Lock's Quest - Nintendo DS

Good lord, I've been stuck on this one DS game since October 2008. Is it because it was a long game(20 hrs) and involved and required 100 hrs?! Nope, it was just not that interesting added with the fact that I don't start a new game until I finished the one that I am currently playing.

I picked this game up because it had the E3 award for the Game of the year and it was $29.99. Not a bad price for a game of the year award. The game is different than most games and they keep giving you different abilities that make each level a little bit different.

The game is a top down, build your castle and defenses, set traps and wait for the horde of enemies to come. It also lets you con troll your guy, so its just not the castle defenses that are working. SO you can run around and hit and use your special abilities such has poison, freeze, lower power, etc. You can also repair your castle has it gets damaged and add power ups to your defenses.

Enemies are varied, a certain weapon for a certain enemy, nothing new there. Followed by a weird story line, that basically is Pinocchio, if he went to war to prove that he is a real boy. It just didn't offer enough to keep me interested. The same events would take place. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, set up defenses and keep back the baddies, you win, BLAH, BLAh, BLAH, set up,"""""" and so on. It gave different enemies and different abilities, but not alot, you had a total of 4 abilities you could use and 4 super abilities. Which really is not that many for a game that is this involved.

It would be like if you played a final fantasy game and all you could do was, hit, block, magic fire and heal. IT really didn't keep my attention and the story line was really boring, I found myself just skipping all the story, which I normally don't do. I'm glad that this is over and move on to something new.

Game of the year for E3, I feel that I can't give a rating on this game, all the reviews online are praising this game, everyone seems to really like it. I guess its just one of those freak games that, YES, everyone else likes it, but it just doesn't do it for me. "what the hell do I know..this game won an award"

Kung Fu Panda - Xbox 360

Games based off of movies are generally bad, games based of of kids movies are usually unplayable and geared towards the parent who knows nothing about animation or video games but thought the Zebra was funny when he farted. So when they see the video game counter part at the store, I think its more the parent who goes,"Ohh, wouldn't it be cute to see the skunk running around and jumping on things?!" So has a rule, NORMALLY, I don't buy games based off of movies for myself or for my kid. I do believe in good game play for adults and kids, just because kids like everything, doesn't mean you should feed them shit on a stick and call it Candy!

So Kungfu Panda came with the holiday Xbox 360 bundle. So my expectations were where they normally are concerning these types of games and I wasn't disappointed..er surprised. Normally games like this follow 2 patterns. Either the game follows the movie storyline to the letter, so there are no surprises has to what you have to do next or the main idea of the story remains, but they changed the content to make the game more gamplay friendly. There hasn't been too many games that get it right, but if I had to choose one, I would say that Spiderman for PS2 was one of the few.


Rather than go over the finer points, the gist of this game is...MRRPHHHHHH?!? add a shrug of the shoulders and rolling the eyes and you have kungfu panda. It doesn't follow the story line like the movie and when they finally get to the whole point of the movie that the power comes from within and not in a scroll, the message is delivered with the subtlety of an Epileptic trying to performing brain surgery with a jack hammer.BAH!!

The game wasn't bad bad, but by no means would I call this good. I would call this a studios attempt to cash in on a summer movie to a bunch of no nothing about video game parents who think that this video game will be safe for my kid because it was rated G in the movie theatre. There are tons of better games out there for kids, and its unfortunate that people buy into these games. Some people would say that these are kid friendly games, well YES..they are. But at least give them a good game to play and not some re-ash shit product.



Anywho, enough rant. The game itself, you play has a panda and he does kungfu, the controls are super simple and you can sit and beat the game in one sitting. You can play has the fearsome five, but they aren't much fun. The levels are what you would expect, no surprised. They changed the story line quite a bit. Its like if kids saw the movie and then told the producers what they would like to see more of," I WANNA SEE A BIG ALLIGATOR CHASE THE PANDA DOWN A RIVER"..."I WANNA SEE HIM PUNCH A GIANT GORILLA"..."I WANNA SEE HIM MAKE THE TIGER POOP HIS PANTS MORE!!"""



