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Posted on 10.02.07 by skintari @ 12:11 pm
It is good. That is all. The end. Filed under: General and Quip and Xbox 360 and skintari Comments: None |
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Posted on 09.24.07 by skintari @ 9:13 am
Well, I tried to like you skate. I really did. But in the end, you just left me yearning for my days as a youth and thrashing the church steps in my old hometown. Let’s start with the good, shall we? Skate is a beautiful looking game. The tricks were realistic enough to bring back memories of pulling my own method airs oh so many years ago. The buildings and the scenery were beautiful to look at, and even better to skate! The trick system was actually quite good too, once you get the hang of it. Pulling nollies and flips became second nature when I was just zooming around town looking for a nice long rail to 50-50. Although, I wish they would have let me pull off a darkslide as that’s one of my favorite grinds. But it was still so much fun to have a skateboard game where I could actually envision myself as the skater. I was truly immersed in this game, and that rarely happens! Now the downfall….It was a little too realistic. The game shows you in a third person form, looking up from the ground. This is bad because a skater needs to be aware of his surroundings. Whether you’re trying to get a good angle for a grind or if you need to see if traffic is coming before you grind out into the street, you need to know what’s going on around you. This hindered a lot of tricks and force you to bail. A lot. I really would have liked to change the camera angle so it’s over the shoulder, or even be able to look freely left and right. If they wanted a game so realistic, they should have taken all the aspects that one has when they skate. Many times I would skate to the top section of some stairs and have no idea how they curved or if there was even a break in the steps so I can time my landings. I felt cheated by the “unknown” and it really detracted from my gameplay. Another thing that frustrated me where the difficulties of the missions. Quite a few of the accomplishments that you had to do seemed so outrageously difficult that I just gave up. Once again, a lot of this was attributed to the poor camera angle selection. If I was able to actually see where and what I had to do, I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to judge without taking away from the difficulty of the tricks. Instead, it just frustrated me to the point of shutting the game off and playing Zuma. Another issue I had was trying to pull manuals. This was a necessary trick you had to use for some of the missions, yet it was so difficult to pull off that it wasn’t worth the 15 minutes I spent trying to accomplish this. Another downfall of this realism is the fact that you cannot get off your skateboard! I found it infuriating that they could make a game so real to play, yet, you couldn’t walk up a hill or climb some stairs. Seriously, it would take 5 minutes to skate up a hill that you could have easily walked. There were so many neat features to this game (being able to upload tricks and pictures to the online server for the world to view was really cool). But it became undone by it’s own desires to be real, that it ultimately doomed this game. Too much went into the concept that it degraded the gameplay to such an extreme that it wasn’t fun. Maybe they’ll make a second one that’ll really give the gamer a chance to explore and thrash without worrying about getting hit by a car that came out of “nowhere”. So my vote for this game is 2/5. I’m glad I only wasted a rental on this and not the full $60. Filed under: General and Review and Xbox 360 and skintari Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 08.07.07 by skintari @ 4:39 pm
Sorry for the lack of posting, but I have been consumed lately (pardon the pun). To make up, I’ll make this a double post! Yay! First game is Bust a Move for the Wii. We received this game on Saturday and had it beat by Sunday. It is that easy. And repetitive. And boring. If you’ve played the online or any of the previous console versions, you know exactly what you’re getting. Aim your little pointer at the like colored balls and press a button. That’s it. No more, no less. The controls are extremely twitchy. My girl sat down next to me and it actually caused the aim to dart all across the screen. That means you have to sit perfectly still and hold the wii-mote with both hands to even play this. That is not good. Secondly, was the constant music that played throughout the game. There are 5 different “8-bit” tracks (one song for each 50 puzzle level). These songs play continuously through the level. And then continues on in your mind a good half hour after you quit playing. It’s that bad. And I won’t even get into the lack of a decent multi-player section. My rating: 1.5/5. This game was fun for about 2 minutes. After that, it sucks the life out of you…. Speaking of (see what I did there!)….The Darkness. This game is good. Very good, in my opinion. Although the length of the game is rather short (it can be beaten in less than a week if you really try), it provides quite a punch from what’s on the market currently. I am going to refrain from any real “details” of this game because it was a joy to uncover powers on my own and I don’t want to spoil it for you. Let me start this review by stating that I had not previously read the comic before I played this, so it was a fresh storyline for me. However, I have started reading it and the storyline really stays true as far as I can tell. At least moreso than most of the other comics to games that are out. So the gameplay gives you control of the main character, Jackie, and his “demons”. This is surprisingly intuitive considering that you play as both, and at the same time no less! The controller scheme is mapped in a convenient way so you can use your dark powers while maintaining a fire fight with your enemies. This also leads to some very graphic and up close “kills”. I won’t spoil the different ways you can tear your victims apart, but let me just say that none of them ever get old! Now the look of the game is also very detailed. Seeing the faces of these people that you have to interact with gives you the feel that you’re back in an old timey mob setting. In fact, there were a few times that I would just admire my character in a mirror. It was surreal to me to see your reflection as clear as day in-game. The only real problem I had with this game (outside of being short) was the camera angles. Quite a few times the camera would get hung up corners or as you controlled the creeping death. This was frustrating at times, but not nearly enough to make me not want to play it! All in all, I give this a 4.5/5. I hear that the multiplayer is “broken”, but as a campaign, I thoroughly enjoyed this from the beginning till the end. I also recommend that you rent or gamefly this as it can be beaten in a relatively short time. Filed under: Review and Wii and Xbox 360 and skintari Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.17.07 by A 47 Danger @ 5:07 pm
Koala will take over as the senior vice president of IEB at Microsoft, effective July 30. Koala are broadly similar in appearance to the wombats (the closest living relatives), but has a thicker, more luxurious coat, much larger ears, and longer limbs, which are equipped with large, sharp claws to assist with climbing. Koala have an unusually small brain, with about 40% of the cranial cavity being filled with fluid. In February 2007, koala began working with the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft as an external advisor. “Peter has contributed enormously to the games business since joining Microsoft in 2003 and we are sad to see him go,” said Robbie Bach, president of Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. “Since that time, he presided over the global launch of the Xbox 360™, spearheaded a revitalized and rebranded Games for Windows business, and helped steer the console’s ascent.” Moore has decided to return with his family to Northern California, where they lived until he took the position at Microsoft. Moore will remain at Microsoft to assist in the transition through August and will then return to the San Francisco Bay area. “While Peter will certainly be missed, we are delighted to have one of the industry’s most talented and passionate veterans on board to lead the business,” Bach said. “Koala were hunted almost to extinction in the early 20th century, largely for its fur. In recent years, some colonies have been hard hit by disease, especially chlamydia.” The origins of the koala are unclear, although almost certainly they descended from terrestrial wombat-like animals. “Over the past two decades, and the past few months in particular, we’ve worked closely with many of Microsoft’s top leaders and we’ve always been impressed by their talent, passion and commitment,” said koala. “We’re thrilled to join an already strong team that’s delivering truly amazing gaming experiences to customers around the world. We’ve never been more excited about the future of the industry, and firmly believe Microsoft will lead the next great innovations in gaming.” Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Filed under: A 47 Danger and Humor and Xbox 360 Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 07.17.07 by A 47 Danger @ 9:53 am
Straight from Major Nelson’s blog, here is your most useless XBLA update of the day:
Only the Canadians are allowed to advertise the Volkswagen GTI for free. That’s okay though. My free Doritos gamer pic will tide me over. If only there was an energy drink I could advertise through my avatar. Filed under: A 47 Danger and Rant and Xbox 360 Comments: None |
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