The stream starts 6 PM Central, December 16th and runs until the 19th. Please check them out! http://www.thespeedgamers.com/

Watch live video from TheSpeedGamers on www.twitch.tv

Caleb, Leo, Ryan and Aaron cover the winners of Bethesda’s ‘Dovahkiin’ contest, Shigeru Miyamoto’s ‘retirement’ among other things, and give our impressions of Uncharted 3, Mario Kart 7, Sonic Generations, Skyrim, and Caleb’s PoV about Gears of War 3 (legnthy/loud/argumentative), AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome, and last but not least, his thoughts on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

A good ol’ podcast featuring just Caleb and Aaron as they talk about Vivendi selling their stock in Activision-Blizzard and a bit about Skyrim’s release. For game impressions this episode, we cover my inability to stop playing Dark Souls, Braid, Gears of War 3, Borderlands, and Plants vs. Zombies. Also. PAX Prime 2012! We’ll be there!

This episode, Caleb, Ryan and Aaron cover news from BlizzCon, including info about Heart of the Swarm, the 1st expansion to StarCraft II, and updates to WoW. Then we go over impressions of Dark Souls, Orcs Must Die, Baldur’s Gate, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Enjoy!

PS. as a side result of this podcast, we swear never to talk about StarCraft II ever again. It ‘s like beating a dead horse, accomplishing nothing.

It is the fourth week of my time in Lordran.

The Bells of Awakening were rung. The Lordvessel has been claimed. The Four Kings of New Londo are no more. Gravelord Nito is but a memory. 2 of the Lord Souls have been acquired. I need only journey to The Duke’s Archives and Lost Izalith to claim the Lord Souls of Seath the Scaleless and The Witch of Izalith respectively.

Along the way, I have aided many a fellow Undead in their quest. Many who are afraid of venturing through the Depths and of the Basilisks that inflict curse. I have been a comrade to those seeking to defeat Dragonslayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough who block the way to the Lordvessel. I have journeyed far and wide, honing my skills to a sharp edge. I have acquired all manners of weaponry and armor, rare and common. I have harvested all sorts of ores and materials to make the tools which I employ that much more lethal. I have mastered magicks of all all types: Pyromancies, Sorceries, and Miracles.

I have journeyed far. Yet the journey is not yet over. Gwyn, Lord of Cinder still beckons my arrival.

What has changed?

Not much honestly. I would say that Dark Souls is still the flawed game it is that I mentioned in my previous Dark Souls post. The bugs (input lag?), the glitches (Great Magic Shield invulnerability cheapness? Iron Flesh? Ring of Fog cheapness? elemental weapon insane stats? TWoP?) , the freezing (did crash once), and yet Dark Souls keeps me glued to the game, my TV, and unable to start playing the numerous other games that have released since Dark Souls. By all means, I should be done the game with the over 100 hours I’ve invested, but I’m not. I’m enjoying the journey, however flawed it may be.

Maybe that’s one of the most redeeming aspects of Dark Souls. The game IS a messy pile in many cases. Frame rates, input lag, just to name some of the issues can be utterly horrendous and irritating. Yet, despite all the game’s flaws. I just can’t put it down.

Is it the game’s lore? Maybe. I do so enjoy reading as much as I can in game, all the item descriptions and all the story I can muster from it.

Is it the game’s systems? Likely. Few other games can do combat systems as well as the Souls games have. I can’t bear to watch any sort of fighting video from Skyrim, but I can watch Dark Souls PvP videos all day long.

Is it the game’s plot? Heck no. It’s there. It’s sorta interesting. It’s never really shoved in your face. It also doesn’t really matter to me.

Then what could it be?

Maybe, it’s a little bit of everything. Maybe, just maybe. Every little aspect of the game contributes to making it a fun experience. Have I died a lot? You bet. Has it been a blast? Every second of it and counting.

You can visit our channel using the convenient link provided on the top menu, or you can click on the even more convenient link embedded right here! Or if you are super unsure of what you’re going to find, you can watch the videos embedded below and then check out YouTube for additional highlights! Also if you could subscribe to us as well, that would be fantastic. Thanks.

Caleb, Leo, and Aaron go over how nice it is having a job… I mean, we’re back to podcasting after a REALLY LONG HIATUS. This episode, we cover Blur, Gears of War 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and White Knight Chronicles 2: International Edition! Hope you enjoy it!

