Happy New Year's Eve to everyone! Hope you all had a good Christmas and Boxing Week. Personally, my week was hectic with all the sales going on at work and also having a little cold a top of it all. With it being New Year's Eve and the fact I just completed my Top 10 Games of 2011 as you can read here on Silver Bit, Bit by Bit will be condensed again this week. This week there will be no Video of the Week as there were not a lot of videos put out this week about games. So without further ado, let us rundown the best of the week.
Game of the Week
Well Christmas and Boxing Day was good to me. This week I got Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City both for PS3, Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit for Xbox 360, Rayman Origins for Wii, Sonic Generations for 3DS, Civilization IV and Frozen Synapse for PC and Mac (and for free might I add) and finally Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and Sonic Colors for the DS. Yeah, I have a whole lot of games to play don't I. Out of all these games, my Game of the Week goes to Arkham Asylum. I have played the opening of Arkham City, which is absolutely amazing might I add, but I have been powering through Arkham Asylum like there's no tomorrow and I am really enjoying it. The use of Batman's gadgets are fantastic, the combat is fluid and so awesome to combine counters, attacks and gadgets into one flowing combo and the story is really well done. So far this is my favourite superhero game I have ever played. With that there are a few flaws. The enemies lack variety, the mutant enemies that pop up once in a while are more tedious to beat than fun, an over reliance on Detective Mode that takes away from seeing the gorgeous hallows of Arkham Island and the fact the game is a little too linear for an open island to explore. Right now, I am only halfway through so once I complete the game expect a full review up here on Silver Bit.
Most Anticipated Game of the Week
With most of the video game news sites off this week, other than the guys at ScrewAttack, there was not a lot of news to speak of this week. But tucked in an interview on Gamespot was the announcement that Sonic fans have waited over a year to hear about. That announcement was Sonic 4: Episode 2. Even though it was a minute teaser, what we now know is that Metal Sonic and Tails are back and that Sega has reworked the physics that many fans complained about (personally I didn't find it as bad as others complained about). As a huge Sonic fan, I cannot wait to hear more from Sega in the New Year about this new downloadable Sonic game.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Top 10 Games of 2011
Yesterday, I listed my Top 5 Downloads of 2011. Now on the final day of this calendar year, I give you my Top 10 Games of 2011. As one person, it is very hard to play every single game that comes out in a year especially when you get some of them for Christmas. So there will be some big games that I am playing at the moment that might have made this list if I had the money to get them earlier this year, but ultimately will not at this point in time. Before you see this list and immediately make comments that I did not make this list, just remember this list is just one man's opinion. If you want to share your opinion, I encourage you to make your own Top 10 list. So let us countdown in my opinion the best games of 2011.
10. Jetpack Joyride
This addictive, time chopping, one button run for your life game sunk its claws in me early this year when I downloaded it to my iPad. I have sunk many hours into this dollar game trying to collect coins, complete missions and beat my friends' best distance. You can play Jetpack Joyride for two minutes or two hours, you will always have fun.
9. Sonic Generations
After years of being dragged through the mud, Sonic has remerged as one of the kings of the platform genre. To celebrate The Blue Blur's 20th Birthday, Sega gave the fans Sonic Generations, a game that gives us both the classic Sonic platforming and the modern Sonic mix of high-speed obstacle course and platforming segments to make the best Sonic game of the last 10 years. Personally running through a HD version of Chemical Plant Zone as both classic and modern Sonic with remixed background music was one of the highlights of my year in gaming.
8. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
It is all about choice in Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Will you run in guns blazing or take a more stealthy approach? Will you hack into a computer and turn the security droids on your enemies or disable the droids with a EMP Grenade? There is no clearly defined right or wrong way to complete any objective in Human Revolution and that is what makes this game so amazing.
7. Bastion
Beautiful art, great music, compelling story and deep gameplay that even works with a mouse and keyboard, this Action-RPG stand out above all the other downloadable games. Bastion literally looks like watching art in motion, it is so beautiful. Also having the ominous ever-present narrator tell the story is one great touch that has not been done before in games. If you own a Xbox 360 or a PC, Bastion is the best downloadable game and one of the best games you can play this year.
6. Portal 2
Once you start thinking with portals, you can never go back. Back in 2007, Portal charmed gamers around the globe with its great puzzles and amazing villain in GlaDOS. With more brain-racking puzzles and more GlaDOS, Valve adds in more challenging puzzles with co-op and new hilarious characters in Wheatley, Cave Johnson and last but not least the Space Core. More story, more puzzles, more laughs and ultimately more fun, these are all the things most sequels look to do, but never achieve. Portal 2 is one of the few exceptions and that is why it is the best puzzle game of the year and one of the best games of 2011.
5. Pokemon Black and White
For years, people have felt that Pokemon needed a huge shake-up or this RPG behemoth would loss some steam. Nintendo and Game Freak proved that it they did not need to make some radical changes to make the series feel fresh again. Launched head first into the Unova region as a new trainer, you start off with a new batch of 150 Pokemon with none of your old favourites in sight. The additions of seasons that affect terrain you traverse, TMs that no longer disappear from your inventory after one use and the improved online features make Pokemon Black and White the definitive games in the Pokemon franchise.
4. Super Mario 3D Land
The Nintendo 3DS had a slow start when it launched earlier this year, but those woes seemed to end with the release of Super Mario 3D Land. A portable Mario that cohesively blends concepts from both 2D and 3D Mario games into one compact handheld game that you can play on your 3DS. It is one of the must-own games for any 3DS owner and the best portable Mario game of all-time.
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Confession time. I have never completed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time until I got it for the 3DS this year. Boy, was I ever missing out. Even with the 3D coat of paint on it, Ocarina of Time stands the test of time (seriously no pun intended) and shows why it is considered the greatest game of all-time. Either on consoles or in the palm of your hand, Ocarina of Time is one of the best games of this year.
2. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
I am one of the few that did not consider Uncharted 2: Among Thieves to be the masterpiece everybody says it is. Do not get me wrong, Uncharted 2 is a phenomenal game, but it felt like it followed the same formula from the first game. It is just the difference between what I consider a 9.5 and what I consider a 10. Uncharted 2 was a 9.5, but Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is a 10. Naughty Dog hit it out of the park as it improved on all the mechanics from the second game, added a fun and rewarding multi-player that I can even get into and got rid of the bullet sponge enemies that I hated from the previous two Uncharted games. When I finished Uncharted 3, this was my Game of the Year that was until I played this next game.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Sorry Nathan Drake, I love you, but Link schooled you. If you have read my blog for the past month, you would know how much I love The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It is the greatest game of this generation, the best game of 2011 and in my opinion, the greatest game in this iconic franchise. Again when people complain that said Nintendo franchise is getting stale, Nintendo shows them up and makes one of the best games in the series. It happened earlier with Pokemon and happened again with Zelda. Shows that you don't mess with Nintendo.
Friday, December 30, 2011
On the Download: Top 5 Downloads of 2011
Seeing as we are closing out 2011 and the next time I will be writing the next edition of On the Download it will be 2012, let us look back at the best downloadable of 2011. From iOS games to PC downloads to 3DS or Wii Virtual Console games, anything that you was released this year for anybody to download is up for my Top 5 list. In the past few years, the downloadable space has exploded. Digital sale numbers now rival physical sale numbers. People still want physical copies of big console games, but are open to buying smaller downloadable games for a reasonable price. As long as new downloadable games continue releasing each and every week, there will always be a new edition of On the Download for you guys to look forward to. So let us get rolling with this list.
5. Super Stickman Golf
Who would have ever thought a golf game on iOS would be so good? Super Stickman Golf pulls you in with its' simplistic controls, outstanding course design, crazy power-ups and fun multi-player and never lets go. Just like the Lays commercial that bet you can't eat just one Lays potato chip, I bet you can't play just one round of Super Stickman Golf.
4. Superbrothers: Swords and Sworcery EP
From the beautiful music to the charming 8-bit style graphics, Superbrothers: Swords and Sworcery EP is one of the most engrossing games on the App Store. You play as the Scythian on a journey to discover the secrets of the Megatome, a book of powerful sworcery. On your quest, you will never experience the exact same thing twice as this adventure game offer many ways to use your iDevice to the fullest. Superbrothers flew under the radar back when it released last March, but this engrossing adventure is not to be missed for iOS owners.
3. Donkey Kong
At first Donkey Kong felt like an exact copy of the original arcade game, but once you get past the first stage and into the original stages made just for this Game Boy game, you will not be able to put this puzzle game down. Even I continue to play a few levels in between racing in Mario Kart 7 and collecting Star Coins in Super Mario 3D Land. With 100 levels and only a 3 dollar price point, Donkey Kong is a Game Boy classic and the best download on the Nintendo eShop that nobody that owns a 3DS should miss.
2. Jetpack Joyride
There is no other iOS game I have put more time into this year other than Jetpack Joyride. This dollar game captured my heart and time back when it released in late August and continues to this day. The simple premise, one button gameplay, online leaderboards, endless amounts of upgrades and missions to complete makes Jetpack Joyride one of the best games you can get on the iOS this year.
1. Bastion
One of the few downloadable games I highly anticipated this year, Bastion lived up to the hype and more. Beautiful art, great music, compelling story and deep gameplay that even works with a mouse and keyboard, this Action-RPG stand out above all the other downloadable games. Bastion literally looks like watching art in motion, it is so beautiful. Also having the ominous ever-present narrator tell the story is one great touch that has not been done before in games. If you own a Xbox 360 or a PC, Bastion is the best downloadable game you can play this year bar none.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Hump Day Music: Sons of Skyrim
With everything that went on last week, it was a little too busy to put up a new edition of Hump Day Music. For those who missed not having Hump Day Music to help them get over the hump, I hope this week's edition makes up for it. While by now, you know my love for another game with Sky in its name (one hint, it is not Skylanders), I have to give credit to another game with Sky in its name, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Over the past two months, the land of Skyrim has captured the hearts of many gamers. I have not personally played it yet, but I hope to eventually. Probably when Bethesda releases the Game of the Year edition with all the expansions or the 5th Anniversary edition with some Behind the Scenes content.
