dayzee23's GameSpot Friend's Reviews dayzee23's GameSpot Friend's Reviews dayzee23's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Mon, 20 May 2013 08:37:58 -0700 GameSpot dayzee23's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 05:35:31 -0700 Foolz3h reviewed Klonoa for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/klonoa/user-reviews/761108/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Klonoa is a "Dream Traveller". What this means is he's sort of like a cat with long ears which he uses to fly short distances. Which means he's something like a chicken. A cute, cartoon chicken that looks nothing like a chicken. He has a Pac-Man baseball cap and is really quite adorable.

His companion is a floating water balloon called Hewpoe who talks like a desperately adorable Macaulay Culkin when he still had some innocence about him, and plays with Klonoa when you stand around doing nothing. It's only a few hours into the game before Klonoa's grandfather is killed in brutal fashion by Joker (not from Batman) in a violent terrorist bombing. He should surely have been vaporised, but luckily he's still alive.

In great pain; slowly dying, but alive. He survives just long enough for the clichéd last words. Klonoa is in tears. Adorable, GameCubey tears. Hewpoe apologises in his childish voice, and then it's back on the road again, and it won't be long before the story becomes even more insane. It's a wonderful mixture of cutesy graphics and absurd, hilarious and totally out of place darkness. All set to upbeat electronic tunes that set the mood nicely; or do the opposite! Either way, really. It works.

This is lucky because the game starts off slow. The level design is very by the numbers, though it's always engaging due to the pseudo-3D which later on in the game leads to large, expansive levels where in the background you can see where you have been, or where you are going. It works wonderfully as an aesthetic, but as a gameplay mechanic it is never fully explored.

In fact the best designed levels towards the end of the game feature it the least, instead focusing on accurate and tense jumping puzzles where you might find yourself jumping to and from platforms just small enough for Klonoa to stand on, while several enemies are converging on you-but that can be used to your advantage for another way that Klonoa sets itself apart is that Hewpoe (or Klonoa's ring depending on your perspective) sucks up enemies and fills them with air. He can then use the puffy enemy as a jumping pad to execute a double jump which can of course be followed by Klonoa flying with his ears.

It's a simple three step program that'll have you drunk with fun when it's taken advantage of, but this is far too infrequent. The game's difficulty curve is so lethargic that by the time you do reach the challenge of the last few levels you may well not be prepared! Okay, that's something of an exaggeration, but the rest of the game does almost feel like a tutorial for the climax of events. If there were another five hours of gameplay on the level of the last few levels then Klonoa would probably be regarded as a classic rather than a cult classic.

However all is forgiven when one plays the bonus level. It takes the excellent mechanic of sucking in enemies and uses it every way it possibly can. You'll be jumping from formation of flying enemy to formation of flying enemy and all done in a life or death situation above pits of seething lava. One missed jump, or one missed enemies and you'll be restarting from the previous checkpoint. It's head and shoulders above everything else in the game, and does in a way rub in the lack of ambition present elsewhere.

Sometimes the controls don't feel entirely responsive; but it's somewhat hard to tell whether that's the fault of the game or the Wii-remote. When executing a jump, sucking in an enemy then jumping again and gliding you're pressing a, b, a, then holding a and it just doesn't feel fantastic on the Wii-remote if you're playing with the Nunchuk. This is probably somewhat due to the fault of the controller; if these were on face buttons it'd probably be a lot harder to mess up, but now and again you do feel as if you're not getting the timing you should.
Of course you can play with a classic or GameCube controller, or with the Wii-remote held SNES style. But because I'm cheap the classic controller is out of the question, plus the length of GameCube controllers make them rather impractical, especially now that everything is cordless so you may well not have your Wii set up close to the TV, and I don't want to develop arthritis so I'm afraid I was stuck with the Wii-remote/Nunchuk combo.

Oh, and the voice actingéif you've got a sense of humour you'll love it. Its ridiculousness fits perfectly with the story, but if you're one of those cold hearted bastards who hates everything corny and over the top then you'll probably want to cut off your ears. I, on the other hand turned the volume up.

My condolences to Balue. Lephise is cold.

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"Foolz3h reviewed Klonoa for the Wii..." was posted by Foolz3h on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 05:35:31 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/klonoa/user-reviews/761108/platform/wii/ Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:19:10 -0700 Foolz3h reviewed Yakuza 3 for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/yakuza-3/user-reviews/741408/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Yakuza 3 is a Japanese video game. Japan is a country in Asia, which is the world's largest and most populous continent. Therefore the game's voice actors are Japanese, but luckily SEGA (the publisher of the game) had the foresight to translate the text and menus into English for its European and American release, even though some European countries do not speak English as their first language, it is understood that many speak it as a second. The fruits of globalisation. There are English subtitles for the Japanese vocals so that you can understand them, if you have not been globalised as much as SEGA has.
Not wanting expose Japanese culture SEGA such as hostess bars and mahjong, a game virtually unheard of outside of Japan, content such as this has been cut. Many people have compared it to the cult classic Shenmue, but it is nothing like Shenmue. It is a commercially successful franchise and a big title in Japan. It is their GTA. People have also compared it to GTA, but it is not like GTA. Yakuza 3 is an action RPG, not a sand box.
There are no random encounters, but you gain EXP and money or items from each fight you win, which can be used to upgrade Kazama Kiryu, the main character. For each fight you lose you win a game over screen, from which you can conveniently retry, reload, or quit. Kazama is a former member of the yakuza. Yakuza is the Japanese equivalent of the Mafia, but being Japanese they are obviously much cooler. Though The Sopranoes is a good show, and The Godfather and Scarface are classics of cinema.
Nevertheless Kazama is no longer in the Yakuza. Instead he has started running an orphanage with Haruka (a young girl; nothing suss) who has appeared in previous games. Where the other orphans have come from I am not sure. Naturally he gets called back to the Yakuza and the story begins. The story is very well told with great cutscenes and excellent voice acting and writing. It is very dark and funny. The story is one of the best parts of the game. Another great part of the game is the graphics. They are represented in full HD and are technically of high quality with sharp textures, and a wonderfully accurate city of Tokyo. Okinawa does not seem as accurate, but I have not been. Nor have I been to Tokyo. Nevertheless it appears to be accurate, as being a gamer I have intimate knowledge of Japan. I was practically in Shibuya when I played TWEWY, which is another Japanese RPG.
The gameplay consists of RPG style fights, only instead of selecting actions from a menu, it plays out like an action game. You press square for a normal attack, triangle for a special attack, x to dodge, and circle to throw someone. L1 defends, R1 locks onto your opponent. The left analogue stick controls Kazama's movements, and R1 the camera. It functions well. You learn different moves as you progress through the game, including special ones that require the "heat" bar to be partially, or completely filled.
The soundtrack is minimal in its approach without much background music. This works well in creating the realistic atmosphere in Tokyo, because there is no background music in Tokyo in real life, or so I am told. It is very realistic. The game must be played with a PS3 control, and supports the vibration function of the Dualshock 3.
While playing through the main story you can do side-quests. As I said, it is an RPG. For doing these side quests you gain experience and money or items meaning that they are much like the fights in the game, though they are also not of a random nature. They are amusing. They often conclude with fights.
In summary, Yakuza 3 is a great game, as indicated from my score of 8.0 which according to GameSpot means the game is great. The gameplay is good, as are the graphics and the sound. But special mention to the story, that is very entertaining. You will be playing to find out what happens next. I highly recommend that you buy Yakuza 3 if you enjoy video games, because it a video game of the highest order.

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"Foolz3h reviewed Yakuza 3 for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by Foolz3h on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:19:10 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/yakuza-3/user-reviews/741408/platform/ps3/ Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:11:46 -0700 Foolz3h reviewed Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/batman-arkham-asylum/user-reviews/716526/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Batman battlesémans

I am not a fan of Batman. I have not even seen the Dark Knight. The only Batman comic I have read was a recent one involving a penguin, a hypocritical policeman-and not Batman. Well maybe he was there hanging upside down in someone's closet, but I didn't really notice him. It wasn't very enjoyable. It was very gruff, but not very noir. However because I am a modern gamer and I saw that Batman was scoring 10s everywhere so I had to get it. That and the fact it was $30. Australian dollars. Which is about $10 American dollars so it was really cheap!

I was expecting it to be another GTAIV. Great production values, crap game. At first it seemed like it might be. There was some very well produced, but long winded introduction doing Half-Life 2 cutscenes better than Half-Life 2. (Which admittedly isn't hard.) Joker wasn't as likeable as Jack Nicholson. Then all of a sudden Joker esc apes (what a surprise) and Batman jumps through a window to chase after him. You might think jumping through windows is one of Bat's superpowers, but considering he never does it again I'll call it a fluke.

The combat began. Press square. And sometimes triangle. That's all there is to it! The combo system is pretty much useless early on to, as timing your attacks is not very useful when you can do a similar amount of damage by button mashing. Which is what the whole system is based around. Oh, but sometimes there are more advanced enemies where you have to press another button once before you start button mashing, so it's not all bad. And to be fair, it's kinda fun, but such a simple system really bit the game in the Batcave in terms of set pieces and bosses. As awesome as it would in theory be to beat up one of the many supervillains you're chasing after, the simple fact is it would suck in practice. Hit square in time-game goes into slow motion-maybe hit circle if necessary; doesn't sound like much of a boss battle does it? And when you are carefully timing your attacks the slo-mo can be very disorientating; thus ruining your timing if you don't want to button mash.

So maybe it's understandable that 90% of all the boss battles consist of you fighting against some body builder with his spine coming out of his back. Sometimes you get to fight two at once! Talk about variety! Yes, that is as awesome as it sounds. Which is not very awesome-though it does sound awesome what with the fantastic sound effects and music. Looks great too. Except for the pustules. That's just unnecessary detail.

Hell the first boss you fight ends with the poor guy having a migraine attack and fainting. Speaking of fainting; what with Batman being a gallant hero and all he cannot kill anyone. But on the bright side he can give them brain damage, make them paralytics, and lock them up in a hell hole for the rest of their lives. But maybe he's just not capable of killing them. Batman's super powers consist of staring coldly, and shouting "WHERE ARE THE DRUGS?!" in a deep voice. Which disappointingly he never shouted.

Okay this sounds really negative-but hell the start of the game was really negative. It was kinda fun, but never really hit its stride. Then I saw a sculpture. Batman likes to shoot sculptures then sit on top of them, biding time before he floats down booting a henchman in their face then suffocating them in a matter of milliseconds before he flies away again. Oh yeah, stealth baby! All of a sudden instead of button mashing I was flying around kicking people, planting explosive traps (I thought shrapnel could kill people even if it is a small explosion! But maybe Batman is using super explosiveséwhich should logically kill more people!) and setting up traps as elaborate as the joker's whole persona. You thought that simile was bad? Play the game.

