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Plants Versus Zombies Review

Plants v.s Zombies is a defense game where you take controll of tons of differen't plants to kill the zombies, and stop them from getting to your delicious brains. You start out with 1 plant, the Peashooter, each level you defend fomr waves of zombies, earning more plants after each level to cope with the difficulty change. Theres alot of Stratedgy involved in this game, as well has many different tactics you can use in each level.

Graphics - This is no Gears of War, or Crysis, but it certainly has a great 2-D artstyle that looks fantastic. 9/10

Sound - The delectable sound of peas flying through the air, cabbage launching, and the zombie moans are great. Not to mention the great music in the game. 9.5/10

Controls - Are there any better controls for a tower defense then your mouse? I think not. 10/10

Gameplay - As simplistic as it sounds and starts out, it gets really intense and chaotic in the later levels, its just a blast to play! Easily the best tower defense game I have played. 10/10

Cost - Its $10, go buy it. 10/10

48.5/50

I'll write up a review on NFS: Prostreet later.

Infamous Review

I'm gunna try to keep it short and sweet cause lets face it, this is newgrounds and nobody likes a gay wall of text, so everythings in bullets, how nice still a wall, but more organized and easier to read. I also don't rate stuff with numbers because it honestly doesn't make any sense that way. I do pros and cons. I also rate based on Sound, Graphics, Immersion, gameplay and replayability. So...

Sound(get the boring shit out of the way):
+ great music, i could see myself listening to them for fun really
=sound fx's themselves blended well but nothing epic or degrading to effect the overall impression
- bad voice acting, if i had to listen to that country redneck accent one more time... why i-

Graphics:
+electricity and lighting blended well, 3 different lightning styles (i think, maybe 4 but i'd rather not do another playthrough just to test a theory at the end of the game)
= buildings were average, but were done well enough to make the world feel special
-lipsincing was terrible, lets just move the mouths up and down and pray they sinc up

Immersion:
= the story was decent but not really oscar worthy
-i dont feel the comic style of the cutscenes was a good idea. It looked pretty, but when shit went down during them, i really couldn't care less so character development went out the window for anyone other than Cole since he was narrating.
- no love for any of the characters, Trish was a needy bitch and i don't see what cole saw in her, and Zeke was an annoying faggot that i wished died. Yet Coles feeling towards these characers were complete opposites to mine, regardless how you played the game.
-moral choices barely changes anything in terms of story so don't be disappointed

Gameplay
+electricity is easy and smooth to control, unlimited ammo jolts are fun
+upgrades add to the fun
=limited upgrades but who gives a shit right?
-enemies can shoot you with pin point accuracy at any fucking distance if they see u. Don't bother running, you'll just give them the advantage (Since u can go out of range!)

Replayablity:
+ a game that merits a definitive second playthrough , you really have to, theres no question unless your stupid.
+20 to 30 hours of gameplay if u want platinum
= second play through isn't all that different then the first, and replaying missions doesn't bring back fond memories, but hey new powers right?
-after 2 playthroughs, there's no point to picking up the game ever again, unless u havent done the repetitive sidemissions that u've done already in some form or another in the main quests.

Overall? (Rent, buy, or don't bother?)
Rent for sure, rent twice if u want plat unless u had alot of time like me

At 6/9/09 04:02 AM, narf109 wrote: Infamous Review

-enemies can shoot you with pin point accuracy at any fucking distance if they see u. Don't bother running, you'll just give them the advantage (Since u can go out of range!)

you know if you run and role they cant hit you for shit unless they are in a machine gun so yeah

Terminator Salvation: The Game

Dispelling the retards who haven't played it.

Terminator Salvation isn't just overlooked, it's also the definition of underrated. People are comparing it to ET on the Atari. People are saying it's just another movie-based game. I'm afraid not.

This game actually isn't a movie-based game, believe it or not. Because it's not based on the movie. It takes place two years before with no connection to the movie. The game is a third person shooter that takes a hell of a lot more than gaming skill to complete. You need strategy, timing, quick thinking. You're not fighting soldiers with shite AIs, your really fighting those hardass terminators. T-600s as well as smaller and larger machines who want to stop the resistance. Like the movie however, it does take place in LA, or what's left of it. And they launched a nuke at the end which explains all the mess in the movie.

The PS3 version offers trophies. But no bronze trophies. They're all gold and of course the final Platinum. You get a trophy for completing each level, and one for completing them on Medium and Hard modes, and that's all of them. Easy trophies in this game, impress your online friends who care! ...Seriously though, they'll keep you playing.

Ahem, the game is decently lengthed and I actually felt good after completing it, not just because of the trophies. It's becuase the game really captured the seriousness of being John Connor during the war. Robots don't go down with a few shotgun blasts. If you miss with a grenade, rocket launcher, or grenade launcher, you'll curse out loud in anger at that tough robot moving at the last second. If you're out of such weapons, you have to use what little ammo you have for your little assualt rifle which feels more like a pee shooter against them. Speaking of which, it would likely take around 200 rounds from that gun to take down a T-600.

The only thing that really bothers me is that T-600 and Spiders can attack you and it would kill you instantly. You can be behind cover under some heavy minigun fire from a T-600, and he can just walk up to it and bitchslap you. Instant death. It doesn't happen often, but it's stupid. It's not like we were sent flying 20 feet. You just get knocked over and your dead, despite being able to stand after around 20 minigun rounds.

Other bothersome things is that the captions during cutscenes come out seconds after they were said during the first few levels. Not so great. And every action that was performed with the Triangle button was sometimes delayed, which can kill you if it happens at the wrong time.

The music was great. Hearing the Terminator theme give the correct feel to those "Come on, come on!" moments was awesome.