Even though I have not played it yet, one aspect of Skyrim has already impressed me. That aspect is the game's epic orchestrated soundtrack. If there was a way to get the soundtrack for Skyrim and many other games on CD or iTunes, I would definitely purchase them. The track I am sharing with you today is one I cannot stop listening to and even try to sing along with, but fail as it is in another language. It is Skyrim's main theme, Sons of Skyrim. If you have seen the Official Gameplay Trailer for Skyrim, you have heard the song and quite possibly tried to sing along with the incredible male choir for the chorus. It is a song that gets your heart pumping. As I associate the song with the game, it makes me feel like I want to grab an axe a slay some dragons. So before you go pick up your axe and slay some dragons, take a few minutes to one of the best pieces of music from 2011.
Even though I have not played it yet, one aspect of Skyrim has already impressed me. That aspect is the game's epic orchestrated soundtrack. If there was a way to get the soundtrack for Skyrim and many other games on CD or iTunes, I would definitely purchase them. The track I am sharing with you today is one I cannot stop listening to and even try to sing along with, but fail as it is in another language. It is Skyrim's main theme, Sons of Skyrim. If you have seen the Official Gameplay Trailer for Skyrim, you have heard the song and quite possibly tried to sing along with the incredible male choir for the chorus. It is a song that gets your heart pumping. As I associate the song with the game, it makes me feel like I want to grab an axe a slay some dragons. So before you go pick up your axe and slay some dragons, take a few minutes to one of the best pieces of music from 2011.
Mature Games Made For Immature Players
You are in line to buy the latest blockbuster M rated game be it Modern Warfare 3, Saint's Row: The Third or Assassin's Creed Revelations. When you get up to pay for the game, you are asked if you are 17 years or older and for ID to prove it, which you are not or have no ID to prove it. So the cashier tells you that he or she cannot sell you the game. You put on a little hissy fit and walk off. Either you have lived this scenario or seen it unfold right in front of your eyes.
In this day and age, video games have exploded in popularity. It is hard to find a young boy or girl that plays games. Also while games have gained huge amounts of popularity, humans as a race have become desensitized. I can clearly remember a time between when I was born to about when I was 12 when I was completely oblivious to all the mature subjects that make up this world. Now with the Internet, social media and other key factors, children these days lose their innocence much much faster. A testament to this lose of innocence is the very fact that kids as young as 5 years of age are playing Call of Duty online and are swearing as bad as a trucker. Games are rated M for Mature for a reason. They are not meant to be played by a kid that cannot help but laugh at the mention of sex. They are meant to be played by people mature enough to understand the adult themes, the dark stories and why you are performing certain tasks.
Back close to 7 years ago, it became illegal in Canada and the United States to sell a M rated game to anybody younger than 17 years of age. If you did, you could be charged. So any store that sells games from EB Games to Walmart has to make sure that they check. It is like being IDed at club or if you buy a drink or try to buy a ticket to a Restricted movie, it is the law. They have to check if they suspect you at younger than the legal age. What I am trying to say is that I am growing ever sick and tired of naive little punks who think they can get away with anything and buy M rated games when they are clearly not old enough. They make other respectable gamers like myself, who might just want to buy a Mature rated game like Mass Effect because I enjoy the more adult story and such, look bad. And for all of you that are over 17 years of age that do not have a piece of ID such as a Driver's License, Health Card, Passport of other piece of government issued identification, sorry but at that age you are expected to have a piece of ID on you at all times so there is no damn excuse. I learned the hard way and now I never leave my house without ever piece of ID I can easily carry with me. There are two big problems. They are that people do not know how to read anymore and that parents rarely take an interest in what their children play or do. If parents took the time to read reviews, the ESRB ratings on the box and watched gameplay footage before blindly buying the newest M rated game for their child, it would not be such a hassle going out to buy Call of Duty each and every year. Also restricting your children from playing, but not buying, Mature games until they are 15 or 16 may help things too. Personally I was not allowed to play Mature games until I was 15 years old and I buy and play more games that are rated E to T than M.
All-in-all, everybody needs to just smarten up and start using your brain and your eyes before mindlessly grabbing a M rated game and walking over to the cashier. Give the ESRB (if you don't know what that stands for google it) the respect it deserves and actually read the ratings and descriptors on the box. It says 17+ on the box so there is no reason that you did not see it. So please do not put on a little hissy fit and try to make people feel sorry for you. It is the law and I am sick and tired of people thinking that it does not apply to them.
In this day and age, video games have exploded in popularity. It is hard to find a young boy or girl that plays games. Also while games have gained huge amounts of popularity, humans as a race have become desensitized. I can clearly remember a time between when I was born to about when I was 12 when I was completely oblivious to all the mature subjects that make up this world. Now with the Internet, social media and other key factors, children these days lose their innocence much much faster. A testament to this lose of innocence is the very fact that kids as young as 5 years of age are playing Call of Duty online and are swearing as bad as a trucker. Games are rated M for Mature for a reason. They are not meant to be played by a kid that cannot help but laugh at the mention of sex. They are meant to be played by people mature enough to understand the adult themes, the dark stories and why you are performing certain tasks.
Back close to 7 years ago, it became illegal in Canada and the United States to sell a M rated game to anybody younger than 17 years of age. If you did, you could be charged. So any store that sells games from EB Games to Walmart has to make sure that they check. It is like being IDed at club or if you buy a drink or try to buy a ticket to a Restricted movie, it is the law. They have to check if they suspect you at younger than the legal age. What I am trying to say is that I am growing ever sick and tired of naive little punks who think they can get away with anything and buy M rated games when they are clearly not old enough. They make other respectable gamers like myself, who might just want to buy a Mature rated game like Mass Effect because I enjoy the more adult story and such, look bad. And for all of you that are over 17 years of age that do not have a piece of ID such as a Driver's License, Health Card, Passport of other piece of government issued identification, sorry but at that age you are expected to have a piece of ID on you at all times so there is no damn excuse. I learned the hard way and now I never leave my house without ever piece of ID I can easily carry with me. There are two big problems. They are that people do not know how to read anymore and that parents rarely take an interest in what their children play or do. If parents took the time to read reviews, the ESRB ratings on the box and watched gameplay footage before blindly buying the newest M rated game for their child, it would not be such a hassle going out to buy Call of Duty each and every year. Also restricting your children from playing, but not buying, Mature games until they are 15 or 16 may help things too. Personally I was not allowed to play Mature games until I was 15 years old and I buy and play more games that are rated E to T than M.
All-in-all, everybody needs to just smarten up and start using your brain and your eyes before mindlessly grabbing a M rated game and walking over to the cashier. Give the ESRB (if you don't know what that stands for google it) the respect it deserves and actually read the ratings and descriptors on the box. It says 17+ on the box so there is no reason that you did not see it. So please do not put on a little hissy fit and try to make people feel sorry for you. It is the law and I am sick and tired of people thinking that it does not apply to them.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Boxing Day Deals
Every year after Christmas, here in the Great White North, in order to get rid of a lot of stock, stores put on huge sales on almost everything from DVDs and games to big name appliances. It is Canada's version of Black Friday, but instead of rabid people almost killing each other for great deals, most Canadians are a little more polite. You will still get rude and inconsiderate people in Canada, they are just a little more dispersed than in the US. With Boxing Day comes big sales on some of the biggest games of the year. Making it the best time for gamers to run to their nearest mall, big box store or game store for some huge sales on games they could not afford earlier this year.
A lot of the big deals on video game consoles are the same across every store you go to. The 4 GB model of the Xbox 360 Slim is 130 dollars, the 160 GB model of the PS3 Slim is 200 dollars, the Nintendo 3DS is 140 dollars and the PlayStation 3D Display is 300 dollars (200 dollars cheaper than it originally came out) at any store you go to. If you are looking for just games themselves, stick to EB Games as they have the best deals. The two huge sales are Assassin's Creed: Revelation for only 20 dollars (40 dollars in savings) and Saint's Row: The Third and Rage for 30 dollars (30 dollars in savings). These deals are for just today only so if you want them, make sure you beat the crowds or you will have to wait in long lines. That is not all because the other games are dropping in price from Rayman Origins to Mortal Kombat. EB also has great deals on used games and systems with savings of 10% off all the way up to 50% off depending on the amount of used games you buy.
If you plan on going out at all today, make sure you know what you are looking for because no matter where you go it will be very very busy. Easiest thing will be to check online to find the deals you are looking for and mark them down so you remember what to get. It will be one insane day. Hope you enjoyed my little Boxing Day Deals primer and have a good day shopping or avoiding shopping.
A lot of the big deals on video game consoles are the same across every store you go to. The 4 GB model of the Xbox 360 Slim is 130 dollars, the 160 GB model of the PS3 Slim is 200 dollars, the Nintendo 3DS is 140 dollars and the PlayStation 3D Display is 300 dollars (200 dollars cheaper than it originally came out) at any store you go to. If you are looking for just games themselves, stick to EB Games as they have the best deals. The two huge sales are Assassin's Creed: Revelation for only 20 dollars (40 dollars in savings) and Saint's Row: The Third and Rage for 30 dollars (30 dollars in savings). These deals are for just today only so if you want them, make sure you beat the crowds or you will have to wait in long lines. That is not all because the other games are dropping in price from Rayman Origins to Mortal Kombat. EB also has great deals on used games and systems with savings of 10% off all the way up to 50% off depending on the amount of used games you buy.
