RevYuu

NES sold for $50,000.00USD when listed for 35k: a great story of support or a fraudulent bid?

2010-07-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

EDIT: The bid was eventually withdrawn, as many people suspected.

Sometime ago, this auction [LINK] was posted, which was an NES bundle including the system, the zapper, and a few NES games. The asking price was a very high $35,000, but the seller supposedly really needed the money and was selling his prized possession.

Well, now the NES has supposedly sold for a whopping $50,000. There are two options for this:

1) A very nice person has just donated $50,000 to this man in need, or

2) It is a fake bid that will never end up going through.

The most plausible of the two? Probably, the latter. I'll update once something new happens. If it goes through, this may be one of the greatest and nicest things done on eBay.

First Let's Play video!!!

2010-07-06T13:16:00.001-07:00

ExtraLives.org : Playing Pokemon for a great cause

2010-07-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

If you have some free time, or some extra money, check out extralives.org's Pokemon marathon!

Free TV : Ustream

The full stream is available at ExtraLives.org, with all information pertaining to the marathon. You can also participate in the chat and find a link to donate. The charity they are raising money for is Free the Children, a worthy cause indeed.

The 7 year rumour: you CAN play as Master Hand!

2010-07-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that this rumour was actually true! By bypassing the character select screen, you actually can play as Master Hand in Super Smash Bros. Melee!

Video Games | Pop-Fiction | Episode 3

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

VVVVVV is vvvvvvery fun to play

2010-06-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

I remember first hearing about VVVVVV when a beta released was leaked on /v/, but not thinking anything of it. Now, months later, VVVVVV came up once again in a "Let's Play" by YouTube user raocow, which led to me to try the game out. Let me tell you, I am extremely glad I did.

VVVVVV, made by indie group Distraction Ware, is an interestingly named platformer. The game uses Commodore 62-esque graphics, which are a great retro refresher that you don't see veryb often anymore. The game completely revolves around one gameplay aspect: you press the "action button" to change gravity, which flips your character upside down as he flies the opposite direction. This relatively simple mechanic leads to many challenging, yet fun puzzles that you won't get bored with (although a few may get you a little frustrated.) With moving enemies and obstacles, plenty of spikes, and a few other extras to shift gravity in different ways, you'll have to get used to adapting to a constantly changing environment quickly if you want to advance.

The story follows a captain (You) and his crew as they advance through space, trying to uncover its secrets. All of a sudden, a disturbance warps all the members to different parts of space and gets a few trapped in places around the ship. Warp points let you travel all around the very large map. Your main goal is to rescue all your crew members. This completes the main story, which I won't spoil anything about. After you rescue the members however, you have the opportunity to collect "shiny" things called trinkets. These are hidden throughout the entire game, and require an extra challenge to obtain. For example, you may have to make a difficult jump, or figure out a difficult one room puzzle. In general, the story is short but satisfying.

Also included in this indie game is some somewhat entertaining humour that consistently shows up. Each room in a level has a name, which adds personality and humour, and the conversations that occur between different crew members will often times make you laugh. Distraction Ware aims to make sure every little detail is fine-tuned - some of which you won't notice until you play through the game again, since you'll be so mesmerised by the game itself.

What makes VVVVVV great is that it does something that many games don't today: instead of putting many gameplay aspects into one situation or environment, you are required to master this one simple gravity-shifting mechanic in many different environments. Distraction Ware manages to keep things interesting throughout the whole game as well, even though it can be slightly short. The friendly retro graphics and simple-yet-satisfying gameplay makes VVVVVV a platformer easily worth buying.

Dilbert is too realistic

2010-06-28T08:55:00.000-07:00

Click it for a bigger size.

Even if you don't work IT, almost anyone can relate to this.

And I /just/ caught Suicune.

2010-06-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

:<

One part of the hinge had snapped off a few months ago, but I managed to put some of that magic putty in and make it good as new. However, I accidentally dropped my DS on grass, of all things, and both sides snapped at once.

The Humble Indie Bundle - Amazing Opportunity for cross-platform games!

2010-05-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

5 games.

All for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Name your own price.

This is one deal you cannot pass up.

The package, for which you can literally name your own price to purchase, includes World of Goo, Penumbra, Aquaria, Gish, and Lugaru HD. These are five great games by indie developers.

These developers are also working for a noble cause. Customers of this package decide where their money goes: all to the developers, all goes to the charities Child's Play and Electronic Frontier Foundation, or the amount is split evenly. Any of these options is sure to benefit someone struggling with funds.

