouldn’t count this as a genitive, as it was all needed cut scenes.Pros: About time that the Wii got an exclusive FPS on it’s side. It made to feel as though you were that character.
WOW-factor(s): The sword play is tons of fun. Being able to stab, spin around the guy and stab them in the back is killer (literally).
Can-be-Improved: I think the only thing more I could ask for is a multiplayer mode. Had they taken the one from the first Red Steel and put into play the new controls and Gameplay, it would have been a powerhouse.Continue/End Game: Continue. It’s supposed to be around 12 hours to complete the game, and I wasn’t so much bored as I was sore. I can see myself playing it again.
Rating: This was a good game, which is saying a lot for the history of the Wii’s FPS. I hope only that more developers follow in step of Ubisoft. I give it a 4/5:
If FPS are you main drag; buy Red Steel at full cost.
If you like FPS, but not so much; Buy it at a discounted price if you see it. -
Overlord: Dark Legend [VG]
Game Title: Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles
Developer: Cavia and Capcom
ESRP Rating: M
Genre: Rail Shooter
System: WiiDarkside Chronicles is a rail shooter for Resident Evil series. A chronicle series similar to Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles. . Starts out in South America with Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser before going into flash back stages of the Raccoon city story line with Leon and Clair Redfield which recaps the plot of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil Code Veronica.
Controls are simple enough, as to be expected with a rail shooter, mostly point and shoot. You can use the nunchuck or the D pad to quickly change between weapons. I personally preferred the nunchuck for this, I kept hitting the middle of the D pad and switching to the wrong weapon.
The camera movements mimic the movements of the characters as if the game were played in first person. You don’t actually control the movement yourself and this can be a bit awkward for aiming but gives it a more realistic feel.
In game graphic are pretty good, consistent with no glitches in the in the background or game play that i have noticed so far. Response time with the controls is very accurate. The quality of the cut scenes were excellent as well, on par with many CG movies I have seen. Including Resident Evil Degeneration. I have always been a fan of the music and sounds of Resident evil games. The sounds fit the game well without drawing your attention away from the game play.
Darkside can be played one player or two player co-op. In the first 2 hours that I played you always had the option to choose between 2 characters at the start of each stage. With two players you play with both. Haven’t tried two players yet, I’ll need to find someone to play with for next time.
You can collect gold through out the game to power up your weapons. I started with powering the shot gun. The short gun is one your most useful tool against the undead and mutated….. once you power it enough that it not so damn slow. It is able to push back multiple attackers within range which is very useful if you are playing solo and don’t have backup. You can also shoot at random items in the background of the game play (recommend using handgun with unlimited ammo for this) to uncover more gold and hidden files with extra information about the characters and story line. But really its about the random destruction.
Probably about 90% of the time I was shooting at something. There are longer higher quality cut scenes are the start and end of every stage and usually a few short cut scenes during the stage, but they are blended well into the game pay as not to be distracting.
As much of a fan of the series as I am, this is a Chronicle game so I wouldn’t call it original. The resident evil series is great for pouring out side games to go along with the main story that re-introduces past story lines and story lines mentioned in other games. Resident Evil 4 mentions the Kennedy report which I believe is based on the South American mission that Darkside chronicles starts with. I personally like all the side story games, they easy to play and is a great refresher for the main story line.
If I wasn’t wasting my time shooting Zombies I would probably be wasting it with Smash Bros Brawl. Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles is what it is, a straight forward rail shooter. Not much decision making is needed you just point and shoot. Personally after work this is what I look forward to. I don’t have to worry about anything except getting that next head shot. I wish the realistic movement was toned down a bit, it’s frustrating to miss a shot because your character suddenly turned and ran the other way, otherwise this is a fun game to play if your are looking for something quick that does not require a big commitment. Given another 2 hours and 2 minutes I think I might be able to finish the game.
I would give this game a 4/5 as it is one I would play over again and would like to own.
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Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles [VG]
Game Title: Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles
Developer: Cavia and Capcom
ESRP Rating: M
Genre: Rail Shooter
System: WiiDarkside Chronicles is a rail shooter for Resident Evil series. A chronicle series similar to Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles. . Starts out in South America with Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser before going into flash back stages of the Raccoon city story line with Leon and Clair Redfield which recaps the plot of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil Code Veronica.
Controls are simple enough, as to be expected with a rail shooter, mostly point and shoot. You can use the nunchuck or the D pad to quickly change between weapons. I personally preferred the nunchuck for this, I kept hitting the middle of the D pad and switching to the wrong weapon.