If you plan on going out at all today, make sure you know what you are looking for because no matter where you go it will be very very busy. Easiest thing will be to check online to find the deals you are looking for and mark them down so you remember what to get. It will be one insane day. Hope you enjoyed my little Boxing Day Deals primer and have a good day shopping or avoiding shopping.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Bit by Bit: December 18-24
Merry Christmas to all! I hope everybody has had a wonderful week leading up to the big holiday. Also hope you have a great time opening presents, spending time with friends and family and spreading the peace and joy this holiday. That will before everybody changes their tune and become rabid mobs for all the Boxing Day deals. I know, I am working Boxing Day. With Christmas here, I am going to have a condensed version of Bit by Bit this week. There will be no Most Anticipated Game of the Week due to the lack of huge announcements this week. Now let us roll with the Game of the Week and Video of the Week.
Game of the Week
No matter the crazy hours that I worked this week, I made time to play a good selection of games. With all the sales on Steam and the App Store, I picked up Torchlight for my Mac and Groove Coaster and Sonic 4: Episode 1 HD for my iPad. Also found Dragon Quest IX at my local EB Games for a mere 10 dollars used and made sure that I was the only one walking out of that store with Dragon Quest. Even with those quality games, I got to give my Game of the Week to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which I completed last Sunday night. The last few hours were just phenomenal as I completed the Triforce, vanquished the evil locked in the Sealed Grounds and fought one of my favourite boss fights of this year. You will know why when you play it. It is truly epic. I am not going to go in full excruciating detail right here and now as I put up my review of Skyward Sword yesterday here on Silver Bit. So click on the link in the Blog Archive just on the right side of the blog and I hope you enjoy.
Video of the Week
As gamers and game media get to the end of the year, we all like to reflect on the year that was. We like to look back on the good and the bad. All video game websites and magazines have their Top 10 Games of the Year, the Year End Awards to hand out. In the plethora of gaming websites giving their opinions on what was the best of 2011 in video games, ScrewAttack has left it up to us gamers. For the past few weeks, ScrewAttack allowed their fans to give their suggestions for the Top 10 Games of 2011 in the form of comments on a previous Top 10 or in their forums. They then would tally up what the fans listed as their Top 10 Games of the Year and made the video that I leave you with today. Personally, I thought this list was very well done, you might think differently, but everyone has their opinion. Just respect that. And with that I will bid you all ado and a very merry Christmas.
Game of the Week
No matter the crazy hours that I worked this week, I made time to play a good selection of games. With all the sales on Steam and the App Store, I picked up Torchlight for my Mac and Groove Coaster and Sonic 4: Episode 1 HD for my iPad. Also found Dragon Quest IX at my local EB Games for a mere 10 dollars used and made sure that I was the only one walking out of that store with Dragon Quest. Even with those quality games, I got to give my Game of the Week to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which I completed last Sunday night. The last few hours were just phenomenal as I completed the Triforce, vanquished the evil locked in the Sealed Grounds and fought one of my favourite boss fights of this year. You will know why when you play it. It is truly epic. I am not going to go in full excruciating detail right here and now as I put up my review of Skyward Sword yesterday here on Silver Bit. So click on the link in the Blog Archive just on the right side of the blog and I hope you enjoy.
Video of the Week
As gamers and game media get to the end of the year, we all like to reflect on the year that was. We like to look back on the good and the bad. All video game websites and magazines have their Top 10 Games of the Year, the Year End Awards to hand out. In the plethora of gaming websites giving their opinions on what was the best of 2011 in video games, ScrewAttack has left it up to us gamers. For the past few weeks, ScrewAttack allowed their fans to give their suggestions for the Top 10 Games of 2011 in the form of comments on a previous Top 10 or in their forums. They then would tally up what the fans listed as their Top 10 Games of the Year and made the video that I leave you with today. Personally, I thought this list was very well done, you might think differently, but everyone has their opinion. Just respect that. And with that I will bid you all ado and a very merry Christmas.
Friday, December 23, 2011
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Review
Skyward Sword serves as the origin story of the legend that is now known as The Legend of Zelda. You play as Link, a young teenage boy who lives in a world above the clouds called Skyloft. During a little flight with his childhood friend, Zelda is swept to the world below the clouds by a demonic force. In order to save his friend, Link claims the Skyward Sword and journeys to surface below the clouds. Link’s adventure takes him from lush forests to scorching volcanoes to dry deserts fighting monsters and the “Demon Lord” Ghirahim to fulfill his quest to find Zelda. Even though there is no voice acting, Skyward Sword is the most cinematic Zelda in the series as it strings together a phenomenal story, incredibly deep characters and subtle yet wonderful allusions to other games in The Legend of Zelda. It might bother some gamers, but Zelda does not need voice acting to make a great story. Reading text gives players the freedom to imagine how these characters would sound like what you do when you read a book.
Skyward Sword still offers the same Zelda formula that we all know and love, but with a good amount of changes to keep things fresh and exciting. The biggest change is in the environments leading up to the dungeons instead of a series of little quests; these environments are constructed like dungeons themselves. They introduce new unique mechanics and challenges that are both brain-racking and extremely satisfying. One of these new mechanics that completely blew me away was the Timeshift Crystals found only in the Lanayru Desert. Shifting between the desolate desert to the lush beautiful grasslands is one outstanding effect and offers a great amount of puzzles that have never been touched in a Zelda game or any game I can honestly think of. To top it off, these environments complement the phenomenal and I mean damn phenomenal dungeons and boss battles that are the best in the series. The final boss battle is not as epic as the four part battle with Ganondorf at the end of Twilight Princess, but it sure as hell is epic in its own right.
The designs of the levels are not all that has been changed or added. New items such as the Beetle and Gust Bellows and additions like the crafting system, which is addictive and fun, and parkour-lite stamina system just add to the great experience. Other than the dungeons, two other aspects of Skyward Sword steal the show. They are the graphics and the music. The graphics might not be in high-definition, but they are artistically stunning and beautiful. They perfectly blend the adult look of Twilight Princess with the cel-shaded cartoony style of Wind Waker to make a game that looks like you are playing an impressionist painting. Being that the Wii is not a graphics powerhouse, some textures do not look as impressive, but that is too few and far between. Skyward Sword marks the first time that Zelda has been graced by a fully orchestrated soundtrack. It feels so alive and natural that it will be very hard and going back to the midi music of previous games.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
On the Download: December 18-24
As Christmas draws ever-so closer, the sales on your favourite downloadable game service keep ramping up. With sales on Steam, the App Store, Xbox Live and PlayStation Network Store, there is definitely a deal for every gamer out there. You just have to look. Even with all these sales, developers still have a few new games for us before we enter the New Year. So let us dive right into the games released this week.
Developer WayForward, creator of Shantae and the Mighty Milky Way and Mighty Flip Champ games, made their name on the Nintendo DS creating quality games reminiscent of some classic games from the NES and SNES eras. With the 3DS released this year, WayForward moved development from Nintendo's older handheld to its new portable beauty. As the spiritual successor to Mighty Milky Way and Mighty Flip Champ, Mighty Switch Force shares the same charm, humour and excellent 2D aesthetic as those two games with a little more emphasis on the action than puzzles. In Mighty Switch Force, you play as Officer Patricia Wagon. Your goal is to recapture a group of escaped inmates known as the Hooligan Sisters in order to restore peace to Planet Land. You will have to use Wagon's various pieces of equipment to interact with the environment and enemies in order to solve puzzles and complete your mission. Originally expected for a release early next year, WayForward dropped Mighty Switch Force earlier than expected. For 6 dollars, Mighty Switch Force would be a great Christmas present for any 3DS owner starving for exclusive downloadable games.
If you had to pick the greatest puzzle game of all-time, what would you pick? What one puzzle game sticks into the mind of whoever plays it? From the music to the gameplay, what puzzle game is engrained into the minds of gamers young or old, male or female? If you guessed Tetris, you are correct. From the brillant mind of Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris has become one of the most iconic games of all-time as it is on everything from the computer to your iPhone. In the hearts of many gamers, there stands one definitive version of Tetris and that is Tetris for the original Game Boy. So for many of you including myself who logged into the Nintendo eShop today, it was a pleasant surprise to see Nintendo release the title for the 3DS Virtual Console. If you do not know anything about Tetris, please open another tab in your browser and google it and fall in love with a masterpiece because I am not going to explain this game to you. Tetris is only 4 dollars on the Nintendo eShop, so it is a perfect game to download. One exception being that if you already own Tetris. Even if the Game Boy version is the definitive form of Tetris, it is essentially the same game you love on whatever device you own it for.
LostWinds, a game from Frontier Developments, was originally released for WiiWare back in 2008 has now made its way to iOS. In LostWinds, you play as a young boy by the name of Toku. You must wield the unique powers of Enril, a wind elemental, to maneuver the lustrous environments, stun and even dispatch enemies and solve puzzles on your way to release the world of Mistralis from the evil Balasar's curse. LostWinds got a lot of critical praise back in 2008, but did not make much of a splash as gamers never really took to WiiWare as they did to XBLA and PSN games. Now on the iDevices and at the appealing price of only 4 dollars, LostWinds should reach a much broader audience of core and casual gamers who own these devices. If you have a few extra dollars after all these great sales, pick up an innovative game that deserves a lot more love than it got back in 2008.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Launch Station: Star Wars: The Old Republic
After I finished On the Download, I realized that I forgot one big game that came out yesterday. It was the biggest massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG for short) since World of Warcraft released in 2004, Star Wars: The Old Republic. I am deeply sorry to all the Star Wars and BioWare fans who might have been anticipating my preview. So let us take a closer look at the newest Star Wars RPG from BioWare.
