You Can't Have it Both Ways

Reading recent reviews over the game Homefront, I am getting more and more upset with review sites, not all...but a few.

Its the ones who complain and then give a game a lower score based on the length of the single player campaign in First Person Shooters. Lets take IGN for example, they talk about the single player campaign as being a negative for the game. quoting,

IGN"The single-player campaign is a lot of fun, but its inexcusable shortness is also Homefront's greatest downfall. Homefront is going to run you $60 new, and if you're not at all interested in multiplayer, then the value Homefront delivers to you as a consumer is minimal. The campaign's seven chapters can easily be completed in five hours"

Sooooo, shouldn't they say the same thing about other FPS as well??? Why do they mention it with this game and not any other?!?! I mean, they don't just mention it in passing, they base a portion of their total score on this aspect. But in going back and reading other FPS reviews, this seems to be the norm with these guys.

They pick a FPS and shit on its length for one game and not on another, why?..I don't know...I think they are just fanboys. Just read the Battlefield Bad Company 2 review with this quote,"And with such a frantic campaign pace, it is over in short order. I blew through the game in just a few evenings of lazy play, probably clocking in under six hours." Now they also say they didn't like the single player campaign either, but with Homefront, they say that the length is a focal point.

Then we have the Medal of Honor review. But here they didn't like the game over all, so they had something else to focus there shit on. But that didn't mean that at the very end, they managed to throw out that Medal of Honor single player campaign is 4-6 hrs long. Never saying that it was bad thing because they already tore up the games single player campaign anyway, but at the same time, why bring it up then? If you didn't mention it in Call of Duty?

Its like they just make things up to complain about at random, there is no consistency in their reviews.

Even there review on Killzone 3, the single player campaign can be beaten in under 6 hrs, but do they mention that in their review?? Nope, you bet your ass they don't.

Go ahead, and read the Call of Duty review, they don't mention Boo about the length of the single player campaign, even though its the same length as Homefront. NOW, they CAN say they liked one over the other, but that's not the case here. They clearly state that the length of one game is a drawback, and then turn around and not mention the length of another game, even though they are the same.

One could argue that the dismal play of the game coupled with the length of the game is the reason they focused on the length, BUT they don't do that. They just flat out say, its a short game, therefore it gets points taken away from it. I know scores don't matter, but you can't bring up a flaw of a game being short and then not mention that same flaw for other games of its type. IF that was the case, then all FPS that are less than 6 hrs should get the same treatment. Call of Duty was too short, Medal of Honor was too short, Battlefield was too short, all of this looks bad for these games and therefore takes away from the whole.

IGN are morons, and I'll be taking down the link in the blog roll because of it. Go some where else, anywhere else for your legit game reviews, because you aren't going to find it at IGN.

Toasty Shack - Get On Over HERE!

Much like the Kentucky Fried Tekkan poster, I like when they combine food with video games...which reminds me. Some studio is remaking Burger Time....Mmmmmm, burgers!

Minimalistic Classic Game Icons

These minimalist posters of everything are popping up everywhere these days. Some are better than others. I quite like this guys take on some classic games.

Battlefield 3 - Episode 3

My oh my, I don't want to hype this game up too much, cause I did that with Medal of Honor and was disappointed with it, even though its a decent game and had some of the best sounds I've heard in a shooter.

But man oh man, am I ever pooping my pants on a daily basis about BF 3, can't wait. The trailers are great......but to be fair. The movie Sucker Punch trailers looked awesome too and that movie was Sh-I-TE!

Free Realms

This recently came out on the PSN, although its been out on the PC for quite some time. Again, I would like to try a MMO, I mean really try it. The free to play dungeons and dragons was just not my cup of tea, really tired of the wizards and warrior genre that MMO's seems to be filled with.

Looking at the price, well, its free to get the game. But you pay to play online. And at the top of the pricing list, $29.99 for a lifetime access to online, seems great to me. I'd pay that. The only thing is I haven't seen or heard anything about this game.


Well, I did hear that it is kid friendly and not as in depth as most MMO, but that seems right up my alley for a first time MMO player. Cute graphics, not hardcore, etc.

But when I went looking for a trailer or some reviews. This trailer makes me want to beat the game with a ugly stick.