And BANG, you have Kungfu Panda, written by and staring kids who fart. Play this if you are stuck at home, with no other games and someone left this next to your machine and both your legs are broken. Maybe it will pass the time faster..maybe not

3.5/10


Here is the last fight in the game next to the last fight in the actual movie.

Violence in games doesn't matter??!! WTF

According to a study done by some eggheads someplace Blood and gore don't make video games more enjoyable. For one I never usually like studies because they really don't prove anything other than what the people set out to prove. Let me explain. I think people prefer bananas over oranges. Now I go out and find a bunch of people, tell them what the study is, put down a basket of old oranges with a basket of ripe bananas, and come to a conclusion like "well people ate the bananas so I'm right." I know bad example...

I know there's more to it then that but I do feel these studies are pointless and don't really prove anything. There are good studies out there though. Important ones that have to do with your health and how to fight disease. Why waste time on stupid studies?



If the article is true imagine games like gears of war, manhunt, and fallout without the gore. They're fun games to begin with but there's nothing more satisfying then blowing apart your enemy limb by limb. If that level of gore wasn't there the games would be a little less enjoyable: Fact!

This is not true for all games. A lot of games are fun and they get away with very little gore (battlefield, call of duty 4, etc etc)
To read the full article click here.

"We found that, on average, violent content didn't add to motivation for play."

Apparently they haven't played Manhunt. A game that "rewards" you for waiting for the exact right moment to strike. The longer you wait, the more gory the execution.



More pointless studies:

Exercise won't cure obesity - you mean if I run a block and stuff my face with cake it won't work?.... duh! They really needed a study on this?

You touch it you buy it - wow.... just wow

Cities with more fast food joints are fatter - hahaha duh

Most Facebook Apps pointless - they really needed to study this?

Something about longer fingers. - This one is a gem

New GTA by the end of 2009?

Rumor has it a full retail sequel of GTA is going to be ready for the holiday season of 2009, according to joystiq.com and game informer. This is great news but I really hope it has the following:

-Crazier missions and less escorting.
-Stop with the cell phone and friend levels
-More aerial vehicles like San Andreas
-Bigger area like SA
-I really liked the "city in chaos" - that would be fun again

Here's hoping this news is true. The GTA franchise is one of my favorites and I'm excited for the new DLC next month.

Chrono Trigger DS

I was one of the kids that was unfortunate enough not to own a copy of this game. I tried to rent it but it was always out at the local video store. I got to play it a few times but never was able to get that far into it, so when I heard it was coming to the DS I got excited!

I haven't really touched my DS in quite some time. I enjoy a few of the games but I hate games that mainly use the stylus cause they feel gimmicky and cheap. Chrono Trigger DS has an option to use the stylus , and it works, but you don't have to use it.


Most of the gameplay hasn't changed since the SNES version. The game really benefit's from the dual screen as most of the text and whatnot is on the bottom screen making the game less cluttered. The playstation cartoon scenes are put into the game, which is nice, but can be turned off if you wish.

There's a few extra dungeons, and a monster fighting/raising game but it feels a bit tacked on.


This game is my favorite RPG. If you haven't played it and you're a fan of old school games or RPG's with great story/atmosphere pick this one up!

9.5/10


Guy proposes by hacking Chrono Trigger

PSX Opening

Frog's Song- Chrono Trigger the Musical

600 AD on Classical Guitar

Chrono Trigger Wiki Entry

Making of Shadow of the Colossus - PS2

(illustration by adonihs. click here to see his deviantart)

I found a great website detailing the making of one of my favorite games ever. Shadow of the Colossus was really creative, inventive and gorgeous to look at. The Colossus battles are something to be played over and over again.

