ODST Setback

My review for ODST has meet a bit of a snag. While playing through the game, a little issue that Bungie must have overlooked caused me to have to start the whole game over, and I don't have the time to redo the other 80% of the game I had finished right now. Sorry, blame Bungie.

ODST update and a look at SAW!

I know ODST is short and all, but I spend so much time in the wondiferous Firefight mode that I can't get back to campaign, that and I have been working extra lots lately (haven't had an off day since monday) but don't worry, I plan on having a review up on or by Tuesday.

Also, on October 6th, I will be picking up the game SAW. I bought it for my boyfriend, but I will still play it and review it. While I won't play through the whole game, I will play a lot of it and I will watch him play the rest, so he will be my close associate on the review as well. I have been doing some research and, surprisingly, it looks like it may be a pretty decent game. I don't think it will win any Game of the Year awards or anything, but it definitely looks like it will be a good challenge. Check www.tinyurl.com/SAWPrev out for an interesting preview of the game.

Also, later today, I will post my first impressions of the Brutal Legend Demo.

WET Review

(Sorry I took so long to get this one out. Work had me busy, and then I got ODST and I am having a hard time getting away from Firefight)

WET is the video game answer to Kill Bill, it's violent, with plenty of grit and a lot of swearing and it is also one of the biggest video game letdowns I can think of.

To start on a positive note, when the levels aren't too busy getting you killed for using the acrobatic mechanics, the combat is an absolute blast, and it really makes you feel like an unstoppable killing machine. You have unlimited bullet time and the developers didn't even bother with making you reload your guns; you can keep on shooting uninterrupted until you run out of bullets. You can also shoot from anywhere: swinging on poles, sliding down ladders, running along walls... if you can go there you can shoot from there. The more acrobatic and fluent you are, the more points you get to purchase weapon and ability upgrades. It's also pretty violent and the bonuses for kills are pretty interesting.

The grindhouse aspect of this game is, in my opinion, very well done. The language is over to top (she even swears at doors as she tries to open them) and the dialogue is nice and corny, but not terrible corny. The film grit, which you can shut off, was a nice touch, but when you're almost dead it takes over the screen and you're basically screwed. There are neat little touches, such as one part where Rubi kicks a basketball into the camera and cracks the screen, and the music is absolutely superb. It's a nice mix of rockabilly, poppy grunge wonder that makes me wish I could get an official soundtrack. Another thing I like about the music is that instead of getting big name bands to use as a selling point, they picked some smaller (but still awesome) bands that are much less famous.

On top of that all is the story. In it's (very) short span, WET tells a pretty interesting story, and I tell you that if this had been a movie it would have been fantastic. It has intrigue, betrayal and interesting villains, as you would expect from a Tarantino-Rodriguez-style game, although I have to say they didn't play a big enough roll and you never really find out much about them. The first guy you chase has a bigger part in the game than my favorite villain, Ze Kollektor, who says "I'll see you again" and then never makes another appearance. Basically the material was there for a much longer game, more character back story and a longer main story for instance, but they cut it short.

So now that I made this game sound like a good overall game, let's go to the bad sides of it. WET is like a stranger with candy, and you're a five year old who likes candy more than listening to his parents. In other words, this game starts of looking great. It has a lot of appeal, the candy, and even though its graphics and character models look a bit rough, like the man with the candy's beard, you figure it's worth a shot. However, as you probably learned when you take candy from a stranger: it's usually not very good candy, like a peppermint or something*. At first, WET amazed me. I flipped around the levels with the ease and grace of a ballerina dual-wielding shotguns, the arena fights (where you have to disable doors to stop enemy reinforcements) were well planned and a good high point in the levels. The car-hopping sequences were a definite blast, and even though the character models are a bit dated, it was all worth it.

