Two Worlds II will grab a club and beat you over the head with it for the first couple hours, then it drops the club and starts hitting you with a pillow. Translation :: You will be completely lost for the first hour or so and say “This has to be the worst game ever made.” Then after you figure out what all the buttons do and how to read your map (there is no in-game legend), you have fun with the game play but the terrible character animations, poor voice acting and terrible user interface still grate on you. Read on to find out what I do and don’t like about the game.

Although there are a lot of bad things to be said about this game, let’s start with the good. It is very addictive and is a great loot gathering game. The story is not bad but I think they could have used a little prologue in the beginning to refresh people on what happened in the first game. Should you buy it? I would wait until it is cheaper, say around $30 or less, before buying it. I would recommend renting it or trying a friend’s copy before you buy it. Renting it will not allow you to play completely through the game however as I had about 25 hours of game play in it by the time I finished the single player story. I did do a lot of side quests as well so I would say there is probably about 30-40 hrs of game play at most not including multiplayer. Renting the game will allow you to get a feel for what it is like as long as you stick with it for a few hours. As far as multiplayer goes, I cannot speak to that as I did not play. I know you are probably thinking “how can he review a game when he doesn’t even play the complete game?” and I would totally agree. But I am not rating the game based on multiplayer, I am simply writing my review of the game from a single player standpoint.

One of the things I mentioned was the story. I think they should have done a little more in the way of a opening video or even some sort of text at the beginning of the game to refresh people’s minds on the first game. As this is a true sequel, the story somewhat hinges on what you did in the previous game. It takes place five years after the first game ended and you have been imprisoned by the emperor. A group of orcs help you escape and this is where the game really opens up. The first hour or two of the game is just like a giant tutorial on how combat works and all that good stuff. After you get done exploring the first small island you start on, you get access to the teleporter on one of the larger islands so you can start adventuring on your own. One nice thing about this game, you can teleport from anywhere you have a clear line of sight to the sky. Basically, anywhere that is not in a building or dungeon. Similar to Oblivion, after you get onto the bigger island, you are welcome to start exploring on your own or continue the quest. However, one MAJOR drawback to this is that enemies are not leveled to your character so you could wander across a giant ant that kills you in one hit when you were just looking to slay some ostriches. It is recommended that you follow the story or do a lot of side quests because it will keep you on par with the level you are supposed to be for the next area.

Now, about that loot gathering. This game has more loot than I have seen in a long time. If you walk into a Varn encampment and slay everything you see, you will end up with a bunch of weapons and shields that you can break down to upgrade your current equipment. There are also lots of chests and houses to be looted if you have the patience to sit through the cumbersome task that is lock picking. The lock picking mini game is not hard by any means but if you’re not quick with your fingers it can be frustrating. You have the option to try and hit the lock with your weapon to break the lock which is nice but it only works some of the time. Your character has to swing the weapon just right so it does not hit the wall behind the chest. It can take as much time trying to hit the lock as it does to just do the mini game Loot in the game is also randomized (I found out by accident) so if you want to roll the dice and reload your last save you can try to get something better. Another thing to remember is to always break down your armor and weapons that you aren’t going to use. Don’t sell them for money as you probably aren’t going to need a lot of money and you get enough from quests to cover what you will need. It is always better to break the loot down into components so you can upgrade your own weapons/armor.

And now we come to the bad parts of the game. I didn’t want to start off with this because I didn’t want to completely turn you off to the game before you saw some things you might like. The character animations in the first hour will have you trying to figure out what the person who made them was smoking at the time. They try to make the characters seem life like and not just stationary objects by making them shift their weight and move their arms but it makes them look really stupid. Your character will make a statement yet shrug his shoulders like he was asking a question. It’s very bizarre to see. The voice acting also doesn’t do much to help it either as the main character has a very stale and unemotional voice. Graphically speaking, the game is average at best. I have seen much sharper and cleaner looking images in other titles. The camera angles frustrated me at times but for the most part I did not have any issues with that aspect of the game. Sound in the game is hit and miss. Sometimes one person in the conversation will speak so softly you reach to turn up the stereo and then the next person talks and it just about blows the speakers. There are many areas in this game that just seem unfinished and unpolished for the most part and unfortunately it’s the areas that you see the most of like graphics and sound.

I figured I would save my biggest complaint for last and here it is. There is no in game manual or map legend of any kind. It took me several hours to figure out what the heck I was doing and how to access certain parts of combat. After you figure it out, it’s rather intuitive but it’s trying to figure it out that is the issue. As far as the map legend goes, there is one in the game manual that comes in the case but who wants to pull out the manual just to figure out what they are looking at in the game. It should be on the map itself or at least have a button that let’s you toggle the legend on and off. Also, the default setting for items and such is to have pictures next to it instead of text. For instance, let’s say you look at the stats for your sword. It will show a picture that looks like the tip of a sword with a number next to it, then below that, it will have several other pictures that you have no idea what they mean. After a while, you start guessing and figuring it out but it just seems to me that there should be a better way of handling it. About 15 hours into the game I found an option in the settings that allowed you to change those pictures to text and that helped tremendously because you were no longer guessing at what that particular picture might represent. One reason it is so confusing is because that same picture of a sword tip shows up in your armor stats as well and also on your bow and arrow. The picture in the sword stats and bow and arrow stood for “slash damage” but in the armor it meant “slash defense.” I know that sounds simple but that is just one example I could think of.