Back in 2003, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic set the gaming world on fire as it was the best Star Wars game to date. After a straightforward sequel made by Obsidian, the developers behind Neverwinter Nights 2 and Fallout: New Vegas, BioWare has once again took the reins of the Knights of the Republic franchise. Instead of making KOTOR 3, BioWare decided to make The Old Republic, which is said to have enough content to fill KOTOR 3, 4 and 5. As BioWare's most ambitious project to date, The Old Republic's biggest selling point is its rich story, something that is rare in the MMO space. Players can choose between eight classes separated by two main factions, The Galactic Republic and Sith Empire (each faction contains four classes). Each class has a distinct backstory and branching storyline, which depends on the choices the player makes throughout the game. In The Old Republic, faction does not determine if you are good or bad, your choices do. So you can be a Republic trooper that likes to indulge in the Dark Side or a benevolent Sith Warrior. It all depends on what you, the player, decide to take your character. The world of The Old Republic is huge as it contains many planets such as Coruscant, Taris, Tatooine and Hoth for players to travel in their ships. As The Old Republic is a massively-multiplayer game, you can group up with other players to take on Flashpoints, a special word BioWare is using for group-only missions. If you rather play alone, BioWare offers AI-controlled companions to fill out your party for these missions or accompany you throughout the game.
For Star Wars, BioWare and even MMO fans, Star Wars: The Old Republic should be one great game to pick up this holiday season. As a big Star Wars and BioWare fan myself, I am tempted to try The Old Republic out, but I am not a fan of MMOs. I have never been a fan of paying a subscription to play any game. Also as a huge fan of the original Knights of the Old Republic and single-player games, all I really want to play is KOTOR 3, not a MMO. So for all you playing right now, hope you are enjoying it, but the game is not for me. May the Force be with you.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
On the Download: Steam Holiday Sale
If you are a regular user of Steam much like myself, you have become accustom to the humongous sales that take place in the summer, fall and winter. So accustomed in fact that you hold off on buying certain games until those sales. The Steam Holiday Sale started yesterday and the majority of the Steam catalog has been discounted with others added each day. Each day there will also be a plethora of daily deals on a certain bunch of games. Yesterday saw 75% off Fable III, Metro 2033, Amnesia and Portal 2 to just name a few. Today, games like Duke Nukem Forever, Costume Quest, The Witcher and all the Half-Life games have been discounted 75% as part of the daily deals. Along with those deals, there are deals on game packs and publisher catalogs. So there should be a deal for you somewhere in this massive sale.
As a part of the sale, there is something called the Great Gift Pile. It is special little game of sorts. Each day, Valve will reveal a set of six objectives that you complete by playing certain games. Once you complete an objective, you will receive either a game, a coupon to use after the sale or an entry for their Epic Holiday Giveaway, which will take place on January 2nd and features 1151 prizes including the Grand Prize being Every Single Game on Steam (crazy isn't it?). The prizes you get from completing objectives can be traded with any of your friends on Steam though Steam's trading service. So you got some great incentive to stay at home, buy and play some games this holiday season. All thanks to our friends at Valve.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Super Mario 3D Land Review
To bring the 3DS out of its hard launch, Mario is here to save the day with Super Mario 3D Land, Nintendo’s newest platformer for the Nintendo 3DS. Made by the team that made the two Super Mario Galaxy games for the Wii, Super Mario 3D Land looks to blend concepts and gameplay from both 2D and 3D Mario games.
The story in Super Mario 3D Land is the same as every Mario game. Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser yet again and needs Mario to save her. This time around Bowser has stolen all the leaves off of the Tanooki Tree to help him in his conquest of the Mushroom Kingdom. So in Super Mario 3D Land, the Super Leaves, the power-up which bestows the beloved Tanooki Suit, play a prominent role in the game’s minimalist story. Throughout the game, you will run into iconic enemies such as Goombas, Bullet Bills and even Bowser himself donning a Tanooki tail.
The first thing you will notice when you pick up Super Mario 3D Land is the game is much slower than previous 3D Mario games. The slower pace may be off-putting to some hardcore Mario fanatics, but it works incredibly well with the excellent level designs. All the levels can be finished in a few minutes, which complements the on the go nature of the 3DS handheld. You will be replaying these levels a lot in order to collect all the Star Coins and other goodies hidden throughout the levels. After besting Bowser in one incredible boss battle and saving Princess Peach at the end of World 8, there is one phenomenal surprise that doubles the size of the game and offers a stiff challenge for seasoned Mario vets like yours truly. Super Mario 3D Land makes great use of the Nintendo 3DS' 3D as it uses it to enhance the gameplay for certain moments such as making it easier to notice obstacles or objects when the 3D is on.
One of the few things to fault about Super Mario 3D Land is the game's difficulty. Worlds 1-8 are a little too easy and you get so many lives that you will never see the Game Over screen. The one other fault was the StreetPass functionality. It works, but that is not that interesting. You can exchange mystery boxes with the people you StreetPass, but it would have been much more interesting if you exchanged ghost data with others and race them through levels to see who gets the best time. Just an idea.
One of the few things to fault about Super Mario 3D Land is the game's difficulty. Worlds 1-8 are a little too easy and you get so many lives that you will never see the Game Over screen. The one other fault was the StreetPass functionality. It works, but that is not that interesting. You can exchange mystery boxes with the people you StreetPass, but it would have been much more interesting if you exchanged ghost data with others and race them through levels to see who gets the best time. Just an idea.
Overall, Super Mario 3D Land cohesively blends concepts from both 2D and 3D Mario game in one incredible game. It may not be the masterpiece that the Super Mario Galaxy games were, but Super Mario 3D Land is definitely the best portable Mario game ever. If you own a 3DS, there is no excuse not to have this game. Super Mario 3D Land is a must-own for any Nintendo fan and 3DS owner alike.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Bit by Bit: December 11-17
Well it is that time of year again. The most wonderful time of the year as I have been told. It is Christmas. Considering that I work in retail, it has been one of the most hectic weeks I have had in a long while. If you noticed most of my posts this week were put up at the wee hours of the morning. The reason being I worked a good eight hour closing shifts from Tuesday to Thursday so I would not get home until 11 at night. Hopefully this week, my shifts will be a little more spaced out time-wise. Who am I kidding? It is the week before Christmas, most likely stuck with closing each night this week. So expect so late and I mean late posts this coming week. Thank you to everybody who checked out all three parts of my rant on last Saturday's Spike VGAs. If have not, go back and check them out as they were a lot of fun to write and hopefully a lot of fun to read. Now let us get on with my awards of the week.
Game of the Week
If there is one game that will keep me from obsessively playing Skyward Sword like there is no tomorrow, it is a game based on my other passion and my Game of the Week, WWE '12. The only reason I bought it was that it went on sale at EB Games and it was on great buy. The one mode I have been playing obsessively like I did with Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 is the WWE Universe mode. THQ and Yuke's have made some amazing new additions to last year's Universe mode such as the ability to have title matches on any show not just pay-per views and more new and very unpredictable events that have me playing it almost non-stop. I have also played 30 minutes of The Road to WrestleMania and some far it is much better than last year's. I like the fact that Yuke's keeps on experimenting with each mode rather than releasing the same game each and every year with just a roster update. I cannot talk about WWE '12 without talking about the controls and match flow. First thing you will notice when you start playing is that grapples are mapped to the face buttons rather than the right analog stick. It will take a few matches to get us to the controls, but when you do they are much easier to use and fun to play with than last year's more convoluted controls. Also the matches flow much faster pace with the return of stored finishers and the additions of wake-up taunts and dynamic comebacks. I touched on this in the Hump Day Music post, but I want to reiterate that the sound design this year is off the chart. The entrance music sounds great and the impact from each move sounds authentic. The first time you hear the crack from connecting with a devastating kick, your face will light up. All-in-all, I am loving WWE '12. There are still places for Yuke's to improve, but it is one great step forward after the series took a big step back with SvR 2011.
Most Anticipated Game of the Week
Nintendo has been on fire these last few weeks. Making some big announcements about the games we will be enjoying in the new year. One of those games got a release date and a brand new trailer. That game was Kid Icarus Uprising for the Nintendo 3DS. When Nintendo first showed off the new Kid Icarus at E3 2010, my jaw dropped. It became the one reason I wanted the 3DS so I can play this game. So I was very excited when Nintendo announced that Kid Icarus Uprising will be coming March 23rd next year. The trailer shows off the run and gun action in the air and on the ground while revealing story elements and a new villain in Dark Pit. In short, I am very excited to get my hands on this game. March 23rd cannot come soon enough.
Video of the Week
Along with the release date, Nintendo released a new trailer for Kid Icarus Uprising. Considering that I summarized the trailer in the last paragraph, there is not much else to say, but this trailer is great. It will sure excite those who have waited 20 years for another Kid Icarus game or bought the 3DS for this game like myself. If you are skeptical, just watch and see the greatness for yourself.