The stealth is wonderful, and just gets better and better as you go along. There's just one problem with it. There's just not enough. The game seems to like its variety. One moment you're ridding a room of 10 henchmen through stealth, then next you're beating them all up, and the next you're fighting some poor schizophrenic who just wants you to hug him or give him some Prozac. Maybe both. I'm all for variety, but except for the stealth, none of the other aspects quite go far enough to do anything but remind you that you could be profanity stealthing people to dea---err---unconsciousness.

Which leaves the game with one other major thing it got absolutely right, and never deviated from: exploration and detail. There are riddles to solve (which aren't really riddles) trophies to find (which you wouldn't want to add to your cabinet) and messages left by a deranged fat man (not from Thomas the Tank Engine). And finding them is a blast. You'll enjoy scouring every little patch of the game for these prizes because it's also pretty and atmospheric, and there's a real sense of satisfaction in tracking them all down. Well, there would be if you didn't accidentally pick up an item that revealed where all of them are on the map that you cannot turn off so that you immediately know where everything is! Ugh. Oh, and if you die, they also like to tell you while Joker mocks you, exactly why you did and how to not die. Now, this seems a little patronizing. Especially when Batman is the world's greatest detective.

Then again, he quips at one point that: 'it pays to be prepared'. It sure does! Imagine how much time he would have saved if he'd actually taken all his gadgets with him when he first got to the Batcave. He could have stopped Joker in a matter of seconds! So many less people would have died. Well at least when he flies off at the end after another supervillain he'll have everything he needs.

WHERE IS THE SPECTACLE???

It's quite clear that the devs are huge fans of Metroid and Metal Gear Solid. The item collecting, and upgrade progression follows the Metroid path. It doesn't quite do it as well, though. In Metroid you have to find your equipment. Sure it's kinda silly in and of itself (and makes no sense), but it's a much better gameplay mechanic and gives you more satisfaction than "I advanced the plot far enough to be given this item so that I can advance it further." As for Metal Gear Solid two words: Scarecrow. They're not quite as good as Metal Gear Solid's moments of madness, but boy are they pretty! Pretty, fun and overall nicely paced. I won't say anything more because that'll ruin the surprise. Oh, and they also like The Darkness. There's a famous scene in the Scarecrow parts that is much like a famous scene in The Darkness. And like that famous scene in the darkness it's really not all that great. And unlike The Darkness instead of repeating graffiti, they repeat Easter eggs. It might have been nicer to the dev team include photos of more than a few people. Egotistical bastards!

But as I said earlier, once you've made your way through an area and built up a nice bit of momentum and you've psyched yourself up for a boss battle you don't want to fight a bunch of henchmen instead. Once again, though, I understand this is the fault of the battle system-but it just makes its flaws all the more annoying. Hell a stealth boss battle would have been FREAKING awesome! And no, scarecrow doesn't count. What were the lights about by the way? Seriously.

Maybe it makes sense, but as I said I wasn't a batman fan. Now I almost am! They nailed the atmosphere of Batman wonderfully. Well, as far as I'm aware. But going by Batman films and other comic books, they did a wonderful job. At first I didn't like the hammy voice acting, and the stupid and offensive morality-but then I realised something. The supervillains were all sympathetic characters! They were all a bunch of mentally ill people who couldn't cope with the world, and became supervillains so that they could, just as Batman became a superhero. Hell, most of them seem like a bunch of nice guys! Even Zsasz who would be right at home in something like I Heart Huckabees. And that would've made the film so much more awesome. He'd slit their throats and they'd bleed to death wondering if they were actually dying. So cool!

All the non-super characters seemed quite unsympathetic to me. They were all vengeful (and without as much reason as the super-characters) egotistical, selfish and un-empathetic douchebags. And of course the game dealt swiftly in the easiest way possible with any moral dilemmas. There are some normal people doing bad things in the game, but very luckily they are killed off so Batman doesn't have to make any tough judgments. Except for that Arkham guy which the game leaves hanging (not literally, which would've been a good way to kill him off!) and once again drops the ball when there could be an awesome climax. I ran all the way to where the guy should've run off to try and make me join him in his conquest, hoping that there'd be some awesome confrontation. There was not. I was just meant to scan something and get a trophy.

But you know what? I think I could get into this whole comic book thing. Unless like Blackhawks it's really just a well put together propaganda piece encouraging children to join the military, or help coerce their older brothers into doing so. God that comic makes me so angry! Where's that damn Titan? I'm coming for you Obama!

I understand you probably want a satisfying climax to this review, but I'm gonna make like a Batman and not give you one.

é.

é


WHERE ARE THE DRUGS???

Fine, there you go. Looks like I'm a better person than he is (probably a better superhero too!). Oh, and there's like a bunch of fan service consisting of profiles and interviews (which could have been better used to build up a battle with each of the characters-but considering there was never really a battle-their not always great placement wasn't too bad) and on top of that on the menu screen you can perv on Bat's manly pectorals.

Now excuse me while I go ruin a criminal's life in the name of justice. Or just have sex with Robin. (Where the hell was he? No wonder Bats acted so cold and lonely.)

N.B. I know I have not mentioned the challenge mode. This is because I have not yet played it. The internet was out, and Sony wanted to brick---I mean update my phat PS3 so I've had to postpone playing it for the moment. This is why you shouldn't make it compulsory to sign in to play a single player mode! It sounds pretty awesome by most accounts, and maybe exactly what I felt was lacking! Still, I liked it a lot all the same.

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"Foolz3h reviewed Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by Foolz3h on Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:11:46 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/batman-arkham-asylum/user-reviews/716526/platform/ps3/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:30:22 -0800 Foolz3h reviewed Metroid Prime for the GameCube... http://www.gamespot.com/metroid-prime/user-reviews/693759/platform/gamecube/ ...and gave it a 9.6!

Years have past since I last played Metroid Prime, despite it being one of my favourite games of all time. Years have past since last I read Fahrenheit 451 despite it being one of my favourite books of all time. So why on earth would I be silly enough to try and compare the two? Well, I don't really have an answer. But I'm going to try anyway!

Both Metroid Prime and Fahrenheit 451 start off with an alien and uncomfortable encounter. Samus' ship crashes and she is trapped on a hostile world, while Guy Montag meets a girl unlike any he's seen before and leaves him feeling lost and alone. From this point on both Metroid Prime and Fahrenheit 451 unravel at a fast pace.

Samus must escape the planet, while Guy must escape society-but come on, this is a rather flimsy similarity as far as plot goes. However it is still valid. What is important, though, is storytelling and pacing. As I said before both are fast paced, with Fahrenheit 451 lurching through the pages with thick language and poetic sentence structure where in some places the writing could virtually be split up into lines-wait, did I just say thick language? That can't be fast! And it's not, in fact the mood is one of a slow death on a hot humid day where everyone is dripping with sweat and without the energy to move. Yet somehow through this intrusive atmosphere it moves quickly, because it forces you to keep reading with totalitarian determination.

In Metroid Prime you feel the need to rocket through the levels, but the lush scenery and ancient architecture will slow you down just so you can take in, and then you'll move back and forth through it as you search ever nook and cranny for something you've missed. Hell, Samus' slow walking speed forces you to move slowly, so that you have no excuse but to take anything in, even if the urge to rush became too great.

The characters in Metroid Prime are dead. They're long gone and remembered only through ancient writings and the effect they've had on the environment, through their buildings, or the way they've survived the many predatory animals and even plants. Yet they all fit in this world safely; they're a part of it: they're aliens on an alien world. Yet Samus is just an intruder; another uninvited guest.

After the realisation Clarisse gives Montag (the previously mentioned girl) suddenly he too is an intruder and he moves about the suddenly alien world with caution and not just the intention to survive it; but to somehow find happiness there too, or perhaps, escape it.

And just as things are looking up for Samus she finds another group of intruders: the space pirates. They, like her, are uninvited guests, only they don't want to leave, they want to stay and pillage the world, and probably create a few metroids in the process! So suddenly she has a reason to stay.

But once again, we're getting a little bugged down in the narratives. This shouldn't be what this is about. Metroid Prime and Fahrenheit 451 are both told through their environment. In Fahrenheit 451 the harshest places of all are those that should be the safest; houses, with wall-sized televisions playing soap operas, and the constant paranoia of having hidden something in what should be a sanctuary pushes it even further away from being one-or perhaps makes it all the more important to hold on to.

Then he meets Faber who invites him into his house, which is safe, which is a sanctuary-but there's still fear. All the paintings and books and sculptures can't be hidden forever, and there's always a sense that no matter what, no matter how hard they fight, they cannot win.

In Metroid Prime the more you explore the lush natural world, the more you come across the relics of the long dead chozo world, and the deeper you venture into the space pirate's phazon mine, the more similarities you can draw between the two; both perhaps should never have been here in the first place; and both will never be here forever. And Shutting down a mine is one thing, but how could you ever win against the space pirates?

But still, there is no safety in the phazon mines, with every grey, depressing metal wall hiding behind it danger so that you don't even quite feel like an intruder; no you're a fugitive-it's you who should be here, not them! But they'll try and run you out of town anyway.

But in the ruins the opposite is true where you are an intruder that shouldn't be there, but you are not being ruthlessly hunted. But still there isn't quite safety like there should be amongst ancient carved stone. You're there because you have to be, and the sooner you're gone the better.

And both narratives end with destruction. In Fahrenheit 451 his fears are realised and everything is destroyed, in Metroid Prime the mining operation is shut down, and the Chozo are already dead. Yet both narratives end with hope. In Fahrenheit 451 it is for art and for humanity, but in Metroid prime, ironically, it is for the space pirates.

