Choose Your Weapon

The Beatles: Rock Band

2012-10-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

Title: The Beatles: Rock Band
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: September 9, 2009
Date Played: September 2009 - 2011
Time Played: 20+ hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
I should probably start by stating that I am a fan of Beatles. I do not go crazy about them, but I would recognize any of their songs and do generally enjoy listening to them. I also do enjoying playing the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games, I feel that they tend to have a good music selection and fun gameplay. All of that being said I feel that The Beatles: Rock Band is a damn good game!

The Beatles: Rock Band offers a journey through the entire Beatles career. You get to play all of the most famous Beatles albums and songs, and with DLC you could get virtually the entire Beatles library to play through. The presentation in The Beatles: Rock Band is phenomenal, as you play songs from different eras of the Beatles career the backgrounds will change accordingly and the fab four will wear appropriate clothes. This detail makes the experience totally awesome and makes you feel like you are playing right by their side.

Overall The Beatles: Rock Band is an awesome experience. It feels like Harmonix (developer) took everything they have learned from the previous Rock Band and Guitar Hero games and improved upon every aspect. The visuals are stunning, and the cinematics are breathtaking. All in all The Beatles: Rock Band is a great package, it may even be the best Rock Band game to date.

EVE Online

2012-10-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Title: Eve Online
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: May 6, 2003
Date Played: 2009, March - October 2012
Time Played: 500+ hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
Eve Online came out quietly; however over the years it has become one of the most notorious video games in the world. It is the one MMO that makes headlines and refuses to die with the rest of them.

I am not a huge fan of Sci Fi MMOs, none of them managed to grab me, and so naturally EVE Online's launch and first years of service went by unnoticed by me. It wasn't until 2009 when I came across a notorious article about a multi thousand dollar scam in EVE that it gained my attention. I decided to check it out and promptly made an account.

There were a few things I learned immediately. One being the fact that EVE is not a welcoming game, the tutorials were barely sufficient enough to figure out how to move from point A to point B and in general trying to understand what was going on was reminiscent of taking an advanced calculus class in High School. After playing EVE for about 3 months (most of which consisted of just training skills and running a few rat missions here and there) I decided to end my subscription.

In the spring of 2012 I decided that I was bored with the monotony and sameness of all current MMOs and decided to give EVE another go. This time I was a lot more successful at learning the ropes and even established my own supply chain of PI (Planetary Interaction) goods from within a wormhole that my corporation captured and built a base in. These goods provided me enough dough to keep paying for my subscription, and so I continued on for the lack of a better term farming the materials and turning them around for profit in Jita. The first couple of months I found myself running missions, mining asteroid belts and zipping through wormholes. Eventually though I got right back into the mode of basically logging in a few times a day to check up on my PI and skill queue. And by October with Guild Wars 2 to fill the MMO void and a ton of my corp members leaving for greener pastures I decided that it was time to end my subscription. I still was raking in more than enough dough every month to keep my subscription for free; however I grew tired of needing to log in a few times a day to maintain my factories. And so when my subscription ran out on October 7th 2012, with nearly a billion ISK in the wallet and half a billion in assets (PLEX, the 30 day subscription goes for about 500 million) I froze my account. Perhaps I will return to it one day.

Eve Online is a very interesting MMO. It is unique in many way that is for sure. Just the mere fact that everything goes in the world of EVE is a pretty big departure from care bare MMOs. If all of a sudden all game development stopped and I had no other games to play I would definitelly consider EVE to be my one game. It's vastness and unpredictability is luring. However with so much other stuff going on I simply do not have the time for it. EVE's learning curve may be astounding; however it is a very deep and enjoyable game. I really enjoyed playing it; but at this point I feel like I got everything I wanted out of it. EVE as an MMO is stronger than ever, with its dozen expansions and ever evolving true to its definition "world" EVE is an amazing game. Perhaps we will meet again pilot Duxa Chaeros of Minmatar descent.

My Corp and I Destroying a Customs Office In Our Wormhole So That We Can Establish Our Own

Syndicate

2012-10-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

Title: Syndicate
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: February 21, 2012
Date Played: September 2012
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
I never thought there would be a 'new' Syndicate game. While the 90's Genesis/SNES game made quite a stir among gamers the franchise has been largely forgotten, so when EA announced in 2011 that there was going to be a new Syndicate game I got really excited.

The original (and it's few remakes) were all top down (isometric) squad shooter/RPG hybrids. This new take on the franchise is a straight up first person shooter with some of the elements from those old Syndicate games.

The overall plot stays the same, corporations rule the world, and you are an agent of one of those corporations (EuroCorp). You are not a good guy, or a bad guy, you are a tool. Your objective is to protect the interests of the company, beyond that everything is permitted.

Syndicate (1993)

In the world of Syndicate everyone has a chip in their head that enhances their natural abilities. You as a super duper agent of awesome are able to hack those chips and use them to your advantage to turn the tide of battle. There are three main things you can do when hacking someone else's chip. You can force them to suicide, you can force them to turn on their friends and fight at your side, and you can make their weapons explode. All of these hacks are fueled by adrenaline, so you can not just spam them on every guy, you need to do some traditional fighting in order to recharge the adrenaline. The chip also allows you to see people through walls, and hack electrical devices, armors and just in general be a bad ass.

As you progress through the game you will encounter other people with bad ass chips in their heads (generally bosses). By killing them and ripping out their chip you can backwards engineer the technology and earn upgrades to your own tech.

Syndicate runs in a proprietary "Starbreeze" engine, it resembles the Battlefield 3's Frostbite engine, and looks pretty damn good. There is a lot of blur and occlusion effects as well as really good lighting and particle effects. Syndicate easily looks like a PC game running on the consoles.