I’m not really feeling it.

That’s about the best way to summarize my start into Dark Souls. About 2 hours in, I’ve killed the first boss, died to Dragon Fire blasts a few too many times, and yes, the game is harder than Demon’s Souls. Is the game actually BETTER than Demon’s Souls though? So far, I can’t say definitively.

The more open world aspect of the game where all the regions of the realm are linked together, minimizing loading times is great conceptually… but then you suffer from a LOT of running back and forth that wasn’t previously necessary in Demon’s Souls. I’m not spoiling it for myself whether a quick travel system gets introduced eventually… and if it does, I’d assume it be from Bonfire to Bonfire, but in doing so… what was the point of making the entire world of Dark Souls interconnected? Why NOT have a Nexus? If there is no quick travel system, I can foresee the future of Dark Souls being way too much walking back and forth along with quite a few deaths being attributed to the dulling of senses from the long walks to and fro.

Add in the Bonfire respawning. Yes, definitely an interesting mechanic and choice, causing the player to have to weight in the choices of healing up versus undoing the slaying of enemies. It’s a great way to simplify the accumulation of souls that many Demon’s Souls players use world 4-2 for, but at the same time, isn’t the game just being made far too grind-y? In Demon’s Souls, enemies respawned if you died, basically as a punishment for dying, or the game’s way of telling you that you could have done better. In Dark Souls, it’s far more like… being punished for taking a single point of damage or wanting to repair your broken weapons/armor.

Then there’s the camera… I just don’t know. That thing does not like me. I think I need to crank the sensitivity down even further, but then I fear my camera won’t keep up with the fast paced of some boss battles… it just feels strange.

Moving on… glitchy movement. Oh man. It was a bit bad in Demon’s Souls how some walkways had little invisible notches that sorta blocked your character… but Dark Souls is FULL OF IT. That little stretch between the cemetery and Firelink Shrine? The worst, ever. I have gotten stuck on little tiny stone parts of the WALKING PATH too many times to count as I attempted to run from pursuing skeletons.

…Oh… and a tip for the newbies. Don’t block Dragonbreath with your shield. You are literally better off taking a blast of fire to your back and getting knocked over. Way to go FromSoft, you broke it now. Back in Demon’s Souls, if you didn’t block the fire, you probably died. In Dark Souls, not blocking causes you to only take some HP damage, but get knocked flat on the ground, but you’ll be invincible while knocked down. If you choose to block it, you actually get hit/stun locked as the flames multi-hit you through your shield, taking out all your HP and Stamina in one go until you die, no invincibility time or anything, and it cost me a humanity point. It’s ridiculous and illogical. Though… it’s starting to seem that a lot of things about Dark Souls are completely illogical.

Oh yea. For that first boss you’ll likely face, the Tauros Demon, or whatever. Take off your armor. Mobility > Defense. That was mostly true back in Demon’s Souls, but it is even more so now.

Oh, and be careful you don’t badly time button presses. That’s also the worst. Dark Souls seems to catch every button input you make. So while in Demon’s Souls, when you got hit by a boss before you rolled, your animation just got interrupted and the command doesn’t go through, Dark Souls knows you pressed dodge. So guess what you’re doing right after you recover from being knocked down? Rolling. Attacking. Somewhere. Not always where you want to go.

Dark Souls… I am somewhat disappoint. The game looks and… maybe feels a bit better than Demon’s Souls… but it seems to have come at a great cost. The tightness of character control/movement/combat and other technical aspects seem to have suffered and I can’t say I’m looking forward to the next 80+ hours. At all.

So. I’ve spend about an hour playing the new Battlefield 3 Beta on my PS3, and sad to say (though maybe expected?), I’m disappointed.

Basically, I’m going to summarize what I’m about to say in this one line: Stick with Battlefield: Bad Company 2 until EA and DICE decide to churn out Bad Company 3.

Am I jumping the gun on my conclusions? Heck yes. Why? Well, the BF3 Beta should be a demo or a preview into the game, it’s engine, features, etc… and from what I previewed, it caused me to lose sufficient interest into buying the game. Now I have no doubts that BF3 will probably feature some supremely well-made single player campaign. From the footage I’ve seen, it does look great and fun, but generally, I’m not going to buy a shooter first day for a great single player campaign (unless it’s a more story-telling focused game, such as Uncharted or something.), I’m buying these things early because I want to hop onto multiplayer and enjoy some games with friends and what not. Battlefield 3′s multiplayer in the beta was utterly disappointing. I’m not even talking about the lack of vehicles and whatever they promised will be there, that I expect them to keep their word on. What killed the experience for me was much deeper, at least code wise.