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"Foolz3h reviewed Metroid Prime for the GameCube..." was posted by Foolz3h on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:30:22 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/metroid-prime/user-reviews/693759/platform/gamecube/ Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:40:18 -0800 Foolz3h reviewed Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/prince-of-persia-the-two-thrones/user-reviews/636219/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

I received Prince of Persia: the Two Thrones for free thanks to the good people at Next Publishing. I wasn't looking forward to playing it, but when my World of Warcraft subscription ran out I thought, what the hell. As the intro rolled my scepticism grew. The story sucked, the voice acting sucked, and then, as the actual game began, the gameplay sucked. But then at some point it hit me like an epileptic fit: the story and the voice acting were suddenly so bad they were good-listening to the Prince's emotional rants about his destroyed city and his father was hilarious, and so was watching him transform into the Dark Prince, which in its effort to be dramatic, ended up looking like an orgasm and an epileptic fit rolled into one. In fact, now that I think about it, it was soon after he first transformed that it hit me-soon after the twist (and I use the term loosely) that revealed what the Dark Prince really was, I realised how absolutely hilarious the game was. And that made the inner-dialogue between the two all the better.
I must admit I warmed to the gameplay a little quicker. It's linear, it doesn't require much thought, but there's a strong sense of exhilaration and thrill to it. Sure I thought it was a little un-inspired and boring to begin with, but soon after combat was introduced I was having a lot of fun. There was a nostalgic thrill to making my way through traps-traps like nothing I'd seen since Tomb Raider on the original Playstation. And while you can't deviate from the path through each level, the thrill of exploration is still there, because you have to work out how to get through the level.
I must commend Ubisoft on two things. The first is that they actually managed to make a game like this work well with a keyboard and mouse, and the second is that they also made sure the game looked good on lower settings. It's not every day you find a console to PC port that has fared so well, and while I suffered two fatal crashes, bad lip-synching, and sound effects being repeated, they can probably be put down to my PC. Though considering how bad Assassin's Creed's port was it might not be. All in all though, credit where credit is due.
I know I'm repeating myself, but it really was a monumental change in opinion. In fact I hated everything about the game to begin with. Shall I add something else to the list? Well, all the Persians looked and sounded decidedly American. Sure it's nitpicking, but for a game that desperately wants to feel like a tale from the One Thousand and One Nights, it's somewhat important. Yet at the end of the day if it had actually felt like that I probably wouldn't have ended up liking it; at the very I certainly wouldn't have liked it as much as I did.
I'm personally not a huge fan of that type of story-something about it just doesn't click with me-yet I would certainly have commended Ubisoft for putting it into a video game. But I'm a huge sucker for B-Grade shows and films, and there really aren't enough games B-Grade games, which is probably because there isn't much ambition story and character wise in video games. The Two Thrones had ambition, and because it had ambition and could fail, it could be B-Grade.
But I didn't love everything about it. The combat-oh god the combat! Maybe this was the failing in their keyboard/mouse control scheme? Maybe this was why they said you needed a gamepad for optimal experience? I doubt it. Even if I had taken the combo system seriously for more than five minutes, (after which I realised repeatedly pressing E got the combat out of the way a hell of a lot quicker) except for the boss battles, almost all combat felt like an annoying obstacle. I'm in the middle of streaking across roof tops, running along walls, and then I have to stop for thirty seconds just to kill some bloody sand monsters? Oh come on! Talk about a pace killer. And being unable to change secondary attack to the right mouse button without changing wall run is sheer lunacy. That's how it should be in the first place! After such an otherwise successful control scheme you really have to wonder what the hell they were thinking.
Still they managed to pull off the boss fights well enough. It was just a pity there weren't more of them. In fact if there were, and most confrontations with sand monsters were removed, the pacing and flow of the game would probably have been greatly improved. Here is where I would complain about the control in the boss fights, but I won't because short of offering different camera angles depending on your control scheme, there isn't really a way around it-wait, why the hell didn't they just add in a new camera angle for those that used a keyboard and a mouse?!
But one thing Ubisoft have no excuse for is some of the save point positions. For the most part they're well placed, but some have been placed seemingly at random with absolutely no thought for how long the player has been playing or what their frustration level might be. The best example of this is late on in the game. After a lengthy chariot chase (which was a pain in the arse) you are then pushed head first into a boss battle. Surely after a frustrating section that many people probably took awhile to complete, it would have been wise to give you the option to save? It is just before a god damn boss battle after all!
Another is the result of the linearity: due to the fact that you have to figure out where to and how to get where you need to go, the linearity doesn't make the core gameplay boring. It does however make it frustrating. You can never be sure which crevasses you can grab onto, and which protruding beams of wood you can drop down to. This is especially annoying because it will mean that you will probably miss some health upgrades because you'll never quite be sure if you can drop down to that cave to check if there's an upgrade inside it é Then again maybe I'm just a wuss. I mean with sand tanks it doesn't matter too much if you fall to your death because you can just rewind. (Did you just see how seamless that segue was?) Actually, at first I thought that this got rid of the consequences of falling, but they managed to balance the number of sand tanks you have perfectly, so that it did give you some leeway for trial and error, but it didn't mean that there were no consequences for dieing; there's only so many times you can rewind before your sand tanks run out!
I think I'm still surprised at how much I ended up enjoying it. I really did think I would absolutely hate it, but due to the corn and nostalgia factor it will probably go down as one of my favourites. I know what you're thinking, repeating yourself twice is indulgent, but repeating yourself three times is lame. Well it's because that's what The Two Thrones is to me. It's indulgent, it's stupid, and I loved every second of it because it was. I hope you came into the review with even lower expectations than I did with the game, as otherwise I'm in trouble.

NOTE:
I should probably clarify that my use of B-Grade here is not referring to low-budget films, as Prince of Persia certainly isn't low budget. It's in reference to films that are so bad that they are good, but I couldn't really be bothered typing that out several times. :P

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"Foolz3h reviewed Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones for the PC..." was posted by Foolz3h on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:40:18 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/prince-of-persia-the-two-thrones/user-reviews/636219/platform/pc/ Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:10:37 -0700 Foolz3h reviewed Outcast for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/outcast/user-reviews/615469/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.0.


The US government sends a probe into an alien parallel universe, but naturally things go wrong. An alien damages the probe resulting in the impending destruction of the universe if the probe can not be recovered. Step in Cutter Slade, a wise-cracking hard arse former navy SEAL who you have the honour of playing. Slade is ordered to escort three scientists into the parallel universe, but once again things don't go so well as Slade is separated from the scientists-losing most of his equipment in the process-and so an epic adventure of seemingly simple tasks that never quite go to plan begins.
Slade wakes up in a small village draped in beautiful white snow. He makes first contact with the aliens, and much to his dismay they tell him he is the Ulukai who is the prophesised being who will save the world from Fae Rhan, the evil dictator that rules Adelpha. What did I tell you about things not going to plan?
One of the first things you'll notice about Outcast is the interface and presentation. At a time when widescreen monitors were not readily available, Outcast is played at the highest resolution of 512x384, this means that you're playing in widescreen! Across the bottom of the screen there is a black bar, and while this cuts down on your vision, it adds to the cinematic feel of the game. While there is a HUD, many steps are taken to keep you immerse in the beautiful world of Adelpha. To bring up the map you hit tab, and when you do Slade has a pair of futuristic goggles descend over his eyes, and the map comes up. To further immerse you in the world, early on you are given the Gamsaav, a mystical item, that when squeezed, saves your life essence (in other words it saves the game). However, as you squeeze it, it glows and makes a noise, so if you try and save near an enemy they will investigate. It's the small details like this that were ahead of its time, you see games like Dead Space praised for integrating the HUD into the back of the protagonists suit, but Outcast had already been there and done that almost ten years earlier!
Upon completing a few tasks around Ranzaar (the snowy starting area), you're told that the Ulukai must collect five Mons before he can stop Fae Rhan. When you leave Ranzaar, you come across another very progressive feature. Outcast is completely non-linear! The Mons can be recovered in any order! While the quests themselves are quite linear (though a few do give you a choice or two here and there), you can play them in any order you like. I know games like the Elder Scrolls were around before Outcast, but I'm having trouble thinking of an action adventure as old as Outcast that is as non-linear.
But this is where we discover that Outcast has aged a little less than gracefully in certain areas. Shamazaar is a lush land of green riss (the most popular food in Adelpha) fields populated by Gandha talan (the working class), Fae talan (soldiers), and Twon-Ha (bird-like creatures that you can ride). When you mount a Twon-Ha you'll find you can't move, and when you walk through riss you'll find you move incredibly slowly. Problems like these are to be expected with old games, and can actually be fixed with CPU-Grabber, but it's annoying nonetheless. However, I suffered a far worse problem when I was about half way through, when the game suffered multiple fatal crashes, but thankfully this was fixed with a third party mod. The last problem-and perhaps the biggest-is not fixable by anything but a time machine and a memory wipe.
You see certain aspects of Oucast's gameplay has not aged particularly well. Most side-quests consist of going between quest vendor and quest vendor (A fact that Slade himself makes light of!), and while the dialogue and voice acting has high production values, and is deliciously cheesy, it's not exactly engaging. Especially when a seemingly simple task turns into a long trek across Adelpha. Ten years ago, exploring the world itself as you did the quest was probably engaging enough, and while the graphics have aged remarkably well (thanks to the unique smooth look of the voxel engine), it's just not as big of an attraction as it would have been ten years ago.
As well as the dialogue and story, the combat itself has aged very well. While it's an action adventure, you move with WSAD, and aim and shoot with the mouse. You can even go into first person mode for better aiming. Apart from your human pistol, you will get a multitude of alien weapons-from mortars to sniper rifles-and you'll need them, you see there isn't exactly a lack of Fae Talan aroundé though there will be by the time you're finished! I believe at one point near the end I was fighting 20+ Fae Talan, which is quite an impressive achievement for a game so old.
While there are a lot of enemies, there can be large gaps between them. So when you're not fighting, it simply feels like you're walking around talking to peopleé which is pretty much the case. To make matters worse, you can weaken soldiers, and lower their numbers by doing resource quests. These generally involve convincing the leaders of the different regions of Adelpha to stop giving supplies to Fae Rhan. In the desert region of Motazaar this would mean they would stop mining metal for the soldiers' weapons, which would make the soldiers' weapons weaker, in the marshy region of Okasankaar this would mean they would stop supplying the soldiers with Sankaar (fish) which would make them physically weaker and therefore easier to kill. There are four resource quests in total, and by the time you're finished you will kill the soldiers in two or three shots, and they will do very little damage, making the game incredibly easy.
There is however, are several aspects of Outcast that time will never diminish: the story, the well realised and in-depth world, the dialogue and voice acting, but most of all, the delicious sci-fi sense of humour and references. For a start the different nations of Adelpha are accessed through Daokas, that look almost identical to Stargates from Stargate, and in the city of Motazaar there are buskers playing music from Star Wars. If you have a long attention span you should definitely give Outcast a try, it might be slow at times, but listening to the Star Wars theme as Slade is sent on yet another seemingly simple task that turns into something much harder will ease the pain.

