Drake's Reviews

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Review

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 20:42:00 +0000

Hey Guys, Drake here again. Kept you waiting huh? Let me start by saying that I miss David Hayter as Snake's voice actor, although Kiefer Sutherland is not bad you can tell the difference in Snake's voice easily. Now let's get on to the review. I remember the price tag for this game being $60 when I first asked about it, a couple of months later it dropped down to $40, then finally it settled at $30. A lot of people called it a glorified demo. I think Revengeance was a middle finger for MGS fans as it was only a 5 hour game with a $60 price tag and not much innovation. Why do I say this about ground zeroes, well let's do some math. MGS is half the price of Revengeance, but you can actually finish the game in 10 MINUTES! No I am not kidding, this is one of the reasons I did not put a video up because I do not want to spoil the game for anyone. Now beating it in 10 minutes does require you to do nothing but the main mission, but come on, there are other games out there that give you at least 10 hours of content if you forgo side mission and things like that. Sure when you finish the game you get some SIDE-OPS which are basically mini missions. Before I continue down this route lets move to the good parts of the game. The controls are awesome, then again MGS in my humble opinion has always had good controls. The weapon selection is quite limited but you have to understand that this is a stealth game, weapons are rarely a factor in this game, I think the most important part of the game were explosives to take care of some armored vehicles and Anti-Air weapons. Of course the Sleeping Dart gun plays a part if you want to get a good score in the game. The CQC makes a return in MGS V and it is way better than in previous games, it doesn't take much to knock out an enemy if you hit him just right, it's hard to explain here but for those of you who choose to play the game you will understand. There is innovation in Ground Zeroes but it falls really short of being a game, there are absolutely no boss fights, nothing is really explained of the story besides the fact that you have to rescue two people, and honestly it felt more like DLC than a game. I am a big fan of the Batman Arkham series but was never a fan of the challenge maps that were constantly released as DLC, MGS V feels exactly like that, like a DLC challenge map that I made the mistake of paying $30 for. I say it was a mistake because when Phantom Pain comes out in EARLY 2015 if the leaks are to be believed it will probably be bundled with GROUND ZEROES to make it one complete game. Yes readers they gave us a demo, the actual good game will not release for about a year if not more. Do I think Ground Zeroes brings something new to the table for the MGS series, yes, yes it does. Do I think Kojima could've just had this in the main game instead of making an extra $30 off of us fans, most definitely. Do I recommend you go out and buy this game? HELL NO! I think it is important to send a message to all video game companies that we are not money mills for them. I won't lie I didn't exactly pay the $30 I simply traded in a game I was not playing and got it free, technically I got $5 back since my game was worth more. I will however encourage you guys to borrow it if a friend already bought it, or rent it, believe me you won't spend more than a day playing this.

Drake's Reviews Rating... JUST A GLORIFIED DEMO, they keep telling us it's a prologue to the game, but if I can finish it in 10 minutes it's just a $30 demo, and no I don't care that it will give me extra items for Phantom Pain, it is not so much giving as it is paying $30 to have some extra stuff in a game I will pay $60 for later on. Steer clear of this one unless you really must absolutely have it.

A clothing line inspired by videogame characters and superheroes?

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:33:00 +0000

Yes indeed, we have decided that we want clothes inspired by Video games and superheroes, wanna help us make it a reality? You can check out our Kickstarter page and share the link with your friends or pledge into our clothing line! This is going to be awesome.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/961937552/drakes-empire-clothing

Movie Review GI Joe: Retaliation

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:25:00 +0000

WATCH THE TRAILER IN THE LINK BELOW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwS3jafO_9s

If you enjoyed the first GI JOE movie and are more than ready to give Retaliation a try then let me bring you some bad news. Sorry but as a GI JOE fan I expected more from this sequel. First of all the only returning characters from the first film are Duke, Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow and Cobra Commander, and Zartan. This would not be a problem if we got an explanation as to why the other characters are missing but we get no such thing in this sequel. The premise of GI JOE: Retaliation is that Zartan now disguised as the US President is looking to free Cobra Commander and help him use a satellite weapon called ZEUS to force every other country in the world to submit to Cobra as this weapon is 10 times more powerful than any nuke on earth and it has none of the drawbacks like nuclear fallout. In order to do this, Zartan as the president orders the GI JOE team to be terminated, and here is where the movie really deviates from what GI JOE is. In the first movie we saw that the GI JOE's had an awesome base, with highly advanced technological equipment. This time around GI JOE is pretty much guns, guns and more guns with none of the gadgets or characters that GI JOE is really known for. SPOILERS ALERT SPOILER ALERT!

This movie was supposed to be released last year, but when test audiences found out that Duke the leader of the JOE's played by Channing Tatum died in the movie they did not like that, so the studio set the movie back a year in order to change that. Duke doesn't die in the first 5 minutes of the movie, instead he dies about 10 minutes in, effectively reducing the GI JOE team to 3 members, none of which where in the last movie, of course they get joined by Snake Eyes later on who adds one more to their team in the form of Jinx, but by then the movie has pretty much everything that made the last one great. I saw the movie in 3D and I have to say that it doesn't exactly make it better but the scenes that are done in 3D are very well done in my opinion. The addition of Bruce Willis is welcome as he actually adds to the mood of the movie, and if you're a fan of the GI JOE comics you will recognize him as the original GI JOE. Unfortunately this also turns the GI JOE movie into a movie that is more alike to DIE HARD than to the original GI JOE.

Although the plot is a good one, it is very poorly executed and not as fun as the original. It feels as if the movie was thrown together quickly in order to cash in, and has very little redeeming qualities even with the new characters, the movie could pretty much be called Snake Eyes and friends, because the only real good action scenes are his.

If you have a choice I would avoid this movie for now unless you want to watch it in 3D, but overall it left me and other viewers desiring for much more and it never delivered much on anything. The characters are poorly developed, even the ones from the previous movies, the fact that most of the originals do not return and the fact that the de facto leader of the JOE's Duke dies really destroys the GI JOE franchise for me, not to mention they went ahead and turned it into an action movie with some GI JOE characters thrown in there.

Drake's Reviews Score 6 out of 10

Is the Future of Nintendo at Stake?

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:57:00 +0000

I have previously reported on the fact that Nintendo was not making much progress in the console wars due to their focus on kids games and the fact that for every ONE good game they made they allowed about 50 really bad ones to come out that are considered trash ware in order to get parents to buy games for their kids. Now as you can see by this video Nintendo is now losing the console war badly as their new console is still behind consoles that have been out for years. Do you guys think that this means that pretty soon Nintendo will definitely die out? Will they end up just making games and handhelds?

Playstation 4 Announcement In February 20th Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 06:10:00 +0000

While the picture above is just for illustrative purposes and is in no way the actual look of the PS4, the February 20th PS4 announcement date is very real. Sony is holding a press conference in New York on this date and it is to announce their new console which rumors say is slated for an October 2013 release! While not much information is available there are a lot of rumors circulating and here is a list of some of them.

PS4 Specs:

CPU: 4x Dual-Core AMD64 "Bulldozer"

Storage: 2.5 inch SATA HDD (160 GB) hard drive (in Developer Console, not likely for the retail version)

 Memory: 8GB DDR5 RAM

 Graphics: AMD R10xx with 2.2GB of VRAM

 HDMI: 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p

 Game Media: 8x Blu-ray BD-ROM (54-128GB of data) at 36MB/s

 Primary Media: Blu-ray 8x, DVD, Compact Disc, Download

 Backward Compatibility: Unlikely, maybe for PSN purchases

 I/O Ports: 4x USB 3.0, 2x Ethernet; Audio Output: HDMI & Optical, 2.0, 5.1 & 7.1 channels

Rumors also speculate that the controller will have a sort of touch pad, and that the PS4 will be CLOUD integrated. While all these things seem to be fine and dandy it is still being said that the system will not be backwards compatible and not only that but you will not be able to play used games on it or lend your games to your friends. Apparently they will be registered to your system and will not play in others. I have voiced my disagreement with this policy as video game companies tend to produce big piles of crap every once in a while and expect us to pay full price for them with no hope for a refund. A good example of this is Duke Nukem which was $10 about 2 months after it was released because it was a seriously bad game, now add to that the fact that there are some gamers out there (myself included) that play a game and finish them quickly and want to resell so they can buy another title or just make their money back for a relatively short game like "Dishonored" we wont be able to do that now, it's going to be $60 every time you want a game. Check stores like Wal-Mart, Gamestop and BestBuy for older games and then find that same game in the PSN you'll see it's actually more expensive in the PSN about 99% of the time and they want to go digital with games. In other words there wont be a reason to purchase a hard copy because it will still have no monetary value like it does now when we resell it to other people or stores. The PS4 is also expected to have an initial price of $400 no word on the GB of the system yet.

I would like to remind you all that these are rumors so far, but I am looking forward to February the 20th to confirm or dispel these rumors. What are your thoughts on this? Would you buy a PS4 under these conditions?