A total lack of Environment Destruction.

In the single player campaign, we can see the Frostbite 2 engine being put to good use. There’s a repeatedly previewed scene where the player fires an RPG/Rocket into a building, taking nearly the whole structure out. The explosions and the visuals of the structure collapsing are spectacular as show in the video. On the contrary, the multiplayer is rather devoid of, well… features. Never mind the fragfest that the game feels like CoD more than previous Battlefield games, nor the lack of vehicles present among other things. Battlefield 3 really feels like it’s suffering from a lack of making the most of the game’s newest engine.

Yea, sure, you can still blow out walls in a building, but that still leaves the entire ‘indestructible’ building frame. Gone is the ability to collapse a structure in Rush mode to take out opposition holed up inside, or to claim objectives, removing a great deal of the strategy and depth that I came to appreciate from the Battlefield series.

There have been reports however that the beta released to the public is TOTALLY different from the buggy and crappy mess that was released. That the beta we are playing is a real beta from a long time ago in development. However, it begs the question… why are we gamers beta testing an ancient, completely poor, and dated beta if the development teams have already progressed so far past this point? What good does that actually serve the development team? About the only relevant data they could extract from such a beta test would be multiplayer server loads, and that’s a relatively simple fix. Why wouldn’t players have been given this sort of a beta 6 months ago instead, when DICE was probably actually in this phase of development, giving them a lot more valuable data and feedback.

Further food for thought, why would EA choose to use such a flawed beta as a preview/advertisement for one of their biggest games to date? I mean… all the beta seems to have done for me is kill my interest in purchasing the game day one, as I’ve no assurance that the game surpasses Bad Company 2′s multiplayer.

It seems to me that EA had best review its own policy for using betas as playable demos and previews of what’s to come. If the beta’s so radically different from the actual game, why not release a beta/demo much closer to the final product if you’re planning on using it as advertising. Otherwise, if you’re going to release a flawed as crap beta, actually release it in your actual beta development phase so you can get a lot of good feedback from many willing gamer participants.

No brainer? Yea. Boo urns on you EA. I’ll be waiting for reviews or… maybe just Bad Company 3.

Sue me, I stopped trying to come up with witty review lines. I promise though I will once I get back into the groove of reviewing games. That said, there isn’t really much to say about Gears of War 3. It’s been a long time coming since the original came out near the end of 2006, and the series has continually improved with each iteration since. So now, here we stand at the conclusion of the trilogy, as we bid farewell to another franchise that has stood as a pillar for Microsoft’s XBox 360.

War has changed… back then, it was easy… just fill those Locust scum with bullets or saw right through their innards.

But noooo… now, with the increasingly dire Lambent situation growing worse and worse by the day it’s not so simple to unload bullets or saw through Lambent monstrosities when they always explode into pools of Imulsion all over the place, we find our heroes since Gears 2 aboard a massive cargo ship they now call home.

Never fear though. If anyone’s going to win this damn war and kick everything’s ass in the process, it will be none other than Marcus Fenix and his Delta team bros (Though I guess… Anya and Sam are on the team now… but then they also have Jace and Carmine… so… is there more testosterone or less that makes up Delta?).

I digress though. As you can probably already tell, the story of Gears 3, though it picks up 2 years after Gears 2 (read the books if you want to find out what happened in between), is still rather clichéd with a pretty standard story that’s par for the course. Let’s face it though, even if you were seriously interested in the Gears story, that’s not really the reason why you want to play it.

You’re here for the adrenaline rush. Darting in and out of cover, laying waste to the monstrosities bent on wiping out humanity.

That sweet, sickly sound as you saw your way through the Locust and fill the Lambent hordes full of lead, and curbstomping some grubs who just happened to be at the wrong place at the right time.

Did I mention, they added a bayonet charge?

Mmm… mmm… gooooood.

Don’t forget them Silverbacks, those mobile turrets of devastation.

