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Super Street Fighter 4 3D

{ April 8, 2011 @ 3:32 pm } · { Video Game Reviews }
{ Tags: #D, 3D, 3DS, 4, Fighter, review, Street, Street Fighter 4, Super, Super Street Fighter 4 3D } · { Leave a Comment }

I got this game because it was supposed to be the best looking game on the 3DS at launch. I was not disappointed. Well…ok, maybe I was a little, but it wasn’t because of the game. What was disappointing was that I thought more titles would be contending for the honor of “Best 3DS Launch Title.” Instead, I had to choose from this game and a plethora of uninteresting and seemingly boring games. I mean, come on, Pilot Wings? Was that game ever fun? And Nintendogs? I have a dog at home and she’s a pain in my ass. She threw up last night and I had to clean it up because she “doesn’t have thumbs.” Seriously, that’s her excuse for everything.

Anyway, the no-brainer buy for the 3DS owner is Super Street Fighter 4 3D. It’s a mouthful of a title, true, mainly because Capcom has a fetish for raping franchises and making a ton of spin-offs and sequels which results in long complicated names.

Why didn't they just call the Alpha games Street Fighter 3? Also, guys, this is a Super Nintendo game, so shouldn't the title be Super Street Fighter Alpha 2? Or is that too much?

Irregardless, and all name-juicing aside, when you buy a Street Fighter game, you know what you’re getting. The game delivers as all other Street Fighter’s before it in terms of gameplay. This is the first Street Fighter game I’m playing on a Nintendo system that supports an analog control, so that’s making a big difference (the last game I played on a Nintendo system was Street Fighter 2 Turbo, which came to an untimely demise after I pull the cart out of my Super Nintendo and took it out back for target practice with my BB gun. The short version of my reasoning for losing my mind is that M. Bison is a cheater and HOW THE HELL WAS EVERYONE ELSE SO EASY TO BEAT AND HE’S LIKE, TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE!?!).

The only reason my generation has for hating the USSR.

Anyway, I’m not very good at Street Fighter games, and I was a little nervous about shelling out the green to take this gem home. But listen up people, the game is pretty easy on it’s normal difficulty. The 3D looks amazing, too; so if you are getting the beat down, you’ll be able to do it in graphics that make you go “WTF IS HAPPENING IN MY EYESARRRHGGGHGGGGHHHH!” which is a plus, especially when you’re planning as Cammy.

The real fight happens in my mind, where I try to focus...on the game.

The down-low: The only issue is that the 3DS puts out some heavy duty work to make sure you can enjoy the 3D splendor, so something had to give in the graphics department as they ported it over. What they compromised was the backgrounds. The people standing around aren’t moving and the cars and everything else back there looks like it was taken from the early SNES versions of the series. You will hardly notice it, though, as all the other action is literally jumping out at you, and all that actions looks fantastic.

There are two ways to play the game which include a classic view or a view angled from behind your character to enhance the 3D experience. I prefer the classic view, and they both showcase the machine’s 3D capability very well. The online play is seamless, beside the expected lag when WiFi signals are sketchy. The player matching system works well and besides a lack of voice communication, it leaves little to be desired. There are achievements to earn through playing off and online which award you with titles and avatar pictures for when you play online. The touch screen is used to give you four new buttons which allow you to perform special moves and combos with a tap of the screen. This has been criticized for “cheapening the game” but I think it’s a way for the casual gamer to compete with a veteran, and anything to level the playing field is alright with me, although turning this function off on online mode might be a nice option for a later version, so the elite players could play together if they wanted to. It also uses the StreetPass feature but I haven’t had the chance to use that function as of yet.

This is kind of what it looks like when you enter the 3D rear view mode thing. It's ok. Hard to tell how close you are to the other person sometimes.

I love the game and it is a definite must have for any owner of a 3DS. Some things I’d like to see happen in Super Street Fights IV 3DS Alpha Turbo: Some unlockables that matter. The name and picture thing is cool, and I read that some of the issues that Capcom has with unlockable characters is that it’s not fair to players who just got the game and have to play online against people with all the characters unlocked. First of all, the unlockable characters don’t have to be invincible. They can be just as balanced as any other character. Second of all, if you want to reward people for buying a game early by giving them a chance to unlock characters before others can, that’s totally fine. And third of all, we’re talking about a storied franchise with a ton of options beyond characters to use as unlockables. How’s about a 16-bit Ken and Ryu that you can unlock? Or some of the original levels from the arcade? Maybe classic character VS screens? The list is endless. I know we’re talking about a 3DS game, so space is limited, but there are options available. Also, I’d like to have some kind of easy way to talk trash to people I’m playing online. If you can’t hear them cry, what’s the point of making them cry? Am I right?

