QuakeCon has started and I will be there. Luckily it’s one of those cons that is local, so getting there is not an issue. Unlike PAX, where I’d have to get a flight, hotel, food, etc. Can’t do that now. I’ll actually be in Florida during PAX. One day I’ll make it there…

I’ve been playing the Scott Pilgrim game on PSN. I got it on PSN instead of waiting for the XBLA version for a few reasons: $8 through Ubi’s store, no online play…and that’s about it. First impressions were okay. Once I “got it” I realized this is just River City Ransom. At first, I was put off by this because with all the time put into that game I knew I was done forever. But with the music, graphics, and random video game references throughout, the game has me. Not thinking I’d do local co-op, I had a couple buddies over for three player. Luckily, I had the DS3 for rumble, the SIXAXIS that came with the unit, and an adapter to use a PS2 controller (used for 2D Pad for my SHMUPS). So setting it up was no problem. It’s fun, but the time put in singleplayer doesn’t translate well for multiplayer, unless the other players are roommates, family, or significant others. It just takes time.

The music in this is good. From Anamanaguchi:

And a few of us will be hitting up the midnight showing for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I’m about 90% back to health, so I hope between QuakeCon, midnight showing, and daughter time, my body still has a chance to fully recover.

I’m going into Singularity with high hopes. I like Raven Software. Their last two games, Wolverine and Wolfenstien, were excellent. So far with Singularity, it seems like a cross between Bishock and FEAR…just kind of boring. I’ll give it plenty of more play though, as I have yet to try any of the neat physics-bending tools that are apparently in this game. The graphics don’t really stand out here, but honestly that shouldn’t be a gripe – they aren’t bad. The story is both very interesting and pretty lame. I like the Soviet-era ideas with science and whatnot, but then there’s always the cliche explanations and the random person (usually female) that happens to appear in your ear to tell you how to complete objectives. As much as I like first person shooters, some of these elements are getting old.

This is an early morning post (have yet to sleep) and I don’t feel like beefing it up at all or trying to sound like a professional journalist. So I’ll leave you with this:

BlueGamer.net Forums. Go ape-shit all in it.

Also of note, Quakecon is coming up this August and the Bluecast crew will be there. Registration information here. Apparently this year it’s all on-site to make the process smoother.

Well let’s see. I didn’t watch every ones entire press conference (even though I have the time too, not working and all), but I watched what interested me. So here are things that interested me. Let’s start with the worst.

PS3: 2 things I liked the PS Move thing and Twisted Metal. Although, the controller looks like a toddlers karaoke mic, I can deal. I didn’t see any Twisted Metal demos, but all you need to say is Twisted Metal and I’m down like a clown (catch the Sweet Tooth reference).

Wii and 360 kind of tied for me, so I will be biased and save my favorite system for last.

Wii: Me and Adam agree on a lot of games, but when we don’t agreed it is crater-like. Zelda!!! Put me down as an A OK. It does look like more of the same, but when it works it works. Kirby Epic Yarn looked stupid at first, but then reminded me how awesome Paper Mario was on the Wii, so I think this will be great. The Mickey game has a lot of promise. The 3rd person level seemed kinda hard to control so hopefully they fix it. And the 3D DS seems cool, unnecessary, but cool.

360: Kinect…I’m on the fence. Most games seem kiddie like, but saber battles with Darth might give it a go for me. It seems like there are more games for my girlfriend (Kinectimials, Dance Central, Yoga, etc.), but I need her playing more anyway. Plus if she likes it I can buy it to battle Mr. Vader…..Mr. Vader you have a telephone call. Fable 3. Yes. Halo:Reach. Yes. More so Halo space battles. Yes. Metal Gear slicen up watermelon. Yes. GOW 3. Yes. Stick-n-kick bombs. Yes. I’m leaving a lot out but the games are what did it for me.

so out of 10.
PS3=6/10
Wii=8/10
360=8.5/10

PEACE

I will start by saying they were much more boring than MS’s (talk, talk, talk), but brought a lot of better games to the floor.