In conclusion, the game is OK but I would wait a while before picking it up as I don’t think that it has the level of quality that warrants a $60 game. I enjoyed my time with it after I got past the first few hours and it really did start to grow on me. If they make a third one they have several areas they need to improve on but I think they are headed in the right direction. Better voice acting, character animations and a few other changes would go a long way towards making this a good game. I also think there should be some sort of way to know what kind of enemy you are going up against because, as it stands, you don’t know if you can defeat an enemy until you hit it for the first time to see how much damage you do to it. By this time, you are already in its striking distance as well and it will probably kill you in one hit. I can’t stress enough how frustrating this game can be in the beginning though. It’s almost not worth trying to play through it but like I said, it does get entertaining after you figure everything out.

We all knew it was going to happen, we just didn’t know when. Today we got our answer as Microsoft announced that  just 77 days after it’s release Halo Reach will receive it’s first DLC on November 30th. For 800 space bucks ($10US) you can download 3 new maps, “Tempest”, “Anchor 9″, and “Breakpoint”.

“Tempest” appears to be another map linked to Forge World, as it boast a larger out door area as well as two bases. It will provide match making for 8-16 players and support a variety of modes including Free for All, Team Objective, Team Slayer and Big Team Battle.

“Anchor 9″ will compliment “Zealot” as it contains space for battle both inside the hanger of a UNSC space craft and out side its gravitational field. This map will allow for 2-8 players to battle it out in Free for All, Team Objective and Team Slayer.

“Breakpoint” will support 8- 16 players as they square off in Big Team Battle and Invasion, as it offers a vast mountainous terrain covered in snow.

The question remains as to how this DLC may effect matchmaking. Will Microsoft follow in the ways of Halo 3 where large sections of matchmaking became unavailable to players that didn’t buy the DLC, or will they offer new game mode sections for those that purchase and want to play the new maps? I hope for the latter of the two. One thing that killed Halo 3, in my opinion, was that players were punished for not continuing to feed the pockets of Bungie and Microsoft. They saw their investment in the game dwindle in front of their eyes as sections of Halo 3 that were previously available to them disappeared simply because they didn’t download, what some thought was overpriced, DLC. For now we will have to wait and see how this DLC will be handled. But I think it would be shame if players are once again put out because they we not interested or didn’t want to pay $3.33 a map for this DLC. But I guess we have to wait and see.

]]> http://www.gamerhusbands.com/halo-reach-dlc-dropping-in-november/feed/ 0 http://www.gamerhusbands.com/coming-soon-uncharted-the-movie/ http://www.gamerhusbands.com/coming-soon-uncharted-the-movie/#comments Sat, 09 Oct 2010 17:06:17 +0000 Bumblb19 http://www.gamerhusbands.com/?p=3411

Hollywood adaptations of video games have been hit or miss in the past. Titles like the Tomb Raider and Resident Evil series have done well, while others like Doom have bombed. So when a gamer hears that one of their favorites is going to be coming to the silver screen, it creates anxiety. First you get all excited and imagine what it will look like in real life, and then you remember all of the under budget, poorly cast and poorly directed movies that left a stain on the name they were portraying. And that is exactly what went through my mind when I heard that Columbia Pictures was working on Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

In a recent press release Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach of Columbia Pictures listed David O. Russell as the writer and director, and Avi Arad, Charles Roven, Ari Arad, and Alex Gartner as producers. With that limited information it makes it difficult to draw a definite conclusion on how well the movie will turn out. But, after hearing rumors about so many possible video game adaptations that never came to life, it does show that the movie is one step closer to being on film. David Russell’s best know action film for most is Three Kings, for which he was director and writer. As for the producers, Ari Arad is best known for his days as chief creative officer at Marvel Entertainment. Charles Roven has produced several big title movies such as The Dark Knight, Batman Begins and Three Kings. Ari Arad has produced several comic related titles such as Iron Man, Ghost Rider and The Punisher. And Alex Gartner has produced Get Smart, The Bank Job and Out of Time.

So it appears that the movie won’t be under budgeted. Now all we need to know is the cast. So who could Russell choose to play the main character, Nathan Drake? After a close look at the list of movies he has directed, there is one person that he seems to turn to, Mark Wahlberg. Wahlberg has teamed up with Russell in Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees, and The Fighter (releasing this December). So it would be know surprise if Russell turns to Wahlberg again. He’s well qualified for the job, with a resume that includes a variety of roles from Dirk Diggler in Boggie Nights to Max Payne in Max Payne, he has shown that he can take on just about any role. And who better to play the role of a ladies man that Marky Mark.

What are the keys for success for this movie? Most importantly, stay true to the storyline in the game. Almost everyone loves a great treasure hunting movie, as shown by the success of Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider. Don’t over do the special effects. Too often good movies are over shadowed by the fact that everything seems to blow up. And keep your target audience broad by not producing a rater R movie. By keeping it in the PG-13 range or lower you increase the number of potential viewers. I believe this was one of the key factors for the success of the Indiana Jones series. While maintaining an exciting and adventurous storyline for adults it was done with enough tact to still appeal to a younger audiences as well.

So we will just have to wait and see how this movie plays out. But hopefully it will continue to progress and come to life in a theater near you.

Its been nearly 400 years since the last blight and the Grey Wardens are few in numbers because no one believes that another blight is coming and they think it is just legend. You however soon find out that the Archdemon will be here in a very short time. You are recruited at a young age by one of the Grey Wardens who has been around for a long time and seen many battles.

The first hour or so of the game can take place in several locations and have several different stories. This portion of the game is your origin story. You can be a man, elf, or dwarf and then you have a background as a warrior, mage, or rogue. Warriors are damage dealers, rogues are the stealthy type and can pick locks, and mages are, well, mages. I could go on for hours describing this aspect of the game but you get the idea that you have a ton of choices in the very beginning and as the game moves on, the choices keep piling up.

It is not quite the “60-80 hour minimum” game that everyone promised but it is still very long by today’s standards. I got through it in about 40-50 hrs I think. I haven’t checked my hr counter in a while but it was somewhere around 38 the last time I looked.