Overall, it’s a beautiful game with a great interface and control schemes. B+ (mostly because of issues with replay value)

3DS

{ March 29, 2011 @ 6:07 am } · { Video Game Reviews }
{ Tags: 3D, 3DS, AR Cards, Face Raiders, Find Mii, First impressions, Mario, Nintendo, Ok Go, OkGo, Puzzle, review, They Live, User, White Knuckles, Zelda } · { Leave a Comment }

The Nintendo 3DS is simply amazing. I’ve had it for two days now and I’m still in awe of what it can do. I don’t understand how it works, I don’t know where Nintendo takes this technology next, and I really don’t care. After experiencing the 3DS, I’m 110% along for the ride. The 3DS comes with a lot of stuff preprogrammed. I’ll outline some of those things and let you know how well it works and how enjoyable each is. I will also write about the quality of the product and if it’s worth $250, for those of you who are on the fence.

Let me start by saying that the 3D can be a bit overwhelming at times. My eyes strain and sometimes they can’t focus when playing. When this has happened I simply turned down the effect, which can be done easily by using a slider on the side of the screen. This fixes any problems I have and allows me to rest my eyes for as long as needed.

Of all the things programmed into the 3DS, there are only 3 things I’d really call a “game”. First is the game Face Raiders. Face Raiders basically turns your room into a shooting gallery. You take a picture of your face and the 3DS puts it on flying enemies that fly all around you. They shoot at you if you don’t shoot them down first. The game forces you to look all around the room through your 3DS like a window that…actually, have you ever seen They Live? It’s like the glasses from They Live.

Only, instead of discovering that Aliens have taken over the world, you discover that Nintendo has just bitch slapped your sense of what is possible through today’s technology. So, you look through your 3DS and shoot these things down. There are boss battles and other stuff to deal with in the game as well. The game actually asks you to feed it more faces for new enemies. I love it.

(2D picture of 3D Image) Of all the bad guys I faced, none were more fierce and unforgiving than Justin in a lone ranger mask.

As you can see above, taking a picture of people’s Facebook photos works fine with the game.

The second game is part of the Mii Plaza application. There are two games in here, one is called Puzzle Swap and the other is called Find Mii. These games are both hard for me to review because the utilize the StreetPass ability built into the 3DS. When walking around with your 3DS, you might pass someone else walking around with a 3DS. If you do, your systems will link and share information. When you get home you can go to your Mii Plaza and see how many people you’ve come across. These people become characters in your 3DS that help you in these games. The Find Mii game, for example, is waiting for someone to come along and break me out of a cage so I can continue through these games. The Puzzle Swap game is waiting for Miis to pop up and give me some more puzzle pieces. Since I’ve only had it for a couple of days, I’m not very far in this department.

Third, there is an application called AR Games that supports Augmented Reality Cards, or AR Cards for short. There are 6 AR Cards total. 5 of them have Nintendo Characters on them. When in the AR application, these cards project characters into the real world when viewed through your 3DS, similar to how you play Face Raiders, only now you can move these characters around the world yourself and make them grow, shrink, and pose in a few pre-established poses.

(2D picture of a 3D image) Ever since Samus got a Dell, she's been really jealous of Link's MacBook.

The only issue with the cards is you have to be able to see the cards to make the characters appear. You can’t place a card, pull up a character, and then move the card away. Also if show the 3DS the card and then tilt the camera so you can’t see enough of the card’s surface, your character will disappear.

(2D picture of a 3D image) That said, AR Cards are pretty bomb.

The last AR Card is a ? Block. This card can turn surfaces into shooting galleries, Marble Madness type terrain games, and fishing ponds. It can also make a freaking dragon come out of your table. All together, the AR Cards are an endless supply of WTF and OMG.

For people who got the 3DS early, you can get a system update with a bonus 3D OKGo music video, White Knuckles. The video looks great in 3D, and really is only the tip of the ice burg in terms of what we can expect in the future on this device since it is the only 3D outlet of its kind.

Remember how I said if you walk by someone with a 3DS and if you have a 3DS, magic happens? You’re probably wondering why anyone would be walking around with their 3DS. Well, it has a freaking pedometer built in it. The more you walk, the more coins you get. The more coins you get, the more stuff you can unlock in games, the more demos you can download, and the more rewards you can horde. It’s a great idea all around. I took it too class today and earned the max I could in one day (10 coins). The cap suggests that Nintendo gets that you’re not going to take this thing everywhere, which I like. They’re really not asking a lot of me.