The camera movements mimic the movements of the characters as if the game were played in first person. You don’t actually control the movement yourself and this can be a bit awkward for aiming but gives it a more realistic feel.
In game graphic are pretty good, consistent with no glitches in the in the background or game play that i have noticed so far. Response time with the controls is very accurate. The quality of the cut scenes were excellent as well, on par with many CG movies I have seen. Including Resident Evil Degeneration. I have always been a fan of the music and sounds of Resident evil games. The sounds fit the game well without drawing your attention away from the game play.
Darkside can be played one player or two player co-op. In the first 2 hours that I played you always had the option to choose between 2 characters at the start of each stage. With two players you play with both. Haven’t tried two players yet, I’ll need to find someone to play with for next time.
You can collect gold through out the game to power up your weapons. I started with powering the shot gun. The short gun is one your most useful tool against the undead and mutated….. once you power it enough that it not so damn slow. It is able to push back multiple attackers within range which is very useful if you are playing solo and don’t have backup. You can also shoot at random items in the background of the game play (recommend using handgun with unlimited ammo for this) to uncover more gold and hidden files with extra information about the characters and story line. But really its about the random destruction.
Probably about 90% of the time I was shooting at something. There are longer higher quality cut scenes are the start and end of every stage and usually a few short cut scenes during the stage, but they are blended well into the game pay as not to be distracting.
As much of a fan of the series as I am, this is a Chronicle game so I wouldn’t call it original. The resident evil series is great for pouring out side games to go along with the main story that re-introduces past story lines and story lines mentioned in other games. Resident Evil 4 mentions the Kennedy report which I believe is based on the South American mission that Darkside chronicles starts with. I personally like all the side story games, they easy to play and is a great refresher for the main story line.
If I wasn’t wasting my time shooting Zombies I would probably be wasting it with Smash Bros Brawl. Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles is what it is, a straight forward rail shooter. Not much decision making is needed you just point and shoot. Personally after work this is what I look forward to. I don’t have to worry about anything except getting that next head shot. I wish the realistic movement was toned down a bit, it’s frustrating to miss a shot because your character suddenly turned and ran the other way, otherwise this is a fun game to play if your are looking for something quick that does not require a big commitment. Given another 2 hours and 2 minutes I think I might be able to finish the game.
I would give this game a 4/5 as it is one I would play over again and would like to own.
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Breaking News: NY City destroyed by pixels!
If you’ve ever wanted to see New York city completely taken over and taken apart by your favorite 8-bit characters, now is the time to do so. Patrick Jean did an amazing job on this, I’m astounded and in awe.
PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. – Arts and animation videos.[Via Mashable!]
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Games: No More Heroes
Right off the bat, this game is SO not a kids game. If anything, No More Heroes
might very well be the most violent, mature, sexual explicit game out yet for the Wii. That said, it’s pretty awesome.
UBI Soft’s No More Heroes’ gameplay is a typical beat ‘em up, but with a very adult-oriented theme. Instead of trying to save a princess, you’re killing other assassins so that you can be number one. That’s it. Along the way, you’re forced to do odd jobs like collect coconuts and mow lawns to earn money so that you can enter the battle against the next ranked assassin. This keeps the game from getting too boring too quick. (Imagine his resume: Travis Touchdown, Assassin and part-time lawn mower)
The style of this game is strange at first glance as it seems to have a choppy-anime’ish look. After around 15 minutes or so, they seem to smooth out and you realize how incredibly amazing the look of this game really is. The dialoge between characters in the cinematic scenes are fantastic and incredibly witty. However, during the game the taunts get quite repetitive, and could use some fine tuning (even if that just means being removed completely).
The controls are generally just push the button or hold the button down to attack. You can either attack with punch/kick and wrestling moves (B) or with your bean katana (A). an interesting twist on the controls though is that for wrestling moves you have to move the wiimote and nunchuck in the same direction to do the attack. Also with the beam katana when in a draw, you draw circles to win it. It’s strange, but to be expected for the Nintendo Wii. Overall fairly easy controls to get used to.
One of the coolest things about this game is that he has a cell phone. Whenever you get a call on his phone, your wiimote vibrates. When you push the button to answer it, the voice (other person on the phone) comes through on the wiimore speaker, not the TV speakers. So you actually have to hold the wiimote up to the side of your head. Strange? Yes. Entertaining? You betcha!