The graphics deserve some merit. Not the best you can find of course but shadowing and lighting effects were really done well. The cutscenes weren't bad at all.

The gameplay is worth mentioning. It has a unique cover system. You can take cover behind a number of destroyed objects, and you can tell Connor to run over to another piece of cover somewhere in another direction. This is a much safer way to get around during a battle. The game offers co-op where the other players plays as the woman who's with us in every level, Blair, which I believe is his wife in the movie two years later.

In conclusion, this game is worth playing. It's the only good Terminator game out there (two others were on the PS2, they're utter shite), and I want people to stop targeting this game because they think it's a generic movie-based game.

Overall Rating: 8/10

Day of Defeat: Source

I tried the 48 hour demo for this game, really liked it, then bought it for $5.00 last year. A revival of Valve's classic WWII shooter Day of Defeat, this game is available for Steam.

Visuals 9/10

This game is built on Valve's legendary Source engine. It has the same vibrancy and crispness that other Source games have, but to me, this is among the nicest looking Source games ever. It's in the middle of the cartoonishness of TF2, and the drabness of Counter-Strike: Source, sorta' like a Portal style of graphics. Colors are bright, the HDI lighting completely changes the atmosphere of the game, making it reminiscent of Halo 3's beautiful outdoor lighting effects. Motion blurring is a simple touch that complements every part of the graphics. DoD: S is the most pleasing FPS to look at in my opinion. I've never played such an aesthetically appealing shooter. Character models are authentic and handsome, guns are faithfully recreated. Settings are also very impressive. There are quaint Italian architecture surrounding the battlefield, from light fixtures such as glowing lamps, crumbling columns, delivering an immersive field of operations. Animations are top notch and smooth. Particles are also pretty decent, snow and decals showing up. Day of Defeat: Source has among the greatest graphics I've ever seen with my own eyes. My only pet peeve is that you fly up the ladders instead of having an animation of climbing up it. No big deal, just my preference. It's slightly outdated compared to current workhorses such as Crysis and Call of Duty 4, but it's still one of the most artistic and pleasing visual presentations of our time.

Gameplay 8/10

DoD:S is mostly a team-work Battlefield 2 styled capture the checkpoints game. Your choice of weapons and abilities are determined by common classes such as the Heavy Gunner class armed with an LMG, having the ability to fire semi-automatic rounds. Each class has a specific purpose for the overall team work aspect of the game. in a perfect world, the assault class would pop smoke, charge up, and pave the way with the help of the SMG. Snipers and riflemen would provide long range cover, as the rest of the other classes roll up. Teams are usually uncoordinated in this pretty much, "run-and-gun" game, but there is a mic function to try to rally your unit together. Level design is fairly good, mixing in all sorts of different elevations, stairways, slopes, towers, giving you a tactically viewpoint of the frantic action. There are only a limited number of game modes and maps, meager, but they are all very fun. The core action of the game is entertaining and works well. Believe it or not, this game actually has an aim down the sight function for a limited selection of guns. It's a thrilling experience, supplemented by many minor mechanisms that add together to provide a pretty fun time comparable to the franticness and scale of Call of Duty 4.

Replay Value 7/10

There are only like four maps that are offered to you. There are more, but it feel like you're playing a lot of the same maps over and over again. With a lack of quantity, this game makes up with quality. However there is no striking ranking system that motivates you to keep playing for prestige. There is the Steam community, but it's not as rewarding as current games that reward you with EXP, new guns, armor pieces, etc. However there ARE unlock-able trophies that can provide you an interesting and amusing challenge. The core fun of the game will bring you back for more, especially for such a cheap game.

DoD: S is far from a huge huge blockbuster shooter, mainly because this is a mod supported by a hardcore community. With a lack of lots of maps and gametypes, the games scale is limited. However it offers you an amazing overall package for just $10.00, sometimes even as low as $1.00 and $5.00 during sales. For the price, it should be a must by if you like WWII shooters. The community is also supportive and not annoying. There is still quite a great fanbase still here. Go buy this game.

Final Score: 8/10

The House of the Dead: Overkill

I am very happy to be reviewing one of the best damn Wii games out there, and quite possibly the best Third Party game. Ahh, it is a Sega game, but they hired a British gaming company to make it, so don't worry.

The House of the Dead Overkill is the first console HoD game. And my god am I glad they took that risk. This game is awesome. If I remember, it's a prequel to the very first House of the Dead, taking place at the Curien Mansion. This one takes place in a variety of locations. A hospital, prison, carnival, swamp, you name it. It is the story of new character Detective Isaac Washington, and series icon Agent G. What started as a quest for revenge and stopping a mutant outbreak in the process, became an action-packed adventure that saved thousands of lives while stopping the outbreak from spreading across the globe (or so they thought they stopped it).

The game is rated M, and the only thing that stops it from obtaining an adult rating is that it has no nudity, except for zombie breasts which aren't all that hot. Let's get to our bad points of the game first while I'm thinking about them.

The game is full of itself, over the top with cussing, and corny use of the word f***. You'll notice this fairly quickly through the cutscenes and music. Being somebody who adores cutscenes, I've become quite angered at the choices with the cutscenes. The developers obviously didn't want a developed storyline (although I don't blame them for that to be honest), so instead of making the cutscenes progress the story on it's own. They begin with narration by a voice who also appears full of itself. Look up one of the cutscenes and you'll see what I mean. Luckily that voice appears less later on.

All the problems with this game are "personal problems". And they hardly hinder this game at all. It's fun, it's gory, it leaves you wanting more. Despite the laughable storyline of the arcade games, this one carried itself much better. The humor becomes very funny, you actually start liking the small, humble cast of characters, and you'll love that you can purchase and upgrade weapons in the store between levels. You get money from how well you did on a level. If you feel your weapons aren't getting the job done, you can replay previous levels and get money from them however many times you want.