Game of the Week
If there is one game that will keep me from obsessively playing Skyward Sword like there is no tomorrow, it is a game based on my other passion and my Game of the Week, WWE '12. The only reason I bought it was that it went on sale at EB Games and it was on great buy. The one mode I have been playing obsessively like I did with Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 is the WWE Universe mode. THQ and Yuke's have made some amazing new additions to last year's Universe mode such as the ability to have title matches on any show not just pay-per views and more new and very unpredictable events that have me playing it almost non-stop. I have also played 30 minutes of The Road to WrestleMania and some far it is much better than last year's. I like the fact that Yuke's keeps on experimenting with each mode rather than releasing the same game each and every year with just a roster update. I cannot talk about WWE '12 without talking about the controls and match flow. First thing you will notice when you start playing is that grapples are mapped to the face buttons rather than the right analog stick. It will take a few matches to get us to the controls, but when you do they are much easier to use and fun to play with than last year's more convoluted controls. Also the matches flow much faster pace with the return of stored finishers and the additions of wake-up taunts and dynamic comebacks. I touched on this in the Hump Day Music post, but I want to reiterate that the sound design this year is off the chart. The entrance music sounds great and the impact from each move sounds authentic. The first time you hear the crack from connecting with a devastating kick, your face will light up. All-in-all, I am loving WWE '12. There are still places for Yuke's to improve, but it is one great step forward after the series took a big step back with SvR 2011.
Most Anticipated Game of the Week
Nintendo has been on fire these last few weeks. Making some big announcements about the games we will be enjoying in the new year. One of those games got a release date and a brand new trailer. That game was Kid Icarus Uprising for the Nintendo 3DS. When Nintendo first showed off the new Kid Icarus at E3 2010, my jaw dropped. It became the one reason I wanted the 3DS so I can play this game. So I was very excited when Nintendo announced that Kid Icarus Uprising will be coming March 23rd next year. The trailer shows off the run and gun action in the air and on the ground while revealing story elements and a new villain in Dark Pit. In short, I am very excited to get my hands on this game. March 23rd cannot come soon enough.
Video of the Week
Along with the release date, Nintendo released a new trailer for Kid Icarus Uprising. Considering that I summarized the trailer in the last paragraph, there is not much else to say, but this trailer is great. It will sure excite those who have waited 20 years for another Kid Icarus game or bought the 3DS for this game like myself. If you are skeptical, just watch and see the greatness for yourself.
Friday, December 16, 2011
On the Download: December 11-17
Just as Hump Day Music was pushed back a day do to my long yet highly entertaining rant of the VGAs, On the Download has been pushed back a day. It actually worked out for the better since Nintendo released the 10 Game Boy Advance games for the 3DS Ambassadors to download. I will get into specifics in just a few moments. This week there were quite a good number of downloadable games released on all platforms. So let's dive into the biggest downloadable games of the week.
To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the game that launched them to superstardom, Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto III for iOS and Android tablets. Back in 2001, GTA III laid down the groundwork for the open-world genre that populates the majority of games we see today. The developers at War Drum Studios ported over this PS2 classic to the tablets also added a few new bells and whistles to make the game work on these devices. The controls have been optimized for the touch screen on these devices, the graphics have been cleaned up so they look much smoother on the HD screens and other options such as instant mission restarts have been added to make the game more suited for playing on the go. At 5 dollars, GTA III is a steal for one of the great games from the previous generation of consoles. If you do not already have it for the either PS2, Xbox or PC, which I do, go ahead and pick it up.
For those people like yours truly who bought the 3DS before the huge price drop back in August, Nintendo launched a program to make sure we all were rightfully compensated for the 250 dollars we paid. That program was called the Nintendo Ambassador program. Before the end of 2011, all Nintendo Ambassadors would receive 20 free games for their 3DS. Out of the 20 games, 10 of them would be NES games and the other would be 10 GBA games. The 10 NES games were released back in September and today, Nintendo has finally released the 10 GBA games. These 10 games are Metroid: Fusion, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgames, Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Wario Land 4 and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Wow, Nintendo sure gave us bang for the bucks we spent. Some might take these free games for granted and demand more from Nintendo. The value in these games alone are well worth the 80 extra dollars we spent especially for the games I missed out on when I owned a Game Boy Advance. So if you are an Nintendo Ambassador, go on and download your free games just after you finish reading this post. For everyone else, maybe you should have supported the system before the price drop.
Last but definitely not least, the final downloadable game we are taking a look at today is... wait for it... can I get a drum roll, please... Sonic CD!!! Yes, this week saw Sega release the classic Sega CD platformer for XBLA, PSN and iOS. Personally Sonic CD is not my favourite 2D Sonic as that honour goes to Sonic 2, but it is sure as hell one of the best platformers I have ever played. With these ports, Sega has added a few things that Sonic fans will enjoy. The inclusion of both the US and Japanese soundtracks will let you bop your head to Sonic Boom while feeling the energy from the Japanese title screen music. You can play as Tails for the first time in Sonic CD only after beating the game with Sonic. Lastly, the inclusion of time attack mode and leaderboards add to replay value of the game as you try to get the highest score or the fasted time in order to be the best in the world. Even if you are not a Sonic fan, at 5 dollars on the consoles and 2 dollars on iOS Sonic CD is one excellent game at one excellent game at one affordable price.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Hump Day Music: Arena Effect
Well it is not Wednesday, but I thought I should at least put up a piece of music for you guys to listen to for this week. For the past week, there has been one game sucking up all of the little time I have before and after work. That game is WWE '12, which I got at EB Games for 39 dollars last Sunday (it was on sale). As a huge wrestling fan, I was instantly sucked into the WWE Universe mode. Shaping my own storylines, feuds and match-ups. Upon playing my first match, I noticed one new and awesome edition to the game that instantly caught my ears. For WWE '12, Yuke's have added arena effects to the each wrestler's entrance music. These added effects make you feel like you are actually in the arena watching the wrestling match. It has added a great sense of immersion that previous games have lacked. It is one addition that I hope Yuke's puts in every WWE game from now on.
It was hard to pick just one piece of entrance music from WWE '12 for you all to listen to considering I love a lot of them. When it came down to it, Alex Riley's theme "Say It to My Face" by Downstait is my favourite from the game. The effects added to the song sound great and like I mentioned above make you feel like you are in the crowd watching the match. Wrestling or not, "Say It to My Face" is a great rock song from one consistently good rock band. Considering that is late at night and I cannot for the life of me think of more to talk about today, I will leave you with the song. Hope you enjoy.
It was hard to pick just one piece of entrance music from WWE '12 for you all to listen to considering I love a lot of them. When it came down to it, Alex Riley's theme "Say It to My Face" by Downstait is my favourite from the game. The effects added to the song sound great and like I mentioned above make you feel like you are in the crowd watching the match. Wrestling or not, "Say It to My Face" is a great rock song from one consistently good rock band. Considering that is late at night and I cannot for the life of me think of more to talk about today, I will leave you with the song. Hope you enjoy.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
2011 Video Game Awards Thoughts Part 3: The Nonsense
Welcome to the third and final part of my thoughts on the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. Usually I put up a music track for each Wednesday to help you get over the hump, but not this week considering how big this rant on the VGAs has become. For those looking for a piece of music, come back tomorrow and I will have the Hump Day Music post then, which means I have pushed back On the Download to Friday. Enough of my little tangent. For the last two days, I have looked at the trailers and the awards at the VGAs. Today for my final rant, I will be talking about all the crap that took place on this show that I like to call the nonsense. So let's begin.
The Nonsense
Considering less than 10 minutes was spent on the awards, Spike spent the rest of this two hour show on trailers and all the other stupid crap. Honestly a good 30 to 45 minutes could have been cut from this show. Spike spent too much time on stupid skits that had no purpose on this show. Yes, other award shows have skits to keep the audience in the crowd and at home entertained, but that is what they usually are entertaining. All the skits from Felicia Day's charity contests to the tea-bagging segment to the Black Baron crap did not need to be on this show. They sucked up all the time from what should have been the focal point from the start and I will emphasize this Spike, the AWARDS. They even spent good five to ten minute chucks looking at each Game of the Year and showing off remixed E3 trailers for those games. Something that should have been relegated to the pre-show as the purpose of the pre-show is to hype the actual show. Funny how generic rock back number 171, also known as the Black Keys, was the musical performance for the night while Deadmau5 was relegated to nothing more then provide music just before and after commercials (what a crappy gig). Considering that the VGAs are a video game award show shouldn't the obvious choice have been to actually have video game music be it performed by Deadmau5 or somebody else possibly Video Games Live as the main musical performance than random rock music that has nothing to do with video games. Guess that one went over the heads of Geoff Keighley and the Spike execs like most things video game related do.
Overall, the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards were less of an award show and more of a two hour commercial. Zachary Levi made due with what he was given and was much better than Neil Patrick Harris (it hurts even saying it). All the celebrities up presenting trailers or awards felt they were promoting a show on Spike such as Hulk Hogan clearly wearing an Impact Wrestling shirt or some other product like a movie or video game. If Spike wants to get some credibility, first thing you need to get rid are the celebrities and have actual game designers or other game personalities such as Hideo Kojima, Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright, Warren Spector or Tommy Tallarico present the awards and introduce the trailers. Make this show for the gamers by the gamers instead of two hour crapfest thought up in the minds of people who certainly do not know anything about video games and the gaming community. Spike show some damn respect to this industry people pour their lives and money into instead of making a mockery of it. The 2011 VGAs were better than last year, but that is like comparing horse manure to human feces. It's still shit.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
2011 Video Game Awards Thoughts Part 2: The Awards
Welcome back to my thoughts on the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. Yesterday, I took a look at the trailers from the awards given at the show. So instead of wasting your time with a drawn out intro, let us get on with the second part of the rant so big it takes three parts.
