Your Early X-mas gaming list

It's been a while since I last updated. And I'll still give ya the reason of work and my video game script that I work on here and there but I'm back for a little bit to give you a great buyers guide for the upcoming Black Friday/X-mas rush. What to grab, what to avoid. And since I do receive video games at work I see a lot go in and out of the pipeline....well besides Manhunt 2 which got recalled due to violent nature but ironically we have Dead Rising which is even worse. And yes, that looks like every retail store in the morning..well minus the trampling and crushing of people for great savings!


For the aging PS2, Persona 3 is definitely a must buy (see last blog for that review/praise) it is a great game, plus you get an art book and soundtrack.

Guitar Hero 3 is one of the must haves for the system, I mean it takes no thought after watching that South Park episode

Smackdown vs Raw 2008. Now I'm not buying this game seeing as I rented it and it was a major disappointment, but if your son loves the WWE and fighting games in general, go grab this one.

Fire Pro Wrestling. This is the dark horse of wrestling games, now firstly, its 2-D but the animations are top notch and you can create anybody...yep anybody even WWE stars TNA stars WCW stars...anybody with its 300 slot create a character mode. And for $20 its worth the money.

DBZ Budokai Tenkaiachi 3. Speaking of fighting games, this one is a great game too if you're into the DBZ craze...which is still running wild. Worth the money to buy it no doubt.

Disgaea 1 or 2 or both! Both games are long as hell but worth every penny. Finding the 1st game will be a little tough, but worth 40 bucks used.

Wii
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess...a very good game that will take away your time and leave your hand in crams and pain after playing it all day with that wiimote.

Metroid Prime 3 : Surprisingly one of the most fun shooter/adventure games you will play this season. However, it's a little confusing on where to go on the map and trying to get 100% will take some time.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles : On-rails shooter that details the rise and fall of Umbrella. I just buy it for the Wesker cover alone!

Super Mario Galaxy : Easily one of the funnest (if that's even a word) games on the Wii today. Jam packed with greatness. I mean how can you NOT go wrong with a Mario game? (See Mario is Missing and Mario Hotel).

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn: I'm sorry but this series gets no respect out there just buy the game and you'll be amazed.

Xbox 360

Almost EVERY game strong titles include:
Halo 3 (duh)
Bioshock
Gears of War
Dead Rising (trust me, give it a 2nd look after getting the mega buster)
Mass Effect
Call of Duty 4
Oblivion (actually get that for the PC, much better)
Assassin's Creed
Marvel Ultimate Alliance (may be multi platform but its good nonetheless plus comes with the new 360 bundle)
The Orange Box (5 fuckin games in 1 DISK!!!!!!!!!)
Puzzle Quest
Marathon
Doom
Streetrace NYC (ok my friend is the marketer for the game..had to give the game a plug).

All Xbox games will be available on the system along with Halo and Halo 2 and hopefully Capcom vs SNK 2!

PS3

umm....right..ya got a Blu Ray player! Nah I kid, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet and Clank, Warhawk, and Uncharted are the top until Metal Gear Solid 4 arrives.

Well there ya have it, actually I just felt lazy toward the end since I got this splitting headache while typing this. haha, I hope you can agree especially with this final month approaching and the sales of retail doubles.

2 Hot Games: Persona 3 vs. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

It's been a while bloggers but I'm back with a back to school update. I hope that your summer has gone swell and dandy. As you know, I'm sure you spent all that time playing video games...ya admit it lol. Anywho, I have 2 really good games to review...bought both a month ago, didn't want to miss an opportunity that these games will be rare (well not Metroid). Here is my mini review of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) and Persona 3 (PS2). Of course light spoilers are included.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the latest and final game of the Prime storyline. You still play Samus, that hot space bounty hunter who has traveled to the far ends of the galaxy and back. The new title features voice acting which is a total first for the series, along with the power of the Wiimote and nunchuck (more on that later) but first the storyline. It's one thing to say the story is cliche, but Prime 3 does it well. After traveling through the galaxy, Samus makes a stop at the galactic federation spacecraft, which was only talked about in Metroid lure if I'm not mistaken. The ship gets boarded by space pirates and cause havoc on the ship. After defending the ship, the federation planet is being invaded as well. After navigating through the corridors, you and your fellow bounty hunters stop a huge meteor (I guess you can call it lol) from crashing on the planet, Dark Samus reappears and corrupts them with an overload of Phazon, a very harmful element which gives Samus and the bounty hunters superior power at a price.

