DJ Hero Review [GiantBomb]

 

CNN Moon Discussion

CNN discussing Moon Landing Hoax with Mythbusters

Who y’a gonna call? Ghostbusters!

This is the second game i got to play from Red Fly Studio, and to be honest i didn’t know what to expect. Such a big franchise developed by a not so known studio. I’ll try to make this review as short as possible, due to the fact that Ghostbusters don’t need any introduction.

The game came out for every platform that’s active, but it’s developed by different studios. Wii; DS; PS2 and PSP versions were develped by Red Fly.  I got my hands on the DS version, and i’m having a blast with it. Red Fly took a different aproach form realistic, to cartoony and it was well accepted.

You play the role of the original ghostbuster crew, not a new comer. You have the whole firehouse at your disposal, from base to top. You have lots of places to visit in there like Research, Repair, Missions, Diary and so on. Once you’re ready, you g to the blackboard, and press A. Then you get the chance to seelect a mission.

Missions are divided in two categories:

1. Normal – Where you get to live the life of a Ghostbuster, and go bust some ghosts for money in places like Museums, Libraries etc.
2. Story Related – These missions are related to the story. There are about 6 of them. But before you can do them, you need to do a few normal missions.

No matter which mission it is, you get to drive the Ecto-1. Now, driving it should be ‘’short and sweet”.  Well, that doesn’t count here. The city is weakly built, all in dark, there are about 4 types f vehicles in total: Police, Ambulance, Taxi and a black car. The more you damage the Ecto-1, the slower you will go, which presents a problem since you always have a timer. Driving is probably one of the worst parts of the game. Luckly, it’s only available on the Nintendo DS.

Missions on the other hand, is what makes this game highly enjoyable. You always start at the entrance and go through the building fighting ghosts, monsters, dead Cooks looking for revenge, library monsters and other creatures. There isn’t much fighting in normal missions. There are a few objectives: Get all artifacts, get all citizens out of the building, and of course – capturing all ghosts.

Capturing is done amazingly well. You use the D-Pad to move your character, you move your stylus across the screen on the ghost and hold it there. You can click on a comrade icon so they can ”unlock” and ”lock”. When they’re unlocked they’ll follow you. If they’re locked, they will be zapping the ghost with proton beams, while you throw the trap under it, and capture it.  Shooting beams is also one of the fun parts of the game, since it’s done flawlessly. You can switch different characters anytime, you can equip the team with different weapons and gadgets. By pressing Y you get a map of the building, and by pressing R you can see the P.K.E. meter which helps you find ghosts.You can als end days from the firehouse. Now this isn’t preffered, since the whole story is in days. So every time you skip a day, the less time you have.

Positives

• Fun playing with the original team
• Proton beams = best part of the game
• Great control over characters

Negatives

• Very, very short story
• Driving basically ruins the whole game

Overall

• Even though this game has a lot of things that make it bad, it’s actually quite fun and entertaining. The main concept works, with bustin’ ghosts and all. If your having doubts look at some hameplay videos before you make your decision, but it’s worth the money. Even for people who never heard of Ghostbusters.  =]

Need for Speed: Undercover

Need for Speed is a long running racing simulation, known around the world. Even though the series got more and more worse with the release of ProStreet.  The latest NFS tittle that was released in 2008 is Undercover. It released for every single platform, including every active portable handheld.

Nintendo DS got the worst racing game i ever played, while the PSP version was fairly acceptable. Now i got to test it out the iPhone/iPod. In short, it’s amazing. I was just starring at the graphics which were at the PSP’s level. I don’t know how EA managed to squeeze such visuals to a small device from Apple.

The story is the same as in every Undercover version. You’re an undercover cop, which must race in order to take down car dealers.  It’s quite normal to get a weak car at the beginning. There are 28 licensed cars in total, which You can use on several tracks.

The gameplay is phenomenal. Everything is either handeled using the touch screen ( Nitro, Brakes, Camera). Your car accelerates until it reaches maximum speed. Moving your car is done using the accelerometer.  The concept works at its best.  The whole campaign is divided into tree cities, each filled with about 12 races, running from the police, or taking a stolen car to a warehouse. The more parts of the campaign you finish, the more cars and accesories you will have available.  The last thing in the game is car upgrading, which is not watered-down. You can upgrade the inside of your car (engine, speed, nitro) as well as the outside (color, addons).

Positives

• Fantastic gameplay/graphics
• Excellent overall concept
• Great use of all iPhone/iPod features
• Good weapon creation system

Negatives

• Too hard sometimes

Overall

• EA made the best damn racer on the iPod/iPhone. Enough said.

