Saturday
13Mar2010

Heavy Rain Review

This PlayStation 3 exclusive will have you investigating the Origami Killer from four different perspectives. You are charged with trying to save a young boy's life who has been captured by the killer and is slowly drowning as the rain continues to pour. You will take on the part of the grieving dad who will do anything to get his son back, the journalist, the private eye, and the FBI agents. All of these characters have their own information that they will use to try to save the kid.

Graphically this game is beyond stunning. The emotions displayed by the character pulls on your heart strings, and when they get hurt you can almost feel the pain. The different places that you'll be exploring breath of life, its also as if you can step through the TV and you'd find yourself in that specific location. The character design is top notch. From a graphical standpoint, alone, this game is probably one of the best games I've ever had the pleasure of getting my hands on. Sure there are some times where there's some texture pop, but what you get to see great outweighs those rare moments.

The voice work on this game goes hand in hand with the graphics. The performances given will emotionally effect you, when they want to. The music also compliments the action that is taking place causing you to tense up or start to panic.

The controls are a bit harder to grasp. You need to know your PS3 controller, the entire thing, all the buttons, to be able to play this game to perfection. If you mess up on some of the on screen button presses don't be surprised if something terrible ends up happening. The one part to the control scheme that I was never really able to get used to was the walking. You held down R2 to make your character walk in a specific direction, if you use the left analog you could change their direction. I felt myself really struggling with certain spots because I was running my character into a wall or into an object.

So you're in a town that rains a lot. Yet another boy has been taken and will die from drowning if he isn't saved first. It is really tough to talk about this game without giving anything away because believe me you don't want to know anything about the story, even though the story that you experience could be completely different than the one I experienced. It all depends on your choices and your ability to hit those key button presses at the right time that will have you playing the entire game with the entire cast. This game is filled with so many twists and turns, and the developers did a good job to only give you the information that was necessary and nothing that would give away the ending, until the very end.

If you have a PS3 you need this game. If you don't and you like games that almost feel like an interactive suspense thriller movie, you might want to invest in this game and a PS3, it is that good. There is almost infinite replayability simply because there's always something that you could have done differently. This game gets a 9.7 out of 10.

DateSaturday, March 13, 2010 at 1:05PM | AuthorCharlie | CommentPost a Comment
Wednesday
10Mar2010

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom Review

This XBOX Live Arcade game has you assuming the role of PB Winterbottom a pie hungry thief whose only love in life is to steal and eat pies. You will be trying to capture a very elusive pie, but on the way you'll have to solve puzzle after puzzle to unlock other levels to get your closer to that pie.

I  really like the graphical style they went with in this game. Almost entirely black and white with an old silent film type of feel to it. This is even further enforced with the mechanism of recording doubles in order to solve a level.

The music continues the feel of the old silent films. Outside of that you're not going to hear much sound coming from this game.

the controls are very easy to pick up. You're only going to need to learn as you go, and once you've done that you'll find that the controls aren't going to hinder you from trying to figure out how to defeat a level.

The story is that you had a ton of pies, and then somehow you run into a magical pie that you have to have. In  doing so you are transported to an alternate dimension in which you can create clones of yourself doing specific acts. This will allow for you to collect all the pies when you hit the switch that will make them appear. You'll find that some of the levels will have you collecting the pies in any order, while other levels will force you to collect pies in a specific order. There are several different sections in the game and if you can defeat them all perhaps that pie will be yours.

This is a fun and challenging puzzle game that needs to be looked at. Yes there are some frustrating levels, but I feel that its not frustrating enough that I want to never play the game again. Also because of the difficulty of some levels there is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment when you pull off that miracle of collecting the last pie just as the timer runs out. Also take into consideration that each level has a cap for the amount of clones you can have active. This game gets an 8.3 out of 10.

DateWednesday, March 10, 2010 at 12:17PM | AuthorCharlie | CommentPost a Comment
Wednesday
10Mar2010

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Review

This piece of the Monster Hunter franchise finds itself on the PSP where you will take on the persona of a brand new monster hunter coming to town to replace the old one, and keep peace in the village. You'll be taking on numerous quests as well as creating equipment to better suit your needs.

Graphically this game does alright. There's definitely a lack of smoothness around the edges of most creatures, character, and environment when you get up close and personal with them. The change in scenery, depending on what you have to accomplish in your quest, does look appeal, as does the different models for the enemies. 

The sounds of the game really didn't impress me, but then again when you have a game on a device like the PSP you're not expecting to be blown away by the audio amazement. You are going to hear a lot of the attack sounds, be it the weapon or your character's grunting, but that's to be expected in a game where the main objective is to basically mow down any and all enemies that stand in your way.

The controls work for this game though I found myself wasting items often as I'd accidentally hit Square at the wrong time. It is a bit odd that you have to put away you weapon so that you can skin or gather resources from a dead enemy.