Then, a couple hours into the game, things took a turn for the worst. Using acrobatics, the main point of the combat, became an annoying and deadly game of chance, as you would be put on a 4-foot-wide bridge with death-pits on either side and then be forced to fight a bunch of enemies. If you don't do acrobatics, a) You don't get style points, and your upgrading suffers greatly and b) You die. A lot. However if you do try to dive at the enemies or jump off them, you fall to your death nine times out of ten. After your sixth time falling off the same bridge and dying, you are about to put your fist through your Xbox, which means you no more harm than a mosquito that bites you and gives you West Nile. Another (minor) gripe is Rubi's ability to grab things. There are a few times you see a ledge then it says you can grab onto, but when you jump to grab it, Rubi fails to even try and instead falls. Usually to her death. You see, some ledges can only be grabbed if you jump from something else, like another ledge, even though when you jump from the other spot she would be totally capable of reaching it. Maybe it's because she's a woman, women are pushy and they only want things done their own certain way**. Oh, and don't get me started on the airplane. If you do buy this, you will end up hating airplanes as much as Rubi, and I won't say any more than that.

Now we get to Rage Mode. Rage Mode is Rubi's "You've made me angry, no prepare to effing die" mode, and the concept is great. Rubi gets blood on her face, flies into a rage during which she is basically unstoppable, a lot of enemies are around and carnage thus ensues. However, like pretty much every other wonderful concept this game had, WET manages to kinda kill this by throwing in all kinds of required acrobatics and forcing you to rush and it just kinda kills the mindless overkill mode that this is supposed to be.

WET is a game that suffers from too much ambition. It tries very hard to be a lot of things, (acrobatic shooter, Grindhouse game, quick-time action thingy) and ultimately ends up feeling like it was stretched too thin, like Bilbo Baggins. Overall it is a see-saw between fun and just plain frustrating, and a game I wouldn't recommend you buy unless you can get a deal. Maybe give it a rent.

Overall Score: 73%

* Don't take candy from strangers!

** I'm definitely kidding here. Kind of.

P.S. (edit) If they make a WET 2 and iron out all these kinks, I will definitely give it a shot, because this had the potential makings of a fantastic game. That is all.

Finally picked up WET.

Again, sorry it has been so long. I picked up WET today at midnight, and I will play vigorously to have a review up in a couple of days. I also got GH5, but I don't really know how exactly to review music game, as it doesn't operate on the same mechanics as other games. I'll try though. I may be getting ODST next Tuesday and I have 3 games coming out next month, so this won't be such a barren blog. Thanks :)

An explanation!

Sorry I haven't updated. Of course IDK if anyone reads this but if anyone does, you are who I am apologising to. I was out of town to visit my parents. It was my little brother's 10th birthday and my grandparents were visiting from Texas. During said visit, I got a computer, a MacBook and it's nice and cute and fun. Anyways, I will post as soon as I can. WET is coming out soon :D

Arkham Asylum Review (Finally)

When this game was first announced, I was torn. It looked, and if you're watching someone still kind of looks, like a button-mashing, mindless beat 'em up kinda game. Well first off, let me say it is and it isn't. Batman has a wonderful combat system that takes seconds to learn and a lot of practice to truly master. While you can just sit there and pound on the x button until every enemy is beaten to an unconscious, never dead, heap on the ground, you can also gracefully and seamlessly dive around the map, countering attacks, breaking arms and throwing enemies into each other in a fluid and fun way I have never experienced in any other game. Of course getting all of these moves requires a little bit of playing and getting experience, but it doesn't take long and is definitely not hard.

You start off the game bringing in the Joker from one of his typical escapades he tends to go on, the little scamp. You get a mini tour of the first building of Arkham Asylum, showing you just how secure and cut off it really is. Then the poop hits the fan and Joker escapes, trapping you inside the Asylum and forcing you (like it takes coercion) to play his little game. Joker takes over Arkham and from here the plot unfolds into a wonderfully long drama including many villains from the Batman microcosm. Once you get out of the first building, the whole of Arkham island is open to you. No part of the island is blocked off to start with, although you can't go into all of the buildings, and you can either go straight on with the story or you can explore every "kook and granny" of the island to look for the Riddler's Challenges. The Riddler's Challenges are a series of riddles and findable items all throughout the game that you try to find for experience and unlockables.