Syndicate's story will take you through many unfamiliar looking yet familiar sounding locations (such as Inglewood and Los Angeles), but since its the year 2069, anything hardly looks the same.

Syndicate has a few very minor flaws. There were a couple of times where it was unclear as to what my objective was, I would spend as long as 5 minutes running around trying to figure out that it wanted me to do a hack on some hidden back panel and then do a leaping jump into nothingness. I have found myself in a situation like that 3 or 4 times while playing through the game. Another issue is the pretty crazy difficulty spikes. The game will go from normally paced level to a boss that will take 10 thousand bullets to the face, or a room full of enemies rushing you from all sides. While some of those sections were a bit frustrating, the fun of shooting things up in Syndicate made it easy to overlook.

Overall Syndicate is a very competent shooter. It can be compared to the last year's Deus Ex (minus the choices), and I really enjoyed playing it. The difficulty spikes and confusion on where to go can be easily overlooked when the rest of the package is so damn good. I feel that if you like futuristic shooters playing through Syndicate is a no brainer.

My Statistics Upon Completion Of The Game

Rock Band 2

2012-10-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Title: Rock Band 2
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: September 14, 2008
Date Played: September 2008 - 2011
Time Played: 100+ hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
Rock Band 2 is not really as much of a sequel as it is a refinement of the first game, which is completely acceptable considering that the first game was basically perfect across the board.

Rock Band 2 comes with a whole new set of plastic instruments. The drums and the guitar have been improved, they are built better, and the drums specifically are made quieter, which overall tremendously improves the experience.

You can spend about $10 and import the tracks from Rock Band 1 (almost all of them) into Rock Band 2, in essence merging the two games into one. This makes Rock Band 2 an amazing package , not only can you choose from any song you played in the first game, now your song library is basically doubled, with this many tracks everyone is bound to find something they would enjoy to play.

Rock Band 2 continues to dominate house parties and hang outs around the county. It remains an excellent package and is still as fun as ever. Just like the first game, this one should be a part of everyone's collection, especially since the new instruments are backwards compatible, and the old instruments are forward compatible. This means that you do not need to shell out for the new instruments, you can just buy the game and get ready to rock!

Rock Band

2012-10-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

Title: Rock Band
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: November 20, 2007
Date Played: Fall 2007-2011
Time Played: 100+ hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
Guitar Hero shook the gaming world. It wasnt the first rhythm game to hit the market, but prior to it's release rhythm games were a niche subculture of gaming (think DDR). Rock Band took what Guitar Hero did and ran with it.

While Guitar Hero allowed you to shred on the guitar to some of the best rock songs ever writeen, Rock Band introduced a whole rock band (pun intended) array of instruments into the mix. Now you can play drums, bass, guitar or sing, or even have a couple of friends come over and rock out for several hours as a full ensemble.

While most rhythm games before it were played by yourself, or with a few onlookers Rock Band made the rhythm genre a must have attraction for any college (or otherwise) party. It is the perfect game to play in such situations because not only could a bunch of people enjoy it together, the rest of the crowd could rock out to the tunes being played.

Overall Rock Band is a pretty amazing experience, aside from playing the real instruments and being a part of a real band this is probably as close as you can get, and with the game to game import feature and an online store with thousands of tracks you will never run out of fresh stuff to play. If you drink just enough, you will feel like a true rock star. Rock Band (any one of them) is a must in every gamer's collection.

Command and Conquer

2012-09-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

Title: Command and Conquer
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: August 31, 1995
Date Played: Summer 1998
Time Played: 30 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
Mid 1990's saw a lot of breakthroughs in gaming. Games were starting to use midi cards and Sound Blasters instead of the PC speaker, developers were starting to utilize filtering and depth techniques to make the games look better, and a new genre was being born, the RTS. One of the first pioneers of this genre was Command and Conquer by Westwood studios.

Command and Conquer came on two discs, one for each faction. Depending on who you wanted to play as (GDI or NOD) you would put the appropriate CD-ROM disc in. Did I mention it was one of the first games to use CD-ROM? That was pretty insane back then. The technilogy seemed incredible, and the fact that virtually within the same physical space we now had about 450 times more storage was crazy!

Each faction had its own story, everything from the intro to the ending was tailored towards that faction. Each mission briefing was accompanied by a full motion video (FMV) clip with real actors portraying the characters in the game. This was super cool and really drew you into the action. Instead of associating with little 10 pixel sprites, you were associating your experience with real people. The jump from 1.44Mb floppies to 600Mb CD-ROMs allowed Westwood to have a lot of video in the game and not worry too much about space. It would have taken them nearly 700 floppies for each copy of the game instead of two CD-ROMs.

The FMVs made the game stand out for me, it felt like I was participating in a cool war movie, and overall production values made Command and Conquer stood head and shoulders above the competition at the time.

Overall Command and Conquer is a great game, it is now a classic, and surprisingly it didnt age too bad. The difficulty curve can be brutal, but that is to be expected from the games 20 years ago. I am definitely going to install DOS-Box sometime in the future and play through it again. It revolutionized the genre, and it's success gave birth to some of my favorite franchises (Red Alert and CnC Generals).

Batman: Arkham Asylum

2012-09-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

Title: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Date Played: September 2009
Time Played: 12 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
Licensed games are generally pretty terrible. Not because the material sucks, but because they are usually made on short deadlines and with strict guidelines as to their content. The guidelines dictated by those that do not know anything about video games. Arkham Asylum, a game using the Batman license came out of no where and showed everyone that yes, licensed games can be amazing.

