Hello? *Cricket Chirp*

Well it seems as if I've lost what small viewership I had, I blame my busy life and schedule. No worries however, it was a pipe dream of sorts that this would take off and become something people would actually visit every couple of days for news and reviews. Whatever, this train will keep on chugging nonetheless. So as I said I've been swamped and so I haven't had the time to properly sit down and review some things but I'm going to briefly rundown what I've so far played since my last post and do what you will with the information.

Dead Space: Go out and rent this immediately! If this were a drought period I would tell you to rush out and buy it but the game clocks in at around 9 hours and gamers need all the money they can to purchase games with both a solid single-player and multiplayer experience if they're going to get their moneys worth. This game even lacking multiplayer is still amazing and deserves to be played.

Far Cry 2: I've only ventured into the jungles a bit on this one but this is another rental, this one more so for the overall quality rather than because it's short. Overall it's a fun experience but it certainly has some issues and those issues play out throughout the entire length of the game. It's worth checking out however and I recommend you either rent it now or buy it during the drought and when it's cheaper and lighter on the ol' wallet.

Guitar Hero World Tour: Don't bother with this, something about it feels so cold and solely made to rake in the millions upon millions, please, pick up the product that still feels like it has a heart and soul to it and stick with the Rock Band name. Harmonix has so far proven they can do no wrong. Neversoft on the other hand, eehhh, not so much.

Fallout 3: Eventually I should be giving this epic sized game a review of its own but until then if you haven't already read up on it and saw all the great scores it's been receiving I'm just adding another great score to that pile, go out and get this, everyone seems to be treating this as Oblivion with guns but the Fallout brand is much stronger than that and it shines through in every moment of the game.

Fable 2: Give this one a rent, it's short, it didn't deliver on all its promises and while it's fun it's nothing superb. I'm sure I'll give this a full review as well whenever I get a large chunk of free time.

That's about all I've played up to this point, I will be trying to start and complete both the new James Bond title Quantum of Solace just because I can't wait for the movie and the game doesn't look half-bad, and Gears of War 2. I'm not going to go really into the details of why I want to play GoW2, I think at this point everybody does, I'm not in some minority boat. Well that's all from me, I'm still alive, I'm still gaming, and I'll still be blogging, just as soon as life calms down a bit. Take care readers!

Contrary to popular belief, I'm not dead in space.

Just a friendly reminder that there will be reviews of sorts, things in life have gotten very busy so the gaming front has had to take a breather due to such circumstances. However in the coming week I will have more time, and more time means time to play some of the big games everyone is talking about. I'm going to take on Dead Space and then the three big F's as they are released, those being Fable 2, Far Cry 2, and Fallout 3. Stay tuned! It's about to get all M-rated up in here with these titles!

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway

"As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable."
American Scientist Albert Einstein, date unknown

This review is going to be brief and short, because this game follows all the fundamental rules and contains all the necessary parts to be called a game but nothing more really. It turned out to be such a generic, run-of-the-mill game that for the most part had a been here/done that feel to it. So I can't really hate on it, because there's nothing here that isn't done wrong or terribly, it just doesn't gel into a fun experience.

So in this game you play as Baker, I was so unattached from the story I couldn't even tell you what his rank is, it took me awhile to realize even which one I was, this game does a terrible job at catching you up if you've never played the first two, there's a "Previous on Brothers in Arms..." section at the very beginning, but Baker just mumbles and they show random things happening to random people. So the entire game I was trying to piece who I was, who the others I was talking to during cutscenes were, and what the big hub bub was about this pistol with an engravement on it. By the end of it all I could piece some of it together, but this hodgepodge of story was trying too desperately to be emotional and deep but failed so hard at it, I admittedly began to zone out during some of the scenes.

So what's the gameplay like? Basically you're in charge of anywhere from 1 to 3 teams, and you follow your compass and lead your teams, hiding them behind things and then having little trench warfare type fights with the Germans, or if you like you can take a group with you and perhaps sneak up on the side of the Germans or behind them even. Rinse, repeat for 6-8 hours. I will say there were a few parts where you were all alone and it was more run-n-gun, which I enjoyed, there was a few tank segments which I liked, basically you roll around in a tank and massively blast everything and watch it all crumble and German body parts go flying in the air in slow motion. Then there were some segments like sniping Germans to protect a boy, and a run-down hospital level that I liked, had a vibe to it unlike any World War II game level I've ever played. But these few and far between segments can't save the rest of the game or make it recommendable. If you played the last two and somehow feel like the narrative is something you connected with and want to see more exploits of Baker and company, then you'll probably enjoy this game but I wouldn't plunk $60 on it even then.

