DarcSeven's Gamestalk

My PSP: A Retrospective

2012-02-07T15:43:00.011-06:00

Hello folks, DarcSeven here with a brief, yet special entry into Gamestalk. Today, I wanna talk about this guy:

If you've been following me on twitter or otherwise, you probably already know that I really love my PSP. I've had it ever since it was released here in the U.S. and I never once thought about selling it or trading it.

It all started when I first moved back to Texas. At first we stayed at my grandparents house. My parents bought me a PSP for Christmas and I got Twisted Metal: Head On a little later. And it was good. It was a real, complete Twisted Metal game in my hands. Later I would get Wipeout Pure. I never played a Wipeout game before, but I was blown away. I generally dislike racing games, but this was amazing. Later I would get Wipeout HD and it's now my favorite racing game, with Mario Kart DS as a close second.

When we actually got to my new house, we found out that our things would not be arriving for at least two weeks. The only source of entertainment I had was my PSP. The problem was that Twisted Metal kept corrupting it's own file, and Wipeout Pure's UMD broke open.

I may love the PSP, but even I have to admit, these kinda suck.

Bad luck I guess. I was pretty screwed...until I got Darkstalkers Chronicle. Holy shit, this game was amazing. It was like Street Fighter Alpha on crack. The amount of characters and game types that I had to master pretty much help preserve my sanity until we finally received all of out furniture. From that point, my PSP and I were inseparable.

Freakin' Awesome!

Over the years, I have gained what I feel are a substantial amount of games for the system. Here's the list of games I have in my possession at the time of this article:
Twisted Metal Head-On (Download)
Fate Unlimited Codes (Download)
Darkstalkers Chronicle
Capcom Classics Collection Remixed/Reloaded
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max
Power Stone Collection
SNK Arcade Collection Vol. 1
Tekken Dark Ressurection/6
Guilty Gear Accent Core
Persona 3 Portable
Lunar: Silver Star Harmony
Dragonball Z Shin Budokai-Another Road
Megaman Powered Up
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Mortal Kombat Unchained (It's Deception with the Gamecube Extra characters)
Sega Genesis Collection
Metal Slug Collection
And the addition of a few PSOne Classics!
Lunar was the last UMD I bought and it will probably remain that was since I've decided to go digital from here-on-out so that they'll be playable on the Vita.

Tekken Bowl on the go? Nothing better, folks!

My final thoughts on the PSP are that it is a criminally underrated system with a lot of fantastic games (Although I admit, I have a thing for retro collections and ports) and it was a good system to get after the Gameboy Advance, which is my favorite handheld system. They're both pretty similar in how the both had great original games and ports in just about every genre. I think the PSVita and the Nintendo 3DS will be just as entertaining for me in the next few years.

Top Ten Games of 2011

2012-01-07T19:33:00.031-06:00

2011's in the books. Overall I really like the games for the year. Actually, I think there may have been too many good ones this year, or at least within that small fall period. The companies behind the games, however...Ugh. Capcom in particular became disgusting. Sony got hacked, but tried to make up for it in some capacity. EA and Microsoft got hacked and they still haven't fessed up. It was a mixed year for the industry to say the least.

My Game of the Year is one of those "Will not be on anyone else's list" picks. I have chosen Ska Studios's Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. I had a smile on my face the entire time I was playing it and I still am. It's one of the best 2D action games I've ever played.

The runners-up are Batman Arkham city, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mortal Kombat, and Infamous 2. Batman absolutely floored me with it's atmosphere, Deus Ex showed me how First Person games should be done, Mortal Kombat revived the whole series and is the best it has ever been, and Infamous 2 is just electrifyingly awesome. (Pun intended. ;))

The worst game of the year is Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. I cannot believe Insomniac made something so shitty, pandering, and half-assed. It's Castlevania HD all over again. It makes Ratchet Deadlocked seem like a brilliant idea.

I haven't had the chance to play Uncharted 3, Rayman Origins, and Zelda: Skyward Sword in full, but I'm looking forward to it. My most anticipated game of 2012 is Bioshock Infinite. Just check out that really long gameplay demonstration and you'll see why I'm pumped for it. Skyrim...*sigh* We don't get along. It won't be on any list of mine. And now for the lists in full:

Best Runner-Ups (For one reason or another)
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns
I was really considering putting FPR on the list. My newly found ability to import saves increased the playability of this game by tenfold. If I could go back in time to 2007, I would easily make this it's game of the year instead of being second to Call of Duty 4. It's become my favorite wrestling game of all time. I'm still awaiting for a follow up to the series, but now I'm not in much of a rush anymore.

Metal Gear Solid HD
This collection is simply awesome. Metal Gear Solid 2 wasn't affected by much since it was already in 60 FPS, but MGS 3 has become epic thanks to the face lift. There is no going back to the PS2 version. Peace Walker has also been improved now that you have two analog sticks and a pause function to work with. If your a fan of Metal Gear Solid, this is a must-buy.

Streets of Rage Remake
While it's not an official release form Sega (Sega actually stopped its distribution entirely and tried to make up for it by putting SoR2 in iphone. Bastards.) it's one of the most amazing fan games I've ever played. This is sidescrolling beat-em-up nirvana. Multiple routes and options allow you to play the game the way you want. If you get the chance to play this game, do so.

Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword
Disqualified from this year's list since I haven't finished it yet. It's eligible for next year, though. I'll talk about it more another time. I've really enjoyed it so far.

Dead Space 2
Didn't quite make the cut, but damn it's fun. While I'm not really creeped out by it, it's still a compelling game and worth a playthrough...if you've got the stomach to play it...

Crysis 2
One of the few good shooters to come out this year, Crysis 2 provides a more open route to a lot of the current first=person games on the market.

Portal 2
I need to finish it. It was cool from what I played and I liked that dork, Wheatley. I'll just need more time with it.

Top Ten of 2011
10.Bastion
Bastion will also take the award for best soundtrack. Old-school game that brings an excellent story ans setting along for the ride.

9. Resistance 3
This was the biggest surprise. I don't like any of the previous games in the series, but for some reason, this one clicked. I'm going to need to remember to buy this one later.

8. Guardian Heroes
Oh man, this was completely worth the wait. Guardian Heroes was that game I always wanted to play, but never got the chance to. I'm happy to say I was not disappointed with it. Five characters, a bunch of levels, and a great combat system gives this game the #8 position.

7. Gears of War 3
I fully expected this game to fall short like MW3 and BF3 did. But nope! It's actually really good. I've always liked the Gears and the combat, and while the campaign was a little long, it kept my interest the whole time and I found it satisfying. The multiplayer was also fun...since it has bots...I have no shame about that being a huge plus.

6. Saints Row The Third
How freaking crazy was this game. I have never been a fan of the Saints Row games (Largely due to their awful progression system), but this game got it right. Refined controls and gameplay also help the the experience of the insanely crazy adventure. Also, this game is better than GTA 4. (Trololol!)

5. Mortal Kombat
BEST. MORTAL KOMBAT. EVER. Take the style of MK2, refine the actual fighting mechanics that can stand up to the best fighters of the industry, add in a large amount of content and you have a really awesome fighting game. Why Capcom and Namco insist on half-assing the single-player content instead of following Netherrealm Studio's example, I'll never know.

4. Infamous 2
Infamous 2 improved where it counted the most. While its predecessor failed in the story and characters, this game got that right, along with general gameplay improvements. It's one of the best superhero games in all of video games.

3. Deus Ex Human Revolution
Deus Ex came damn close to being my GOTY. All it needed was New Game Plus (which would have extended the replayability) and it would have won easily. Other than that, the game was damn near perfect. It was truly a game that allows the player to play however they wanted to. Cyberpunk at it's best.

2. Batman Arkham City
Remember when I said Infamous 2 was one of the best superhero games ever made? Batman Arkham City IS the best superhero game ever made. The atmosphere of the world is stunning. This is a Batman fanboy's wet dream. It plays wonderfully, as well. Do not miss this game!

1. Dishwasher Vampire Smile
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know none of you will ever take my opinion seriously ever again. I just love Dishwasher that damn much. Maybe I'm just some sort of emo that the "Goth" game Won my (Probably now completely useless) Awards of the Year...BUT I LOVE IT SO MUCH. For this game, it's all in the gameplay. Now to be honest, Deus Ex almost won this award, as I do think it really was the best game of the year. But it hurt itself like Red Dead Redemption did before it, by being a one-shot. Dishwasher: Vampire Smile does not have that problem.

I hear-by award the DarcSeven Game of the Year Award to Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. Congratulations to Ska Studios. You guys kick ass.

Problems with Game of the Year 2011 List

2011-12-31T13:28:00.003-06:00

I think I'll have to classify 2011 as the year where I can't pick the best game. There were too many equally awesome games this year. If I have to give it to a game that stood out from the rest, it would be Fire Pro Wrestling Returns. Ever since I discovered how to transfer files in order to have the rosters of multiple real-life companies without having to do it myself, the game became epic. I've actually had FPR be the runner-up before, with it losing to Fallout 3. I couldn't transfer files back then, otherwise it would have won. FPR before and after file transfers feels like the evolution between a demo and a full game. I'm just now playing it at it's full potential.

I feel like this is cheating, though. I think the biggest problem is that I can't choose between Batman Arkham City and Deus Ex: HR. Both of those games keep alternating my GOTY spot. I think if Deus EX had New Game + it would have definitively won. But that didn't happen. Then I ended up playing Gears 3 and Zelda SS so close to the deadline, and both of them are fighting to get a spot on the Top 10 list. There is a huge list of games that I have to consider, and I may actually make the list bigger than 10 games this time.

Here is the list of 16 games under consideration in no particular order:
Gears of War 3
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Batman Arkham City
Mortal Kombat
Infamous 2
Resistance 3
Saints Row the Third
Guardian Heroes
The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile
Bastion
Metal Gear Solid 3 HD (Yes this counts. The HD version is that good.)
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns with File Transfer
Streets of Rage Remake
Dead Space 2
Crysis 2

Now some of these won't make the top 10 for some reason of another. The remaining six will be ranked honorable mentions.

I'm going to end this post for now. There's more to talk about, but I don't want to blow it in one entry. Next time: Where are Skyrim and Uncharted 3? See you then!

Time for an upgrade

2011-12-27T13:54:00.002-06:00

Hello everyone. I'm back from my final semester in college. I'm sorry I took so long to update. I wanted to concentrate in my last semester. I almost paid off, but I rogue math exam shot me in the knee with an arrow and I didn't get that 3.0 GPA I wanted so much. One percent away...so close...

But enough about my personal failings, here's what going to happen for this blog. I'm going to attempt to update it every day with a new piece of content. I will have, the usual review of Current and retro games. I will have demo impressions, news stories of anything I find significant, and my own personal opinions. However, my first priority is to get a paying job. If I'm going to expand on this blog, I need my own financial backing.