In Batman: Arkham Asylum as you would expect you play as Batman, and as you would expect the action takes place in Arkham Asylum. It is sort of an Alcatraz style penitentiary on an island off the coast of Gotham City. The game starts with you (Batman) delivering The Joker to rot in a cell on the island, little does anyone know this was The Joker's plan all along. Joker lets all of the island's prisoners escape and it is up to you to subdue and capture them. Throughout the game you will encounter many of the iconic Batman villains. You will wrestle with Bane, escape the grip of Poison Ivy, race with the Killer Croc, brawl with The Joker, and even solve some riddles with The Riddler. Many others make cameo and face to face appearances as well.

What makes Batman: Arkham Asylum such a great game is actually... everything. The graphics are stunning and detailed, the combat is visceral and rewarding, the setting is spot on, interesting, creepy and engaging, and the story is exactly what one would want to have in a Batman game. As Batman you get to use all sorts of gadgets, fly down on top of the villains and traverse all nooks and crannies of the asylum.

I was pleasantly surprised by this game. I would go as far as saying that Batman: Arkham Asylum is in my top three games of 2009. Absolutely everything about it is awesome. I can not recommend this game enough. Go get it, and play it!

Jak 3

2012-09-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Title: Jak 3
Platform Played On: PlayStation 2
Release Date: November 9, 2004
Date Played: Summer 2006
Time Played: 30 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
Jak 2 was a pretty big departure from the first game. Some would argue that it did what it needed to do in order to stay relevant. I guess Naughty Dog (developer) was satisfied with the direction if Jak 2 because they kept almost everything intact from it. Instead they focused on the world layout, controls, story and mission variety. In essence polishing the heck out of the formula they established with Jak 2.

Jak 3 takes place not long after the previous game, it is still the same locale, with some new areas and some changes, but for the most part it remains to be an action platformer that it was in Jak 2.

Jak 3 still feels like a GTA and Ratchet and Clank hybrid set in Jak universe. You still have a hub with missions, and you are still in a futuristic roboty Ratchety city. This time there is a lot more focus on driving, as a large portion of the game depend on it (not my favorite part).

Overall I enjoyed the first two games more than this third installment; however the story itself kept me interested throughout my playthrough. The graphics look better than the previous games and the controls and overall game mechanics (such as death) have been pretty much ironed out to create a smooth and enjoyable experience. I could not care less for the driving sections of the game though, and there are quite a few of them. I am a little bit bummed that Naughty Dog did not push the envelope and make yet another evolution in this franchise. Jak 3 is a good game, but I can not stop thinking that it could have been something much more.

Jak 2

2012-09-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

Title: Jak 2
Platform Played On: PlayStation 2
Release Date: October 14, 2003
Date Played: Summer 2006
Time Played: 30 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
The first game in the Jak and Daxter series was an action platformer. While Jak 2 retains a little bit of platforming it has been clearly influenced by other successful games that came out during it's development.

The entire gameplay structure has been molded into kind of, sort of a GTA clone. The story takes place 300 years after the events of the original game, and instead of being comprised of separate diverse levels majority of the game takes place in a huge industrial city. It is structured exactly as you would expect a GTA clone to be. You grab missions around the city and complete them in order to advance the story.

The other clear influence is the Ratchet and Clank series, and that is not surprising. Naughty Dog and Insomniac are sister companies and both games use the same engine. So now instead of platforming around floating rocks you are in a huge city with your GTA style mini map and vehicles and Ratchet and Clank style robots.

Jak 2 is a completely different game from the first one. While it is more modern, personally I am tired of GTA clones. Generally a GTA game has so much content that you are satisfied until the next one comes out, so playing all of these clones can and does get boring at times, partly due to their inferior quality to the real thing. That being said, I played Jak 2 for its characters and its story, which is more engaging and enjoyable than the first game. Mostly due to the fact that there are a lot more things going on, there are more characters, and more events. The first game's success and several years of development allowed Naughty Dog to make the game look better and to have more cut scenes to tell the story.

Overall I enjoyed Jak 2, to me it was a lighthearted GTA set in a different universe. It was interesting to find out what happens to the characters after the events of the first game. I played all 3 Jak games in succession, and enjoyed all of them. It seems like Jak 2 can be enjoyed by those that played the original and by those that are new to the series.

Trials HD

2012-09-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Title: Trials HD
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: August 12, 2009
Date Played: February 13, 2012
Time Played: 2 hours
Completed (Y/N): No
Score: 3/5

Opinion:
Trials HD is a side scrolling puzzle/platforming/racing hybrid. The main objective is to get from the start of the track to the finish (a few hundred yards) in the fastest time possible. The track is not a straight line however, it is a jumbled mess of planks, re-bars, boxes, tires, steel beams etc... thats where the puzzle and platforming elements come into play. You need to navigate these increasingly hard levels to progress through the game.

I am going to start off by saying that Trials is not my type of game. I did like Excite Bike from the NES days, but that was more because of my childhood fascination with motocross. While I do enjoy spending a few minutes with Trials, ultimately the drive long, fly high, wheelies and flips end and you find yourself spending hours doing hundreds of attempts to make it a few feet on the track. This type of gameplay is simply too frustrating for me, and feels like a huge waste of time.

What makes Trials HD popular is its graphical presentation and near perfect controls. The game's presentation is excellent, it is very detailed and the physics model is fun to watch. A lot of it is also wanting to beat the level to see how ridiculous the next one is.

While Trials HD is a good game, and I personally know a bunch of people that enjoy the tedium of it. I will be the first one to admit that it is not the game for me. The frustration induced by my compulsiveness to get perfect scores on every level will simply drive me insane.

Metroid: Zero Mission

2012-09-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

Title: Metroid: Zero Mission
Platform Played On: GameBoy Advance
Release Date: February 9, 2004
Date Played: 2004
Time Played: 7 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
Metroid games helped define the "MetroidVania" genre, and are some of the best Nintendo-made games. The franchise has nearly a dozen games and all of them are in the good to excellent range as far as scores are concerned.

