Apparently there is NO Accounting for Taste.

 

         So according to NPD for the last, I don't even know how long.  The top 2 systems: The Nintendo DS and the Wii are the bottom 2 on the above list.  So is the same true for video games as it has been for movies?  The big budget blockbusters are never the critics darling and all ways the financial windfalls that allow the studio to make their art films?  If only this WAS the case.  According to this the cheapest, most economically made games are the ones that not ONLY critique for the worst scores but sell the worst.  Now I know what your saying, these are aggraded game scores not system scores.  But who would buy a game system with SO MANY terrible games.  Apparently the overwhelming majority of consumers.  I'm sorry, folks; if this is any indication of the popular trend to come, we are all going to be playing Peggle 2020 on our iphones in the VERY near future.  Rather than playing anything in 3D or virtual reality or anything else you might be imagining when you think of the future of video games.  So think about that the next time you spend that $1 on the next Tetris clone.

Technorati Tags: platform. ps3. wii,xbox360,PSP,DSi,nintendo,PC,iphone,sony,apple,microsoft

Dante's Inferno: the Demo (PS3/XBOX360)

 

Today on PSN, Dante's Inferno Demo debuted.  For ANYONE interested in the game I would recommend you go over to PSN and check it out.  As the demo is PSN only, if you have only a XBOX 360 you are out of luck.  The demo begins at; what I can only imagine is the beginning of the game.  You are Dante, a crusader in the holy land.  Here you do some nasty stuff and Death wants to take you to hell.  Dante says, "Hell NO!"  And you get served with a boss battle against Death.  And Death is HARD to beat.  At least on Zealot difficulty, which is probably either Normal or Hard in this demo.  It was hard for me to tell.  Your battle with Death is brutal until you figure him out.  Basically, you need to stay in the air and hit him as many times as you can.  You then steal his scythe and destroy him.  If you've been having trouble beating him, destroying him is especially satisfying.

 

   The combat in Dante's Inferno while reminiscent of God of War it is not a God of War clone.  Once you are given your punish and absolution powers things change quickly.  You have to decide which your going to mostly do, and do that.  Punishment is more gory and arguably cooler but hey you ARE trying to get out of hell not straight in; so Absolve seems more logical.  The reason you want to do one more than the other is that for each soul absolved or punished you get experience for that side.  Each has a tree of progression where you get increasing greater powers.  Your holy powers are basically like magic in this game.  The punishment side upgrades your combos and scythe abilities.  I was unable to really get into either of these are it looks like the most points you can get in the demo are around 800 and the next upgrade for either tree is at 1,000.  You can use holy power in concert with your scythe unleashing some really wicked looking effects.  Besides these you also unlock super abilities that while using mana you can hold L1 and a face button to execute.  There are slots for each face button, so unless you actually have to choose powers in the end; I'm guessing you can only have 4 powers total.

       The demo is nice and long and I won't spoil the end of the demo for you.  Let's just say it involves riding a demon and it is really cool.  But I did have a few minor issues with the game.  In larger areas the camera gets a little wonky and at various points it went all Ninja Gaiden on me.  But I'm not sure if  this was due to the geometry of the level or perhaps the size of the enemy.  In any case it is far from a deal breaker.  The only thing I would like to see changed are the quicktime-like platforming sequences where in order to move from one level to another on a pole you have to actually press a button that just sticks you to the pole.  Which seems completely outside the mechanics of the game.  After all there IS a jump button.  But taken in the totality of the demo, I don't think that even this is a big deal.  Perhaps when people see the footage of Dante's Inferno they see God of War.  But I have to say, this game is going farther and I think it will be one of the best game of next year.

Technorati Tags: dante,dante'sinferno,inferno,action,godofwar,PS3,sony,microsoft,XBXO360,hell

Fall of the Lich King Trailer! Because the Blizzard Site can't handle it!

Rabbids Cartoon Series!

Tony Hawk Ride: Videos Say it all!

 

 

Video Games | Tony Hawk: Ride | Review HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

 

One of the above is certainly different than the others. You have noticed which one, right?

Dead Space 2 in the January Gameinformer!