Two interesting statistics: it just goes to show how kind people are:

Real-time Statistics
- Total raised $121,502
- Average contribution $7.98
- Number of contributions 15219

1. Anonymous $500.0
2. analogpixels.com $250.0
3. Anonymous $200.0
4. Dan_Dude $200.0
5. Anonymous $127.0
6. :(){:|:&};: $100.0
7. FoxInABox $100.0
8. Anonymous $100.0
9. Anonymous $100.0
10. Anonymous $100.0

It's great to see people care for a worthy cause.

If you're interested, check out the deal here!

I'd like to be an American Idiot

2010-05-02T18:08:00.000-07:00

Formal opinions coming soon!

I saw American Idiot on Broadway last friday, and, let me tell you: fan-fucking-tastic.

Pre-show:

Outside the doors; we were near first in line.

Post-show:

The cast was so friendly!

Steam on the Mac coming very soon

2010-04-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

May 12th, 2010: the date is set!

Steam is finally going to arrive on the Mac in less than two weeks; exciting news, indeed. There is no doubt that this will open the doors to a much larger audience for Steam. Something that many people don't know is that Macs are completely strong gaming computers. They are speedy with quick processors, and carry above-average graphics cards. The only reason people haven't been gaming on the Mac very frequently is....well, nobody makes games for the platform.

This may very well change if Steam on the Mac turns out to be successful. There isn't much known about the current beta underway, however. A reddit post gives us a short insight into a subject that people are not allowed to generally talk about (no disclosure):

I'm in the beta. Not sure how much I'm allowed to say -there's a bit of an NDA on it - but the beta started earlier this week, includes the Steam client and Portal. It's definitely beta, but playable. Very promising.

You can interpret this however you'd like, but it's still exciting to hear from an actual person that the games are promising, even though they're in beta.

Of course, the release date may change. In fact, many people have grown to expect it, due to "Valve Time", a timeline of what Valve developers really mean when they give a release date or time frame.

A few examples of "Valve Time"

What do you think? Is Steam on the Mac a step in the right direction? Will the big risk pay off?

Avatar MMO?

2010-04-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

An Avatar MMO, huh?

According to a few sources, James Cameron has said that he is interested in creating an Avatar MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game - think World of Warcraft). Am I the only one to think this will be average?

I mean, sure, James Cameron has a lot of money to put towards creating a well-received game. However, there have been very few successful conversions from movie to video game, or vice-versa. There are far too many examples of game-to-movie gone wrong, such as Street Fighter or Tomb Raider. Taking a movie and turning it into a game that people actually want to play always takes more effort than people believe.

A game set in the fictional world of Pandora. Pandora is a place where many die-hard fans of the movie Avatar wish they could live in, and in the movie is where the Na'vi (blue people) exist. The one thing enjoyable would be exploring this vast world. However, what would you do? Hunt? Fight off humans? To be honest, I think it's hard to come up with any actual "game" concepts for this MMO - it was hard enough for the single player Avatar video game released not too long ago. Avatar will aim to be a fancy-graphic MMO that will draw in a large audience due to its movie popularity, but, in my opinion, it won't have the key parts, such as World of Warcraft's raiding, or Mabinogi's storyline, that give other MMO's their sparkle.

What do you guys think? Would an Avatar MMO be a success or a flop?

Game Trailers - E3 2010

April Vacation Video Gaming

2010-04-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

My April vacation is emptier each year.

I bought Pokémon SoulSilver a few days ago for something to enjoy on my 5 hour bus ride to New York. 2 years prior, I purchased The World Ends with You. Surprisingly, the game tackled a lot of issues that I was facing in my own life. Discovering your identity and dealing with the fact that you could be just a player in a "game" played by a deity; simply, a meaningless person existing amongst a mass of other meaningless persons. It gave me an empty, and yet, full, feeling, when I completed the game. It was a video game character; and yet, I knew that this character and this story were created by people with the same ideas and feelings as me. I felt as though I made a connection, even though I didn't.

From then on, I bought a game to play in my April vacation trip to pass the time. For the past two years, I was hoping there would be something to fill the void after completing TWEWY. I was hoping some game could surpass my expectations and lead me to connect in such an extraordinary way. However, I couldn't find another like it. Rhythm Heaven was cute, and SoulSilver didn't give me the nostalgia trip I was secretly hoping for, after denying my love for Pokémon after buying Diamond.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever find a game to match TWEWY.