I think I’ve covered all the basics.

Ok, here are my gripes and what I’d like to see in the future. The 3DS charges on a sweet little dock. If you don’t want to close your 3DS to charge it (if you want to keep playing a game or something) you can just unplug the dock and plug your 3DS right into the cable. So…why have the dock? It’s cool, but it’s basically a waste of space. I never worried about my other DS falling off the night stand, and honestly this Dock could just as easily slide off my desk. So, that seems pointless.

The AR Cards are amazing, but I can’t wait to see what happens in the future when this concept is revisited and redesigned. It would be awesome to not have to see the card in my pictures or to be able to move the characters farther away from the cards. There are a lot of restrictions with the cards as of today, but the possibilities are endless in the future.

I’m really waiting for some of the key franchises like StarFox, Super Mario, and Kid Icarus to make it to the 3DS, but there are other titles I’d love to see, and which I know would do very well in this format. I loved the DK Country Returns title for the Wii. With all it’s jumping in and out of the background on the Wii, a similar title would translate well into the third dimension. Also, it would be great to see a Punch Out!! game in 3D. Bald Bull rushing the screen would be epic. Lastly, how’s about a Smash Bro.s game in 3D? It would be great to see in 3D, and it would really help build Nintendo’s goal at creating a large multiplayer universe.

All in all, the whole thing is worth every penny. I can’t get over how awesome everything looks and how advanced this device is. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it before. I would say that I play with the stuff built into the thing than the games I bought for it. There’s just so much to see and play with. I would recommend buying it now, playing with all the cool stuff in it, and then buying a killer game once they start coming out (although, Street Fighter is pretty amazing). I know a lot of people are waiting for Mario and Zelda to hit the 3DS before they get it, but it’s worth the money now.

I have two games for the 3DS other than the one’s that came programmed into the system. So look for those reviews soon! Thanks for reading!

Contra

{ February 21, 2011 @ 6:16 am } · { Steve's Suggestions, Video Game Reviews }
{ Tags: Contra } · { Comments (1) }

Do it. Enter the code. What can I say that people don’t already know about how awesome this game is? Contra is amazing. If you don’t know, in Contra you play as a badass with a gun that flips all over the screen shooting in all different directions killing less badass dudes with guns, aliens, robots, and a slew of other stuff. It was one of the first games to really try the 3D thing, and they nailed it. The bosses are difficult, but fair. The controls are fluid. I really have nothing bad to say about this. Aside from being an awesome game, it helped popularize the Konami Code.

In case you’re not a gameophile like so many awesome people around the world…and me, the code is “up up down down left right left right (b) (a) start.” Yeah, you’ve probably heard it or seen it many places, like here:

( this song sucks)

or here: (this song kind of sucks, too)

or in here: (this song isn’t nearly as lame)

Also, this:

Sexy? Yes?

Anyway, Contra is amazing and if you think you’ve been there and done that, like I have for years, go download the ROM and an emulator, and revisit your friend. He misses you.

RIP Guitar Hero

{ February 12, 2011 @ 6:14 am } · { Video Game Reviews }
{ Tags: Activision, canceled, Guitar, Guitar Hero, Hero, RIP } · { Leave a Comment }

Goodnight, sweet prince.

Oh, did you want to play?

I remember the first time I saw Guitar Hero. My friend and I stood around at Best Buy watching one asshole hog the demo for a good 15 minutes. We heard the same songs over and over again, asking ourselves “Is this cool? It seems cool, but is it lame?” Some people say rhythm gaming is a lame excuse to be lazy and not learn how to play a real instrument. I say Guitar Hero introduced a way for gamers to combine their passion for music and their passion for gaming in one absolute experience. For a true lover of rock music and for passionate gamers, Guitar Hero was a true gaming gem. It was like combining peanut butter and chocolate, or monster trucks and beer; you love it so much that you’re sad that you didn’t get to experience it sooner.

And now, Guitar Hero is dead. And why? Activision milked the golden goose until it bled from its teats. With nine titles in nearly the last 18 months, and no significant change in game play, the Guitar Hero franchise has lost its luster. This isn’t the first time a franchise has been beaten to death by sequel after sequel after half-assed sequel. Activision is guilty of this crime many times throughout its history, most recently with the Tony Hawk series which had become stagnant after multiple released in quick succession with little improvement in each game. The response of the company wasn’t to enhance the quality of game play and give fans what they wanted. Instead they made a new skateboard controller that didn’t work properly.
Guitar Hero only needed a little time away from the fray. It needed retooling and it needed its greatest attributes to be resurrected and brought into the forefront of game play. The final installment of the series is a testament to Activision’s diluted sense of what consumers want and it’s blatant lack of regard for releasing a quality product. Do gamers want a better, wider range of songs? Do they want a new experience via gameplay? Do they want a better multiplayer system? More real rock stars in the game? Nope. They want to turn into super heroes and ANIMALS!