If you have at any point read this blog, I thank you for giving me some of your time and in the future I hope I can inform and entertain you. Today is a new beginning. Let's hope it works.

Rage Single-Player Review

2011-10-08T17:40:00.006-05:00

I didn’t really pay attention to Rage until the week before the game was released. I knew the game was in development for a long time and that it would introduce a new engine for running games, but pass that I paid it no mind. Then I saw a video of the game that displayed one of the FPS moments of the game. Suddenly I got very interested. It looked amazing. I couldn’t wait to contend with the enemies in the game. So now that I’ve beaten the game, how do I feel about the overall product?

What’s it about?
Rage is about…actually I don’t really remember very well. The story left absolutely no impact on me. I’ll give you the gist from what I went through. Apparently your character came from the past –not from time travel- but from freezing yourself in space. After many, many years, your ship crashes back on earth. The landscape is very post-apocalyptic, however people have made a civilization sealing themselves from mutants and psychos. Throughout your journey, you will accept jobs from the local authority, race and kill many bandits in your on dune-buggy, and join a resistance group to combat the evil…Authority. Basically the Crimson Elite from Borderlands. Actually the plot and setting are very similar to Borderlands, but to be fair, I believe Rage was in development first.

Graphics- As long as you’re not looking to close at the textures close to your character’s vision, the graphics are very nice. 60 FPS with no dipping, nice environments, and well detail characters are a very integral part to this game. After all, this game is the debut of idTech 5, a graphics engine that uses one large texture to cover the world that allows the game to use it’s other resources more efficiently and to be played at it’s amazing speed. Just make sure you install the game because this engine makes the game take a while to load. I want to elaborate on the physics later, as it has a lot to do with the game’s A.I.

Sound- The Sound all good, but nothing spectacular. The weapons sounds are good, but don’t pack much of a punch. The voice acting is fine, but the NPC’s really have nothing interesting to say. One thing I did really like are the sounds your enemies make. The Psychos and mutants sound very cool. They sound-well-psychotic! It’s great. I really love what id did there.

Controls- The FPS part of the game controls great apart form one nitpick I have. Movement, shooting and everything else handle smoothly and it helps make firefights very satisfying. My nitpick is with weapon changing. The game doesn’t pause when you hold down the weapon select button. I had some trouble switching to the right weapon or ammo during high pressure situations. But like I said, this is a nitpick. Two things I did to take care of the problem are: 1) Changing my weapon in the inventory menu which pauses the game and 2)only mapping two weapons to my weapon wheel. That was I could just tap the button and it would change to the other weapon I equipped with no problems.

Vehicle sections control fine. The game takes a more arcade style with the vehicles instead of a sim style like you can find in Forza or Gran Turismo. The arcade style suits the game fine, and I had no trouble driving and using my weapons at the same time. You can get to where you need to go without much trouble.

Gameplay/A.I.- When your fighting in the FPS moments (Which is thankfully most of the game.) the game is excellent. Combat is incredibly satisfying because of the game’s A.I. and it’s physics engine. The enemies in the game are incredible. The psychos and Authority Soldiers will not stand still for any reason unless they’re behind good cover or if they’re armored like friggin’ tanks. Firefight are incredible because of this. The mutants are very agile and will do anything and everything to kick your ass up close. Definitely have a shotgun ready, because you may not have time to when they get close. The physics engine in the game shows the effect bullets have on enemies dynamically. Hit them in the shoulder or the head, and they will react accordingly. Blast a mutant up close and watch his carcass crash into the ground or wall in a realistic way. In short, this is A-Grade FPS work.

Sadly the excellent execution does not carry over to the time spent in towns or on the road. Interacting and getting your missions from these people are an outright boring chore. They have a bad habit of talking a lot but saying very little that means anything. For what is a simple act of telling you to “Go there and kill that” they sure take forever to say it. Remember when I said that the characters have nothing interesting to say? Well it doesn’t help that the game expects you to continue the conversation by pressing the action button. For some damn reason, the game expects you to make sure they keep talking, which is hard to do when it’s so damn boring. Basically, NPC interaction is just padding.

The driving is competent, but not memorable. Everything works fine, but there’s nothing special about the enemy A.I. or the races you take part in. It really left no impact on me, so I don’t have much to say about it.

Before I move on, I want to talk about the RPG element in the game. There’s some crafting of items and it works pretty well. Combine little elements that you find out in the land and you can make powerful tools of destruction out of them. Standard, but solid. There are weapon mods too, and they work fine as well. Just buy and equip it to a weapon and your good to go.

Replay Value- Because of the dull padding, stilted pacing, the un-impactful driving, and the lack of New Game Plus to keep your items and weapons from your previous playthrough, the replay value is low. I was done after one playthough and all of the aforementioned plus the incredibly terrible ending, I had no drive to ever play the game again.

Rage receives a 7 out of 10.
Rage is kind of a heartbreaker. When your in the FPS sections of the game, it’s brilliant. It just unfortunate that there’s a bunch of extra crap to drag the game down. Honestly, if the game was 100% fps action, I would have loved this game. I would totally put it in my X360 every time I wanted to kick some ass. But as it is, Rage is an excellent rental. I think you should definitely go through it at least once. But I wouldn’t blame you if you never felt the need to go through it again. I think id should have gone with the route of, “Keep it simple, stupid.”

Recommendation: Rental or bargain buy.

My thoughts on Infamous 2

2011-06-15T20:01:00.007-05:00

So I just finished the "good" storyline in inFAMOUS 2, and I'm kind of dissappointed with hoe things ended, mostly because it's such a final end. I think there was potential to have the story continue in an X-Men like fashion with tension between humans and conduits. If this is how thing happen in the "evil" storyline, then that's fine.

Okay, now for my actual synopsis... How was the game overall? Fucking fantastic! It was an absolute joy to play inFAMOUS 2(Last time I type it like that). Now the gameplay in the first Infamous was definitely king, but things like it's graphics story and really awful characters held it back a little bit. There are no such issues in Infamous 2. The story is far more intriguing, the characters are likable for the most part (Zeke most notably) and the graphics are much better. The gameplay is just as good as the first one, however, I'm not sure I like that your regular bolts now cost a little energy, but it rarely got be in an awful situation.

If I have a real complaint, it's that the difficulty is unbalanced. The militia are straight up pussies, but the ice soldiers will wreck your shit if you're not paying attention. At some points you'll have to deal with them both and it can be somewhat jarring.

My favorite feature of the game is probably the User Generated Online mode. This pretty much cranks up replayability by ten-fold. And while there are the shitty missions here or there, I've found some very good ones. If people keep creating content, then this game should last you a very long time. Speaking of replay value, I'm excited to see how different Evil Cole will be. I've got to finish a few other games first before that, though...Or will I?...

Final thoughts: Second verse? Same as the first. Infamous got a 9/10 from me, and so shall Infamous 2. If you own a Playstation 3, I think you should at least give this game a shot. It's a great superhero/villain action game and it earns my recomendation and a top spot among the best games of this year.

Infamous 2: 9/10 Awesome!

Mortal Kombat Demo Impressions

2011-03-15T20:02:00.010-05:00

Hey guys! After an inexcusably long hiatus, welcome back to Gamestalk. Today's subject is the demo for my most anticipated game of 2011, Mortal Kombat. A few things to note before we begin. First off, my controls. I used a normal PS3 controler. I changed the Block and flip stance buttons to R1/L1 and the Tag and throw buttons to R2/L1. The difficulties I played were Beginner, medium, and expert.

Gameplay
The game feels like a combination of MKII and MK vs. DCU. It's a pretty slow fighter. The combat system takes a little getting used to. The whole custom combo thing that Boon was talking about was definitely true. There are standard button combos, but nothing more than three hits. To get the most out of the system, you need to string special moves with regular button combos.

Timing is definitely the key here. Certain special moves, when blocked, can leave the attacker seriously open. Because of this, the X-Ray supers (while easy to pull off by pressing block and flip stance) are not too over powered. The X-Ray's are used with a full super meter that accumulates during battle. It takes the full bar to use and if you miss the attack the bar drains completely anyway. If you manage to hit the X-Ray attack, prepare for a serious advantage as the recipient can lose around 35-50% of their health.

Speaking of the super meter, the other two functions of it will allow you to use enhanced special moves by using one bar, and combo breakers by using two bars. Enhanced moves are used by imputing the normal command for them while pressing the block button at the same time, making the block button even more important than ever. Unfortunately, I never figured out how to use the breakers myself, but I have seen it done in videos many times.

Here's my brief thoughts on the characters. The four characters in the demo are Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage and Mileena. Johnny Cage and Scorpion were a lot of fun to use. I had no issues with these characters. Mileena seems to be heavily reliant on custom combos. She's seems to be very vicious fighter. (No shit! Watch her fatality. Yikes!) My problem is with Sub-Zero. He's very slow. He's harder to use because of it and he doesn't seem to have the right abilities to balance it out. I could be totally wrong, but I'm not impressed by him at the moment.

The A.I. in the demo ranged from invalid to moderately competent to well-skilled, depending on which difficulty you choose. The best players should have no trouble beating the demo on expert, while beginner is downright laughable. Good for training, though.

Presentation
Going by the demo, the presentation is simply amazing. This game is a wonderful homage to the older Mortal Kombat titles. The graphics are solid and run at a sweet 60 fps. The backgrounds and characters, while not going to win any technical awards, are nice and detailed. The damage detail on the characters is great and the violence is appropriately over-the-top.

The sound effects are solid with all the hits and screams coming in loud and clear. The voice acting I heard during the demo was cheesy in the best way possible. I consider it well done. The music I heard in the demo sounded good, but unfortunately it was hard to tell as the demo had it set low and you couldn't change it. I belive that the Haunted Forest level had the same theme from MK II while The Pit was an original track.

Overall
Mortal Kombat seems like it will be very awesome. However, I don't think fighting purist will enjoy it very much. The Kombat system is a much different beast than most other fighters. It's slow, deliberate and requires your full cooperation. Hell, some may find it downright clunky. (HopeWithinChaos stated on twitter that it was awful.) I have a feeling that this will be a much more worthwhile package than Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 (Which couldn't even be bothered to put $60 of content in a game before charging for overpriced DLC. ZING!) but I'm not sure it's for everyone. Me? I'm so getting this game when it's released in April. I enjoyed the fighting and everything else I've seen about the game. This may end up being my favorite Mortal Kombat yet. This demo should keep me satisfied until then.

I give the Mortal Kombat demo a THUMBS UP! I hope the full game will be received in kind. Until next time folks, this is DarcSeven, signing out.

FIGHT ON!