You start with a magnum that can become a reliable weapon that can take you to the end of the game if you're pretty decent with it. There's also a shotgun, SMG, assault shotgun, and assault rifle. You can carry two guns with you in each level and switch between them with the Z button. Although, I never really switched weapons because the shotguns always got the job done despite being the slower weapon.

There are powerups in the game. First being the very nice "slow mo-fo mode". Shooting this green thing will make the game run half as fast, but your character moving three quarters as fast as far as firing and reloading. Your chance of making heads explode is increased, and watching meat chuncks splatter and fly in slow motion is just wonderful. And of course the parts are easier despite this affect only going on for about 15 seconds.

The co-op, the co-op. I love being able to play alongside my brother blowing the hell out of zombies. To be fair, they add more zombies in levels if there are two players, but less than twice as much. Partners have access to any weapons you own, but they also have their own health meter, so you really need to fight over who gets to pick up the health pack.

The graphics are very nice. And the game never lags even while it's loading the next part of the level as you're going through. But since this is a rail shooter that requires quick aim, you're really not obligated to care.

Upon completion of the story mode, you get a new Director's Cut mode. Which has the same levels but more to them, and generally harder. You do not start with your old weapons from the first campaign. It's pure replay value.

Again, as a fan of House of the Dead alongside Resident Evil, I have to say that this game is more than worth getting. If this is not part of your Wii Collection, than you better have a damn good excuse. I say it even ties with Umbrella Chronicles, which I should have reviewed a month ago after finishing it.

Overall Score: 9/10

It would have been 9.5 is grenades were more plentiful, and the personal problems weren't there, but I guess I shouldn't even take that into account. I only rate higher than 9 if the game managed to do more than blow out my mind. This one only blew it out into tiny meat chunks.

That's right, fellow people with gun fetishes, you watch the reloading now.

Thank you for saying somthing that needed to be said, COD4's multiplayer pretty much sucks

One of the Most overlooked games of all time
Roller Coaster Tycoon==================================
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Roller Coaster Tycoon was made in 1999 and its damn fun. But its one of those games you have to had played it back then, because now it looks old and a little odd. There are a few diffrent maps and levels. Each one has a similar goal, build a park, get a high park rating, get money, get guests. There are some fun things like killing guests on roller coasters or in water Roller Coaster Tycoon is a classic game, the graphics are not that bad at all, you can go back to it, and in the end its less then 40mb without the expaison.
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--------------------Then 9/10
Now 10/10

GTA: Chinatown Wars

I know I promised earlier I would make a Prostreet review (as if anyone cares) But after playing this I've decided it's worth reviewing aswell.

GTA: CW starts off with a short dialogue of text, explaining your situation, what's happend, etc while you're on an airplane to Liberty City, the gist is you're a sspoilt chinese guy whos dad recently died, you must now transport a sword (Named "Yu Jing") to Liberty City to your mobster Uncle, you don't give a fuck about the sword, nor really any mobster gangs, you just deliver the sword to be good for your father.

Upon arrival... you find that an ambush has been setup, afew men are killed and you are dumped into the ocean, the sword has been stolen, you then make your way to Uncle Kenny's, where you get your first jobs and safehouse.

The game plays well, it's representde in a 2.5D birds eye view, normal GTA activities take place, you kill people, steal cars and kill cops, you can also now deal drugs, an interesting way of making money.

The map is almost an exact copy of the GTA IV map, you'll notice a few places you saw in GTA IV. Surprisingly there's a physics engine in this, yes, you can flip your car, go over jumps, and your car will sometimes fall over, at which point it wont catch fire.

A new feature is the drug dealing mechanic, you can carry upto 50 bags of drugs at a time, drugs consist of Downers, Weed, Ecstasy, Acid, Coke and Heroine, each being more expensive respectively, you go and sell these drugs to other dealers in hope of a profit, occasionally you'll receive emails and texts from dealrers alerting you of special deal (eg. Need to offload some Coke, come and get some cheap. or I got some college punks willing to pay big for some weed over here), and it's all in all quite good fun. Ofcourse, it carries risk, with each deal there's a chance the police will make a bust, which lands you with a 2-star wanted level.

The phone makes a return (well, a PDA), but this time is actually useful, (eg. important info, special offers from dealers or Amunation), it contains a map, internet resources, stats, missions, etc.

there's a decent arsenal of weapons, from Battons to Katanas and chainsaws, or from pistols to mini-guns and rocket launchers.

Yes, this is pretty much a full GTA game squeezed down onto a DS, and what a joy it is.

I'd have written this much better, but frankly this keyboard is horrible.

THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU REVIEW QUICKIE

sorry if pic fails

GRAPHICS- I found these graphics to be pretty good, but the stills for the dialogue scenes were rather bland. The in-game cutscenes, however short, were great graphics-wise. 8/10

CONTROLS/GAMEPLAY- Controlling 2 characters at once seems tough to pull off, however they did it. Stylus controls for the bottom screen worked well, button presses for the top worked as well. The idea of the trends affecting your attack worked as well. 10/10

STORY- Neku Sakuraba dies and is forced into a game to reclaim his life. Basically, a very compelling story. Too much dialogue though ( YOU DONT NEED SO MUCH DIALOGUE FOR THE STORY, SQUARE ENIX). 9/10

SOUND- FUCKIN' EARGASM. The souldtrack for this game is simply AWESOME, and I wouldn't mind throwing a lot of these tunes on my iPod. The voice-acting was great too, there wasn't enough of it though. 9/10

OVERALL- 9/10. Just short of perfection, this game is a MUST-BUY for any DS owner.