Insert Animorph references here.

Not cool.

What really gets to me is that I defended Guitar Hero, which I still believe has a better looking interface than Rock Band. Even when Rock Back took an obvious lead in the genre, I stood by my old friend, Guitar Hero. Now, they jumped the shark and sank.

RIP Guitar Hero.

Donkey Kong Country Returns

{ February 3, 2011 @ 5:51 am } · { Video Game Reviews }
{ Tags: A+, Best, Country, Diddy Kong, DKCR, Donkey, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kong, NEW Super Mario, Platformer, Returns, Wii } · { Leave a Comment }

A must have for Wii owners of all ages.

Donkey Kong Country Retruns. I wish they would have called it something else…Like “Donkey Kong Country: Anything Other Than Returns.” It was gone for a while, and now it’s back. I get that. It’s returned. Ok. But man…so cliche. But it’s Nintendo, and since it’s not a Zelda game, the title is going to be, at the very least, lackluster. At least they didn’t make some kind of banana pun.

Now that I got that out of the way, Donkey Kong Country Returns is the best game I’ve played on the Wii yet. It might be the best platformer I’ve ever played, along with Super Mario World and Mario 3. And of all the recent Nintendo re-imaginings and re-releasings, it shines as bright as the sun. The game pulls no punches in its extreme styling and imaginative level design. It holds on to all the things we fell in love with the first time we played a game as Donkey Kong and Diddy, including the rhino and a plethora of hidden areas. It contains countless hidden items and offers great replay ability. The game is very near flawless.

I played a lot of the game with my girlfriend. The multiplayer is a marvel in the platforming genre, in which it is common for a second player to feel like more of a burden or a distraction. NEW Super Mario Bro.’s suffers from this problem, as a second player gets in the way and is constantly vying for the best power-ups and trying to run ahead or is constantly slowing you down. In DKCR, one player controls Diddy and the other Donkey Kong. Each has his own abilities, such as DK’s ground pound and Diddy’s ability to use a jet pack and gun, and so each character is very useful. If a player in multiplayer is going to slow, they are transported to the faster character. There is no slowing down.

In terms of beautiful level design and meaningful interactions with those levels, DKCR delivers and delivers big.

The level design is what really puts DKCR in my list of top three platformers of all time. Some levels take place during dusk, making everything in the level a silhouetted black. Another level is shrouded in smog. The mine cart levels return, as do new challenges, such as a rocket barrel you must navigate through obstacles R-Type style, and barrels that shoot the player into a new path hidden in the background landscape of the primary stage. Yet another level has the player being attacked by an octopus from the background of the level. By far, the most impressive level is one in which everything (from moving platforms to hammers that can crush the player), moves in beat to the level’s music. It is level design like that, which can remain interesting and fresh even on your tenth try, that keeps gamers from giving up on the hard levels and pushes them to enjoy the next stage.

The boss battles can be a bit over the top in difficulty. There are some things that seem to be random, like enemy attacks, that feel like they really should be determined by a pattern. Some of them, like the crab boss, seem unfair because of this. Still, it is entertaining and offers up a bit of variety in difficulty and game flow.

On the surface, the game can at times seem a bit campy and too cartoonish. Hardcore gamers should not be fooled. The true core of this game is groundbreaking and inspired.

The games gets an A+. I loved every minute, and after finishing, there is still a lot more to do. I can’t wait to 100% the game and really get the full effect. If you own a Wii, this is a must have. It is simply a beautiful and exciting game.

EA Hates You (If You Buy Used Games) or Ten Dolla Make Me Holla

{ May 12, 2010 @ 7:51 am } · { editorials, Video Game Reviews }
{ Tags: EA, TEN DOLLA MAKE YOU HOLLA, Ten Dollars, Used Games } · { Leave a Comment }

EA has found a new way to rip off its customers. Everyone who buys a used EA Sports game and takes it home must pay ten extra dollars to play online. This comes as a result of the video game market being tapped by stores like GameStop who buy and sell used games. The argument is that for every used game sold, the publisher and developer gets $0, where as if the stores did not sell used games, the publisher and developer would be making about $30 a pop since customers would be buying new games.