Fast & Furious 6 - First Look

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:24:00 +0000

The video game industry seems to be in a dry spell at the moment, but that is about to change. While we wait though lets take a first look at the upcoming Fast & The Furious film simply titled Fast & The Furious 6. As you can see by the trailer a lot of familiar faces are coming back, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris to name a few. It seems this time around the crew is hired by DSS agent Luke Hobbs from the previous film to help him take down a gang of drivers led my a former special ops soldier Owen Shaw, played in this film by Luke Evans who you may remember from the film "Immortals"where he portrayed Zeus. The trailer also shows that somehow Letty Ortiz is alive after having been killed in Fast & Furious something that was also shown in the last film but only through a picture. What caught my attention the most though was that the trailer shows the crew struggling against the Shaw's gang and they admit that this is not what they do and that this may be beyond them to accomplish, yet they did exactly this in the last two films in a way. The trailer also shows what seems to be Letty shooting Dominic which is an awesome plot twist but if you analyze the scene he first arrives wearing a black jacket and when Letty shoots him in what seems to be the same scene he's wearing a baby blue polo shirt so maybe they did it just to catch your attention. Dom's girlfriend Elena Neves seems to be making a return in this film, let's see what Letty thinks about that. I have to admit that I am a fan of the series, and the action in the trailer seems to be on a superior level than in the last films so I am actually excited for this movie, guess we'll have to wait a bit longer for it but not too long. If you have any thoughts our comments be sure to write them below or on our Facebook page.

Drake's Reviews Pre-Release Score 8 out of 10

How much do retailers pay for video games? Are video games worth a pre-order? How is this OUR problem? Part: 3

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 02:05:00 +0000

In the last two part of our article, we learned about prices that retailers pay for games and about the worth of pre-ordering a game. Today in the last part of our 3 part article we will learn how the price retailers pay and the fact that we pre-order games have actually created a problem for gamers.

Think about the last time you pre-ordered a game. Now think about the extras you got for pre-ordering the game. Now think about how those extras had a significant role in the way you played the game. While some of you may be thinking, hey I got an extra map for Black Ops 2 or an extra character for Borderlands 2, others are saying, I got weapons with the same if not less power than the ones currently in the game. I got an item that doesn't really help me out much, or other things that do not really make the game any better or worst than it already is. See, just recently I went out and bought a copy of Battlefield 3 Premium Edition. I owned Battlefield 3 in the past through a trade I made with a friend, but I never bought any of the maps or the extras because I found them to be expensive. The Premium edition was $25 on Black Friday and it includes all the maps and weapons from the past DLC as well as the future DLC upon release date. That for me was getting more than my money's worth of game. When I pre-ordered borderlands I got some starting weapons that I used maybe twice, an extra character that would be $10 had I not pre-ordered the game, a character I may add that did not change the game at all for me. A vault hunter's relic that gave you a 5% chance to loot better items, the creature slaughter dome which wasn't all that great and a key to open up a treasure chest that would give you some awesome items according to your level but that were totally random and what you currently had on you may be 10 times better than anything you got from the chest. How about those pre-orders that give you a skin for your character? Or how about having to buy the game NEW to get a complete game like Batman Arkham City did with the Catwoman story? This is how the prices retailers pay for games and pre-orders have affected us gamers. Retailers are sort of forced into these game deals and honestly I believe the price for a retailer is kind of high for the amount of games they buy to sell to the public specially when the price has been standardized across all consoles. Then we have the promise of DLC of extra weapons or skins when we pre-order a game, but these items rarely make gameplay better and most of the time the item in question is negligible. Now we're back to the fact that we give these companies a free loan and they give us items or DLC that is uninspired and has little to no value. Have you guys noticed that lately EVERY game has some sort of extra if you pre-order it. It's how they lure us into buying and we have to stop this practice. The reason why we must stop this practice is because we must send a message to developers that we wont buy whatever crap they throw at us. DLC should never be something that completes a game like what happened with Asura's Wrath, the game did not have a TRUE ENDING, you had to buy it. Seriously? WTF Capcom? And the Mass Effect 3 fiasco was not any better, the game felt, no actually it was incomplete in it's ending. Uninspired, lazy and of course a lot of people felt it was not worth the $60 they paid for it, and many others were even angrier when they had pre-ordered the N7 edition, paying $80 for what would turn out to be an incomplete game, with extras that really did not make the experience better.

As you can see not only are these companies getting our money early, but in return we are getting NOTHING from them. The N7 edition costs $30 right now at Best Buy, how does that make you feel? I think the price now is about what the game is really worth. We have to stop falling for clever advertisement and we have to show these companies that we keep them in business and we want our money's worth and yes I must admit some of them give us even more than our money's worth for some games. I have to be honest, games like ZELDA, METROID PRIME, HALO, INFAMOUS, RESIDENT EVIL 4 have given us awesome stories and gameplay that will be memorable for years to come. The plot twists the powers, the weapons, everything was awesome. We didn't need any extras, we just wanted a good game didn't we? And we were fine. We have stopped looking for good games and instead we now pay to get an extra skin, or a medal in the game or a weapon that gets replaced immediately by other in game weapons, we traded awesome story telling, plot twists and great gameplay for useless items, useless skins and bad story lines. This is exactly why we must stop caring so much about putting down our money to get items that are just not worth it, and instead allow those over hyped games to be released and await reviews or some rentals, because with the games we have gotten lately we've been really disappointed. AC III wasn't as good as the ads made it look, RE 6 left much to be desired, Medal of Honor War Fighter was horrible, Ghost Recon Future Soldier was short and boring, but all of them offered some extras with your pre-order, and all of them delivered a broken game. And now they want to move us to digital downloads and make used games unplayable. I hope digital doesn't go through, simply because it has no real value. You pay $60 and get nothing in return, you can't resell a game you got on PSN or XBOX LIVE. Physical items have a value, don't let companies fool you, they make money of digital because they do not have to produce a box or transport the item anywhere, but in turn you get nothing. I tend to sell my used games, I make some money back so in reality I am not exactly paying $60 every new game, and as a reviewer that is important because I play a lot to bring you guys reviews. As a consumer however it is just as important, because we can not return these items, we are not allowed to do so even if we are displeased when the product fails to deliver what its ads promise. We have to fight back and show companies that what really is important to us is a good game and getting our money's worth. Who cares about useless DLC. Sell us multiplayer maps that's ok but make it worth our time and money too. Do not sell us incomplete games and then post apologies saying you will complete it but it will cost us $10, Screw You. I'll be happy if you give me what I paid for, I'll be happier if you deliver more than what I paid for and it will make me want to buy your next game, but don't ride on the popularity of the first one or second one and make crap on the next one and give me that, because that will be the last time I will buy from you. I don't know abot you guys, but I will not be buying anymore Call of Duty games, and I am one of those that bought the maps and paid for elite on past games. I am a customer that spends his money on a franchise and I was one of those who used to pre-order. I see now how this has become a problem and companies are taking advantage of me and are taking my money and returning next to nothing for it. If we continue like this, soon we will have nothing but downloadable games, which didn't exactly work for the PSP GO so maybe they should learn a lesson from that, so yeah we will have nothing but downloadable games or new consoles will be made so they cannot play used games and the industry start dying out like it did in the past. Don't buy digital, get that physical disc that has real value, don't pre-order unless it's a game that really contains valuable or collector's items worth the $150-$200 you're paying for it. Don't let this problem escalate because soon games will cost more and deliver less, and we do not want that... do we?

How much do retailers pay for video games? Are video games worth a pre-order? How is this OUR problem? Part: 2