Red Alert 3: Uprising

This game is the expansion to Red Alert 3, but it's standalone, which kind off justifies its $20 price tag, but I won't judge, I got it for free. This game adds 11 new units, 4 mini campaigns, and a very lengthy and challenging 50 mission Commanders Challenge mode, here's a break down of the game:

Story: This game follows the events of the past game, through an allied cannon, with :SPOILERS: The governments of both Japan and Russia overthrown, with the Emperor of Japan apparently dead and General Krukov and Premeir Cherdenko in cryo prison. There is a 4 mission long Russian campaign, following a Russian resistence effort against the insane Allied Supplying Futuretech, where they've built some strange facilities in the Motherland. The Allied campaign follows Allied forces trying to control Japan, after it splits up into four sub factions lead by four commanders (three of which are from the previous game.) The Japanese campaign follows you trying to repel soviet forces that have taken an interest in Japanese lands. The fourth campaign follows the Japanese hero unit, Yuriko Omega, from the original Red Alert 3, in her journey to become what she was in Red Alert 3, it also follows the events afterwords.
Rating: 8/10

Content: The campaigns are somewhat varied, there are missions that add extra elements to spice things up a bit. The missions are somewhat challenging, well, if you're new to the game, it WILL be a challenge, but if you're a vet of C&C, then it won't be a problem at all. However, in my oppinion, the best done campaign is the one that follows Yuriko Omega's story, it's COMPLETELY different from the rest of the game, having you controlling one unit, and has RPG and Dungeon Crawling elements to it, the side bar is removed, and instead you have a lower bar for mouse controls of the powers (although there are hotkeys as an alternate.) This campaign REALLY spices things up. But, by far, the most memorable thing in the whole expansion is the AMAZINGLY done Commanders Challenge mode, offerin 50 unique and varying in difficulty challenges, but here's the catch, you begin the mode with a limited amount of units, completing the challenges offers you new units, so it's all about thinking in what order to do the challenge, and exactly how you're going to do the challenge. And they're all supported by co-commanders talking to you through standard in game commander talking manner. Another new thing of the game and the most noticable, are the 11 new, different, and overall fun units, that, while destroying the games balance, are just so awesome.
Score: 9/10

Graphics: The new units are really well modeled, the Cryo Legionare's ice effect really looks cool, the desolator looks as creepy as he should, the giga fortress is just amazingly modeled, as a giant floating head of doom that can transform into a battle fortress. And the new map assets look well done, adding to the the variety of locations from vanilla Red Alert 3, is a new type of place, a very spooky, late at night, area, and it's really cool looking and all that.
Score: 9/10

Presentation: The game's presented nicely, unlike other games, this expansion doesn't try to clutter the menu's, it's an easy to get right into game, as C&C's been in the past, and the real life actors hired to do the cut scenes did their job ten times better (in my oppinion) then the Red Alert 3 ones did, you can clearly see EA put a ton of money into this to make it feel like you're really a commander, and this stuff is really happening, and it shows.
Score: 10/10

Sound: The voices of the units are all really cool, with the Cryo Legionare sounding like a German party starter, that throws out Mr. Freeze quotes, to the creepy Desolator that enjoys suffering of others, to the very disturbing, strange, creepy, Giga Fortress, which isn't really trying to sound weird, but is, it's like those computers which are about to go sentinel. But the most noticable thing is the new music tracks, they even brought back Frank Klepacki to do the soviet hard rock tracks, the Japanese get some new techno, and the Allies get some rock tracks too, which are pretty catchy. Also, there's a new menu track that's done sounding Japanese relating more to Yuriko Omega's origins, well, most people associate it with Yuriko, anyways, they're all VERY well done.
Score: 10/10

Replayability: The Commander's Challenge really is the most replayable thing here, the campaigns DO NOT merit a second playthrough, they're just not worth it, but honestly, the commander's challenge covers for it. Beating every challenge under par time earns you a respectable title of strategic mastery, honestly, it's HARD to get every challenge under par, and you'll find yourself playing a challenge over and over again until you get it, nicely done. But the biggest shame is the removal of ANY online in the game, and to make matters worse, the skirmish mode has NO co-commander features, people who played Red Alert 3 skirmish by themselves really knew how much this added to the game, and seeing Giles being replaced by "Allied Air force Commander" is a big hit in the face to people who liked them.
Score: 7/10

Final Score: 8.5/10
Oh, also, the only way to get this game is through download, just thought I would mention it.

The Conduit Game Review

I had a nice two hour run with this game at my friends house. He is a Wii enthusiast, and had great insight from him.

Graphics 7/10

For a Wii game, I guess this game looks pretty nice. All Wii games look pretty mediocre, and this is for a modern shooter game. HOWEVER, I never really cared because the environments still looked like what they were supposed to look like, and the graphics were actually pretty decent. You won't see hyper-detailed textures and sharp anti-aliasing, nor HDI lighting and other stunning visuals that games like Crysis and Gears of War 2 offers. But once again, this is a good looking game for the Wii. I'm was also pleasantly surprised by small "graphic-powerhouse" touches such as a bit of a blurring effects that you get when you scope and reload. Guns are pretty well rendered too, the MP5 is detailed down to the red illustrations that mark the selection of fire. But the textures are bland, the environments are pretty bland too, and nothing really looks aesthetically appealing. The Conduit's graphics does its job, presenting a decent visual experience to vaporize enemies into pulps.