I have a couple of arguments against this crock of shit position.

First of all, people aren’t turning their used games over to GameStop for fun. They’re doing it for store credit- store credit they use to buy new games. And why do people need to trade in their games to buy new ones? BECAUSE THEY CAN’T AFFORD THEM! A new game on the PS3 or the XBOX360 costs about $60 before taxes. I can hardly afford that and I have a job. I’m an adult! There are tons of kids out there who love video games, and they want the new ones, so what do they do? They trade in their old games so they can buy new ones, and guess what! Game companies just made $30 off of GameStop’s tab. Right?

It works like this. I spend my money at GameStop to buy a ton of games. Let’s say I buy five games. That’s $300 GameStop just made from me, and of that $300, $150 went to the video game companies.

I finish those games and I want a new one, so I trade them in. Let’s say I get $5 back on each game (which is about right, believe it or not). So I just made $25 back from GameStop (The video game companies still haven’t lost any money).

Now, I put that money back into a new game. GameStop makes another $60 and of that money, $30 goes back to the game companies.

So, from my original $300, the video game companies made an extra ten percent because I traded in my games.

Those games I traded in? They’re old now. No one really cares. Some people do, but most don’t. And here’s the thing about old used games: Most aren’t even available new. Go to GameStop and look at the used games. A lot of those games are only available used, so we don’t have a choice. You can find copies of wonderful older games used, and if it wasn’t for that old bin of games, most people wouldn’t be able to experience what video game companies worked so hard to produce.

Also, we’re talking about Xbox360 and PS3. People can see what I’m playing from their dashboards. Maybe they’ll start looking into these games, too. And in an industry full of sequels and spinoffs, this is a good thing! If I buy a used copy of GTA 3 and I see that 4 is coming out, I’m going to buy 4 new, if I liked the original enough.

And that’s the key here. If a game is below par, no one is going to buy the sequel used or new. EA Sports is known for not doing much to improve its games. They take baby steps, and can you really blame them? They’re constantly recreating the wheel. Every year a new football game comes out, for example, that just set the bar a little higher the year before, and people are getting tired of paying $60 a year for a little bump in graphics and game-play. This is why used sales of these games are so high. People want to wait until the game is cheaper because they aren’t getting $60 worth of game People don’t want to spend $60 on updated rosters, updated graphics, and some new gimmicks that probably aren’t that great.

Maybe EA needs to look into updating their rosters online and just sticking with that. This $10 charge to play online is crazy. Especially since it also effects being able to acquire downloadable content. That’s right. If there’s a new driver in Tiger Woods 2011, I’m going to have to pay the $10 and the cost of the new driver to download it. So a $3 item could end up being $13. Good luck with that, EA.

I’m pretty upset with this whole thing. EA is one of the biggest publishers in the industry and they make way more money than I’m sure they need. They’re just upset because they’re not making more, and that’s disgusting. I know it sucks when people are out there making money selling your games used when you’re not making a dime, but think about it this way: does any other industry do this? Think about how many used cars are sold every year. Does Ford or Honda go around trying to make money off of their used cars? No. They encourage it because it looks good. People are out their driving their cars just like people are out there still playing your old games, and it looks good when that happens.

So, listen up, EA: If people are talking about your old games and if people are playing your old games you should be happy, because if you keep releasing a product that people want, they’ll keep buying them and they’ll buy them new. But if you start putting out little improvements year after year, people aren’t going to give in, and you’re going to need to find something better to do than bite the hand that feeds you.

Borderlands: Complete Review

{ February 22, 2010 @ 8:42 am } · { Video Game Reviews }
{ Tags: Bad review, Borderlands } · { Comments (2) }

I wanted to blow my brains out, too.

Alright, so a while back I wrote a rather favorable review of Borderlands. I finished the game a couple weeks ago and now I’m ready to write my full review.

This is a game that kills itself. It’s fun, and I enjoyed it, but there were a lot of things wrong with this game. I’ve heard a lot of reviews say that it was its own worst enemy because of the multiplayer mechanic. This is true. The game was flawed if you played alone and it wasn’t very fun since you’re basically killing the same bad guys over and over and over and over and over. But this isn’t the game’s biggest flaw. If you were a gamer and you were playing Borderlands offline, you would be screwed for more reasons than just that.

For example, if you don’t download the extra content you can’t get 100% completion by way of gamerscore. To some people this isn’t a big deal, but to me it is, and I’ll tell you why. This game is really F-ing long. AND it’s really F-ing tedious so it feels even longer. So, why should I have to pay even more money to spend even more time getting 5 more achievements? How is this fair?