Metroid: Zero Mission is a retelling of the story from the original game released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. For me it was a great way to play the original without having to suffer 1986 8bit NES graphics. It was actually one of the first Metroid games I have ever played. Not sure why, but just like Zelda it never made it to my NES in the early 90's. Perhaps these franchises were too good and gamers did not want to give them up or sell them. I actually didnt find out about the franchise until the late 90's.

While the story in Zero Mission follows that of the original game, the layout and some sections are not clones of the 1986 game. Some iconic rooms are copies with the upgraded graphics (such as the Mother Brain fight), which give a great nostalgic vibe. This was a great design decision because for the hardcore fans there were still new things to discover in this re-imagining, things such as the zero suit Samus. The first time anyone was able to play as her without her armor.

Gameplay-wise Zero Mission is exactly what you would expect from a Metroid game. Explore a maze like base, get new power-ups to gain access to new areas. The controls and graphics are solid. Metroid: Zero Mission has to be one of the best games released for the GBA. It is an excellent entry in the series (even though it covers the story we already know). And having this experience on the go in your hands make it an even better proposition.

To this day this is THE way to play the original Metroid game (unless you emulate it on an iOS or Andreoid device I guess). But with Nintendo DS's support for GBA cartridges I would say this game is totally worth a purchase. Alternatively you can play the original NES version via the Virtual Console on the Wii, 3DS and Wii U. However I think the updated graphics are totally worth playing Zero Mission over the original.

Metroid (1986) and Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) Mother Brain fight comparison.

Aladdin

2012-09-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

Title: Aladdin
Platform Played On: Sega Genesis
Release Date: November 11, 1993
Date Played: 1995
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
Back in the 16bit era it was rare to own more than four or five games. So you owned some, your friends owned some. You would swap them for a few weeks at a time and that was the way to play a lot of games. This also meant that the five games you got to own for the entire generation of consoles had to be cherry picked, they had to be the best of the best. For me Aladdin was one of my five.

One of my most distinct memories with Aladdin was when my father and his friend were walking by on the way to the balcony to grab a smoke and they stopped by the 10 year old me, looked at the screen, and said... look at those graphics, pretty soon its going to look like real life. They were right to be amazed, for its time Aladdin looked pretty spectacular, the animations were fluid and since the only point of reference is the Disney movie everything looked hand drawn and basically one for one with the movie. In fact you could argue that the graphics were already life-like, since they looked exactly what you would expect them to look like.

The gameplay in Aladdin consisted of mostly action platforming. You can tell that the developer put a lot more work into the game than they necessarily needed to, the animations alone probably had more than double the amount of frames than most other games at the time, and just extra work of including little funny things like a male/female and genie bathroom out in the desert and little genie cameos throughout the game made it a really likable experience. Every level looked very unique with what seems to be entirely new assets, the soundtrack consisted of all of the favorite tunes from the film. Aladdin on the Genesis (or as I knew it Mega Drive) was great!

Kiddish or not (doesnt matter anyways... I was a kid at the time), Aladdin was amazing. To me it was like being part of one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. I kept playing it over and over again. I think we can look back and say that it was a really good Genesis game, and everyone that got to play it at the time is likely to have a good memory of it. Of course there is no reason to play it now, other than for nostalgic call backs to the childhood years...

General Chaos

2012-09-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

Title: General Chaos
Platform Played On: Sega Genesis
Release Date: 1994
Date Played: 1996-1997
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): No
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
My early teens were spent playing games on at the time amazing Sega Genesis. One of the games I happened to play was General Chaos, a satirical strategy game similar in some aspects to the modern day Team Fortress.

At the time I hardly knew 20 words in English, and so the campaign was of little interest to me. I spent most of my time with General Chaos playing skirmish matches against the computer or against my friend Alexei Gavrish.

The premise is fairly simple. Pick a team of 5 soldiers, each specializing in a firearm. They could use machine guns, bazookas, flame throwers, demolitions and explosives. After picking your team you are put on the battlefield. Your goal is to defeat the opposing team, also consisting of 5 soldiers. While your squad uses their weapons when at range, if you manage to get in melee range then your soldiers can kick and punch their opponent.

Developers of General Chaos did a good job with the art style, each character had his own personality. My favorite was the Chuck Norris looking dude.

Now that I think about it, Team Fortress 2 reminds me a lot of General Chaos, the sense of humor is very similar and the character classes are basically the same. The one major difference is that TF2 is an FPS and General Chaos is an isometric RTS game. I wouldnt be surprised if the original Team Fortress concept was at lest somewhat inspired by General Chaos.

I really enjoyed General Chaos; however I never got to own a copy, so once my friend wanted his game back I had to give it up. Nevertheless I really enjoyed that game, even without knowing English it managed to make me laugh and have fun either vs the CPU or vs my friends. While there is no reason to go back and play it now, it will forever be in my memory as one of my favorite Sega Genesis games.

Puzzle Craft

2012-09-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

Title: Puzzle Craft
Platform Played On: iPhone
Release Date: August 16, 2012
Date Played: August-September 2012
Time Played: 30+ hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
The iOS store is flooded with 99 cent junk. It is rare to come across a good game, and there are very few good games that have been made specifically for the iOS platform. Most of the decent stuff are ports of the existing games. This is slowly starting to change though. As the developers are starting to figure out what works and what doesn't on iOS. Puzzle Craft is one of these example where the developer has figured it out.