Controls take a bit getting use to due to moving your character with the Wiimote and analog on the nunchuck. It took me about 30 minutes to get the controls spot on and it's a blast! Aiming at targets and watching them blow up knowing you killed them never felt as good as this. Also your ability to use the grappling hook not just for spots on the wall, but to take enemy's shields and killing monsters, giving it a very nice upgrade through the Metroid years. My only complaint is not having to cycle through your acquired buster gun modes. For example, the regular beam gets upgraded to the plasma beam and you cannot cycle back to the regular beam, the Wiimote still has the D-pad's up, left and right, not used at all. This would have been ideal. After playing for like 6 hours, I started to get a cramp in my hand, I guess that's the price you pay for playing a good game, but every time you get something new, you want to try it out and that's what kept me going last Tuesday.

Graphics I'll be short on. It could have been better. When I explore it feels like I'm playing with a Gamecube game instead of a next gen Wii game. Also those dreaded doors that won't open are back, not as bad but you'll see when you want the door to open desperately while enemies attack you and all it does is just sit there laughing at you. Trust me, it got me frustrated. However, the loading transitions in air are better than seeing a "now loading" screen.

All in all, MP3: Corruption is a must buy for the Wii and a must get for your son/daughter for Christmas if you got them a Wii secretly (hey it's like 3 months away).

Next game I've been a fan of since Blockbuster put it on their shelves. To me the Persona series has been vastly superior to Final Fantasy in every single way (and Jack Frost being a better mascot too). Atlus has given us another masterpiece in the Persona series with Persona 3.

Storyline is short and simple, you are..well you , an unnamed character and you get recruited to a dorm. You go to school, hang out with the kids, solve math problems, and fool around the mall. Once a few weeks go by, you'll notice a place called the "Dark Hour" which occurs every night at midnight. People unaffected remain the same and people who are sleep in coffins and don't know it exists. You are woken up and the dorm is under attack and you go up to the roof and fend off the monsters with your inner being, A.K.A Persona. The objective is to go to a place called Tartarus, the source of the monsters and the Dark Hour and find what's on the final floor (of course the final boss and possible creator of the Dark Hour).

Gameplay is where it shines. First of all, you can go to the Tartarus and fight monsters on 100+ floors, level your characters, get gear but also you can go to school, meet people, date them, and get bonuses for your Personas. It's almost like playing a superhero, only not. There are also mini games where you can acquire more personas and money. You can except quests, fuse Personas and a whole lot more which cannot be explained in 2 reviews.

Graphics and sound are top notch except for the dungeons. It can get a little boring seeing the same textures over and over again as well as the monsters just being color palette swaps. The game is in full 3-D and lets you explore the world map similar to Final Fantasy X's map. Full voice acting by top actors like Vic Mignogna of Full Metal Alchemist and Bleach and Karen Strassman of Rurouni Kenshin fame.


In terms of which is better for your money, I'd go with persona 3 just because not only is the game included but also an art book and soundtrack from the game. It felt kinda weird looking in the Metroid Prime 3 instructing book since its in...3 languages...I dunno Retro, last I check I lived in America and everyone spoke ENGLISH! Fuck man, even the back of the game case is like 1/3s of Samus and the rest is like different languages. I can understand if they did a worldwide release but yeah...I look at other ones and they are 90 times better. (of course this can't be a blog without some kind cuss from me lol.) Both are great games, if you have the cash buy both.

The big game hunt

So much buzz about the new Manhunt game coming out soon...or so it is. With the game automatically receiving an "AO" rating without warning. Now I played the first Manhunt and never finished it but I enjoyed the hell outta the game, very interesting game....felt like playing a game version of Running Man (which I'm sure was a little inspiration for it).

Now I'm just wondering why the hell the industry is so afraid or an "AO" game. Is it because of the Hot Coffee scandal? Or will our young youth mimic the game's actions.

Was in Gamestop this afternoon overhearing an employee and 3 kids no less than 16 years old talking about the game. Of course they want the unedited game out cause who would want a watered down game like that?

Of course this all comes down to Amendment #1 once again. On an artistic level, the game sounds to be a lot of fun and action for the older crowd, but for the youth, it could possibly be a training game for killing others (something Jacky would obviously bring up).