Here are just some of the things you have to do (things which I did, mind you) to get all the achievements in the original game:

Play online and beat a boss

Defeat someone else on Xbox live

Beat the game

Play through to at least level 5 with every character

Kill an enemy by jumping on its head (which was a real pain in the ass)

Find a boat and jump on it (Literally the most time-consuming and aggravating thing I’ve ever done in my life)

The Rakk Hive was one of the coolest bosses I've seen in a while. Unexpected for sure.

After all this and more, why the hell should I have to pay to download an additional portion to my game in order to get 100% completion? That’s total BS. Shouldn’t that be like…I don’t know, 110% completion?

Either way, you have to. When you put the game disk in the system and look at the achievements, it lists the achievements for the game on the disk AND the first downloadable content. So, I bought the first downloadable content, “Zombie Island of Dr. Ned.” It was ok, but I was pretty pissed off by this point, so I just ran through it. I got all the achievements but one, “Braaaaaiaaaans.” To earn this achievement you need to collect, you guessed it, brains, and whole lot of them. 435 to be exact. The only way to get a brain is to get a headshot, and this can get annoying. But I did it. I killed 435 zombies and I literally blew their brains out. I picked those brains up and I took them to some guy and then BINGO! My last achievement….right? Right?!

Nope. The game was like “go fuck yourself and give us more money!” And I said “Fuck you” right back and gave the game back to my roommate.

The game was HORRIBLE at making you care about any of the characters and, as a result, about anything that was happening in this game.

Imagine you’re some little punk kid and you love this game. You play it and play it and you beat it and your mom won’t buy you the new content. So you beg and you beg and you tell her all you need are 5 more achievements and you’ll have them all. She has no idea what you’re talking about, but it’s obviously important to you, so she tells you to get better grades and she’ll do it because she knows she can play you like that. So you do. You work your ass off and you get a little better grades and she buys it and you play it, and you collect all those fucking brains for no reason other than to make the content seem longer, only to find out you need the OTHER downloadable content. By this point there might even be another one after that, and another, and another. What are you going to do, ask your mom to buy you the next one? And the next one? Your grades can only get so high.

Little punk kids are the main consumers here, so what the hell? They’re milking the cow a little too hard. Give us a break and give credit where credit is due. This is a joke.

The game was fun, but it is repetitive. Toward the end you’re just going through the motions. It has a feel to it that makes you think the designers were running out of ideas. The end is a joke. The treasure you’re promised is…well, I don’t want to ruin it, but it sucks a lot. Then, when it’s all over, you do it again. Seriously. It’s called “Playthrough 2″ and it’s a little harder, but it’s exactly the game.

Borderlands gets a C for game play, but after stealing ten of my hard-earned dollars, D. Don’t buy it.

Borderlands

{ January 13, 2010 @ 5:09 am } · { Video Game Reviews }
{ Tags: Borderlands, video games } · { Leave a Comment }

: This is the box. In case you were wondering.

The opening movie to the game is badass. You can see it after the review.

Ok, so I wanted to review Borderlands but it’s really long and the game isn’t getting any younger, so I decided to review levels 1-20 (of your character).

I’m playing through as the soldier character. You can also play through as a sniper, a big strong guy, and a girl who can turn invisible and go stab people. Everyone has their own special ability. The sniper has a bird that he sends out to kill people, the big strong guy goes into berserker mode, and my dude has a turret he can throw out for a limited amount of time. Each of their abilities can be upgraded. For example, my turret can gain healing powers, shoot more bullets, etc. Also, you can upgrade yourself in terms of fire power and other attributes.

I have no idea what this logo means.

I’m happy with my choice of character because I can throw down the turret and it keeps enemies occupied as I sneak around and shoot them from behind. The

game was really built for multiplayer. You can play with friends online and the game isn’t shy about that fact. There are some boss battles that are all but impossible alone. There are some regular missions that just beg for someone else to help you. Driving around in your vehicle, such as being chased by crazed bad guys and being shot at, you try to defend yourself but you know that it would be 100 times easier with someone else manning the gun while you drive.

Old Games, Big Savings

{ December 22, 2009 @ 9:14 am } · { 1, Cheap Game Reivews, Video Game Reviews }
{ Tags: genesis, nes, nintendo 64, playstation, sega, silent hill, snes, sonic, Xbox } · { Comments (1) }

Games like Silent Hill and Final Fantasy VII are still SUPER expensive. If you're going to buy a game like that, you might as well go with something in the current generation of consoles.