The graphics are nice, but I remember seeing videos a year or so ago and I'm pretty sure the developers said what they were showing was in-game, and that old footage was very impressive but I'm wondering if that was more of a tech-demo where they were pushing the engine to the max, then realizing hey we actually have to ship an entire game on a disc, not just one visually amazing scene, the graphics took a respective dip into somewhere between good and average for the final product. I also found the sound lacking, I figured this was a World War II game, I bet this will be booming, I'll be hidden behind a wall and hearing gunshots pecking off the corner of the wall and hearing my squadmates screaming out and calling positions while emptying their clips, and Germans shouting and firing etc. That sort of happens, but the audio seemed mostly quiet and low-key. I had to really crank my system to try and get a feel like I was actually out on the battlefield and in the war, and I ended up having to turn on the subtitles because during cutscenes it was if the characters dialogue was spoken through a pillow before it reached the microphone that was recording it.

Having never played much of the first two, I figured Hell's Highway would be the best of the first two, plus some new additions with next-gen technology, I also figured since I hadn't played the previous installments the gameplay would probably stay refreshing all the way through the title unlike where it might go stale quick for a veteran of the series, I was mistaken. It went stale by about the 2nd hour. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and was treated to some interesting segments, but still wasn't enough to leave me feeling positive about this game. Oh and for those who love the series, at the end of the game I was treated to a "To be continued...." screen. I have a feeling Gearbox won't be developing another title however, unless this game sells really well which I don't see happening, I can't see anyone wanting to fork more cash into this series. Third-person shooters have moved so far beyond where Hell's Highway stands, I really feel like this is the last stop for these games.


Final Verdict: Thumbs Down

"As long as there are gamers possessing great wealth, World War II games are inevitable."
American Gamer Bane, date September 30, 2008

Last Hurrahs of September!

We're soon heading into October, I'm going to try and review the new Brothers In Arms game as soon as possible, but until then I offer you a glimpse of what lays ahead. You can look forward to reviews of Silent Hill:Homecoming, Dead Space, and the granddaddy of October, Fallout 3. Quite a spooky month really for gaming, and I'll also try and throw in a review of the Alone in the Dark game that came out months ago. Basically I'll be on the edge of my seat all of October but that's cool with me. Hmm, it just dawned on me that Fable 2 also hits the month of October, jeez, I'll try and put something down on that too. I don't know if I'll be able to digest all the gaming but we'll see how I do. I really wanted to tackle the RPGs that hit the system this month but I don't think I'll have the time. This is why great games need to be dropped throughout the year and not crammed within a four month period. It's a double-edged sword, the lulls that usually carry through the other months is terrible, but the high during the 4 months of gaming lunacy is quite something. Well I have many things to do, but thanks for keeping tuned in!

Star Wars: The Fun Restrained!

This game should have been awesome. This game does look awesome in screenshots and in theory, but after playing through the entire campaign repetition and boredom set in quickly.

So in this game, which is considered canon, you take the role of Darth Vader's secret apprentice code-named "Starkiller", the story here is interesting, you'll see many things from the Star Wars films including cameos from more than Vader and the Emperor, there's a nifty boss fight with someone from Episode I, and you run across a young Princess that you may remember from the movies. Because I'm a fan of the original trilogy and the game focuses more on those aspects, it help my attention and I sought to see what would happen next, though now that I look back on it I should've realized how it would all eventually end.

The gameplay however gets stale quickly, the intro level and the first level that you play as the Apprentice are fun, but after that the game ramps up in difficulty and enemies gain resistance to some of your Force powers causing you to find and frequently use repeated combos that get the job done instead of just going all out with the Force and enjoying the destruction. Depending on what level you're on and the enemies being thrown your way, the game can be sorta fun to downright frustrating. There are moments where the developers thought it would be a good idea to have you fight multiple Rancors, this wouldn't be that much of a problem if the Force Grip and Throw worked precisely and quickly, but beyond the Rancors who want you dead you've got these indigenous people who are being run by a leader and until you take out their leader they're pretty much invincible, so you've got to deal with those, oh but wait there's also these indigenous King type versions of these creatures in yellow that will either mess you up if you try to go in close and lightsaber them or if you stray from them they'll throw powerful projectiles that knock you down. I can't count how many times I was bludgeoned with tons of enemies and there really was no right way to deal with them, I figured I'm the one with the lightsaber here I should be able to dole out my extreme Force powers AND slice and dice with the saber, apparently there exist creatures and types of Stormtroopers that can withstand 10 or so smacks from the saber. As you progress through the game you can unlock more combos and increase the ranks of your Force powers, but your enemies grow stronger throughout the game as well so this basically leaves you on an even playing field throughout, and the new combos you acquire are more trouble to pull off than they're worth.