Overall the game is very well done in my opinion. It offers everything an RPG fan could want. You’ve got loot gathering, magic, a small amount of weapon customization and a crapload of well written and acted dialogue. Speaking of dialogue, don’t buy this game if you don’t like reading or listening to people talk because you will be doing a LOT of that during your time with this game.

Gameplay is solid for the most part but there are things that frustrate me about it. The collision detection in this game is a little too touchy. I was always getting stuck on other characters or dead bodies while in combat and if they enemy you are attacking happens to move just a little bit, your character must also readjust. Once you take the swing though, it hits the enemy no matter how far away you are from them. This might sound like a good idea but it works the other way also. Say you are fighting a huge ogre and he goes to take a swing at you so you move out of his way so you don’t get hit, well you still get hit even if you are 20 feet from him. I’m starting to realize as I’m writing this that this review is going to sound very negative but I really loved the game.

Dialogue is one of the huge draws of RPGs but in this game it takes it to a whole new level. I guess I should be accustomed to it with games like Mass Effect and Fallout but it was getting tiring by the end of the game. Through the dialogue options though you can make the story your own and the choices you make do have real consequences or benefits at times. Other times, you think you are making a choice that will change the outcome but it doesn’t. In those instances it usually boils down to “do you want to fight this person now or wait through 20 minutes of dialogue and then fight them.” There are game altering choices though and unlike most RPGs, your party members are not set in stone and you don’t necessarily have to get all of them. One of the characters you actually wont get unless you are able to persuade someone to let them out of jail. Everything you do in the game also has an impact on how your party members feel about you and if they disapprove of you too much, they will leave(note: I did not have anyone leave because I was good for the most part but I know they can leave). It was funny in one part where you have a choice to fight your way out or negotiate and I chose negotiate. Well, one of my more aggressive part members took a huge disliking to that because I chose to negotiate. Also, you can ask your party members to leave if you want to but again, I never did. On the flipside, the more that a certain character likes you, the more it helps you out in that they get bonuses to things like attack, defense, magic power and so on.

Now to the obvious flaws and dislikes of the game. I ran into several glitches that in my opinion are not something that should be there. Numerous times the game glitched right after a battle and I would have to do it over again. It seems the game does not like you advancing too quickly. On a couple occasions I had to actually fight the same boss twice because I talked to a certain character before the game registered the battle as being over and they initiated it again. I was locked in a room once for the same reason and had to reload my last save. The one nice feature is that you can save anytime, anywhere except in battle and I highly recommend it because you never know what you are going to run into. Another is that if you advance the dialogue too quickly, the game wont recognize that the dialogue occurred and wont give you the item you were supposed to get. My dog went looking for treats one time and I read the dialogue and got the items. Soon after, I realized I missed something so I reloaded my last save. The next time, I just rushed through the dialogue but the items did not show up. That is the easiest example to explain but there were many other times that things like that happened. Sometimes, it affected the quest I was trying to complete and I couldn’t complete the quest.

I would recommend this game to RPG lovers but only to people who don’t mind a lot, and I mean a LOT, of dialogue(read: Teetocks, stay away). Like was previously stated, you cant always rush through it either so its almost like they are forcing the game to be longer than it needs to be. It was very rich and well done dialogue but by the end I found myself not wanting to listen to anymore. The story is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time and you do make choices that actually affect the endgame. Something I havent seen in a while. mass Effect was different in that the choices you made only affected the next ten minutes of gameplay but they didnt really present themselves later in the game. Dragon Age, however, takes the choices you make and integrates them into future dialogue sessions with other characters.

One last thing, as much as I hate to admit it, I actually had to change the difficulty to casual for the final battle.  After dying ten times in a row and not being able to do anything about it, I just gave up and changed it to casual.  I had been playing the rest of the game on normal but I had to change it for my sanity’s sake.  I was so close to the end of the game but I couldn’t get there because they made it so insanely hard.

Alas, three years, six months, 3 days and tens of thousands of gaming hours later, my box has finally gone to join the others of his kind. I regret to inform all of you that last night at 6:38pm it red ringed permanently. I took it apart and tried to perform open heart surgery without any luck. I do believe the red rings are permanent this time. It froze on me Monday night after about 10 minutes and I just passed it off as usual but when it froze again last night after only 1 minute of operation I knew it was the end. You may not see me on for a while. I may not get one until the community playdate but I will be getting one at some point.

After one week and 40 hours, I think I am ready to give my unbiased review. This game is awesome when it doesn’t piss you off. That sentence pretty much describes the entire gaming experience that I have had with this game. Read on for my expansion on that sentence.

This game reminds me a whole lot of Mass Effect for some reason. It could be the loot and customization options but it just reminds me a lot of Mass Effect. Mass Effect though is friendly to a lot more gamers than this game will be. There are a lot of good things to be found in this game if you can trudge through all the crap. I thought when I first read all the reviews for this game that everyone was just being harsh because the game has been in development for so long but after playing it, I understand most of what they were saying. There are so many things that they could have improved upon that would have made it so much more enjoyable. The camera isn’t something they could do a whole lot with because of the right stick combat but the animations and occasionally frustrating gameplay are things that could have been fixed. There are different kinds of enemies in the game but they all pretty much look the same. Goblins are small and easy to kill, dark elves are big and harder to kill, elite enemies look the same but are a lot harder to kill and so on. I am not dis-appointed that I bought the game however. For me, it is worth 60 bucks but for most it would be a good rental (if your a fast gamer) or a purchase at a price below 40 I think. If you like repetitive, loot grabbing, hack’n'slash gaming then this game is a buy. If not then you might want to steer clear.