EDIT: I should clarify that while I say the game is slow, I'm comparing it to other fighters like MVC3 and Street Fighter IV. This game is probably the fastest Mortal Kombat game yet. I think I'm judging the button imputs rather than attack speed, because that block button needs to be held very quickly when attacks are flying at you almost instantly.

Top Ten Best Games of 2010

2010-12-30T18:01:00.019-06:00

Hey guys, DarcSeven here to bring you another top ten of the year list. Overall, I think I liked last year better. This year's list will have a few games that aren't considered to be good by most, and the bottom five list has a game that's well liked. Without further ado...mostly because I don't know what else to say, let's get started.

Honorable Mention (Game I played too late)
Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time
This game is excellent! The whole series is excellent. If I had played this last year, it would've been in the top 5 for sure. Great story, gameplay, presentation- you name it, it has it. Minus multiplayer, but still it's great!

10. Alpha Protocol
Everyone I know hates this game, but I got really engaged in it. The gameplay is kind of meh, but it's other elements like the dialog system and story are very good. I really like the RPG implementation and understood it enough to know how the game works. Give it a try.

9. Limbo
This is the scariest game I've played in some time. Resident Evil and Dead Space ain't got anything on this. Your a helpless child trying ti find your sister and everything wants to kill you in the most graphic way possible. Nasty stuff.

8. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
This game is a love letter to everything I liked about old-school gaming. Think of it as the spiritual sequel to River City Ransom. It has great music, graphics, and combat. It has it's share of bugs, but Scott Pilgrim can hang with the best games of the sidescroling genre.

7. Just Cause 2
Just plain dumb fun. I can see why this was Yahtzee's favorite game of 2010. GTA4 too boring, put this sucker in and experience true carnage!

6. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
This was a sleeper. I didn't expect this to be good at all. Instead of a cheap, overhead shooter, we got the best Tomb Raider game ever made. It's an excellent balance of combat and puzzles. Adding treasure bonuses to the game also gave you the actual feeling of- you know- actually raiding a tomb. Excellent game, I highly recommend it.

5. Call of Duty Black Ops
This was kind of a surprise to me as well, but this game has a lot of quality in it. While I don't think it was the best in terms of a war shooter (I think Bad Company 2 did that better), it still has an interesting campaign, fun multiplayer (With bots as well!), and fun Zombie games including a homage to Smash TV, and you have my favorite FPS of 2010.

4. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
I didn't know anything about Tatsunoko before this, but that didn't stop me from loving this game. This is a great tag team fighter. I actually like it more than Marvel vs. Capcom. The controls are tight, the game seems balanced and the roster is very cool. If MVC 3 plays similar to this over MVC2, them I'm very much looking forward to it. It makes me mad that a lot of people dislike this game just because of the Tatsunoko characters. That's very disrespectful in my mind.

3. Red Dead Redemption
I consider this the worthy competition to game of the year. It's really good and is the game GTA IV should've been. The controls are actually functional, the characters and story are interesting, and the atmosphere is spectacular. If my favorite game is gonna lose the top award, I'm glad it's to this game.

2. Bayonetta
However, I personally enjoyed this game more. Bayonetta is a worthy successor to the Devil May Cry series. It's why I don't see what the big deal is with God of War 3. I will admit that it is a strange game with an acquired taste, but every thing that God of War did, Bayonetta did better months before it. Better gameplay for the most part, which is what matters the most in it's genre.

1. Mass Effect 2
BEST. GAME. EVER! Okay I'll write more. Mass Effect 2 is my favorite game of all time, dethroning Streets of Rage 2 (a two-time winner after rediscovery). I love pretty much everything about the game. Story, gameplay, graphics, music- you name it, I love it. There really wasn't any competition to my game of the year this time. It was Mass Effect 2 ever since it was released in January. Thank you so much for this game Bioware.

And now for the games that just pissed me off. These might not have been the actual worse games, but these are the ones that offended me.

Bottom 6 games of 2010
6. Shank
It looks pretty...and that's about all it has going for it. the controls are awful, the game is hard because it's unfair, and it's immensely disappointing. This game should've rivaled Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, instead it places here with the rest of this years trash.

5. Fallout New Vegas
How do you take a previous GOTY winner and make a game so much worse? Well by making it boring, overly complicated, buggy and don't improve shit, that's how.

4. Metroid Other M
Everyone's ragging on this game mostly for it's awful story and bastardization of Samus Aran. While those are some reasons why this game is here, the real big reason is because it plays awful. The control scheme and the gameplay are horrendous. Wiimote only? Who thought that was a good idea. The fact that this game sucks makes Nintendo's 2009 E3 conference even worse, because now nothing worth anything came out of it.

3. Smackdown vs. RAW 2011
Yuke's...why? What did we ever do to you? Everything about this game is worse than the previous one. The gameplay: broken. The graphics: ugly. The modes: ill-concevied. I've never seen a game that tried it's damnedest to be so much worse than it's predecessor. Can we get some one else to make wrestling games? That would be great.

2. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
I can't really put my finger on why I dislike this game. I just do. It's just not very fun at all. Well, it was for the first five minutes. But then it does the same thing over and over again. Not to mention that it has the worst bosses I've ever fought this year. It just sucks, I just wish I knew why.

1. Castlevania Harmony of Despair
I hate everything about this game. I hated every second it was on my hard drive. I hate that it was even made. This game is the absolute antithesis that I stand for. It's recycled garbage that panders to the multiplayer-only crowd. It has no real story, nothing is new or worthwhile. It has a fucking time limit in a metroidvania game! It's concept fuels me with such rage that thinking about it makes mad. it's amazing that I was even able to type this. I...HATE...CASTLEVANIA HD! Also, I love how the title is self-referencing. Despair indeed.

And that's my best and worst games of 2010. Thank goodness...I can stop verbally felating Bioware at last. That is until Mass Effect 3. ;) Until then...bring on 2011. I can't wait to get my hands on a bunch of these new games.

VGA Fallout and opinions

2010-12-12T10:50:00.004-06:00

Hi folks, DarcSeven here to bring you my thoughts on the VGA winners. I don't really feel like whining over the presentation. We know it's still lack luster, so I just want to talk about the winners themselves.

GAME OF THE YEAR
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego)
It's...not my pick. But if Mass Effect 2 was gonna lose to something, I'm glad it's this.

CHARACTER OF THE YEAR
Woods (Call of Duty Black Ops)
Bullshit! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with them? There were so many better characters than Woods.

STUDIO OF THE YEAR
BioWare
Hard to argue with this. Mass Effect 2 and it's follow up DLC were amazing.

BEST XBOX 360 GAME
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts / BioWare)
Damn right.

BEST PS3 GAME
God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment / SCE Studios Santa Monica)
I guess, but I wasn't impressed with it. I would've preferred Heavy Rain. That was an experience I'll never forget.

BEST Wii GAME
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo / Nintendo)
I haven't played any Wii game this year. Thankfully, I'm about to correct that mistake.

BEST PC GAME

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard Entertainment / Blizzard Entertainment)
My PC sucks. I have no say on this.

BEST HANDHELD GAME
God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Sony Computer Entertainment / Ready At Dawn Studios)
Honestly even after being released three times, I still would've picked Persona 3.

BEST SHOOTER
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision / Treyarch)
Can't argue with that. Suck it, Bad Company 2!
EDIT: After actually playing Bad Company 2, I can say that I was wrong to tell it to suck it. It's a very good game. Much better than the first one.

BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)
Bayonetta was my pick, but it wasn't even freakin' nominated! -_-

BEST RPG
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts / BioWare)
I guess. I don't really consider it an RPG, but it was infinitely better than anything on that list.

BEST MULTI-PLAYER
Halo: Reach (Microsoft / Bungie Studios)
Fine.

BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (Electronic Arts / EA Tiburon)
Don't care.

BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME

NBA 2K11 (2K Sports / Visual Concepts)
Don't care.

BEST DRIVING GAME
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (Electronic Arts / Criterion Games)
Fine.

BEST MUSIC GAME

Rock Band 3 (MTV Games / Harmonix)
Fine.

BEST SOUNDTRACK
DJ Hero 2 (Activision / FreeStyleGames)
Fine.

BEST SONG IN A GAME
Far Away by Jose Gonzalez (Red Dead Redemption)
Good. Well deserved. It was featured in a great moment in RDR.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego)
Err...Not so much thrilled with this. I would've went with Halo Reach.

BEST GRAPHICS
God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment / SCE Studios Santa Monica)
Would've went with Naruto Storm 2, but that's definitely a far-out opinion.

BEST ADAPTED VIDEO GAME
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Chengdu)
Damn right.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN MALE
Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker / Amazing Spider-Man (Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions / Activision)
Not my pick. I would've given it to John Marston's VA.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN FEMALE
Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty / Blizzard Entertainment)
Err...Forgot whoelse was nominated.

BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME
Costume Quest (THQ / Double Fine Productions)
Hell no! Lara Croft got robbed! >_<

BEST DLC
Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego)
Didn't get to play it. I don't know.

BEST INDEPENDENT GAME
Limbo (PlayDead)
Good choice. It was a very compelling game.

MOST ANTICIPATED GAME
Portal 2 (Valve / Valve)
It's kind of hard to actually give an award to an unproven game. My personal most anticipated game is Mortal Kombat.

So yeah, that's all I've got. Most of the picks were very good. Some were very dumb. To be honest, I'm not really sure why I care about any of this. Personally, I think my own awards are what really matter. I think each and everybody's personal opinions are what really matter. I know a lot of people really like Bad Company 2, so if that's what they feel is the best shooter, then that's the best shooter. I guess we just like when some sort of established committee shares our opinion.

Ah well...I'm watching the WWE Slammy Awards tomorrow. I might have something on From the Top Turnbuckle on it since the semester's ending. 'Till then, FIGHT ON!!!

Controversial Thoughts Vol.1 (Repost)

2010-10-21T22:11:00.002-05:00

Hello, dear readers. Today, I have decided to make everyone mad at me. For I have opinions that pretty much go against the massive hivemind of the internet. Now, I'm not saying all of this with the sole purpose of making people angry, I just feel that I need to get all of this out there. Brace yourself, because here it comes.

1. All games made by Will Wright are boring and unfun.
Oh, we are starting off just blasfemous, aren't we? Yes people, I hate SimCity. I hate The Sims. I hate Spore. Pretty much any game with the Sim brand (except for Streets of SimCity) is crap to me. I just do not get it. Playing these games are the equivalent to schoolwork. If I want to waste time, Solitaire is a more entertaining way to do it. There really isn't much else to say about it really. Maybe it's because I like to kill things in my games or something- I don't know.