Mafia Wars Zynga

Full Review coming tomorrow. ‘Till then, Adde. =]

[Posted with iBlogger ]

Super Monkey Ball

[Posted with iBlogger ]

Metal Gear Solid: Touch

Metal Gear Solid, one of the worlds most recognisable names in the video gaming industry recently got made for the iPhone/iPod. It’s not exactly a stealth game, more like a touch-to-shoot mechanism.

You play the role of an aged Solid Snake. That’s basically the most noticable thing I got to see. There was some text and a few screens from MGS:4 – Guns of Patriouts, but other then that nothing.

The Main Menu is constructed with tabs.

• Start – The game campaign is divided into Acts, like Act 1: Liquid Sun; Act 2:  Solid Sun.
• Special – MGS History
• Deblins Shop – A shop where the player can buy Wallpapers, Concept Art etc. in excahnge for points earned in-game.
• Options – Change settings which effect the game.

Every Act is divided into Missions, sometimes over 5. The main goal in the mission is to defeat the required number of NPC soldiers. At your disposal is a riffle, as well as a sniper which you can acces by using ”the pinch” on the soldier.

While not touch the screen Snake hides behind the cover, often a couple of bags, a car or a wall. Once you touch a soldier, Snake stands up and shoot him. Sounds simple, eh? It is. So simple that it’s actually fun, as well as it presents a challenge. There isn’t much variations when it comes to soldier-types, so far I’ve only encountered a few different soldier uniforms.. While you progress in the Story, new enemies show up such as a giant legged mech which you can only take out by shooting it’s legs.  Supposedly, Raiden shoud take them out, but he doesn’t.

Soldiers have a circle-shapped meter above their head, which when filled up they start shooting You. Once they finish, they dissapear. Often you can shoot a barrel which explodes, thus killing a few soldiers on that side of the screen.

Positives

• Fantastic Visuals and themes
• Excellent overall concept
• Great soundtrack
• Good weapon arsenal.

Negatives

• Empty combat
• Too simple
• Same concept throughout the game
• Not much replay value

Overall

I don’t know how much this game costs, but i think it was under $10 which is an acceptable price. Not exactly a must have, not for a newbie, and not for a MGS veteran. You won’t miss anything too special.

6/10

[Posted with iBlogger ]

Bleach: Heat The Soul 6 Burns In May

Sony is bringing the Soul Society together for another Bleach: Heat the Soul game on May 14. That’s one day shy of a full year when Bleach: Heat the Soul 5 came out. Bleach: Heat the Soul 6, like all of the other games in the series, ups the roster and probably tweaks the combat system. Will it be worth buying another game? Maybe, but I wish these yearly updates were downloadable patches.

[via Siliconera]

This is actually great news. So far i’ve only played Heat the Soul 5 which is an amazing game with an equally amazing fighting engine. Along with about 60 characters to choose from like Soul Reapers,Captains,Arrancar and others,this is one filled game. HTS6 however has a total of 76 characters. The game itself features Tag Battles,Survival,Free Battle,Ad Hoc Mode for two PSP’s and so on and on. The story mode on the other hand i didn’t like in HTS5. It was so random,and ignoring the fact that my Japanese isn’t good,it still wasn’t good,just getting somewhat random fights all the time.

.::GTA: Chinatown Wars::.

Bird Perspective

I had a lot of trouble getting this to run,but i’ve made it,somehow. GTA is well known for it’s rating,sexual scenes,drugs and all the things today’s parents forbid they’re kids to do,or mostly know about. So far GTA is one of the most expected and most played games,ever. With the huge success on PC,the game got transffered over to next-gen consoles,and the handhelds. The PSP got a shot at it,twice. Worked pretty good,resembled GTA: San Andreas.

Rockstar ported the whole series onto the Nintendo DS.

You play the role of Huang Lee, a son of a Chinese triad who got killed. His main goal is to go to Liberty City and find the murrderrers of his father. Sounds easy enough? Along with his uncle Kenny Lee he get’s into a lot of trouble.

Box Art

At the beginning of the game,you see a cutscene,describing who he is and what he does. Soon after coming to Libery City,he get’s shot in the head with a flesh wound,and get’s nearly killed by unknown people. His uncle is a boss in L.C. and works for the big guys. I’m not gonna spoil the story though,at least i’ll try not to.

The whole game plays and feels like it’s GTA. Honest. You can get into vehicles by pressing X, beat up people,get chased by cops etc. There are many vehicles in the game and types like ambulance cars, sport cars and so on and on.

