Feb
05
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Jan
26
Many prayers have been answered, now that Ico and Shadow of the Colossus have finally been remastered for HD and re-released for the PS3. Gamers who missed these masterpieces the first time around are in for a treat! The kind of treat that may get stuck in your teeth and irritate you, as these aren’t particularly easy games, but a treat none the less.
Ico is different from other games but can be summed up as a puzzle solving adventure game. You play as a boy named Ico in the strangest/cruelest day of his life. For children born with horns, it is law that, at a certain age, they are taken to large castle to be imprisoned and left for dead. Your goal is to escape this prison along with fellow inmate Yorda. Yorda is a ghostly looking girl with major mother issues, who speaks in some kind of otherworldly language and has powers that can help you escape. You must travel from room to room, finding ways to escape together, all the while keeping Yorda safe from the shadow creatures her mother has sent to kidnap her. You’re initially armed with only a stick but later find stronger weapons to fend off the minions.
I’m going to be frank, Ico is a hard game. And this is the European version which is a little bit trickier. Some puzzles were redesigned to make you think a little harder about what to do and where to go next. Both these games are great, but casual gamers may find these games are a little out of their league. How do you know if this game is or isn’t for you? Well, if most of your game collection consists of games with the words “Hero” or “of Duty” on them, this may NOT be for you. That doesn’t make you a bad person/gamer by any means, it’s just that you may not be ready for a unique game like this. If you still want to take this game on, I suggest you rent before you buy.
Part of the same series, Shadow of the Colossus, is a game of nothing but giant boss battles. You play as merely a wanderer who is tasked with defeating 16 colossi in order to revive a fallen maiden. Armed with only a sword and bow, you must journey across the land atop your horse and only ally, Agro, to search for and defeat all colossi. Each colossus becomes a puzzle in itself, as you must figure out how to climb or even reach the colossus and strike at its weak points.
As I mentioned earlier, both games have been remastered to look great on an HD tv and almost look as if they are new PS3 games. However, where this game falls short is in its controls. They don’t quite hold up to the standards of today. For example, the controls of Agro in SotC do not change based on the view of the player, leaving you at times pressing up on the analog stick while tapping the action button to send Agro forward, even though the player is facing or firing in a different direction (so you’re pushing the stick up but Agro’s running at you or to the side since THAT’S technically “forward” now). This can get a bit disorienting since games today tend to target and adjust the movement controls based on the way the player chooses to face the camera. When SotC was released the controls weren’t really an issue, but that was about six years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want Sony to change the game’s controls to better conform to today’s standards, but new players be advised: These are old games, and they play like old games.
Altogether this is a great collection to own. The disc also has interviews with the developers, some footage of early versions of the two games and a look at their next game The Last Guardian which seems to be meld of Ico and SotC. Both these games are classics but do show some age and once you beat them there isn’t a whole lot in terms of replay value. I’d wait for the first price drop to pick this one up, but please do pick this one up.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Purchase: After first price drop/Greatest Hits game
Jan
26
The BETA for Gotham City Impostors just launched and since I got my grubby little hands on it, I’m gonna review it…kinda. This is more of a glance. Understand that this game isn’t finished, in fact, this isn’t even a demo, it’s a BETA, which means A LOT can change between now and when this game launches.
At this point, what we do know, is Gotham City Impostors is 6 on 6 first person shooter set in the world of DC Universe’s Batman series. Only two teams or “gangs” have been announced so far, The Bats, who dress similarly to Batman and The Jokerz, who are, you guessed it…clowns. One could safely assume that more gangs based on other characters from the Batman series will also be playable when the game launches.
The two modes available at this point are Fumigation and Psych Warfare. Fumigation is basically your checkpoint capture style match, where whichever team can hold as many of the three checkpoints the longest in the allotted time, wins. Psych Warfare is your capture the flag style match, but in this game, you must capture a battery in order to charge your propaganda machine that, when fully charged, can disorient the opposing team and leave them weaponless and only able to slap, for a brief moment.