My game that I have wrote doesn't have such brutal ways to kill people, but a sex scene and cussing to a San Andreas content will probably give it an "AO" rating. I mean, how can I water it down to "M"? Take out the sex scene, which gives a huge character development push and is something new...sorta, or just put more bland text for the player to read? I mean I got a lot of text, pages upon pages of character and game development. The sex scene must stay! :p

Its the developers freedom to make whatever they choose and, of course, our freedom to ban the game or whatever we will do to it. I think we are afraid to take every single damn step to make this country better. I mean Stem Cell research peeps and "AO" games on the market (2 totally different things but ya get my catch).

Hell, no ESRB would be great. Artistic freedom cranked to 11! Also if developers had a choice in the matter...much like what Sirius Radio is, a different flavor with no censorship whatsoever. Only distribution online to the PC and any game stores that want to carry the logo less product.


Bu seriously, in 10 years when Manhunt 2 is in the bargain bin at Gamestop with the "AO" rating, we will laugh upon this silly argument for artistic freedom for developers and hopefully we have not turned back the clock for censorship and advancement into the 21st century for the USA. People just have to accept changes whether they like it or not.

Nobody Told Me About Her....

Back in the dawn of gaming, PC gaming especially, was the creation of clickable adventure games. Kings Quest is one of the most famous of them all from Sierra. From Kings Quest to Softporn Adventure...seriously people, Sierra was the EA back then. Very popular in the PC gaming category and some cool games.

Roberta Williams was the star of many games, well, on the cover at least. (hint: the cover to the left). And Ken, Roberta's husband, working behind the scenes in making Sierra a powerhouse.

So fast foward to the early 90's where my older cousin introduced me to one of her horror games on the PC, Phantasmagoria. The game would easily top a "AO" or "M" on the esrb today. The game was glorified blood and guts, a rape scene, cursing, and a very thrilling chase sequence at the end of the game. Easily this was the game which created my sick, twisted mind. And that's a good thing! :)

Today, I have bought the game, 7 CDs long, and beat it again. Definitely worth buying if you can find it now. Digging through the interweb and finding more games that she made, its an incredible list of games for back in its day. I am just surprised that most game developers look up to her, especially the female developers, gamers, and what have you. Roberta is the Queen of the game industry, who cares who's on top right now. Roberta has been on the top of the list, despite being retired, and will forever be on the top of the list, most people who play games will totally overlook the name.

She is an inspiration to all if you have heard of her name, she should be in with the names of Miyamoto, Kojima, Rubin, Wright, Bushnell, and (dare I say) Jaffe?

So peeps, get informed, get to play her games if you can find them and enjoy old school goodness of Sierra!

Silly Gamestop!

While looking at the Joystiq this link caught my attention. Just the idea of game stores spoiling a game and possibly a few more to sell pre-orders is absolutely absurd. The most they will do will just make happy gamers mad or quite possibly save 5 bucks for a pre-order.

I have never felt so embarrassed to be a gamer and I actually mean it since now we have stores SPOIL the FUCKING game. Even if it is a predictable ending. Back in the day where we had game stores which didn't involve none of these shadowy hijinks or forced pre-orders or whatever they force people to buy (I think its on this blog an older dated blog on where I go over the whole forced pre-order ordeal).

$5 buck pre-used games which doesn't see the light of day toward the industry, now we go get even sluttier and spoil games. I tired of this and where 2 companies make sneaky marketing tactics to boost sales. Mainly the Europe PS3 release with Microsoft strategically putting their ads all around (not like PS3 sold a lot over there too).

So a big fuck you to the executive or executives who thought of this great idea. Just another example of companies giving into the corporate world of making a dollar. Now I don't blame the employees who work there who enjoy games watching the ending more than once on a 9 to 6 schedule, I just despise the whole Gamestop monopoly...errr....store lifestyle.

Well now for me its fine since I'm not buying games as much now. Occasionally the one or two that look good and that will settle me in for the year playing. But now it's more like, for me, to write down ideas and scripts and such that sound like a brilliant idea.

In other news my friend Andrew had the "day off" (AKA he called out of work) so he trecked down to New York to see Gene Simmons and his skills in Guitar Hero 2 for the 360. He told me he got in Spike TV's GameHead segment, okay so I'm kinda angry since I'm not on TV yet lol. But hey I gotta pay the bills somehow so I'm glad he got to see some rocking out on GH2 for the 360. He also got the chance to sit down with Major Nelson and interviewed him! Plus he signed his GH2 guitar controller. Shit man, I gotta get on this coverage...then again my beauty could explode TVs all over the nation. (hehe ok I take myself too unseriously).