Each April vacation becomes emptier and emptier. All I end up thinking about is the emotional experience of The World Ends with You, and how no game will ever live up to the standards of storyline and characters that, in my opinion, were set.

Now, I try to find something better in these April vacations.

I don't think that will happen though.

"Give up on yourself, and you give up on the world..."

iPod's Number-One Killer is its Lack of Buttons to Support Non-Casual Games, and it's Limiting its Success with Mainstream Games

2009-10-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

"Resident Evil on my iPod? No way!"

I remember thinking this very clearly when I first got my iPod touch, a kind birthday present from my parents. After jailbreaking, I immediately went through the App Store and looked up all the mainstream games, made by the professional developers, and proceeded to load them all onto my iPod. However, as I played and put down each of these mainstream titles, I found that for one reason or another, there was somehing about the game that completely turned it off to me. The game was certainly well-made, generally had decent graphics, and was essentially lag-free. So, what was wrong?

Then it hit me: touch-screen controls.

It's almost like the gimmick failures on the Nintendo DS' touchscreen, except this is a situation that game developers couldn't overcome for most games. No matter how much you try to convince the general public otherwise, touch controls for games that usually use buttons just don't feel right on the iPod. Many Dev teams see a market in iPod games, which they rightly should. If a motivated, work-at-home coder can make hundreds of thousands in profit by working a few hours a day to make a relatively simple puzzle game, it's logical to assume that an even more professionally-developed game with actual money invested in its development could sell ten times better, right? Unfortunately, it just doesn't translate. With it's simplistic design, the iPod asks for simple, pick-up-and-play games, and doesn't handle anything more than that very well.

For example, examine Tower Defense-style iPod apps. It's extremely intuitive to drag and drop the characters onto the screen into the right positions and altogether have the control at your fingertips. In this case, touch-screen controls actually benefit the game. Also, think of wooden labyrinth games; the kind based on the old wooden things you shook around to get a marble to the finish. Thanks to the accelerometer, something just feels right when you tilt the screen.

Conversely, we'll use Zenonia, an RPG, as an example. A Link to the Past-reminiscent game for the iPod. Your character is controlled by a virtual control pad, and you slash your sword/talk to NPC's by pressing the circular action button in the bottom right corner, where buttons are on any other handheld system. While I played this game, I found that I kept getting into stick situation constantly because of mis-taps on the virtual control pad and action button. If this were on the DS, for example, you KNOW where the buttons are. You don't have to look where you are pressing, because you can FEEL it when you press the button. There's a certain satisfaction when it comes to real buttons that you never get when you use a touch-screen, and that is a huge killer when trying to make games like Zenonia on the iPod.

Unless you can find a way to get around using a virtual keypad or pressing buttons with an intuitive control system that comfortable fits the iPod, the only games that can be fit for this up-and-coming system are casual gems. Touch-screen controls simply don't have the familiarity or intuitiveness of buttons, and the only way the iPod could attempt to capture a larger share of the handheld market is to redesign the iPod hardware as a model that includes buttons in some way, shape or form.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? E-mail me at revyuu@gmail.com, or post anonymously in the comment section below.

Google and Bing are Destined to be Designed and Used for Different Purposes

2009-08-09T14:39:00.001-07:00

After reading many content-heavy reviews on 'Google vs Bing: The Epic Rivalry-To-Be', I've found that nearly every single one concluded with a paragraph stating something like "Even with it's many features, Bing is not yet a Google Killer," or, "Bing is on the verge of creating something better/more useful than what Google has to offer." Neither of these conclusions are completely correct, however. Google is like the dog who, when you ask it to fetch something for you, grabs it and returns it with speed and accuracy. Bing, however, is like a dog who is sometimes inaccurate, but is capable of taking what it fetches and laying it out in front of you in certain ways. However, learning how to tell this dog how you want to organise his findings is a pain and very confusing, unless you ask him to fetch one of the (so far) few things he specialises in in the first place. Bing isn't trying to beat Google at Google's own game, but instead is trying to create a new engine designed to display more results more convenient to the consumer. Due to this, you can't really compare Bing and Google head-on because they end up serving relevant, but different, purposes. When Bing develops into an even better engine, it'll be up to the consumer to decide which of these 'engines' will better serve their needs on a given search.