The game offers player classes similar to most first person shooters, like the Striker who’s stats are pretty even across the board, the Scout who’s the quickest class, the Defender who is your heavy and powerful but slow class, followed by the Medic for those who enjoy healing teammates and the Sniper for all you campers out there. The game also follows in the footsteps of other FPS’s by adding a perk system or “Fun Facts” section, allowing you to add bonus attributes to your character. There’s also a “Rampage” bonus you earn after you’ve completed certain amount of kills in a row and a “Psych Profile” section on the character load out screen that allows you to earn experience points based on how you play. Both you can customize to suit your play style.
As you play the game you earn coins you can spend to buy new weapons and personalize the look of your character.
What makes this shooter unique is its wackyness! Now I know that’s not a word in the king’s English, but what else would you call a shooter where you can wear roller skates, use grapple guns, trampolines, and boots that launch you into the air? I’ll tell you…pure wackyness!!
So as far as I can tell Gotham City Imposters looks like a lot of fun. Is it the Modern Warfare killer? No. But is it different and fun? Yeah. We’ll have to see just how fun when its released sometime in 2012.
Jan
13
HOLY AWESOME SEQUEL, BATMAN!!!
The good folks at Rocksteady have done it again! They’ve delivered another spectacular “Dunna-nunna-nunna-nunna dunna-nunna-nunna-nunna Bat-MAAAAAN” game. Batman Arkham City takes place a year after the the events of Batman Arkham Asylum. As it turns out in the past year, newly appointed Mayor Quincy Sharp has sectioned off a large part of Gotham City and sanctioned it to house it’s most deviously wicked criminals. Sound like a bad idea? It is! But that’s where you and The Dark Knight come in. It is your job to enter the newly titled Arkham City in order to uncover and bring to justice the conspirators behind it all. Along the way you’ll encounter The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Joker, just to name a few.
Right off the bat (pun intended), you’ll notice the map is a lot larger than the previous game. Rocksteady has said that it is in fact 5 times larger than Batman Arkham Asylum.
Those that purchased a new copy of the game, are treated to free downloadable content that unlocks Catwoman as a playable character in the main story and challenge maps. For those of you who purchase a used copy without a voucher, Catwoman costs about $10 to download, but is worth every penny! Catwoman isn’t able to glide through the city like Batman, but she is able to scale buildings and climb onto certain ceilings for silent takedowns on unsuspecting foes. She is such a joy to play as and really makes you crave for a Catwoman game in the future.
Batman still controls like he did in the first game, but this time he’s a got a few new improvements to his combat and arsenal. When fighting, you can toss back any weapons that are thrown at you. Also, you can unlock the ability to destroy most of the weapons your enemies use, thus preventing any other goons to pick up the old weapons and attack you. These are small but major improvements to the fighting mechanic that enable you to continue your combos and earn a higher score. The game is also slightly more forgiving. It allows you a few tenths of second more in between hitting different enemies, which is helpful for people who tend to mash buttons while fighting (me). Only people who’ve spent a lot of frustrating hours fighting in the first game will notice this (me), but I assure you it is easier and more enjoyable to fight this time around.
The returning gadgets come back with new tricks. The Grapnel Gun can be improved to launch Batman past his grapple point and into the air to initiate or continue a glide across large distances. Batman can now change directions with the Line Launcher and flip onto the line itself. The Cryptographic Sequencer can now pick up clues from the Riddler and other radio signals. And lastly, the Batclaw can now be used to pick up those pesky, hard-to-reach Riddler trophies.
The game’s storyline is extensive enough to keep you occupied but the game also offers optional side quests as well. The heads up display (HUD) offers a compass to help you navigate through the open world and you’re now able to place markers on the map that appear in the form of a Batsignal in the sky.
As you progress through the story, you’ll gain experience points (XP) to unlock new moves and gadgets that can be used in combat and stealth situations. Collecting Riddler Trophies and completing side quests will also earn you more XP to help you become the hero Arkham City deserves (AND the one it needs right now)!
The Combat and Predator challenge rooms return allowing you to get your quick fix of fighting or stealthy Bat-action. You can play each room one at a time or try the new Campaign mode which is really just a 3 room set, 2 Combat 1 Predator or visa versa. Downloadable characters Nightwing, Robin, and Catwoman can also be used in the challenge rooms.