Then I reminded him of my signed GoW2 demo disc and my CaC X-Mas card and he shut up quickly. :)

Well in short,
Gamestop: sucks
Meeting developers and figureheads in the industry: Awesome
Getting signed swag: Even Better
Spoiling endings at game stores: Not fucking cool
Getting on TV: Sexy
Uwe Boll making a 9/11 Postal into: what a douche

ok I didn't get to talk about it, but I have no comment on that shit. Looks like it has NOTHING to do with his failed movies...yes the movie already failed...it took 5 seconds for everyone to find that out. If a horrible tragedy or event has nothing to do with the plot DON'T FUCKING PUT IT IN!!!!

Ok, already vented on him too lol. Ahh I'll give it a rest until my next anger venting "what the fuck is wrong with the industry in my view" or an update I deem fun and worth reading or fun stuff. Take care peeps!

Thanks Cory!

With God of War 2 out and all of us playing (well not me cause I'm typing now lol) and me grabbing one of Cory's signed GoW2 demos, I just have to say thanks to Cory and the crew for making a, what looks like, an amazing game. I know I have said it like a million times on his blog, but I really mean saying that. Now that there is a GoW for the PSP and a strong incentive on a trilogy, it's looking nice to be a Kratos fan.

Grabbed one game over the weekend, Suikoden Tactics, for the PS2 for $15. Not bad for going to Toys R Us. As of right now, I am liking the game. The graphics are a tad blocky and blurry, but the gameplay is pretty cool for a 2005 game. Now I am a total SRPG fan now its not even funny, I just love the deep gameplay and job changes and unit placement on the field instead of the usual encounter in an RPG.

So in conclusion, I hope Suikoden gets better, GoW continues to teach badass 101, and for game to continue the upward incline towards awesomeness.

The Sonic Boom?

Now I love Sonic, been a fan for...well ever since I could walk. Seeing the blue bomber squaring off against Mario was something, of course, you had to have lived in the golden age of gaming. I loved the whole 2-D aspect on where you speed through the level not knowing if you'll hit an enemy and drop your rings and then afater every 3 or 4 stages, you get a chance to fight Dr. Robotnik. Loved Sonic and Tails and Sonic and Knuckles and so on and so forth. The games were just plain fun to fly by without getting mushrooms and dieing when you are as small as a goomba!

Now I'll admit being very wowed over the Dreamcast and its new Sonic game, Sonic Adventures. I rented a Dreamcast back in the days when Blockbuster gave people the chance to. The speed was incredible plus the fact of getting 2 items for each character to make them more improved. Now I hated the fact of Super Saiyan Sonic once he got this one ring, he transforms (for those who don't know Super Saiyan is from Dragonball Z and is basically a transformation where the Saiyan's hair goes from black to blond).

It was ok, but it was just a rip off of it, it felt out of place in my opinion. So Sonic Team makes a few more games, some ok, and some that just plain suck. Now I feel after Sonic Adventure 2, it just got down to desperation from the Sonic Team, nothing but bad game to worse game. Actually not bad games but just cliche games to get their heads back into the hearts of teens and kids.

I haven't played Sonic Adventure 2 yet, but I do know of Shadow the Hedgehog very well after this game...

Ahhh Shadow the Hedgehog how I fucking hate that game. I gave it a fair shot, both demo and rented, and it really sucked on all levels, hell even me and my friends just made fun of the commercials and game itself for being another embarrassment from Sega, no speed, but we got guns for the kiddies and a fucking hedgehog who can't remember his past!





Yes another Sonic game arrives! Now I have seen the game and I believe the Sonic Team wants to go back to the "Speed Kills" style of yesteryear. Now with the new Sonic game arriving for the Wii, I hope that this will not be a disappointment and mediocre game. With the Wiimote, it should prove interesting what they can do to manipulate rolls and spins and shit. Secret Rings, both me and my co-worker believe, will help boost Sonic back up to his original stature in the people's minds and will be a worthy addition to anyone's collection especially those who don't have a lot of games for the Wii. And with the main game, multiplayer, a ton of secrets in-game, this should help Sonic get into the 8.0 review ratings (or 4.0 depending on the magazine).


So it leaves me with one more question...Robotnik or Eggman? Now I believe his real name is Dr. Eggman, but come on folks, Robotnik just sounds a lot more badass...Robotnik forever!!!