Your main objective in Puzzle Craft is to build the most awesome village that ever was. Majority of the gameplay takes place via a connect more than 3 of the same thing puzzle game. By connecting more at the same time you can get better things. For example connecting 10 wheat will yield a carrot. You can then hire villagers to reduce the amount you need for the next tier. For example, after hiring 3 "reapers" you will need only 7 wheat to get a carrot. This principle applies to all resources you harvest. Eventually you will start getting pests and wild animals. For example rats eat your wheat and wolves eat your chickens. Overall the game is structured as a basic form of supply and demand chain. You pay the farmers to collect wheat and meat for you, which you in turn use to feed the miners that gather rocks and minerals, which you use to build better buildings and expand your village.

While Puzzle Craft has an in app store where you can buy gold for real life money it is completely optional, and the games makes sure you feel that way. You are provided with plenty of supplies and gold by solving in game puzzles (in essence playing the game). You are given more than you would need to play the game normally. But if you do want to just rush through it you still have that option. Very few games with in app transactions manage to pull this off. Most of them try to get you hooked at first but then put you in a situation where unless you spend real life money you will have to deal with a grindfest.

Puzzle Craft is the type of a game that you play over a long period of time. I can see myself going back to it for a few minutes a day for at least the next several months. It was a great way to make the flight from Cartagena, Colombia to Ft. Lauderdale, FL seem like a 30 minute trip. Puzzle Craft is 99 cents, and in my opinion worth every penny.

Portal 2

2012-09-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Title: Portal 2
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: April 19, 2011
Date Played: April 2011
Time Played: 12 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
Portal 1 made quite a splash when it was released as part of the Orange Box in 2007. It instantaneously gained a huge fanbase, which undoubtedly sent thousands of emails and post cards to Valve headquarters demanding a sequel. With such a great success of Portal 1 it was a matter of time before we saw Portal 2.

Unlike its predecessor Portal 2 came out as a standalone game, a complete experience with a full featured campaign, co-op and challenges. It even has a level editor (PC only), in which you can create your own test chambers.

Portal 2's main campaign takes place sometime after the events of the first game. You are still a test subject; however the world around you has changed due to events that would be considered a spoiler. You quickly meet a companion (Wheatley) and start your journey to the surface. Wheatley has got to be my favorite character of 2011. His lines are incredibly well written and he made me laugh quite a few times as I played through the campaign.

While Portal 1 is mostly based around moving from one puzzle to another, Portal 2, while still emphasizing puzzle solving as the main progression tool has a completely different objective. Instead of moving on to the next puzzle, your objective is to get the hell out. This coupled with the excellent job Valve has done with the environment creates an incredibly tense and interesting narrative. It never becomes dull or boring, and the story never stops intriguing with its twists and quite literally dives (in a good way). Portal 2 introduces quite a few new mechanics to keep puzzles interesting and complicated.

When you finish the single player campaign, there is a whole another campaign that you can play with a friend either over the internet or split screen (on consoles). You play as one of two robots and cooperatively solve test chambers. It is one of the best co-op experiences I have ever had in any game and on any platform.

Portal 2 is one of the best games of 2011, and is a must play for every gamer. The source engine looks as good as ever, and the story will pull you in no matter what kind of genre interests you. I couldn't get enough of Portal 2, and am hoping that we'll see Portal 3 before 2016.

Portal

2012-08-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

Title: Portal
Platform Played On: Xbox 360, PC
Release Date: October 10, 2007
Date Played: October 2007, Fall 2011
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
Portal is a Valve acquired student project released as part of the Orange Box. It meant to add value to the Half Life 2 package, but shortly after Orange Box was release Portal transformed from a cool filler to a global phenomenon.

Portal is a puzzle game. The idea is to get to the exit via the use of two portals. You place an entrance in one spot, and an exit in another. This creates a fun dynamic mechanic never before seen in a video game, at least not quite like this. You are given freedom of putting the portal on virtually any surface, even allowing you to put one directly above and one below you, and fall infinitely through them.

The campaign takes you through a couple of dozen of puzzle rooms, also known as "Test Chambers". As you progress through them you are addressed by Glados, an autonomous computer system. Glados is brilliantly written and brings a ton of quotes to the pop culture scene, such as "Cake is a lie". And just when you start to feel like you are getting to the end of the game, Portal takes an unprecedented turn and unveils a pretty cool plot twist.

Portal is one of the most innovative, and fun puzzle games to come out in a long time. It is fun all around and should be experienced by every gamer young and old.

Tropico 3

2012-08-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

Title: Tropico 3
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: October 20, 2009
Date Played: Spring-Summer 2012
Time Played: 54 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:

I have never played Tropico 1 or 2, I never even knew that such a series existed until Tropico 3 made a splash with several podcasts that I listen to. The main appeal of the series is the fact that instead of trying to be a good mayor as is encouraged in other games (Sim City for example), in Tropico 3 you play the role of a dictator. Basically a 180 degree turn from the typical.

Tropico 3 consists of a sandbox mode which offers exactly what you would expect. An endless supply of random scenarios and missions. However even without that Tropico 3 features a lengthy campaign consisting of 15 missions, which took me 54 hours to complete.

Each mission is its own island with its own objectives, bonuses, restrictions and caveats. The mission objectives vary from staying in power for a certain amount of time to making your island nation financially viable. You will find yourself dealing with disgruntled citizens either by appeasing them or by murdering them and their families in cold blood. You will find yourself dealing with the capitalists and communists, nationalists and the church. Tropico is flexible enough to let you run your country in whatever way you choose to. From praising yourself in the elections to outright banning election. From bribing influential people to allying with the Soviets or the US. Needless to say, Tropico 3 is a fun strategy sim game.