Gears 3 brings back all your old favorites and adds in a whole slew of new weapons and methods to wreak havoc upon your foes. With new weapons comes new enemies to deal with, constantly varying combat situations, and newer ways to tackle every combat scenario differently. That’s what you’re here for. It’s why you play Gears, and Gears 3 is no exception. Gorier and more violent that ever, ohhhh yea.

Have there been graphical improvements since GoW2? Yea. Is the soundtrack/sound design better? Yea. Does it really, really matter to you? Maybe. Should it affect your decision to buy/play Gears? Probably not.

One of the things that really shines in Gears 3 is the new shiny multiplayer, and first up is the fully revamped Horde mode. Enjoyed how Gears 2 brought forth a great new cooperative multiplayer mode? Horde 2.0 is the future and it has landed. One of the biggest additions to Horde mode is the ability to purchase and upgrade fortifications to block off or slow down the incoming hordes, adding yet another level of depth and complexity to the beloved multiplayer frag fest while also allowing the developers to push the limits of complexity, difficulty, and variety available for Horde mode.

Or maybe, you were one of those types who actually felt bad for the countless grubs you slew back in Gears 2. Don’t worry, Epic’s got you covered there too with the all new Beast mode. More like a class-based multiplayer game, in Beast mode, you play as the Locust Horde, besieging Stranded and COG alike. You start out with basic Locust types like Tickers or Wretches, and as you slaughter the wimpy human defenders, you can earn ‘cash’ to build up to eventually playing those dreaded Berserkers you probably hated fighting back from Gears 1.

All in all, Gears of War 3 represents a spectacular conclusion to widely respected series of third-person shooters and I for one most certainly am looking forward to spending countless hours with my friends grinding out the new Horde and Beast modes, which will likely also involve grinding out some guts and vital organs, human and monster alike.

It’s been a while since my last review, but it’s a quiet night and this game seriously deserves mention, so here goes. I’d just like to put a mention in that I actually have not played the previous Deus Ex games, so I was a bit worried that I might be a bit detached from the world of Deus Ex. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Frankly, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into this game. I had heard from many sources and friends that the previous Deux Ex games were simply amazing and timeless games and that I should take the time to go and try them. Unfortunately, I feel as though the voice work and graphics of the previous games may be a bit too dated for me to go back and play (the same reason I have trouble ever playing Half-Life 1. ), so when I heard Deus Ex: Human Revolution was coming out, my interest was piqued, and I began following news about the game since E3 2010. From the limited amount of news out at the time, and from my preferred source of news, 4 Player Podcast, they had mentioned that the ‘alpha’ version that was demo’ed looked incredibly linear, and generally… unimpressive. A big reason for that being that when the original Deus Ex games had come out, they were ground breaking in the amount of freedom and choice given to the player at any given time for a FPS. Players would be able to tackle combat, dialogue, and story progression in the manner of their choosing. Jumping forward to 2011, and dialogue trees and optional combat are almost standard fare for any game classified as an RPG, so a big question became whether or not Deus Ex: Human Revolution would be able to live up to the bar set by previous iterations.

Fast forward now to a few weeks after the game’s release, and I can safely say that I am verily impressed. Since the previous Deus Ex games, there have been games like Mass Effect which have raised the bar for in-game dialogue trees to an all-time high, where Deus Ex succeeds is getting the player invested into that world and its characters. While the story is ultimately that of the protagonist’s, Adam Jensen, he still functions as much as the player’s avatar in that world giving them full flexibility in how they want their version of Jensen to develop in terms of abilities and how he would handle various types of situations.

Gameplay

Are you a bonafide ‘this is an FPS, so I’m going to blast everything in sight’ kind of gamer?

Big guns? We got you covered.

Check.

Prefer some quick and dirty, in their faces, brutal melee?

Mmmm… twin arim blades.

Check.

Maybe not so… lethal?

This ISN’T supposed to kill you?!

Check… I guess?

Or maybe, you just want to talk down every dude you see. Even nasty Asian gangsters.

The name’s Adam Jensen, and you WILL listen to me. Biatch.

Check.

Or maybe… you just want to crack every safe, and break into every door you see.

Thank God real hacking ain’t this easy, but I guess, you’re not Adam B.A.M.F. Jensen, are you?

Yea. Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s got it all.