So as state previously your a monster hunter looking for fame and glory. You're new to the game so you're going to have to go through a bit of training before you can enter the real world. One bit of advice about the training, get ready to read a lot of unnecessary dialog to get the information that you want. Another interesting aspect of the game is the fact  that when you take on a quest you have to pay money up front to take it on. So be sure not to spend all your money in the shops right before taking on a quest. A feature that I hated but at the same time admired was the fact that your character is going to need to eat to keep his stamina up. One thing about this game that I found out quickly was take on quest at your level, don't think that everything is going to be as easy as it was during training. This game is really built for a group of characters to take on quests, and if you don't know anyone who owns this game, or don't want to play with strangers, you're going to be missing out on what really makes this game shine. 

So if you like a game where basically you're going to kill lots of monsters, some of which you'll be assigned a quest to kill, and then you go back to town to try to get better equipment and then rinse and repeat, you're going to want to check this game out. If you are looking for something with an indepth story, that's the one thing that this game really doesn't have. You really make your own story by simply taking on the quests that are available. This game gets a 6.4 out of 10.

DateWednesday, March 10, 2010 at 10:36AM | AuthorCharlie | CommentPost a Comment
Sunday
07Mar2010

Section 8 Review

Section 8 is a game in which you take on the role of a fast promoted soldier who is part of an elite squad to try to take out the evil in the far frontiers of space. You'll be tasked with capturing different strategics points throughout a level until you can corner the evil-doers. 

Graphically this game is kind of blah. It's not bad looking, but at the same time this game does make me want to scream, wow that looks awesome. Levels do have a certain appeal, but they could be placed in any futuristic first person shooter and look just at home there. 

The sounds of the game work, there are times when you are trying to advance the objectives, perhaps faster than the game would like that you lose parts of them and so you might find yourself a bit lost for a second or two. 

The controls are sufficient until you have to jump. Putting the jump button as one of the shoulder buttons feels a bit awkward, and makes me wish that the default had it as the A button. The aim mechanism is solid in this game. The running portion of the game is where it gets a bit hairy for me. If you press in the left analog stick while moving you'll start to run, run long enough and you build up a meter that once filled will make you run even faster, god forbid you have to stop once in that mode though. You're like the juggernaut, running into things until something strong enough stops you.

This is obviously a game geared towards multi-player gameplay, but to me a game has to have an interesting enough single player, if it has one, to get me to really look forward to the multi-player. This game did not do that. The story was forgettable and flimsy. It also takes about 2 and a half hours to get all the way through. During that time you want to avenge your fallen squad mates, and get to kill the mastermind behind it all. There's no build up. The weapons in the game all had their advantages, but if the single player didn't make me want to play multi-player the weapons even if they were fantastic, weren't going to get me excited. One mechanism that was fun the first couple of times, but got old quick was the dropping in that you got to do every time you started a mission, or had to be redeployed after getting shot. The problem is that there was some time based portions to the game that while you were dropping could expire, and you'd have to do again. Also there was the fact that at certain times you actually got to control your impact place would be, and other times you would just come crashing into the ground. Which reminds me of the fact that crashing into the ground in this game is a bad move, seeing as it shows the pixelation of a specific piece of the level.

If you're looking for an up to 32 player experience on the 360 you might want to rent this game and see if anyone is playing this, or if it is something you can get into. For me personally I was basically done with this game in about 3 hours. This game is worth a quick spin, if you can borrow it from a friend, but otherwise this game might as well just stay on a shelf. This game gets a 5.3 out of 10.

DateSunday, March 7, 2010 at 8:58AM | AuthorCharlie | CommentPost a Comment
Wednesday
03Mar2010

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers Review

First off I'd like to say that the title for this Wii game is way too long. That is one hell of a mouthful to say. Now lets get down to it. This is the next Crystal Chronicles game in which you will be playing the part of a Crystal Bearer who charges himself with trying to discover what is going on with the a particular Yuke. The Yuke race was said to have completely disappeared, and yet there's one running around trying to collect a special type of crystal to try to resurrect her race. Along the way you'll meet some Selkies that will try to help, or hinder you, as well as some Lilties. 

The graphics in this game make me wish that Square Enix had put it on another console. This game could have looked gorgeous, but instead there's plenty jagged edges, swimming pixels, and some choppiness. If you've played the first Crystal Chronicles, on the Gamecube, don't expect that big of a change in the character races. The different enemies also have the same general look to them.

The music in the game is on par with any Final Fantasy game, so you're going to enjoy it. There were several times in the game where I felt that I had heard a different variation on the song that was being played. 

The controls are the ultimate undoing of this game. In a game that relies so heavily on pointing the Wii-mote and pressing the B button, it really fails. Another huge issue is trying to combat the camera while trying to stay alive during fights, these too can be your undoing. So pair the lack of precision in the pointing of the Wii mote, and the camera, you're talking about a very frustrating time.

The story was really straight forward, and though the cut scenes were filled with over the top drama, overall it was something that I wanted to continue. This is probably the only reason why I completed this game. The terrible controls about killed me. You're going to see several different places in the world where you're going to be able to unlock "achievements" or an equivalent to it (which makes me secretly hope that this could be ported, but I don't see how it could be done). There will be areas that will turn from thriving life to dark despair. It is during these dark times where you'll have to quickly dispatch of all the enemies and close the miasma stream. If you can do that you'll get rewarded. To be honest I think I was able to accomplish that 3 times in the whole game, the rest of the time, if I could get by it without having to mess with it, that's what I did. Without the precision controls there was a huge chance that I would end up dying a lot and never complete that part of the game. There's also the material collection, that after about the first hour I totally forgot about. These materials can be used to create items for your character to strengthen him, but really I didn't go out of my way to find extra supplies. One other thing is that the entire game hinges on you using your powers to lift objects or enemies and throw them around. This adds way too much repetition and frustration to the game.