It as if they are gearing the game towards Justin Beiber and Hannah Montana fans. The music is horrible, I'm not too keen on only having human characters to select from. Perhaps this game isn't for me. I will give the game a try while its free for the first bit and see how it goes.

Game Tees

Head over to BustedTees for some humorous T-shirts, personally, I'm just interested in the game related ones, But I'm sure there's something for everyone.

Scribblenaut Toys

I can't believe I didn't start posting this sooner. I'm a avid Transformers toy collector. I collect the figures themselves and have a substantial collection with 3 shelves full of transformers ranging from the originals up to todays. (Except the Michael Bay Transformers, I don't like those designs at all)

So I thought I should start making random post of gaming toys. So to start this off, here are some Scribblenaut bobble head and plush toys. Great game for kids and adults and some neat toys to go along with it.

Zardoz the Game...sort of.

This is pretty cool for us ole folk that remember this sort of thing. But its a 8-bit intro of a game based on a sic-fi film staring Sean Connery. It was sort of like Logans Run or Ice pirates but on LSD, but its cool none the less. Here's the opening 8-bit game and a clip from the movie.

Dieing Oldschool

Somebody made a video of classic game deaths. Just seeing those pixels makes me all squishy.

Dead Nation - Operation Timed Out

Recently myself and Beatfreaker over at Portable Soldier have taken it up ourselves to do a first ever, Platinum a game playing solely on Co-op. Which I think is a great way to play this game. Now I wouldn't want all my games to be like this, but this is a great innovative way to play.

We are currently trying to beat the game on its more difficult settings. So far we are finding it challenging with lots of deaths, but its not impossible with some well placed mines.

What is the problem is the game freezing, then going back to the menu with the screen saying,"Operation Timed Out".

This is getting annoying as hell, for the main reason that the game doesn't have save points within the level when you get booted. So you have to restart the entire level again. This is only annoying, because often times we barely make it through a point that we died countless times, finally make it through and get to the next area and then we have the game" operation time out" on us and we have to replay the whole level again.

Take last night for example, just before bed were on the very last level trying to beat the game on Grim, so we figure we finish this last level before we move on to Morbid. We get to the last area and the game times out on us. Its heart breaking stuff, so rather than start again being it 12:30 at night. We quit to try again another day.

But this is annoying. So I went online looking for help. All I could find was this.(But at least others are experiencing this aswell, so its not our internet connection.)

I think there's a preset limit on the number of a current difficulty allowed to run at any one time online.

And that's it, that's all I found. I went to their facebook page and left a comment in their feedback section, hopefully I hear something back soon.

Trophy Hunting Resources

I'm an avid trophy hunter and again, I shouldn't have to explain the difference between a trophy whore and a trophy hunter. BUT..in short, one plays as many games as they can to get as many trophies as they can. The other plays the games for the challenges that the trophies offer.

So often times, I find myself stuck as to what do I do now to get a certain trophy. I mean ,I play all the games I own normally on the first play through. Just simply playing it as anyone would. Enjoying the game for what it is. After I have beaten the game and if I liked it. I will go and look at the trophy list for things to do and then play it a second time, this time with specific goals(trophy requirements) set out, that I try to get.


Most of the time, I can get probable 90% of them. Then there are the trophies that have you collecting a set number of this or that, or some obscure trophy description that doesn't make sense. Its times like these that I go looking for help.

The two best trophy hunting and achievements aswell, cause they are usually the same on both the Xbox and PS3, can help you get all those trophies that are giving you trouble with guides and videos or walkthroughs.

One is PS3trophies.org with a simple click on a game, and then click the guide and it gives a great detailed account of what you need to do for getting the trophy. They have most games listed, but not all, but more than likely, you will find what you are looking for here. This is always my first go to, when trophy hunting.


The second place is a YouTube page by RoosterTeeth who post under the Achievement Hunter series. They don't offer everything, but there videos are clear and concise with no confusion or misconception of what you have to do at all. Plus they are entertaining to listen too. Again, they don't have everything, but what they do have is probable the best online help videos you will find.

With just these two resources, I can usually find everything I need for help. If not here, then I just head randomly online for a specific detail. But for the most part, these two are my go too sources.