Nintendo:

Sony:

And there were a few more things, but nothing amazing. No new IP’s but the big three tend to go that route outside of the trade show.

Thursday night I’ll post my favorites of the week.

Gotta love Gamefly. I received both 3D Dot Game Heroes and Dead to Rights Retribution this past week. Now, I’ve been very busy with moving, but still had time to get some hours into each.

First, 3D Dot Game Heroes is by FromSoftware, a dev that continues to put out great games. This game looks as the title puts it. Small 3D dots are used to create the 8-bit style graphics in a 3D world. The game looks and plays exactly like Zelda. And I mean the original Zelda from the NES. Other than that, there’s not much more to say. If you like old-school Zelda and want to play it in a unique graphical design, this is the game for you. It allows customizing of the main character which is created by manipulating the dots within the cube representing your characters hit-box. It’s hard to say if the game is worth its entry price though (which is still quite reasonable). The Schiller watched me play it the other day and his reaction was ‘is that it?’, which may cement this as a niche title. But as I said, this is a Zelda clone up and down.

Dead to Rights Retribution sure is Retribution. The first game was fantastic for its time. The second…I’m not sure what the fuck happened there. But this one goes back to its original gameplay, plus and minus a few things. While the game is not amazing, it is fun, and reviewing this game to achieve a score doesn’t make sense. The game was made to be a fun action game that really doesn’t do anything wrong. You can fight enemies by using hand-to-hand, gun fighting, or your dog Shadow. Within these three types of fighting comes different ways to approach them. I’m glad the human shield is still in affect, as well as grappling an enemy while fighting any one that comes at you. This isn’t a one-at-a-time style brawler in hand-to-hand. Opponents will continue to come after you no matter what, and by using the analog stick while pressing the attack buttons, you can Jackie Chan their asses. I’m not too far in, so it is possible the game could get boring.

I should finally have my plans on LP2 Monday. I wouldn’t generally wait this long, but moving sort of got in the way. Also, Saturday’s Bluecast should be up Monday afternoon.

This morning I got my hands on a few games that I wanna throw down some impressions of. First, I received a StarCraft 2 beta key in my email, so I got to downloading that right away. Afterwards, I fired up the 360 to download the new Lost Planet 2 Multi-player demo as well as the demo for After Burner: Climax.

The first game I got into was Lost Planet 2. This demo covers the 16-player deathmatch multi-player rather than the co-op single-player of the previous demo. It was a challenge right off the bat, but by camping I was able to get some kills. This is just another case of not knowing the maps. There seemed to be a lot of customization options and leveling, but I didn’t seem to level based on the points I earned. There also didn’t seem to be any team-based modes available, which is more my thing. All-in-all, it seems like a great contender along the other multi-player action titles out there.

I then got into some After Burner: Climax. All I can say is that I am disappointed. I never played Climax in the arcade, and I figured this would be similar to the PSP’s Black Falcon. But it’s not. Instead of Black Falcon’s 15 fighters, you get three in Climax. And the lack of a barrel-roll button doesn’t work good without a joystick, or maybe just that the series is now in 3D. I’m going to pass for now, but I’m still considering.

Then I dove into some StarCraft 2 action. Not much to say here really. It’s just more of the same with a few new editions. It’s not bad at all, but I’m waiting for a brand-new base-building RTS to come out. I wouldn’t call SCII brand new. I do like the graphics though. While it can be a little cartoony, the camera is zoomed out at the perfect height, and the structures and units are at the perfect size in relation to the map. This is always a big deal to me in RTS’s. SCII will be a day-one purchase.

BTW, you can pre-order SCII from Gamestop and receive a beta key.

Unfortunately, Just Cause 2 is boring to me. It’s a good game though, but after a 1000/1000 Gamerscore on the first game, there’s little more here to do. I even think the explosions and physics had a little more bang to them previously. I will continue to play, but not at my normal, rapid pace. If I get a little further and feel different about it, I’ll do a review and explain why.

For now, if you’ve mastered the first, you might feel a little bored with this one. I see people that didn’t like the first but like this one; that’s just following the hype train this time around, because it’s the same as the first. Though, for Avalanche, I’m glad Just Cause 2 is getting the hype it is because they deserved a bigger following of the first game.