Exploration and open-ness is a big part of the Arkham Asylum experience. As you go through the game early on you will see areas with some of the Riddler's trophies and so on that you can't get to. As you get farther in the game, you will unlock the means of getting to these items, which makes it so you won't get out of building x and then be done with it forever. Another thing I like is when you are presented with a combat situation, you have a lot of different options for overcoming it. You can run in and beat the snot out of the enemies in a single, usually short, brawl (unless of course they have guns), or you can go about it in true Dark Knight style, picking them off one by one using myriad fun and creative ways. If you can interact with something, you can probably use it to take your enemies out.

Interaction is where Batman's detective vision comes in. Any time you are playing you can switch between regular vision and detective vision. Detective vision is Batman's most useful tool. It bathes everything in blue, with interactive items, points of interest and enemies all colored and marked in ways that make them stand out. In detective mode you can find out everything from what an object is for to the heart rate and mental state of your foes. It is an important tool for progressing through the game, but at times it almost seems to important. With all the Riddler's challenges scattered around, as well as other things you might normally miss, you almost don't want to go out of detective mode, as the risk of missing something that you may regret later. This is only a minor issue, but it's something that bothered me nonetheless.

Speaking of spending too much time in something, there is also the issue with vents. The whole of Arkham is expansive, with floor space of at least a couple of square miles, but sometimes I swear you spend more time in vents than anything. Need to get to a room that's blocked? Get in a vent! Need to find a sneaky way around enemies? Well, head for the vents! Is there a Riddler trophy around? Check the vents! It's annoying and it kind of kills the pace of the game. Plus, with the fantastic graphics this game displays, I want to spend more time taking it in, not crawling through a square vent with square walls and the occasional cobweb.

Speaking of graphics, the cutscenes are wonderfully rendered, other than the fact that Batman's mouth looks a little slimy. Everyone in this game has gotten a makeover, but it almost seems like an attempt to make everyone sexy. Scarecrow has exposed abs, Harley Quinn's outfit is skintight with a bare midriff, Poison Ivy's outfit is... well an open jacket top and that's it. The voice-acting is also spot-on, but the dislogue can go from wonderful wand witty to downright gruff and corny in an instant. Batman sure likes to repeat himself. (e.g. "I'll never let you win.... never!", "There's always a way in... always." and, to mix it up, "There's always a way out... always.") but his lack of vocabulary is offset by the Joker's wonderful and amusing lines, as well as the conversations between guards. If you enter a room and hear guards talking, it's always worth the wait to hear them finish before wiping them all out.

The cast of Arkham Asylum is nothing to be ingored, either. Of course you have Batman and the Joker, but you also have a great number of other super-villains making appearances, both well-known and somewhat more obscure. Additionally, the boss fights with these villains can be a blast. No two bosses are alike, and they really worked hard to make it feel like you're fighting the person you're actually facing. In most games you could put boss a's outfit on boss b and it wouldn't be any different., whereas in Arkham Asylum when you're fighting Ivy, you feel like you're fighting Ivy, and so on.

Arkham Asylum also offers a bit of challenge. While the enemies may sometimes seem to be oblivious to your presence (you can literally walk up behind them and touch them and they won't always notice you), there are a lot of spots that still end up being wonderfully challenging. On the topic of challenging, there are also 16 challenge maps (18 if you got Dem Bones and Crime Alley DLC codes) that really put your skills to the test. Eight of them are combat challenges, which pit you up against an increasingly large number of various enemies in a number of different arenas. Every arena has it's unique characteristics, and using them to your advantage is the key to getting a high score. Then there are my personal favorites, the predator maps. These put you in a room with a number of guards and taks you with certain ways of taking them down. Some are easy, such as perform a silent takedown, and some are just devious, such as take three enemies out with three different explosive walls at the same time. They're a lot of fun and will teach you some of the less obvious ways you can take down your opponents.

With fun combat, fantastic graphics and voice-work and a decent story, Batman Arkham Asylum is a wonderful game and one you should definitely consider purchasing. It is one of the better games on the Xbox 360, and one that will pull you in for quite a while. The mission variety is fantastic, the non-linear gameplay is a nice bonus and it's definitely good to see a Batman game that's actually good.