Story 5/10

Most shooting games these day and even back then do not have particularly immersive, engaging, entertaining, and non-corny stories. Basically the plot is how Washington D.C. is hit by all these mysterious attacks, and now there's a CIA styled civil war against aliens, government corporations, and a renegade military group. It presents an okay story for a shooter, but it's definitely not a story that is well fleshed out, nor is multi-media material. I would never want to read a novel about The Conduit's universe, and that's basically how I judge the story. If a story is great enough for me to keep interest and want to know more about, then it's exceptionally superb. The Conduit presents a basic story for you to kinda have a motivation to kill some characters and pursue some missions. Other than that, I just think the story is corny. It just seems like a quickly slapped together plot that doesn't really have true focus. It seemed like National Treasure slapped in with Half Life slapped in with The Bourne Ultimatum, which in theory sounds AWESOME, but really, it's just weird.

Controls 8/10

I heard that for a Wii game, this game has great shooting controls. As an Xbox 360 player who doesn't have much experience with the Wiimote, this game's controls were pretty hard to grasp, but I still had decent ability to maneuver across the battlefield. However everytime I swing the Wiimote to melee, my control gets stuck in a deadzone, and it's pretty hard to get oriented again. Also frequently I accidentally throw grenades and kill myself from moving the Wiimote. But that's just inexperience. Scoping in, its a challenge for me amazingly to get a bead on the enemy because I'm not used to holding the controller so still. Wii shooting games exemplify why I love conventional controls for shooting games, but The Conduit delivers good controls.

Single Player 8/10

Overall, the single player was pretty fun to play. It was pretty fun, rampaging through Washington D.C's airports, combating aliens with grenades, melting enemies into goo with an over charged pulse rifle, and struggling through a VERY challenging experience. This game is pretty difficult, but it's manageably difficult. But sometimes it gets frustrating, combined with invisible bombs and stuff, while having to destroy Conduit gates at the same time. I really like the ASC (that floating ball device), and how you utilize it for many situations. It's a pretty good touch to the single player, but not a major one. Weapons are pretty fun to use, albeit the small variety. Enemies are also fun to contend with. Other than the game being really frustrating, the single player is quite entertaining.

Multiplayer 7/10

No splitscreen. What a bummer. Other than that, it's pretty cool how easy it is to get into a game and stuff. But with the Wii's limited multiplayer capabilities, there's many limitations to the overall experience, such as the lack of easily playing with friends and voice chatting with non-friends. The gameplay itself is pretty good, there's a nice array of gametypes such ASC football which is kinda like Oddball in Halo, and an assortment of weapon sets for each match. Map design is good with varying designs and elevations. But I don't know of any customization, and there's not much weapons to choose from. For a Wii multiplayer shooter, I guess it's good, but compared with frontline FPS with PC's and Xbox 360's, it's kinda mediocre. There's no innovation at all, but gives you an experience where you try to pummel you foes with The Conduit's controls and weapon set.

Overall 7/10

If I only had a Wii, I would get this in desperation. But with my other consoles, it's not a title I would even think of getting, but if you're a Wii fan, I half-halfheartedly recommend the game. It's entertaining, which really is all that matters, but it's quite frustrating, and I don't think there's much replay value other than getting the secrets and playing the simplified multiplayer. Get if if you're a shooter fan and you only have the Wii. If you're not a shooter fan, or if you have another console with Call of Duty 4, then don't even think about getting this.

Bit Boy--WiiWare

Well-today I got Bit Boy, the only Wiiware title ever to catch my interest since Megaman 9, I was intrigued at the fact that you revisit older worlds of the VG realm including the 4 bit ways of the early Atari consoles, classic NES 8 bit, SNES style 16 bit, a Playstation parody 32 bit, a 64 bit area and a 128 bit one to finish.

Being a proud retro gamer, this did spark my intrest just hearing about it, so I bought it.

Getting slightly excited, I continued.

Story 4: Bit Boy (he has a name, but I can't remember it, it's not that good) is chill'n in a normal day, then a 4 bit monster comes out of hammer space, Bit Boy isn't threatened and because of that, the monster steals all of his friends, which there are apparently a lot of and now he goes in to save them.

Make what you please of this plot, but I could personally live without it.

Graphics 8: Intentional and beautifully simulated to their respective era, when you're in the 4-bit era, it looks like an atari game, save for the soundeffects and death animations, it's pretty spot on, same for the other generations, especially 32 bit, which I swear was a parody of the Playstation. The colors are well placed and it's easy to distinguish one thing from another.

Music/Sounds/Voice work 7: I enjoy that they tried really hard to capture the music of each respective bit era, and they did this well. However that's where the praise ends, the music is bland, and the sound effects and voices, unlike the music, doesn't age with the bit era, I found that to be rather dull. Most points here go to the capturing of the musical eras, which was delightfully successful.

Controls 5: There are two control schemes, control pad and "joy stick", both using only the Wiimote, Control pad is basic, D-pad moves you and 1, 2, A and B attacks (exclusive to 8-bit or higher), + pauses, - changes camera angle/view (exclusive to 32-bit or higher), flick the Wiimote up to jump and you can tilt the Wiimote back and forth to zoom in and out (last 2 exlcusive to 128-bit).
The zoom function I found to be really really bad, because the camera view doesn't stick, it literally reacts to you tilting the Wiimote every single time, you can't zoom in and keep it like that, unless you hold the Wiimote exactly they way to need to, which should not be necessary, especially when you're busy saving friends, attacking, collecting fruit and dodging enemies. Joystick mode is absolutely monotonous, simply put you hold the Wiimote straight up and tilt it like a Joystick (the game automatically detects the Wiimote position), this moves your character and the other controls are basically the same. This, I believe was a really innovative way to bring the right feel to the whole retro thing (especially with the 4-bit), but it's so badly done. Unlike and actual Joystick, which is retractable to the center, the Wiimote lacks that kind of pressure needed to properly guide your character, and it is pretty wretched, this wouldn't be so much of an issue if it wasn't mandatory for the 4-bit era, the only era where you have no attack.