For an FPS, the shooting in game is pretty good. Big guns generally feel powerful, and smaller guns generally weaker, and shooting is fairly precise whether in first person mode (normal) or in third person (cover). While the transition between first and third person and back can be a bit jarring when done repeatedly in combat, overall, both combat systems are well made enough that it doesn’t present an issue. Melee takedowns are also un-interruptible, allowing the player to enjoy each and every moment of hand-to-hand brutality. The weapons in game are generally balanced, with one exception.

The Pistol.

The same thing is true in Alpha Protocol (oddly enough… a game with a very similar feel…). The pistol in this game is the most OVERPOWERED piece of weaponry you will ever use. Spending time and resources to upgrade the pistol in the game will allow the player to pretty much obliterate every single combat situation the game presents. Unrealistic? Who’s to say. It’s the future. Maybe then, handguns can do the work of demolishing armies that a plasma rifle cannot.

Perhaps one of the combat system’s letdowns is actually the boss fights that the game forces you to fight through. Melee takedowns don’t work at all in these situations, nor do they even allow you to do melee damage to bosses, so leveling melee won’t save you here, FYI. In fact, the player isn’t even able to talk their way out of the boss fights, which I believe was possible in the original Deus Ex games.

Becoming the android you always wanted to be.

A bit of a letdown here as it basically forces the player to have some investment into weapons and weapons skills to help manage the forced boss battles preventing players from committing to a dialogue only or stealth only skill tree development. It’s unfortunate that all the boss battles are essentially only able to be resolved through combat, as I feel that Deus Ex: Human Revolution would have been better by allowing players to never enter a situation where they have to fire a weapon.

That said, that is the game’s only flaw.

Whether it be a side quest or the main story, DE:HR makes it simple for the player to be invested into the game world. Even NPCs roaming the streets will divulge interesting facts that can be overheard as you run by without the need to stop and talk to every single person you see, though, you can do that as well. Often times, you’ll make in-game decisions that have real consequences in the game’s world without being prompted that you had a choice to begin with. Who you choose to shoot and kill or incapacitate can have very real effects on the the plot’s development and changes how the game world gives feedback to the player.

To be honest, there is only one section I cannot truly justify reviewing of the game, and that would be the soundtrack. In some respects, I felt that the soundtrack did the game justice, as I can remember some tense moments to which the soundtrack contributed to near the end of the game. That said, most of the time I spent playing the game, I didn’t truly notice the background music playing in any specific scenario… so it can be said that it either integrated so well into the experience that I took it for granted, or that it wasn’t especially memorable. Either way, I feel the soundtrack is hard to gauge, the sound design and voice acting on the other hand are two aspects handled spectacularly, as they both succeeded in bringing out and amplifying the most important factor of DE:HR, being the story.

Ultimately, DE:HR is a story-driven game. It is true that the player has a great deal of control over the aspects and direction the story takes, but regardless, the story being told is still that of Adam Jensen. A man who works as the head of security for one of the leading human augmentation research and development companies in the world of Deus Ex. Whether the player chooses to play as an overly aggressive, kick everything’s ass Jensen, or the kind that smooth talks his way out of every situation (short of boss fights!), every story falls into the personality that is Adam Jensen. Perhaps the most impressive feat in the game is that regardless of the paths you choose, decisions you make, or lives you took or spared, everything feels ‘correct’, in the sense that the actions you choose never feel like something Adam Jensen wouldn’t do.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game that met, exceeded, and completely surpassed every expectation (…short of more energy weapons. energy arm blades anyone?)  I had going into the game. Looking forward, I’m hoping Eidos Montreal will get the chance to develop further Deus Ex projects as they’ve truly impressed me with this one.

I realize I am EXTREMELY late with this post, but real life demanded my attention. Regardless. I am now employed, have an income, and thus, time to focus on the blog and writing articles again!

That said, this is the worst way I could have made my return to writing. As I dreaded last year when this project was announced, Capcom has gone ahead, and axed the Megaman Legends 3 project before the prototype version demo that was supposed to gauge game interest was even released. So Capcom crushes all my hopes and dreams, and breaks all their promises, in addition to only loving bad, money-making, ultra-grindy Monster Hunter.

Capcom has indeed left the Devroom open for the fans to use, but really… the clubhouse might as well be as depicted. Gone.