Since you’re able to do so much from the very start, the game can seem a little overwhelming, but aside from that the game is fun from start to finish. I’m sure internet haters will find plenty of things to complain about that I couldn’t, but to me, this is the best superhero game to date.
Finishing the game unlocks a New Game Plus option that allows you to start a new game with all the leveled up gadgets and moves you ended the game with. This, plus online leaderboards, and downloadable character skins give the game a bit more replay value. It is a single player experience, as every Batman game should be, that is definitely not to be passed up on.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Purchase: Full Price Game
Jan
03
Hello everyone,
Our website is now officially up and running, we have to credit Lupe with the idea for the site and Eddie for posting up our first reviews to get us going. We will continually try to update the website as we go along by adding new reviews and adding new features if possible. Thank you for visiting the site.
Jan
01
If you were on the fence about getting a 3DS, Super Mario 3D Land is the game that will push you off that rusty fence and into the nearest video game store. The story is an all too familiar one, Bowser, the repeat offender with a track record that dwarfs that of Lindsay Lohan, kidnaps Princess Peach once again, and Mario must come to her rescue.
3D Land returns to the 2-button control scheme of classic NES Mario games, with the exception of the shoulder buttons which each allow Mario to crouch, and the touch screen, which is used for your stored power-up items. Mario finally can walk while crouched, and can now perform a Metal Gear Solid-style rolling dive which is helpful for finding secret 1-ups and Star Medals in the game. Using the Star Medals you collect, you can unlock more challenging levels, and worlds beyond the initial 8 you start out with. The game also has a Street-Pass feature where you can share your saved Mystery Box replays with the people who also have the game in your real life. Mystery Boxes are quick challenge games where you can earn coins, Star Medals, power-ups and 1-ups.
Finding myself still breaking out New Super Mario Bros on DS, just to play some card games while in a waiting room or at a family function, the addition of mini games would have given this game a longer life span and a chance to add some kind of lite multi-player. However, it’s wrong to fault something amazing for not being perfect.
At its surface 3D Land has all the necessary aspects of a traditional Mario game, but at its core it is truly a love letter and “Thank you” to all it’s fans past and present. And with constant references to past games in the series, you’ll start to reminisce about the first time you decided to tango with the King of All Koopas and go out of your way for a girl.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Purchase: Full Price Game
Jan
01
The Mario Kart series is back with Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS, and this time, I actually like it…no, I LOVE IT! Mario Kart 7 is like the ugly girl in the movie who gets a makeover, finds her inner beauty and totally wants to date you. I’m in! And I forgot how awesome you could be! Now, I never truly hated the series, but I haven’t smiled while playing a Mario Kart game since the first one on SNES. I’ve felt that the series has lost it’s sense of speed, and by that I mean that the karts seemed to move slower and mushrooms didn’t give you much of a boost. Also, the games over the years seemed to cater more to newer players, making it less about skill and more about chance. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve been screwed over by the unblock-able Spiny Blue Shell RIGHT before a would be first place win. That shouldn’t happen. If you’re in first place throughout the whole race, I don’t think you deserve to lose it because someone else gets the good fortune to ruin it for you. Well, the Spiny Blue Shell is still in the game, but the game is so much fun, that it’s forgivable.
This time around, your kart can hang glide, you can change your style of wheels to suit your play style, race underwater and finally play as Lakitu! (You know, that little turtle guy whose thankless job is to hold the signal and signs and pull you out of the water? Yeah, him.) When you go underwater you move a little bit quicker, while gliding through the air you can tilt down to quickly nosedive or tilt back to raise the glider and stay in the air a little bit longer, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly. As I mentioned before, you can choose what wheels you want to use when you choose your character. The larger wheels give you more speed but take a little longer to get you to that speed and are great for off-roading. The tinier wheels are quicker to accelerate, give you the best control of your kart but can’t off-road much at all, while the standard wheels are the same past players are used to, but are pretty much average. There are more styles of wheels, karts, and gliders to unlock and experiment with by collecting coins during the single and multi-player modes. Experienced players will be happy to know that you are able to hop off the highest point of a ramp to get a speed boost, and still utilize “power sliding” aka drifting, and drafting.