Every level starts out about the same. It is the 50's and you find yourself for one reason or another as El Presidente of a small island nation. You build roads, housing, farms and other infrastructure, while at the same time try and set up an export economy by exporting tobacco or oil or gold or iron or whatever your island can produce in order to make money, and if you got nothing then perhaps it is a good tourist destenation? Tropico 3 does a good job at giving you choices (although some scenarios funnel you towards using one resource or another to go with the story line). Once you establish your nation's infrastructure you need to start worrying about crime, pollution and other needs of the citizens. Ignorance can lead to revolts, coupes or revolutions. And what dictator would want any of those? You need to keep an army ready to defend you and your Castro hat from any threat.

I had a great deal of fun with Tropico 3. I felt that it is an excellent twist on the Sim City series that makes the genre more interesting and also makes you feel like you have a lot more choices in how to play and what to do. If you like Sim City style of game I would definitely recommend checking out Tropico 3 (or 4), they are some of the best games in their genre. I plan to jump into the expansion "Absolute Power" fairly soon.

BioShock

2012-08-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Title: BioShock
Platform Played On: Xbox 360/PC
Release Date: August 21, 2007
Date Played: August-September 2007
Time Played: 20 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
BioShock came out a couple of days after I purchased my first Xbox 360. It was one of the two games to push me over the edge with the purchase (other being Mass Effect). I could not wait to put the disc in to my "Blade Dashboard" Xbox, and press play.

BioShock starts with a question and ends with a choice. Is it a choice? That is the question. Would you kindly discover it for yourself?

One thing is certain, BioShock has an incredible ability to pull you in. The moment I descended into Ruputre via the bathysphere I found myself in a new world, a world full of questions. These were genuine questions one might have when watching a very interesting movie or reading a very interesting novel for the first time. I found myself lost in dripping, frozen in time halls of Rupture, seeking answers and in turn finding more questions. The highly detailed environments pulled me in, I found myself inspecting every ornament, every crevice. And as I progressed through the story the constant addition of new weapons and elements kept me engaged.

BioShock does an excellent job at storytelling, it knows when to throw you a bone, and when to pull away. It knows when to make a reveal and when to fool you. And once you beat it, there is no doubt that you will want to talk about it.

It is easy to misinterpret BioShock as a shooter. Shooting is simply a vessel for its incredibly rich setting and it's amazing story. It is so much more than a shooter. It is a movie, a novel, a place, a setting. It is amazing.

If I could give BioShock a 5+ out of 5, I would. It is one of very few games ever made that I would argue is firstly a piece of art and secondly a piece of entertainment. I envy those that have yet to play it. I hope to experience something as powerful as BioShock again some day.

Bioshock in my opinion is a perfect game. It is one of my most favorite games of all time, and I feel that it should be experienced by everyone, gamer and non-gamer alike. Would you kindly go play it? And then re-read this post. I promise a surprise :)

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

2012-08-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

Title: Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
Platform Played On: PlayStation 2
Release Date: December 3, 2001
Date Played: Summer 2006
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
Jak and Daxter is a PlayStation 2 exclusive from the now legendary developer Naughty Dog (the company behind the Uncharted and Crash Bandicoot series).

Jak and Daxter follows the story of a careless and silly duo, who after discovering that the sages from around the world have been kidnapped have to embark on an epic journey in attempt to rescue them and save the world.

Jak and Daxter is a platformed similar to Naughty Dog's sister studio's Insomniac's Ratchet and Clank. You will find your self double jumping, platforming and collecting items in order to gain enhancements or progress through the levels. Once in a while Jak and his little buddy Daxter encounter a boss, who needs to be defeated in order to progress the story.

Jak and Daxter are likable characters with their own quirks and one liners. While playing through the story is fun, and navigation feels as solid as in any other top notch platformer, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy does nothing revolutionary. It is simply a fun gameto play through. It's themes, colors and gameplay are definitely more geared towards younger audience; however it can be equally fun for anyone.

The series was just re-released as an HD collection for the PlayStation 3. If you want to check out this classic from Naughty Dog, that version is definitely the one to go with. It looks much better, and you get 3 games for a very good price.

Company of Heroes

2012-08-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

Title: Company of Heroes
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: September 13, 2006
Date Played: Fall 2006
Time Played: 20 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
As a fan of real time strategy I have seen plenty of them over the years; however nothing could prepare me for Company of Heroes, it redefined the genre for me.

Right around the turn of the century real time strategy games made a transition from sprite based to polygonal models. While it allowed for in engine cinematics the graphical quality and detail suffered a lot. The units became blocky and looked pretty rough compared to the hand drawn 2d counterparts. While I dreaded the shift, it was inevitable. It made it a lot easier to make games and more and polygonal everything was the future anyways, so I just had to deal with it.

Along comes 2006 and the real time strategy community is rocked by the newly released Company of Heroes from the legendary studio Relic. CoH took a new approach to the RTS genre, it focused more on individual units, and taking them through war riddled Europe as opposed to focusing on base building and spamming units. This invoked much more strategy as each and every unit needed to be micro managed. Each unit had its own real life-like role. It is not just infantry, light armor, heavy armor. Instead its a grenadier, with his specific function and role on the battlefield, a machine gunner, with his own role, I guess the depth of each unit could be compared to classes in class based games (Team Fortress, MMOs), etc..).

The story is done through the in engine cinematics, and oh my god did they look amazing in 2006! The graphics looked as good as in the best looking first person shooters of the time, with each soldier's face, uniform, and equipment being unique. It was stunning to see a scene play out and then have the camera simply zoom out to the standard RTS view. The units looked incredibly detailed, the environments were destructible, and the story was very well told. Company of Heroes set a new benchmark in the real time strategy genre, just like Command and Conquer and Star Craft did in their day.

Company of Heroes remains one of my most favorite RTS games of all time. It was this game that changed my mind about polygonal transition of the genre. It was the first time where I felt that the 3d models were equal, if not better looking than the 2d sprite based games. It was the first time when I played an RTS and felt like I was playing a movie. I felt like I was in the heart of Europe during World War 2, it was like being inside of Saving Private Ryan.