The Awards
Awards?! What awards?! For an award show, the VGAs spent less than ten minutes on actual awards. What a slap in the face to us gamers and to all the developers, voice actors and others involved in these huge multi-men and women projects. Take it from me, making games are not easy. For Spike, Geoff Keighley and the other who wrote and produced this show to not make these awards the focal point of the show really shows how little these people care about the video game industry. Spike does this supposed award show to make them look hip and cool, but it makes them look as cheap and pathetic as they actually are. There are much better video game award shows out there. Spike should watch the Canadian Video Game Awards to see how to do a proper award show. Oh and I have not even gotten to few awards that they gave out on the show. Those awards were Action Adventure Game of the Year, Gaming Hall of Fame Award, Shooter of the Year, Gamer God Award, Character of the Year and Game of the Year. The others were either given out on the non-televised pre-show or in a little 2 minute segment that ran down all the award winners. Yes, most of the awards were given off-camera. Yet another slap in the face to the video game industry and the gaming community. Thanks Spike. The award winners were reasonable sort of. Arkham City won Action Adventure Game of the Year, Zelda was inducted into Spike's Video Game Hall of Fame, Modern Warfare 3 won Shooter of the Year (an act that simply encourages lazy game development in the industry), Blizzard won the Gamer God Award (wait, what did they release this year? Nothing!), Joker won Character of the Year and to nobodies surprise Skyrim won Game of the Year (rolls eyes).
I can bitch and complain about who should have won these awards all I want in the end these are the opinions of others and not in my control. But it makes me wonder who was on the panel that decided Modern Warfare 3, which is literally a copy and paste of Modern Warfare 2 with a new coat of paint (don't believe me, look at the code), should win Shooter of the Year. Out of all of my complaints, the one that is most prevalent is the lack of time Spike gave to the awards themselves. It does not help the credibility of your award show, let me say it again AWARD SHOW, when you focus your time on stupid random crap, which I will get to tomorrow, rather than honouring those who put their blood, sweat and tears into the games we play each and every day. What the VGAs proved to me that their blue monkey statues mean nothing in the video game industry and to gamers alike.
Monday, December 12, 2011
2011 Video Game Awards Thoughts Part 1: The Trailers
The 2011 Spike Video Game Awards were so bad that to post a rant on them would be a pretty long read. So I have decided to split my rant into three separate parts, the trailers, the awards and the nonsense. I did touch on some of my thoughts yesterday in my weekly Bit by Bit post, but these next three days I would like to go into detail of what I thought of this atrocity in the video game industry.
The Trailers
Let us start with the reason any sane gamer tunes into the VGAs and that is for the "World Premieres" as Spike likes to call them. For the first time since Spike started having these big reveals take place at the VGAs, the trailers were just as disappointing as the show. Even though last years' VGAs were a complete train wreck of a show, Mass Effect 3, Uncharted 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, some of the most anticipated games of the past year, were all announced. None of the reveals this year held even a candle to any of the three games I just mentioned. For a game that Geoff Keighley has been pimping out on Twitter as the PlayStation exclusive that will blow you away, The Last of Us trailer looked interesting, but did nothing to blow me away as Keighley claimed. I love Naughty Dog, but I need to see more than a concept trailer that looks exactly like I Am Legend complete with infected enemies and a New York City ravaged by plant-life. Next up was Alan Wake's American Nightmare, which looked and sounded pretty cool until Mr. Wake started talking. The moment Alan said, "I've seen the enemy and it's me, an evil caricature. He is called Mr. Scratch", I could not take the story of Alan Wake, the key selling point of the game, serious anymore. We continued on with an extremely short cinematic teaser for Rainbow 6: Patriots, which was cool, but had no place on the VGAs considering Game Informer already covered the game in their December issue and the trailer should have debuted along with their coverage of the game. We got another look at Mass Effect 3 as Sheppard along with a gigantic space worm battled a Reaper. Some cool footage again, but it felt like an extension of what BioWare showed off at E3 rather than a "World Primiere as it was touted to be. BioWare also revealed in a 30 second teaser showing barely anything about the game, Command & Conquer Generals 2. In short, I was not impressed. Going on with the rest, we saw Spider-Man face-off against Reaper in The Amazing Spider-Man game, Ironhide absolutely destroy Starscream, Blizzard show Diablo III and still no announce a release date, a remixed version of the E3 BioShock Infinite trailer, Epic reveal their high-resolution MineCraft rip-off and Metal Gear Rising steal this terrible and disappointing show.
As a whole, the trailers this year at 2011 Video Game Awards left a whole lot to be desired. They showed little super tiny glimpses at games that should be coming out within the next year or two. When a show like the VGAs relies to heavily on these reveals to keep their audience watching, they need to knock it out of the park with everyone. My main problem was that these trailers did not feel like the "World Premieres" as Geoff Keighley and Spike promoted to the heavens that they would be. They showed nothing new for the games like Rainbow 6 and Transformers that were already revealed in the pages of Game Informer and the other trailers were too short or in Alan Wake's case too stupid for there own good that they were not even close to satisfying. The VGAs failed miserably at the only thing that they ever did right and drastically hurt an already struggling show.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Bit by Bit: December 4-10
Last night was the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. I will say one thing, this year I actually managed to watch the whole telecast without wanting to flick the channel. That is not saying much since there was nothing else on TV last night and the show was still a big piece of crap. At least it was not a total and utter train wreck like last year's show, but I would not recommend any gamer watch the show or most of the trailers. There was a lot of news that came from the VGAs, but not much that will excite most gamers. I will get into the details when I put up my thoughts on the show sometime in the next few days. Right now let us look at the Bests of this week.
Game of the Week
Last Sunday, I finally got Infinity Blade II working on my iPad. Once I figured that there is a way to fully close apps so they do not run in the background, the game started working. As of the time of writing this post, I am on my sixth rebirth of Infinity Blade II and I still have not scratched the surface of the game and it is getting very challenging yet still rewarding. So what I am trying to say that Infinity Blade II is my Game of the Week. The game is just as compelling as the original. Offering more ways to combat the immortal Deathless threat as you make your way to save the Worker. You can use heavy two-handed weapons and dual-wielding weapons that change up your tactics. I personally like the classic light weapon and shield combination to take out enemies. Like in the first Infinity Blade, you battle through another castle, but this time there multiple paths that lead to completely different areas and enemies. To complete the game you must beat the boss at the end of each path, but it will take you much longer to conquer Infinity Blade II than it did the first game. So in between working, blogging and playing many other games this holiday season, I will be collecting more gold, fending off skilled enemies and grinding for experience and better items all in the confines of Infinity Blade II. If your iDevice can handle it and you can find a way to run it, Infinity Blade II is definitely worth 7 dollars of your hard earned cash.
Most Anticipated Game of the Week
Out of all the supposed "World Premieres" at VGAs last night, one stood tall above the rest. This re-reveal made our collective jaws drop. Introduced at the very end of the show by Hideo Kojima and Atsushi Inaba was Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. Metal Gear Solid: Rising was no longer as Konami and Kojima Productions have now teamed up with PlatinumGames, the studio behind crazy yet amazing Japanese games such as Bayonetta, MadWorld and Vanquish. By the looks of it, Metal Gear Rising exudes PlatinumGames' signature insanity and it has me excited. The slice and dice combat that Kojima originally showed off more than a year ago at the E3 2010 has ramped up to ninth degree and the fact that Raiden goes mano-e-mano with a Metal Gear Ray is just breathtaking. Cannot wait to see more of this game in the new year.
Video of the Week
Going along yet again with my Most Anticipated Game of the Week, the Video of the Week is the Metal Gear Rising trailer from last nights' VGAs. All I can say about this trailer is that your jaw will drop more than once while watching it. So for another weekend, I leave you all with a trailer. Enjoy.
Game of the Week
Last Sunday, I finally got Infinity Blade II working on my iPad. Once I figured that there is a way to fully close apps so they do not run in the background, the game started working. As of the time of writing this post, I am on my sixth rebirth of Infinity Blade II and I still have not scratched the surface of the game and it is getting very challenging yet still rewarding. So what I am trying to say that Infinity Blade II is my Game of the Week. The game is just as compelling as the original. Offering more ways to combat the immortal Deathless threat as you make your way to save the Worker. You can use heavy two-handed weapons and dual-wielding weapons that change up your tactics. I personally like the classic light weapon and shield combination to take out enemies. Like in the first Infinity Blade, you battle through another castle, but this time there multiple paths that lead to completely different areas and enemies. To complete the game you must beat the boss at the end of each path, but it will take you much longer to conquer Infinity Blade II than it did the first game. So in between working, blogging and playing many other games this holiday season, I will be collecting more gold, fending off skilled enemies and grinding for experience and better items all in the confines of Infinity Blade II. If your iDevice can handle it and you can find a way to run it, Infinity Blade II is definitely worth 7 dollars of your hard earned cash.
Most Anticipated Game of the Week
Out of all the supposed "World Premieres" at VGAs last night, one stood tall above the rest. This re-reveal made our collective jaws drop. Introduced at the very end of the show by Hideo Kojima and Atsushi Inaba was Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. Metal Gear Solid: Rising was no longer as Konami and Kojima Productions have now teamed up with PlatinumGames, the studio behind crazy yet amazing Japanese games such as Bayonetta, MadWorld and Vanquish. By the looks of it, Metal Gear Rising exudes PlatinumGames' signature insanity and it has me excited. The slice and dice combat that Kojima originally showed off more than a year ago at the E3 2010 has ramped up to ninth degree and the fact that Raiden goes mano-e-mano with a Metal Gear Ray is just breathtaking. Cannot wait to see more of this game in the new year.
Video of the Week
Going along yet again with my Most Anticipated Game of the Week, the Video of the Week is the Metal Gear Rising trailer from last nights' VGAs. All I can say about this trailer is that your jaw will drop more than once while watching it. So for another weekend, I leave you all with a trailer. Enjoy.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Preview of the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards
There are awards shows for absolutely everything nowadays from films to wrestling. The fact that these shows are usually two hours of boring television with only a handful of decent to good moments does not make them that appealing. Let us look to Spike TV. The only television network that tries so very hard to appeal the adult male demographic, but fails at every chance they take. Why would anybody want to watch a television network that has about 1001 generic car shows, a wrestling show that has seen better days and more rip-offs than you can count?