Though only about 1/3 of the way through the plot, I’m having one problem with this game when it comes to the missions. If a mission is failed, you can not simply ‘retry’, you have to go all the way back to where the mission was picked up, get it again, then go try the mission once more. This is frustrating when it takes you 10 minutes to travel between the two locations. Though the missions are pretty easy for the most part, it would be nice if they didn’t waste my time with the odd one that I mess up on.
The game is fairly cheap to pick up (Amazon has it for $20) so might be worth adding to your collection. Given that 95% of the games currently out for the Wii are targeted at family/children this is a nice change. I’d recommend it if not just to be able to say you own it, it’s right up there with Conker’s Bad Fur Day for N64.
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Games: Battle of the Bands
As promised last week, today we’re going to take a look at
Battle of the Bandsfor the Nintendo Wii, made by THQ.
At first glance, this game looks like it can be a lot of fun. Well, it can once you get past the lack of content in the game itself. Lets have a look at some of what the game has to offer:
- A decent variety of songs (of course, no where near some of the more costlier games on the market)
- The joy of rhythm based games without the need to have any extras hanging around
- A quirky variation to the plain old ‘hit the notes and you win’ formula
Battle of the Bands offers some classic favorite songs such as Black Betty and Jungle Boogie; mixed in with some fun songs like Feel Good Inc. by the Gorillaz and Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones. Though the songs are few, they’re good to play.Unlike some of the other rhythm games, Battle of the Bands uses only the wiimote to hit notes (left/right/down/stab/shake). It’s a fun concept, though a little tiring on the wrist at first on some of the higher difficulty levels. Also, if the wiimote is tilted it often doesn’t hit the note. Once you get used to this though, it’s a fantastic workout for your wrist.
Above all else what makes this game worth playing is the presentation itself. The game is one big battle, so you’re always in a versus mode against either an AI or a Player. Each band gets to choose a style of music, for example country and hip-hop. While playing, if the country team is in the lead the song which they’re playing will be done in a ‘country version’ (IE redneck accent and banjos). As the teams battle, the song jumps between the two bands’ type. It’s a riot when the types are conflicting as they switch seamlessly.
Another cooky part of this game is that you can attack the opposing player. Teams get the option of 3 weapons to use, all with different steak counts. Once a team has a streak to the length of the weapon, it will fire causing the other player to miss a beat if not blocked (hitting B). It’s quite off tilt to have a battle of the bands where you can shoot lightning at the drummer on the other team, but a blast none the less.Overall, I can understand why this game is so cheap (I got it for $15) because though the concept of it is amazing, the final execution of it is lacking. If they had access to a larger library, or even if they had more modes or unlockable content it may have made it a little more interesting. For what the game is though, it was worth the cash and I’d suggest it to any music lover out there if not only for the music player feature that allows you to switch between styles without having to actually play the game.
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Rock Band 2 Update – Downloadable Content Comes to the Wii!
Today is a day that will be rejoiced upon, as millions of Wii-geeks world wide will turn their little white boxes into even more of a rocking machine.
Nintendo and Harmonix, apparently holding true to their word to have the Music Store open for business by early 2009, today released the first wave of downloadable content for Rock Band 2 wii users. This does include a number of free songs that were given to Xbox 360 and PS3 users when the game was released, as well as songs from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s.
Songs are available for 200 wii points, which averages out to $2.00 US per song.
A list of the songs released today in the Wii music store (free songs marked with **):
WarmUp
Time is Running Out – Papa Roach
Simple Man – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Buddy Holly – WeezerApprentice
Cheeseburger in Paradise – Jimmy Buffett
El Scorcho – Weezer
**Burn you down – Opiate For the Masses
The Kill – 30 Seconds to Mars
All the Small Things – Blink 182
**Crazy Tuesday – TheNewNo2
**Bounce – The Cab
**Young – Hollywood Undead
**I’m gone I’m Going – Lesley Roy
Crushcrushcrush – Paramore
Interstate Love Song – Stone Temple Pilots
**If I ain’t Got You – The Len Price 3
**Database Corrupted – Dealership
Baba O’riley – The Who
Call Me – Blondie
**Magnetic Baby – Semi Precious WeaponsSolid
This Ain’t a Scene – Fall Out Boy
**Give It To Me – Cockail Slippers
Wonderwall – Oasis
Snow (Hey Oh) – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Sex Type Thing – Stone Temple Pilots
**Ashes To Fire – Ghost Hounds
**The Feeling – Kutless
**Sons and Daughters – The 88
Rock and Roll Band – Boston
More Than A Feeling – Boston
Beethoven’s C*** – Serj Tankian
Zero – Smashing Pumpkins
**Get It On – The Chevelles
**The Time is Wrong – Tickle Me Pink
Hammerhead – The Offspring
Message in a Bottle – The PoliceModerate
Move Along – All American Rejects
Saints of Los Angeles – Motley Crue
Inside The Fire – Disturbed
Afterlife – Avenged Sevenfold
Shockwave – Black Tide
Working Man – Rush
**I.V. – X Japan
**I Wanna Be Your Man – EndEverAfter
**Like a Fool – Shaimus
Hysteria – MuseChallenging
**Desperate Times, Desperate Measures – UnderOath
…And Justice for All – Metallica
**No Regrets – Authority ZeroNightmare
The Perfect Drug – Nine Inch Nails
**Prequel to the Sequel – Between the Buried and MeI’ve noticed that several songs (the one that I can think of the name to is Margaritaville) is now missing from the Music Store – it was there this afternoon for 200 wii points.