First of all, I'm going to flat out declare Google the clear winner in the "Search Engine" category. We all know that giving you the results accurately and quickly is what Google specialises and shines in (and by Google, I mean the search engine, not the corporation). Microsoft thought that with a few helpful features added to their new search engine, Bing, consumers would be more satisfied with Bing than with Google. However, in adding a recommendation and search history sidebar on the left, Microsoft ended up cluttering the page, creating a more confusing interface, and losing the simplicity of it all that Google is praised for. To be honest, when I want to find a walkthrough for Fallout 3, I wont search for 'Fallout 3', see the sidebar's 'Fallout 3 Walkthrough' and be like, "Oh, that's exactly what I wanted!" I'll just search for Fallout 3 walkthrough directly if that's what I wanted in the first place. Even the most computer-illiterate user knows what they want, and doesn't need a sidebar to make searches with additional information even they already knew. As for the search history, the browser history normally serves just as well. I don't need it on the sidebar all the time, because chances are I'm not going to need it at all. Luckily, those features can be turned off. The preview tool is kind of helpful, but to be honest, I'm perfectly fine going to the page to see what it on it. The pages at the top of the search results are usually there for a reason, being the most accurate. In other words, it's a nice tool, but doesn't enhance the experience at all. Finally, through many trials on BlindSearch, I've found sometimes Bing's top results are inaccurate and sometimes unreliable.

Where Bing succeeds is, uncoincidentally, in an area that Google hasn't ventured: retrieving and processing data. Like the dog example, while Google only retrieves, Bing processes and lays out data, complete with graphics, statistics, prices, and more (all when applicable), but only on specific subjects. The best presentation comes with airlines, restaurants, and shopping. These are the most polished services because Bing bought out several established services and applied them on Bing. The only established feature that wasn't part of a buyout was the review section, which shows reviews on most products or other profitable services when you search for them. Bing collects these reviews and displays them accordingly. Bing Cashback is another feature where you receive 10% back on your purchases made through Bing. It's neat, but obviously a gimmick that only exists because Microsoft profits off of it. A huge fail (so far) is Local search,. You can tell Bing put a lot of effort into this section, but results are simple wrong and misleading in many, many cases. Overall, while there are great ideas, they are currently poorly executed overall. Changing options and displays to optimise your experience is very complicated and time-consuming to set up. Bing lost all chances of being simple with it's extremely confusing interface. Moreover, there are so far only a few services Bing completely optimises and pays special attention to right now.

You can see that Google and Bing will inevitably be designed for different purposes when all is said and done. The commercials are half-right: Bing actually is a Decision engine, but it's not "more" than a search engine. When Bing is perfected, I'll search for information on local Italian restaurants or buy my plane tickets on it, accompanied by charts and numbers. But for regular, everyday searches, from common to obscure, I can always rely on Google. In the end, the reason no one will switch to Bing is because you don't have to. Chances are, in a couple years, we'll find ourselves using both Bing and Google for our needs.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? E-mail me at revyuu@gmail.com, or post anonymously in the comment section below.

New Generation 8-bit games: Could we get just as successful by keeping the simplicity but updating to today's graphics? (Editorial)

2009-07-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

It's time for a little change of pace. This next post is not a review, but instead, an editorial. tl;dr at the end

We see many games coming out lately e.g. such as mega Man 9, that use retro, 8-bit - 32-bit graphics for the games. With many once-NES gamers thirsty for nostalgia, Capcom decided bringing a great series back to its humble beginnings as a 2d, 8-bit platformer. This game was a huge success, appealing to old and new Mega Man fans alike. However, there was some controversy on the graphics choice. IGN and the Nintendo magazine praised MM9 for the 8-bit style, while Edge magazine brought the score down to 6/10, critising the retro look.

This got me thinking; we begged for these 8-bit games for two reasons: nostalgia and simplicity. Nothing screams nostalgia in video games more than NES and 8-bit, and during those times, when resources were much more limited and game engines were only so good, simple was the best possible! My question to you all is: Are we really looking for the 8-bit look, or the simplicty that comes with 8-bit games?

Take for example Braid. This innovative indie game was nearly as simple as most 2d platformers end up being. Besides the fact that you could rewind time and solve puzzles, Braid was about jumping on enemies and scrolling screens. I'm not going to get started on music or story, since this is only for an example. What makes Braid different from the NES platformers? The obvious answer is the graphics. Braid had beautiful backgrounds and a more detailed (not to mention, funny-looking) protagonist. Braid was critically acclaimed, and was even called a masterpiece by multiple sources. In this case, it was the simplicity of gameplay that made this game successful. The music and backgrounds only add to the "ease" felt when playing the game.