  On the heels of EA's announced that there would be a Dead Space 2; Gameinformers next issue will have a cover feature for it.  I hope it is better than the original as I thought it could have been better in some places.  Specifically some of the light puzzle-solving that seemed a bit incongruent with the rest of the game.

Technorati Tags: deadspace2,EA,Gameinformer,magazines,coverstory,VisceralGames

Halo 3 ODST: Super Short Review (X360)

So I had said around the time that Halo 3 ODST was released that I wasn't going to review the game.  Well, this isn't so much a review as my opinion of the game.  This isn't a full review.  Just a quick expression of my feelings about the game.

       The beginning of Halo 3 ODST starts with you on the bridge of a command ship as your moving into the atmosphere of Earth.  Specifically over New Mombasa. Then you are dropped.  The dropping part was pathetic.  There was little to no vibration and practically none at all when the pod crashes.  This was a jarring experience for me because I was expecting some vibration.

       The story is plodding, told through the perspective of the various ODST troops in your squad.  You are the Rookie, a silent new guy.  Which is probably, again, the single most annoying thing in video games.  It doesn't make you feel like part of the story it makes you feel removed from it.  I hope that ALL game companies in the future will STOP doing this.  It just smacks of laziness not of trying to immerse the player more fully.  And in this case, Master Chief does speak.  So this wasn't exactly a precedent that needed to be adhered to.

       In general each of the ODST's stories were interesting and certainly the best part of the game.  By the time you reach the last 2 or 3 missions of the game you feel like a real bada$$.  Most of the mechanics that the ODST needs to employ are basically a stick and move style similar to that of Modern Warfare just a lot more clunky.  This is still the old Halo 3 engine and boy has it aged.  Perhaps some additional improvements to the character models could have been made.  Most of the character's faces are rendered terribly.  When the Covenant are the best looking characters in the game you KNOW you need to update things.  I felt the ODST guys should have just left their helmets on the whole time, if  Bungie wasn't going to make any more effort to render the ODST faces than they did.

     Halo 3 ODST comes with the game disc which has the Campaign and Firefight mode on it.  Firefight is similar to Horde Mode in Gears of War where endless streams of enemies attack you and you must hold out and not let them destroy you.  You will notice the similarity to this mode and the last couple missions of the campaign; subtle guys, very subtle.   The game also comes with the Halo Multiplayer Game Disc which has all the downloadable maps on it and a couple unique ones.  If you are ANY kind of Halo fan you probably have all the non-exclusive maps all ready.  Thanks for the pointless purchase guys.  Perhaps if the disc contained ALL NEW MAPS that would have been slowly rolled out for a premium price when HALO ODST was released; the package would have been a better value.  Or perhaps a cheaper game with simply the codes for all the maps on XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE.  This would have been cheaper than stamping a new disc and perhaps it would have allowed the game to be $39.99 retail instead of a full $60.

     I certainly enjoyed the little time I spent beating the Solo Campaign.  I enjoyed looking at Halo in a new way.  Especially near the end when you were playing a mission as the Rookie and not one of the other guys in your squad.  But I was kind of missing Master Chief in the end.  Wading into a bunch of Brutes and ripping them apart is so much more satisfying than running around looking for a angle on a sniper shot to kill them instead.  If I wanted tactics I'd play Modern Warfare.  One doesn't play Halo for realism, you play it to feel like a hero.  Not just one of the group.

     If Bungie had decided to give us Halo ODST main Campaign for 2000 points on XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE and maybe Firefight for another 800 points if you wanted it.  I would have been the first in line to grab the content as I have with everything Bungie has released since Halo; but this seemed  like a rip-off to me when the game launched. Now having played Halo 3 ODST, it still seems like a rip-off.  Honestly to ask your loyal fans to spend $60 of their hard earned money during a time of the year when SO MUCH other stuff is just about ready to come out; is insulting and greedy.  But it probably won't keep me from playing Halo Reach, even if I'm not in the Beta.

Technorati Tags: firefight,HALO3,ODST,Bungie,XBOX360,microsoft,Halo,HALO3ODST,FPS,shooter,Brute,multiplayer

 

The Review Event? Is that like Must See TV?(Reviews)

      Right off the bat I have to say that I have never been to a Review Event.  I was invited to one for a Wii game, I think it was for the Conduit.  I didn't have the heart to tell them that my site doesn't review Wii games or cover Nintendo news at all.  So I just didn't RSVP.  But apparently this kind of thing is not confined to third rate Wii titles.  According to Michael McWhertor who wrote a great post on Kotaku, all the big games are doing it: Modern Warefare 2, Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, etc.. 