Happy Hunting.

PS3 New Terms of Service and User Agreement‏

I got a email today that I thought with all certainty was spam. The email said that my user agreement is changing and to go to the link and sign in with my account details so the transfer can be complete. Sounds like a phishing scam to me.

But then I came across this article on Destructoid telling me about the new email that Sony is sending to all its users is legit. That indeed it is changing on April 1st. To those of us who got the email( I assume we all got it) we can either click the link and follow the instructions to updating our accounts or come April 1st, accept the new user agreement policy and all is well.

If you don't accept the new policy or transfer your account, Sony will delete your account and wallet. I am going to wait for April 1st automatic update, and if you don't want your account lost and have a big pain in the ass, then by all means accept the new terms and agreement. I assume this is just another line of defense for hackers to get through along with new legal mumble
jumble.

So if you got that email, it IS legit, but you don't need to do anything right away. You can wait for the update and accept it come April 1st. Click HERE to read the new terms.

Everything About This Disturbs Me

There are alot of weird games out there, this one is called Tsunami Fighter. Where you are a giant monster who fights back a tsunami so it doesn't crush Japan...but wait, wait... Its OK to do this. Why? well because its all for charity of course. Donate now!!......(stands with blank expression 0__o) Click here to play or donate or.....or...

Really?...I don't know what to say. Maybe a different type of game? one that doesn't have tsunamis and cities in it? but you can still have a donate button? It just feels wrong, regardless of having a donate button and saying that it's dedicated to all the people who lost their lives in Japan. I think whats even stranger are the comments left below.


Stretchypants123 says:
There was a girl that I saw at the MOA wearing a Domo-kun hat and she was really cute!! I so wanted to talk to her and it reminded me of her when I played this game. She was really cute!! ^^ But like... 14 or something lol, woah. Not into little girls, but she was still pretty cute. She's going to be hot in a few years I'll bet.

ME-( I seeeeeeee....so a monster vs disaster game based on a current natural disaster where lots of people died and lost their homes and lives, made you think about the time your wee wee moved a little bit when you saw a 14 year old girl who will probable be hot in a few years?!?0__o.)

ZeoX69 says:
Winners don't build crappy reactors and store used nuclear rods ontop of the reactor so when it blows up hundreds of the rods go into the sea.
You thought the Tsunami was bad? Wait until the gov't stops covering up Fukushima

ME-( This just goes to show the ignorance of people out there. Japan had some of the safest and well built Nuclear Power plants in the world. They had fail safe after fail safe. They were built to withstand a 9.0 Earthquake, which it did. It wasn't built to withstand a flood of sea water that took out the diesel generators which were the last fail safe. If people even do a little, tiny, enny bit of research, you could find all this out. I think people rather be stupid than be informed. Also I think this guy as a little of the Charlie Sheen in him...perhaps it is Mr sheen?!)

Snoupy says:
japan need our help......plus domo is awasome!

ME-( Well can't argue with AWASOME!!)

Chrisspy says:
This was probably the most thoughtful game ever made. I just have a hard time beating it.

ME-( Good Lord, the most thoughtful?!?....well I wouldn't want you planning a quadriplegic's birthday anytime soon. The poor kid would end up with a inflatable jumping castle in his backyard followed by a game of hopscotch)

PS3 Spam

I think most of us are smart enough to tell the difference between spam and real email. Especially when it comes around the PSN. What's sadder is when you have people on your own friends list sending the nonsense to you. All they are doing is promoting this crap on to another unsuspecting person who thinks," I must forward this on to others"

Twice now, I have been sent spam mail from the same person on my friends list. The first time, I just said, "please don't send me spam again". Second time, I wrote a long message about,"You know this is spam and is just some dude with too much time on his hand?


The latest message was send this to 50 people on your friends list and get 50$ in your psn account. Well I called the person on this, saying it doesn't work. He wrote me back and said it did work for him.....What?!?..it worked?!.....How old are you -(thinking that, you know ..sometimes kids embellish things just not to be wrong) The reason I started thinking it was a kid, most adults are well aware of spam. He writes back and says he 16.