Here’s a conversation I was having in a forum:

User: Yeah – the game has 2 major failings: It doesn’t train you the controls very well, and it doesn’t teach you what you should do in the world at all.

Me: Actually, for me it seemed pretty clear. It displayed the controls as needed during the first mission. Everything’s pretty contextual. From controls to objectives. Too much so that it restricts the freedom found in the first.

Though, even though I loved the demo, the full game now seems rather dull. I will blame it on the fact that I played the first to perfection. 1000/1000 GS. This feels lesser in the explosives/physics department. I’ll probably hold off on playing through it. It definitely is made just to play around, with less emphasis on freedom of environment in the campaign.

I played through the beta and it seemed to have a lot to offer, but as the full retail package, the game seems very low-budget. It doesn’t feel like C&C so far. Even though there’s no reason to dwell on it, I really wish the Tiberium universe evolved from Tiberian Sun. I guess there’s more story to learn from the campaign, but in the end I feel like I’m watching Alien Vs. Predator all over again.

I plan to finish the campaign rather quickly and hope to have a review up soon.

I’m a huge fan of the original Just Cause. It was one of the first games that I achieved a 1000 gamerscore in. It had great scenery and physics, but I’ll admit the character models could have been better. A quick trip through the demo of the sequel and my expectations were met. This is a true sequel to Just Cause (and not a Dead to Rights-style sequel. Seriously…try to play D2R2). Same awesome gameplay in a prettier, more explosive package.

The graphics are a gigantic leap over the original, with the presentation spewing high production value all over the place. I would actually prefer to purchase this game if the funds permit. C&C 4 will be released around that time and I’ve already got my pre-order secured. Hell, I even wanted to purchase Bad Company 2 and that didn’t happen. I think it’s interesting that the PC version will require Vista-Win7, though most hardcore gamers will have already upgraded. Especially enthusiasts looking to run cutting edge graphics.

In the end, even the 30 minute demo proved Avalance Studios is more than a one-hit wonder.

Well, that depends. I know from what I’ve seen the Ghostbusters game only appealed to those that grew up on the movies. While The Force Unleashed is flawed, the Star Wars feel to it is comforting to me. I am, after all, a Star Wars fan.

While the original game was a fun experience with an incredible story, this DLC perhaps does things better. I found the main game to have repetitious design for both levels and enemies. Fortunately and surprisingly, this DLC looks to be from a totally different game. They offer three new missions: Jedi Temple, Tattooine, and Hoth. Also available are different costumes which are highly-detailed and accurate representations of popular characters from the universe. By the way, all of this is included in the Ultimate Sith Edition which I purchased (I used Gamestop’s current extra 50% trade-in value to get a discount with my regular edition).

The Jedi Temple starts off pretty epic so I don’t really want to spoil it. The mission is story-driven and does add some new game-play elements. The Tatooine mission is incredibly epic. A recreation of Jabba’s palace and the surrounding area. You definitely feel like you’re playing Return of the Jedi, complete with music, sound, and characters. The story is based on an alternate universe where the apprentice joins the dark side. The third DLC mission is the Hoth battle. Another alternate-universe story, the level is filled with AT-AT’s battling snowspeeders, Wampa’s, and Rebel pilots. Getting to explore the Rebel’s hidden base will take you back to the Empire Strikes Back. And each mission features great light-saber duels.

I think the price of admission is definitely worth it. But the design of the DLC has brought something else up: It would be great if Lucasarts would recreate a game for every movie with this engine. Jabba’s palace especially really felt like being in RotJ and the graphics, character models, and sound effects were spot-on. And for a minor spoiler ahead, even getting dropped into the Rancor pit and smashing the gate on the Rancor’s head really makes the idea of playing through the original games a possibility. It would be similar to how Relic is making Company of Heroes a sort of WWII simulation.

I guess the only thing that could top that idea would be included space battles. I miss the days of X-Wing and would love that to be brought back into this newer franchise.