Feeling extra cheap this holiday season? It’s not too late to go el cheapo on some of your gamer friends and family members. The truth is, most of the best games ever made weren’t made during this generation of consoles (Wii, PS3, and Xbox360) and you can find the biggest hits of yesteryear for extra cheap on Amazon.com used! Of course, the best of the best are still really expensive (like Silent Hill, which is still well above $30 used, or Final Fantasy VII, which should still hit your pocket book pretty hard). So, what follows is a guide to the best games from the past that have gone down significantly in price.

Let’s go look at the last generation of games and see what we can find. These games are especially great because most can be played on today’s consoles since they’re backwards compatible, meaning that Xbox360 can play most regular Xbox games, and the Wii can play Gamecube games.

The PS3 is kind of tricky, and only some models can play PS2 games, but all models, from what I’ve gathered, can play PSone games (the original PlayPlayStationtem).

For the PS2 and Xbox catalocatalogmes, there are a few that stick out. For owners of either system and for fans of Spider-Man, the Spider-Man 2 video game (about $2 used) is a pretty awesome buy. No other Spider-Man game really captured what it might be like to swing through New York like this one did. The game takes you though the story of the movie, but it also introduces other villains like The Rhino and Mysterio. The game plays very well and is full of side missions and upgrades to keep people interested for a long time.

Another great title that you can’t go wrong with is Tony Hawk’s Underground (less than a dollar online). True, there were sequels, but none really matched this game’s greatness. You get to rise through the ranks as a pro skater in this video game epic. The greatness of this game, however, comes from the multiplayer experience and in building your own parks.

Making your own parks and goals makes Underground a game that you can literally play forever.

Sadly, the park editor has been cut from later games in the series, which is one of the biggest crimes in the history of electronic entertainment. Find someone who has this game, break out your memory cards and start building parks and goals within them, and watch the fun start. Never has so much creative freedom been placed into a game (with possibly the exception of Little Big Planet). It is a gift that will keep on giving, especially if you can hand copies of this game out to multiple members of your family.

For all your GameCube playing, Nintendo loving persons on your list, there’s only one way to go. Nintendo puts so much energy and so much polish into games that bear the franchise’s most prized characters that you really can’t go wrong with any Mario, Zelda, or Metroid game. Check out this price list:

One of the best games on the GameCube was this cartoony look into the Zelda universe.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door: $12

Metroid Prime: $5

Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker: $20

Stay away from Super Mario Sunshine. It’s was a mess.

Going even farther back, you can run into some issues. You don’t want to buy games for older consoles unless you’re sure your friend or family member has the older console or that it still works. A Sega Genesis might cost about $25 on Amazon used, but you never know if it’s going to work or not. So be careful.

What is nice though, is the thought that you might inspire someone to break out their old NES or Super Nintendo and encourage them to revisit some of their most beloved games from 10 or 20 years ago.

Here’s a quick list of prices for old used consoles and some great deals for some of their best games. I’ve also included some pretty awesome ads for each respective system. Enjoy!

Sega Genesis: $25 used

Comic Zone: $4

Sonic the Hedgehog 2: a penny!

Streets of Rage 2: $6

Golden Axe: $6

PSone: $20

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped: $10

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2: $1.50

Gran Tourismo: $2

(A lot of these games are still over $20…which is interesting to me…)

PS2: $50

Twisted Metal: Black: $3

God of War: $5

Sly Cooper: $2

Red Dead Revolver: $4

Xbox: $35

Brute Force: a penny!

Halo: $7

Burnout: Revenge: $5

Spinter Cell: 75 cents!

Nintendo Entertainment System: $30

Legend of Zelda: $8

Super Mario 3: $10

Metroid: $8

Dr. Mario: $5

Super Nintendo: $40

Super Mario World: $10

Donkey Kong Country: $15

Street Fighter 2: $2.50

Mega Man X: $10

F Zero: $1

Nintendo64: $30

Golden Eye 007: $9

Mario 64: $20

Diddy Kong Racing: $8

Also, if you’re stupid, you can get a Virtual Boy for $50.

Thanks for reading! Happy Holidays!

Used Games for Christmas!

{ December 22, 2009 @ 9:12 am } · { Cheap Game Reivews, Video Game Reviews }
{ Tags: burnout, fallout 3, ghostbusters, left 4 dead, madden, paradise } · { Leave a Comment }

It’s getting close to that 24th deadline and things are getting crazy!