The website goes into great detail of camera tricks, lighting, 3D rendering and more.

Click here to read the article.

RIP EGM Magazine 1989-2009

My personal favorite gaming magazine EGM has closed it's doors. This was my favorite gaming magazine because of the personalities involved, the sometime crude humor, and the fact there were no stupid dvd/game discs that came with it.

I wish all those involved the best of luck and hopefully I'll find another magazine to fill the void, although I don't think I'll find one as honest with it's reviews or as creative with its articles.

My bathroom has lost a great piece of reading material :(

(the last issue cover)

Feb. Issue of EGM will be available online for free and will not be hitting stands. Go over to 1up.com to download it when it goes online.

Or CLICK HERE to read the wiki entry of the history of EGM.

Ghostbusters release date!!!

JUNE 16th BITCHES!!

Street Fighter 4 Controllers

Check out these really sweet controllers for Street Fighter 4 made by madcatz! The game looks sweet but these controllers are really gonna make the game really fun. I still play SSF2 HD and playing with a regular 360 controller feels a little wonky. These look like a breath of fresh air for fighting games.





Click HERE HERE or HERE to see more SF4 controller stuff.
Or if you're feeling a bit more adventurous/creative you can always make your own arcade stick by hacking a controller apart:

Like this 360 controller hack tutorial

Or here for parts

Here for more hacking stuff

Castle Crashers - XBox360

My First experience with the X-Box360 was with Castle Crashers. A game that I had heard alot about, seeing has it took 4 years to be made and the game is entirely designed in Flash. So it has a style that I really like, not the crappy symbol flash, but the big thick line fully animated flash.

It was one of the few games that I played entirely with a group of friends. So finishing a game with a group of friends is much different than finishing a game by oneself.

Premise of the game, you can choose between 4 knights, each with their own set of magic powers, fire, lighting, poison and ice, but you unlock more has you go through the game. You then hack and slash and magic and combo your way to the end where you have to fight insane bosses.

I gotta say that the game play with a a group of 4 people really is fun and adds alot to a gaming experience, but there are a few downfalls has well. But the good first. Like I said befor, I really like the look and style of the game. The story is simple and entertaining. The upgrading your characters is fun, finding all the different weapons and animal sidekicks are all great additions to a game.

The Bad, The backgrounds of the levels are very heavy on design elements, alot, and I mean alot of detail. So much so, that on certain levels, the flower field and the garbage level. When enemies and players meet on the battle field and all the FX start fo fly, I honestly don't have a clue where I am. Only until I am hit and shot across the room by a baddies do I go,"OH, there I am...dead on the ground"

Playing in the foreground, the game has it so you can control your guy like all the old arcade fighting games, ninja turtles, x-men, Simpson's etc. You can move in and out of the foreground, but holy hell does this ever make it hard to judge what level the bosses are on. Its a little easier with the smaller enemies, but alot of the time, I be jumping my head off and swinging my sword around and thinking I am beating the crap outta the boss, because I see hit FX, only to find out I was on the wrong plain and it was actually my team mates doing all the damage. While I looked like an idiot jumping and wailing my sword in the sky.



Those were my only 2 gripes with the game. It is kinda short, but you can go back and search for my animal side kicks, try and find all the weapons and unlock all the extra characters. And of course the achievements. But I don't like the achievements on the 360 too much. I don't like the idea of points. I rather a gold, silver trophy and yes I know that they are worth points too. I just like the trophy idea.

Overall, it was a decent game, I think the 14.99 is a little much, I would rather it be 9.99, but that's just being super picky. I guess they have to make money on something that took them 4 years to make. Give the demo a try, if you like that, then the rest of the game is pretty much the same, just with all the bells and whistles.