Gameplay 4: It's playable, you basically save your friends in an overhead view and once you're done you warp to the next stage, simply put, it's an overhead version of Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle minus the staircases.
It's not bad really, but it gets zetta old, zetta fast, there is no other variety in the gameplay, perhaps expect the map is different, and you are given more controls through specific bit eras, but you're doing the same thing from start to finish. You have infinite continues and a set number of attacks when given the ability to do so, there is a high score ranking which, I guess has a similar arcade feel to it, not bad actually. But because of the stale gameplay, it really fails here.

Replay Value 3: There are no bosses or anything, once you do the last stage in the 128 bit era which is arguably the easiest stage in the game, you're done, you get to speed run through the stages while viewing the credits, and the first thing I said to myself was, "I most likely won't be playing you again" It didn't leave a powerful impression on me, despite it's interesting theme, which actually has a lot of potential.
The gameplay is too stale to get into again.

Overall 4/10: I'll be honest, Bit Boy was a disappointment, I was expecting a mix of 2D sidescrolling to 3D adventure maps, instead I got the same damn thing with progressively better graphics and more controls options, the music is unappealing and it really doesn't bounce any heads. It's a shame, because this concept had loads of potential, but it just wasn't there.

I recommend watching a youtube video of this game before buying it, it'll look as entertaining as it plays. Interpret that however you please.

Battlefield 1943 Review

I've been a long time Battlefield fan, maybe not the longest because I've never played Battlefield 1942 nor Vietnam, but I started with Battlefield 2 and its amazing mod, Project Reality. I was uninterested with this new downloadable title, Battlefield 1943 at first because it seemed like a way too simplified version of the expansive war game that Battlefield 2 on PC is. However, this game is nothing like Battlefield: Heroes. This game combines the greatest elements of shooters into one tiny downloadable package, a Battlefield and Combined Arms sim experience refined to the absolutely shining core.

Graphics 9/10

Battlefield 1943 is based on the proficient Bad Company engine. The same "grainy" and smooth look of Bad Company translates very similarly in this WW2 game. But for some reason, Battlefield 1943's setting makes the visuals suit the game even better than the Modern Warfare battlefields of Bad Company. Embraced by an unending stretch of beautiful and shining blue sea, all the maps in the game features tiny islands that present us with an intense battleground. Isolated and nicely detailed palm trees stick out along with the lush jungle growth scattered across the soil. Everything in this game just looks right. From the designation numbers of the decks of aircraft carriers, to the tiny etchings on a red barrel, everything is finely detailed. Character models are very impressive as well. I really don't need to tell you much, other than for an arcade game, this game actually looks better than some $60.00 block buster sellers. Explosions look very explosiony, the water in the game looks so realistic, tanks look very tanky, the sun looks very sunny, etc. This game's visuals are astounding, maybe not completely ground breaking, but it looks stunning nonetheless.

Audio 10/10

This is one of the most immersible sound experiences I've ever played in a video game. Guns have a distinct KICK to it, sounding almost exactly like how they should. They sound strong and are fun to hear. Tank machine guns don't sound wimpy like they do in most other games. They release a grinding and confident RATATATATATAT, the sound that I want to hear to feel powerful in a tank. Explosions sounds are bursting with energy, the sound of the tank track crippling away trees captures the rough metal cracking the fragile frame of the wood. Even the simple pin pulling of a grenade sounds perfect. Also the dialogue the characters make adds to an absolutely amazing experience. In games like Call of Duty, your allies may have some pretty flexible and helpful dialogue: "enemy sniper, 2nd floor, left side!" and makes you feel like you're fighting with a real squad. But it kinda' sound robotic, but here, the dialogue sounds very natural. After an American soldier pops a Japanese soldier in the head, he yells "Gotcha!", and there's plenty of other dialogue that just sounds like what soldiers would say in war. This is not like the smart aleck comments that Marines crack in Halo, nor the cheesy and maniacal remarks the characters in Nazi Zombies make. It's war dialogue almost perfected.

Gameplay 9/10

Sporting a matchmaking only system, the game lacks a single player campaign. But you don't need one. This is all out action refined in multiplayer. You are presented with only three classes, and three sets of weapons, which may be a shortcoming for some people. But all of these weapons are great, and they all have secondary functions that balances the classes out. If you're an Infantry class member, you have a wrench to repair your vehicles, but you're armed with a puny but close-range effective SMG. If you need some anti-tank capabilities, you got a bazooka to pound out enemy armor. This game also has only two game modes, conquest mode which is the classic flag/land grab battle, and Air Superiority which is a recently unlocked all out air team deathmatch. The greatest appeal about this game is the variety of combat. You have a full combined arms experience, infantry fighting alongside mannable tanks and aircraft, even boats! Most of the time spawning in the beginning of the round in carriers, you'll replay basically a Pacific "D-Day" everytime your PT boat crashes ashore to a beach, and you and your squad members rush out to seize enemy territory. Levels are cleverly designed, trenches on some low-lying bases, bunkers with machine guns on hilltop bases, jungles to cover exposed areas near barbed wired compounds, islands shaped to give you opportunities for powerful flanking maneuvers. You have jeeps that have added drift, airplanes that allow you to have strafing runs on ground targets, intense dog fights in the air, and powerful tanks that help you blitzkrieg your way to seize territories, or support your infantry by engaging enemy armor targets in skill-requiring tank duels. All the basic arsenals in FPS games are at your disposal. Snipers, rifles, mines, grenades, knifes, explosives, etc. On the ground you have AA guns to counter aircraft, and you even have a special "Air Raid" function that allows you to call in a fleet of bombers that you get to control and unleash the bombs yourselves on enemy targets! Firefights are fun, and end very quickly. A limited "squad system" gives you and your team mates some bit of coordination and teamwork, though it usually doesn't work. A well working squad gives you immense teamwork gratification, and you can employ tactics to greatly support your team. Battlefield 1943 is a very fun game to play, and all these tiny aspects add up to weave one great picture.

