A special double-shot of the Shoot. I know, it's been awhile. And clearly the fans have been waiting for new blogs, given the comments I've been getting.
If you haven't relized that I'm being sarcastic, then i guess YOU'VE actually been waiting on new blogs. Either way...
Wow! It's been awhile since I've had time to post something. A combination of school, work, and having nothing to talk about! (Can't play games if I'm busy with school or work) But One thing I always have time for is Rock Band, my absolute favorite game of recent. How does Rock Band 2 match up?
More than likely, you already have a preconception of whether or not you are going to get this game, so most of what I say will make no difference. But I will go ahead and write. What to start with? Unlike everyone else, I'll start with the game, I've been able to play it with both the old hardware and the new hardware so I will get to that part later. And unlike my previous reviews, this will be split into ratings for each item, then a final rating for the overall set. So lets go!
The Game: Rock Band 2, whats different? Not much. You could think of this game as more of an expansion pack to Rock Band 1, but I would think of RB1 as an expansion of RB2. Why? Because if you have RB1 (or can borrow it from a friend) you can transfer most of the songs to the harddrive so you can play in RB2 (provided that you have the internet connection so you can pay the $5 fee.) But what is really different? With gameplay, absolutely nothing. If you played before, you know how to play now. There are tweaks here and there, the biggest difference is how you unlock songs. Since there is no longer a solo career mode, the best way to unlock songs is to create a band and do the Marathon setlists in the Challenges mode. These are 6 songs each but you can stop and save after a song if you can't finish all six songs at once. World Tour mode is back, and you can do it by yourself or with friends, even if they live across the country as you can play online in World Tour now.
Horror and Videogames may have a healthy relationship nowadays, but in the first 20 years, attempts to make scary video games were...shaky at best. Attempts to bring horror classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the Atari 2600 and Friday the 13th to the NES received largely negative receptions. And while games like Castlevania and Splatterhouse would borrow thematic elements from horror movies and novels, the games themselves were pretty standard affairs, lacking any real frights.
The first game that could legitimately claim to be frightening was Infogrames Alone in the Dark, released for PC in 1992. Its use of movie style camera angles, oppressive atmosphere, and surprise attacks made it a critical and commercial success, and it would birth a new genre: survival horror. Unfortunately, the two lackluster sequels that followed meant that this new genre would have to wait a few years to really shine. In 1996, that time would finally come.
Uhhh...Chris? Buddy? I think you need to lay off the 'roids for a while...
In the late 90's, horror gaming was ruled by two franchises, Capcom's Resident Evil, and Konami's Silent Hill, both of which were exclusives for the Sony Playstation, although the N64 would receive a port of Resident Evil 2 in the last legs of its life. Eager to try and capitalize and expand on this genre, Nintendo partnered with Silicon Knights to create their own survival horror game. Though it was originally planned for the Nintendo 64, the project was eventually pushed back to appear on the Gamecube.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was released early in the Gamecube's life on June 24, 2002. The main plot concerned Alexandria Roivas, an art student who is called to the mansion of her grandfather Edward, a clinical psychologist, to look into the cause of his mysterious and violent death. Frustrated by the incompetence of the Rhode Island police force (no offense meant to actual Rhode Islanders), Alex begins to investigate for herself, and eventually discovers her grandfather's secret study, and the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Reading the Tome placed players into the sandals of Pious Augustus, a Roman centurion in 26 bc. While leading his troops in battle, Pious is summoned to an ancient Persian temple, where he is forced to battle the undead monsters within. This served as the games tutorial level, as well as the prologue for the greater story. In the last room of the temple, Pious came across the three Essences of the Ancients, Chattur'gha, Ulyaoth, and Xel'lotath. Choosing one of these essences transformed Pious into an undead mage, who was bound to service of the chosen god. It was this choice that would determine which Ancient the player would ultimately face.
Hello every one. Inspired by The Nostalgia Critic, I've decided I want to start my own reviews of movies. But I didn't want to take nostalgic movies since that is obviously taken. So I've spent the last few weeks trying to think of my own unique movies I could review. And thats when I remembered "hey, I'm an actor!". So I've decided to review musical films! If you have any musicals you would like me to review, lemme know. Films can be old ones, new ones, Disney films, even movies that aren't originally based on a musical but they made one anyways (Across the Universe). So, lets get this underway and start sending me requests! You may send as many as you like. And spread the news to your friends. There's a new critic on the web.
Btw, if someone can help me come up with a good name for my reviews, it would be much appreciated. Thank you :-)
Welcome back to the Gaming Hall of Fame! For the entire month of October, we will celebrate Horror gaming, from pioneering classics to modern masterpieces, along with three titles as chosen by YOU, the readers, later this month! Our first entry is a game that not only was one of the first 3D games ever made, but also was the first game in the genre of Survival Horror, a full four years before Resident Evil was even a thought in Capcom's mind: Alone in the Dark.
Author's Note: Due to the age of this game and compatibility issues, I was unable to take many screenshots or compose any appreciable video. I have sought out a video, made by the much more technically skilled David Sukljan. All credit goes to him for the video, which does an excellent job of showcasing the gameplay elements of Alone in the Dark. What screenshots I DO have, are my own.)
In the early 90's, gaming was ruled by three major genres: the side scrolling platformer, the point and click adventure, and the arcade shooter. They were all formulas that worked, but despite the winning storytelling of games like Monkey Island, and Sam and Max, games were largely simple affairs, with no real immersion or atmosphere. In 1992, a company called Infogrames would seek the fill this unseen niche, and in doing so, would create an entirely new genre, a genre that would eventually be called Survival Horror.