6.5/10

HELP! with online Co-op for Resistance 2

So I am really enjoying the online play with Resistance 2. But what I am noticing is that it never really tells you about what your characters can do besides the basics. There is so much that is left to the person to find out on their own, either by talking to other people online or by going onto forums and reading what others are talking about the game.so I figure I give my little help guide for co-op mode to help people playing online.Stuff that if I knew about from the beginning would have cut back on my playing time and leveled up faster and not beat my head over, "how do I do this"

LEVELING UP YOUR CLASSES
There are 3 classes in co-op. Medic, Spec-Ops, Soldier. You all get points by killing things but this is not the main way to get your XP. One guy could get 156 kills and another guy get 15 kills and the guy with 15 kills would have more XP at the end of the game.Reason.



The Medic levels up by healing people and draining health from enemies. You don't have to kill a thing with the medic and just spend the whole round healing and you could still come out on top with the number one spot of XP.

The Spec-Ops levels up by dropping ammo crates for his teammates. The more ammo he gives to his team, the more XP he gets. But you just can't drop crates of ammo, people have to pick them up for you to get your XP.

The Soldier levels up absorbing damage with his shield. So its good to have a spec-ops behind you giving you shield ammo while you mow down the baddies.The more baddies shooting at your shield the better.



Now these are the main ways that you will see a big difference in your XP score at the end of the round.If you don't use the abilities of your class, then you are guaranteed to come out of a round with 7000-9000Xp has oppose to 30,000-40,000 Xp. So use your classes abilities to level up faster.

USING BERSERK'S

The Best Berserk for the Medic is Chloroform, this helps you to level up faster. Its only useful in large groups of enemies. But when you use your leech gun, and activate the berserk, it increases your absorb radius, so instead of just absorbing from 3 baddies, you could absorb from, sheesh I don't know, it seems to be what ever is near the guy you are shooting. So these really helps to level up faster.

The Best Berserk for the Solider is Backlash. Since you get the majority of your XP from baddies shooting your shield. Well this berserk, makes any baddy in the area concentrate all fire on you. So every baddy that is running towards your squad will now focus all their attention on to you. This may seem like a bad way to get XP, but every bullet they fire at you is deflected back at them. So you are getting the Xp from the shoots fired at you and getting XP by the kills that are deflected back.

The Best Berserk for the Spec-Op is Prototype Ammo. Again, you want Berserks that play towards your strengths. This berserk, makes larger and more crates of ammo for your teammates to pick up. So activate and start laying ammo crates.

GETTING INTELL

There's the trophy, "get all intell in co-op" and its a gold trophy. Like me when I first saw this, I thought it was like the single player. You run around and look in all the nooks and crannies and find intell docs. But its not like that. Co-op mode is made up of 8-9 worlds, Chicago, Orick, etc. Each World, I guess is made up of 9-12 levels. All you have to do, is keep playing a world and it loads a new level, which is at random each time and finish the level successfully. Its super easy to do, especially for a gold trophy.

DISABLING REACTOR RODS

These are the orange rods that everyone crowds around and starts shooting like made to usually open up a new area or deactivate something. Alot of the times, if you have a spec-ops who isn't dropping ammo, then ammo is hard to come by. So to be on the safe side. DON"T SHOOT THESE THINGS!..instead go up to them and melee them. 2 hits for each rod is all it takes. Saves on ammo.


ACQUIRING GREY TEC

You upgrade all your weapon and ammo by getting Grey tec. You get Grey tec by killing major enemies. I first thought that when you did this, you had to make a mad dash for the Grey tec, because 7 other guys also wanted this, because it is kinda rare to get. But there's no need to run for this. If one person collects it, then the whole team gets it. I like that they did that, but you do have to be in the area that the Grey tec was collected.


So, those are a few things that I find out from my online and offline playing. And yes, the hardcore gamers all know this, but you be damn pressed to find someone who is willing to tell you about it without the onslaught of "NOOOB" comments. And the average gamer who just goes online to have a little gaming fun, doesn't know these things, but these are things that will defiantly improve your game play. Hope these things helps.