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 04:29:00 +0000

Yesterday in part 1 of our article, we learned that retailers pay on average about $42 for the $60 video games we buy from them. Today in the continuation of our article we will learn why pre-ordering a game is actually a bad idea most of the time. In the picture above, you can see some of the titles that had the highest pre-orders of the year. I will start with the highest one, Black Ops 2. As a gamer I was a huge fan of Call Of Duty. Modern Warfare 3 actually left me a little disappointed, and Black Ops 2 killed the franchise for me. If you look at the reviews from IGN and Gamespot you will notice that they gave the game pretty high scores, 8's and 9's actually. But if you take a look at the gamer ratings you will see that Black Ops 2 barely hits the 7 mark in a lot of cases, and gets a lot of 6's across the board. Do you know what this means? It means Black Ops 2 was definitely not as good as the scores IGN and Gamespot gave it. I am not saying they are biased all I am saying is that the people have spoken and they are not pleased. I was one of the many people who pre-ordered Black Ops 2 and got it during the midnight release. One day later I had already sold my copy for $20 less than I paid for it. I rated that game a 6 and if you want to know why you can go ahead and read my review on it, believe me there's an explanation for it. The problem here is not that the game is bad, is that we have fallen into this tendency to pre-order games based on the success of the last one and the marketing campaign of the new one. To us, when we pre-order a game what we are trying to say is, this game is going to be amazing and worth every penny on it. To a publisher it says, these idiots will take anything we give them, they are already ordering something that hasn't even come out just based on TV commercials. See when you pre-order a game you're literally giving free and undeserved money to a store, usually they charge you $5 to pre-order but you can pay a game off completely right? Do you know what you get for that? A receipt, that is all, in turn the company who you just gave money to can turn around and make money off your money. That would be like a bank giving YOU say $60 because in 3 months you will give them something worth $60, in the meantime though you invest that money and say make another $60, and you just made free money with no interest. You guys do realize there is no way in hell a bank would ever do this for you. Why would we do it for a game company that does not deliver $60 worth of game to us? Take a look at Darksiders 2, some venues gave it an 8.5 out of 10, but gamers gave it a 6.5! Are you noticing a pattern here? The first Darksiders was pretty good so companies ride that hype and then turn in crap to us, but they see that our pre-orders indicate that we are excited no matter what. There are some awesome games like Borderlands 2 was and I've heard great things about Halo 4 as well and even though Assassin's Creed III failed to impress me, the gaming community disagrees with me and that's ok because that is what this is about, it's not about what all these companies think their game is worth, it's what YOU the player thinks it's worth. It is your money going into it, and lately ladies and gentlemen I've been less and less inclined to spend my money on games, much less pre-order them. I am tired of giving these companies my money and then have a giant turd delivered to me inside a plastic case. When I was younger and had no money for games I knew my choices were very limited by what my parents were willing to buy me, so I had to rely on word of mouth to decide if a game was worth my time. Today we rely too much on the word of a publisher or IGN or Metacritic or Gamespot. You know who I want to hear opinions from? Everyone but them, I want you the reader to tell me what you thought of a game, why is it good, why is it not? Some people raised a point when I was first discussing pre-orders with them. They said "Dude when you pre-order you get more stuff for your game like DLC, or an action figure, or a poster!" Guys I'm sorry but the stuff I have gotten for my pre-orders has in no way affected my enjoyment of a game. Having a few extra weapons that are the exact same as others within the game is not a reward, it's lazy attempt to get at my money. An action figure isn't that great of a reward either, I mean unless you're a real fan of the game this should play no part in your decision to pre-order. Take Batman Arkham City for example. I preordered that game, the special edition. It came with a Batman statue, a movie and art book, the soundtrack, the game, extra Catwoman levels, some challenge maps and extra skins. I'm a Batman fan so the statue was an awesome thing to get. Not having to pay $10 to continue the Catwoman story was great, the soundtrack was pretty good but it was only in digital for and it took me about 30 tries to be able to download it because they had some errors with their page. The extra skins didn't do much for the game and I've never really cared for challenge maps because they do not add to the story of the game. That was awesome for me though because I felt it was worth my money, until I realized that if you didn't have the Catwoman side, the game felt incomplete. There was a part where it just cut you off from some of the story, so you had to spend and extra $10 to get your complete game. Batman Arkham Asylum was an amazing game, but I was angry that other people would get an incomplete game if they bought it used. Why would you give your gamers an incomplete game and then forced them to pay for stuff already in the disc. This has been happening a lot with games lately, if you pre-order you get a code to release things already in your game, if you don't then you have to pay extra cash to get the stuff that you already paid for. You know what? Fuck pre-orders. 90% of the time you can walk into the store the next day and buy the game everyone else got last night. If you want to talk consoles I'll tell you this much. Consoles are always sold at a loss to the company, a console can cost $600 to make, it is sold to the retailer for $400 so they can sell it to you at $500 and make a profit. You think the company takes a loss but they don't. They make it back on their games, and do you know why there's limited run to begin with? Because of the cost involved and the lack of games at a console's launch. A company would lose so much money if it sold a million consoles but it sold no games because there wasn't any. Look at what happened with Mass Effect 3, anyone who has played it knows about the ending, and anyone who didn't heard about the ending, or about the lawsuit the FANS brought up against them for the ending. Sure the lawsuit didn't go through but Bioware listened because it's business was threatened, and what did they do? They fixed their mistake, not before pissing everyone off with the possibility of the alternate ending being a paid for add-on and then decide it should be free, but they correct it. It is in the best interest for a company that you pre-order so they can make more money, not so they can meet demand. I understand that DLC is great for games like COD to get new multiplayer maps or like Skyrim where the adventure continues in the DLC. But when you get DLC that only releases stuff already in your game disc because you preordered, well it gets pretty insulting. Black Ops 2 hardened edition came with an extra zombies nuketown map, some collectable coins and some stuff for your Xbox Avatar or your PS3 background. That was $80, did you know that usually a map pack costs you about $15? The only change in your game was a map which you paid $20 for. The coins and other stuff did not change your gaming experience. They say you get what you pay for, I think that is not always the case. It is just not worth it to pre-order games. Reviews of games are held back sometimes to allow the game to sell and then publish that it's a piece of crap. I rather rely on word of mouth from friends, and family and other people who actually play the game for fun as opposed to business. When I publish my reviews to you guys, it's because I played the game, but the score on the game comes from not only me, but other people who have also played it. I take a lot of opinions into consideration. I think Black Ops 2 made me realize how wrong have I been by pre-ordering a game, and I am not going to tell you that it is always wrong to pre-order, sometimes games are worth the price of the pre-order, like Assassin's Creed 3, I mean you were paying for some awesome items that collector's can really appreciate. The DLC actually added to the game, and even though the game in my opinion wasn't as awesome as it sounded it was a pretty solid performance and it was worth what people paid for it. For the most part though, pre-ordering a game because you think they will run out, or that the game will be great is a big mistake. If your pre-orders stop, companies will have to work harder on making a game good. I want my $60 worth of game on one disc. I don't want to pay extra to be able to finish my game with a complete story. Add-ons are welcome but they should not depend on a pre-order. If you want a special edition because it has some awesome stuff then I get it, but make sure you're getting what you paid for, you cannot imagine how many disappointed faces I saw with the Care Package edition of Black Ops 2. The quad rotor was really crappy. I know some of you may not change your mind and that's fine, but I would strongly suggest that if you want better games you stop pre-ordering and maybe rent a game before you buy it, specially those that you think you will spend a lot of time replaying just like COD or HALO 4. Overall I think pre-orders should be limited to games that may not see a huge release and you really want a copy off or those that actually come with collector's items that are worth it. Take Black Ops as an example, I loved the first game, but a few days after the release, people were already selling the RC-XD online because it was broken, the quality was really bad, and they paid big bucks for that edition.

Stay tuned for our part 3 on this article on the problems that prices and pre-orders are creating for gamers and why. Remember to share us with your friends, and see you all with the last part soon.

How much do retailers pay for video games? Are video games worth a pre-order? How is this OUR problem? Part: 1

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:32:00 +0000

I can't remember the exact prices of video games in the NES, SNES and Genesis era, but I remember Street Fighter 2 Turbo was about $80, Chrono Trigger was $70 and I remember paying $60 for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie game for the SNES. Times sure have changed since then, where retailers seemed to have found a standard price for games. $60 is what we pay today for a new game, $50 for the Wii ones, but the Wii U has also joined the $60 club. I know what you're thinking right now, you're thinking that when we had games at $80 a pop, $60 doesn't seem to be that much, we're getting a bargain here. Actually we're not, cartridges were more expensive to make and these extra costs were passed on to the consumer. These days it is not as expensive to make copies of a game on a disc and put it on a store shelf. Granted the plastic boxes are made out of plastic which is petroleum based and paper has gone up in price over the years, but it still doesn't compare to the work that went into a cartridge. Now that we've reached this $60, how much does it really cost a retailer like Wal-Mart or Gamestop to buy a game? Well unfortunately the prices vary according by source, but there is some information that gives us a number that seems to be in the ballpark. First let's talk numbers, according to some websites the cash received for a game breaks down like this:

20% goes to the console maker, such as SONY, Microsoft, Nintendo

20% goes to the retailer. Wal-Mart, Gamestop, Toys'R'Us

15% goes to the marketing company

15% goes to the developer

30% goes to the publisher

This seems to be the standard, but don't be fooled. The developer doesn't always get the short end of the stick, take games such as Black Ops 2, Halo, Final Fantasy and even Zelda, where they have proven to be a success every time a new one comes out. In this case developers get a much better cut of the earnings because the publisher knows those game will sell a lot more copies than an average game. Now what I am about to say next may BLOW your mind, but believe me it's the truth. Retailers are the ones that get the worst deal when it comes to the prices of video games, well retailers and us consumers of course. On average, a retailer gets about $12 for every $60 game you buy from them. Sure you think $12 sounds like a good deal right I mean they pay about $48 for a game and then sell it to you for $60 it seems like a nice profit, only it isn't. From the information we have gathered, retailers like Wal-Mart may get a better price just based on the volume of games they buy from the distributors but it is not that much of a difference, maybe they make $15 off a game instead of $12. Still they are almost forced to sell these video games simply because companies like SONY and Microsoft say, if you don't sell our video games and consoles, you can't have our TV's, Computers, MP3 players, Printers, etc. You get the idea. Now you may say, well Wal-Mart has a lot of money, Amazon.com does too and Gamestop steals from us with their prices on used games. You would be surprised on how untrue this is. Wal-Mart is the most successful retailer in the world and hey I mean we do get a lot of cheap stuff from them don't we? We're focusing on video games here but let's look at the big picture, a friend of mine just bought a TV at Wal-Mart for $178 a 32-inch flat screen for his room, this was on Black Friday so ok it's a little cheaper than usual. About a year ago I bought a 42-inch TV for $540 to me that was incredibly cheap and that was just a normal sale. If Wal-Mart wasn't paying for video games, I would've probably pad way more for that TV or maybe it would not have been in stock. Now let's take a look at Gamestop, they are all about Power to the Players, which yes you and I believe it's a big fat lie. They give you $20-$30 for a brand new game if you resell it to them and then turn around and make a nice $25-$30 profit on it when they put it back on the floor as a used game, and sometimes they make even more when they have $40 games that they give you $3-$5 for and still sell for $35. Gamestop though doesn't get the same deal Wal-Mart does, and they only sell games, a few other things but not the type of things parents rush into Wal-Mart or Target for. Gamestop is a business that needs to make a profit, and yes I admit that even I believe it's abusive at times, but you know what is much worst? Companies like SONY wanting to not only make the future consoles unable to play older console games but they want to make them unable to play used games at all. This would effectively kill the Gamestop business strategy and we would have to buy NEW games at all times. Do you see how this becomes a problem for us? If not, let me give you some information, first of all you have to consider that you would be paying $60 for a game that may be a stinking pile of shit "Duke Nukem Forever" "Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City" I actually enjoyed this last game, but the majority of you didn't by the comments I have heard and I get it, I am not exactly the biggest Resident Evil fan, but you know what? we all paid those $60, Duke Nukem was reduced to $10 almost right after it's release. I don't know about you but Gamestop is starting to sound real good right now. I don't mean to say it's the best or only way to get money for your games, heck I sold Black Ops 2 one day after it's release for $40 to a friend. Why did I do this? I hated the game but I had already used the NUKETOWN code so it only seemed fair because he may have to pay for it later. Gamestop would have given me about $30 store credit and even less in cash, but now I understand why they do it that way, and like I said it does not mean we have to go to them, but imagine if you could only play new games on your consoles because SONY or Microsoft said so? Would you still play video games? I sure as hell wouldn't. I am a PS3 fanboy big time and I don't hide it, I hate the VITA with a passion though and I think the Kinect is the best Motion gaming platform right now. I am not PS biased just because I like their current system better than the others, but believe me if SONY decides that the new PS can only play new games and other systems remain the same, guess who's not going to be a PS fanboy anymore? This guy right here writing this article. I guess at $42 I can understand why $60 has become the industry standard to the consumer, but what happens when you pay $60 for a game that's worth $5? Remember when Dead Island came out? How the game would constantly delete your progress and there was no patch for the longest time? Did you know that if you open a game and you take it back to Wal-Mart claiming it doesn't work they will only give you another copy of it, they won't return your money? When I buy something and it doesn't work I expect my money back, I lose faith in a product and this is how our problems start with games, because readers let me tell you we're being spoon fed turds and we've been letting it happen for too long, which brings me to my next point, why isn't it wise to pre-order a game.

Stay tuned for Part 2 or our article to find out why we should not pre-order games and how because of our consumption we have created a problem for ourselves as gamers. If you have any thoughts or comments be sure to post them down below.

Movie Review: 007 SKYFALL

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 01:14:00 +0000

Wow! If you want to see a good movie right now, 007 Skyfall is your movie. When I sat down to watch this movie, the first thing I said was, the only thing that is predictable in 007 movies is that he will sleep with someone and of course I was right, but see that's the beauty of it, you have no clue what to expect in the movie and that was awesome. The movie starts with Bond chasing a man down in Turkey because he has stolen a computer hard drive that contains the names of every NATO agent that has infiltrated terrorist organizations. In the ensuing chase Bond and the thief end up fighting on top of a moving train and in order for the thief not to escape, M order Bond's back up to shoot the thief except Bond is in the way of the shot, still M orders the shot to be taken, Bond is hit instead and a funeral is held for him. This is just the first few minutes of the film, after this the action only gets better. I will not spoil anymore but I will say this much, the introduction of new characters is very welcome and there are some surprising and very unexpected yet equally welcome moments in this movie. James doesn't really used gadgets in this one and honestly it wasn't bad at all. Bond is known for his amazing gadgets, but the lack of them in this movie did not affect the overall Bond experience. This movie takes a nod at the classic Bond films, it makes the relationship between Bond and M seem very realistic and sort of a mother-son relationship, you can see M really has faith in Bond even though her professional demeanor doesn't allow her to show it and the same goes for Bond towards M. You also get some of James's back story, where he comes from and why was he made an agent. This movie really touches the humanity in James and M and the ending is the type that will be memorable to all, the entire movie is like this. Even the new villain played by Javier Bardem is awesome, he's smart, and psychotic at the same time but not invincible, he has elements most of us can identify with, like the need for acceptance. This villain doesn't want money or to rule the world, his point is very specific even though he has done many other things to reach the goal he has for himself. Skyfall is a movie that doesn't disappoint, it's a good story, great action scenes, and an ending that is sure to shock and awe everyone.

Drake's Reviews Score 9.5 out of 10

Game Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:31:00 +0000

It's only been 2 days since the release of Black Ops 2 and messages have been pouring in for a review, so here it is just for you guys, buckle up because this may be an unpleasant ride.

Black Ops 2 is a direct continuation of the story from the first Black Ops, yes it looks like its in the future but you actually play as Alex Mason from the first game right after the end of the last game and you also play as his son David Mason for the future missions. It's pretty clever how they connect the stories from father to son because they linked them up very well and proves for an interesting overall story. The problem with this comes in the form of Strike Force missions, which are mission in which David Mason directs soldiers in a battlefield to protect targets such as buildings or machines, or to attack and dominate a target. The success of these missions alters the ending of the game, the bad part of this is that the AI for the strike force is really bad at it's job so you have to take control of the soldiers or machines they provide for you in order to be successful. In addition to this, Strike Force missions are only available for a limited time between campaign missions so you HAVE to do them as they come out or risk losing them. Also if you fail one you cannot got back and redo the mission therefore altering your ending whether you like it or not, and the mission are not exactly easy either. The best way I found to complete them was to divide my forces into two groups if I had to defend two out of three spots, and to do this constantly as your forces get killed and help is not exactly quick to arrive while enemy forces arrive constantly. If you're on the offense the best bet is to send all your forces to attack a single point and then move on to the next one for quicker mission success as you are timed for offensive missions. Oh and also make sure you take over soldiers or machines at all times because the AI is not exactly good in this game. Moving on to multi-player, what can I say? It is not impressive, see now you have a 10 point system to equip weapons, add-ons and perks. A weapons is 1 point, a perk is 1 point, etc. The problem with this is when you have to forego certain elements that were readily available for you in other games. For example in the first Black Ops I used the perks Ghost, Hacker, and Sleight of Hand, which effectively made me invisible and a horror to machines controlled by the enemy. My weapon usually had a red dot and a silencer to further add to my play style and I had my sticky grenades, my claymore and concussion grenades. In Modern Warfare 3 they changed this to where you could only carry either a grenade or a claymore or a bouncing betty etc. Your weapon also had to level up to get your red dot or a silencer and your perks were divided, if I wanted to use the same type of style as Black Ops I was no longer able to do so, as Ghost was divided into two perks, Sleight of Hand was divided into two perks and Hacker wasn't useful anymore. In Black Ops 2, Ghost is divided into 4 perks, Hacker is back and so is sleight of hand but it has been changed a bit. With the 10 point system I cannot use grenades of any kind if I want to play in the style I am accustomed to and it's still not as effective as it used to be. Let's add to that that weapons have to be leveled up to get what you need like a red dot or a scope, and also I can no longer silence my weapon and put a red dot on it if I want to play in my play style and the fact that weapons such as submachine guns can kill you across the map now with a few shots yet assault rifles are taking forever to take a guy down. Call of Duty has always had problems with the balancing of weapons but this is ridiculous on a match yesterday the final kill was a guy shooting another guy at point black range with a shot-gun, it took 3 shots for him to go down, yet the same guy had just killed another guy with a sub machine gun in about two shots to the body, even the guy with the sub machine gun called BS on the game saying that honestly it was unfair the way he killed the other guy and then saw himself getting shot 3 times with a shot gun at that distance. The maps for multi-player are not that great either they seem uninspired and bland over all, and lets talk about grenades too, I've seen them blow up next to other players and even in front of me and not kill me, the accuracy on the guns is also horrible they jump so much sometimes it takes a full clip to kill someone if they a couple of meters away from you, and the spawn points are horrible, where I've had an entire team spawn right behind me after I've killed on of their team mates or I've spawned next to an entire team so I immediately got killed again and I am not the only one this has happened to either. The zombies mode has been changed but I have to be honest I am not a fan because it seems pointless to me to play survival mode, in Black Ops 2 this has been changed to somewhat of a story mode but I haven't really gotten into it so I can't say much about it, the time I did play it seemed better but I was alone so if anyone has more information on the TRANZIT aspect of it I would appreciate if you comment on it, the survival mode is back and GRIEF mode is fun, you play against another team and against zombies and the team that has surviving members wins, you cannot kill the other team, you can only fight zombies and perform actions that unleash more zombies on the other team. Black Ops 2 makes me feel as if the COD franchise died with the first Black Ops, MW2 was a great game and Black Ops actually topped that in my opinion. MW3 changed things way too much but it was bearable until the spawn points started changing and made you get killed easily because enemies would spawn on you or behind you or vice-versa. Black Ops 2 seems to just have taken the bad elements and threw them together to make a game, while some of the changes are welcome over all the game is flawed and could probably use a patch or two to fix some of the major problems. The 3D in the game is pretty awesome, but I did have problems with it in the beginning and had to change the settings in my system because the game wouldn't recognize my TV as a 3D TV yet my others games did just fine, but honestly it looks just as awesome as it did for Black Ops, except in campaign mode where the videos don't seem to be in 3D only the gameplay.