Overall: 7.6

Presentation: 8

This game is loosely based on Greek mythology. The main similarities are the names of the people. There are other similarities that show up in the story but not enough to say this game is based strictly on the mythology. The one major difference is the fact that all the gods are now part cyborg. All of them have had genetic alterations and cybernetic implants for different reasons. I will get more into that in the gameplay section though.

Graphics: 7

I would really love to give this a higher rating because I think most of the graphics in the game are pretty good but they aren’t good enough in the areas that matter most. The cut scenes can be painful to look at sometimes because the faces are animated but there is something wrong with the eyes. The eyes almost seem like they are acting on their own and it just looks like one of those creepy crystal ball machines that has the statue inside with moving eyes. The in game graphics though are pretty good. The textures are nice and the environment is well done. The level designs are unique in their own ways and it never felt like I was looking at the same building twice like I did in Mass Effect. The animations of the character can seem stiff at times and they don’t seem as fluid as I think they should for this type of game. When he comes out of a roll, you can tell they are two different animations that have been pasted together, if that makes sense. Like I said, I would really love to give this a better score because I thought the graphics were ok but they just don’t shine like they should.

Sound: 7

The sound is pretty good in this game. The characters all have unique personalities and the voice acting is well done, well except for this one scene between Thor and Loki. That scene almost made me cry is was so terribly done. Anyway, the sounds of weapons hitting metal and lasers heating up are as good as they should be. Since all the enemies you fight are machines, there isn’t much variety in their dialogue. Your teammates on the other hand have cool sayings that get old after a long while but they keep you entertained for a good bit. It’s got good sound for a hack’n'slash dungeon crawler.

Gameplay: 9

This is a hard one to be unbiased on. I really enjoyed the gameplay but I know that most people will not like the right-stick combat though. It really isn’t too bad once you get the hang of it. I hated it the first time I played the demo but I really wanted to like the game because I liked so many other things about it and once I sat down and played the demo again it wasn’t so bad. The main problem with the gameplay is the camera. In my opinion a crappy camera can completely break an otherwise great game. For the most part I found the camera to be slightly annoying but workable. It’s the times that you are trying to turn around and the camera keeps going in circles which your character wants to follow that really made me mad. The other thing that frustrates me, is that as you level up, so do the enemies. That in itself isn’t a bad thing but I think that when I hit level 50, I should be able to tear through most anything with ease and I can’t. The tougher you are, the tougher they are and it seems exponentially true at level 50. I die more now that I am leveled up than I did before I got leveled up. This is a backwards complaint I know but it bugs me. There should be a point where I can just kick everyone’s butt and not have to think twice about it. The one thing I haven’t been able to unlock is the elite armor and weapons so maybe that will give me the edge I am looking for but I don’t know. This section is going on longer than anticipated so I will cut it off now. Overall, I really enjoy the gameplay of Too Human but I completely understand not everyone will.

Replay Value: 7

This game has the capability to be played through with five different classes of character but really you can do only two things, melee combat and shoot. I prefer melee combat because you get much higher damage ratings from swords and staves than you do from guns and therefore dispatch enemies quicker. The berserker class is designed for straight up melee. They get access to the best damage dealers in the game (at least that I have found so far) because they can use dual wield swords and staves which offer speed and damage bonuses. I am getting off subject here but what I am trying to say is that even though you have access to five different classes, there isn’t much difference. The real replay value comes in the form of finding loot and secret areas. This can be done in one playthrough but if you use a different class then you get access to different loot and weapons and armor. The enemies keep coming and you keep killing them so I think the replay value is somewhat high but not as high as say, Mass Effect, because in this game the story is the same every time no matter which class you choose or whether you go with human or cybernetic alignment.

If you like the Civilization series, you will like this game. If you don’t like the Civilization series, you need to try this game. Civilization Revolution has been streamlined for the consoles but not necessarily simplified. It is still a Civilization game at its heart but there is not so much micro-management. Read on for the full scoop.

This game offers tons of fun for a little bit of work. it can seem tedious at times but I assure you it is great fun. Most of the games you play will only take you a few hours to complete but it is a lot of fun to play as the different leaders as they each have their own benefits. The Aztecs, for instance, automatically heal their units after a victorious battle. The Zulu tribe has a better chance of “overrunning” their opponent by only needing a 3:1 ratio of attack versus defense where all other nations need a 7:1 ratio for an overrun. I found this game very addictive and fun and I am still playing the heck out of it even after two weeks.

Overall: 9.2

Presentation: 10

Firaxis and 2K Games have done a wonderful job on putting together a Civ game for the consoles. For a console strategy game, it came out looking and feeling a lot better than I expected. The control scheme is simple and easy to understand.

Graphics: 9

The graphics in the game are very rich and detailed but they are not realistic. This game just goes to show that graphics can be done in a less realistic way but still look amazing. The cities change their building style with each era that you enter and the wonders are displayed as part of the city after being built. The character designs are well done and the animations interesting. Well, at least they are interesting the first few times you see them but they begin to get repetitive very quickly. Unlike Civ games for the PC, the world is always randomly generated so there are not preset worlds. In regular Civ games you can change the world to eliminate deep oceans or make it so every civ is on its own island but in this game it is completely random. The terraing is very well done as well with mountains and plains and rivers and forests and all kinds of other areas.

Sound: 8

There are sounds associated with almost every action in Civ Rev. Whether a boat is moving through the water or a plane flying through the air, there are great sounds to go along with it. The one minor gripe I have with the Civ games is that fact that there are no real voices in the game. All the characters talk in gibberish. The only lines of dialog in the game are found in the opening sequence of every new game. It can be amusing however to hear the mock languages though.