I wonder about that....You think a 16 year would be a little more knowledgeable?!?...perhaps its just me....but I'm thinking its a younger kid, 12-13 years old who fibs a little about this age to make him seem older( cause 16 years old is light years older to a 12 year old in their mind) to give his story a little more credibility?

I went online to see if Sony was indeed giving away 50$ money vouchers to people for forwarding a message. Of course they aren't.....I even sent them a email regarding the situation which I got back a answer of no, and that sending spam on the PSN can result in your account being shut down...Woaahh, woahah, shut down?!..that's a little harsh, isn't it?...but hey, I don't make the rules.



So, either this person on my friends list is lying (which I think he is - I mean who wants to appear wrong -especially kids) or this is some hacker thing, that makes it appear that you have money in your account, when actually it just a gateway for them to access everything about you on your PSN ID. Who knows....what I do know is this. I don't appreciate spam mail, and when I get it from random senders online, I immediately block and report them.

So this is your last warning Mr Friend online, if you send spam one more time. I will delete and block you, but I won't report you. I'm sure your a decent fellow, but for the love of monkey balls, please stop forwarding spam.

Crawmerax the Invincible - Round 1

Recently put in Borderlands again to try and kill the biggest boss in Borderlands in Co-op with fellow gamer Over at Memoirs of a Gamer Girl. Was thinking, maybe because there are two of us, that we could stand a chance and take down the monster.

I am a level 50 phase shifter and she was a level 49 Hunter, trying to take down a level 64 Behemoth with level 61 minions running around his feet...er..claws..er....this thingies.


The battle went like this...there was a long elevator ride followed by emptying a clip followed by death..repeat. After a few attempts and realizing we aren't even doing damage to his minions. It was then we decided lets go level up some cause it was pointless at this time to do anything against him.

But to level up faster, we played on the second play through fighting enemies that were 2-3 levels higher than us, some just one level higher. This even proved to be difficult with lots of deaths and running out of ammo. BUT..the payoff, you do gain alot of XP, so in no time at all we should be up in the ranks and try the Crawmerax again. You win round 1 Mr Monster sir.

Here is what happened to us, except there were 2 of us. AND THIS GUY IS A LEVEL 58..oh my!

Play Old Handhelds Again

Remember all those overpriced hand held games we use to play in the 80's before the gameboy. Well now there's a site called Pica Pic that you can go to to play them all again. I must admit, that its pretty cool, even though the games weren't the greatest, its still a great premise.

Click Here to play them all. They are fantastic, they are not just emulating the game, the acutal board itself animates with clicks and all. This is the best find ever.

Super Genintari

There are days where I struggle with stuff to post, then there are days where I have to much to post. This is one of those days where I keep finding this that I think is interesting. This one is a modded or created from scratch and Super Genintari machine.


Some guy combined the Atari 2600, Super Nintendo, the original NES and a Genesis into one machine. This is damn cool, taking all the things I loved as a kid and putting them together. Now don't think this works for everything in life. Putting chocolate peanut butter reese's cups in with lobster and olives don't go well together.


The video shows the guy talking about the system, even though its a little weird, its still a damn cool piece of hardware.

Pixel Oven Mitts

Get me two pairs to these STAT....What's stat even mean?..does it mean now?right away?!..get off your lazy bum and do what I say?!. What ever it means, please send me 2 pairs. One for practical use and the other to walk around town to slap people in the face and challenge them to pixel duels.

Duke Nukem - This is the Game that Doesn't Want to Be Released

Perhaps its like a curse, maybe this game doesn't want to get released. With all the hype around this game, there's no way people are not going to pick this game apart. I'm sure its going to be a great play, but no matter how good this game may be, people still aren't going to be happy about it.

MARK MY WORDS: I'll call it now, I plan on relinking this article with the future article where every one starts shitting on this game. If I'm wrong, may Lord Xenu come down in his golden airplane and take me to a far away planet.(looks up in the sky) (thanks to Portable Soldier for heads up) But it does have a great development team behind the title, same guys who brought us borderlands, that's a big plus plus in my books.

WaterFlames Catchy Melodies

I posted HERE about that catchy little tune that I recently heard in the castle crashers game and went on a mad rush to find more about this little diddy. In my search I actually found the guy who does these songs. A guy(I won't use his real name - lets just stick with waterflame) who is from Norway and makes game music for a living.