Resistance 2 - PS3

I own the first one, and it was one of the few games that I really got my moneys worth outta of. The single player was great and the online was really fun. I played this game for 2 years without getting bored.

So I was delighted to hear about a Resistance 2. And knowing me, I love any game that has Trophies, I am a trophy addict. I will do everything I can to get the trophies. Right now, that's what I am currently doing, trying to get all the trophies.

The single player mission is much shorter than the first one. It looks better, the controls are mapped better, but its kinda short. But again, they get you to replay these levels to get the trophies. So after I have played through once, I gotta go back again, to kill certain enemies a number of times with a specific weapon, or find all the intell and so on. Its pretty fun.

What I think is missing from the game is the vehicle portion and controlling large mounted guns. Instead it is replaced with Giant Leviathan bosses. They are all pretty easy to beat, its the overwhelming of enemies on the screen that always kill me. But with all the enemies on the screen and all the shit blowing up and bullets flying, there is NO slow down time. Its awesome to see 50-60 enemies on the screen at once and mowing them down with grenades and explosives.


The weapon system is different aswell. You don't collect weapons and have them throughout the entire game like the last one, instead, you can only carry 2 weapons at a time, so choose your weapon carefully. Head into a situation with the wrong weapon and make it past a checkpoint, you got some hard times ahead.

But its the multiplayer where this game really shines. You got Co-op, (my fav) and Competitive. Co-op of course is playing with people online to work together to complete task. There are 3 different classes to choose from. A heavy gunner, Medic and Spec OPs. They did a great job of making people work together online as well. Unlike most games where groups of people on the same team runoff and do whatever they want to do by themselves. Co-op actually is set up so that all 3 benefit each other. Each one needs the other to get by, if you go in with just a heavy gunner, you will run outta ammo, so you need the spec-ops to resupply with ammo or your up shit creek. The medic, well for obvious reasons. You can't heal yourself, any damage taken stays with you, you don't heal over time. All you team gets wiped out and if there's not medic to revive you, your Fked. The solider, well, hes the tank of the team, able to deal large amounts of damage quickly and able to put up force fields to protect the rest of the team. Its Great how they made the co-op in this game.


So overall, I really am enjoying this game. I have gotten almost all the single player trophies and am working on the co-op trophies now. Then after that I have to get the competitive trophies. but I doubt I will get all of those. Its something like get 10,000 kills for a gold trophy. I've been playin alot, and I only have 738 kills. I can only imagine how many hrs you would have to put in to get 10,000 kills

I like this game, its great with friends and much better than the online game sites say. I say if you got a PS3 then this one is worth your while. Get a buddy to get it aswell. Its great fun.

8/10

Heres a little vid of some guy talking has hes playing. Its pretty funny stuff.

Left 4 Dead- xbox360

What's better then surviving the zombie apocalypse? Surviving it with 4 people! This game somewhat forces you to play with friends (it's way funner with friends) but if you don't have any- don't worry. The AI in this game in bang on! Some of the best AI I have seen in a game! Although sometimes they do wander into your path of fire (but who doesn't?)

There's about 4 different scenarios that take a little over an hour to complete each. Yes the game is short but you'll find yourself replaying it over and over. There's no real story either. The whole thing is just to survive and work as a team.


I would've liked to see more weapons (flamethrower, knife/sword, shovel) or some unlockables (The download content has me curious) and a few more scenerios would be great (again waiting for download content) but these are minor complaints to such a fun game.


I've been playing this one a lot with my girlfriend who is not a fan of first person shooters. She grasped the controls pretty quickly and plays with wide eyes, jumping at every zombie attack calling them "bitches" and "whores."

My favorite thing to do is try to find the "witch" (the strongest zombie in the game that sits crying waiting to be disturbed by some jerk like me) wake her up and run past my girlfriend trying to scare her. It doesn't usually work however it's very fun.

I also have a bad habit of lighting people, including myself, on fire.

9/10