Gameplay: 9

For a Civ game, it is very simple but it is still deep enough to keep you glued to the TV for hours. Games take roughly 3-5 hours depending on how familiar you are with the game and how lucky or unlucky you are. Speaking of luck, I think that cards are stacked against you in this game. One thing that frustrates me is the fact that I could have a defense rating of 70 and the computer has an attack rating of 50 and I lose. I have yet to understand that and my PS3 controller has just about gone through the window a few times because of it. Even though it seems like 4 hours is a long time to play one game, I think you will find yourself getting addicted to it and not realizing how long you have been sitting there.

Replay Value: 10

This game is built on replayability. The game is always the same but yet it is different every time due to the randomly generated worlds. I have not tried the multiplayer aspect of it but it seems like it would be well balanced. There are no PSN Trophies associated with this game but it has an in game “trophy room” where it displays everything you have unlocked from wonders, to great peole, to all the different leaders you have played against and at what difficulty level you have won the game with each of them.

While trolling the web I happened upon this old article from Joystiq. If only they knew that nearly two years after launch, the PS3 would STILL be selling for $500.

Microsoft has just announced that there will be a 60 GB 360 going on sale in August. They are dropping the 20 GB price to 299 and replacing it with the 60 GB price. Maybe there won’t be an official “price cut” after all, maybe they are just switching SKUs like Sony Has done in the past. There have not been any announcements as to price cuts for the other levels of the system yet so I think they are just replacing the SKU.

Press release:
REDMOND, Wash. – Microsoft is giving consumers more gigabytes for their buck. The company today announced an Xbox 360 console with triple the storage space of the original console, but for the same price of $349 (U.S.) estimated retail price.

Xbox 360 is just one of three Xbox 360 gaming and entertainment systems Microsoft offers. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes with a 256MB memory unit and five Xbox LIVE Arcade games, is a value for the whole family for $279 (U.S.) (ERP), and the premium Xbox 360 Elite console is available with a 120GB hard drive for $449 (U.S.) (ERP).

Well, according to Target, the 360 price drop that has been rumored is true. They have the price of the Xbox 360 Premium listed at 299.99 in stores only. I checked some other sites and no one else is listing it at this price so this is not yet 100% confirmed but it still seems interesting. I guess E3 is so close that the rumor mill will be dead for a while after that so I have to get the rumoring in while I can.

I said last week on our show that the PS3 needed to be aggressive and do a price cut without announcing it and it looks like Microsoft might be doing just that. According to an article from Joystiq, there is a rumor floating around (with supporting images) stating that a pricecut for the 360 is coming. Supposedly, the image came from a K-Mart ad due out sometime and considering Civilization Revolution is on the ad I would say the ad is somewhat close. Civ Rev comes out July 8th so we could see a price cut as soon as that day. This is still speculation at the moment but maybe Microsoft is pulling the kind of trick I said Sony needed to pull in order to stay ahead of the game. If you don’t know what I am talking about then listen to Episode 21 and you will hear me talking about it. I think this would be a great move for either system to bring a mid-year price cut but I would rather see Sony be the ones to step up and do it rather than play catchup with Microsoft.

Do you think that this ad is accurate or just another hoax?

Link to Joystiq story

Wal-Mart is running a special this week (similar to last week) where you get a $100 gift card with the purchase of any Blu-Ray player. This includes PS3′s. Maverick already posted about the $100 gift card last week but it expired before MGS4 came out. With this current deal, you could pick up the MGS4 bundle for $399 if you have other things to spend the gift card on (like more PS3 accessories). That’s one heck of a deal if you ask me. You get an 80GB system, PAIN downloadable game, and MGS4 for the same price as a regular 40GB system. So hurry to your local Wal-mart and see if you can snag this deal.

If everyone that listens to our show could post a comment about how they receive our show that would be great. If, for instance, you get our show by going to PodcastAlley.com then just list the website address. This way I know all the different websites I have to check with to make sure they are getting the new feed. If you already see the site you use in the comments, then there is no need to post it again. As for PodcastAlley in particular, I am having trouble getting them to accept our new feed so that site may no longer have our current episodes but I am still working on it. Thanks in advance for all the feedback and help on this one.

For those of you that are looking for a feed reader, here are some options. Thanks to long time supporter of the show, Steve Zeidner, here are some links.

Standalone:
– Feedreader for windows
– NetNewsWire for Mac

There’s also a Firefox extension called Sage if you like extensions.

Web:
– Google Reader
– NetVibes (although it seemed kinda slow).

This game was better than what I was expecting but still not top notch. It had solid gameplay and a fun atmosphere. Even though I loathe EA, they do put out some great games and this was just another example. I really enjoyed playing this game and I wish that I had rented it at the same time as Maverick but at the time, I was still with Gamefly and I never got anything I wanted when I wanted it. Read on for the full scoop.

This game is a definite rent and a possible buy depending on how much if appeals to you personally. I recommend rent however. The achievements are mostly easy but there are a couple that will try your patience (see the replay section for details). Since I am no longer in the achievement whoring business, I will be returning this with having only played through it 1 and a half times. The gameplay was fun but I just don’t see any reason to keep it at this point. The one thing that I found odd about this game was the way that people walked in cut-scenes. The action movement was well done but the slow walking in the cut-scenes was just weird. You almost have to see it to know what I am talking about. Other than that I really enjoyed this game and am glad that I rented. it. Thanks for reading.

Overall: 7.4

Presentation: 8

Once again the EA marketing guru’s pulled a fast one on us and made this seem like a must have game for 2008. The game sounded and looked like it would be the best thing since, well, Halo 3. In some ways it lived up to this but in others it fell way short. It was a well thought out design and they implemented it well also.

Graphics: 8

Graphics are pretty good. The cut-scenes are well done and level design is a little linear but just expansive enough to use the aggro system and sneak around the back of the enemies. This is a perfect example of how good graphics can increase a games rating from O.K. to good.