    The reason given in the article is that the publishers/developers are worried about the security of their game code and making sure that the media doesn't spoil the surprises in the game(somehow).  I truly believe that the reason that most press go to these events is that if they had to purchase the game at retail they would never be able to review the game to be in tandem with the sites that DO go to these events.  Which for most video game journalists these days this is a big deal.  The review can't even be a day late or there will be lower traffic or potential loss of sponsorships.

     I truly believe that SOME big sites might have an obligation to their subscribers to have this content up in a timely manner.  However, if someone told me that I had 3 hours to play Tony Hawk Ride and I had to review it for my site.  I think I would say,

        "Well, it looks like garbage to me, so I'll just go with that."

      Normally when I am pressured into reviewing something my first response is normally pretty bad.  For instance, I've been playing Assassin's Creed 2 for review since a couple of days after the game's release.  The game is a lot of fun, but it does have some problems that I won't go into here.  But the first few hours of the game aren't very fun; unless of course you played the first game and still remember how it worked.  Then you might be able to fly through the first few missions and get right to the meat of the game.  I would say that if I had only had a limited amount of time to play the game I probably would have given a pass and told my readers not to buy it.  And I would have been horribly wrong.  This of course, can go the other way as well.  The first few hours of Ninety-Nine Nights were some of the best I've had in a video game.  Only by the time I reached the middle of the game, did I realize how horribly repetitive the game is and that it would probably not be getting a very good score.  So what I'm trying to say here is that if you are only given a limited amount of time to review a game; the review will be colored by that fact.

   I also don't believe that people playing a multiplayer only title can get an adequate judging of that game until it is out in the wild.  It is certainly easy to get the gist of a game when it is being played by people who have spent hours not only building the game but playing it as well.  In contrast, playing the same game; as most people will play it.  With people who have only had the game a day or two.  Would really change the reaction most people would have to the game.

        This certainly raises a lot of questions about the voracity of reviews written during these events.  Most of which got incredibly good scores.  In fact, I'm told many of the reviewers who went to the Tony Hawk Ride Event gave the game excellent scores that by the rest of the journalistic community is just ridiculous and completely wrong. 

    What is the honest reviewer to do?  Well, look at the event, look at the game, and decide if this is an appropriate venue to review the game.  If not, don't go and purchase the game at retail.  Then take the proper amount of time to review the game.  To the gamer, I would say don't freak out if you don't get your review on launch day.  There is probably a good reason that the review is taking longer.  And keep your ears peeled during podcasts when game journalists start talking about how they went to that review event or other and see if the trend in scores seems to be different.  Or better yet, do the general reviews from one site or another for AAA games all ways swing toward one end of the spectrum and is this contrary to your personal experience with those games?  As history has proven the game industry is driven by the informed consumer and when it is not things can go horribly wrong for the market in general.  I think that it is up to all gamers to make sure they are listening to the right people and not being fooled by people who simply want to be able to check their review off their "To Do List."

Technorati Tags: journalism,blogs,video games,websites,kotaku,reviews,review

No More Heroes in MOTION in HD!(XBOX360/PS3)

Medal of Honor to get Modern Reboot

        "Operating directly under the National Command Authority, a relatively unknown entity of handpicked warriors are called on when the mission must not fail. They are the Tier 1 Operators.

Over 2 million Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines wear the uniform. Of those, approximately 50 thousand fall under the direct control of the Special Operations Command. The Tier 1 Operator functions on a plane of existence above and beyond even the most highly trained Special Operations Forces. Their exact numbers, while classified, hover in the low hundreds. They are living, breathing, precision instruments of war. They are experts in the application of violence. The new Medal of Honor is inspired by and has been developed with Tier 1 Operators from this elite community. Players will step into the boots of these warriors and apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan.

There is a new enemy. There is a new war. There is a new warrior. He is Tier 1." Medal of Honor Site.