In this case, there were no 8-bit graphics to display simplicity. Instead, it was the concept and output that portrayed utter simplicity. Could other games do this? Could we make a Mega Man game that resembles the NES platformer series without using actual retro graphics? We all know the "good" Mega Man from the NES, so we think that this is impossible. But I don't think it has to be. Honestly, I think nostalgia is preventing game designers from taking risk in redesigning graphics but still keeping the original, fun, simple gameplay. Therefore, they stay safe and remake retro classics. What's stopping them from taking the risk?

Reception is key, and if reviewers and the general gaming population think that this new generation retro game with reformed graphics ruined what used to be good, horror ensues and the apocalypse is inevitable. Realistically, the game will be utterly hated. This fear is driving major companies to back off of these projects. Take a moment to imagine, however, Mega Man 9 with the SAME gameplay, SAME enemies, SAME story, but new, refined, and cleaner graphics. Would this hurt the game? Hell no! If Mega Man jumps as far as he usually jumps, and shoots as fast as normal, and nothing is visibly different besides the graphics, this game could be even greater than before! There shouldn't be anything stopping these designers as long as they don't radically screw up what's good about simple platformers.

I don't think making new 8-bit games is a step in the right direction. New Super Mario Bros. completely changed the graphics used in old Mario games, but still kept the addicting and satisfying gameplay. Mega Man 9 was a great game, so do not misread. However, I feel so much more could've been done. Every once in a while, one of these games is very refreshing. I really don't think that when going for simple, this "tactic" should be resorted to though. By listening to consumer feedback and taking a chance, we soon could discover what we are truly looking for in a simple game that reminds us of 8-bit nostalgia, besides the graphics. As for music...I am undecided. 8-bit tunes such as Mega Man II's Dr. Wily Stage 1/2 hold a place in my heart (not the bloody part), but newer tunes, such as the hypnotisingly amazing piano in Blueberry garden for the PC also deserve their place in these newer, simple games I hope will soon come. Perhaps this should go according to the style of that specific game.

tl;dr I think simple games with newer graphics can stay on the same level as new, 8-bit games that remind consumers of the NES days. If the same traits that were in the NES games are in these new games, the graphics will only be seen as a plus, and may show the video game industry that you don't need retro graphics to be simple.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Comment anonymously below, or feel free to email me at revyuu@gmail.com

Sniper vs. Spy Update (TF2) Review - This might not completely shake up the rivalry, but as whole, could make things interesting

2009-07-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

Hello, everybody! Let's continue reviewing with something a little, or, more correctly, a lot more popular. Team Fortress 2, probably the most popular First-Person Shooter for the PC, released an update not too long ago. Updates are extremely common with TF2, and has already happened with the Scout, Pyro, and more. However, the newest update, the Sniper vs. Spy Update, is extremely different in how: a) This is the first update affecting two different classes at once, and; b) The two classes updated are part of probably the strongest rivalry between any two classes in TF2. I'll delve into the specific weapons updates of the two classes, with a description and opinion, followed by summaries of whether or not the weapons will affect the game as a whole, all of the classes, and/or the specific rival class. Finally, I'll decide if you should keep your old item or switch to the new item.

*****I WILL NOT BE SAYING WHICH CLASS HAD A BETTER UPDATE (AS SUCH=FLAME)*****

Let us begin with the Sniper.

He leans against the weak metal shielding at the top of his fort, watching gunfire zoom past him like flies after a hobo. A gulp, cracking of his knuckles, and a deep breath. The gunfire stopped; now he has a chance. This stupid sniper at the other fort on 2fort has been driving him crazy long enough. He swears those 30 headshots against him by the same player were lag-enduced, but everyone else knows he's lying. Now, he wants revenge. The sniper peeks into his scope to charge up his shot. Carefully, he tiptoes around the metal shield just enough to reveal a fraction of the rival sniper's head. 'A little bit further, and this headshot will be mine,' the Sniper thought to himself. He peeks around the corner just a little more, planting his targeting reticle directly on the back of the other sniper's head. 'Now!' he thought, and as his finger pulled the trigger, he suddenly felt a staggering, burning pain in his back. "AHHHHHH!" he screamed. "NOT...again..." were the snipers last words before he collapsed on the ground, dead. The Spy behind him laughed and recloaked himself, off to find his next victim.