Well, why not order a used game offline for that special someone? Print out a picture, wrap it, and blame the lateness on the sender. No need to mention we waited this long, right?

Here are some ideas I think will be a hit.

This is the map for Burnout Paradise. It's pretty big and there's tons to do.

For the racing game fanatic, hows about Burnout:Paradise? Basically, you just drive around a GIANT beach city, burning rubber in races, causing crazy crashes, and pushing people off the road. With the addition of motorcycles and other downloadable content in combination with online multiplayer, you’re going to be giving a gift that will keep giving for a long time.

Burnout Paradise is $5 used.

GIFT GIVING TIP: When giving a video game with online multiplayer, why not buy two? Keep one for yourself or give the extra away as a gift also. Encouraging people to play together will add a lot to the experience of owning the game. Just make sure the game says “online multiplayer” on the back of the box. If you’re not sure, ask a store attendant.

Fallout 3 is the most impressive game I think I've ever played.

If you’ve got an action buff in the family, there are a lot of fantastic options on sale this year. There are games that deserve their discounted used prices on Amazon, even if they are a bit high.

First up is the best game I’ve played in a long long long long time: Fallout 3. You can get the original game for less than $20. This game takes a VERY LONG time to finish if you explore the entire map and take part in a lot of the side missions. It took me weeks, and I was playing it into the early morning on some occasions.

If its for someone really special, I strongly recommend the Game of the Year Edition which comes with all of the downloadable content. For a lot of you who don’t know what I mean, I’ll explain. The game was released and then additions were released month after month. There are 5 in total and they each cost about $10. This game comes with these additions on the disk, so you don’t have to buy them separately and you don’t have to download them. The additional content was hit and miss in terms of quality. For a die hard fan like myself, they were all very enjoyable, but the reviews were mixed. Still, the value for this content alone is about $50, and if you buy the Game of the Year Edition used, that’s how much you’ll pay. $50 will get you the original game AND all 5 downloadable additions.

GAME BUYING TIP: If you’re buying for someone who doesn’t have an internet connection to his or her Xbox360 or PS3, try to find a good deal on the Game of the Year editions. These usually include everything the developers released as downloadable content which you can only get if you’re connected to the internet. Also included in these games are “patches,” which are basically updates that make the game run smoother and, in some cases, changes the game mechanics to make them more enjoyable.

I know Left 4 Dead 2 is out, but there are still tons of people playing part one, and it's a lot of fun making friends and killing zombies with them into the wee hours of the night.

Honorable mentions in the action category include:

Prototype: $20

Left 4 Dead: $20

Fable 2: $20

Ghostbusters really puts you in the action. It's easy to get a little too excited, but that's totally fine...

For those of you buying for a movie fanatic, there were a couple great games released this year based on awesome movies. Of these, the one that really stands out is Ghostbusters. The game features ALL the original actors doing voice work for their respective characters. For any fan it’s a must own. You can get it for $20 used.

Another game that came out recently was the Godfather 2. I didn’t actually play it, but it did get decent reviews. Most people complain it was too much like the original game, however, I enjoyed the original, so what’s the problem? My roommate played it, he said he liked it. You can get this game for about $15.

GAME BUYING TIP: I know a lot of us are tempted to get a game because it’s based off of a movie that someone likes, but DON’T! Usually, these games aren’t fun, they’re put together and released before they’re finished to meet crazy deadlines, and they don’t feature many things we loved about them on film. Stick with the few that you’ve heard are good, don’t trust the store clerks, and focus on getting a game that is fun to play, not to look at.

John Madden wants all your money...and a chili dog.

Sports are always a hot genre in video games, but often the games remain overpriced through the holiday season. You can also buy an older version of a game, like last years NCAA Football instead of this year’s. But be warned: a lot of people aren’t going to be happy with that choice. It’s going to be very obvious you were trying to save money, and your friend or family member will be missing out on a lot of new features that have been hyped by EA for the last 6 to 9 months. It might be best to avoid these games all together if you’re trying to save money.

MADEN NFL 2010 will cost you at least $45 if you have an Xbox360 or a PS3. It’s only about $20 on the Wii, but be warned, the Wii version is geared more toward the casual gamer and is in a lot of ways inferior to the others.

GAME BUYING TIP: Try to find sales where you can buy a game and get a gift card in return or a rebate and use that extra money to get a new sports game. That’s your best bet on getting someone the sports game they want this Christmas without killing your budget.

If you’re going to be cheap, be smart. See my other review to see how to save EVEN MORE MONEY by buying games for older systems.

Thanks! And Happy Holidays!

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