Three new items have been added this time around, the Fire Flower, which enables you to shoot fireballs in front or behind you, the Tanooki Tail, which is great for defense or an offensive attack and 7, when gives you seven different items at once. You practically have to be in last place to get 7 since the series still insists on keeping its “Reward You For Doing Poorly” game mechanic, which we know is solely there for newer players.
The multi-player is pretty standard to what we’ve seen before. You can lose to people around the world or challenge a 3DS buddy, whether they have the game or not. However, this time around using the Streetpass and Spotpass features of the 3DS you can get new kart parts and ghost data from Nintendo and people you pass by in your everyday life. You can even race against multiple ghosts from the people you’ve exchanged data with, at the same time! Of course, with Streetpass, you, and the other person with saved Mario Kart 7 game data, need to keep their 3DS in sleep mode as you casually pass each other in the real world.
Where the game disappoints is in the characters you can unlock and the amount of new 3DS tracks you’re given. Let me save you from some future disappoint now, R.O.B the Robot, is not here. This time Honey Queen from Galaxy 2 and Wiggler, the caterpillar that debuted in Super Mario World for the SNES, are. If you don’t know who this is, don’t worry about it, he’s meaningless in the grand spectrum the Mario series. If anyone deserves to get a kart of their own it’s a Goomba. Goombas are the first enemies you encounter in Super Mario Brothers, have been in just about EVERY Mario game since, and is one of the most recognizable baddie in the Mario universe. CAN A GOOMBA GET A KART!? JUST ONCE?…no, no he can’t. Wiggler gets it. So there you go, but then again, Goombas don’t have arms so, I guess I can understand. Anyways, the rest of the line up is okaaay. I’ll let you find the rest out for yourself. As for the amount of tracks, you get 32 tracks to race in, which is nice, however, and a very big HOWEVER it is, 16 of those tracks are old tracks with minor tweaks to accommodate the new features. Which, if you’re keeping score at home, is HALF!!! Half of the game consists of tracks from past Mario Kart games you probably already own! It’s kinda cool that you could glide in places you couldn’t before but it seems to be common practice in these games now to add so many old tracks to fill the game up instead of just making new ones. And once again, Mirror Mode is back…yes, again. Does anyone actually like Mirror Mode? I don’t know anyone who does. But you need to suffer through it to unlock all characters. Sad face. You can also race in first person mode, which I wasn’t too crazy about, like the reindeer sweater your grandmother gets you, it’s a nice idea, but it’s not gonna get any use.
To sum it all up this is still a must buy for the 3DS, it’s a lot more fun than past games in the series. Veterans and newcomers alike will really enjoy this incarnation of Mario Kart. Taking the race to the air and sea plus the 3D aspect give this game a fresh feeling that the series has been lacking for a long time.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Purchase: Full price
Dec
15
Ever since tablets released on the market for both Android and for Apple I wanted to get one for its use and portability. So I picked up the iPad about six months after its original release because at the time it was still the best tablet on the market. In it’s entirety, I have really enjoyed using the iPad. My only gripe is that I think iOS is too restrictive, but on a hardware level it works really well and we’ll get into that. The main uses that I had for my iPad was primarily for the internet capabilities, storing class notes, stylus writing applications and reading news.
Hardware:
One if its main draws was that it has a 10 inch screen that works really well and is highly responsive. So taking notes and drawing on the screen is fairly easy. For the drawing applications, I used a Targus Stylus for input on the device which works really well most of the time. Only sometimes the pen wouldn’t register input on the screen and would therefore would make mistakes when drawing on the screen. This didn’t happen often enough to be disturbing but stylus response really depends on the stylus itself and not necessarily the iPad screen because the screen really works well most of the time. It’s just that the stylus is designed to imitate the human finger as input which is sometimes not as accurate. The screen size is a huge plus for a student like myself I felt because the 10 inch screen size is approximately the size of notebook paper so when writing or reading on it felt similar to paper. Also I liked the fact that the screen has 4:3 ratio versus the 16:9 ratio that is found on other tablets because once again it had the feel of reading and writing on paper although this creates the usual black bars on the top and bottom of the screen when watching videos which some may not like. The weight of the device is a little heavier than some other tablets but it is definitely not too heavy as the added heft creates a sense of sturdiness and because Apple designs all their products very well, just makes it seem nice. Since the Apple iPad is the most popular tablet on the market then accessories are also in abundance which is good.