Drake's Reviews Score 6 out of 10

Game Review: Resident Evil 6

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:47:00 +0000

Many people were left with a disappointed look on their face after the last Resident Evil game Operation Raccoon City. I actually thought it was a good game as before it came out it was explained that it was not a normal RE game but more of a side story with more shooting elements as it was about a team of Umbrella Operatives on a mission to destroy evidence that would place the blame on Umbrella for the zombie outbreak, it was expected of them to have heavy artillery and overall the story wasn't that bad. With Resident Evil 6 it looks like CAPCOM utilized some of the elements of ORC and meshed them together with what made the Resident Evil franchise so popular, the end result was not as awesome as expected. Resident Evil 6 lets you play as 3 different characters, 4 once and finish the game and 7 if you take into account that you can play as the partner of each on of the main characters. The story takes place from the perspective of Leon Kennedy, Jake Muller and Chris Redfield. Each one having a main story on a new zombie outbreak but with interconnecting story lines. The different viruses used to create zombies or B.O.W.'s are now usual in the black market and the main characters pretty much deal with them as their daily job in one way or another. Pretty much the story of RE: 5 but a little bit more expanded. This time around though, zombies vary from one storyline to another, in some they are still just walkers, in others they are actually smart and use guns as well as mutate to become stronger. This is actually and interesting concept as it gives variety to the game, it does have it's downsides however. The story of RE:6 is great the problems start when you're playing as what counts as a soldier who is constantly running out of ammo in the middle of a fight, where clear head shots do not kill your enemy in one shot and where it seems that the point of the game now is to shoot a zombie once then straight up have a street fight with it. The whole point of the other games was to avoid being touched by these creatures, the whole point of this game is to go "Leeroy Jenkins" on their butts. Now throw in a bunch of quick time events from 4, a bunch of videos between missions, unclear directions that get you instantly killed many times if you can't figure out how to get across a gap or in a room etc. and you have a major disappointment on your hands. RE:6 is not bad, but it tries too hard to be good. The meshing of elements from what has made the series great is not a bad idea, but when you over do it, it tends to break the game. I've heard countless people complain that it feels like you jump from quicktime event, to running out of ammo, to video, to quicktime event to lack of ammo again. Just the first mission with Leon feels this way, it's not memorable because it all happens too quickly and there's a quicktime event right at the beginning and two or three videos, and then the game starts. The game also seems to have many instances of walking on floors that are constantly breaking, if you see in the video you get to see Jake muller jumping from one wooden platform to another and then another and another. Truth is this happens in the first mission with Chris too, jumping gaps, getting on roofs enemies that you can't see, easy loss of health and believe me I ran out of ammo a few times yet the enemy has an endless supply but they don't drop it when they die, not often anyways. They also tend to mutate a lot, and therefore you must spend more ammo on the mutation and while shooting then then beating them up is pretty much a sure kill it's kinda hard when there are 10 other guys shooting at you and also your characters get tired of hitting so they kick zombies slowly in the shins. Once you get used to these elements is not a bad game, but it gets frustrating. The AI for your partner is not that great either while it has it's moments in helping you fight, it tends to let you die just as much instead of rescuing you, if you play with a partner online or locally though the game really shines as not only does it add to the fun you have a partner you can count on and believe me this is the single most redeeming quality in this game, this is the main reason to play it, it is a good experience. I know it sounds like I am complaining a lot about RE:6 but I have to be honest in my reviews and while it sounds like there is a lot of negative the game is not a bad one, but it takes some getting used to.

Drake's Reviews Score 7 out of 10

Game Review: Assassin's Creed III

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:09:00 +0000

The AC series has just delivered it's third installment of the main storyline. In AC III you play as an assassin by the name of Connor Kenway in mid to late 1700's USA, the period of the American Revolution. You guys know we hate giving out spoilers but we must discuss some of the game's story so that our final score for AC III can be back up by facts. The game starts with Desmond, his father and two other characters trying to find a temple in New York. Desmond is in possession of the Apple and uses it to gain access to the temple, in doing so he activates a timer that counts down to the end of the world event which will take place on December 21st, 2012. Desmond then starts going crazy or at least what looks like he's going crazy and gets put back into the animus where he goes back to the 1700's into the character Haytham Kenway the father of Connor. From here the story develops a bit until you end up in the mind oc Connor Kenway and his involvement in shaping US history alongside some of the most famous people in US History like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and many others. This is however where the problems start with Assassin's Creed III. I will focus first on the negative aspects to then show you the redeeming aspects of the game. First of all the interaction with famous figures is rather bland and not very well developed, just like the personality of Connor. It makes the game feel like if Ubisoft wanted to throw in as many important figures as possible without giving them much development, it feels almost like an video game "easter egg" instead of a well thought out storyline. The game also has some glitches, some that don't allow the story to progress because you can't progress in certain missions and must restart your game, getting spotted when you are perfectly hidden, and even getting attacked for no reason without causing and alarm are some of the few I can mention. Stealth has also become a problem, with the simplified parkour style of just running and having Connor do everything without inputs, your jumps can be unpredictable, landing you in a spot you did not intend to jump to or something along those lines. Now lets get into the good aspects of the game, because it does have them and they are many. First let's start with the Naval Battles, they add a good amount of fun to the game and they are not just shoot and destroy oh no there is skill involved in driving your ship through narrow channels, chasing the enemy and avoiding a shipwreck. The game also has many hidden elements like a mission from famous pirate Captain Kidd, and now you can train your assassin recruits straight out of your menu without the need of a safe house. The game also avoids the whole buying or property to get money, that is done all out of your Home front where you can recruit artisans to make things for you and to sell. Combat has been changed a bit too, it is more fluid but it is also harder to make it fluid, you have to time your attacks and parries in a precise manner or your attacks wont connect. Also the game world is vast, maybe not as much as in past games but it is interesting to see how the country developed and Ubisoft created a world where you can feel as if you were there. Lastly I would like to add that the plot twists are not only good but very well executed and will leave you wanting more, sadly this is the main problem with AC III what it does well it does it very well but the same goes for what it doesn't do so well, it makes the game feel incomplete almost as if they wanted to fill up a gap while they deliver the real story.