This is a typical situation with the Sniper; he always seems to be the prime victim of backstabs, especially in 2fort. When you're engaged in a sniper war, you simply can't be worried about Spys, or else you'll get sniped in an instant the moment you get distracted. The first unlockable weapon I'll cover, the Razorback, is extremely helpful to a stationary sniper who needs protection from Spys. This is a shield that covers the Sniper's back, with a 10,000 volt battery taped to the bottom. If a spy backstabs the sniper, not only will the sniper not take damage, but the spy will be "shocked" for a few seconds before he can backstab again. The Razorback disappears after one backstab. Presumably, this would give the sniper enough time to either run away or fight back. However, the Spy could easily just take out his pistol and blow his head off. It's a little bit bittersweet, and sometimes you can't decide if benefits outweigh disadvantages, and especially if you should use the SMG or Jarate instead of this.

Personally, I can't tell you a time when this has helped me in-game. If a Spy sees me with the Razorback, they simply take out their Revolver instead to shoot me in the head (no rhyme intended, although it does sound cool). Honestly, I think the SMG is much more useful to the Sniper. The Razorback will not affect the game or the other classes. However, it will affect the Spy, but not in a drastic way. The spy won't have the instant one-kill option, but if your back is turned, a player can do just about anything with a gun. All things considered, only use the razorback if you're on 2fort. Otherwise, keep your SMG.

The Sniper's next item is the Huntsman, a wood bow that is an alternative to the primary Sniper Rifle weapon. The Huntsman prime positive point is that it takes less time to charge. Well, that's fine and dandy, until you learn the range is decreased, the shot isn't instant, there's (obviously) no scope, you can't shoot underwater, and it doesn't even do as much damage as the Sniper Rifle overall. Sure, you can pin people to walls and have more lucky shots when enemies happen to walk into the arrow blindly, but that doesn't seem to make up for all of the disadvantages. What's good about the Huntsman, however, is the fact that your vision isn't so reduced, like if you were to look into the scope of a Sniper Rifle. There's a lot going on in this game, and the ability to see everything around you helps you dodge shots, watch for incoming enemies, and overall keep you alive. This may benefit some people, but at least for my sniping styles, it doesn't outweigh the disadvantages. However, unless there's something flying right by my head, this won't really affect the game all too much, including the individual classes and the rivalry against the Spy.

The finally Sniper's weapon is the Jarate, or the jar-based Karate, replaces the Submachine Gun as a secondary weapon. This is the one unlockable weapon released in this update that I can see as useful. Often refered to as "urine", the Jarate is a real team-player item. When thrown, players take 35% harder non-crit shots. When you have two heavy-medic pairs and a demo man running in to capture your last control point, a well-thrown Jarate could be enough to save your team. There are even more useful uses, one of which is that fire is extinguished when thrown at a team member, and cloaked spies are revealed. For one jar of pee, there sure are a lot benefits.

No doubt, this can affect all aspects of gameplay. A well thrown Jarate can save your team, or at least help out in a big way. It affects many different classes and statuses of players (like on fire or cloaked). Most noticeably, the Jarate definitely affects the Spy in how it destroys his invisible cloaking. Although it may be discreet, this jar of urine could be a game-changer, and further strengthens the Sniper vs. Spy rivalry.

Now we are onto the Spy. This discreet class is the worst enemy to the Sniper. When a Spy gets in a base, a Sniper that is busy in combat has no chance to defend himself as long as the Spy doesn't draw extreme attention to himself. It's understandable how the Spy is the Snipers rival, since the Spy loves to destroy a busy enemy, distracted with another task.

The Spy's first weapon unlocked is The Ambassador, the primary weapon replacement to The Revolver. This pistol has its ups and downs. The focus on The Ambassador is accuracy. You can be as far away from an enemy as a sniper with a sniper rifle would be and your shot can still hit. Best of all, every headshot with this new pistol is a critical hit. However, after this crit headshot, there is a cooldown period where the accuracy completely sucks. Compared to The Revolver, this pistol is a good amount slower and weaker. Basically, you're sacrificing strength and speed, for accuracy. Is it a fair trade? I suppose this appeals to the specific person, right? This isn't really much of a gamechanger, although with the rivalry, it could be an interesting spy vs sniper sniping competition.

One of the stealthy Spy's new PDA slot weapon is the Dead Ringer, which, upon taking damage, makes a clone of you appear. Meanwhile, the real you appears right next to the clone, fully cloaked. When the enemy kills of your clone, feels accomplished, and starts taunting, you just easily step behind them and backstab/taunt kill/any other method of killing. Maybe I'm a sucker, but I can't tell you how many times I've fallen for this, even after obtaining the item and learning exactly what it was and how it works. The most sneaky part of this weapon is that kills, dominations, revenges, and even achievements are falsely logged, making the killer of the clone really think that the spy was exterminated. Of course, an aware enemy would should the immediate area in fear that it was actually a clone. However, this may be enough time for the Spy to sneak around and score the kill.