Normally, I don't really pay much attention to the music of games, I think I can probable count on my hands how many tunes I can recall from ingames. Sure there's some great composed stuff out there, but most of it all falls in generic (for me-but I'm not a musical connoisseur either). But for me, this music reminds me if I played the original Super Mario Game while on a sugar high, candy canes sticking outta ma ears and snorting sugar bits. It takes whats already great and pumps it up a few levels.

Going through his list of songs that waterflame composed, there are quite a few of songs that I really take a liking too. So much so that myself and rowan(Ian) spend most of our day listening to these songs while we work on loops. So I recommend to go to his Newground site and click through the list of songs and find something that you like. Also his You Tube page as an alternative place to find some catchy tunes.

Here are some of my favorite ones that I can't get outta my head, especially like the old school 8-bit music tunes. Great Job WaterFlame, all the best with your career in video game music.

This One's for the French (Also known as Ian)

I thought I post this for my good buddy Ian(rowan) of pacroid, seeing as he's the only one of his kind for miles. Right? Oui!? Miiiilllleessss?!?!:)

Battle: Los Angeles Video Game

I haven't seen the movie, but I do enjoy a good SciFi action flick. This game appeared on the PSN last night, but didn't have a trailer or a demo.

But you could buy the game for $9.99. The price is not bad, but I'm sure has hell not going to buy something just based off the description of a game. Hell, in the old days we at least had images to look at. This is one of the biggest flaws of the PSN, it often will release a game without a demo or even a preview.

But luckily if you have access to the Internet, you can find all this info. So here are some videos of in game play. I must say, for $10, it doesn't look half bad. I think I would like to read some reviews before I sink my money into this one though. But, all the same, not bad at all from first glance.

WWE All Stars Demo

I've said it many times before, I am a fan of 80's wrestling. But having my fill of WWE Legends and being aware of the roster for this game being half from today's band of ragtags made me not very interested in the latest title. BUT, the game play with its over the top moves and combos and style and look of the game made me rethink my decision.

After it was all said and done....I would have to say,"No" to All Stars. For one, the controls for a pick up and play were not friendly. The computer kept reversing and countering most of my moves and my side kept flash a L1 with arrows circling around it, but when I did press it, the computer just reversed that as well. What was I suppose to be doing?! I don't ever know, since the game doesn't tell you. BUT..I'm sure if I got the full game it would explain it a little more, or I hope it would anyway.

All those cool looking combos and over the top moves, aren't as spectacular has I once thought. It still plays like a clunky wrestling game, no different than any other wrestling game except when you do contact, its all very over the top. Which I like, but again, its feels very heavy, like they are wearing weights on their feet and fist. But then all of a sudden someone turns off gravity and boom, hes 20 ft in the air. I think if they were going to go over the top, then go all the way, don't try and mix the two styles of fighting.

Last reason why I won't get this, the roster. I'm a fan of the 80's wrestling ONLY, I have never watched a single match beyond 1989. So with half the roster being people I don't even know, they might as well be,"Paul the Popular Person or Don"the Dood" Guy". Then in the classics side they have the Rock and Steve Austin. For me, that's still not far enough back. I didn't watch wrestling when these two were in their prime. I know about them only through pop culture.
So the roster is a big thing for me, I do enjoy some of the other classic guys such as Ricky the Dragon Steamboat and Machoman, but as for the newer guys, I really couldn't be bothered.



I think it would be like the Marvel vs Capcom games, I really enjoy those types of games, but its the marvel side that draws me in, not the capcom. So for all those Capcom vs SNK or some other random genre, I couldn't be bothered with it.

With that, I have to say that any doubts I had with wanting this game is put to rest. I won't be playing Allstars.

iCade Cabinets

I always find it funny when new cutting-edge technology taps into nostalgia and imitates old technology.

For those who remember the 80's, those table top mini-gaming cabinets will look familiar. Now you can plug in your snazzy iPad and the board controls work with Bluetooth.

Now, to play some Donkey Kong, Centipede or Asteroids. ;)

Here's the original article, on Destructoid.

3D StreetFighter Fan Art

Some great fan art made by all the same guy. Looks great, especially since its all 3D...I like to see it animated now.