Two other things of note, one is that the boss battles are lackluster, I really want to stroll into a store and leaf through the strategy guide for this game because by my understanding there was no strategy required, more luck. The game seems to decide when your saber will dole out damage, and Force Push during the battles is a joke because it works no doubt, whoever you're fighting will indeed fly back and lay there for a few moments recouping yet if you dash over to strike them when you would think they're at their weakest you'll notice their life bar doesn't drop a smidge. My only other gripe is the fact that the pulling down a Star Destroyer scene is marred and boring as hell, kill some tie-fighters, pull, rinse and repeat until you've pulled it enough to trigger a cut scene. I wish the games levels had been the Apprentice just massively messing places up and then at the end of each level would be a difficult boss fight with strategy and clashing Force powers.

I don't really feel like speaking too much more on the game, the visuals are very good, the sound as well, overall the title will last you about 6-8 hours and there's two endings so you may revisit the game one last time to load the last level and see the other ending like I did. Overall there were brief moments where I was enjoying myself but overall the combat is lacking and it's repetitive. If you're a big Star Wars fan then I only can suggest renting it, everyone else can just skip it.


Final Verdict: Thumbs Down

Darth Vader: "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed."

Let There Be Rock...Band 2 (Yeah, yeah, I could've done better, but I'm sick, so deal)

Whew, like I said, I am coughing up a lung at the moment, but the show must go on. If out of every review I've ever done this one ends up the most disjointed and makes the least amount of sense I apologize in advance. This review shouldn't be that long anyhow, if you've never touched the Guitar Hero or Rock Band franchise, then this review isn't your cup of tea anyhow.

So in this game just like the last you play music and you play one of four instruments, unless you're the type that likes to sing and play guitar or bass, I've never tried but I definitely should, songs like Modest Mouse's "Float On" I wouldn't even have to gander up at the lyrics, they've been imprinted on my noodle from repeated listens before they were even in the game. So anyway you play any one of the 84 tracks that are on the disc and rock out by yourself or with band members you enlisted over XBL or just some local buds all rocking out together. If 84 songs for some reason aren't enough, there are another 20 coming down the pipe shortly that will be free as well, my guess is that they'll be from Harmonix artists like Freezepop, Anarchy Club, Bang Camaro etc. That's not a bad thing, the in-house bands that exist at Harmonix know how to write good stuff.

One of the biggest features is that the Tour Mode is finally online, that was my biggest complaint with the first one, because I didn't have a steady stream of people over to play and jam out with me I couldn't even touch that mode. So, in this mode you travel from city to city, venue to venue playing setlists and gaining fans. Along the way optional challenges arise, and you can hire personnel like band managers, roadies, sound guys, and the different ones you come across have different attributes about them so you may actually prefer one manager over another. There's also Tour Challenges and a Battle of the Bands, both of which are constantly updated with new challenges week to week, it's a great idea and while I think it would be really cool to have two complete bands competing against one another straight through XBL, I'm sure technically that would be a stretch to pull off so online leaderboards will have to do, it's still satisfying to see your ridiculous band name, like Flight of the Ebony Woman posting a score that slaps you in the top #200 out of thousands of bands. Just knowing that others who play the challenges may run across my band makes me laugh.

Lastly there's still a training mode as well as a Drum Trainer which helps people play lots of drum beats and fills at various speeds. This will definitely help people get over the hurdle of playing the drums if they feel they have no rhythm. Oh, and if for some reason they really have no rhythm at the end of the day you can turn on special features, one of which is No Fail, I can see this being a mode widely used at parties where people playing the game may be also having some booze. No longer do the drunks have to fear that someone will fail the band as a whole and ruin the moment.

Since I have the original Rock Band instruments I can't really comment on the new stuff, but I've heard it's much improved and finally all wireless. Also a quick comment on those who own the first game, for 400MS Points you can transfer all but three songs from the Rock Band disc onto your hard drive to use in Rock Band 2. So if you're in that boat and aren't the kind to go and buy weekly DLC, you'd still have a total of 159 songs to play.

Alrighty people, I have spoken enough, I'm surprised my fever and coughing has allowed me to type all that I have, and I think it even makes sense. Bottom line, if you own the first Rock Band, go out and get Rock Band 2. If you don't have Rock Band, go buy the big Rock Band 2 bundle.