In a desperate attempt to capture the male demographic back in 2003, Spike TV brought us the Video Game Awards. An award show that year after year has done much more to damage the reputation of the video game industry than help it. Honestly my brother and I could not get through the first hour of last years' VGAs because it was so downright horrible and Neil Patrick Harris was the host. Spike TV hopes to change things around this year with a huge amount of exclusive premieres and trailers and with host Zachary Levi. As a huge fan of the show Chuck, where Levi plays the main character, I really want to see if Zach Levi can pull off what the great Neil Patrick Harris could not, an enjoyable show. There are a lot of premieres set for the VGAs this year. A new game from Bioware, a new game from Epic and the Sony project that will supposedly blow us away will be revealed and new trailers for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Mass Effect 3, Metal Gear Rising, the Amazing Spider-Man, Rainbow 6: Patriots and more will be shown. There will also be a special musical performance from deadmau5. Now let us talk about the awards. Apart from the actual awards probably looking nothing even related to video games, Geoff Keighley and others on the VGA panel did a good job picking the nominees this year. There have been quite a few times where I questioned why the hell they nominated a certain thing such as the voice acting from the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen game for an award. As much as I would love the awards not to all fall into the big blockbusters (they deserve some, but not all), the realist side of me says that there will be a whole lot of love for Skyrim. Personally, I would love Skyward Sword take home Game of the Year, but that will not happen sadly. To prove my point, just watch the episode of the Bound Round which was suppose to highlight Skyward Sword as a Game of the Year nominee. In short, it did not.
It will be interesting to see if Spike TV can finally pull off an award that does not make you want to immediately change the channel. We will just have to tune in tomorrow night at 8 on Spike to see for ourselves. Also before I leave you tonight, due to all the announcements at the VGAs I will be posting this week's Bit by Bit on Sunday instead of Saturday. So have a good night and I hope you enjoy.
On the Download: December 4-10
Sorry for the delay. Had a full day at work yesterday so I did not have time to write a blog post. So to make up for missing yesterday. I will be putting up two posts today. On the Download right now and a preview of the Spike VGAs later today. This week has been a busy week in the downloadable space. With many games released this week on each platform's online stores, there is a lot of games to cover today. So let us dive right in.
Frozenbyte surprised a lot of people when they released Trine two years ago. Trine was a physics-based fantasy action game where you controlled three distinctly unique characters. You took control of a knight, who was the muscle of the group, a thief, who used ranged weapons and could reach high platforms with her grappling hook, and a wizard, who could use his magic to manipulate objects in the world. Trine 2, which released on Steam this week, wants to up everything that made the first game an indie gem. The physics in the game have been improved so now you can manipulate fire, water, magic and even gravity. You can the game co-op with up to three other players online or locally and upgrade your characters' stats to suit your play-style. The graphics and art have been improved a lot since the original game. Creating an immersive and beautiful fantasy world for you to explore. For 14 dollars, Trine 2 is a great downloadable title for a great price and a worthy pick-up for any gamer looking for something to play after completing this years' biggest blockbusters.
Made by the creators of Advance Wars and Paper Mario, Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo, Pushmo has been declared the 3DS eShop's first killer app by IGN. In Pushmo, you play Mallo, the happy little pudgy hero that is tasked with saving children that are trapped in unique pieces of playground equipment known as the Pushmo. Each Pushmo consists of many colourful blocks that Mallo has to rearrange in order to save the child at the end of the level. Pushmo offers 250 puzzles that you can complete. On top of that Pushmo allows you to create your own puzzles that can be saved to QR Codes that you can then share with friends or online with total strangers. If you are interested, go pick-up Pushmo on the Nintendo eShop for just 7 dollars.
Batman invades your iDevice with Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, which released yesterday on the App Store. Developed by NetherRealm Studios, which brought us the new Mortal Kombat earlier this year, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown has the Caped Crusader patrolling the streets of Arkham City again. This time around Batman fights in a series of one-on-one encounters very reminiscent of Infinity Blade with the likes of Two-Face, the Joker, Deathstroke, and many more iconic villains. The one-on-one fights are broken up through little cutscenes and some interactive Batarang segments. Batman: Arkham City Lockdown features an upgrade system which allows you to use the experience you gain from fights to upgrade Batman's attributes and various gadgets. After playing Arkham City for the consoles and are craving more Batman action, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, only 6 dollars on the App Store, will be perfect game for you.
Frozenbyte surprised a lot of people when they released Trine two years ago. Trine was a physics-based fantasy action game where you controlled three distinctly unique characters. You took control of a knight, who was the muscle of the group, a thief, who used ranged weapons and could reach high platforms with her grappling hook, and a wizard, who could use his magic to manipulate objects in the world. Trine 2, which released on Steam this week, wants to up everything that made the first game an indie gem. The physics in the game have been improved so now you can manipulate fire, water, magic and even gravity. You can the game co-op with up to three other players online or locally and upgrade your characters' stats to suit your play-style. The graphics and art have been improved a lot since the original game. Creating an immersive and beautiful fantasy world for you to explore. For 14 dollars, Trine 2 is a great downloadable title for a great price and a worthy pick-up for any gamer looking for something to play after completing this years' biggest blockbusters.
Made by the creators of Advance Wars and Paper Mario, Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo, Pushmo has been declared the 3DS eShop's first killer app by IGN. In Pushmo, you play Mallo, the happy little pudgy hero that is tasked with saving children that are trapped in unique pieces of playground equipment known as the Pushmo. Each Pushmo consists of many colourful blocks that Mallo has to rearrange in order to save the child at the end of the level. Pushmo offers 250 puzzles that you can complete. On top of that Pushmo allows you to create your own puzzles that can be saved to QR Codes that you can then share with friends or online with total strangers. If you are interested, go pick-up Pushmo on the Nintendo eShop for just 7 dollars.
Batman invades your iDevice with Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, which released yesterday on the App Store. Developed by NetherRealm Studios, which brought us the new Mortal Kombat earlier this year, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown has the Caped Crusader patrolling the streets of Arkham City again. This time around Batman fights in a series of one-on-one encounters very reminiscent of Infinity Blade with the likes of Two-Face, the Joker, Deathstroke, and many more iconic villains. The one-on-one fights are broken up through little cutscenes and some interactive Batarang segments. Batman: Arkham City Lockdown features an upgrade system which allows you to use the experience you gain from fights to upgrade Batman's attributes and various gadgets. After playing Arkham City for the consoles and are craving more Batman action, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, only 6 dollars on the App Store, will be perfect game for you.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Hump Day Music: Star Fox Main Theme
Back in September and October when I was playing a lot of Star Fox 64 3D for my 3DS, I got a little craving. That craving was to play Star Fox Adventures for the Gamecube. Since I never bought Star Fox Adventures during the Gamecube's heyday, I missed out on a solid gaming experience. Now in 2011, I was looking for more Star Fox that satisfy my craving. I did not want Star Fox Assault or Command as then did not look they would appeal to me, so I set out looking for Star Fox Adventures. I checked all the local game stores to no avail. When it looked like I had given up all hope of finding this rare Gamecube exclusive, today while looking around one of my local game stores I found it. I found Star Fox Adventures pre-played for only 7 dollars. What a great deal for a game this rare, so I made sure Star Fox Adventures did not slip through my hands like Four Swords Adventures did a few months prior and I bought it. After playing the first 20 minutes or so, I am pleased with my purchase and looking forward to playing more very soon.
Thank you to GilvaSunner for uploading this music for us to enjoy.
To celebrate my purchase of Star Fox Adventures, I would like to share with all of you the Star Fox Main Theme as this week's Hump Day music. This remix of the main theme of Star Fox is from Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii. You will hear this track whenever you play the Lylat Cruise stage in Brawl. The original theme from both the SNES and N64 games are drilled into the minds of many gamers so this remix might be seen as a big departure. The music really fits the pace of the Lylat Cruise stage as you battle on stationary platforms that fly through space at crazy speeds. It also retains the same melody of the original theme that has been ingrained in the heads of millions of gamers. Making it easy to hum along with too. Star Fox like many other Nintendo games has great music that it is hard to highlight just one track. I encourage everybody reading to search Youtube and listen to other tracks from the Star Fox franchise. Now I am going to play more Star Fox Adventures so I leave you with the Star Fox Main Theme and I hope you enjoy.
Thank you to GilvaSunner for uploading this music for us to enjoy.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Launch Station: The Adventures of TinTin
The Adventures of TinTin is the video game adaptation of the movie that comes to theatres later this month. Coming from the pedigree of the Ubisoft Montpellier, the developers on the recent Rayman Origins and cult classic Beyond Good & Evil, TinTin looks to be not just another cash-in like most movie games. TinTin is a 2.5D platform-puzzler. Each level consists of many single-screen puzzles be it taking out foes or reaching high ledges. Certain moments have the perspective changing for 2D side view to a 3D front view to make those moments more dramatic for the player such as when TinTin flees from a torrent of water as it rushes through the corridors of a ship. Throughout TinTin's main story, you will explore over 20 different environments from the dank corridors of Captain Haddock's ship to the dusty sand of the Sahara Desert as TinTin, Snowy, Captain Haddock or three other unlockable characters. The Adventures of TinTin also offers two player co-op, a Challenge Mode and Move and Kinect support on PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively.