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"Foolz3h reviewed Outcast for the PC..." was posted by Foolz3h on Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:10:37 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/outcast/user-reviews/615469/platform/pc/ Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:38:45 -0700 Foolz3h reviewed Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath for the Xbox... http://www.gamespot.com/oddworld-strangers-wrath/user-reviews/612287/platform/xbox/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Stranger's Wrath is a game I waited a long time to play. I had fallen in love with Abe's Oddysee when it was first released, and the love affair with Oddworld continued with Abe's Exodus. However, with the news that Oddworld would be Xbox exclusive, I realised I may have to wait a long time before the love affair could continue, and as with all love, separation from my lover made it dwindle. Some years later I had the chance to play Munch's Oddysee and it just didn't have that something special, it was more world, and less odd. However with my own Xbox acquired, my quest to play Stranger's Wrath began. After a long battle with Sligs and Scrabs I managed to steal a copy from a Glukkon, and I was away.
I had high expectations for Stranger's Wrath, it didn't have to be a technically great game, but it had to restore my faith in Oddworld, and as this was before it was announced they were getting back into game development, it had to be one last final hurrah for Oddworld, it had to be our last glorious embrace. And in four simple words, I was not disappointed. You can stop reading now, in fact perhaps I should stop the review now? But I shall push forwards-don't give up reviewer!-Whether you like or not.
When I first started I was apprehensive, it was more Spaghetti Western than Oddworld. There were talking chickens and cats instead of green people with their lips sowed together, and there were beautiful sandy towns instead of dark grey industrial factories. Not to mention you had a gun! However there's not much more Oddworld than a gun that shoots cute small creaturesé
After I got over the initial shock, my love for Oddworld was rekindled. Now that I've got the auto-biography out of the way, I should probably get on with the review. Stranger's Wrath follows a bounty hunter who goes by the name of Stranger. He needs an operation for some mysterious ailment, and the best way to make money is hunt down bandits, capture them by sucking them into his bag with the X button. Of course it's not as simple as that, before you can get to the head honcho you've got to take out his bandits. Now if the fact that you're shooting cute creatures at enemies isn't enough for you to work this out I'll spell it out for you-Oddworld is not a traditional shooter. Getting through the bandits isn't run and gun, it's a strategic puzzle, and trust me, when there are 20 bandits trying to kill you you'll have to think about what you're doing. You'll have to utilise all the different types of ammo. Perhaps you'll immobilise one group of bandits with Stunkz (they stop a group of enemies) while you lure in a group of enemies with the Chippunk and then blast them with the exploding Boombats. To make matters a little bit harder, you can make far more money if you capture the bandits alive. So while you've got those two groups stunned, you better start sucking them up, of course they don't stay stunned for long...
When you've taken out the bandits you come to the boss. They're not the most complex bosses to take down, but they can prove a challenge to capture alive, as you've got to survive for a fair bit longer, than if you were to just blast them until they died. Nevertheless, they are usually a satisfying climax to a level, and when you're surrounded by bandits and the boss, provide an enjoyable challenge.
Just as the story begins to ramp up, you're hit with a brilliant twist. Unfortunately the twist changes the structure to a far more open yet traditional shooter. No longer is it necessary to capture the enemies alive, and with your ammo being beefed up, it becomes a little more run and gun. That, and the lack of bosses, would make the second half of the game a little less engaging, if the story didn't hit its stride, and in cIassic Oddworld-fair you'll be fighting for natives against the nasty scourge of industry! And boy are the natives' surroundings beautiful! In fact the whole game is beautiful, the chicken-like Clackers are small chubby birds full of personality and zest, and they live in rich 1800s western-styIe towns. The country side ain't bad either, there are rocky mountain sides, dark caves, and old ruins. But it amps up when the second half begins, everything gets much, much bigger, from huge docks, to large cities and industrial complexes everything is beautiful, and with the blue electricity of Zappeflies, and the fiery explosions of Boombats your enemies will be dieing in a way that does justice to their surroundings!
However, it's a little disappointing to hear how poorly recorded the voice acting is. A lot of the time I had trouble understanding what was being said due to the muffled sound of the voices, it's especially odd considering the crisp quality of the sound effects and the musical score. It's a shame too, as the script certainly had its moments, though I must admit that at times the jokes fell a little flat.
I've been a little critical in this review, but they're more from an Oddworld fan's point of view, than a gamer's. It's one of the best Xbox games I've played, it may have its problems, but it should be remembered among the Xbox's best. And despite the criticisms, it's a fine swan-song for Oddworld, (though it isn't a swan-song now!) they managed to take Oddworld in a new direction quite successfully, and perhaps that was the problem with Munche's Odyssey. Maybe it was just too much of the same thing, perhaps Stranger's Wrath was what Oddworld needed to revitalise the series, and my love for it! Either way my love is as strong for Oddworld than it ever was, and I eagerly await their what they come up with next (here's hoping *crosses fingers*). I just hope it's not on the Xbox 360, or I will suffer all over again! Oh, why do I still love you when you torture me so? You're no good for me, Oddworld, but I love you all the same!

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"Foolz3h reviewed Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath for the Xbox..." was posted by Foolz3h on Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:38:45 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/oddworld-strangers-wrath/user-reviews/612287/platform/xbox/ Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:16:50 -0700 Foolz3h reviewed Shadow of the Colossus for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/shadow-of-the-colossus/user-reviews/591147/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Shadow of the Colossus (SotC) is the second game from the talented folks at Team Ico. There were high expectations for SotC after Ico was released to such high critical acclaim. So the question is, has Team Ico managed to create not one, but two, of the PS2's best games ever? The short answer is a resounding HELL YES!
The game opens with a hawk flying high above a cliff top on a dark night. The camera then pans down to a horse (Agro) carrying a young man (Wander) and a large sack across a precarious Cliffside path. As you hear the beautiful orchestral music, that plays as he risks life and limb, and as you see the wonderful animation as the magnificent horse scales the dangerous path, you know you're in for something special. Eventually Wander arrives at a temple. He places the 'sack' down on to the altar, and it is revealed that the sack contains a dead woman.
A powerful voice addresses Wander. It tells him that the young woman can be resurrected if he destroys 16 large stone statues. And how do you destroy large statues? Why, by hunting down and killing colossi of course! You jump on your horse on the trail of your first kill. We'll leave Wander there for now and talk about a couple of things.
First is the horseback ridding: not only is the animation absolutely superb, the controls are too; you press X and Wander will kick his trusty steed, and it shall respond by increasing in speed. When you get up to a healthy gallop you can simply hold down X and you'll sail smoothly across the world. Now that's all well and good but obviously you'll want to steer. Simply push the analogue stick left or right to pull the reins, or pull it backwards to yank the reins backwards and Agro will slowly grind to a halt. The smooth control, combined with the clip clop of Agro's powerful hooves, careening across the sandy ground- leaving a trail of dust behind you- really make it feel like you're riding a horse.
Second is the open world to explore: not only is the scale of it impressive, so is the detail and beauty. From the smallest blade of grass, to the largest empty temple everything is in a state of decay, and yet it all feels sacred and beautiful. Speaking of temples; to save you need merely find a statue and pray. It makes the saving seamless, and never detracts from the feeling of immersion. Not only that but they're quite useful for finding your next target. You see if you hold down circle with the sword equipped Wander will raise the blade and in an area where there is light the blade will shoot a ray of light in the direction of your next colossus. But apart from the odd instances of fauna which you can kill and eat, there is very little to do in the world. You just tramps across the sparse and empty world, to find your next colossus and that's all there is to it. Though, I must admit it does give you quite a feeling of isolation and perhaps even despair.
So if the world is that empty what about the colossi? Well let me start by saying that they're not called colossi without a reason! These are giant monsters of steel, stone, flesh and fur, that hulk their way slowly across the earth, or soar gracefully through the sky. There are three stages to taking down a colossus. 1. You stalk it; looking for weak spots by shining light from your sword across its body, while also looking for ways to climb the beast. 2. When you've found a way to, you climb across the hulking beast, as it does its best to shake you from its body. 3. When you have finally climbed to its weak spot; killing it! To do this you crouch down over the weak spot by holding R1, then you hit square and Wander will raise his blade. The controller will shake as he musters up the strength to plunge it deep into the Colossus' flesh. When he does, there is a sickening crunch and black blood flies from the wound. As satisfying as it is-you've just scaled a 5 story high walking beast, avoiding its brutal attacks, while finding away across its body, for Christ's sake!-something about it doesn't feel right. It feels almost as if you're desecrating something sacred, and as the colossus' lifeless body crashes loudly onto the ground you can't help but feel a little guilty for destroying something so magnificent.
I mentioned detail earlier, and just to add to that feeling of guilt and brutality, the more colossi you destroy the more tattered Wander's clothes become, the more scarred his body, and the more cracked his skin. It's as subtle an effect as any, but boy is it a powerful one!
This leaves us with one question. What the hell is SotC? A platformer, a puzzle game, an adventure game, an action game? I can't look passed puzzle-platformer. The puzzle is figuring out how to take the colossi down: from finding their weak points, to figuring out how to get to them. And there's no denying the scaling of the colossi themselves is anything but platforming. But this is what makes SotC so special. You can't tie it down to one genre; you can't label it as anything-except-perhaps-unique.
So clearly there are few similarities between Ico and SotC. As magnificent as Ico was, the actual level design and mechanics were not very original or ambitious. It was however carried off perfectly. It's the complete opposite with SotC: absolutely everything about it is ambitious. Yet I can't help but feel that there could have been something more to SotC, and this was certainly not something I felt during Ico. Yes, taking down the colossi is brilliant, from their beautiful design to the wonderful orchestral music that plays as you scale them. But it's the bits in between that are lacking. They're beautiful and powerful, but that's all they are. They lack substance. After a certain point you wonder why they are even there; why you can't just skip the Hors d'éuvre and get to the main course.
It doesn't feel right ending on such a negative note so let's head for something I haven't covered in detail yet. The sound. Like in Ico there isn't a whole lot of music in the game, in fact it only features during cut scenes, and when you're up against the Colossi. But there's no doubt that this is a positive not a negative. The musicless world adds immensely to the feeling of isolation. And the music while taking down a colossus makes it all the more intense and powerful. In fact the sweeping score is definitely one of the best to have graced the PS2.
I don't think this review has done SotC justice. I've probably not focused enough on the positives, but that's because they're simply something you have to experience for yourself. Heck, I didn't even mention how touching the plot can be. At a few points I must admit I was quite moved. SotC is definitely not an uplifting game. In fact I'd say it's pretty damn depressing, but there's always a feeling of hope, and whether what he's doing is right or wrong, his motivation is never in question. But like I said you have to experience it for yourself, it's a game that truly deserves to be called unique, and like Ico, is a special game that should be experienced by all that own a PS2. And if you don't then this is worth both the price of a PS2 and the game!

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Foolz3h reviewed Shadow of the Colossus for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by Foolz3h on Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:16:50 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/shadow-of-the-colossus/user-reviews/591147/platform/ps2/ Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:06:52 -0700 darkgamingdude reviewed Kirby's Adventure for the NES... http://www.gamespot.com/kirbys-adventure/user-reviews/589330/platform/nes/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

..::The Good::..
> Outstanding graphics for an NES title.
> Still great fun to play after 15 years.
> Sucking up enemies and stealing their abilities never gets old.
> Memorable Soundtrack.

..::The Bad::..
> The game is far too short and can be beaten within 3 hours at most.
> A little on the easy side.

Kirby popped up on the NES come towards the end of it's life cycle, just as those abandoned Nintendo's 8-bit console in favor of the Super NES and Sega Genesis. This being the case, Kirby's Adventure stood up and produced the best 8-Bit goodness that the NES could offer. Both graphic and soundwise.

Kirby's Adventure is a 2D side-scroller at heart, but because of it's cute scenery, characters and unique gameplay, players found themselves with a refreshing side-scrolling platformer instead of the stale formula the games had come to produce.

Kirby, a pink puffball, could fly, as well as suck up his enemies and steal their moves. Unlike in traditional platformers, Kirby's diverse arsenal gave you more freedom to figure out how to get through levels and how to deal with the enemies contained within them.Power-ups included a sword wielding Kirby, the ability to turn into a speeding wheel and using ice to freeze those around you.

The "adventure" part of the title refers to Kirby's quest to track down and recover the star rod, a magical object that allows people to dream, which the evil King Dedede has stolen and broken into seven pieces. Therefore, Kirby's Adventure takes you through 42 different levels spread across seven different worlds. Each level contains multiple segments filled with various enemies for you to suck up and steal their abilities from. You'll encounter sub-bosses frequently that usually offer more advance and powerful techniques. There is also a main boss waiting at the end of each world.