Replayabillity 9/10

Though this game has only four maps total, only two gametypes, and only three sets of weapons and classes, this game for $15.00 is an amazingly powerful value. And best of all, the open nature of conquest mode gives you replayabillity that only Call of Duty 4 and other hyper-block buster shooters give you. Probably even better with all the vehicles you can master. Achievements are very easy to unlock, except for one which will keep you playing long well until the 100th match. There's a leaderboard system to compete with friends, stamps to collect for completing certain challenges. I'll certainly be playing the game over and over and over again even after Modern Warfare 2, Starcraft 2, and Halo 3: ODST comes out. For $15.00, it's a very replayable game.

Final Verdict: 10/10

Get it now.

Great review Grubby, but didn't wanna write the many glitches man?

At 7/22/09 03:11 PM, scetch00 wrote: Great review Grubby, but didn't wanna write the many glitches man?

Lol! If I had the PS3 version, maybe I would have wrote about the glitches.

I finally found one "glitch" which is when you die, you sometimes see the lower section of the map through the ground, but it's so minor and doesn't affect gameplay at all. At least in the 360 version.

Hi there.

I have just opened up a game reviews site, Casual Reviews, and was looking for some permanent reviewers for it. Some of the reviews in this post are quite good and I would definately be looking for this kind of talent on the site.

You can also submit book and movie reviews. If this site grows a big enough community then hopefully it will evolve into a large reviews site.

www.casualreviews.webs.com

Thanks,
Zogo1

At 8/1/09 05:31 AM, zogo1 wrote: www.casualreviews.webs.com

Man you should know, Nothing on 'Webs' ever amounts to anything. Fork out an entire 10 dollars a year and get yourself a proper website. In which case I'm sure you'd have lots of people wanting to be part of your site. But, I doubt your going to have anyone offering.

At 8/1/09 05:39 AM, iCurrie wrote:

At 8/1/09 05:31 AM, zogo1 wrote: www.casualreviews.webs.com

Man you should know, Nothing on 'Webs' ever amounts to anything. Fork out an entire 10 dollars a year and get yourself a proper website. In which case I'm sure you'd have lots of people wanting to be part of your site. But, I doubt your going to have anyone offering.

You are right to an extent. There are a few sites that have 100s of members on Webs, listing a few:
www.snedekerdesignz.webs.com
www.thebiasphere.org

If this site does grow, then I will upgrade it to a top level domain etc.

At 8/1/09 05:56 AM, zogo1 wrote: If this site does grow, then I will upgrade it to a top level domain etc.

Honestly, Your best bet now would be to automatically go to a real domain. You'll increase your page views by roughly 500% :)

At 8/1/09 06:03 AM, iCurrie wrote:

At 8/1/09 05:56 AM, zogo1 wrote: If this site does grow, then I will upgrade it to a top level domain etc.

Honestly, Your best bet now would be to automatically go to a real domain. You'll increase your page views by roughly 500% :)

I suppose so, but first I need members who I know will contribute because until the site has at least 3 reviewers, its under construction.

Thanks for your help.

If the site goes legitimate, I'd be willing to submit. And I guarantee you, you would be able to get 3 people from this thread willing also.

At 8/1/09 06:17 AM, iCurrie wrote: If the site goes legitimate, I'd be willing to submit. And I guarantee you, you would be able to get 3 people from this thread willing also.

I hope I get 3 from this thread, don't have any yet :(

I'll let you know when I upgrade the site:)

I guess I should have posted this here in the first place. I just posted it on my UserPage.

SKATE 2 DLC - Maloof Money Pack

Skate 2 has had DLC before and now they're offering the Maloof Money Pack which is a recreation of the Maloof Money Cup which is a real skateboard contest at a real place. And what I hate most about this DLC is that the area is so empty, and everywhere I'm skating gets boring after a few minutes. It's all the same boring things everywhere. The best part about it is the vert ramp but even that isn't very good. Another thing I noticed was there is no crowd in the ENORMOUS seating area. Whatever you wanna call it. It's just empty. And leaves me lonely.

The DLC gives you two competitions to compete in. The street and vert competitions, obviously. There's nothing special about them, they're just something to make you feel like you got your money's worth. But what I didn't realize, was that there are achievements with the DLC, and they are pretty easy. 100G for completing (and winning the street competition, and 100G for the vert. They are incredibly easy unless you suck at the game.

The other achievements are Boom Goes the Dynamite for 25G and Pitch a Tent for 25G as well. Boom Goes the Dynamite is pretty tricky. You have to go off the starting vert ramp and try over and over until you can grind the left camera crane. It took me probably 30 tries until I got it. 4 pushes, then a good grab trick will get it. On some YouTube videos they said do 3 pushes and a kickflip but that didn't really work out.

Pitch a Tent is a little challenging but much easier. You go off the starting vert ramp and then when you get into the halfpipe, turn to the left while going up the ramp and while doing this grab your board or you will go too far. And then go off the other side and just go in the vicinity over the tent and you get the achievement.

This DLC only being 240 Microsoft Points which is about $2.50 CAN, is pretty much worth it, unless you don't care about achievements, don't care about competitions, or of course, if you don't have the game...

If you want to get one of your reviews published on the web that isn't in the thread, Yet Another Review Site is a good place to go. Link is in my sig.