Overall Score: 96%

Most of My Gaming Collection

To enteraint any of the few people who read this, and to show off cool stuff, I decided to post mine and my boyfriend's gaming collection.

http://tinyurl.com/WholeSetup
This is our TV, it's a Vizio 37" Full HD VO370M LCD TV.
http://tinyurl.com/TPConsoles
This shows all of our consoles and our Sony DAV-HDX285 5.1 Dolby surround sound receiver. The N64 is kinda messed up because an angry parent once threw it on the floor when I was 24 minutes late getting home and so a friend of said parent had to glue it back together. The NES I got in fantastic condition from an old work friend whom I, sadly, can't get back into contact with. I got it with the box and everything. This picture also has my DS games and the mics for Lips.
http://tinyurl.com/OlderStuff
N64 games and controllers, minus Perfect Dark which is in the console as well as games and controllers for the PS2 and NES. The one game in the GameStop box thing is Clock Tower 3 for PS2.
http://tinyurl.com/PrototypeBatman
That's the special edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum as well as the little poster tube that came with Prototype when I preordered it. You can also see two of our complete set of Left 4 Dead posters.
http://tinyurl.com/TP360Games
This is our complete game collection for the 360. Games: Alone in the Dark, Army of Two, Assassin's Creed, Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Beautiful Katamari, Bully, Burnout: Paradise, The Club, Condemned: Criminal Origins, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Crackdown, Dark Sector, The Darkness, Dead Rising, Dead Space, Devil May Cry 4, Doom 3 [Original Xbox], Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, Fable II, Fallout 3, F.E.A.R. Files, F.E.A.R. 2, Fracture, The Godfather, Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Halo 3, Hitman: Blood Money, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [Original Xbox], Left 4 Dead, Lips, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Forza 2, Monopoly, Ninja Gaiden II, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Orange Box, Perfect Dark Zero, Prince of Persia, [Prototype], Red Faction: Guerilla, Resident Evil 5, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Sonic's Ultimate Game Collection, Soul Calibur IV, Street Fighter IV, Stuntman: Ignition, TimeShift, Too Human, Velvet Assassin, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, Wolfenstein and You're in the Movies.
http://tinyurl.com/FO3RE5
These are our Xbox Controllers and the special editions of Fallout 3 and Resident Evil 5
http://tinyurl.com/OldNintendo
This is the box for my NES and the NES power pad. The box has all the foam in it and even the plastic that goes around the console. The power pad... well it is what it is. :P

At my parents' house I also have a Wii, which we kind of all own, a SNES and some games and a Dreamcast with some games. I also have a DS and, somewhere, an original GameBoy.

Where is Arkham Asylum?

Just so everyone (read: probably like 3 people) who reads this knows, I am still not quite finished with Batman: Arkham Asylum. I'm about half way done, and I hope to have it finished by Saturday. That means you can expect my review late Saturday to or sometime Sunday. Thanks :D

WET Demo First Impressions (And a Bit on Section 8)

First off, I would like to say I'm done with the Section 8 Demo. I just don't like it. The controls are awful, the game doesn't give you any kind of tutorial, it just drops you into the action and expects you to know what to do. It doesn't tell you the objective of the gametypes, either. With controls like RB to jump (I think, they were so muddled I forgot them by now) figuring out what to do definitely takes some doing. Then there is the matter of killing someone. In most FPS games, you want a fight with another person to last a got 5, maybe 10 seconds. In Section 8, people can take forever to kill. I had an opponent standing still at one point and it took quite a number of head shots to kill him, and the knife (described as 'extremely lethal') has sometimes taken me as many as 2 or 3 backstabs for a kill. I don't like the demo, and I don't plan on playing it anymore. Sorry.

Now for the main order of business: the WET demo. I am following Microsoft on Twitter, so when I saw the WET demo was out today I was more than eager to download it. This game is one of my preorders, so I am definitely going to post a good review of this one.