Drake's Reviews Score 7.5 out of 10

Game Review: Dishonored

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 03:48:00 +0000

If you haven't watched the trailer I recommend you do before reading the review... You watched it right? Wasn't that awesome? Dishonored is the story of Corvo Attano who is the bodyguard of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin in the city of Dunwall. Upon Corvo's return from a mission he is on his way to see the Empress and when he gets to her to give his report some assassins teleport in and murder her and kidnap her daughter. Corvo is then framed for the murder and kidnapping and is thrown in jail to await his execution. He receives a note from "A friend" that gives him details on how to escape and thus starts Corvo on his path to revenge by becoming an Assassin in order to clear his name. At some point in the game, Corvo gains access to supernatural powers through an entity only known as The Outsider who is neither good or evil. I must say that the story for the game is pretty good and even though they said this game was not an open world game like the Fallout series by Bethesda, it is still possible to explore different sections of the city through each mission and it is recommended in order to find items that will greatly help you in the game's progress. While Corvo does not have access to a lot of powers, the ones he does get are pretty useful and more than make up for the lack of variety, I didn't even get them all but depending on your play style you'll find some more useful than others. It is also not possible to get them all in your first play through but believe me, there are some powers I was just unwilling to use because of the way I played the game. Some of the powers Corvo has access to are Blink which is a teleport spell that is probably the single most useful spell, but he can also use Bend Time, which slows or stops time altogether depending on your level, there's also Possess that allows you to possess animals and at higher levels humans in order to bypass areas or get into secret areas, and these are only a few. While the game is fun and has a good story there was also a few things that ruined it for me. First of all is the length of the game, it only takes about 10-15 hours to complete, making it a rather short game. The graphics also have some problem when rendering in some parts giving the game a blurry look for bit, while it doesn't hurt the gameplay it can be bothersome as it goes from blurry to grainy and it can be distracting. The single most hated part for me however was the fact that even though Corvo becomes an assassin the whole point of the game is to not murder anyone, not even boss characters. It is entirely possible to go the entire game without killing anyone as there as different methods to avoid kills but if you saw the trailer for the game you can tell how fun those kills look, it would have been awesome to do that but if you kill too many people a few things happen in the game. First of all you get a lot more enemies called weepers which are pretty much zombies that vomit on you and they are pretty powerful in later levels. See the more you kill, the more rats in the city, the more rats there are, the more they spread the plague in the game and that creates more weepers, as if this wasn't enough the game has a chaos meter and more kills generate more chaos if you finish the game at high chaos you get the bad ending. If you play the way I did the game is still a lot of fun and you'll finish it with low chaos which guarantees the good ending, but I feel like I missed an opportunity to make the game more fun by actually performing kills like those in the video. The game also allows you to upgrade not only your powers but your weapons too, giving them more damage, range, different ammo and better blocking for your sword, sadly I fired my gun about 3 times the entire game, never used my mines, grenades or incendiary bolts and while you can upgrade to carry more ammo, it doesn't let you upgrade the carrying capacity of sleeping darts which where my best friend the whole game as I didn't want to kill anyone to get the good ending. Still I consider Dishonored to be one of the best games I have ever played I just wish I could have been a bit more of an Assassin in my game about an Assassin.

Drake's Review's Score 8 out of 10

Game Review: Borderlands 2

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 03:22:00 +0000

If you haven't played Borderlands this may be a good time to start, and I do mean both games. This review will focus on Borderlands 2 but believe me the first one is just as good as the second one. In Borderlands 2 you can choose from 4 different characters, 5 if you get the DLC. These characters are in search of the Vault just like the ones from the first game. The story starts out by the characters arriving on Pandora and surviving an assassination attempt by a man called Handsome Jack, who has taken over Hyperion corporation from the first game and has taken over Pandora as well and taken credit for opening the vault from the first game as well as the monetary gains from it and has attempted to kill the original 4 members from the first game. Handsome Jack has made it a point to murder new Vault Hunters so that he has no competition in looking for another Vault in Pandora because he is after the treasures the new Vault may offer. After this we are introduced to a player select screen and the new characters which are Maya "The Siren" Axton "The Soldier" Salvador "The Gunzerker" and Zer0 "The Assassin" Each characters has his or her specialties not only with weapons but also with powers. Maya the Siren for example can stop enemies on their tracks and act as a healer or severely damage enemies through elemental damage. Axton can toss out a turret than can shoot bullets and rockets and cause explosions as well and can gain extra gun damage through perks. Salvador is pretty much a tank but he is also able to dual wield in Gunzerker mode and can heal and regenerate ammo, and Zer0 is an expert with Sniper rifles and melee damage, gaining a great deal of extra damage through perks and he can also become invisible for a couple of seconds to either escape or deal extra damage while unseen. Borderlands 2 however really excels in its storyline, this is one of those games that pays A LOT of attention to creating a storyline that really absorbs the player and it also incorporates many pop-culture elements such as memes, the Ninja Turtles and Batman to name a few. The game is full of surprises and even though it boasts a huge world map it still excels in back tracking a few times for extra surprises. I hate doing spoilers but I'll say this much, the ending is pretty good and a bit shocking it certainly didn't disappoint us here at Drake's Reviews. The game does have some flaws though, the graphics sometimes take time to render and can make the game look blurry in some parts for a couple of seconds, it's not a game killer but it is rather bothersome. There's a few places where your vehicle or character can get stuck and you may have to restart from your last save or it may take some time to get out of that situation. The fact that you can pick up millions of different weapons is awesome the bad part is that it is really dependent on luck and while you may pick up a weapon that is powerful and awesome on your first run, you may also pick up nothing but underpowered weapons for your level and have a harder time completing missions. The game is very challenging but to a fun degree and it has a lot of exploits that can help you out, sometimes though missions glitch and your enemy never comes out or gets stuck somewhere unreachable or can even be locked in position allowing you to kill them with no problem and this doesn't make for a very fun play through. The game is best played with a friend or with a couple of friends as loot gets better and while it becomes a bit more difficult having your friends there makes it more enjoyable and working in teams is a must. In Drunken Monkeys' and my playthrough we played as Gunzerker and Assassin, he was the tank while I covered with Sniper fire and homing grenades, or if we were in an enclosed space I would do reconnaissance and assassination before he went in guns blazing. When it came to loot we picked up as much as we could but we shared the weapons each of us preferred and when we both liked a weapon we would just clone it through an exploit cuz that's what friends do right? Hahahaha. If you're in the mood for a good multiplayer game Borderlands 2 is a great choice even for single player but as mentioned before it is better to play with a friend.

Drake's Reviews Score 9 out of 10

Move Review - Frankenweenie

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 06:35:00 +0000

Your second choice for a family friendly halloween movie this year is Frankenweenie and what a great choice it is indeed. The best way to describe this movie is "WOW". It is a very powerful movie and not just because lightning brings a dog back to life. Frankenweenie is the story of Victor Frankenstein, an elementary school student who loves science and his relationship with his dog Sparky. Now this movie I really do not want to describe too much because I really want audiences to watch it and enjoy every minute of it without spoiling even a second of it, so all I will say about the plot is the following. Victor's dog, Sparky dies in an accident and Victor tests out something he learned in science class to bring Sparky back from the grave because he misses him so much. The plot sounds simple but it's a story that is full of love, and if by the end of the movie you're not at least teary eyed then you are probably a robot and the machine uprising has begun just like the movie Terminator predicted! In all seriousness though this movie deals with themes such as the death of a beloved pet, learning to let go and even responsibility for our actions. The movie is entirely in black and white but it will not bother you at all and I watched it in 3D and haven't regretted it one bit. Frankenweenie is funny as well as emotional so if you do decide to see it don't forget your box of tissues to wipe off the tears.

Drake's Reviews Score 10 out of 10

Movie Review - Hotel Transylvania

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 06:16:00 +0000

If you're looking for a family friendly halloween movie you've got two really good choices at the moment. This review will focus on Hotel Transylvania one of those two choices and you can read about the second one Frankenweenie in the next review.

Hotel Transylvania is the story of Dracula in his constant effort to provide a safe haven for monster to rest at. In this case a hotel, he does this to protect them from humans. This is done because monsters are scared of humans as they hunt them and always want to cause them harm while monsters only want to live in peace with their kind. Dracula does this in order to protect his daughter Mavis because Mavis's mom was killed by humans when Mavis was born. Now in Mavis's 118th birthday, the time when a vampire becomes an adult, Dracula is planning a big party for her and has invited all the monster around the world to come celebrate, such monster include Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, The Mummy and many others. Everything seems to be going well until the arrival of Jonathan, a human guest who find the hotel by accident. Dracula tries to get rid of him to no avail and thus decides to make him pass for a monster to keep him a secret. Mavis however starts falling for Jonathan as he is supposedly a 121 year old monster and according to Dracula is also Mavis's party planner. I will not get further into the story but you must know that this movie teaches quite a few valuable lessons for both children and adults. It teaches kids about tolerance of those who are different from us, and also to not judge a book by its cover. It teaches adults that sometimes they just don't want to let their kids grow up or see them leave but it is just part of the parenting process amongst other important things. I rarely think a movie is worth a second watch even if it's good, but Hotel Transylvania is a real charmer and a MUST SEE for the entire family, it is funny, just the right length of time, and adults will recognize a lot of the characters in it even if not all children do as well as being aware of how it makes fun a other pop culture themes through simple jokes that are in no way harmful to children.