Sound: 8

The sounds in this game are good. The guns all sound similar yet different. Also, it feel like you are shooting a “real” gun whereas some games just feel like you are shooting a BB gun. The voice acting was well done I thought(even if some of it was cheesy) and I liked the comments that the characters made throughout the campaign.

Gameplay: 7

The gameplay average in that it just felt like another shooter. It added things that other shooters don’t have like the aggro system and elements that were designed strictly for co-op play like back-to-back and co-op snipe. This is to be expected because this is a strictly co-op game. The aggro system can be fun when you go into “overkill” mode. if you are on the stealth side of aggro when you go into overkill, then you become invisible basically and you move faster so you just run up to people and melee them for an instant kill. If you are on the aggressive side then you get unlimited ammo and double damage so you don’t have to reload during the overkill. The unlimited ammo also applies to the back-to-back formation so that you don’t have to waste time reloading. Overall I found this game to be enjoyable and if you have someone to play with you through the campaign it could be a fun weekend game but I would not recommend buying it.

Replay Value: 6

Replay value, as in most 360 games, depends on how much you want the achievements. Some of the achievements can be gotten in one playthrough but there are achievements that require multiple playthroughs. One such achievement is the “If I Were A Rich Man” achievements requires 3 and half playthroughs. There is only a total of roughly 300,000 that can be made in one playthrough. I did not get a chance to try out the multiplayer so I can’t say much about that but it seems like it would be fun. It would be like team doubles in Halo where its two on two. As far as the single player campaign goes, it is not so terrible that subsequent playthroughs would be painstakingly boring but it isn’t exactly COD4 either.

This game lives up to all the reviews. Normally one would think that was a statement of positivity but in this case it is negative. The gameplay was average to mediocre and the story was not involving or compelling in any way. The mediocrity left me feeling like I was missing out on a dose of nectar. Read on for the full scoop.

Overall, this game was uneventful and boring in my opinion. These few clips from other sites game reviews pretty much sum it up for me.

PSM3 Magazine UK
“So Haze, as a PS3 exclusive, is far from a reason to own a PS3.”

Total Video Games
“There’s no avoiding the fact that HAZE is a huge disappointment.”

AtomicGamer
“As is, it’s an average entry that had potential, but due to poorly implemented mechanics and sub-par visuals, will likely be forgotten soon after Metal Gear Solid 4 arrives.”

IGN AU
“It’s not a terrible game at all. It’s simply that it’s such an ordinary and unremarkable shooter, and we were expecting so much, that we can’t help but bitch about all the areas we wish were better.”

These reviews and the things I mentioned in mine are why I would not buy this game. Rent it if you are bored but if you are looking for something exciting and entertaining then stay away from this game.

Overall: 4.4

Presentation: 6

The reason I give this a six is because I think they really had a lot going for them. They had a good developer and the story should have been an interesting one, BUT it wasn’t. It could have been so much better than what it was. They did a decent job of marketing it and some, I repeat SOME, of the details were interesting and well done.

Graphics: 5

I have seen games on the Xbox and PS2 that looked as good or better than this one. Only in certain scenes were the graphics even close to being sub-par(yes, close to sub-par) for this generation of games. In general, the graphics were un-appealing and boring. Nothing really stood out at me and said “WOW” like the graphics in other games have. The lighting was even that good which made the graphics that much worse. Facial expressions and details were non-existent.

Sound: 6

The voice acting would go from terrible to good and back to terrible all in a matter of a couple minutes. The AI characters comments get old very fast. I guess part of the reason is because even when there are no enemies around they are still shouting things over and over again. Even the vehicle sounds and gun sounds were unimpressive.

Gameplay: 4

This game falls somewhere between boring and average. The gameplay isn’t terrible but its nothing exciting either. At no point in the game did I say to myself “I would really like to play this part over because that was a lot of fun” like I have in other games. There was nothing out of the ordinary for this game. Run, shoot, pick up ammo, rinse, repeat. That’s about it for the gameplay.

Replay Value: 1

There is absolutely no replay value to this at all. There is multiplayer(which I did not try) but the single player campaign has nothing to offer on a second playthrough except a harder difficulty. There is no reason to experience the story again in my opinion. I keep getting reminded of games like Halo 3 and Gears where there were certain points(sometimes the entire campaign) where you just wanted to go back and play again because it was fun and entertaining. There were no parts like that in this game that I found. If it weren’t for the multiplayer I would have given this a zero.

Anything involving games and Camaros will always have my attention and this new video for GRID is no different. I hadn’t really given much thought to getting this game because I am not extremely interested in racing games anymore. However, after I saw this video, I am really tempted to pick this up. I don’t like to consider myself a fanboy of any flavor but I am a Camaro fanboy. I’m not sure why but I just love Camaros.

I know this will be shocking to some of you but our beloved gaming consoles contain contaminants that could affect the environment. Like we didn’t know this already. They are just computers with fancy game controllers and we all knew that computers contained contaminants. One thing I didn’t know however is this:

Components of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation3 also contained high levels of phthalates, one of which – DEHP – is known to interfere with sexual development in mammals: including humans and, especially, males.

Wow. I didn’t see that coming. I guess I’m going to throw away all of my consoles before I become sterile. That quote is from a greenpeace article that was linked to an article that JDsBlackBox(at least I think it was JD) alerted us to. I do find it hard to trust and article that starts out like this though:

“Nintendo’s Wii. Sony’s PlayStation 3 Elite. Microsoft’s Xbox 360…..”

The PlayStation 3 Elite? I want one.

Among many other things mentioned in an article from Next-Gen.biz, the main thing I found that TeeTocks is going to enjoy, is the tool that Microsoft is releasing next month that will allow you to transfer your license for your XBLA games to your current 360. Meaning that all those old XBLA titles that you had to play while “online” will now be able to be played offline. Or at least thats the way they say its going to work and this is Microsoft so I will wait and see if it works the way they say it does. Thanks to adirtypoostick for the heads up on the article.