Software:
As I said before, my biggest gripe with the device is in the operating system itself. Although iOS runs very smoothly on the device and is very easy to use, it does not allow the user to customize their experience as they choose to do so. For the most part, you have to work around what Apple decides. This is a big concern for me maybe because I was accustomed to the Android operating system on my smartphone and changing the layout is important to me. Besides this issue, everything else about the iPad works almost flawlessly. The AppStore is ginormous in that you can find exactly what you are looking for almost 99.9% of the time and because developers only have this hardware to code for, all the apps found usually work very well and if they don’t then it is the fault of the developer and not the hardware. The operating system handles everything quickly and has never unexpectedly broke or hiccuped in any way. One exception may be for the fact that webpages sometimes load slowly on any browser you use and that pages refresh every time you open them but this is most likely due to the small size of ram in the device rather than the software. The browser works well in most cases as well but the prohibition on flash is a downside but this is a popular decision made by Apple which we can’t get around. Also if you find any browser to use instead of Safari like Skyfire or Terra, you will discover that they actually just look like derivatives of Safari which once again makes it appear that Apple locks down the browser. The built in applications were all very useful and well thought out. I had to download iBooks from the store but this is an Apple product which I found handled PDF files the best so I used this application for viewing all my class notes. The Calendar app although worked well, the design didn’t seem to conform to Apple standards. It just seemed to make me feel old, that’s just an opinion on that though.
Summary:
Simplicity and beauty is the path that Apple has chosen for their devices and it is definitely reflected in the iPad. The ease of use and sheer size of application options available for the device shows why this tablet is the current champion in the market. For people new to tablets, this is an excellent choice to get your feet wet as it is easy to learn how to use and is simply a joy to use. Though for those that are already familiar with smartphones and tablets or the people that just enjoy customization then this might not be the option for you.
Score: 8/10
Worth: $350
Note: Bought this a month or two before the release of the iPad 2. At the time it was worth it, now that iPad 2 is here you might want to get that instead for the speed of the device and more memory but the original is still very nice to use.
Dec
15
Operating System: iOS
Device used for review: iPad
In looking for a stylus based drawing application for my iPad, I found UPad which was perfect for my needs as a student. Being a student and inclined to attempt to incorporate electronic devices to ease my already stressful life as a student I have looked pretty far and wide within the Apple App Store to find the perfect writing application. In my search I found multiple applications but none satisfied my needs as much as UPad does. UPad supports all the needed features that any student would need. Notes can be organized in folders, PDFs can be edited (good for class notes posted on class websites), images can be edited and also the tools within the app are great. All notes support saving, exporting to an array of popular formats, multiple background styles, both drawing and text mode and many useful tools for editing. When actually editing notes within the application you can change the size and color of both the standard pen and highlighter options as well as enabling text fields and changing the formats there as well. When writing, the input displays very quickly enough on the screen to seem like actual writing. On the other applications I tried, there was a bit of lagtime from the instant I put the stylus to the screen to actually displaying what I just wrote on the screen which I found to be jarring but UPad was the fastest. The eraser function was unique in the way that it erases entire strokes versus just the parts that you physically erased like you would on paper that I found to be one of the best features after getting used to it. Instead of continually scribbling on the screen to erase a few lines I had drawn previously I merely had to make one stroke of the eraser tool to get rid of my past mistakes. If you prefer the old eraser style you just need to change the pen color to the background color of your screen and “erase” your previous mistakes. There is also a hand guard for those that accidentally place their hand on the screen which registers as input and within the hand guard there is a writing tool that is handy.
All in all UPad is a very useful, very intuitive application for jotting down notes and ideas that I would recommend to everyone.
Score: 10/10
Worth: $5
Notes: I paid $5 dollars for this application which I think was very worth it. Probably would have been willing to pay more if I had to.
Dec
01
Welcome to our Review website, it’s a joint project from myself, Lupe, and Eddie. It’s a work in progress. Give us some time, we plan on opening up on January 1st. Thank you for visiting us.
Anton