Company of Heroes is a must play for any RTS fan. It is still one of the best games in it's genre and will likely remain there for a while since we hardly ever see new RTS games. That being said, I can not wait for the recently announced sequel. It has been 7 years since CoH hit the store shelves, and we are well overdue for more.

Civilization 2

2012-08-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Title: Civilization 2
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: February 29, 1996
Date Played: 1999
Time Played: 20+ hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
Civilization is one of the earliest computer strategy games. It is known for its depth, gameplay variety, and games of epic proportions.

When I got my first computer at home (a Pentium 2 with 365Mgz CPU and 128Mb of RAM sporting an 8mb ATI card) my dad brought a couple of games from Russia in his final move to the US. Alpha Centauri, Star Craft, Test Drive 5, and Civilization 2. Civ 2 was the fist Civ game I have played.

Right away Civilization was different from any other game. There was no campaign, the entirety of the game took place on a randomly generated map. Although it was a bit disappointing that there was no narrative to follow, other aspects of the game more than made up for it. The massive skill tree and progression from stone-club wielding nomads to space age nuke dropping bureaucrats was something I have never seen before. The ability to take over the world in games taking weeks, months and potentially even years felt epic. Not to mention the FMV advisers that help you rule your nation. The advisers were amazing, they would change their clothes throughout the eras and even though some of them looked cheesy it was fun just to watch them (keep in mind that in 1996 seeing FMV on a computer was still pretty radical.) I really liked them, and was bummed that they were taken out of the subsequent iterations.

If you played any of the Civilization games then you know how Civilizaiton 2 plays. It is the game that made the series famous and is a beloved classic by most. The series has been iterated upon many times since then with Civilization 5 (2011) being a masterpiece, so unless the nostalgia bug bites you, there is no reason to go back and play Civ 2. Nevertheless it will forever remain in the video game history as an amazing game that we all enjoyed in the 90's.

GTA: Vice City

2012-08-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

Title: GTA: Vice City
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: March 12, 2003
Date Played: Summer 2003
Time Played: 30+ hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
Grand Thief Auto's move to 3d took everyone by surprise. A lot of people bought PlayStation 2's just to play it. And a year after GTA3 defined what it meant to be an open world 3rd person shooter Rockstar (developer) used the same engine to make and release GTA: Vice City.

Set in the 80's Vice City takes everything GTA 3 pioneered, puts a fresh coat of paint on it and improves on almost every single mechanic. This was possible due to the fact that the engine was already made which allowed the developers to spend the entire development cycle on perfecting the gameplay experience instead of making things function properly under the hood (this was all done during GTA3 development). The result was amazing!

The basic premise remains the same... start as a nobody and make your way all the way up to being the lord of all criminal activity in the city by eliminating all other dons and mob honchos.

While the basic gameplay is as awesome as it was in GTA3, there are a lot more cars, bikes, and mission types in Vice City. Not to mention the addition of planes and helicopters and the absolute best soundtrack in any game ever.

There isnt much to say about Vice City. It is basically a better version of GTA3, and out of the 3 games released with that engine (GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas) this is by far my favorite one. The 80's atmosphere is welcoming and the great soundtrack is a good mood setter.

No doubt that Vice City has aged and GTA 4 has eclipsed it in all categories; however if you want to go back and play the games that brought this genre to the forefront of gaming then GTA: Vice City is the one to go for.

Asura's Wrath

2012-08-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

Title: Asura's Wrath
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: February 21, 2012
Date Played: July 2012
Time Played: 6 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
If I had to describe Asura's Wrath in one word, that word would have to be "insanity!"

Asura's Wrath is like no other game ever made. It is anime at its finest in a video game form. While there have been numerous anime series adapted into video game form, they all tend to do just that, adapt the motion picture to a video game. In other words you basically get a typical fighting, or flying or adventure game with the characters from that particular anime. Asura's Wrath takes a completely opposite approach, it molds the video game into the motion picture.

Asura's Wrath takes about four to six hours to experience once. There are numerous mechanics that would make you want to play it several times, but I didnt feel the urge to do so and only played it once on normal. Ninety percent of the time you will spend watching a mind blowing anime movie rendered entirely in engine. The reason I say anime movie is because only anime gets as insane as Asura's Wrath (the art style also reinforces the anime motif). It has everything, from a planet being pierced all the way through by a sword to a human sized guy destroying someone larger than the planet. While watching the story unfold you perform context sensitive quick time events. What is unique about them is the fact that even if you fail the quick time event the story just keeps going. In essence you can not really lose (at least not during the quick time events). In between the story beats you will find yourself fighting some creatures in a God of War style beat em up. However these portions are very small.

As you make your way through the game you will basically watch a season of an anime show, it is broken up into 19 episodes (plus DLC) and even features commercial breaks half way through the episodes (not to worry though there aren't actual ads).

Asura's Wrath utilizes the Unreal Engine 3, and it looks phenomenal. The characters are very detailed and unique looking. The presentation as a whole is very well executed with context sensitive quick time events actually making sense and the button placement on the screen actually reinforcing the action being performed. Presentation in Asura's wrath is great, both visual and sound. It is equally enjoyable to watch as it is to play.

I am not a huge fan of anime; however I really enjoyed Asura's Wrath. It does have a few things that rubbed me the wrong way. For instance the fact that you have to beat the final level 2 times, and the excuse for doing so is extremely lame. And the fact that in order to get the true full ending you have to buy the DLC in addition to buying the game. Nevertheless Asura's Wrath is worth a least a rental. It's episodic nature makes it easy to pick up for 10-15 minutes and its anime craziness keeps you and whoever is watching engaged. The story is fairly decent (although nonsensical).