If all you want to do is beat the final boss and see an ending, Kirby's Adventure is not a lengthy game, which is the main criticism levied against it. You'll lose a few lives here and there, usually figuring out the bosses' patterns, but you can generally zoom through most levels once you find a strategy that works for you. If you approach the game that way, you can expect to topple King Dedede in about three hours. Alternatively, you can draw out the experience by trying to achieve the best ending, which is accomplished by replaying levels until you've found every hidden switch and bonus room in the game. The Virtual Console version automatically saves your progress, just like the original game did, so there's no reason to rush in either case.

Kirby's Adventure has weathered the passage of time remarkably well. The ability to go through the levels using so many different abilities is still just as much fun now as it was when the game was first released. Well worth the 500 Wii Points.

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"darkgamingdude reviewed Kirby's Adventure for the NES..." was posted by darkgamingdude on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:06:52 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/kirbys-adventure/user-reviews/589330/platform/nes/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:32:27 -0700 bryehngeocef reviewed Let's Pilates for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/lets-pilates/user-reviews/585248/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

When I picked up Konami's Let's Pilates for the DS, I wasn't sure what I was getting into. To my surprise, the game is an excellent coach, complete with detailed instructions, good graphics and many nice touches.

As the title gives away, Let's Pilates is an introduction to the exercise genre. It breaks down in three sections: Challenge, Quick Pilates and My Sets.

Challenge is the game's main mode. Here you will learn many Pilates moves as a virtual instructor guides you step by step. Most are broken down in three variations, from easier to more demanding variations. These start out with basic forms like Iso Abs, where you learn to tighten your core muscles - something you will do in all Pilates. More...

You will practice stretching your spine with Cervical Curl and isolate your hip muscles with Hip Release. Hundreds starts you pumping your arms vigorously lying on your back with your legs out, working your abdomen. You will be taken through other exercises like doing Scissors, Rolling Like a Ball and the Shoulder Bridge, which stretches and gives flexibility to your lower back. All this and more leading up to the Push-up Series which the game touts as "the ultimate Pilates routine".

Let's Pilates Screen 01Playing through Challenge mode will make branches grow on a "Pila-tree", a colourful tree that lets you see your progress at a glance. You will also unlock "Pillabockles", a family of colourful creatures who live in your Pila-tree garden. These characters are a nice addition to the game. You can even view them in their "habitat", doing their own Pilates moves.

(EDIT)

The presentation is very appealing, with bright colours and an inviting art style. The training is also visually complete, with a meter showing when to inhale and exhale as you perform moves. You can also take a closer look at your instructor, by rotating her around and zooming on her body to better understand. Game concept art is even featured in the game's calendar which keeps track of your daily, monthly and total play time. The audio is also well designed with different music accompanying you through the moves. Calming music plays during slower exercises and for exerting moves for a more up-beat tune.

My main criticism is the platform on which the game is set. While the DS is good for portability and could allow you to take the game anywhere, it does have its limits. Specifically, I found myself straining my neck a lot to follow the moves while looking at the DS on the floor. It was easier to use a stand for my DS, which I highly recommend. In my opinion, the game could have been a better fit on one of the home consoles, using a TV. But this is a minor detail and Let's Pilates remains an exceptionally well designed fitness game.

Nathalie Caron - The Able Gamer

This review was edited. To see the full version, please visit us at:

http://theablegamer.com

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"bryehngeocef reviewed Let's Pilates for the DS..." was posted by bryehngeocef on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:32:27 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/lets-pilates/user-reviews/585248/platform/ds/ Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:36:33 -0700 darkgamingdude reviewed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess/user-reviews/582922/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

..::The Good::..
>Great Puzzle designs
>Offers a huge open landscape for exploration.
>Visually impressive, especially for a Wii title.
>Will last you a good 30 + hours.

..::The Bad::..
>No orchestrated soundtrack, midi tracks used in place for the main case.
>Difficulty level feels a little too easy compared to previous Zelda titles.
>Can feel a little dated at times.
>Hasn't changed much from previous titles in the series.

The first Zelda launch title ever. Being a launch title, some believed that it could be rushed and ruined, yet Twilight Princess is honestly more of a port.

Before I start, I must point out that the only difference between the Gamecube and Wii versions is, aside from the obvious control difference, the Wii version is basically a mirrored version of the G'cube. Personally I prefer the Wii version after playing both myself.

100 years after Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess tells the story of Link, a young farm boy working in Ordon Ranch. Link is called by his village mayor to deliver a sword to Hyrule Castle, but, as you may have guessed, things don't turn out as planned.

Link's friend (and possible love interested) Llia, her brother Colin and some other kids of the village get captured and as Link pursues the captors, a finds himself infront of a giant black monolith that sucks Link into the realm of Twilight, changing his body into the form of a wolf.

As you may have guessed, the story this time round is far more darker than in previous Zelda titles, including intriguing plot twists and a great cast of characters, each with their own personalities.

Once in the Twlight Realm, Link will meet up with Midna, a strange being residing in the Twilight itself. Midna teams up with Link leading to the ability of transforming from Link to Wolf Link whenever you wish, as long as a crowd of NPC's are not present though. This of course leads to deep and interesting puzzle designs.

The motion controls of Twlight Princess work rather well with only a hic up every once in awhile. Swing the Wii Remote makes Link swing his sword either left or right. When locked on to any enemy, via the Z button, you can perform a jumping strike by pressing 'A', or thrust your Wiimote forward for a stab attack. Shaking the Nunchuck initiates Link's classic spin-attack. The controls do make the whole expierence more immersive and do the job, but could have had a new level of depth added for more realism.

Like in previous titles, Link has a whole rang of trusty items at his disposal. This time though, they are far easier to access and use thanks to the Wii's motion and pointed controls.

Plowing your way through the main game will take a good 30 hours, but collecting all the golden bugs, poe souls and other side-quests up for grab will surely boost your playtime by a good 10 or so hours. You really will get your moneys worth.

One thing I must complain about though is the choice of using MIDI's instead of having a complete orchestrated soundtrack. A minor flaw that can be looked over.

The difficulty of Twilight Princess has definitly been ramped down,compared to other titles in the series. Appealing to a more casual side of things.

Overall, Twilight Princess delivers as the next installment of the Zelda series, offering unique controls, a great art-style, an immersive story and an enjoyable experience. A must have for any Wii owner out there.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess/user-reviews/582922/platform/wii/ Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:26:04 -0700 bryehngeocef reviewed Pop for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/pop/user-reviews/580517/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

The concept of Nnooo's Pop for WiiWare is about as simple as it gets in a videogame these days. Bubbles of various sizes float will across the screen and you use your Wii Remote to try and pop them. Somehow though, the extremely simple concept manages to make for a fun, challenging and surprisingly deep experience thanks to a few key features.

The biggest feature that has kept me playing is the inclusion of online leaderboards that utilize the WiiConnect24 service. Also included are local multiplayer options and an at achievement system similar to an Xbox 360 title. In fact, after just a few minutes with Pop I thought it was the most Xbox Live! Arcade type experience I've had away from the Microsoft console. More...

The core of the single player experience in Pop is dubbed Normal Mode. In this mode players will try and pop their way through 16 waves of bubbles. Each wave gets a bit faster and they change direction a number of times as you go. The main challenge in this mode comes from a constantly decreasing clock, if the clock hits zero its game over.

Every time you pop a bubble, you will be rewarded with points and a bit of time. Smaller bubbles are worth more points and larger ones are worth more time. Miss hitting any bubbles entirely and you are nailed with a three second penalty. There are also bubbles with skulls in them that cause a time penalty when hit. At first the skull bubbles are easy enough to avoid but as you progress they are easier to hit, not only because they get greater in numbers but because popping each bubble creates a ripple that can pop bubbles around it.

(EDIT)

A sort of strategy comes from a couple abilities given to the player. Bubbles can be dragged to another area of the screen by holding down a button. This comes in handy for building layers or keeping a combo going. It can also be used to place the nuke bubbles in effective locations before detonation. You can also hold a bubble and shake the Wii Remote to pump it up, increasing the ripple radius when it gets popped.

Advanced Mode keeps the same scoring system in place, but you're actually battling an increasing timer in addition to the countdown timer. The challenge here is to use all of the tricks you learned in normal mode to score 9,999,999 points as quickly as possible while staying alive and keeping the countdown timer from reaching zero. This can take anywhere from a couple minutes to a couple hours depending on your skill level and ability to find the game's exploits. The user at the top of the leaderboards clocked in at about one minute and 45 seconds.

Chill Mode is exactly what it sounds like; it's just you and the bubbles. No score, no time limit and no pressure. Besides basically acting as a "bubble toy" mode, I found that Chill Mode was a great way to practice, almost like an extended tutorial or training mode.

(EDIT)

Graphically there is not a whole lot going on in Pop. Four colours of bubbles will float across the screen on top of a liquid-looking background. The background and bubble colours will change every wave or so. Pop would have been a complete nightmare for colourblind gamers had Nnooo not included the option to have the bubbles change shape to make the game playable.

Audio is practically non-existent, but what is there sounds nice enough. Most of the popping sounds are actually handled by the Wii Remote speaker if it is turned on and manage to avoid sounding distorted or tinny.

When I first started playing Pop, I said "Seven dollars? They can't be serious". After putting a fair amount of time into it I feel that the price point is fair. For me, the inclusion of online leaderboards alone justifies the price. Pop is a game that I've enjoyed playing in short bursts and one that has also sucked me in for a few hour plus sessions. If you're in the market for a simple light gun style shooter, or you've exhausted the fun that can be had in Wii Play target shooting, Pop is probably right up your alley.

Brian Papineau - The Able Gamer

This review has been edited. To see the full version, please check out: http://theablegamer.com

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bryehngeocef reviewed Pop for the Wii..." was posted by bryehngeocef on Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:26:04 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/pop/user-reviews/580517/platform/wii/ Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:28:55 -0700 bryehngeocef reviewed CrossworDS for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/crosswords/user-reviews/579384/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

When I first heard about Nintendo's Crosswords for the DS, I was looking forward to give it a try. I thought a game such as this one might help me and others beginners get a better hang of it, while providing some solid amusement.

The game breaks down into three sections: crosswords, word searches and anagrams. With over 1500 puzzles it claims to be perfect for everyone regardless of age or experience. However, what I discovered was an oversimplified word game, which will leave avid crossword enthusiasts hungry for a greater challenge.

Having tried various puzzles in both difficulty levels, I found them to be disappointingly easy. I am not particularly strong at these types of puzzles, yet I was able to finish them all rather quickly even without using the hint system. While this may be a positive aspect for some, I also found many of the clues to be repetitive and uninspired.