The WET demo, firstly, is a wonderful demo; it gives you a wonderful feel of what to expect in the game and is split into three parts.

The demo opens up with a very Grindhouse, Tarantino-Rodriguez scene with a deal going on between two people, during which gunfire breaks out to cool music and our heroine busts in. This is where you take control. The game teaches you some basic acrobatics and then thrusts you headlong into a gunfight in a room with planty of stacked champagne glasses and exquisite glass sculptures, which appease the destructive appetite of your bullets. At first, the controls felt weird. My initial attempt at this part ended with my health startlingly low, but still dominant. The acrobatics and shooting are fun and smooth, and while you can just jump around and shoot people a ton of times in the body, the game awards you with location specific shots by giving you bonus points and cool names (e.g. BALL BREAKER and SKULL CRACKER and things like that). It is a whole lot of fun, and once you get used to the controls you become a ridculous killing machine.

Once you clear the first room of unwitting minions, you continue to chase your prey along some alley ways and rooftops, where the game demonstrates the gun/sword-play-acrobatics by doing stuff like shooting enemies while you slide down a ladder upside down. It's a blast, although some of the more specific jumping tasks feel a bit wonky. You have to be jumping in the exact right direction from the exact right spot at the exact right time. Also, the health system is pretty different. As you wander around the levels you find crates of (I'm guessing) whiskey and drinking one refills your health in a cool sequence that is a rather wasteful use of whiskey. However, when you get into the enclose gunfights, there is no suck healing item. When in these situations, killing enemies starts up a combo meter, the higher the meter the faster your health regenerates. This is nice because unlike most games where you hide to get health, in WET you keep on killing and go headfirst into the battle to get your health back.

The second part of the demo puts you into a super killing spree mode, I'm not sure what it's called yet but I'm guessing it's what they call Rubi Vision. Rubi, the main character if you hadn't picked up on that, walks into a room and an enemy charges her. She shoots him, and when she does her face is covered in blood. The screen turns red and your ears are violently assaulted, a la Kill Bill's flashbacks, and it stays that way. Everything around you is colored in red, black and white, and your health is bossted to a ridiculous point as you get attacked by a whole bunch of enemies. This part is very visual and a lot of fun, as you are basically an unstoppable force. Other than the different visuals and increased power, however, it's basically like the first part of the demo.

The third part is my favorite: the car chase. You start on the roof of a car, guns out, and shoot enemies leaning out of other cars. However, you don't just stay on one car. As the sequence progresses, you are forced to jump from car to car in a series of quick time events, often ending in dismemberment, impalement and other forms of death. If you haven't gathered, this is a very violent game, in true grindhouse style. The only thing I don't like about the car chase sequence is that sometimes the enemies have ridiculous amounts of health. I shot a few in the head multiple times and had them survive.

All in all, WET is looking to be a very bloody, fun and cinematic shooter, and one I definitely can't wait for. It's bloody, epically cinematic and, most importantly, a lot of fun. I'll be sure to post a full review as soon as I can after its release next month.

WET Product Site: http://wet.bethsoft.com/

Section 8 Product Site: http://www.joinsection8.com/

Batman Arkham Asylum Bundle Review

First of all I would like to say this is not my review of the game. When I buy special edition bundles for games, I will review the contents' quality and whether or not it was worth the extra amount.