In my opinion, especially in the heat of battle, this has the possibility to make a difference on all ends. All enemies are susceptible to this trick; especially newbies. In the case of the rivalry, the Sniper that feels accomplished that he killed a Spy that was about to backstab him might have gotten a little too cocky with his excitement in this achievement, although this might be a little bit of a farfetched scenario. It wouldn't be fair to especially stereotype experienced snipers like this, however.

The final unlockable for the Spy is the Cloak and Dagger. This handy device also goes in the PDA slot. What makes this item special is that it replenishes your cloak gauge even if you're cloaked when you stand still. Unfortunately, this drains faster than your usual Invisibility Watch. However, this is not a problem when you use this item for one purpose; spawn kills. Sure, this could be a cheap method, but it's hella effective. You stand in an inconspicuous place where enemies come out, and as soon as an enemy you can catch up to appears, run up, backstab, run back to the hiding place, and let your cloak replenish, all the while keeping your cloak meter high. Unfortunately, there is no recharging through ammo and weapons with this item; you'll just have to ride it out and be patient. However, the best part is, even if the battery dies while you're in a bad position, you'll still remain partially cloaked, which may be the difference in keeping you alive.

Whether you're sapping sentries and backstabbing the engi who built it, or standing in one point and, in essence, spawn killing, this item is all too useful. In the Sniper vs. Spy rivalry, this isn't exactly going to make much of a difference. It would still be basically the same situation, except that the Spy would remain cloaked more often. As a whole, opportunities for the Spy greatly increase as far as location and timing go.

Probably one thing you, the reader, may want to hear is whether you should use the Dead Ringer or the Cloak and Dagger. My answer to you is to pick whichever suits your strategies the best. Are you the kind of Spy who takes risks and runs right in, possibly to get rid of that annoying sentry that's been sitting in the corner way too long or to knock off that pesky Sniper dominating you for far too long? In this case, the Dead Ringer is probably best. It's almost like a second chance if you mess up (or if you get hit on purpose as a distraction). Or, when you play Spy, do you play it safe, stand still, find a good spot, and bank on it? For you, the Dead Ringer is best. Personally, I prefer the Cloak and Dagger, because I generally prefer to run right in and take risks. However, the choice is yours.

And there you have it. Before I leave you to flame me [I'm joking, I hope :X], I would like to offer one last opinion. Which class, the Sniper or Spy, will have the better advantage against eachother in this epic rivalry? Note that I'm not saying which class had the better update overall. I believe, all things considered, the Spy has this down. The Spy may not have a better offense, but the extra precautions given by the Dead Ringer and the Cloak and Dagger help ensure that the Spy will take care of the Sniper in almost all situations.

Don't forget to vote on what I should review next! If you have a suggestion or a regular comment, you can anonymously (or not anonymously) leave a comment down below, all of which will be read and taken into account. And with that, this RevYuu is over!

-Zack

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? E-mail me at revyuu@gmail.com. All mail will be read and responded to, and is much appreciated!

"bob's game" A curious gem filled with hype and high hopes - 8/10

2009-07-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! For my first review, I'll start with a very obcsure game only released with a demo so far. Has anyone ever heard of Robert Pelloni? He's a video game maker.

Wait, you haven't? Oh, well that makes sense. He's basically been in his room the past 5 years creating a beautiful video game.

"bob's game" is the video game Mr. Pelloni has been working on for quite some time. It is his childhood vision brought to life, and as far as the general gaming crowd can see so far, this vision has sure been transformed into something great. So far, only the demo for "bob's game" has been released, which can be found at http://www.bobsgame.com . I'll go through the highs and lows of the demo, and then give a prospective rating.

As a "bob's game" fan, I promise to remain neutral in this review.

Upon booting up this homebrew demo, we are greeted with two very humorous kinds of sarcastic plays on traditional video game boot up screens. First of all, the warning screen shows a list of silly cautions, such as "Do not jab stylus into eye." Afterwards, the title screen loads. "Press A" hovers on the bottom screen, and after pressing A, "Now Press B" appears. After pressing B, "Now Press C", which hangs on the screen for a few seconds, soon replaced by "Just kidding :}". Technically, this is nothing revolutionary, but it just goes to show how much humor Mr. Pelloni tried to put in this game very early on.