Drake's Reviews Score 10 out of 10

First Look: Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 20:19:00 +0000

As I promised you guys in my last post, I was going to have a surprise for all you MGS fans out there. Lets take a look at Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. Yes it is Ground Zeroes guys. The game has no release date yet but it takes place in the MGS chronology right after MGS Peace Walker and right before the original Metal Gear. What does this mean for us? Well, we will get to see how Big Boss decided to start Outer Heaven, because this is the story that lead to it. The game is also being presented as the prologue to Metal Gear Solid 5, so I guess from this game we will see the reason for MGS 5 happening. The game was slated to be released on Next-Gen consoles, but latest information indicates that it will actually be released for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The demo in the video is actually on a PC that has about the same Specs as a PS3 so you can expect it to look just as good. So what is the plot behind Ground Zeroes? Well here is what we know so far, Big Boss or Snake as he is better known is on a mission to rescue Pacifica Ocean and Chico Libre from Camp Omega, the one you see at the start of the video. If you do not know who Pacifica and Chico are, they are characters that were introduced in MGS Peace Walker. The demo gives you the rest of the details of the information available which is not very much for 14 minutes of gameplay, but hey we all like surprises right? The announcement of two MGS games being developed at the same time is certainly a welcome surprise as both of them look like they're going to be great games even though they seem very different. If you haven't read my last post on MGS Rising Revengeance don't forget to do so or you'll miss out on some great footage and information on the game. This is not all the information though, as the same day the trailer above was released another surprise piece of information was given to the audience. The Metal Gear Solid movie is actually a work in progress, it is being produced by Columbia Pictures, and at the helm of the movie is Avi Arad, the producer as such films as the Spider-Man Trilogy, The Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, the Blade Trilogy and pretty much every Marvel movie. If his history of movies is any indication we can expect something good for MGS, and if Hideo Kojima is to be believed he will not allow MGS to be made into a bad movie. Hideo Kojima also confirmed MGS 5, saying that the game will go back to it's infiltration and espionage roots, but that it would also add social interactions with other characters like the ones in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. He also said the MGS 5 would involve asking characters for favors through these interactions, although he was not specific it seems it would involved things like helping you out in missions by providing distractions, offering you transport to places or things of that nature. This is for now all the information we have available on the MGS franchise, but be sure that we will keep updating you of any new developments, and if you haven't watched the video on top make sure you do so, you wont regret it.

First Look: METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 09:52:00 +0000

Oh, do I have a surprise for fans of the Metal Gear franchise! As some of you may already know the next Metal Gear game will be featuring Raiden once again, but this time he will pretty much be a cyborg with a sword that can cut through anything if the trailers are to be believed and brute strength to match that robotic body of his. The game doesn't make it clear if he is more robot than human or human than robot but it does make it clear that Raiden is a bad ass! Initially the game was supposed to be an interquel between MGS 2 and MGS 4. Later information revealed that it was going to be MGS 5 but now it is being advertised as a game that takes place about 4 years after MGS 4 but it is not a sequel to it, it is more of a side story or spinoff. I hope this means we can expect a MGS 5! The plot of the game has not been fully released but from what we can gather Raiden now works for PMC's by training their armies or protecting important people. He will apparently start the game in his MGS 4 High tech ninja armor, but during one of his VIP protection missions he will get attacked by other cyborg enemies that kill his VIP and leave Raiden for dead as he agonizes after his defeat. Raiden is then given his black ninja armor which is stronger than the white one he originally wore but it also requires constant recharging. As you can see by the trailer Raiden's main weapon is his sword which is actually being called a HFB or High Frequency Blade. Apparently he will not be using projectile weapons in the game except for the rocket launcher we see in the trailer, but it would seem that guns pose little danger to Raiden and yet his HFB poses and incredible amount of danger to his enemies. I will not spoil any other part of the game with extra information we have on it, but if you've been reading this and haven't watched the trailer you should definitely get to it before reading my next post because I am sure you will be very pleased by the news on my next pose if you are a Metal Gear fan or just a fan of awesome games.

Drake's Reviews will no longer be scoring games on their first look as many elements are changed before a game is released and it is unfair to judge a book by it's cover and then have the cover changed on us :)

PS Vita: Is it living up to the hype?

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 08:45:00 +0000

I get a lot of questions of my opinion on Sony's latest handheld gaming device, the PS Vita. Before I give you my opinion though, let's talk about what the capabilities of the PS Vita are as well as the pros and cons of the device.

What the PS Vita is: Now I wont be getting into every technical aspect of it I will give you a small run down of the PS Vita as a whole. It's front control layout is pretty much the same as a standard PS3 controller, and it has a 5-inch multitouch screen. It is compatible with bluetooth and you can access the internet via Wi-Fi although there is also a 3G version of the Vita. It also has an L and R buttons on the left and right shoulders just like a PS3 controller. The Vita also has a rear touchpad, two 0.3 Megapixel cameras, one on the front and one on the back, six-axis motion, stereo speakers and a microphone. A GPS receiver is only available for the 3G version.

What the PS Vita isn't: It's not a device that you can open and switch the battery, although they have announced an external battery option, but for now if your battery messes up your device must go off to SONY to be fixed. It's not a device for long hours of play, Sony says it gives you 3-5 hours of play per charge but that is only with no sound, no network and the default brightness of the screen. Lastly it is not a cheap device the graphics on it are awesome and the capabilities of the device are great but all this comes at a price. The 3G version costs $299.99 and you need a contract with AT&T for it's 3G capabilities, the Wi-Fi version will only set you back $249.99. Memory cards for the device come in different capabilities at different prices. There's a 4GB card for $25 an 8GB for $35, a 16GB for $60 and a 32GB card for $100, these are all Sony cards by the way it is not compatible with others. All this information is for the most basic needs of the Vita.

Vita games: There isn't much selection on Vita games yet and prices vary but the cheapest I've seen Vita games for is $20, they can range from $20-$50 but $50 games are a bit rare now and there's also the $70 Persona 4 Golden edition but because it is a special edition the game costs more.

My opinion on the PS Vita: Ok so what do I really think of this system, well let me start by saying that I am a Playstation fan, but I am also unbiased in my reviews, I do not think one system is superior to another or that just because it is a PS product it's going to be awesome. Let me start by saying that I think the Vita is one of the worst gaming investments I could make. First of all the machine is touted as having awesome capabilities, I dare you to name one without having to go online and looking for them. That's major problem with the Vita it offers so much but it doesn't really deliver, it's easy to say yeah you can access Facebook and the Internet and other apps but honestly it is a weak argument on Vita's behalf it is not incredible by any means, I've seen cell phones with the same capabilities it's pretty much standard these days on cell phones to have all that, so where does the Vita excel? Certainly not in the cameras either I mean 0.3 Megapixels really? I used to have a cell phone about 3 years ago that had a 1 Megapixel camera, Sony really dropped the ball on that one. There's also the games to discuss, at launch, the pros of the Vita looked really good, the cons where that it was mostly full of games available for the PS3 and very few titles exclusive to the Vita that have been nothing special so far. Going to the Gamestop website I can see 38 games available but not all have been released yet. Some of the titles that look good include, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Silent Hill: Book of Memories, FIFA 2013, etc. Pretty much games that are side stories or the same as available for the PS3 like Metal Gear collection HD, Mortal Kombat and Little Big Planet. So what about the sales of the PS Vita? First week of release in Japan 325,000 units were sold, that is an amazing number. Second week of release sales dropped an amazing 78% at 24,000 sales hitting an all time low of only 12,309 units in February. As of June 30th, 2012 the Vita has managed to sell 2.2 million units worldwide. If we compare that to the DS sales combined meaning DS, Lite, XL without including the 3DS that system has sold since 2004 152.05 million units that is 19 million units a year. The Vita has been out for a bit over 8 months and has only managed 2.2 million units. The DS is about half the price of a Vita so let's divide that by 2 and you still get 9.5 million units the Vita should have sold to be on par with the DS. The Vita has sold 2 million games, New Super Mario Brothers DS alone has sold 29.09 million copies as of March 31st 2012. Between April, May and June the Vita managed to sell 400,000 units, in that same time 100,000,000 PSP's were sold. Well Drake surely backwards compatibility will safe the Vita right? Not quite so my friends, the Vita is backwards compatible with your PSP games, unfortunately only in the digital form, so unless you want to buy all the games you already have in UMD format for your PSP you're out of luck. What does Sony have to say about this? They said that sale expectancy for the Vita is right where they expected it to be in some areas but not in others and they refuse to say which others. That sounds like this girl I was trying to date before, my expectancy of going out with her was good in some areas because we live in the same city, but not in others because she doesn't even know my name. (I just made that up, seriously!) Moving on, the resale value of the Vita, I called Gamestop to ask how much they would give me for it, $70 was their quote, that is incredibly low and it has a lot to do with the fact that not many people are buying it and we all know how Gamestop works, you sell them your $60 game for $25 if you're lucky and that is in store credit by the way and they turn around and sell it to people for $55. What does that say about the Vita? Ok let's imagine a world where a company like Sony really wants to do something for it's customers in order to sell more units, what would Sony do? Offer a price drop like Nintendo did of course! NOT! They think it's too soon for that, but what they did do for the customer is give them a firmware update. Firmware 1.80 for the Vita does something awesome for your Vita, it locks your memory card to a single account and deletes any other accounts you had saved in it, ta-dah! Say you share your Vita with your significant other and you guys play the same game(s) and you don't want to ruin each other's save files. Well simple, your better-half can make their own account and leave your game intact and vice-versa. Well Sony just said no to that. You want another account, buy another memory card because you're made of money and Sony wants that money. So where does the Vita excel then? Well in bundles, the latest bundle is $249.99 and it will include Assassin's Creed 3 Liberation, which on it's own would be $39.99 so you're saving $10. I really want to play that game, I just don't want to pay for a Vita and you know why I don't want to pay for a Vita? I don't want to pay for one because of the question in the title of this review. Let me answer that question for you, is the Vita living up to the hype? NO! And with the latest firmware I feel they are flipping off the customers that bought it in the first place. I think Sony forgot that the customer is what keeps them in business, it's awesome to make something as innovative as the Vita, but making a system is only about a quarter of the battle, you have to offer games with it and please we're tired of shovel-ware, you know those games you just shove in our face to say your console has more games like the Michael Jackson Experience, seriously this game on the PS Vita feels like a slap to the face it was bad in consoles and now in a handheld it's just downright insulting.