Today we have the special edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum, which retails for $100 plus tax. I have also taken pictures of the bundle, which you can view by click the link at the beginning of each section.
The whole package comes inside a large, plastic Batarang case, surrounded by a transparent box. The plastic Batarang case is the best part of the whole bundle, other than tha game of course, and is made of a sturdy black plastic with Batman Arkham Asylum Collector's Edition engraved into the front. It isn't paint, so it won't scratch off or anything. The case closes magnetically, and it's strong arnough that you can hold the whole package upsdie down and it will not open. Like I said, this is the best part of the whole thing. I felt pretty cool walking out of the store with this baby, when everyone else had a little plastic case. 8D
http://tinyurl.com/BAAOverall (Case in sleeve)
http://tinyurl.com/BAACase (Case by itself)
http://tinyurl.com/BAAOpen (Case, open)
On top, as you can see in the third picture, is the Batarang with stand that I was so greatly anticipating. One thing I liked about this bundle is the fact everything was in a special fitted foam section. This was kind of a let-down. I figured they wouldn't make it metal or particularly fancy, but I tell you what they seemed to make it as minimal as possible. The Batarang is a very light plastic, and mine had scratches all over it. The edges had scratches and, as you can kinda see in the third picture, the front center of it had scratches. This kind of made me mad, it's like someone tried to use it to defeat a giant sheet of sandpaper. I hope the person lost. Another thing I didn't like is the fact you can't take the Batarang off the stand. (Just thought I might as well add this in, my boyfriend said he thinks the scratches were intentional, but I disagree because they're also on the back of the Batarang, the side which you wouldn't see if you had it on display)
http://tinyurl.com/BAABatarang (Batarang with foam holder)
Another bonus item included with the bundle was the Arkham Asylum patient manifest. It's cloth-bound and the pages are high-quality glossy paper. It has information on a lot of the enemies in the game and, although you can get all the information by playing through the game, it's a neat and interesting little addendum.
http://tinyurl.com/BAABook (Patient manifest)
And, of course, this bundle comes with the game and the bonus DVD. The game case isn't like most special editions, which are metal or just have a cardboard sleeve over the plastic. The whole thing is made of the same stuff the sleeves are made of, and the 2 discs are inside. The way it is designed, the game manual doesn't fit inside, so it's seperate in the case. There are also the 2 free DLC challenge map codes, the backs of which double as stickers. I haven't quite watched the bonus DVD yet (I save those until after I finish the game) but from what I hear it's pretty decent.
http://tinyurl.com/BAADiscs (Game discs, manual and DLC codes)
Overall, this is a very well-put-togther collector's edition, and other than my qualms with the quality of the Batarang, I would say it is one of the best special editions I have seen and it is definitely worth the money, even if just for the cool case.

I will be busy with work the next couple of days, so I won't be done with AA as quickly as I finished Wolfenstein. Just give me a few days and I will try to have a full-fledged review up.

P.S. I pre-ordered RAGE and am considering DJ Hero, but I'm still not sure about that $120 price tag.

My Preorder List (AKA Things to Look Forward to)

I have an extensive preorder list going. I just thought I would post it so everyone who reads this knows what I will be reviewing for sure. I will also try to borrow games from people from time to time to get more review material.

Batman: Arkham Asylum 8/25
WET 9/15
SAW 10/6
Tekken 6 10/27
Assassin's Creed II 11/17
Left 4 Dead 2 11/17
The Sabotuer 12/6
Dante's Inferno TBA
Singularity 2/15
Fallout: New Vegas 6/1
Splatterhouse 6/1
Bayonetta 1/5
Mafia II 1/26
Bioshock II 1/4 (May have been pushed back. Again.)
Dead Rising II 3/30

I may also pre-order:
Final Fantasy XIII 6/21 (Unofficial)
Dead Island (TBA)
Halo 3: ODST 9/22

I don't know much about upcoming arcade games, but this winter Perfect Dark is supposed to be released, which I will buy on release day no matter what.

Coming Soon and an FYI

As soon as I stop hating them, I will be posting my impressions of the Section 8 and Dirt 2 demos. Don't worry, I review things objectively. For example, I don't like Call of Duty 4, but since there is nothing fundamentally wrong with it, I wouldn't give it a negative review. This is because I know what I think of the game, I don't need to let you know what I think because you are not me. And if you are me, please stop doing that, it is probably annoying. Also I should note I will not be buying either of these games, so unless I get a job at GameStop or I borrow them from someone I will not post full reviews off either of the two games once they come out.

Wolfenstein Review

It's finally here! The newest installment in the series that birthed the FPS. Fitting that it will also be my first review. I am a long time Wolfenstein fan, so I was expecting a lot out of this game. In some ways it exceeded my expectations and in some ways it failed them.