You find yourself in Liberty City,which looks like it’s in 1950’s but is actually in 2009. You do missions for your uncle,who get’s buggered by street punks,blackmailed etc thus earning money and respect. All of that is to find an ancient sword Huang’s father won in a card game a long time ago. That sword was supposed to be handeld to a boss,but when Huang got mugged,the sword got stolen. Meaning,throughout the game you will be searching the killers of your father and the people who stole the sword.

The one huge difference in this game is the view. You look at the city,Huang and everything else from a bird’s perspective. This might not sound good,but it works perfectly. Looks awesome,feels awesome. The game is filled with sound effects, car horns, screams and everything you could expect from a game like that.

Everything the predecessors of Chinatown Wars had,this game has it also. You can listen to the radio while in the car,you can fight,you have an email, PDA – everything is at your disposal. You can get new weapons like machine guns,guns and other weaponry. The game is filled with mini-games like assembling a sniper, jacking a car, tatooing somebody,playing lottery and among other things, opening a dumpster to take weapons.

Every now and then when a mission starts a cutscene occurs with dialog, these scenes are sometimes fun to watch. Later in the game you get missions from various people,buy/trade and sell drugs to dealers,and recruit new members.

This game is long. I’ve been playing it for about 2h and so far with non-stop play i’ve only got about 5%. I ‘m guessing there’s tons of replay value. The city is huge. There are many places to explore,stores to go into, warehouses to buy and missions to do.

Controlling Huang is extremely easy.  You can buy warehouses,store cars in garages and go on various places around the city. Throughout the game you will meet different people,crooked cops and triad bosses.

In the game you have a PDA, where you receive new emails, have an adress book, briefing, mission listings,stats,multiplayer, GPS and trade info.

You have a mini map on the touch screen,it serves as a GPS guiding system. Using it,you can mark places and get a guiding line to it.

This game has Wi-Fi, or WFC to say it more accurate. It gives you a friend code which you can exchange with other people.  Still didn’t test it, not yet. But from other sources you have the following modes:

• Survivor Mode – Your standard deathmatch (online)

• Gang Bang – Blow up your opponents base before they blow up yours

• Defend the Base – A co-op mode defending a base against waves of mobsters

• Single Race and Season – Vehicle-based multiplayer modes

• Cash and drugs can also be exchanged with friends online, as well as your “favorite” locations around the city

You also have the ability to live chat with your friends. Something like a Pictochat rip-off but it works.

Huang Lee

Finally, to wrap things up.

Chinatown Wars is an excellent game. I don’t remember having this much fun playing something. The game has a great story which you can play without getting bored. Sand-box gameplay, and open city, and tons of things to collect this is going to be a hit.
It will keep anyone entertained for a long period of time. The story is long and entertaining, sometimes filled with funny dialog,all over.
If you get a chance to buy this game,don’t hessitate. It won’t dissapoint you.

Overall Score: 9.1/10

Update:  Nowadays,to be honest i still play it. I lost interesest in the story because i got stucked on a hard mission,but still. I just play it for the free roam,chasing people,killing,and running away form cops. A game with just that offers a lot of entertainment.

Mushroom Men – The Rise of the Fungi!

Mushrooms!!!

Box Art

The story goes as a comet falls on Earth,somewhere,and a little mushroom starts evolving into a walking,talking mushroom.Talk about evolution in seconds,huh…Anywho,at the very beginning of the game,you choose which Class you want to be:

• Heavy
• Sage
• Scout

Story Mode goes the same for all three classes,it’s just each one has different attack,speed etc.You are a mushroom man in a mushroom village,when all of a sudden Mosquitos attack and start taking your food suplies,on which you must live on.Soit’s up to You to defeat those no-good duers.,must go through a tutorial level on how to battle,move and similiar stuff.

The whole system is very easy to use,you pick up new weapons,or old ones, from time to time and you can equip them.

A Mushroom in action!

Afterwards,a real level comes on with a main objective of killing the Mosquitos nest (a shue) as well as their master,big moquito with 180HP.This game is a standard 3D Platformer,more fun then the other mainly because of the system the game works on as well as the idea of mushrooms as main characters.After you beat the mother mosquito you head down to the Beetle Caves,where you are supposed to do the same thing.Now,this game doesn’t get boring,only if you pass it.Each level is different then the last one,you get new weapons using which you can combine into one more powerful,the story develops as you pass the game.

Honestly,i haven’t passed too much of the game,but i will.And my opinion won’t change no matter what this game shows later on.

If  something really amazing shows up,i’ll update,otherwise no.

Graphics: 8/10

Sound: 8/10

Gameplay: 9/10

Overall: 8.5/10

This is a jewel in the thousands of DS games,one of them,and should not be passed if you have the cahnce to get it.Besides being very funny,it’ll give you hours of entertainment.