From the article:

Last year Xbox 360 owners got a spring dashboard update in early May. It’s now late May and you still haven’t announced anything regarding this year’s update. Should 360 owners be holding their breath for it?

Yes, this new tool will officially launch next month on Xbox.com and will allow you to be able to consolidate these licenses onto one box so you can access things like Xbox LIVE Arcade games and TV show you have downloaded even if you are not online. Because this involved allowing users to re-download licenses for content that belongs to our partners it has taken some time to work out the agreements with them to allow this, but we have heard the concerns from folks about DRM and are happy to announce that everything is nearly in place to roll this out in June.

Well to answer the question “How much is Gunmetal gray worth to you?”, the answer is $10.34 including shipping. A penny wise PS3 fan wanted gunmetal gray but he also wanted to enjoy the rest of his MGS collection so he spray painted his PS3 with a can of spray paint. Ingenious if you ask me but it is lacking the “Metal Gear Solid 4 : Limited Edition” tag at the bottom of the unit. I’m not sure if this voids your warranty or not but its worth it right? I mean who wants to pay $115 for a can of spray paint and some stenciled letters and the inability to play previous MGS games? Not me. But then again I kind of like my gloss black color.

So how much is the gunmetal gray color worth to you? Is it worth, say, $115? Because that is what it will cost you. The gunmetal gray PS3 with MGS4 Limited edition will run you $599 through Konami’s website. It includes a 40GB console with DualShock 3 controller($399) and the Limited Edition of MGS4($85) for a total of $484. The only thing that makes this bundle different is the gunmetal gray color. So again the question is what is gunmetal gray worth to you? Are you such a fanboy(or girl) that you will pay $115 for a different color PS3? Another point worth mentioning is that the 40GB model does not support backwards compatibility so you won’t be able to play all your favorite classic MGS games.

They are also offering an 80GB model bundled with the standard edition of the game but I can’t seem to find it anywhere so maybe I was hallucinating when I saw this article mentioning its release. Let us know which bundle, if any, you will be getting for this game or if you will just be picking up the game by itself.

I found this video while scouring the interwebs and thought it would appeal to some. Ok so maybe I just read a post over at Kotaku but who cares? The point is, this is the first 10 minutes of game-play for MGS4. I have to say that I am not impressed at all. Maybe its just not my type of game but the whole 10 minutes was just awkward to me. First off its in Japanese so that didn’t help, and the story just made no sense to me. Maybe Maverick would be able to tell me about whats going on if he actually watches the video. I will definitely have to see more game-play on this one before I say I’m going to pick it up. Again this is the first 10 minutes of game-play, so if you don’t want to spoil the fun of opening the game, don’t watch it. But if you are like me and just wanted to see what all the fuss was about, then by all means, watch on.

THIS VIDEO CONTAINS SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

This game is everything you would expect from an RPG. You have item usage, spells, skills, accessories, its all there. The real meat of this RPG is it’s story and it is a good one. A little depressing at first but it gets better towards the middle-late portion of the game. Actually about the time you hit disk 3 is when it starts picking up. Read on for the full scoop.

Overall: 8.6

The main character is Kaim, an immortal from another world. Him and four other immortals(Sarah, Seth, Ming, and one other I won’t mention because it spoils the fun) were sent to this planet for a purpose but none of them can remember that purpose. Well, not until very late in the story anyway. Kaim remembers his past memories through dreams that he has by either sleeping, or just walking by something that reminds him of a certain memory. These dreams are, in my opinion, very depressing but I guess after you’ve been here for 1000 years and have seen so many people come and go there isn’t much happiness. You find out after a short time that four of the five immortals’ memories have been locked away by magic energy but I won’t delve too deeply into that so I don’t spoil the story too much.

The one thing that sets this game apart from others is how the skill learning works. Mortals learn skills the old fashion way by leveling up. Immortals, however, learn through “skill linking” with mortals or by wearing accessories. They also level up but they don’t learn any skills when they do, only their base stats go up. You earn levels with XP (experience points) and you learn skills with SP (skill points). Each accessory or linked skill has a certain number of SP needed to learn that skill. The better the skill, the more SP it requires to learn.

The leveling up system in this game works differently than any other RPG as well. Instead of getting a fixed amount of XP per battle, they pretty much give you one level per battle until you are at the level they want you to be for that particular section of the game. Each level requires 100 points to level up but after you hit the level they think you should be at, they only start giving you 1-3 XP per battle. I guess this is to keep the game challenging and avoid level grinding. I thought this would be a downside but it turned out to not be so bad. The SP amount that you earn from battles does not change though, so its sometimes good to go to an easier portion of the game and “level up” your skills.

Presentation: 9
Graphics: 8

The graphics on this game are amazing, I think. When I first got the game, I thought to myself how can there be so much content in this game that it requires 4 disks just to hold it all. It didn’t dawn on me until later that all this extra disk space is needed for all the cut-scenes and FMV(full motion video) footage. You can actually access the entire world from disk 4 but the other disks that contain main story scenes and such had to be separated.

Sound: 8

The sound effects in this game are good for an RPG. When you walk on different surfaces, it creates different sounds and the enemy sounds are kind of cool. One thing that Mass Effect did that this game did not, was put a voice actor behind all dialog. The dialog that was in the game was well done but there wasn’t voice actors for all characters.

Gameplay: 9

If you have played Final Fantasy X, you have played this game. It is turn based fighting with spell casting and item usage. The major problem I had with this setup over the FFX setup was it did not display the turns before you actually went. You select the actions you want your characters to perform and then the battle is started. You don’t know if they enemy is going to attack first or if you get to attack first. This can be frustrating when you don’t know whether you should heal first or continue attacking. In FFX, you got to see all the turns that were coming up so you could anticipate a little. Overall though the gameplay was satisfying and fun for a turn based game.