The game picks up the story of series hero William "B.J." Blazkowicz as he is sent into the German town of Isenstadt to find some information on the newest supernatural exploits of everyone's favorite reich.

The game starts off looking like your average WWII shooter. You get an MP40, kill nazis to help someone who doesn't like them, rinse and repeat. This game is your typical FPS in style and functionality, but it's good. It seems to be very "don't fix it if it ain't broke" and it doesn't force change onto the player just to do it. That isn't to say it's an average game. Bizarre happenings and Nazi super-technology are a cornerstone of the Wolfenstein games, and this game doesn't disappoint. It is a fun, simple and straight-forward shooter with fun and varied level design and so many different kinds of enemies you can't just upgrade one super weapon and kill everything the same way. However, toward the end the enemies will just surprise you and get lucky and you'll just seem to die as soon as you run into an area. On occasion it gets annoying when you've fought your way through a couple of rooms swarming with Nazis only to run in a room right before a checkpoint and have six of the bastards shoot you with a rifle all at once and kill you instantly.

The graphics in this are very good. It uses the ID Tech 4 engine, which you may know from Quake IV, with some tweaks and enhancements. The cutscenes are smooth and very well animated, and the visual effects are awesome. When you enter the Veil, everything in the world changes and it looks like a whole new place. There are a lot of subtle blues and the lights look almost like they're shooting out glowing blue smoke. I also didn't have any frame rate hiccups, even when I was getting attacked by enemies throwing Veil energy at me, machine guns go off, grenades exploding and my Veil powers causing havoc. Speaking of which, Wolfenstein has Havok physics, which are always a bonus. One thing that is kind of neat is the physics are applied to doors. It's kind of cool when you know there is an enemy on the other side of the door to just open fire with a machine gun and have the door fly open from the bullets and kill said foe. The physics usage doesn't get lazy either. In pretty much any Havok-powered game, you kill an enemy and they ragdoll to the floor most uninterestingly. In Wolfenstein they mix physics-real deaths with scripted ones. Sometimes the enemy falls to the floor, but they might also hop around for a second before face planting because you shot off their leg, or stumble and fall over a railing to their death. It's also quite fun to shoot one of the enemies in the throat and have them fall to their knees, gurgling and clutching their throat as blood sprays out from behind their hands. Veil powers also let you see some cool death effects. When an ungrade makes it so that any enemy you touch flies away and turns into bones, you might be tempted to stop using guns.

In terms of story, Wolf is somewhat lacking. It tries to have drama and twists but the characters have no... well character and the plot is spread too thin. One thing that I do applaud, however, is the amount of research that went into this project. The ultimate goal the Nazis are after is actually based on something that was looked into by Nazi occult specialist groups. and the two groups you help, the Golden Dawn and the Kreisau Circle, are also both real groups. It really adds to the plausibility of the game.

The voice acting and sounds are very good, and if there was more story Wolfenstein could have actually been quite cinematic. The Nazis speak their accented English, with the occasional German phrase thrown in for good measure.

Another thing I appreciate is nods to long-time fans. One of the final bosses of the game, Hans Grosse, was the first boss you fight in Wolf 3D and in this game he weilds the same dual chainguns. There are another couple such occurences, but I have to say my favorite is the loading screen when you are on the final level.

One thing I really don't like is the collect-a-thon component of the game. In every level you can find treasure, intel and tomes of power. The intel and tomes unlock upgrades for your veil medallion and weapons, while the gold lets you buy said upgrades from the black market. One thing I can't stand is games where it's like "find x of these!". I understand it's supposed to add replayability, but to some people it can be very annoying. The only good this about the collecting of items in this is that it serves a purpose, unlike games like Red Faction: Guerilla where they have a bunch of things to find and destroy and whatever in the world that bascially are only there for achievements.