Bottom line is that there has never been a game such as this one, and everyone should at least give it a rental. If you like anime, I think you will love Asura's Wrath, but even if you dont give a damn about anime you should check it out for its uniqueness.

Splinter Cell

2012-08-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

Title: Splinter Cell
Platform Played On: PC/PS3
Release Date: February 19, 2003
Date Played: Fall 2003, Summer 2012
Time Played: 15 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
I became a fan of the Tom Clancy games after playing Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, it featured tactics I have never seen in a video game before and it was also my first ever online multiplayer experience. After seeing the trailers for this new game called Splinter Cell I could not wait to get my hands on it.

It was the fall of 2003, I have just moved into the dorms at UCI with my AMD Athlon XP 2.4Ghz, 1GB of RAM and a GeForce 6800 computer running Splinter Cell. I remember Splinter Cell looking incredible at that time. The infra red vision looked just as real is in the movies, the shadows and light were like nothing Ive ever seen before. The same thing could be said about my computer, it refused to run the game at more than 30FPS. Splinter Cell was a lot for a PC to handle.

You are Sam Fisher, a member of an elite special forces unit tasked with uncovering the truth behind Georgian (country) president's attempt to start World War 3. You are equipped with a silenced pistol and a rifle, night vision/infra red goggles, explosives and other gadgets. Your number one weapon though is stealth.

I played Splinter Cell throughout the first quarter of college. Eventually though I got to a very frustrating part with landmines that can only be seen with infra red vision, and the spot lights that could not be seen with infra red on. After attempting that section a few times I ended up giving up on it. If only I knew how close to the end I was. I was literally an hour or so from finishing the game. And it took 9 years and re-release of the Splinter Cell on the PS3 for me to sit down and play it all the way through, this time actually finishing it.

Splinter Cell immediately reminded me of the Thief series. Similarly the main focus of the game is sneaking around and accomplishing your objective without alerting anyone. While extremely satisfying when pulled of, this kind of game design can be very frustrating unless balanced just right.

Splinter Cell does suffer from a few frustrating design decisions. There are a few missions where you are not allowed to kill anyone, while yes you are a spy, even James Bond is allowed to kill people when he absolutely needs to. And the way the missions are structured it can be frustrating making it almost all the way through and then getting caught, and be unable to do anything about it.

The most annoying and dumbest design decision though is when even though you have killed every single person in the whole level, if any of one corpse is in the light, the alarm will go off once you get a certain distance away from it. In other words, you have to hide every singe body no matter the likelihood of it being discovered. Killed someone in a back alley and thew them down the well? Great... does a little beam of light shine in the well? Welp it doesn't matter alarm is going to go off! Killed someone in an abandoned warehouse bathroom? Kill everyone else within 10 mile radius? Great! Are any of their bodies in any sort of light? You lose! Its so silly that Ubisoft (developer) would implement such a mechanic. It would have been OK if you were not limited to a certain number of alarms going of. I found myself in a situation where if I triggered the alarm only one more time I would lose, and with everyone dead just because I left someone's toe in a non pitch black room the alarm would off, even though there is no one left to even press the damn alarm button.

Splinter Cell is a very rigid experience. There is one path and one way to do everything, and if you stray from that path you either fail the mission or die. A few times I ran into game breaking situations, such as needing to use a specific weapon and not having bullets for it, or having to use the spy mic and having it not work.

Overall though Splinter Cell is a good game. At the time it looked stunning, which helps it to still look good today. It is still fairly unique and is indeed fun most of the time. I am not sure how much benefit there is from going back to this particular release considering the fact that there have been numerous sequels that have tremendeously improved the formula. But if you want to see the roots of the Splinter Cell franchise, or simply cant get enough of Sam Fisher, by all means play this game. I would recommend the PC version or the HD release on the PS3.

League of Evil

2012-08-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

Title: League of Evil
Platform Played On: iPhone
Release Date: February 3, 2011
Date Played: Spring/Summer 2012
Time Played: 5 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
If you have played Super Meat Boy then you know exactly how League of Evil plays. It is a side scrolling platformer in which you must rely on speed and quick reflexes in order to be successful, not to mention that you need to be ready to die A LOT and take a lot of retries.

The game consists of over a hundred levels each taking no more than 20 seconds to complete (my average is 14 seconds per level after 1040+ deaths). However you will find yourself dying at least a dozen times before perfecting each level, which makes each level last at least a couple of minutes. Each level has a 3 star rating system which is based on the time it took you to complete it. In addition to the stars each level has a briefcase as as a secondary objective, so in essence each level should be played at least 2 times in order to get everything.

Although death is very common in League of Evil, the game does not cease to be fun. The 8bit art is a pleasure to look at and the stylized upbeat 8 bit music keeps the rhythm. The controls feel solid and very responsive and the character pace is well balanced. In addition to this every time you die a shadow of your run gets recorded, and then played back as you make new attempts. So by the time you do your 30th attempt at the level you can see 29 of your shadows running by your side, falling, missing and dying. This looks super cool, however I had to turn this feature off because it would make the game lag a little bit on the iPhone 4, and on some levels it was nearly impossible to see myself with 50+ clones running around.

The controls in League of Evil are amazing, although virtual, they are as precise as a physical joystick and feel natural to use. Controls make or break this type of game, and I am glad that they absolutely nailed them. Great job!

League of Evil is one of the best executed games on the iOS. It is addictive and fun, it allows for short 30 second play sessions as well as provides content to last for hours and hours of gameplay. It is a great game to have on the go and a cool game to show off to your friends. Since its release it had several map packs added to it, as well as a sequel. I would definitelly recommend League of Evil to every iPhone owner.