If, on the other hand, you happen to find some of these puzzles difficult, there is always the possibility of using the clue system, which Nintendo touts as one of the games high points. For each puzzle, you receive a number of clue points, which you spend each time you use one of the hints. But using the hints will cost you time as well. For every additional clue you add one minute to your clock time, for a free letter it is three minutes and to reveal the entire word, five minutes. Obviously, the goal is to complete the puzzle in the least amount of time, so you may be better off using trial and error, rather than clues, as it may cost you less time in the end.

The word search category was a bit less disappointing, although it had problems of its own. This time, there are three difficulty levels, two of which are unlocked from the start, small and large. Each puzzle relates to a different theme. I found the small puzzles rather amusing; however, the problem lies with the larger puzzles. Due to the size limitations of the DS screen, scrolling vertically and horizontally is required to get around the board to find words. This rapidly became annoying as it made it much harder to spot the hidden words with this limited perspective.

The anagrams are decent enough and range between short, medium and long word difficulties. These go from three to six letter answers. It is pretty straight forward and the only issue I had was the lack of hint system. It would have been a perfect occasion to use the system, but instead, when you get stuck your only options are to use trial and error with every letter combination or to give up. Needless to say, this can be quite frustrating.

n retrospect, Crosswords for the Nintendo DS left much to desire. With a $20 price tag, crossword fanatics may be sorely disappointed. However, it may be more adequate for a child who needs to widen his or her vocabulary. But contrary to what I initially believed, a wiser way to spend your time and money would be to pick up a good old-fashioned puzzle book.

- Nathalie Caron - The Able Gamer

This review has been edited, please see the original version here: http://theablegamer.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=150:crosswords-ds-review&catid=13:nintendo-ds&Itemid=70

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bryehngeocef reviewed CrossworDS for the DS..." was posted by bryehngeocef on Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:28:55 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/crosswords/user-reviews/579384/platform/ds/ Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:35:41 -0700 bryehngeocef reviewed Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-my-life-as-a-kin/user-reviews/579366/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Spin-off games tend not to be very good. As a spin-off of a spin-off, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (MLaaK from this point on) should by all logic be a completely terrible waste of time and money. Somehow though, the development team at Square Enix made it work and delivered a satisfying, charming and completely addictive city building simulation game based on one of gaming's most beloved and successful franchises.

The basic premise behind MLaaK is that a young king's homeland has been destroyed by an evil power. The King and his two aides Chime and Hugh Yurg come across a town they call "The Promised Land" after years of travel and find a sentient and powerful crystal when they get there. The crystal empowers the king with "Architek" and tasks him with rebuilding the town using the mysterious skill.

The game starts out simple enough. As the king, you will start by building small houses. Every time you do you will also bring back some of the town's residents who were transported away along with the town when it was destroyed by the evil Dark Lord.

As you progress, you will find that you require "elementite" to continue using architek to build homes and businesses in your town. Elementite can be harvested in dungeons scattered around the land. Because the king cannot adventure outside of the town himself, he'll have to commission some of his townspeople to become adventurers for him.

The king is able to work from 9AM to 5PM every day. During this cycle, about 5 minutes in real time, the king will be able to build structures, talk to his townspeople and will receive updates on his adventurers' progress as they traverse the dungeons. At first it seems like there isn't much to do, but by the end of the game there will be so much going on that you'll wish the days were even a few seconds longer.

Money ("gil") is used for hiring adventurers and sending them on missions, as well as for funding weapon, item, skill and spell research at the different shops and academies around town. Gil income is dependant on the amount of citizens you have in your town and can be farmed in some dungeons.

The king will learn to build new structures by having adventurers fully explore mazes and defeat the boss creatures within, as well as at a few points by talking to the right townsperson. Local bakeries keep the people fed and content. Taverns will allow your adventurers to form parties. There are also weapon, armour and item shops, parks and more to build as the game progresses, each providing its own function to your townspeople and adventurers.

The game's complexity ramps up pretty quickly. After just a few in game days you'll be juggling what seems like and endless amount of details. That's not to say MLaaK is a difficult game to play, in fact most people agree that this is one game that is quite hard to stop playing. There were many, many times I found myself saying "just one more day" during my first play through.

Though the price may seem steep for a downloadable game, MLaaK is a great value at 1500 Wii Points ($15 USD). The game offers a new game+ option after completing it for the first time as well as hard and very hard difficulties to play through. The higher difficulties bump the level of the dungeons up quite a bit. While the game essentially plays the same at those difficulties, it will take more time for your adventurers to gain enough experience to tackle the dungeons and they are more likely to get wiped out or have to flee from battle.

Square Enix packed a lot into this 36 MB (287 blocks) game. The various character models and buildings are quite detailed. The texture work is good and there are plenty of visual effects strewn about, after all this is a Final Fantasy game. All this detail does come at a cost however. When a building is being erected, or even when simply summoning Chime for help the frame rate dips to what appears to be single digit numbers. Luckily this is not an action, racing or music game so this performance issue doesn't affect the actual game play but it can be quite distracting nonetheless.

The music in MLaaK is very pleasant for the most part, but it does get quite repetitive. The in town music only switches once about halfway through the game. There are a few other themes that you will hear along your way and the game is peppered with a few voice snippets, but for the most part the sound design falls flat. It's too bad they didn't have a few more MB to work with. A bit more variety would have gone a long way.

There are four control methods available; Wii Remote only, Wii Remote and Nunchuck, Classic Controller and GameCube controller. The Wii Remote pointer is not used in this game at all, so no functions had to be awkwardly remapped to the traditional style controllers.

I was really surprised at how much I ended up enjoying Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. I did not like the first two Crystal Chronicles games very much and the thought of replacing action or turn-based battles with SimCity style city building and management sounded weird and boring when I first heard about it. After playing through it once and starting up a second game, I can now safely say that this ranks as one of my favourite games of the last couple years. Despite its performance issues, Square Enix has delivered a deep, replayable and addictive experience that I can highly recommend to anyone even remotely interested in this type of game. Did I mention this game is addictive?

- Brian J. Papineau - The Able Gamer

Check out the full review here:

http://theablegamer.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=141:final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-my-life-as-a-king-review&catid=51:wii-wiiware&Itemid=93

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-my-life-as-a-kin/user-reviews/579366/platform/wii/ Tue, 06 May 2008 09:57:36 -0700 darkgamingdude reviewed Wii Sports for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/wii-sports/user-reviews/572184/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

..::The Good::..
>It comes free with your Wii!
>Acts as a great guide to getting used to the Wii Remote.
>It is fun to play with a group of friends.
>The sports are easy to get used to.
>Great Mii functionality.

..::The Bad::..
> It's gameplay over graphics, but could have looked loads better
> Won't last long in single player
>Motion sensing controls aren't perfect and needed some tweaking.

Wii Sports is most likely the first game ANY Wii owner is going to play; why? Well because it comes packaged with every European and American Wii. That's great, but is the game even worth removing it from its packet?

Wii Sports is - as you might have expected from the title - about playing sports and in particular simple versions of Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf and Boxing.

Tennis, for example, can be opted to be played by one to four players and you can have a single game, best of three or best of five. There isn't any exhibition, tournament or unlocking modes to master, just simple gameplay and even in-game there's no music to distract.

This being Nintendo, it's an interactive affair and you've got to swing the motion sensored controller to serve and return play. However, if you had four players bustling for space, you might find that the average lounge a bit crowded.

The only game to use the Nunchuck attachment is Boxing, the only other sport that offers exercise while playing. Playable either against the computer or another player, your task is, as in boxing, to beat the other player to a pulp with punching motion thanks to both controllers.

This makes boxing games in the past rather sedate and boring.

Bowling, Baseball and Golf also make for good gameplay with Bowling probably being the sport that gets the closet to playing the real thing.

Aside from the sports themselves, there is also a mode called Wii Fitness which allows you to test your balance, speed and stamina and then gives you a Fitness age. You can only take the test once a day and the game records your progress so you can see over time how you are doing.

You can also select the option to "Train" and get better at each sport. Each sport has three training modes from hitting targets with tennis balls to destroying innocent boxing-bags in the gym. These training exercise are the same exercises used in the Wii Fitness test and are selected at random.

Wii Sports is neither bulging in features nor graphically impressive, but when you put everything together, you have a fun package that, although better in places than others, is varied enough to keep you entertained for a good while and brilliant in multiplayer.

Some people would probably pay around é15 for it. You're getting it in the box with your Wii. You can't complain but we're sure some of you will.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"darkgamingdude reviewed Wii Sports for the Wii..." was posted by darkgamingdude on Tue, 06 May 2008 09:57:36 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/wii-sports/user-reviews/572184/platform/wii/ Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:30:14 -0700 bryehngeocef reviewed Rocketmen: Axis of Evil for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/rocketmen-axis-of-evil/user-reviews/569069/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 4.0.

This downloadable title is a top-down action RPG in the vein of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance or the classic Gauntlet. Players can blast their way through ten levels solo or with up to three friends locally or online.

After creating a character from one of eight gender, class and race types you'll join the Alliance of Free Planets made up of Earth's rebel forces led by Rocketmen Alex and Nick, the Venusians and the Mercurians. Together they will try to take down the threat of the evil Legion of Terra and their hordes of Martian warriors. Moreé

The story in Rocketmen: Axis of Evil is told in a hybrid 3D cell-shaded, comic panel presentation. These cutscenes, both during and in between the game's missions feature surprisingly decent voice acting and witty, self-aware dialogue. However, presumably due to the size limitations downloadable games, the scenes have no sound effects and animation is scarce. Instead, rookie developer A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games had to use mostly static images and visual representation of sound effects similar to a comic book. While you can tell a lot of effort went into the story presentation, it ends up feeling kind of unfinished because of the limitations.


Gameplay is familiar and straightforward. Players move about the screen using their left analog stick and fire weapons using the right one. Though it controls like fellow PlayStation Network game Everyday Shooter or Xbox Live! Arcade's Geometry Wars, Rocketmen plays like a traditional dungeon crawler with one distinct difference: a scrolling playfield. Think of it as Gauntlet on rails with guns.

The scrolling playfield is probably the biggest flaw in Rocketmen as far as I'm concerned. I frequently missed out on power-ups and loot because the screen would scroll to the next area. There is a "Loot Vacuum", but it proved ineffectual due to a small radius. Once the screen moves to a new area it does not go back and you are forced to progress where the game tells you to.

Not only does this make the game feel more linear than it already is, but there were a few times I actually got stuck in a level forcing me to reset the game. Some of the game's levels can take over 30 minutes to complete and there is no checkpoint system so having to reset can be more than a little annoying.

As you make your way through the levels, you'll have ten secondary weapons in addition to your standard issue pea shooter. There's a good variety here, from missiles to mines, automated turrets and even an air strike. There are also four pick-up weapons that can be upgraded between levels. The Razor is essentially a saw blade shooting gun, The Vulcan is a machine gun and there are also a rapid-fire laser and a shotgun.

You'll be using this arsenal against countless hordes of swarming Martian grunts as you progress. There are a few other enemy types that appear, but for the most part its wave after wave of green ogre-looking soldiers. There are some sub-boss and boss type enemies that show up during the game as well, though they too suffer from repetition.