   So I guess this could be interesting to SOMEONE, but I don't know who.  Given the success and insane money that Modern Warfare 2 is pulling down.  I don't think there is room for 2 more Modern shooters.  Those would be Battlefield Bad Company 2 and This Medal of Honor game.  Both seem to be riding the coattails of such a large behemoth that they are not even going to see the head when they are thrown violently to the curb.  Sorry guys, come up with something new.  Like multiplayer in Mirrors Edge 2 or something.

Technorati Tags: EA,Medalofhonor,XBOX360,PS3,shooter,FPS,wargames,modernwarfare2

EA focusing on Casual Market, and how is that working again?

  In a recent interview with IGN John Riccitiello was reported saying,

         "Riccitiello also stated in a video interview he expects the digital games business, such as subscription-based services, micro-transactions, and Facebook gaming, to overtake the console market by next year, increasing its current forty percent market share to over fifty."IGN.com

   This is interesting considering their recent problems with the Battlefield Heroes free to play game trying to turn it into a Pay to play game.  Alone both stories are interesting but put them together and it looks like EA has no idea what the heck they are doing and what their audience ACTUALLY is.  After all, it's going to be interesting to see how they get their major free to play MMO, Free Realms.  Would it need a name change, like Low Price Realms?  Adding to this the disturbing news that Command and Conquer is going to become a free to play browser game or a MMO subscription style one only serves to further confound any lover of the remaining EA franchises. 

   Considering the problems Id has had with Quake's free to play model as a browser game.  Its amazing that ANYONE would want to leap into this area as an alternative to boxed products with ACTUAL revenue stream that isn't based on forced people to pay money for something that they were once getting for free.

   And the whole Facebook game industry is so corrupt and insane as far as a reputable business is concerned they might as well be opening store fronts on Ebay at least there would be some regulation.

   Considering the upcoming year of incredible game releases it's very hard to understand where Mr. Riccitello is coming from with his statements.  Perhaps the unfortunate investments and ridiculous lay offs have put the screws to him.  But as history has shown, enthusiastically backing a lame horse doesn't make the horse any less lame or your company any more bankrupt when it's over.

Technorati Tags: facebook,casual,EA,Riccitiello,MMO,MMORPG

Never Thought I would see this! (Mythos/Hellgate)

    There was once a little brand called Hellgate London and they had a nice little spin off project called Mythos.  Mythos was fun and inventive, very Torchlight-like but with multiplayer.  Hellgate however, was a very hefty system for the developer to create and process and ended up dying due to a lot of bugs and a lot of online issues.  So much so, that HanbitSoft the publisher put the developer Flagship Studios out of business.  Neither game has seen anything approaching the light of day for quite a while. Now they are BOTH back?  What? Mythos as what looks like a Torchlight rip off with multiplayer.  I wonder if they will beat the Torchlight MMORPG?  Also, Hellgate Tokyo was just announced that seems like a rather poor choice considering the original brand was such a disaster and it was only a couple of years ago.  All from HanbitSoft, the company that couldn't hack the online part of either of these games to such a degree that they had to close both of the old games.  Perhaps someone should be watching the purse strings of this company considering how absolutely crazy this whole mess seems to be.

 

Video Games | Hellgate: Tokyo | Debut Teaser

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

The Hellgate Tokyo trailer looks a little too much like the original game, hopefully this is just a pre-alpha look.

Technorati Tags: hellgate,hellgatetokyo,PC,Mythos,MMORPG,HabitSoft,Flagship

Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands Announced...

   Today Ubisoft announced that Prince of Persia The Fogotten Sands, the game is on track to come out in May of 2010.  There haven't been any announcements regarding the story or which Ubisoft studio will be developing the game.  But judging from Prince of Persia website.  The game seems to be harkening back to the original Sands of Time series rather than the newer Prince of Persia series.  The official launch trailer will debut during the VGA awards on Saturday December 12th.  So I suppose we have until then to think about what could be in the new game.

Technorati Tags: princeofpersia,ubisoft,xbox360,PS3,PC,forgottensands,vgaawards

Forza Motorsport 3 Review(X360)

 

     Every once in a while(and believe this is happening less and less often lately) a game comes a long that I really can't say anything bad about.  Forza Motorsport 3 is one such game.  Sometimes games this good I tend to not review because I'm usually afraid of overdosing on hyperbole.  But hey, we all need to try new things right?