2. Out of the whole series, Sonic Adventure 2 is the only one I truly enjoy.
This was kind of a sad and recent realization for me. I think I liked the character more than the games he was based off of, probably due to the comic and Saturday morning cartoon of Sonic the Hedgehog. I recently played and finished the first Sonic Adventure and thought it was pretty weak. I never got a grip with the Genesis Sonic games because I didn't like how I always ran into things three feet in front of me. Sonic Adventure 2 is the only game of the series that I have beaten multiple times, mostly due to the excellent levels that Sonic and Shadow take part in. They're fast fun and really exciting.

3. The Sega Genesis did not have a lousy sound chip, you just need to use it right.
I'll end with a positive bit of controversy. Take a listen to this for a sec. Don't worry, it's safe.

That, my friends is from the Sega Genesis game, Streets of Rage 2. It was composed by Yuzo Koushiro, a master of video game music. This is one of my favorite pieces of music. The beat and the use of the technology are superb. There are many Genesis games with good music, this is but a taste of what you can find. This game's soundtrack is so good that there is a soundtrack for it using real instruments. Check it out.

I have many more bits of controversy, but I think that's enough for now. I would love to hear other people's controversial gaming opinions. Sound off in the comments below and I'll see you guys next time. It will be about a certain handheld device that I have the utmost disdain for...

How NOT to Release a Demo

2010-10-11T22:48:00.008-05:00

Today's entry is not a review, but something of a rant/plea to XBox Live Arcade Game developers in the future. On October 2, Hydrophobia was released on XBLA. The reviews for the game ranged from solid to poor. I was interested in checking out the game, as it had an interesting concept of an action/horror title based around a new water physics engine. But first I had to try the standard trial that comes with every XBLA game. I was not happy with it in the least.

See this gun? Do you want to try the gun? $15, sucka!

Let's talk about the problems I found with the game before we get to the main issue I had with it. The first thing I noticed was the intolerable voice acting. I haven't witnessed such low-quality garbage in a long time. Fake Scottish accents (at least I hope they are) and awful delivery completely ripped me out of the experience. The platforming in the trial was a mess due to the lousy camera that you have to take the time to adjust to make work right. The first Tomb Raider didn't have this problem.

My biggest problem with the trial is that they left out the combat and story aspect of the game. A significant portion of the game was cut out. The only way you could see if if the game was truly worth playing was if you already bought it. This is unacceptable. If you're unsure about a game you should be able to try out every aspect of it in either a demo or a rental. Since this is a downloadable game and not retail, you can't rent it, and if the trial is incomplete, then you're screwed.

So I beg of you developers, if you're going to make a downloadable game, supply it with a substantial trial. We don't have money to waste on trash.

P.S. Gametrailers.com botched another pick. The correct answer was Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Buy that instead. It's great stuff.

Demo's and Trials from this summer

2010-09-19T08:36:00.003-05:00

This is just a quick batch of demos from this past few summer that I played and my feelings about them. Most of my energy been split and I haven't really updated this with actual gaming content in a while.

Crackdown 2: I actually liked the first one more, so that's not a good thing for this one.

Kane & Lynch 2: Err...Not really sure what to make of this one.

Mafia II: Was really nothing special at all. Disappointing really.

Naruto Storm 2: I actually really liked this one. It's a really beautiful game too. My brother will be getting this one later.

Vanquish: It was alright, but I think I need to play more of this game later to really get my thoughts on it. I might just be burnt out on shooters.

Quantum Theory: It's Gears of War, but worthless. This really sucked.

Now for the XBLA's:

Blacklight: Tango Down: Pretty crappy, sadly. I see no reason to play this over any other shooter.

Monkey Island 2: Bought!

Deadliest Warrior: Brainlessly fun... (Incoming rant!) Until Spike admitted that they didn't care enough to make a game worth more than $10. People a lot of work in their Indie games to make them worth more than their price and these jerks with a budget cant be bothered to put effort into it? Unacceptable.

DeathSpank: zzzzzz...zzzzzzz...Sadly, I bought this one.-_-

Limbo: Bought! Kinda pricey though.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane: Was okay.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair: I hated every single bit of this wretched, cash-in, piece-of-crap. Even the title knew this game sucks. So far it's in the lead for worst game since picking Field & Stream is just bullying.

Monday Night Combat: Not bad, but needs much more content.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light: Wow...Biggest surprise of the year. This game is fantastic! Bought!

Shank: Not nearly as fun as it should've been. I was looking forward to it too. :(

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: Bought! Twice! One for each system!

Dead Rising Case Zero: Bought. This was fun, but I think only because it was short. I didn't mind starting over in this game to get stronger.

Alpha Protocol Review

2010-07-05T17:59:00.012-05:00

You are Secret Agent Michael Thornton. Well... You were a Secret Agent until your commanding officers at the secret organization, Alpha Protocol, betrayed you and left you for dead in order to cover their tracks. You didn't die however. You now work for yourself, and your mission is to take down the Halbech Corporation, the masterminds behind recent government conspiracies and the reason for Alpha Protocol's betrayal. Using what ever means necessary, will you fight for the country you've sworn to protect, revenge, or personal gain.

What's it about?
It's about being a rouge agent to it's full potential. From missions, to shady dealings, to romancing, and to making tough decisions. In this regard, the game is truly remarkable. It's also about gun-play and stealth. In this regard...not so remarkable. There are three classes to start as (Assault, Stealth and Tech based) and an additional high-risk, high-reward rookie class in which you can start the game as a clean slate. If you finish the game as a rookie, you can replay it with the veteran class, which starts off with all of the skills having some experience.

Graphics:
Not very good at all I'm afraid. The game looks dated and there are a lot of glitches (particularly with faces) and there are some dips below 30 FPS. If graphics are too important in your games, you might not be very happy with this one.

Sound:
The soundtrack is good with music to fit the mood and a few strangely appropriate licensed song thrown in at certain times. The voice acting is solid, though Michael a very monotone character. The delivery is good across the board.

Controls:
It's not too bad, it just takes getting used to. Moving and picking locks feels a little too sensitive at first, but you'll get the hang of it. The weapons accuracy may discourage at first, but if you stick with it, it will feel just fine. The game works on RPG elements so your character is supposed to have difficulty with weapons at first.

AI:
Either bad in a helpful way or bad in an unhelpful way. The enemies have the tendency to run up to you sometimes(depending on how close they are to you) or sometimes having bad aim, which I personally can deal with since I don't really like getting shot. Perhaps this is different on the hard difficulty. Due to my assault play style, I couldn't tell if the AI acts accordingly to a stealth based player.

Replay Value:
If you enjoyed this game, then there a lot to do. Due to how the story is set up, the multiple decisions you make can completely change the scenarios you can partake in during a second or third run. There are consequences in every decision you make and that is this game's greatest strength. When it comes to decision-making, it's better than any other game on the market today. Just note, that there is a limited timer to make you choices, so be ready.

Tips for better game experiences:
I would start off as a rookie and upgrade your assault rifle and your toughness perk first. After that, upgrade your technical and sabotage skills. They'll be very helpful with hacking, picking locks and item efficiency. I wouldn't try using stealth and pistols until your Veteran play-through. Only use the shotgun and sub-machine guns if you get very close to your enemies.

Alpha Protocol receives a 7 out of 10.
I had to knock points off for the numerous technical deficiencies such as dated graphics, poor AI and iffy controls, but the RPG elements in this game were fantastic. The story helped the game keep my interest all the way through easily and I'm definitely going to play it again. If you want to play a third-person shooter over an RPG, then this might not be the game for you. If your looking for an RPG with multiple decision making and don't mind some gameplay setbacks, then at least give this game a rental. You might enjoy it as much as I did.

Where's the Mass Effect 2 review? + ME2's score

2010-06-24T17:37:00.004-05:00

Months ago, I promised a review for Mass Effect 2, in which it would contain much praise and love for being the most awesome game ever. Yes, it is my new number 1 favorite game of all time(unless Mass effect 3 trumps it), dethroning Streets of Rage 2 which held the title twice after I rediscovered the game four years ago. But something happened... Because I loved this game so much, I found it pretty much impossible to in my formal style.

I can see why people shouldn't really review the things they love professionally. You have too much of an emotional attachment to it. This is a game where I can take it's faults and not really mind one bit. Trust me, there are somethings that could be better. But when I looked back at all of my previous favorite games, I noticed that there were flaws for them too. Streets of Rage: Kind of slow. Zone of the Enders 2: Horrible script. Digimon Rumble Arena: Really it was a favorite because not only was it the best Digimon game ever made and still is, but it was based off of Digimon Tamers. Oh, I'll save Tamers for another time.

My point is that when it comes to Mass Effect 2, I cannot possibly review it professionally because I'm way too biased towards it. I would just be giving the game a blow job throughout the review. To be blunt; I love Mass Effect 2's gameplay, story, graphics, characters, music, setting and replayability, even if some of the elements aren't perfect. It explains why I've been buying every piece of DLC available. Even the crap ones. Das loe, bebi. (That's love, baby.)

I'm sorry that I couldn't do this review right, but I hope you understand where I'm coming from...even if it looks a little unhealthy. ;)

Mass Effect 2 receives an elite 11/10.

E3 '10 Impressions

2010-06-15T17:32:00.004-05:00

Controversial Thoughts Vol.1

2010-05-14T06:42:00.007-05:00

Hello, dear readers. Today, I have decided to make everyone mad at me. For I have opinions that pretty much go against the massive hivemind of the internet. Now, I'm not saying all of this with the sole purpose of making people angry, I just feel that I need to get all of this out there. Brace yourself, because here it comes.

1. All games made by Will Wright are boring and unfun.
Oh, we are starting off just blasfemous, aren't we? Yes people, I hate SimCity. I hate The Sime. I hate Spore. Pretty much any game with the Sim brand (except for Streets of SimCity) is crap to me. I just do not get it. Playing these games are the equivalent to schoolwork. If I want to waste time, Solitaire is a more entertaining way to do it. There really isn't much else to say about it really. Maybe it's because I like to kill things in my games or something- I don't know.

2. Out of the whole series, Sonic Adventure 2 is the only one I truly enjoy.
This was kind of a sad and recent realization for me. I think I liked the character more than the games he was based off of, probably due to the comic and Saturday morning cartoon of Sonic the Hedgehog. I recently played and finished the first Sonic Adventure and thought it was pretty weak. I never got a grip with the Genesis Sonic games because I didn't like how I always ran into things three feet in front of me. Sonic Adventure 2 is the only game of the series that I have beaten multiple times, mostly due to the excellent levels that Sonic and Shadow take part in. They're fast fun and really exciting.

3. The Sega Genesis did not have a lousy sound chip, you just need to use it right.
I'll end with a positive bit of controversy. Take a listen to this for a sec. Don't worry, it's safe.