When you are being swarmed, the frame rate can take a real hit, often slowing to a 10-15 fps crawl even after installing the 13MB version 2.0 patch. The problem seemed to worsen quite a bit when I tested the multiplayer with my partner. I can only imagine how muddled a four-player game could get. It was never unplayable but very noticeable.

It's a real shame too, because Rocketmen is a pretty good looking game, especially for one that can be had for $10 and is crammed into 128 MB. Most of the levels are pretty large and detailed with breakable objects, weapon pick-ups and loot. The textures look decent enough at 720p (it supports 1080i too) and they managed to pull off some flashy weapon and explosion effects as well, again at the cost of performance. I couldn't help but think that they could have done with a few less useless boxes in order to stabilize the game a bit further.

Rocketmen Screen 02

Sound wise, Rocketmen simply falls flat. Besides the aforementioned voice acting, the sound design ranges from almost non-existent to grating. Generally, the soundtrack consists of nothing but subdued orchestra swells that get drowned out by the sound effects. Between the constant "pew pew" of your standard blaster and the incessant ringing and buzzing of various goal indicators, I found myself turning the game down on more than a few occasions.

As you progress through the levels your score is changed to experience points that you can use to upgrade base statistics like speed and damage. You'll also be offered a new armor pieces that provide minor stat upgrades and really appear on your character, which is a nice touch.

It took me about 5 hours to get through Rocketmen, though it felt a lot longer. There were times I was simply waiting for the end of a level so I could save and quit. While there is legitimate replay value for those obsessed with high scores or climbing the online leaderboards, I'm sure most will have had their fill after one time through the game.

This is not a difficult game to get through at all. Aside from a couple of occasions that force you to restart a section of a level, the only penalties for running out of life are loosing 10% of your current level score (experience points) and five seconds of your life waiting to respawn.

For the most part Rocketmen is a family-friendly title. There is no blood or intense violence, though towards the end of the game I found some dialog and story choices that put it squarely into "T for Teen" territory. If playing along with a parent or older sibling, the game would probably be suitable for your average ten year old. It's easy to control, primarily using the two sticks and shoulder buttons of your SIXAXIS controller. The DualShock 3's rumble feature is not supported, which would have been nice for telling when you're taking damage.

I have mixed feelings about Rocketmen: Axis of Evil. On one hand it really is a good chunk of game for $10, mostly family-friendly and ambitious for an original, downloadable game. On the other hand it feels shallow, has the terrible scrolling mechanism and seems almost unfinished. Luckily, there's a demo on PlayStation Network to help you decide for yourself if Rocketmen is right for you. Though CAPCOM provided me with the PlayStation 3 version for review, the game is also available on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live! Arcade at a cost of 800 Microsoft Points.

The Able Gamer Score: 2/5

Brian J. Papineau é The Able Gamer http://theablegamer.com

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/rocketmen-axis-of-evil/user-reviews/569069/platform/ps3/ Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:52:08 -0700 Foolz3h reviewed ICO for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/ico/user-reviews/568437/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

I know it's a cliché to say this but when you come across a game this good it's hard to describe. I shall try my best though! Perhaps the hardest thing to do is begin because you've got the whole game running through your head, hypnotising you into a thoughtless slumber, in which the only thing you are able to experience is the game itself. Naturally it is hard to describe something when one is thoughtless!

I shall try starting from the beginning though. The game opens with a long cinematic, a boy with horns is carried on horseback with his hands tied. His captors carry him into a strange castle in which they place him inside a strange sacrificial box. They leave, the boy struggles and due to some sort of minor earthquake the box tumbles over and he is freed. I say a long cinematic and I mean it, and by the description I gave, I'm sure it sounds a little mundane and would be the sort of cut scene you'd want to skip. But believe me the direction and the animation will have you sitting there your eyes glued to the screen.

Soon after escaping he discovers an almost ethereal girl trapped in a cage. Naturally being the Good Samaritan that he is he helps her escape! As the pale white girl thanks him we see just how damn good the animation is as it zooms in on their faces. Though she doesn't speak (and to use another cliché!) Her face says a thousand words.

It is then that we are introduced to the black demon-like creatures that will be the bane of Ico's existence. Luckily a torch has fallen from the wall. So naturally Ico picks up the stick and slays the beast.

This brings us to the combat in the game. To attack you simply hit the square button and Ico will swing the weapon he holds. It's very simplistic, but there is some strategy involved. Most of the enemies do not attack with Ico facing them and will try and sneak around behind him to grab Yorda. Often you will have to lure them in to trying to grab her with your back turned to them and at the last moment turn around and let them have it! It may not be the most complex system but on your first play through you genuinely fear for both Yorda and Ico.

In Ico and Yorda SCE have come across a truly special mechanic. You can call Yorda over to you by holding down the R1 button, and when she stands next to you, you can take her hand. As you run and pull her along behind you the controller vibrates softly and gives you the sensation of holding someone's hand. It's simple details like this that make Ico such a special game.

And details are what you'll get! The castle in which Ico and Yorda are held captive is truly magnificent, from the oppressive strong architecture to the rust that collects underneath the many chains that hang threateningly from beams holding up the castle's heavy roof, everything is full of detail. When you're outside and have explored the castle a little you'll see places you've come from, from different angles, and you'll see the ocean, forests and unreachable doors that help give the castle a "real" feel.

The sound is fantastic as well, there's little music, in fact the soundtrack lasts only 24 minutes, but it's all the better for it. You can hear the howling wind, the burning torches, and your on sandals pitter patter across the stone floor. And when the sound is used it's used to effect, when enemies appear there'll be sinister music and you'll immediately become tense and watchful.

600 words in and I haven't even said anything about the game play! Admittedly it is a little derivative, but masterfully designed. The combat, like I said is simple, but it's effective. But combat isn't what Ico is about! The castle though oppressive, begs to be explored, and explore it you shall! From waterfalls, to dungeons it feels huge, even if it does only last for 6 hours.

And here I am again! Sidetracked. The game play consists mostly of puzzle solving, enter a room and work out how to get across to the other side. This could of course get repetitive and boring but it doesn't. For one thing the puzzles are logical and a joy to solve, and the fun of climbing never gets boring. But the mechanic of having to watch out for Yorda makes things infinitely more interesting, you can't just climb across a ladder and run through the next few rooms before coming back to Yorda because she'll be captured again. Now you've got to not only solve the puzzle but protect here as well! Besides you won't get very far without her as there are doors only she can open.

Which I suppose could be considered lazy developing, almost a deus ex machina (only to stop the game from progressing, not to end it!). But it's not, if there wasn't enough incentive to protect her before there certainly is when you skip ahead without her and find that you can't go any further! And honestly if you do that it serves you right if she's then captured behind your back.

My one criticism would be the ending, SPOILER let's just say at first it would seem it's very likely that Yorda dies. After all that work to escape and save her it's naturally very sad, and indeed a little frustrating. So naturally killing her off probably isn't the "correct" ending. Luckily it isn't the actual ending! After the credits you wash up on a bright beach and eventually find Yodra, alive, washed up near by. Now that's all well and good, and quite honestly one hell of a relief, but it's quite ridiculous having her wash up on the beach like that and raises many questions. Especially considering she could've just jumped in the boat beside Ico! End SPOILER
But that's a minor criticism and certainly doesn't detract from the experience.

I don't think I've given it justice, artistically it's one of the most beautiful games you'll see, and its animation puts to shame most 'current gen' games-If your heart doesn't skip a beat when you watch Yorda jump across a 2 metre game leading down to a certain death then you're a braver man than I!

It can be hard to find and a little pricey for such an old game, but for Yorda and the art alone it's worth getting. Just make sure you download the European cover and stick it over the US box art!

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Foolz3h reviewed ICO for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by Foolz3h on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:52:08 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/ico/user-reviews/568437/platform/ps2/ Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:10:35 -0700 darkgamingdude reviewed Mario Kart Wii for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/mario-kart-wii/user-reviews/567059/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

..::The Good::..
>Responsive Controls.
>Huge variety of tracks, old classics and new, imaginative, well designed courses.
>The best Online Play seen on the Wii yet with almost no lag what-so-ever.
>The same frantic and addictive fun from past Mario Kart titles.
>Snaking has been removed.
>The new stunt system is great.

..::The Bad::..
>Some Character Models are blocky.
>Some characters voices are terrible
>Friend Codes.
>No Voice Chat Online.

When Mario Kart DS hit shelves, I think it is safe enough to get away with saying it was the best Mario Kart yet. It delivered the fun found in previous titles, topped it and added online play. Then Mario Kart Wii was announced, gamers got excited. Nintendo then revealed the Wii Wheel and playable Bikes. Gamers began to worry.

Well for all those that worried, shame on you. Mario Kart Wii still has the magic found in the previous titles; the familiar, addictive gameplay is there, only now it's even better.

Lets get the basics out of the way first. There are 12 playable characters for you to choose from at the start, with a whole host to unlock. A couple of these hidden characters will surprise you, especially the one's that haven't appeared in a Mario Kart game yet. Each character is divided into their usual weight class once again; light, medium and heavy. At first each weight class has a choice of three different karts and bikes, but there are a lot more to unlock as you progress.

Like in Mario Kart DS, there are some new tracks and those that are old. The total amount of courses are 32 with 16 of them being new, well designed courses and the other 16 being carefully hand-picked classics. Although, some of the new tracks are curiously similar to ones in older Mario Kart titles (Luigi Circuit and Moo Moo Meadows have more than a slight ring of Double Dash!! and Mario Kart 64 to them). That said, the majority are fantastic and offer experiences never seen before with little quirks never in them.

For example, Koopa Cape has a downhill stream going through the middle of the track, so it is worth trying to time your powerslides so you go through the stream and get an extra speed boost.

The retro tracks have been given a polish, so even the SNES tracks look nice and 3D. Every game in the series has a representative (except the Arcade titles) with four N64, DS nad GameCube tracks and two tracks a piece from the SNES and GBA titles. So whatever your favourite Mario Kart game may be, there should be something here to keep you happy.

Of course, the proof is in the gameplay, the one area where all Mario Kart games are truly scrutinised. Thankfully,it's great. Don't be under the impression of all that, "the Wii is a fancy GameCube" rubbish, and that "this is just an updated version of Double Dash!!" If anything, it's an updated version of Mario Kart DS (obviously much better looking). And that is not a bad thing.

Mario Kart Wii has four big gameplay differences. The first of these is the obvious inclusion of the Wii Wheel. Believe it or not, the wheel actually works. Sure it is just a plastic shell and shouldn't really make a huge difference, but it really does add more atmosphere. What's more, the steering has a larger "dead-zone" than Excite Truck did, meaning there is a reasonable degree of leeway in how much you can turn the wheel before your kart starts turning. Thus giving you more control.

If the Wii Wheel isn't your think, you can try out one of the other control methods Mario Kart Wii has up for selection. The Wiimote and Nunchuck, Gamecube Controller or Classic Controller. In all honesty, I prefer the Wii Wheel over going old-school with the GameCube or Classic Controllers, I thought the opposite was going to happen.