I know it's kind of old...

Far Cry 2 (X360)
Ubisoft

When I played the first two Far Cry games, (probably about 2 years ago) I found that it had some of the coolest things you could do in a video game at the time. I spent hours of my time creating levels upon levels and then challenging my friends to a good multiplayer match. With Far Cry 2 I found myself saying "what the fuck?", a little too much...

I got the game on Christmas morning, excited beyond belief because of my love for the other games and I wanted to stop what I was doing just to play the game. But I had to wait and wait and then finally when I was able to lock myself in my room, I put the game in and kept smiling.

The first thing I wanted to do was make a level, but I wouldn't know what I was doing just yet, so I thought I would go into some multiplayer, but I didn't want to get viciously "owned". So I started the Single Player campaign and I instantly thought that this game was graphically stunning.

I was given my first assignment and headed out the door. I got in the car and started driving across a bridge when I accidentally went off to the side and the bridge started to break. I thought this was awesome so I turned a bit more and the car fell into the water leaving me completely stranded! I got out of the water and ran for 10,000,000 miles until I got to my first task.

... and then I died.

But some magical friend of mine came out of no where and saved my life! Dazed and confused I scrambled around looking at the amazing fires set across the fields. It truly is amazing. Fire acts like fire. It actually spreads! The first game I've played where fire acts like fire! Unbelievable!

So after my amazing first little experience I realized it wasn't that amazing. It takes hours upon hours to get to where you're going. And it's not fun getting to where you're going because enemies come out of no where and shoot at you until your engine heats up. Then to fix it you turn a nob. "What? Turn a nob?" Seriously.

Enough of Single Player, I wanted to make a level and play it with my friends. The level editor was impossible to use. I had no idea what I was doing! So I made a simple... I'll call it an "area", and me and my friends were ready to play.

... but we couldn't.

The game has no local multiplayer which is UNCALLED FOR! This got me the most angry. At this point I just wanted to throw the game away.

But I kept my cool and uploaded the map to xbox live. I got into a lobby with my level and waited. ... and waited. ... and waited... and waited. I think you get it.

No one ever joined! So I joined some other game and had fun only because I did good. This is just a game you don't want to talk about because of how disappointing you are with it.

Visuals: 8/10
This is the best thing about the game. Especially how good the fire looks. But don't pick up a game because of it's appearance!

Audio: 6.5/10
I would enjoy some radio in my car, please? No, I didn't get one. There isn't really much to say about audio except that the voice actors are... decent.

Gameplay: 6/10
The gameplay is not good at all. When you sprint you can't turn very well for some reason and the game gets too frustrating sometimes.

Multiplayer: 4/10
Do I really need to say anything here!? No local multiplayer pisses me off with a game like this.

Story: 4/10
The story of Far Cry has you chasing a character. It's that sumple.

Overall: 6/10
This game is a huge letdown to me, giving no reason for a Far Cry fan to "purchase" it. But rent it. See how you like it. Oh and the level editor turned out amazing in the end! :)

At 8/1/09 06:33 AM, zogo1 wrote:

At 8/1/09 06:17 AM, iCurrie wrote: If the site goes legitimate, I'd be willing to submit. And I guarantee you, you would be able to get 3 people from this thread willing also.

I hope I get 3 from this thread, don't have any yet :(

I'll let you know when I upgrade the site:)

I'd be interested in doing that. Anyways, I'm going to be doing a review of Bit. Trip. Beat soon, as well as tales of Monkey Island one, once I've downloaded it, played it, and orgasmed over it.

At 8/1/09 07:32 PM, xscoot wrote:

At 8/1/09 06:33 AM, zogo1 wrote:

At 8/1/09 06:17 AM, iCurrie wrote: If the site goes legitimate, I'd be willing to submit. And I guarantee you, you would be able to get 3 people from this thread willing also.

I hope I get 3 from this thread, don't have any yet :(

I'll let you know when I upgrade the site:)

I'd be interested in doing that.

I think he's got 6 members now, including me. I put my Far Cry 2 review up there. We need to get newer games reviewed!

Surprised I haven't caught this thread before, allow me to pitch in.

World of WarCraft

The first Blizzard game I played was StarCraft, followed by WarCraft III. Both are very good games, and I have alot of respect for Blizzard. WoW is one of those games that is kinda hard for me to get into, because it seems like its hard to just jump into and play unless you spend alot of time on it.

Presentation(10):
Blizzard's games have been known to be very immersive. This is no exception. Very high production value all around.

Graphics(8.5):
Not bad, but have become a bit dated over the last 5 years. Kinda cartoony, but very creative. The scope of the game makes up for some graphical flaws.

Sound(9):
Again, very immersive, great music. At times it can be bland, but very high quality.

Gameplay(7):
This game is really a hit or miss. I mean, it has some really neat ideas, and is not hard to learn, but some of the quests they have you do are either just repetitive, or downright stupid. Especially these fetch quests. It might vary depending on what class you are, but for me (I was a Shaman) it sometimes became not only boring, but frustrating to know where to go next. The game can also move by very slowly, because the world seems unnecessarily huge. I know thats what the game is going for, but it just takes away from the excitement sometimes.

Lating appeal (6.5):
The largest benefit is there are alot of different classes to choose from, and alot of different ways to do them. Its a very big game. Unfortunately, you gotta pay(i think $15 a month). So its not really a game I can pick up a few years from now and just fire up, I have to plan ahead of time when Im gonna play this. It just brings the whole score down quite a bit. Maybe its a little biased because Im not an MMO gamer, but it seems like the only way to get into the good stuff is by dedicating alot of time into this game.

Only recommended to the most serious RPG gamers.

7.5/10