For those who are about to rock (harder), wii salute you.
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Games: Rock Band 2
Today we’re going to get some rock off with our socks off with a quick review of Rock Band 2
for the Nintendo Wii.
For those of you unfamiliar with the ‘musical gaming’ genre, Rock Band and similar products often use controllers shaped like guitars or drums. You simply hit the colored buttons on the instruments in time with the colors on the screen to play the notes. A simple concept, but incredibly fun none the less.
What first made Harmonix‘s Rock Band stand out in comparison to it’s nearest competitor Guitar Hero is that it allowed players to not only play guitar, but drum and sing as well. Though this has been evenly matched by the most recent Guitar Hero World Tour
, Rock Band 2 seems to still have better quality of the two.
Aside from just hitting the buttons to match colors, I think a huge part of the appeal of these games is that you can be part of a band, not just somebody playing a game at home on a Saturday night. Rock Band 2 takes advantage of this by giving players the ability to not only form a band with friends at close range, but to join with anybody online. This, for me, is a huge factor as the people online can’t see you dancing around in your PJs while playing We Got the Beat by the Go-Gos.
Rock Band 2 has also capitalized on the character creation factor of games, giving users the ability to make their avatar as normal or bizarre as they want it to be with everything from ripped jeans to a Viking helmet. Along those lines, users are able to register their bands online and put their custom bands into cool looking photos. They can even print out stickers and make t-shirts! (Check out yours truly rockin’ out here)But what good is playing when you don’t know any of the songs? Rock Band 2 has a ton of good songs, and (whenever Nintendo gets around to it) will feature downloadable content (DLC) to allow aspiring musicians to enhance their library even further.
The only fault I’d say (if anything) this game is lacking compared to Guitar hero is the ‘oddity’ factor. This is just playing songs, where as in Guitar hero there are ‘battles’ where you can throw off your enemy and random encores through out the game. It makes it good to spice up. Rock Band does this with ‘benefit shows’ and ‘TV recordings’, but the game play is still just playing the songs. It would be nice to see a mode to make it a little more interesting in Rock Band 3. (I have picked up another musical game today completely based around being strange, keep an eye out for a review)
So are any of you rock legends? Let me know in the comments below, maybe we can do some face melting some time. Rock on!
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I am Batman Pac-Man
Let’s stick with some gaming fun here. To follow up with the totally badass furniture that I showed last week, I have found some more cool Pac-Man stuff that I would love to own.
</a.First off, the Pac-Man Hoodie from Think Geek. If this doesn’t confuse people and earn you a hand full of cherries, an extra life and the all time high score, nothing will.
If that design made your headspin, you might be suffering from a Dot Overdose and need this shirt from Dead Zebra. Friends don’t let friends OD on Dots…But they do buy them the shirt.
And the last one for today (though not pac-man inspired) is the Most Deadly shirt from Busted Tees. You may recognize this from Perfect Dark (or maybe you don’t if you suck at it) but even the biggest lamer *cough DEL cough* can pretend to be old school now. -
A Gamer's home is his castle
*may or may not include princess*
I don’t know about you, but Pac-Man seems to constantly have an impact on my life. It may come in the form of a T-shirt from a friend or just me eating random dots off the ground. But after a long day of chasing ghosts, wouldn’t you like to just put your feet up? Me too, so buy me this footstool thanks.
While you’re at it, buy me this medal for being epicly old skool too. Console Wars Veteran
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