The second big difference is the removal of snaking. Ever since the N64 game, Mario Kart had included the ability to get a speed boost by waggling the controls left and right as you powerslide. This has finally been scrapped, and now your speed boost is determined by how long you can hold your slide. This really does make the online feel more fun instead of having the usual snake-fest.

Thirdly there are now "tricks" that can be performed by flicking the control upwards after going off a jump, giving you a nice speed boost once landing. There is no danger of failing the trick or having to learn tricky button combinations. It totally changes the way you think about races and is a great substitute for snaking.

Finally, the bikes. They were a controversial inclusion, but the truth is the work very well. Sure they are a little harder to control than karts as they turn more and quicker bbut the only main difference is that instead of getting orange sparks when performing a powerslide, bikes can only get blue boosts. This may seem unfair, but in return bikes can perform wheelies by flicking the controller up at any time.

As if all this wasn't enough, the online options are the best ever seen on a Nintendo console. You can take part in enormous 12-player races, create your own private race room and download challenges and ghost records sent by Nintendo which are ranked worldwide. You can even use your friends list to compare your Time Trail records of your pals anf, if they're slower, send them your ghost data for that lap and challenge them to beat it.
And to top that off, the online play features pretty much no lag at all. I myself haven't featured any and I hope it will stay that way.

Despite initial fears, Mario Kart Wii is actually one of the most enjoyable racing games and Wii game that I have ever played. This is fantastic fun and whether you are a casual gamer or Mario kart die-hard, this is truly an essential game; one that you will be playing for months to come.

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"darkgamingdude reviewed Mario Kart Wii for the Wii..." was posted by darkgamingdude on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:10:35 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/mario-kart-wii/user-reviews/567059/platform/wii/ Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:30:32 -0700 crazychris90 reviewed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion/user-reviews/559501/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.0.



Being new to the series I didn't have a faint idea what to expect. Strategic action; FPS combined with RPG; Open-ended adventure? I had many ideas flowing for my head at that moment of announcement. Then I started reading reviews; this really got my excited! They were phenomenal ratings! 10/10's and 9's; fantastic scores from the critics, and I ordered it straight after seeing those reviews. I was anxiously waiting for the post to come, and I really was amazed at what I was buying. So if you really want to buy this game and want to know what's in store for you: read on.

The open world is absolutely massive! Even better, it's developed that well it feels like you are part of this region in reality. Anybody who enjoys free roaming, and has an imagination that sends you wild; will love what you will see around this huge world! Whether it's hunting at night, trekking through the forests and mountainsides, taking a vacation to Anvil, the exploration is endless (Make your own game, in a game, "what?"). Travelling consists of either strolling for lengths of time from point A to wherever you want to go, or simply using the teleport feature, which takes you there in a matter of a loading screen. The teleport feature spoils the whole experience, while if your travelling long distances and you want to adventure properly there, the teleport feature becomes way too tempting, and its disappointing seeing a game with a world so big and realistic that you magically teleport around it. Now lets go onto the battle system. The system works pretty well, featuring many elements found on FPS'. You might have figured that the game takes a main role of an FPS view; everything works like an FPS, especially when using ranged weapons and spells: there is an optional third-person view but it destroys the experience totally, with the characters bizarre running animations. You have the usual melee weapons ala swords, warhammers etc. This works fine, and only needs the tap of R trigger to perform attacks, and L trigger to perform blocks, pretty simple mechanics (you may discover the similarity in this system with condemned). You have the Ranged weapons, which are basically different types of arching tools ala bow and arrow. You would automatically figure that the longer you hold the trigger the more power is put on the arrow, which results in either more distance or a more powerful shot. This also works fine, just fine though. If you are looking for a hardcore FPS system go elsewhere.

After spending over 200 hours on this game and still playing just shows how great the replay value works, but still depends on what you like. I am a hardcore RPG fanatic, and there aren't many RPG's recently that sucked me in the way Oblivion did. But after playing it for that long I obviously must have noticed flaws throughout the game. The first major flaw is the main quest and its poor storyline. The main quest is surprisingly short and the storyline I couldn't care less about (obviously not as bad as Blue Dragon's), which leads to the "this is boring" and "what's so hoorah about this" formula. At least the achievements are compelling enough to get you rushing through it. The side quests on the other hand are stunning! The amazing truth is that the guilds are better than the main story, especially when it feels more involving and like a job to you. The story for the guilds are also much more spectacular, the Dark Brotherhood gets you betraying your dear colleagues, when the Arena takes you through an emotional journey through the rankings, leaving you in a very difficult situation choosing to kill or not to kill a dear friend for a lump of money and winning the tournament. Here is a brief review of each Guild:

Fighters Guild: 8/10
Want to be the justice? Be a guard and do their everyday job, stopping crimes. Be warned. If you commit a crime it will be the end of the guild. The story isn't too strong but the quests are epic enough to keep you wanting more jobs. Not for the crazy players wanting to be hardcore criminals.

Thieves Guild: 10/10
This is one amazing job! You will have the best time ever breaking into houses in the night and stealing their goods, getting caught feels like a real consequence. Deserves the 10/10 mainly for having the best quest in the game "Stealing the Elder Scroll". Pure Excellency.

Mages Guild: 6/10
This is possibly the poorest guild, and if you're a magic crafting nerd you will enjoy the university of the Mages Guild. The quests are poorer, the story is average; the experience is not that epic.

Arena: 6/10
It's not a guild but treated in a similar way. The first quests are not that bad, but once you are used to the battling; it will get overly repetitive and derivative. The story is rather strong especially with that epic moment at the finale.

Dark Brotherhood: 9/10
Feels cool, feels evil, feels ferocious! This is the Dark Brotherhood. I never knew murdering could be so exciting; and the phenomenal storyline keeps everything together awesomely. If you want to be a cold-blooded killer this is the place for you.

You have figured that I enjoyed the Thieves guild the most; simply because it has such an involving and believable atmosphere. It's just a guild you have to experience before you give up on Oblivion. The situations in the game are outstanding; here's a scenario for you: You kill an innocent person in the streets of the Imperial City, but on a busy day, you run away and crowds watch over the body in shock. A guard catches you and you either have the choice to 1. Go to prison, 2. Pay a bill, 3. Run! This is what will happen if you pick no. 1. All of your main items will be removed, and you will appear in a cell; now this is what's so amazing about going to jail; you have a choice to either sleep and lose your valuable earned stats; or picklock the cell door and run away. This consists of a small dungeon where you can go find your items and get out of there! If you choose no. 2 on the other hand; you will lose a lump of money and they ignore you and you are free, but you will notice that guards and other people will come to like/dislike you for whatever you do in the game. No. 3 is a different story. And definitely leads to the worst consequence. The guards will constantly be after you and attacking you until you give up and either pay or go to jail. Here is where the harsh AI problems come into term. Stay in the most hidden of all places; you will be found! There is no escape! The creatures aren't as daunting as the human characters but still flawed; you will be able to do a little stealth action with these at least and there is a possibility that you can perform it successfully depending on your statistics.

The visuals are phenomenal! They are not particularly fully next generation but they do set the standard for the graphics Oblivion produces. The locations are clearly the most wonderful. Beautiful interactive environment of flowing grassland; swaying trees and glistening water effects. Sometimes you believe your in a picturesque work of art and cannot help yourself appreciating how wonderfully devised these visuals are. It all goes downhill when you come to terms with the NPC's. There faces look really undeveloped when you are talking to them, and you will eventually notice how stiff they manoeuvre throughout the talking system. They basically don't use any hand gestures and lack a variety of body language throughout, and sadly enough you will often laugh at them for being stiff as a statue. NPC's look better out of talk when they are walking around or talking with other NPC's. This system is quite interesting. You can eavesdrop on the NPC's conversations to find clues to certain things or quests, and there is a never-ending variation of them. Some of the monsters you will encounter look terrifying; especially the Zombies and the Trolls. There are many jumpy moments throughout, whether its midnight travelling through the woods or inside a massive monster habitat dungeon. It's a shame that the game suffers with certain map loading problems; whether its slowdown or having the odd moment of walking in mid-air these do spoil the overall experience.

The soundtrack isn't too bad, but it is no Nobuo FF composition. The music really does set the scene, especially in the tense action sequences and exploration. It may get slightly repetitive, so I just muted the music. The sound effects are the best of the soundtrack; with terrifying roars from the monsters; the breeze shuffling the trees or the clipper clapper of a nearby stallion. The sound is perfected beautifully, and really feels like you are a part of this fantastic world. The voice acting isn't too bad; it's just that you will notice that there is an overuse of the same voices far to often-on NPC's throughout Tamriel. The sound really sets the scene for any situation really, and I cannot fault how well they composed and created the Sound in Oblivion.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is one huge game! With one of the largest replay value's devised, some of the most artistic graphics, and a game that you will never forget. I definitely enjoyed Oblivion for the fact of its great mass of side quests and titanic exploration but the game has so many flaws it can really disappoint. I'm not saying don't get this game; I'm saying don't hesitate to pick it up. Its one of the most fantastic adventures for the next generation gaming systems, but a mass of problems weigh this overall score down.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion/user-reviews/559501/platform/xbox360/ Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:50:16 -0700 crazychris90 reviewed Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis... http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-the-hedgehog/user-reviews/559491/platform/genesis/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

Sonic the hedgehog started one of the biggest series of games ever. It brought the arcade style, super speed, free running crazy blue hedgehog to fame. The start-point didn't provide much of story or character like others in the series, but this brought the history of the hedgehog. Pure arcade platforming fun!

The gameplay is simplistic; fast side-scrolling action and the single button jump. The whole basic gameplay is jumping from platform to platform, running across bridges and pinball-esque locations collecting as many rings as possible. The levels are scattered with enemies and bosses which are hardly a challenge; especially compared to the other games in the series; these consist of a very simple jump on the enemy to kill procedure (unlike mario's jump on the head technique). The platforming sequences are visually more difficult than the enemies/ bosses, especially with the slightly break-sweat starlight zone; but after a few tries it should be a piece of cake. There is also Labyrinth zone which is easily the most challenging out of the stages. The game isn't short but can be completed in less than an hour depending on your level of skill.

The graphics are great but you can clearly see how much better the sequels are. The background parallax animates fantastically depending on how fast you run through the environments. The sprite animations are a bit skippy; especially on enemies, but overall look very good for the games age. The in-game stage intro signs are simplistic but suit the original game well.

The BMG plays a big role in this game but is also another aspect which is notably better in its sequels. The original catch theme tune followed a long era after it was composed. The SFX aren't too bad though, very arcade sound-like.

You will be replaying this game in times to come; as it is a fantastic piece of art. Maybe the flaws are noticeable in this game when you're comparing with the other's in the series, but being the starter of a fantastic portfolio of games, Sonic the hedgehog deserves to be in that hall of fame

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"crazychris90 reviewed Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis..." was posted by crazychris90 on Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:50:16 -0700
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