The multiplayer component will be very familiar to those who played the free Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer game that was released in 2003. You pick one of three classes, each with their own pros and cons, and you go on actual objective based missions or you can do deathmatch and a couple other game modes. The engineer class and the medic class fall short of the soldier in terms of the lack of weapons choices. The engineer and medic can only use the Kar98k rifle or MP40. The engineer can complete the objectives, such as bombing walls and disabling objects, and can also throw down ammo packages for players to pick up. The medic class can drop health packs and also revive downed teammates, provided they are willing to wait for you to get to them instead of just respawning. The soldier can use the kar98k, Mp40, Mp42, flammenwerfer and panzershreck and can drop claymores. The multiplayer upgrade system rewards you money for damage done to opponents and objectives completed which you can then use to buy weapon ugrades, equipment upgrades and class specific upgrades.

The multiplayer objective mode is where Wolfenstein really exceeds. It isn't just capture the flag or king of the hill. You actually have a mission to go on with multiple objectives, and the goal of the axis is to prevent you from completed said goal. In one level, for example, you have to steal intel from a Nazi building. This entails finding a shell for a tank parked in front of the house, loading the tank to blow open the front door, running in and grabbing the intel, then getting to an escape vehicle back near the spawn point. It is a lot of fun and definitely worth playing.

With epic boss battles, fun and straightforward shoot-em-up Nazi killing, a lot of fun powers, and fantastic multiplayer, Wolfenstein is a great game that is only thrown off by its moderately short campaign, occasionally frustrating bits, lack of story and collecty-ness.

Overall Score: 82%

Mini Ninjas Demo Impressions

I just got done playing through the Mini Ninjas demo for the first time and I must say I am pretty impressed; this is starting to look like it will not only be a rather diverse game, but also succeed at its diversity.
The demo starts off with a little ceinematic where you are given a mission by your master to investigate an abandoned castle nearby. The visuals are very cute. The colors are bright and everything is miniaturised, making it look very soft and cartoony.
There only seems to be dialogue when it is important (e.g. when you are being told to do something) and during the cutscenes the characters interact mostly through sounds and body motion. The humor is very kid-oriented, people tripping and enemies pointing their weapons the wrong way and so forth, and the gameplay is also easily accessible, making this a game someone of any age can enjoy.
During the demo you have three characters to choose from, but being the main fella (Hiro) is what it is definitely geared toward. He can use magic, fish, find magical shrines and possess the creatures of the forest, things all which the other two can't do. You use one of the others near the end to fight a large enemy and the third character doesn't seem to have any specific use at all.
In a couple parts of the demo you come across water. When you get in the water, you can jump into your hat, which doubles at a boat. There are a couple parts in the demo where you are riding down-stream and you hit some rapids and you have to navigate through the rocks. Your hat-boat fills a little bit with water every time you hit a rock, and if the hat fills up you have to swim (the only downside is it's slower) while your hat is drained of water. One thing I like about these sections is the fact they are integrated into the game, they don't feel like a forced in mini game like a lot of games achieve.
The combat is very simple. You have a soft attack and a hard attack and you can occasionally use a power attack from picking up red orbs some enemies drop. There are also a variety of ninja-esque items you can use, from caltrops to shuriken to smoke bombs. You can also make potions in this game. When you find the 'store' you can buy recipes from him, and as you explore you find the ingredients to use in the making of these potions. This brings me to my major issue I have with the demo.
When you pause, you find a menu option that says Progress. You progress through the level is measured by 5 things you find along your way. Basically this is looking like it will be a big ol' collecta-thon, a common trend the heavily plagues kid-friendly games and games that are hard-up for achievement material that I wish would stop.
Overall, this is a fun demo and one I would reccommend for download (especially for those with kids). As for the actual game, I will have to wait and see more.

Game Site: www.minininjas.com/us

Wolfenstein

I got Wolfenstein on Tuesday, I am currently a little over halfway through it. I will be posting a review in the next couple of days. Also I will be posting my impressions of the demos for Mini Ninjas, Lost Planet 2 and Shadow Complex (because I am too broke to buy a $15 arcade game)

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello and welcome to my blog. This will be almost entirely focused on gaming. When I try demos, get a new game and get big video game news I will update this. If you got here some other way than my Twitter, then please check that out too. www.twitter.com/TinyPenguininja