I am disappointed by this turn of events and really… all Capcom succeeded in doing was PREVENTING me from giving them money. Face facts, I would likely have bought Megaman Legends 3 day 1, at full price, or even high for a premium version with like some bonus swag or some crap like that, but I guess they just don’t care about recouping any sort of financial losses for the money and manpower spent developing 30% of the game (or so the devroom says), and would rather just axe it for the next Monster Hunter iteration.

*sigh* Well, at least I will start broadcasting again and putting up some reviews.

Cheers. For what it’s worth anyways.

I have no idea how it happened, and I apologize for the inconvinience to the few fans we have out there. However! Good news! Caleb and I are now both employed, meaning we haz fewer worries and will be able to bring you MORE REGULAR CONTENT.

Thank God for Caleb, as he fixes all things. Podcast up soon!

Yet.

So we’re back! This podcast, Caleb, Ryan, Leo, and myself cover the PSN outage of 2011, talk a bit about the upcoming Soul Calibur V, Diablo 3 beta, and the 3DS online shop. Plus impressions of Dragon Age 2, Starcraft 2 which we play too much of, Portal 2, Animal Crossing, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on the Gamecube.

Grab the latest episode here!

Grab the podcast while it’s hot! And over a month late to boot!

It compares like crap, for reasons I will explain shortly.

From a technical standpoint, the game is amazing. Visuals are crisp and clean, carrying on the tradition that a Donkey Kong Country game should be stunning. The many additions that were made (silhouetting against a sunset or in fog, for example) add another element of depth to already gorgeous visuals. The music is excellently done, especially that they are remixed versions of the originals.

The last moment of tranquil beauty before repeated death.

Now if I could enjoy the music and background that would be another story, because herein lie all the root problems of this game: the difficulty.

Contrary to popular belief, I can play games well. I just play a little more carelessly when people are watching so they are entertained. If I’m playing Twilight Princess in a serious manner, I wouldn’t wantonly jump off cliffs just to see if invisible walls exist. Sadly most people do not understand this element of streaming, and assume I am just a poor player over all. That is not the case. When I want things done properly, I play it properly.

In the case of DKCR, I played haphazardly for maybe the Jungle level, before I was forced to hunker down and take the game seriously. Why? The game decided to ramp up the difficulty, exponentially. When this occurred, I found I was no longer playing a game, I was memorizing a sequence. Memorizing how DK needs to: slip though the reload gaps of a cannonball barrage, jump towards a platform right before it appears, avoid an enemy then jump on him then land in the correct spot that doesn’t turn you into a brown paste. My freewill is taken away. The only way I can complete this game, is if I play it the way they programmed for success.

Super Guide is clear evidence of this. If you can press a button that turns on a shadow DK to show you how to time your jumps and beat the game, there’s a serious problem. I didn’t use the Super Guide once, I am proud to say; partially out of pride, and partially because I wanted to wipe the smug smile off the face of that stupid pig. “Oh you seem to be having difficulty? Let me show you how it’s done. It’s ok, not everyone gets it the first 40 times.” Ha ha ha. Shut up pig.

I will find you and end you.

However, not using the Super Guide means I am only left with trial and error, and believe me, you will go through a lot of trial and error to finish these levels. The game is constantly filled with “gotcha” moments: moments when your perception of what is a safe course of action based on the visual information in front of you is deliberately destroyed by the developers throwing in a curveball. I’m talking fireballs suddenly changing direction; platforms suddenly collapsing, rocks falling from the ceiling and a lava flow suddenly increasing speed drastically. Why the does the game need to trick you? The levels are challenging enough without throwing in something that the gamer CANNOT ANTICIPATE until they have died from it. This leads back to the memorizing a sequence aspect I was talking about earlier.

The game is just riddled with decisions that you know the developers intentionally made, solely, to add additional layers of difficult icing on a difficult cake. Having to hold B constantly to grip onto something is one such example. Why couldn’t gripping have been a passive action, as with its predecessors? Jump onto a vine; you will hold onto the vine until you jump off. No, we are forced to hold onto the awkwardly positioned B button the entire time we have a climbing sequence, making it unnecessarily more difficult to perform other actions in the process.