This game was something I was greatly interested in playing, and ultimately very disappointed in the lack of execution. When you have to play the boss fight 15 times so that you can get to see the ending, there's something wrong, and its apparent because the final battle has "checkpoints" in it so that when you die, and you're going to a lot, you can try to struggle to the next one, and then die and return with full life. I'm sorry to say that this game gets a 5.2 out of 10.

DateWednesday, March 3, 2010 at 2:00PM | AuthorCharlie | CommentPost a Comment
Friday
26Feb2010

Beatles Rock Band Review

Well if you can't guess from the title this a stand-alone Rock Band game featuring the one and onlyBeatles. Now because of some crazy legal stuff this game truly stands alone, not allowing any other Rock Band to interact with it. Now let's just say up front that if you're not a Beatles fan, you're not going to enjoy this game nearly as much as someone who has grown up listening to them.

The graphics, I have to say were a great surprise. I wish you could create your own characters to throw into the mix, but as it stands you're going to be playing as one of the Beatles. You'll also be playing through several of their famous settings, some in their trippy dreams, others in reality.

The music is... the music of the Beatles. I wish there was more songs to this game, but with the collection you get to start with you're going to have a lot of "oh I remember that song" moments. The songs sound as good as ever, and don't seem to miss a beat.

The controls are going to be like every other Rock Band game. You're going to have the guitars/bass, drums, and vocals. Only this time the vocals can be harmonized. So for the first time you can have 2 singers going at the same time. This gives the game a unique feel, and it actually works out pretty well, if you and your friend can match up to the music.

The free play of this game is the way to do it. Yes there is a career mode, but you might have to go through sections of their music that never really meshed with you. Though if you do give it a chance you'll find that you can see how the music really changed with the band. Its a fun filled ride that allows you to belt out Beatles songs and get scored on it.

If you like the Beatles, and you like Rock Band, you probably already have this in your collection. If you are a bit hesitant about picking this up, I have to say that you need to at least rent this and see what its all about. It isn't for everyone, but for those who it is for, you're going to love. This game gets an 8.6 out of 10.

DateFriday, February 26, 2010 at 10:07AM | AuthorCharlie | CommentPost a Comment
Friday
26Feb2010

Class of Heroes Review

Class of Heroes is a PSP game that will take you and your party of six to a school for adventurers. You'll be able to create a party of 6, take classes, buy items, and explore dungeons. You will get to see several different types of player classes, races, and you'll have to work to make your party of six mesh so that you can bring back incredible treasures, left for you to discover.

Graphically this game is what we've grown to expect on the PSP for a RPG. It is a bit odd to see dwarves pictures as a dog-like race, but if you don't really take the race names to heart, you'll find that everything thing has that also cutesy look to it. There are a variety of enemies that you'll face and they do look good. The problem is that the backgrounds are going to be in 3D. If you're adventuring its a first person dungeon caller, and there are times where you can see that the area doesn't look all that good, but its when you go into battle and all of a sudden you have this really nice looking 2D enemy coming at you that the magic doesn't quite work.

Sound-wise we're talking about GENERIC. Sure everything is probably unique to the game, but at the end of the day if you were to hide the screen and play the music to someone who's played a ton of RPGs you'll find that the music they are hearing isn't that recognizable.

The controls are real simple, which works for me. you're going to be using the directional arrows to move around, and then your going to accept with the X, and back out with the O. Though that does bring up one issue with the game. There is no quick way to just get out of that section without backing all the way out.

The game is definitely unique and it is filled with some possibly fun adventure, but the problem arises when you're trying to play the game early on. You have alignment to worry about, and affinity towards one another. Sometimes when creating your party of 6, 3 on the front-line, and 3 on the back, you'll find that you'll be forced to have the back defend a lot because everyone has a dagger, and those aren't going to reach from the back. So the beginning of the game you're going to have to be patient. You're also going to have to take the classes, which is more of a sneaky little tutorial, but will help get your party ready for the exploration. The first time you battle a creature they might be silhouetted, which is all good, but I feel like the battle system is just a bit lazy. There's going to be traps, and chests, and several different places to explore that will unlock as the game progresses. It just doesn't happen fast enough.

This is an interesting game, and if you can get through the first couple of hours, because its going to take that long to read all the text revolving around your "classes" that you have to take, you'll find that this game is a pretty good time-sink. If you like dungeon-crawlers, in which the dungeon is never the same, you might like this game, but I think in the end you're going to be yearning for more. There's a game here, it just isn't nearly polished enough to be one of the greats. This game gets a 7.4 out of 10.

DateFriday, February 26, 2010 at 8:53AM | AuthorCharlie | CommentPost a Comment
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