That, my friends is from the Sega Genesis game, Streets of Rage 2. It was composed by Yuzo Koushiro, a master of video game music. This is one of my favorite pieces of music. The beat and the use of the technology are superb. There are many Genesis games with good music, this is but a taste of what you can find. This game's soundtrack is so good that there is a soundtrack for it using real instruments. Check it out.

I have many more bits of controversy, but I think that's enough for now. I would love to hear other people's controversial gaming opinions. Sound off in the comments below and I'll see you guys next time. It will be about a certain handheld device that I have the utmost disdain for...

The Powerslave Blog Day 2

2010-05-03T16:22:00.004-05:00

I got the breathing artifact from the Sobek mountain shine which allowed me to got back to Karnak and get two health increases. That should really come in handy for later. Next up is the Amun Mines and another transmitter piece. I exited a level on accident whilt trying to fend off a scorpion. That sucked because I had to do it over again.

The Powerslave Blog Day 1

2010-05-02T13:38:00.004-05:00

Powerslave is a first-person shooter from 1996 on the Playstation and Saturn consoles. It takes place in Egypt and your objective is to recover and complete a transmitter in order to radio for help while fighting various Egyptian themed monsters. It's also pretty hard.

I made it from the Tomb of Ramses tfrough the Sobek Pass without too much trouble. I've surprisingly already adapted to the controls after a little bit of tweaking. The flying enemies and scorpions are a pain since they can trap you and kill you quickly if you get sloppy. It really seems like your character is very huge or the halls are to small, as it's harder to dodge projectiles than it should be. The traps are pretty deadly and death will result in starting the level over again.So as you can tell, it's very tough without preparation.

I took a look at a Let's Play before tackling the first few levels, so I didn't have too much trouble. The game performs beautifully on the system. I didn't know the PS1 could go up to 60 FPS. There will probably be more posts about the game as long as I'm playing it.

Here's the back and front of the CD case:

Top Ten of 2009 Revisited

2010-04-18T13:14:00.002-05:00

After going back and looking at last year's games I realized that a lot of the placement wasn't right. And thanks Activision being Activision, I decided to remove Modern Warfare 2 from the list completely. It's too hard to enjoy without thinking of the jerkoff company behind it. So here we go.

The Best:

10. Tekken 6-My favorite fighter has finally come back. Despite the Scenario Campaign, the fighting was as great as ever. Bob rules!

9. Blazblue-An excellent start for the new fighting game on the block. Plus an awesome soundtrack.

8. Infamous-After I replayed it, I realized I forgot a game I shouldn't have. It's a great superhero game that answered my call. I really do want a sequel to this one.

7. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010-Such a large improvement, this is a very fun wrestling game. I wish the WWE itself was this fun to watch…

6. Batman Arkham Asylum-I never thought I would see such a great Batman game in my life. Now let’s fix Superman.

5. Dishwasher: The Dead Samurai-I forgot mindless killing works in 2D. Thanks, person making this game in their spare time.

4. Dragon Age Origins-This game surprised me greatly. I thought it was going to bore me like KotOR did, but nice to see that it was actually very epic. I can’t wait to play it again with a different character.

3. Borderlands-Despite the half-assed storyline, this was a great shooter. The RPG elements work well too. It's very addictive.

2. Shadow Complex-It may not have been a full $60, but it was awesome and I want more just like it. In a year when Microsoft got lazy, this game was there to pick up the slack.

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves-Wow…. Damn… This was a perfect 10 without the multiplayer and they put that in too. Best cast, best story, best graphics, best PS3 game, and now Game of the Year. My God, Naughty Dog. You people rock!

Wrestlemania XXVI

2010-04-11T13:49:00.003-05:00

Welcome to my review of Wrestlemania 26. First off I have to Apologize. I had planned for this to be done a week ago, but due to my increasingly irritating classes it was delayed until, well, now when it’s a little too late. For that, I am sorry. Well enough with the apologies, let’s get started with the review. First off, I want to talk about the atmosphere which I believe is important for an event like this.

Atmoshpere
The event took place in the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The announcers constantly claimed that they were in Phoenix. Unless I’m wrong and Glendale is Phoenix, then this is just blatant misinformation. The entrance was built up as a very elaborate multi-screen pyramid, which looked very cool when the monitors were on. The entrance videos were displayed on a screen above the ring. The contraption above the ring was interesting as they had a screened cylinder come down from the top to display a wrestler’s name. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it before.
The theme songs for the show were a bit weak in my opinion. However since all music taste is subjective, take my opinions on this matter with a grain of salt. I Made It by Kevin Rudolf was an appropriate theme for the show, but initially I thought it was very weak compared to many of the previous themes of Wrestlemania. The song did eventually grow on me after a while. Be Yourself by Audioslave was kind of weak, especially for this event. It didn’t help that it was an old Diva Search theme and the less said about the Diva’s, the better. Overall I thought it was a poor choice. Thunderstruck by AC/DC was a non-starter. The song was barely used before the show and I don’t believe I heard it once during Wrestlemania. I was wondering if the deal to use the song had fallen through.
Matches
1.Shomiz (The Miz and Big Show) vs. Truth and Wisdom (R-Truth and John Morrison) for the Unified Tag Team Championships
The opening match between Shomiz and R-Truth and Morrison was not a particularly good one. It was a little more than three minutes. Most of that time was Truth and Morrison beating up The Miz. However Shomiz got the victory after Show hit Morrison with a KO Punch. The build up to this feud was miniscule and very much felt like a slapped-together, last minute job. Unfortunately so did the match. 2/5
2.Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Cody Rhodes
This match was mostly DiBiase and Rhodes dominating Orton with two-on-one attacks. It wasn’t the least bit thrilling until the two now former teammates turned on each other in order pick up the victory. Then it got even more interesting once Orton got up and crushed the two. After a kick to the head on Rhodes and an RKO on DiBiase, Orton won the match after pinning Dibiase. This match served the purpose of getting Randy Orton over as a face, since it seems like at this point he gets better reactions than John Cena. So while the match really wasn’t good it did serve its purpose so I’ll give it credit for that. 3/5
3.Money in the Bank Ladder match featuring Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler Kane, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, Shelton Benjamin, Christian, Drew McEntyre, Montel Vontavious Porter, and Matt Hardy
From looking at the match title you can already see this match’s first problem. With ten competitors, the whole match came off looking very fake and slow. The ladder work was a little sloppy with only a few wrestlers knowing how to work a ladder match appropriately. I want to give Matt Hardy a special nod for doing the best job in the match and I want to smack Kofi for the incredibly stupid and slow looking ladder stilts. Jack Swagger won the match after taking a grueling fifteen to twenty seconds to unhook the damn case. Overall, this was the worst MitB Match I’ve ever personally seen. 2/5
4.Triple H vs. Sheamus
After three weak matches, I was starting to get worried that my party and I had wasted out time and money. Thankfully these two put on a solid match where even though HHH got the victory, Sheamus came out of it looking pretty good. The problem with this match is that the crowd was not into it. I guess a bad MitB will do that to you. There’s not much else to say except that this was a solid match. 3/5
5.CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio
This match was really good. The build-up was great and the wrestling technicality was great. So what’s the problem? The match was too short. It was too bad since there are quite a few wastes of time in this show. This match got the short end of the stick and was cut short to make time. Mysterio got the win after a 619. 4/5
6.Bret Hart vs. Mr. McMahon
Ugh. I hate thinking about this “match”. This was abysmal to watch. All eleven minutes of this crap. From the stupid Hart Family double-crossing, to the unentertaining pounding of McMahon’s back with a chair. This was so bad that I actually lost respect for Bret Hart, even though I already knew about his condition. They should’ve tried something else if Bret couldn’t fight. We were conned out of money for this one. 0/5
7.Chris Jericho vs. Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship
I went into this match worried about Edge. I know they said his injury healed, but it’s still very hard not to be concerned. This match was good, even though it seemed they had a hard time making it click a times. The worst part: the crown was completely dead. After the Kryptonite that was the Hart/McMahon…thing, this crowd didn’t react until the match was damn near over. Jericho won with the Codebreaker, but Edge didn’t take it lightly and speared Jericho off an announce table into a barricade. It’s a shame these guys had to follow such a travesty. 4/5
8.The Divas and Vickie Guerrero did things. Nobody cared.
Because we needed a bathroom break, a ten Diva tag match was put on. Vickie got the win for her team after flattening Kelly Kelly with a One Star Hog Splash. That part was funny. The rest was crap. 1/5
9.John Cena vs. Batista for the WWE Championship
This match was the best one so far in the show. After an unusually weak entrance by John Cena (Sorry, Armed Forces), the match was Cena and Batista at they’re best. So while it wasn’t super technical, it was a great showing. I liked the top-rope Five Knuckle Shuffle from Cena (even though he kind of missed) and Batista’s DDT was very effective. (Maybe a little too effective.) John Cena picked up the win after an STF and a sweet Victory Pose to become the new WWE Champion… again. The crowd was pretty into it even though they cheered for Batista over Cena. As a side note, this was the match that my dumb-ass cousin came in and bad mouthed everything so it was a little hard to assess. I will give it a 5 though since this was one match were everything went right. 5/5
10.Shawn Michaels and his career vs. The Undertaker and his undefeated streak
It was obvious that this was going to be the match of the night and it didn’t disappoint. In my opinion this one was better than last year’s due to the faster pace and more personal feel. There were near falls, technical skills, and it was an all-out battle with everything to lose. Michaels went out like all great heroes should, with a defiant slap to the Undertaker’s face. Taker responded with (something I like to call) a Death Spike (Jumping Tombstone) to win the match. The aftermath of the match was truly touching, especially if you’re a fan of Michaels. The PPV ended with Shawn saying his goodbye and leaving the arena. Thank you, Shawn for saving Wrestlemania events for so many years and for truly being the best in the business. 5/5

So after tallying the scores up, Wrestlemania 26 receives a 3 out of 5. So it was a pretty mixed bag. There were a lot of weak parts that almost overshadowed the good ones. The Diva’s wasted our time again, the Money in the Bank match was weak and Bret and Vince damn-near ruined everything. Thankfully, Punk/Mysterio, Edge/Jericho, Cena/Batista, and Michaels/Undertaker were definitely worth watching. So if you want to only see the good parts of Wrestlemania 26 I recommend these four out of the ten matches. Again, sorry for this being so late and hopefully I’ll have it on time for the next ‘Mania.

FIGHT ON! ;)

Bayonetta (X360) Review

2010-03-19T20:40:00.000-05:00

You are Bayonetta. An Umbran Witch with top class fighting ability that features an arsenal of weapons and techniques. The rest of the story is just really weird. All you need to know is that there are a lot of angels that want you dead and you’re gonna make them wish they took up another hobby.