My other major point of contention is that the B button could have been freed up for Donkey Kong’s other attack: the roll. Instead, the B button is used for unnecessary vine/grass holding and the roll is relegated to waggling the wiimote. Let me tell you something about platforming. If you want to have precise platforming in a game that is murderously difficult, you need to make it easy to input those controls in a precise way. DK’s roll move in the original series was used to attack enemies quickly, but also to double jump, allowing him to span gaps easily. In DKCR, having to waggle the wiimote is not only annoying and cumbersome, but it lacks the precision needed to make those jumps, especially when the difference between life and death is a half a second. As a consequence of this, what happens is that you don’t bother with the roll most of the time, essentially removing half of the primary gameplay. This is a game that would be played better without motion controls, a fact I’ve found rings true with a majority of Wii games.

The sad thing is all of these issues could have been resolved, had they decided not to make the game so rutting hard. If the game didn’t require you to memorize sequences, make split second choices, removed “gotcha moments” and didn’t employ so many instant kill scenarios, the control issues wouldn’t matter as much. I could sit back and enjoy the experience, which is the point of a Donkey Kong Country game. DKC was never about difficulty, it was a technical marvel on the SNES that was meant to be enjoyed and taken in while you played. DKCR has some of the best graphics and art design I’ve seen on the Wii in a long time and I couldn’t enjoy that, because the game forced me to focus on NOT DYING. I used over 250 balloons in the course of playing this game and I wish I were exaggerating about that.

Retro Studios made a great game on a technical standpoint, but in the process, missed the point of what made Donkey Kong Country what it was. Almost all the animal friends are removed from the game, Diddy is only there as a token second jump and Cranky is an afterthought, crammed away in his house selling balloons. With no secondary characters and an antagonist that has no personality (especially compared to kremlings) you have a world devoid of nothing except Donkey Kong, struggling to get back his stupid pile of bananas. A pile, I might add, has dwindled down to nothing by the end, and is much less than the thousands I collected just getting to that point.

Well this was rather underwhelming.

I wanted to like this game. I really did. There are many more complaints I could make, but at it’s core, Donkey Kong Country Returns does not feel like a Donkey Kong Country game and it’s difficulty makes it that I never want to play it again.

For those of you who listen to the podcast, you’ll know my rating system is based on chocolate bars. With that in mind, my rating for Donkey Kong Country Returns is a bar of caramilk that I really looked forward to enjoying, but ended up becoming a melted and sticky mess.

Caleb, Ryan, and Aaron talk about various MMOs, such as Warhammer Online and LOTR Online, in addition to impressions of League of Legends, Resident Evil 5 with the Move controller, LittleBigPlanet 2, Fallout 3 modded, and Magic: the Gathering Online. Don’t miss the final nail in the coffin regarding Team Fortress 2′s Mann Co. in-game store update either!

Exciting isn’t it? To think that the next generation of handheld console, out to trump mobile phones from totally dominating the portable scene are almost here! March 27th is the launch date of the Nintendo 3DS, and yet, there’s truly nothing to be excited about.

New hardware is great and all, but I don’t need a new handheld if there’s going to be no games to play on it.

From the launch date till June, or in other words, the first few months, here’s what the 3DS has to offer that you’ll be missing out on without one:

Launch Day:

-AR Games
-Face Raiders
-LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
-Madden NFL Football
-Samurai Warriors Chronicles
-Super Monkey Ball 3D
-Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (…who CARES!?)
-The Sims 3

2 days later:

-Ridge Racer

2 weeks later:

-Ballon Pop 2 (There’s a 1?)

A month after launch:

-DualPenSports
-Pinball or something rather.

6 weeks after launch:

-Dead or Alive Dimensions (for all you people who basically want to see bouncing boobs in 3D.)

2 months after launch:

-Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor Overclocked (possibly the only interesting game, but essentially a port/remake)

9 weeks after launch:

-Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions (for the retro gamers who need more versions of Pac-Man and Galaga)

Seriously? I think I’ll be checking back next year. When they release the 3DS Lite with a smaller size and better battery and screen with games I care about.

In all honesty, I actually have Pokemon White pre-ordered, and that’s for regular DS, and I’m highly looking forward to that. Plus there’s way more JRPGs to grab for the PSP, like Ys I & II Chronicles, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, and Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together, along with The 3rd Birthday and Dissidia Duodecim.

Big party this podcast! Caleb, Ryan, and Aaron are joined by Jake ‘Yazstromo’ McEwan and Leo Tang. We talk about Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Darksiders, various Indie Games, and a bit more of Assassin’s Creed 1, 2, and Brotherhood along with a bit more WoW: Cataclysm.