Final Verdict: Buy

360 Reboot? (Rumor)

Look how much fun they're having, unfortunately the 360 sales figures have been slowly declining and we all know about that great new Dashboard Update coming out in November. Any chance it may be coming out in September? That's the word going across the Internet. Supposedly there will be a 5 hour block on G4 dedicated to the new Live Experience, Sirius Radio integration, music store like iTunes, "mad lib" channel (your guess is as good as mine), dozen new game demos, previews of the new GTA IV DLC, new Mass Effect expansion and a free Halo 3 map pack, six free Xbox Originals for Gold members, and about a dozen newly announced retail titles. Then finally to cap it all off at midnight the update would go live and you could jump into this new Live Experience.

So what do you think? Microsoft did hold off on a Bungie/Halo announcement at E3 but I figure they wouldn't want the lid off of a new Halo title until GoW2 is out and in the hands of many. I've got a 50/50 shot on this but I'm going to go with false on this rumor. I think the update will launch in November, and all this free content and games is just the mad musings of some guy. Would I love to be proven wrong? Sure. I just don't see it happening.

Mercenaries 2: I Love The Smell Of Mediocrity In The 360

I gave Pandemic Studios latest game Mercenaries 2 all I could, and I can give no more.

Stepping into the shoes of a Merc who has free roam of Venezuela to do what they like to get their revenge sounds like the premise and promise of a damn good game. Unfortunately, the game falls flat in almost every way. I was thrown into the game and after the few brief intro missions and after having to sit through some terrible FMVs that looked as though they were ripped from the PS2 version I finally was free to start plotting my revenge. I took some contracts right away, and here's my first quibble, the mission structure consists of blow this up, kill this, steal this, rinse and repeat. I realize open-world games are often criticized most for having missions that have all been done to death, but GTA IV did a hell of a better job at giving me convincing characters that I felt like I grew to know and even became attached to, and in turn the missions had more heft and impact. In Mercenaries 2, it's more like "Good job mercenary, have some cash, we like you enough that you should come to our depot and spend some of it, oh and do more contracts and maybe I'll tell you where Solano is". Riveting. I would've preferred a plot in which you're accruing money in the hopes of completely nuking Venezuela altogether, because in the game world the cities are barren and it doesn't even feel as if real citizens live there anyway, just the factions that give out contracts and those you're after.

So I thought I'd spice up the mission structure by doing what the game is to be known for, lots and lots of explosions. Well, first I had to save Ewan otherwise how would I ever airlift fuel and money that's just laying about Venezuela. Then I had to rescue Eva if I wanted some new vehicles for which to cruise around on because most of the vehicles out in Venezuela are boring. Then I had to save Misha if I wanted some bombing runs and anything that requires a jet. Whoo. Okay got that all done. Now the fun begins? Oh, hold on I have to tackle capturing some high value targets and destroying some objects for the factions so they love me enough that I can buy fuel capacity upgrades as well as new Shop Items. Okay, now I need to go to the various shops around Venezuela and purchase things, alright now I'm ready to drop some bombs on these suckers. Why couldn't they have streamlined the shop from the D-Pad menu? I should be able to be out and about on a mission, draw up the menu and order whatever I wish from it as long as I have the funds. Even if I could do that however, mindlessly dropping explosions and vehicles from the sky would be mostly worthless as the A.I. is garbage. The controls and physics are also very loose, I understand they want the objects to be somewhat floaty for when major explosions go off but my vehicle shouldn't be taking damage from just driving along the roads of Venezuela because they get a little airborne from said floaty physics. Whichever mercenary you choose is also very weary of heights, if you sprint down a hill and because you're sprinting you vault off the hill and get some air, be prepared to lose about 10-15 health or more. On the other hand if something important is up a hill or mountainous region, your mercenary has no problem sprinting up it like it ain't no big deal.

I'm having a difficult time reviewing this because I can't think of much to say, the visuals with the exception of the explosions are disappointing. The sound effects are good but the VO is annoying and Fiona constantly pesters the player. The story is bare bones as are the cutscenes revolving around it. The gameplay feels outdated and is plagued with bugs, glitches, loose controls, floaty physics, and when those aren't intervening the A.I. doesn't put up much of a fight so it's at best a mindless run-n-gun game. Co-Op is there, but it just made me feel like I was suffering only with someone else also slogging and suffering through it.

If you love open-world games keep playing GTA IV or pick that up if you're shopping around for one. Maybe hold out for Saints Row 2 but if you feel that you must absolutely play this game please heed my advice and rent it and nothing more. I've got to hand it to the Pandemic guys who would show off builds of this game during gaming conferences and conventions, they really made it seem like it was a great product. Turns out it's just average at best.

Final Verdict: Thumbs Down

Mediocrity, son. Nothing in the world smells like that.