Now, onto actual gameplay. It is amazing how fast and seamless the gameplay actually is. Although you cannot move as fast through doors as promised in the demo videos released sometime ago, the travel is still better than many games. Holding "B" makes you run at least 5 times faster, which sometimes makes things a little unbalanced. Why would you bother to walk in general if you could go 5 times faster? Perhaps a better option would be to hold "B" to walk instead.

Actual navigation can be quite hard, unfortunately. In the house, where most of the demo takes place, I had no idea there was a gap between two boxes because the 2D, closed-up view doesn't give a very good view of what is actually possible. Also, a key doorway was almost invisible because it lined up exactly with the wall, with only a small, discreet doorknob to signify a doorway. Overall, there is much to be improved in these tight areas.

HOWEVER, HOWEVER, HOWEVER, the outdoor landscapes (so far, mind you) are fantastic. Things were limited in this demo, but what was revealed was extremely enjoyable. This is where fast running really becomes handy. It's like a one-click bicycle from Pokemon, except it doesn't do all those crazy tricks. Silly Pokemon series, always showing up all other games in the ways of biking/moving around.

Let's talk about characters now! There are over 200 completely unique characters in this game; quite a feat, especially by one person. The main characters stems the game's slogan: 'Thank Yuu for playing'. Yuu is the main character, which makes things feel odd to say, and yet, kind of cool, because a 2nd-person name is being used in 3rd-person. You can't imagine all of the weird looks given to me when I exclaim to my friends, 'Yuu is so cool!" Or, at least, something along those lines.

So far, you can tell Mr. Pelloni put a lot of time into the little things, making sure everything was right. But you may be astonished to know EVERY graphic was drawn pixel by pixel.

Graphics by Final Fantasy games released on the DS easily beat the graphics on "bob's game", but the clean look of those of the latter are quite noteable. To be fair and to keep rationality in place, I can't give extra points because the graphics were drawn pixel by pixel, as you couldn't give extra points to Mr. Pelloni for making this game on his own. As with any game, the final product is the only thing that actually matters.

The last notable subject in "bob's game" are the minigames. "Tetrid", a Tetris ripoff/spoof, was the only minigame released in the demo. On the outside, this is just a simple Tetris copycat. However, upon playing this small gem, there is so much more strategy hidden inside. You have to completely lose all Tetris strategy and think of things in an entirely new way. Tetris DS couldn't pull this off, so I applaud Mr. Pelloni for this.

The one thing missing right now is Storyline, supposedly the biggest surprise and best accomplishment in the game. All we know right now is "Yuu was born with a gametoy...", as in the character Yuu was born with a Gameboy ripoff, called Gametoy ingame, for no known reason. You could imagine many possiblities for a storyline, but I guess we'll all have to wait for the real story.

Once again, I must give this a prospective, general rating, that hopefully will resemble the final game. As is now, with the benefit of the doubt for the storyline, I give this game an 8/10. Fix up some cluttered areas, put in some options to alter gameplay to the players for their experience, and give us a storyline to make this rating even higher in the final game.

In the mean time, we'll all pray this doesn't turn into another "Duke Nukem Forever" scenario.

-Zack

Questions? Comments? Concerns? E-mail me at revyuu@gmail.com

Welcome to RevYuu!

2009-07-05T14:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

So, let's start with a little information about me. My name is Zack, and I am an avid reviewer. I've written reviews for many websites, including GameFAQs.com and AssociatedContent.com, but now I have decided to start a new project. In real life, I do plenty of things. I do my fair share of normal activities, such as guitar and soccer. However, I also am a complete nerd, to be frank. I work on many websites, code, and play video games. All the while, I can still maintain a social life

Back to this website:

For the time being, I plan to update twice a week; once on Tuesday and once on Saturday. This is probably subject to change, as well. I will update accordingly. Also, as well as revyuu's, I may also add in some editorials on topics I want to put out my opinion for.

Before I leave, here is a little bit of info on my reviews.

• I try to include as much humor while still maintaining the integrity of the reviews;

• I review everything from Retro games I discover to new games just released;

Here are my published reviews, from newest to oldest:

The top two give me money if you read ;)

Anyway, thank you for reading! Don't forget to subscribe to the RSS Feed, and expect a review soon!

-Zack H.

The awesome fanart!

2008-07-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE FOR THE FAN ART!

Pokemon Green English ROM

2008-07-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE FOR THE POKEMON GREEN ROM!