What’s it all about?
It’s a very in depth brawler where you beat, slice or shoot the hell out of everything that stands in your way. Bayonetta has a large number of moves and weapons to use in a combat system that should satisfy any fan of the genre. With the ability to slow down time after a successful dodge, you almost have free reign with your unfortunate enemies.

Graphics- The graphics are very good with bright colors and good looking character models. The framerate is mostly solid as long as you’re playing on the X360. The PS3 version was not so lucky and tends to chug more with longer load times. You may have some issue when it comes to character design as you may find Bayonetta very odd looking.

Sound- The sound effects are good and besides Enzo (who’s annoying) the voice acting is cheesy in a good way. The music would be quite good if it wasn’t so repetitive. It becomes abusive along the way.

Control- Excellent. All of Bayonetta’s actions can be performed with no problem. When you hit a button, it will immediately happen.

AI- The AI is relatively solid but it isn’t relentless. You should be able to see most moves coming on the easier difficulties. The game can get difficult on normal or higher.

Replay Value- High. The game has multiple difficulties and upgrades with a well done New Game +. Really, it’s just fun to kick the shit out of things. It’s almost arcade like in that regard.

Tips for better gaming experiences:
I would say start off on a lower difficulty in order to get the hang of things. Just remember to unequip the item that they assign to you to get rid of the auto-combos. You can’t learn to fight properly with this crutch. It works well for your mom, though. Believe me. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. ;)

Buy the second pair of Fire/Lightning Gauntlets as soon as possible. Lightning hands and Fire feet are awesome! :D

My Rating: 90 (out of 100)- It’s incredibly fun throughout with a few throwbacks to previous Sega games and games that the creators worked on. Bayonetta ranks up there with the best of the action genre.

Rental Review Assassin's Creed 2 (X360)

2010-03-19T07:53:00.000-05:00

The first Assassin's Creed was a beautiful nightmare. It looked pretty, but it wasn't worth shit on the inside with terrible pacing and horrible protagonist (Altair, not Desmond). It gave you necessary abilities and took them away forcing you to plow though a weak fighting system for the beginning portion of the game after the introduction of every ability that you could have.

Assassin's Creed 2 fixes all of that crap. Ezio is a much more likable protagonist, the pacing is much better with more variety, and you aren't crippled in the beginning of Ezio's quest. The combat system is still weak since like sheath said, you can counter your enemies easily for the win. I liked Assassin's Creed 2 because outside of the simple combat, the rest of the game gets it right for the most part. The stealth, platforming and assassination's work just fine. There is plenty to do in the open world, and while the game for the most part is easy, the overall package still manages to very entertaining.

If you want a game that is concentrated on the art of combat, then this one's not for you. But if you want play around on Italy, assassinate fools and just chill with a mostly stress-less game (some parts can be aggravating) then you might like this game very much.

My score- 8 out of 10. Points of for the weak combat but I found the game addictive and entertaining regardless.
Next Review... Bayonetta.

End of 2009 Write-Up

2010-01-24T21:55:00.006-06:00

I know I should be doing my homework now, but this needs to be done now. Let’s see- gaming in 2009. I liked it actually. I was pleasantly surprised. Actually the most surprising thing was the reason why I like last year. The Playstation 3 clearly had the best showing last year. Actually a combination of the X360 and the PS3 is what made last year so fun. After all, Uncharted 2 and Shadow Complex were both amazing and if I didn’t have both systems, I wouldn’t able to play them. I’m so glad I bought that PS3 in ’08. It’s come a long way from being a $600 paper weight in ’06 and ’07. Heh.

So, you might be asking, what about the Wii? Let’s just say that I have yet to get my money’s worth for it. Smash Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy were great, but this lack of 3^rd party support is killing it for me. (Next week’s Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and No More Heroes Desperate Struggle however might change that though. Those two look great!) 2009 was a terrible year for Nintendo. The quality Wii games were too far apart and they were nothing compared to the offerings on the other two consoles.

I've decided to hold off on the two handhelds since I didn't really use them all that much last year. Seemed like a good year for the both of them.

So let's wrap this up. I found the PS3 to be the choice system of the year with games like Infamous, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, fighting games (better D-Pad) and especially Uncharted 2; which has become one of my favorite games of all time. 2010 seems like it's completely up for grabs.

Top Ten and Bottom Five Games of 2009

2010-01-09T15:03:00.001-06:00

Remember, lower budget games are not disqualified from the lists if they showed up on one of the two consoles. If I played them, they're qualified for better or worse.

The Best:
10. Blazblue- An excellent start for the new fighting game on the block. Plus an awesome soundtrack.

9. Tekken 6- My favorite fighter has finally come back. Despite the Scenario Campaign, the fighting was as great as ever. Bob rules!

8. Borderlands- Despite the half-assed storyline, this was a great shooter. The RPG elements work well too.

7. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010- Such a large improvement, this is a very fun wrestling game. I wish the WWE itself was this fun to watch…

6. Batman Arkham Asylum- I never thought I would see such a great Batman game in my life. Now let’s fix Superman.

5. Dishwasher: The Dead Samurai- I forgot mindless killing works in 2D. Thanks, person making this game in their spare time.

4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2- One of the very few FPS’ that can hold my attention with a better single-player campaign than last time. It’s Michael Bay stuff, but I like the characters and it made for a great game.

3. Shadow Complex- It may not have been a full $60, but it was awesome and I want more just like it.

2. Dragon Age Origins- This game surprised me greatly. I thought it was going to bore me like KotOR did, but nice to see that it was actually very epic. I can’t wait to play it again with a different character.

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves- Wow…. Damn… This was a perfect 10 without the multiplayer and they put that in too. Best cast, best story, best graphics, best PS3 game, and now Game of the Year. My God, Naughty Dog. You people rock!

The Worst:
5. Mx vs. ATV Reflex- The series was ok before this, but this game pretty much ruined it.

4. Prometheus- I found this demo for my PSP and thought it was going to be another Dishwasher. After I finished it I thought it was a bad joke.

3. Fairytale Fights- The premise is stupid, the premise is stupid, and did I mention that the premise is fucking stupid? Plus it plays like ass.

2. The Warriors Street Brawl- My brother and I desperately wanted this shitfest to end after playing this for five minutes. We went through the piece of crap in pain.

1. Darkest of Days- This game is like the worst of everything. Graphics, controls, sound, gameplay- besides its premise, it’s all worthless. Fuck this game.

The write up is up next where I say a few things you may not like. Sorry for the lack of Nintendo on these lists of mine. I didn't play a Nintendo game good enough or bad enough to be on the list this year.

Game of the Year Awards 2009

2010-01-01T00:31:00.000-06:00

Here are the category winners:

Best Graphics:
Uncharted 2: Among Theves: This award is actually for best graphics artistically, but what Naughty Dog did for this game was spectacular.

Best Music:
BlazBlue: I know sheath hates this, but I love it... so there! ;)

Best Character(s):
Nathan Drake (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves) The whole cast of the game was the best this year, but Nate's gonna get the rub for this award.

Best Story (Edited for winner):
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: At the end of the day, I cared more about this story and it's presentation more than any other game this year..

Best Action Game:
Dishwasher: The Dead Samurai: For just straight-up whipping ass, this one was the clear winner.

Best Fighting Game:
Tekken 6: I enjoy playing this one the most, but Blazblue was great too.

Best Shooting Game (Tie):
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Borderlands: The were the only two shooter that I could stand to finish this year. They're both excellent games.
Honorable mention to Gears of War 2. I didn't play it last year, but it was awesome enough to be included here.

Best Sports Game:
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010: It improved so greatly from the previous years that I had to add it here somewhere.

Best Role Playing Game:
Dragon Age Origins: Bioware does it again. I don't know why, but I think WRPG's are better tham JRPG's now.

Best PS3 Game:
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: There were a crap-ton of great games for the PS3 this year, but this one was easily the best of the year and the best on the system period so far. (Sorry, MGS4.)

Best XBox 360 Game:
Dragon Age Origins: The X360 kind of had a weak year exclusively with only Left 4 Dead 2 being the only game on a disc worth buying. So I went with a non-exclusive game that I played on my X360 and this one was an easy pick.

Best Arcade/Indie Game:
Shadow Complex: I had better not be the only person here who bought this game. It's the best of Old-School and New-School in one great, high-quality and cheaply priced game. What the fuck else do you want!? ;)

Game of the Year:
Will be done in a Top Ten List format later.

Worst Graphics:
The Warriors Street Brawl: My eyes... MY EYES!!!

Worst Character(s):
Bang Shishigami (BlazBlue): A dumb-ass poser trying to be cool. Also the wonkiest fighter in Blazblue.
Dishonorable mention to Altair from Assassins Creed since I just played the game this year. Stupidest assassin ever!

Worst Story (The nobody's listening award):
Borderlands: It really didn't even try to have a story and those little texts on the mission descriptions went ignored. Still a great game, so no biggie.
Dishonorable mention to Bionic Commando. Why so serious? Geez.

Worst Action Game:
Fairytale Fights: Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Worst Fighting Game(Tie):
King of Fighters XII and Dragonball Z Infinite World: These two royally fucked up this time and it doesn't make sense since both of their previous games were great.

Worst Shooting Game:
Darkest of Days: Broke as a fucking joke. I think it tried to kill my X360 too.

Worst PS3 Game:
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Now it's not really a bad game, but it's the most disappointing this year, the worst I've spent money on, and the weakest game I played on my PS3 this year.

Worst XBox 360 Game:
Darkest of Days: Being an indie studio no longer give you an excuse to make broken shit. Not anymore.

Worst Arcade Game:
The Warriors Street Brawl: The horror... the horror...

Worst Game of the Year:
Will be in bottom 5 list format later.

The final award will be the State of the Industry award where the best console or hand-held system will take home the top honor of being the best of the year. Afterward will be a year in review write up.

Personal Game Awards are coming...

2009-12-16T20:53:00.010-06:00

Welcome to my personal 2009 Games of the Year ceremony, where we celebrate the best this year had to offer.

The positive categories are:
Best Graphics artistically:

BlazBlue
Uncharted 2: Among Theves
Dishwasher: The Dead Samurai
Street Fighter IV

Best Music:

BlazBlue
WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2010
Brutal Legend
Tekken 6

Best Character(s):

Taokaka (BlazBlue)
Bob (Tekken 6)
Delta Squad (Gears of War 2)
Nathan Drake (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves)

Best Story:

Dragon Age Origins
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Batman Arkham Asylum
Tekken 6

Best Action Game:

Batman Arkham Asylum
Shadow Complex
Dishwasher: The Dead Samurai
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Best Fighting Game:

Street Fighter IV
BlazBlue
Tekken 6
Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Best Shooting Game:

Gears of War 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Killzone 2
Borderlands

Best Sports Game:

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010
Madden 10

Best Role Playing Game:

Dragon Age Origins
Chrono Trigger

Best PS3 Game:

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Infamous
Borderlands
Batman Arkham Asylum

Best XBox 360 Game:

Gears of War 2
Dragon Age Origins
Resident Evil 5
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Best Arcade/Indie Game:

Shadow Complex
Dishwasher: The Dead Samurai
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Streets of Fury

Game of the Year:

Will be done in a Top Ten List format.