Replay Value: 9

“Replay” can mean a lot of things. Personally I don’t think that I would start this game all over from the beginning and run through it again. But, there is a LOT of stuff to do outside of the main story mode. After you get to disk 4 and right before you finish the game, there is a great opportunity to do some side quests, which there are a lot of by the way. So for actual “Replay” value I think this game would not do very well but because there is so much to do outside of the main story line without starting over, the “Play” value of this title is very high.

Actually this would fit more under the category of why I think Sony is awesome but I had to say something creative. Something I never realized was that Sony uses standard 2.5″ laptop hard drives. I can buy a 360GB hard drive for $139 for my PS3 while Microsoft wants $149 for their 120GB drive. And swapping out your PS3 drive does not “brick” all the games you have downloaded. Sony even provides you with a backup tool in the system!

What really goes against Microsoft here is that they also use a standard SATA 2.5″ drive but they put it in a proprietary format so that you had to buy their hardware. Why couldn’t they have been a little nicer and let us swap hard drives our own self? I don’t mind the Plastic casing, but at least give me an easy way of swapping drives. Enough of my Microsoft bashing today. I’ll get back to playing games on my 360 I guess.

Have any of you upgraded your PS3 hard drive? If so, let us know how it went and if it is as easy as it seems. Also if you have hacked your 360 with a bigger drive let me know. If you purchased the 120GB 360 hard drive…. I’m sorry but you got ripped off.

It’s finally here. The Skype compatible headset for the PSP went on sale yesterday. It was supposed to release last month but kept getting pushed back in true Sony fashion. Something other than the release date also changed. Now, instead of it being $20, it is $30. It looks pretty cool but since I don’t have a slim PSP, I wont be getting this accessory.

Buy.com has it in stock for 24.99 and free shipping so if you are going to buy it, that is the place to look.

So much for the rumor that GTA IV was going to hurt movie sales. It seems that the Iron Man movie has pulled in more than 100 million in ticket sales in the US in its first weekend alone. I must admit that our 16 dollars were part of that 100 mil and I loved the movie. The movie got over 200 million in sales worldwide. It came in second in opening weekend sales for non sequels beaten only by Spider Man which had 114 million in sales its first weekend. Iron Man is 10th on the all time opening weekend sales list. This all leads to my question, have any of you played the Iron Man game? If so I would like to know because I am tempted to pick it up. I know movie based games usually suck, but this one is getting average reviews. Some people say its good while other say it sucks so I want our listeners opinions. If everyone is still playing GTA IV I will understand but I was curious if anyone had picked this up yet.

*****Update*****.
Ok so the link I had up here earlier was not the one it was supposed to be. This is the correct link for where the info came from. I really don’t know where that other link came from. Sorry.

The more I read and watch about this game, the more I want it now. I have been on a big Star Wars kick recently and I am becoming enamored with all things Star Wars. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed hits store shelves on September 16th and will be available on PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii. Some people I know who aren’t console gamers are thinking about buying the Wii for this game just because it will be the first time that you get to properly have a light saber duel. I am anxious to see how it turns out on the Wii. Check out the video of the game in action in the next section.

This goes to show what some good marketing and a solid brand name will do for you. Everyone eats it up even though it is a terrible system with crappy games. The PS3 may not have many games, but the system is awesome by itself. The 360 has tons of games but not much variety. There are downfalls to every system but none like the Wii which is just full of sh……..

Shovelware. What did you think I was going to say? Shovelware is a term (I’m taking this from this link) which refers to games that are just “shoveled” out by developers to turn a quick buck. They are not games that are going to be around for a long time. Well, they will be around for a long time but only as coasters and microwave entertainment (don’t try this at home). The chart in the picture shows everything you need to know if you are thinking about buying a Wii. The games are crappy and Nintendo doesn’t even care. They just keep shoveling more crap onto us and we keep eating it up. I just don’t understand. According to the article, there are 20 games for the Wii that received a “good” ranking and out of those 20, 4 are ports from last gen consoles. Twenty games out of 189. That’s just terrible. Read the article from Gamefunk for the full story.

I need some help. This has nothing to do with gaming but since I have the space here, I will put it up. I have a co-worker who is planning a trip to Disney in Orlando for her 9 year old daughter and I wondered if anyone in the community has been there and what do you recommend as a “can’t miss” thing to do. Since a lot of our listeners are married with children, I thought this would be the perfect place to ask this. Thanks in advance for your replies. Teetocks and GRHSuperman, any help from you guys would be great too since I know you have both been there. I personally haven’t been since I was a kid.

Check out the Astrogaming website for some more info on the A40 headset and MixAmp. Our interview with Josh Latendresse, the designer of the A40 gaming system, was amazing and if you haven’t yet, you need to listen to Episode 12 for the interview.

The A40 system is quickly becoming the mainstay system for the MLG circuit. It is self-contained so that it does not draw upon system resources, whether that is a PC or an Xbox 360 or even a PS3. You can hook up almost any kind of device that has an audio output of some sort. The headset comes in two colors, black and white, so whether you have an elite or an arcade 360 it will match your system. They are a bit pricey for everyday home use but if you are into tournament gaming then this is the headset for you. As was mentioned in the interview, it can hook up to almost any audio device so and input that sound directly into the Dolby Surround headphones. These devices include, MP3 players, cell phones, and even baby monitors so that you can continue gaming without disturbing the rest of the house. Here are some pictures of the system that I pulled from their website so go check out the website and read about this amazing gaming headset. Thanks again to Josh Latendresse for the interview and hopefully we will talk to him again soon.