It’s our year end special of 2010! Caleb, Ryan, and Aaron discuss their top 7 games of the year, along with expectations for the new year!

Enjoy!

We’re still alive! Caleb, Ryan, and Aaron gather around to discuss Alpha Protocol, various Indie Games, Game Dev Story for mobile devices, World of WarCraft: Cataclysm, and last but certainly not least, Mass Effect 2.

Grab your podcast here!

So I am over a month overdue, especially since I actually did finish this game on the week of it’s release. I’ve given my impressions of Kirby’s Epic Yarn in a previous podcast which is already up, but since then, I’ve been mulling over Kirby’s Epic Yarn as a whole.

So, what about Kirby’s Epic Yarn? The last console Kirby game, (not including Kirby’s Air Ride as it was a racing game with Kirby characters, and a mediocre one at that) was the Nintendo 64 game, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, one of my favorite Kirby games of all time. 10 years later, a new development studio, and one of the freshest and cutest art directions ever, and we have Kirby’s Epic Yarn.

However, maybe this is where the game does fall short. For Kirby, one of Nintendo’s tried and true mascots, was this game really… enough? While the art style is certainly unique and how it affects gameplay is interesting and creative, Kirby’s Epic Yarn doesn’t add anything new to the forumla. While I’m glad to see Kirby wasn’t ruined, it also feels stagnant. I mean… it really does feel like playing Kirby’s Dream Land 1 back on the original Game Boy. While platforming became more difficult with the complete removal of flight, the inability to actually die made the game a pure cakewalk. To top it all off, the lack of additional mechanics like powers and things make it very uninteresting, or even boring to want to replay it.

I probably spent 30-40 hours playing Kirby’s Dream Land 2, exploring every nook and cranny of the levels, scrawling down on pieces of paper which worlds and levels and what rooms I needed to bring which power to in order to unlock the Rainbow Drops for the game’s true final battle. Better yet was how the levels were rather simple to tackle normally, but when you wanted those Rainbow Drops, you really had to try and struggle to keep the power you needed from the start of the level to the room with the Rainbow Drops. Little features like this made the game very interesting and allowed the difficulty to scale as the player wanted.

In the end, Kirby’s Epic Yarn was good, in that nothing about Kirby was ruined. Yet, I’m left with that feeling of wanting more, and wishing that Kirby will get a better game in the future.

2010 isn’t even over yet, and I know I’m going to blow all my money away next year already. While Golden Sun: Dark Dawn officially marked the end of 2010 - year of the JRPG for me, and all other gaming purchases, that hasn’t stopped the industry from announcing all the devious new ways they want to take my money.

Bioware especially. WTF. How did they go from 6-7 years between Mass Effect 1 to 2, and suddenly from the looks of it, Mass Effect 2-3 in less than 2 years, with all that DLC??? What about Dragon Age 1 –> 2? This is some sick turnover time!

I’m even considering jumping onto Assassin’s Creed thanks to the great reviews I’ve heard and watched regarding the multiplayer. Which means for me, buying the first, the 2nd, which just came out last year, this year’s Brotherhood, and potentially next year’s Assassin’s Creed 3???

Not to mention my preorder for LBP2 has been cooking for months, along with a ton of other new releases I’m expecting next year, about the only way this could get any worse is a new Final Fantasy and StarCraft II – Heart of the Swarm launching on the same day next year… then again… isn’t Heart of the Swarm actually due out next year… and… isn’t Versus XIII also due out soon… oh hell.

I love Steam, but why must they do this? So soon after the Thanksgiving sale. Right now, Steam is hosting an Achievement Treasure Hunt from December 6th to the 20th. Every two days, they reveal 4 achievements to be completed. Each one automatically entering you into a draw for 5 free games off your wishlist.

If that wasn’t bad enough, they’ve also thrown in TF2 HATS. Completing a total of 5, 15 and 28 achievements will earn you hats in TF2. It’s as if they know my one weakness.

Anyway, check it out here.

Caleb, Aaron, and Ryan talk about Pinball HD for the iPhone, Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, Trine, Majin & the Forsaken Kingdom, and Alpha Protocol.

As always, please subscribe and leave review of the show on iTunes! We appreciate it!

Caleb, Aaron, and our newest official podcaster, Ryan talk about The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and some various iPhone mobile games.