The Negative Categories are:
Worst Graphics artistically:

The Warriors Street Brawl

Worst Character(s):

Altair (Assassins Creed)
Bang Shishigami (BlazBlue)
Bobby Kotick (Activision)
John Richitello (Electronic Arts)

Worst Story (The nobody's listening award):

Borderlands
Prototype
Bionic Commando

Worst Action Game:

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
Fairytale Fights

Worst Fighting Game:

King of Fighters XII
Dragonball Z Infinite World

Worst Shooting Game:

Battlefield: Bad Company
Resistance 2

Worst PS3 Game:

Battlefield Bad Company
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Worst XBox 360 Game:

Fairytale Fights

Worst Arcade Game:

The Warriors Street Brawl

Worst Game of the Year:
Will be in bottom 5 list format.

The final award will be the State of the Industry award where the best console or handhels system will take home the top honor of being the best of the year. Afterwards will be a year in review write up.

MySpace link

2009-10-27T13:10:00.001-05:00

I just now read a comment about having trouble finding my MySpace page. Sorry about that, I'm still a little ignorant when it comes to the site. I think this link will get you there.
http://www.myspace.com/492745535

My first Game Expirence: Playstation 2

2009-10-27T13:05:00.002-05:00

Over on Whip Ass Gaming.com, fellow forum poster, sheath, created a very interestin topic on first game expirences. The first one was for the Playstation 2. I actually wrote quite a bit for it so I decided that it would be nice to bring over here as well. I think there will be topics of other systems coming soon, so I will write about those as soon as they come up and bring them over here as well.

Playstation 2
My first Experience:
I was watching Toonami with my brother when T.O.M. started talking about FIFA for the Playstation 2. Now at the time I was like, "Playstation 2? Pfft, forget that Dreamcast is gonna be were it's at." That was until he ran footage of the game. My goodness, it was so beautiful that my resolve was shaken. A few days later I got a chance to watch a guy play Onimusha Warlords at CompUSA and it looked really good too. But it wasn't until a little bit later at CompUSA that I got a chance on the kiosk. And the game I got to play changed everything...

My impression of the games:
Enter Zone of the Enders, the game that changed everything. It was like I found the game of my dreams. Fast paced giant robot action with an anime setting. I've never been forcibly dragged out of a store before, but that was the closest I came too it. After that my care for the Dreamcast dropped to absolute zero and the PS2 became the only choice at that moment.

My impression of the overall package:
I got my PS2 on Christmas morning along with the games Tekken Tag Tournament (Awesome), Virtua Fighter 4 (Awesome, even though my brother and cousins hated it. They didn't understand...), SSX (Alright, but Tricky was better when I got it down the line) and Spy Hunter (Lame). I loved every bit of it and I didn't even care about the DVD player. It ended up becoming my favorite system of all time.

What changed my first impression:
Nothing really, it's still my favorite console. But at the time I was also a Sony fanboy. Nowadays not so much at all. I think I didn't like when I found out about how many potentially great games were blocked and I really hated the PS3 for it's first year since it just started so shitty. But the PS2 itself? No difference.

When did I get the system:
I think it was Christmas 2001, so the four games I got were cheap enough for my parents to buy along with the system. There was a catch when it came to getting the system. I had to save up for it and use money I received for my birthday and Christmas in order to get it. Thankfully, I was dead serious when it came to saving up for it. I found out recently that they actually just bought all of the stuff before hand and put the money I saved up into my college fund. Totally worth it. :)

Game systems this gen and my thoughts

2009-08-10T22:35:00.002-05:00

I had an idea for a blog after reading a blog on TV.com and I wanted to go ahead and make my gamer allegiance known. No pics though.

XBOX 360:

I love this system. It's really been my go to machine for most situations. There seems to be some thing I want to play on it at anytime. I also think it's pretty cool that I can get alot of Dreamcast classics on it such a Garou or SoulCalibur. My only real problem with it is the D-Pad. It could be alot better, but I've learned to deal with it.

Playstation 3:

I love this system too. I honestly believe that it has the best exclusives and controler. But I don't really like its online service as much as XBL. Also the wireless router in it is pathetic. I can barely get in an online match besides BlazBlue. (Best online fighter, period.) I was lucky to get a BC unit so I use it for alot of my old Sony titles.

Wii:

I like many things about the Wii, but I also find it to be an underwhelming system as well. There aren't that many good games on it versus the shovelware, but the ones that are usually good are awesome sucha as Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Which to me is better than Melee. Don't bother convincing me otherwise.) or Super Mario Galaxy. I hope that titles such as Muramasa and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom do well.

PSP:

I have a special bond with my PSP. It's kind of like my child (in a non-creepy way) It kept me alive during my last move. I hear a lot of bullshit about it not having many games compared to the DS. But you know what, Quality > Quantity. I have many awesome games for the PSP and I believe it deserves more respect.

DS:

If the PSP is my child, then the DS is my red-headed step child that gets left behind when I take my PSP for Ice Cream. As far as I'm concerned, it's a glorified GBA player (A superb handheld system) that also happens to play Chrono Trigger. There are so many crappy games on this thing that I have very few worth playing. I dislike the games that make touch screen mandatory and I can't believe how popular it is.

So my ranking for systems this gen is:

1. XBOX360

2. PS3

3. PSP

4. Wii

5. DS

Well that's it for this blog. See ya' latter.

Kotick = Shit

2009-06-19T19:40:00.001-05:00

I remember two years ago when I wanted the PS3 to fail. But I've come to enjoy it now, especially since it stopped sucking. But now, Activision's saying this well after the suckage. Activision, you ass of shit! Why do you insist on making me hate you?

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/996/996314p1.html

"UK, June 19, 2009 - Activision Blizzard, the games industry's single biggest publisher, has stated that it may stop support for Sony consoles due to the PlayStation 3's bloated price-point and the inflated cost to develop for the console.

In an interview with The Times, Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick said 'I'm getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don't make it easy for me to support the platform. It's expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation.'

Kotick made similarly caustic remarks about the PlayStation 3's price, which currently stands at 299.99 GBP in the UK. 'They have to cut the price,' he said, 'because if they don't, the attach rates are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony.'"

New Title

2009-06-19T18:22:00.002-05:00

I wasn't feeling having a title that said "bullshit" as much as I thought I would. So I decided to change it to something similar to my screen name which is pronounce Dark Stalker. I'll probably end up changing the title again down the line, but the rules are still the same.

E3 Impressions

2009-06-12T22:21:00.003-05:00

It's been a while and I'm sorry for the wait. I've just been way too lazy recently and I think it's time to put the controller down for while. I've got many reviews to make and some homework to do so I think it's time to get to work. Without further ado, here's what I thought of E3 2009's Big 3 presentations.

Microsoft
I think Microsoft had the best presentation of the show. Besides the beginning, everything was cool and interesting. Project Natal looks cool and I hope it works out well. I don't know how much I would use it to game, but I've always wanted to have that kind of technology for something. The biggest surprise that I saw was Splinter Cell Conviction. It looked very cool and I actually want to play it unlike the other ones. Alan Wake was cool but I need to see more of it.

Nintendo
Once again, Nintendo was the weakest of the three. It wasn't embarrassing, it just wasn't interesting either. The only thing that made it not a total bust was Metroid Other M. The Mario games do nothing for me to be honest (not even Galaxy 2, which was weird because I lover the first game.) I think the worst thing about the conference was not the Vitality Meter (which is worthless), but the presenters themselves. I don't like the way they act and I detest that woman who's name slips my mind currently. At least they don't have a flat out liar though. *cough*molyneux*cough*

Sony
While Microsoft had the best presentation, Sony had the best of things that actually matter. The games. I was very happy with the amount of content shown at the press conference and am looking forward to a lot of it. The PSP Go! shouldn't cost $250 though. I likes the motion sensor tech that they showed to. I can see it being utilized very well. Better than the Sixaxis BS at least.

Overall, E3 was fun this year and I'm much more hopeful for the future of gaming that I was after last year's pile of crap.

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai Review

2009-04-11T21:39:00.001-05:00

There’s a story here… something about being killed and being brought back to life to take your vengeance upon the people that killed you. It’s not really much of a story, but it’s enough incentive to go kick some ass.

What’s it about?
It’s about all-out action. Kill or be killed. It’s also about embarrassing companies with a large budget that make lame games. One person created this game and it blows so many games away it’s not even funny. From Shift Blade to Chainsaw, use all of your weapons to destroy the cyborgs (who bleed red, strangely) that killed you.

Graphics- The 2D graphics in this game look similar to Jhonen Vasquez’s works such as Invader Zim, but even more gothic. It looks very nice and sets the tone of the game perfectly. Explosions and bullets look nice as well. The only problem is that sometimes there can be a lot of shit on the screen, and you might lose track of your character in the process.

Sound- The music’s great, I just wish there was more of it. The sound effects are nice too.

Control- Excellent. You have total control of your character, from attacking to dodging; you should have no problems what so ever.

A.I.- Brutal, but fair. It’s a hard game, but so far on the difficulty levels I’ve played on, it’s never been cheap. If you died, then it’s on you.

Replay Value- There’s the story mode with five difficulty levels, 50 arcade stages with co-op and the Dish Challenge, which is a survival mode. It’s a good amount for $10 and I can see this game being played well after it’s all done.

Tips for better gaming experiences:
If you accidently trigger your magic either by accident or the wrong kind of magic, hit the weapon switch button to cancel it.

Upgrade your Kamas up to level 3 when you get the chance first. You’ll need them at the Nord Train yard. The boss there is tough. Use the Y+X+Y combo on his ass and he’ll go down without too much trouble.

After that upgrade your Shift Blade to level 3, and from there you should be good to upgrade however you please. One thing to remember is that you cannot go back through a previously played level to get another guitar pick, once you’ve gotten it, it’s gone. There is enough for all but three upgrade picks in the first three difficulty levels. The last three are found in the Samurai difficulty… which is really, really hard.

My rating: 10 out of 10. I love this fucking game. I can’t believe how addictive and awesome it is. If you haven’t tried it by now, what on earth are you waiting for? Just know that this game isn’t going to pull any punches. It’s probably going to be the best this year for me.