      Forza 3 is an excellent racing game.  You get the usual career mode, online mode, and time trial mode.  Of course, you also get the usual access to online auctions for your car buying needs.  The old game play of Forza 2 are still rock solid.  There are also expanded features for folks that have never played a simulator style racing game before.  The number and variety of assists that you can turn on and off are pretty comprehensive.  Allowing the people new to this type of game a set of virtual training wheels so that no one is at loss due to lack of experience.  These systems are in place throughout the game and the only real detriment to the player who uses them is a few less virtual dollars per race.  Also, time is added to competitor's times in things like Time Trials so that everyone is on the same playing field.  Forza still presents a large number of cars and tracks giving a lot of variety for anyone needing to find a descent ride to take out on a descent track. 

  The graphically fidelity of the game has been slightly amped up over it's predecessor with the addition of a in-car point of view.  This give the player a full two sides of the car and a full dashboard as well as rear view and side mirrors.  All modeled realistically off the original car.  The tracks and the exteriors of the cars themselves are much like they were in the original title.  If the barely populated and super realistic tracks were not your thing the in Forza 2 there will be no comfort for you here either.  Personally, I usually found myself going so fast around these tracks that I was only barely aware of the fan populace or lack there of.  Of course every car sounds pitch perfect and each vehicle definitely has it's own personality and driving style necessary to master it(at least with the assists off anyway).   The background music is still the lackluster poppy mess that was replete throughout Forza 2 but then I usually play with the music off anyway.  Even if you have no music at all the sounds of your car and the others will soon be all the soundtrack you need; if you are racing in a competitive shootout.  As you move up the difficulty ladder drivers get more and more aggressive until they will, in some cases, wreck you to get a head.  But when you reach such a high difficulty level it's probably time to go online.  After all, we all know how people drive in ranked matches, don't we?  So look at the hardest difficulty level good practice for the online experience.

   The career mode in Forza is called Season Play and here you go through Championship races based on class of car until you reach the highest class.  All the while earning money, experience, experience for your car to earn discounts, and of course gifts from car manufactures to spur on in your career. 

  One of the main features of the Forza series is the ability to customize both the exterior and interior of your car.  There is certainly some room for expansion here.  For instance, changing the interior color of your car, now that you can see it.  Or adding more after market parts to your vehicle so that it performs and looks drastically different than it did when it rolled off the show room floor.  But you are allowed to do everything but the above.  Which while not an extreme improvement over the first the baby step of allowing the player to design on a grid rather than directly on the car is makes a big difference to anyone who's ever tried to do it.  Another new part of Forza 3 is that you get a personal storefront where you can sell everything from your car designs to tuning setups.  You can also show off your photos of cars and replays there as well.   This feature is great and really makes the community of Forza 3 a little easier for people to jump in and out of the market for designs and cars.  There was a feeling of being overwhelmed in the virtually non-searchable auctions in Forza 2 that was really intimidating to anyone unwilling to spend a half hour looking through the same 10 car designs over and over.  With this you can also lock down your own designs to a particular car.  Colors can be changed.  But the days of people adding one little thing to a design and then selling the design as a new one are over.

    The overall package of Forza 3 will keep the average player busy for hours, even weeks.  I've been playing pretty steadily since the game was launched on October 27th and haven't found myself bored with the game even upon reaching near level 40 in Driver rank.  The higher the car class the more expensive the car typically is and that will mean that you must take more time racing or more time designing new cars.  Whatever you choose to do, you will have fun doing it in Forza 3.  If I had to level ANY criticism at Forza Motorsport 3 it would be to say again that reversing a track is not the same as making a new track.  There could be more tracks in the game; as typically you visit the same one quite a few times.  But this is a minor thing,  Between the online and offline there will be plenty of fun to be had with Forza 3 long after the glow of your Christmas lights have faded both from your memory and your tree.  If you like racing games, then pick up Forza Motorsport 3.  The game is exceptional and something for the competition to shoot for both this year and next.

Technorati Tags: forzamotorsport,forza3,xbox360,Turn10,Microsoft,carracing,racing,tracks,auctions,tuning,photos

G4 TV Brink Preview: Cause no one else has it...

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2010 - Brink