Well my readers this has been my opinion of the PS Vita I hope I save a lot of you some money, and if your opinion is different than mine, feel free to tell me why in the comments section. Your opinions are always welcome!

Drake's Reviews Score 4 out of 10

Arcade Game Review: Initial D Arcade Stage 4 Limited

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 07:09:00 +0000

This is another game that we'll probably never see stateside, but honestly I am thinking of making some sort of fund to bring games like these to the states, at least to my own private arcade hahahaha. If you've never heard of Initial D let me give you a bit of information. Initial D is an anime series about different groups that compete in street racing in this case drifting. If there is one negative aspect of this game it would have to be the graphics, which seem a bit outdated but they are still good nonetheless, but that is about the only thing that comes to mind and if you keep reading you will understand why. The arcade game or at least this version of it is unique in that it actually uses real car models for playing. You actually jump into one of three car models the game has available although it is not necessarily the one you pick to play as in the game. The cars are the WRX Subaru Impreza, Mazda RX-7 and a Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86. Using real car models is not the only thing this game is known for, oh no that is just the beginning. Once you're inside any of the cars you will notice that it has real seats and it has a mock up a very realistic one of the gauges and other things you may find in these cars. As if that wasn't enough you play the whole game through the view of the car just like if you were driving and when you drift the entire car drifts with you! If you saw the video you can appreciate most the things I am describing here, but unfortunately that is all we can do for now. I hope someone notices that here in the USA we are also avid gamers and we would definitely be making line for games like these. I said it before and I will say it again Japan gets the best Video Games!

Drake Reviews Score (Arcade) 10 out of 10

Game Review: Gundam: Bonds of the Battlefield

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 06:29:00 +0000

If there is something that bothers me about gaming in the US is that we do not get some of the amazing games that Japan gets, and I am not just talking about console games, but also about arcade games such as this. Gundam Senjo no Kizuna or Bonds of the Battlefield in English. To give you a simple idea of this game think about playing Call of Duty's Team Deathmatch, except you are actually the soldier in the game. With that being said you play the game inside a P.O.D. or Panoramic Optical Display, which simulates being inside the pilot's seat of an actual Mecha from the Gundam series. As you can see in the video the P.O.D. has two Joysticks to move your Gundam around, two pedals which are for jumping and boosting. Of course you also have your weapons buttons and the P.O.D. is equipped with headsets so you can talk to your teammates while you play. The best thing about this game is that it simulates the experience of being inside a giant Gundam very well. The pod vibrates with your steps, you can see around you just like they can in the cartoon, and you can even see the arms of the robot you are using. If you look for other videos on youtube you can even see how the targeting system works and how it can zoom in on enemies that are nowhere near your normal field of vision. The game is also played on an actual online network so you can play with people around the country. And a couple of months back there actually got to connect to people in China as well. Games like these never see a release stateside and that bothers me because honestly who wouldn't want to play a game this awesome? Even if you're not a fan of the Gundam series I think anyone could enjoy getting inside a giant robot simulator and cause some mayhem.

Drake Review's Score 10 out of 10.
(Please not this is an arcade game so we have different set of rules for scoring them.)

Movie Review: The Expendables 2

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 18:40:00 +0000

Hey Drake’s Reviews it’s Rudy here, back one more time and this time I bringing you a review on one of the best movies I’ve seen lately, The Expendables 2! The second installment of The Expendables was just released in theaters and might I add it was an adrenaline induced testosterone binger. All I have to say is Chuck Norris! Thank you that's my review watch the movie. Kidding, the movie itself is a mixture of the action and comedy genre. There’s a lot jokes in this movie many of them at Toll Road's (Randy Couture) expense and others based of movie references. Aside from the return of the original cast from the first Expendables, Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Terry Crews the cast is further expanded by the addition of movie legends Liam Hemsworth, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Unfortunately all you Jet Li fans will be disappointed because Jet Li's character Ying Yang only makes a short 10 minute appearance. Additionally Mickey Rourke does not appear in the movie. Without revealing too much about the plot I can give our readers a vague description of the plot. Mr. Church portrayed by Bruce Willis sends Barney Ross (Sly Stallone) and the Expendables to retrieve a certain item from a crashed airplane. While at the crash site the team is confronted by the villain Jean Vilain played by Jean-Claude Van Damme, on a side note not a well thought out name. Jean kills a new member of the team named Billy The Kid portrayed by Liam Hemsworth. This gives fruit to the main story for the movie. Chuck Norris first appearance shows how much of a bad ass he is as well. Overall the movie is well done the action scenes are well executed. Also the introduction of a new female character added to the story. The comical aspects gave the movie a more casual feel demonstrating that it wasn't just an action movie but it was planned as an action comedy. Personally I thought the villains were at a disadvantage because Chuck Norris doesn't need to dodge bullets, Bullets dodge Chuck Norris. Additionally even if a bullet miraculously hit him he wouldn't die because Chuck Norris doesn't cheat death. He wins fair and square.

Drake’s Reviews Score 9.5 out of 10. For fear of Chuck Norris round house kicking us in the face though it actually gets a 10.1!

Is this the future of video games? The Virtusphere!

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 08:13:00 +0000

As the years go by we've been witness to the changes video games have gone through. From a simple 2D game like Pac-Man to the 3D games on our current consoles to actual games that are in 3D thanks to our tv's and consoles like the 3D's, to the next dimension we experience with the Kinect, and now to this... Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you "The Virtusphere" I admit that the graphics aren't that great but that may be temporary at most. What is great about this system is that we are no longer just playing the game, we are the game. This is not exactly a review it's more of a realization of how far gaming has gone for me. Check out this information straight out of Virtusphere's website.

How it works: Virtusphere consists of a 10-foot hollow sphere, which is placed on a

special platform that allows the sphere to rotate freely in any direction according to

the user’s steps. Wearing a wireless, head-mounted display the user is able to walk and run being immersed into virtual environment.

The movement by the user is replicated within the virtual environment. The same

hardware set can be used for different applications by changing only the software

applications.

 Markets and applications for Virtusphere include but are not limited to:

• Military, law enforcement , and other dangerous occupations for safely

training, practical skills of users preparing for dangerous environments

• Gaming and entertainment

• Health and fitness

• Education and museums

• Architecture and construction-site 3D model walk-through

• Virtual travel and tourism

• Events and Shows

• Home gaming

Granted the Virtusphere is not only for video games but think of the possibilities when it comes to gaming, imagine not playing as Master Chief, but being Master Chief. Imagine yourself jumping to land on a goomba or a turtle instead of having Mario do it. Imagine how awesome Call of Duty would be if we were the players! Perhaps I am getting a bit ahead of myself, as this giant plastic ball of gaming would cost you about $36,000 for the gaming rig you saw in the video, but hey we can dream right?

And yes the Virtusphere is made of plastic, the whole thing put together is about 440 pounds, the ball alone is about half of that weight, pretty light if you ask me for such a big rig. While the Virtusphere is not exactly cheap I honestly don't think it's as expensive as one might expect and the best thing of all, everything is completely wireless! No cables on your gun or your Heads Up Display Glasses. Perhaps the future of gaming is a bit farther than we think with these prizes, but that's how cars and tv's were when they first came out and now practically everyone can afford one. The Virtusphere would be great for gaming but not just because it lets you be in the game, it is also a work out, no more sitting on the couch and that is great in my opinion this would be truly enjoyable exercise, and the more you play the more fit you get, well depends on the game too I guess, but running around gunning opponents down would be a work out right? So what do you guys think of The Virtusphere? Write your comments down below.

Movie Review - TOTAL RECALL

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Black) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:14:00 +0000

In 1990 the first Total Recall movie loosely based on the short story "We can remember it for you wholesale" was released. It starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and it was a good movie from what I can remember. Now in 2012 we do not get a remake of that movie but a movie that is more true to it's source story. Total Recall stars Collin Farrell as Doug Quaid the titular character of the story. While it differs greatly from the 90's version it does not mean that it is a better movie. As a matter of fact it is a rather boring movie with some action signs thrown in the mix. You never really get a feel for the characters and there are really no awe-inspiring scenes. The most memorable part of the movie is seeing the type of cell phone that Quaid uses, it was pretty impressive but the original movie had way better gadgets and a better plot. You hate to see bad movies happen to good actors and this has been Collin Farrell's story as of late, but you have to remember that Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, Bill Nighy and Brian Cranston are also in this movie and even then it's still a bad movie. It does have some nods to it's predecessor though so if you saw the original you will see somethings in this one that pay respects to it, but it will make you hate this movie even more. Total Recall is maybe worth the rental but not a trip to the theater.

Drake's Reviews Score 6 out of 10