As a child, I use to watch TinTin every Sunday at noon on YTV. I absolutely did not understand what was going on, but I loved the show. So I have been very excited to see The Adventures of TinTin movie when it comes out later this month. From what I have seen of and read on this game, I believe that Ubisoft Montpellier put in a lot of effort to make a game that truly make a game that complements the new movie and does the old show and comics justice. If you have finished all this season's big blockbusters and need a gaming fix, give The Adventures of TinTin a shot. It just might be what you are looking for.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Off the Newsstand: Game Informer Issue 224
Game Informer has built a reputation over the past two years of being the place to find excellent debuts of great games on the horizon. That reputation continues with this the December issue as Game Informer debuts Rainbow 6: Patriots. After a three year absence, Team Rainbow is back to tackle a new homegrown threat as Ubisoft Montreal looks to push the envelope and make a military shooter that actually has a compelling and intelligent story. Game Informer's cover story gives readers a great glimpse at one of the missions in the single-player campaign and also dives into the new homegrown American extremists known as the True Patriots. Readers will get a little look at what Ubisoft Montreal hopes to do with the multi-player in Patriots. The other big features in this issue explores the opening 20 levels a four different classes in the Sith faction in Star Wars: The Old Republic and runs down many of the games coming out for the Playstation Vita. As with every December issue of any gaming magazine, there are an abundance of previews and reviews in this issue of Game Informer. The most interesting previews belong to Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and the Gears of War 3 DLC known as RAAM's Shadow. There are a whopping 30 reviews in this issue of Game Informer covering a good number of the games that were released these past two months from Battlefield 3 to Rayman Origins. To end the magazine, there is a retrospective look at the development at the cult classic PC strategy game, X-Com and a brand new article, which I personally hope becomes a monthly article, called My First Game. This month looks at the first game made by co-creative director of Dishonored, Harvey Smith's Technosaur.
Overall, the December issue of Game Informer is 136 pages well-written, informative and ultimately enjoyable reading that every serious gamer should read. The cover story on Rainbow 6: Patriots is just amazing and got me excited to play a game that is close to two years away from release. Game Informer is hands down the best gaming magazine that you can buy and it is only 6 dollars at your local EB Games. If you do not want to pay for it, sign it out from your local library. Just make sure you give Game Informer a chance or you will be missing out on a great magazine.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Bit by Bit: November 27-December 3
Between work, managing this blog, playing games, finally passing my G2 Road Test and many other things, it has been a busy week for me. In the video game industry, it was the first week in about two months time not to have any major console release. But still rumours and other news run rampant. I touched on the Title Fight rumour in a post earlier this week, but there has been plenty more rumours about the PS4, PS Vita, Dragon Age III and much more. Now let us rundown the Bests this week.
Game of the Week
My Game of the Week would have most likely went to Infinity Blade II if I could actually play it, but at the moment I am still waiting for an update to make my 7 dollar purchase playable. So I would love to give my Game of the Week to Skyward Sword again, but it would unfair to keep giving my Game of the Week to the same game. On a side note, Skyward Sword continues to impress and is on track to usurp Uncharted 3 as my Game of the Year and possibly my favourite Zelda of all-time. While I have been spending a huge amount of my free time playing Skyward Sword, I have also been playing a lot of Super Mario 3D Land on my 3DS, which I just completed this week. I have played plenty of portable Mario games (the majority of them were remakes of older Mario games) and Super Mario 3D Land stands above them all as the best portable Mario game I have played. It may not be a masterpiece like the Super Mario Galaxy games, but it does an incredible job of blending concepts and gameplay from both 2D and 3D Mario games into one cohesive package. Super Mario 3D Land's pace is slower than past Mario games, but the pace works so well with Super Mario 3D Land's excellently designed levels that it is not off-putting at all. Also the surprise you get after beating World 8 is just phenomenal as it nearly doubles the size of the game and is very challenging even for Mario vets like myself. If there is one 3DS game you have to buy this holiday season, it is my Game of the Week Super Mario 3D Land.
Most Anticipated Game of the Week
After reading the cover story of GameInformer's December Issue (great magazine every gamer should check out), I was going to put Rainbow 6: Patriots as my Most Anticipated Game of the Week due to its very unique and controversial story and enemies. But yesterday Nintendo of America announced one game that made all core Wii owners including yours truly jump for joy. That announcement is that Xenoblade Chronicles, an epic RPG that has been compared to the Final Fantasy of this generation and has already been released in both Japan and Europe, will be coming to North America next April. This announcement is a huge win for Operation Rainfall, a group of people who have been campaigning for the last half of this year to get Nintendo to bring core Wii games Pandora's Tower, Last Story and Xenoblade to North America. As a Wii owner and huge Nintendo fan, I fully supported Operation Rainfall's movement. Now it is up to us gamers to do our part and make sure we buy Xenoblade once it comes out (I know I am) or else Nintendo will never do stuff like this ever again.
Video of the Week
Going with my Most Anticipated Game of the Week, the Video of the Week is first North American trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles. Words cannot express my excitement for this game, so I am just going to leave with the trailer and you can see for yourself. Enjoy.
Game of the Week
My Game of the Week would have most likely went to Infinity Blade II if I could actually play it, but at the moment I am still waiting for an update to make my 7 dollar purchase playable. So I would love to give my Game of the Week to Skyward Sword again, but it would unfair to keep giving my Game of the Week to the same game. On a side note, Skyward Sword continues to impress and is on track to usurp Uncharted 3 as my Game of the Year and possibly my favourite Zelda of all-time. While I have been spending a huge amount of my free time playing Skyward Sword, I have also been playing a lot of Super Mario 3D Land on my 3DS, which I just completed this week. I have played plenty of portable Mario games (the majority of them were remakes of older Mario games) and Super Mario 3D Land stands above them all as the best portable Mario game I have played. It may not be a masterpiece like the Super Mario Galaxy games, but it does an incredible job of blending concepts and gameplay from both 2D and 3D Mario games into one cohesive package. Super Mario 3D Land's pace is slower than past Mario games, but the pace works so well with Super Mario 3D Land's excellently designed levels that it is not off-putting at all. Also the surprise you get after beating World 8 is just phenomenal as it nearly doubles the size of the game and is very challenging even for Mario vets like myself. If there is one 3DS game you have to buy this holiday season, it is my Game of the Week Super Mario 3D Land.
Most Anticipated Game of the Week
After reading the cover story of GameInformer's December Issue (great magazine every gamer should check out), I was going to put Rainbow 6: Patriots as my Most Anticipated Game of the Week due to its very unique and controversial story and enemies. But yesterday Nintendo of America announced one game that made all core Wii owners including yours truly jump for joy. That announcement is that Xenoblade Chronicles, an epic RPG that has been compared to the Final Fantasy of this generation and has already been released in both Japan and Europe, will be coming to North America next April. This announcement is a huge win for Operation Rainfall, a group of people who have been campaigning for the last half of this year to get Nintendo to bring core Wii games Pandora's Tower, Last Story and Xenoblade to North America. As a Wii owner and huge Nintendo fan, I fully supported Operation Rainfall's movement. Now it is up to us gamers to do our part and make sure we buy Xenoblade once it comes out (I know I am) or else Nintendo will never do stuff like this ever again.
Video of the Week
Going with my Most Anticipated Game of the Week, the Video of the Week is first North American trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles. Words cannot express my excitement for this game, so I am just going to leave with the trailer and you can see for yourself. Enjoy.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Launch Station: Mario Kart 7
With each new Mario Kart game, Nintendo introduces new gameplay features in order to keep things fresh and fun for the Mario Kart faithful. The biggest additions in Mario Kart 7 are the hand-gliding and underwater sections in the game. No longer will you have no control when you are sent flying into the air or fall into water. No matter air or water, you will have full control of your kart at all times. When you are launched into the air by specific ramps, a hand-glider or parachute will now pop out of the back of your kart and allow you control your descent to racetrack below. Also when you drive into water, a propeller will pop out of your kart and allow you drive through underwater sections of the course. These additions open up new routes that may shave a few seconds on your lap time. For the first time in the Mario Kart series, players will be able to customize their karts from the frame to the tires. The customization option is not just for cosmetic purposes as different frames and tires affect your kart's attributes such as acceleration or handling. As with every new Mario Kart, there are new characters, new tracks, old favourites and new weapons as well as optional first-person mode and gyro controls.
Mario Kart 7 should be a great game that will definitely please any 3DS owner. Once I get my paycheck this coming week, I cannot wait to buy Mario Kart. Mario Kart DS is my all-time favourite DS and Mario Kart game, so Mario Kart 7 has some high expectations for yours truly. I really hope Nintendo and Retro Studios put together a Mario Kart that lives up to the brilliant legacy of Mario Kart DS and more. See you on the track.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
On the Download: Infinity Blade II
Infinity Blade II sounds so amazing that you are probably running to your iDevice to buy it right now, but just hold on a moment. Having loved the first game, I have been waiting for this game for a long time. So I made sure I bought it the moment I found it in the App Store. Once it was done installing, I booted up Infinity Blade II hoping for the best. To my dismay after the game crashed on start-up. I tried again and again, but suffered the same results. So at the moment, the game I waited a few months for and paid 7 dollars for is unplayable. I am not angry, but I am extremely disappointed in both Chair Entertainment and Epic Games for releasing a game with this many reported bugs (I am not the only one suffering). There is a fix on the way, but in my opinion it is unacceptable for a publisher and developer to release a game no matter the platform that is this buggy. Yes, it will eventually be fixed. The fact of the matter is that people like myself will now have to wait because Chair and Epic skipped out on testing their game on multiple iOS devices. So if you want to buy Infinity Blade II, just hold off for about a week while all the bugs hopefully get worked out unless you want to risk turning out like me. You have been warned.
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