Resident Evil 5

2009-03-18T19:55:00.000-05:00

After years of dealing with zombie’s, mutants, and many deadly monsters, Chris Redfield has finally reached a breaking point. After losing his partner on his last mission, Chris has started to doubt himself and wonder if it’s even worth fighting last remnants of the Umbrella Corporation. He is joined by House of Renders nominee, Sheva Alomar, an African BSAA agent also tasked with fighting bioterrorism. Together the two go on a mission to finally stop the evil megalomaniac, Albert Wesker once and for all.

What’s it about?
It’s about taking the successful formula that made Resident Evil 4 Great and bringing it to the X360 and PS3 with excellent Co-Op. In single-play, you will have an A.I. partner that’s a little iffy at first, but will become a very useful ally in the game. Inventory is during real-time in this game, so it can be a little frustrating getting your equipment set up the way you need it to be.

Graphics- Amazing! The textures in this game are among the best I’ve seen. The framerate is good for the most part and only hitches in a few places.

Sound- In-game, it’s great. It gets the job done and puts you in the atmosphere of the game. Strangely, the cut scenes sound a bit muffled.

Control- Ah, the most controversial part of the game. The controls are exactly like RE4’s as Capcom told us they would be during production, and they work well for this game. Its set up that you don’t move and shoot at the same time like the older ones but it feels good after you realize it’s supposed to be this way. I would recommend the A Type setting.

A.I.- The enemies react pretty slow like they did in RE4, where they’ll wait a second before inflicting damage. As mentioned before, your partner will be a mixed bag, but after getting a feel for how they work, it shouldn’t be too hard to co-exist with them.

Replay Value- There’s actually quite a bit here to do. After beating the game alone or with a friend, you will unlock Mercenaries mode, in which the main objective is to kill as many enemies as you can within a set time limit. It’s a difficult mode to master, but it’s very satisfying when you perform well. You can also unlock infinite ammo for the weapons that you upgrade fully, which makes it much less frustrating to tackle the harder difficulty levels.

Tips for better gaming experiences:
Go through amateur mode first so that you can beat the game without too much trouble and to unlock infinite ammo for some of your weapons.
You should practice first before playing with a partner online so that you both will give bad guys a run for their money and you won’t annoy the person you’re playing with for being inexperienced.
Don’t play with a jackass that won’t trade ammo or health with you. If they’re not smart enough to know that you must work together, then they’re not worth playing with.

My rating: 8 out of 10. Resident Evil 5 turned out to be a very enjoyable game regardless of the gameplay being stuck in 2005. The Co-Op experience is great and the story wraps up nicely. A few annoying, but effective hitches prevents the game from being a 10, but it won’t prevent blasting the infected horde away with you trusty shotgun. If the demo turned you off, I recommend renting the game first to see if you will like it.

The NIMF can suck it.

2009-03-11T11:58:00.003-05:00

"The release of MadWorld for the Wii brings violent videogames to a once family-friendly platform."
What the hell was Resident Evil 4 and No More Heroes then? Travis calls two dude's who's heads that he chopped off (With alot of blood) "fuckheads" in the beginning of the game.

"In MadWorld, gamers use the Wii Remote to make the necessary physical actions to chainsaw an opponent in half, impale an enemy with a signpost or decapitate a victim with a golf club."
I know, awesome ain't it? ;)

"MadWorld is another reminder that parents need to make sure they watch what their kids watch and play what their kids play."
Which they should've been doing in the first place! Are you telling me that the Wii was too sacred to have M-Rated games on it?

"In the past, the Wii has successfully sold itself as being the gaming console for the entire family and a way to bring family-game nights back into people's living rooms."
It still will be, and I'll state now that there's nothing wrong with that...

"Unfortunately, Nintendo opened its doors to the violent videogame genre."
...But this is where he starts to get ignorant. Nintendo had a game that featured sex on the NES. Granted Golgo 13 wasn't that big of a hit, but still...

"The National Institute on Media and the Family hopes that Nintendo does not lose sight of its initial audience and continues to offer quality, family-friendly games."
-Dr. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family

Does anyone else feel offended but that last one? The initial audience was the gamers untill recently. I don't think there's any thing wrong with a nice balance to appease core and non-core gamers, but what you're telling me is that Nintendo...
1. Never marketed to core gamers and...
2. Should leave us behind?
Oh also, "quality, family-friendly games" is bull. While not impossible, the "family-friendly" games have been some of the absolute worst pieces of trash this generation. Don't believe me? Take a look at the Wii's library. 70% of it is worthless shovelware made by companies looking for a quick buck.

I'm sorry, but you were out of line Dr. Walsh. Take your elitist attitude and go away.

Oh, my head... (Streets of Rage 3)

2009-02-14T20:09:00.003-06:00

Sega of America... why? Why did you fuck this game up the ass and whore it out in the ghetto. Why did you fuck up the sequel to the greatest game ever? This game just feels wrong, and I think what hurts the most is that it shouldn't. The only thing that was wrong with the Japanese version was that the music wasn't as good as the other two. What you assholes did was fuck up the story, censor it (I know that was common back then, but it was always wrong to me) and last but not least, make the game frustrating. I'm not having fun with this shit, not even on easy mode where I'm gonna get the crap ending and miss a few levels because you felt fuckin' things up.

Guys I know my language is harsh tonight, but I just so mad at this crap they gave us. See- I haven't really played it before, so when I bought the new Genesis collection I was excited to finally play it. Now I know why know one talks about it: It's a giant ball of ass-fuck!

Oh and I knew about the game changes because I wiki'd the game before hand. I didn't realize how bad this game was.

Crono Trigger DS (Not Review) and End of Heartache

2009-01-31T22:01:00.003-06:00

My motivation for getting Chrono Trigger today was the lack of good DS games. At first I was hesitant, after all it was a game that was released a while back and I wasn't sure if it would be good in today's standards. I decided to give it a shot after seeing there was a price drop to $30 today.

HUZAHHHHH!

Finally a DS game that doesn't piss me off. It's great! After an hour, I'm hooked! After having to go through:
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Not bad but not very fun after a while.)
Nanostray (Mediocre.)
Dragon Ball: Origins (Good, but not great. It's kind of derivative.)
Contra 4 (Fucking-A- I don't usually hate games based on difficulty, but this one finally did it.)
Metroid Prime Hunters (Because carpel tunnel is fun!)
Bangai-O Spirits (I just don't get it.)

I finally found a reason to keep my DS. So far this game has been great. I don't care if it was on the SNES and PSX, this is a quality game. I'm so glad I'm not force to use that stupid ass stylus (A rant for another day). I will review it down the road, and we will see if I still feel this way. For now though... YAAAAY! :D

BTW, Residient Evil 5: dissapointing. I'll rent it.

Edit: I'm still iffy with RE5... dammit. I'm so torn with that game.

LittleBIGPlanet

2009-01-29T21:59:00.001-06:00

What it's about:

As you may know, LBP is a 2d style platformer (not the innovative part) that allows you to create levels (slightly more innovative?) and share them across the world YouTube style (There it is!) As your created and surprisingly charming SackBoy, you traverse the levels in search of bubbles, toys and booty.:D The problem is that there is no real story or point to the game. There's a section in the game that says story, but it's just some levels that they made with some speech bubbles added in to try and give you an objective. So if you like having a point other than going through levels just for the sake of it, you're out of luck here.

This game might be great for those who like to create their own levels. From what I've seen, if you have an idea of something you would like to make, you should be able to make, give or take a few changes of course.

Graphics: Very, very nice. Almost realistic actually since everything is an object instead of a person. There isn't much slowdown either unless you're online, but I'll touch on that later.

Sound & Music: Excellent. The soundtrack is amazing and utilized well (unless a user created level has unfitting music), the sound effects are good and the dude that pops up to help out beginners in the game is very welcoming.

Control: 85% spot on. Moving, grabbing and jumping is just fine although it might be a little slippery. The gravity in the game takes a little time to get used to and getting precise jumps on platforms can be a little tricky at times. I personally can't make levels for shit (No Imagination), but there is some amazing work you can find online.

AI/chalenge: There is no A.I. The enemies have a set basic function on what to do. Taking them out usually requires that you just hit their control bubble in which they'll quickly disappear.

Online: Downloading levels works just fine. There are a ton of great levels, but quite a few crappy ones as well. However, so far, playing with other people has been a clusterfuck unfortunately. It just hasn't worked for me. Thankfully, I, personally, don't plan on playing with others online, but it's still a problem.

Lasting Appeal: Um... Holy Shit! XD As long as you and other people are making levels and you like the core platforming, it's infinite.

Tips for better gaming experiences:
1. Keep this away from assholes who play Halo or Madden way too much to enjoy anything else. I know I'm stereotyping now, but just don't do it. You may get lucky however, but it went badly for me.
2. Go through the story mode before getting to user levels. You'll unlock costumes for your Sackboy/girl.
3. If you're not having fun with a certain user level, don't hurt yourself playing a dud and give helpful criticism if the level wasn't a total piece of crap.

My rating: 8 out of 10. Points were mostly taken off for the online multiplayer not working properly and maybe some platforming issues. Playing Little BIG Planet has been a very positive experience though. I would recommend it especially to play user created levels as there is great work out there.

If you get a chance to play it, give it a shot. You might like it. Plus, it's not an FPS. ;)

First Blog and Welcome

2009-01-14T12:04:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog that I like to call: No More Bullshit. I know, kind of offensive, but it has a purpose that I'll elaborate on later.

First and formost, this blog is about videogames in general. There is no bias towards or against certain company or system, but if some one screws up, I will tell you exactly how I feel about it. There will also be game reviews that I will randomly put up here. I will review old and new games alike and I use a scale from 0 to 10, with 5 being average, 10 being one of the absolute best in my opinion, and 0 for something that can go straight to hell. They will probally be rough drafts mostly before I finish them and send them to either screwattack.com ('Sup g1's if you're here) or whipassgaming.com. (Shoutout to BelPowerSlave and crew :))

So news and reviews on games is what you will find here. I will try my best to update as often as possible and cover everything I care about, which could occasionally feature a move or TV show or something like that.

Now why, oh why did I name my blog No More Bullshit? Because I hate fanboy bias among anything that has to do with gaming. My own personal term for fanboys in this generation of gaming is "fanbitch". I don't want anything bad to happen to a gaming company unless they deserve it and like when a certain consol gets something good, but I no longer tollerate the aptly named, xbots, sonyboys, or wiiboos... actually, does anyone ever call anyone a wiiboo. :P

Now as long as you aren't a fanboy, I'm pretty much cool with whatever is said. Hell, I'm actually pretty easygoing. Remember, it's all about the games.

My next update will most likely be an old review of something I reviewed in the past. Hopefully I can get come pictures with it. 'Till then, see you guys next time. :)