In the mid to late 1990's, video games were in the middle of a transitional period. With the popularity of the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis (Megadrive if you lived outside of the US) waning, the Nintendo 64 just around the corner, and the Playstation having been on shelves since 1994, it was clear that the 32 and 64 bit age was about to take off. While the 64 bit N64 would be the most powerful console on the market until the release of Sega's Dreamcast, it would be Sony's Playstation that would rule the throne of the fifth console generation.
In 1993, a year before the release of the Playstation, a six man development team from Core Design of Europe, led by Toby Gard, partnered with Eidos Intereactive, and began work on a three dimensional action platforming game that was designed to take full advantage of the hardware available at the time. Their intent was to create a game based on exploration, puzzle solving and platforming in a fully immersive 3d environment. The initial protagonist was essentially a male Indiana Jones clone. When this wasn't accepted by the Core higher ups, Gard created the initial design for a hardened English woman named Lara Croft. Though the initial design work was done on Sega Saturn development kits, Tomb Raider was released in 1996 for the Saturn, Playstation and PC.
First off, today, Sept. 30, is my birthday. I am now 22 years old, and where once a birthday would have left me filled with merriment, I am now consumed with thoughts of "Great, I'm one step closer to middle age." Oh, well, such is life.
Second, and I know I'm a few days late to the party, but it seems my Final Fantasy column was featured in the Awesome Blog of the week. Seeing that just drove home even further what a kickass community this place has, and I just want to again extend my thanks for your readership, your comments, and your support. This really has been the best and most responsive community I've ever had the privilige, nay, the honor, of being a part of.
In 1979, videogames were in their infancy. Though the Atari 2600 had launced in 1977, game designers weren't really sure what to do with the new technology, so most of the effort went into Arcade titles like Pong, Blockade (which later became Snake), and Midway's Space Invaders. It was this last title that ruled the arcades in 1979, with its addictive gameplay. Atari knew that if they were to wrest the arcade throne from Midway, they would need their own twitch space shooter.
Asteroids was released to arcades in 1979. It was designed by Lyle Rains, and was programmed by Ed Logg, who would later go on to program Centipede, Gauntlet, and San Francisco Rush. Unlike other games of the day, which used pixellated sprites, Asteroids used vector graphics, which meant that all graphics were made by a beam drawing a series of lines over and over again on the screen, like a laser light show. The technology had previously been used in Atari's Lunar Lander. The original Asteroids botherboard was actually a modified Lunar Lander board, and it still exists today in the personal collection of Lander engineer Howard Delman.
The player controlled a triangular spacecraft. You could rotate the ship on its axis, and fly it straight forward, all while blasting a series of asteroids that would break into smaller chunks when struck. If the player came in contact with an asteroid, their ship would be destroyed. The player could also activate a warp ability that would teleport the ship to a random point on the screen. Occasional UFO's also appeared, and gave a points bonus if the player shot it down.
For the month of October, the theme for the Gaming Hall of Fame (and most of my other articles for that matter) is going to be horror games. Now, as far as the other articles, that's gonna be all me, but for the Hall of Fame, the deal is thus:
Not that anyone will actually read this, but I'm going to start my own short review of video games that I have recently played through since I have a huge stack to get through from various sales in which I exclaimed "Gimmie!" As this is a start and no guarantee that I will continue, I may become lazy and forget all about this. So anyway, onward to Indigo Prophecy.
Before I should go on, I will note that I am a cheap-ass gamer, and very rarely will pay full price for any game. So most of my reviews will be from games that came out years ago. (And the most I will normally pay will be about $20)
The game takes place right after the events of Wind Waker on the Gamecube.First,I'll talk about the different items.First,there's the boomerang which you can direct where it goes with the stylus.Secondly,bombs.Choose them in the item menu and drop them or throw them.Thirdly,a bow and arrow.Hold L or R and pull back using your stylus and release to throw the arrow.Fourth,bombchus.They're similar to regular bombs except you use the stylus to direct the direction,they go in.Fifth,a grappling hook or whatever that's called.Use it to pull your self towards heavy objects,where as light objects will be pulled towards you.With this,you can also make a beam to walk across, and a sort of thing that Link goes into,let's go and he flies into the direction he was facing.
Sixth,a hammer.Seventh,a shovel.This isn't the exact order in which you get the items.Link moves by dragging your stylus across the screen.Some people complain that their hands get in the way,but mine doesn't because I Don't put my hand directly above the screen.Making a quick line does a sword swipe.Tapping an enemy does light attacks in quick succession.A full circle,makes Link swing his sword around in a circle.Making a small circle at the edge of the screen makes Link roll.Link blocks with his shield automatically.
On a boat,tapping the screen shoots a cannon.The controls work really well.Salvaging for treasure has now been turned into a minigame,and it's quite fun!The length is pretty good,but certainly not super long.The graphics are okay,I guess.You really can't expect much from the DS's limited power and graphics capabilities.I haven't completely finished it,but I am currently at the end boss.The online play is not that great,but good enough to keep you occupied for weeks after the main story is over.This game also supports game sharing for single or multi card play.
My biggest complaint with Phantom Hourglass is the Temple of The Ocean King.You have to visit this same temple about 5 or 6 times throughout the whole game.And the end boss is located inside that temple.Which means The last dungeon is the worst that you have already done plenty of times before.Other than that,Phantom Hourglass is a really fun game that every ds owner should get.
Is this the best Zelda game?Oh hell no!It still deserves to be in your collection though.
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