November 25, 2008 – 2:00 pm
Quantum of Solace will inevitably be compared to GoldenEye like all other Bond games have been and will be. I believe it is a fair comparison to make. GoldenEye was an inspired experience all the way around and since then we haven’t seen another Bond game come even close. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Quantum of Solace isn’t on that level, but it is a good first effort by a worthy developer.
The game’s plot revolves around both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. The game begins with Bond capturing Mr. White and bringing him in for interrogation. In no time, Mr. White escapes because of an act of betrayal and Bond is sent around the world trying to figure the entire mess out using story lines from Casino Royale along with Quantum of Solace with a few story additions for added gameplay. The voice acting, as expected, is great. With Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, and most of the cast of both films, it’s pretty difficult to screw this part up.
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November 25, 2008 – 10:00 am
First Impression: Boring
Second, and third, impression: Intriguing
First off I apparently use 9 percent of my brain, while Matt and my sister only use 8 percent, so ipso facto I’m more intelligent than Matt Banks and my sister.
Now to the game– Brain Challenge by Gameloft, a 1000 point Wii Ware download. It’s fun, and definitely a great game for a large group of people who might want to embarrass themselves in front of friends (if only they had to spell words and do math problems). Playing this game by yourself is not only slightly depressing, but rather boring. But fighting to the death in brain challenges against your friends and family (mortal enemies) is invigorating. There are 5 different sections when you play single player; Logic, Math, Visual, Focus, and Memory. It’s pretty obvious what each section involves. Logic involves completing puzzles while the math section involves equations and cubes where you have to go around the cube adding, subtraction, dividing, or multiplying a specific number (this one is hard to describe so deal with it). The focus section tests you on which ball bounces higher; memory tests how well you remember different paths; and the visual section tests you on which items weigh more based on items on scales (sometimes a carrot weighs more than an airplane), as well as matching faces. Some of the specific tests are described poorly and are difficult to understand what they in fact want you to do, but after playing a little while it’s easy to eventually figure it all out.
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November 22, 2008 – 10:00 am
Activision hit the video game lottery when it released Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It was an updated version of its award winning WWII series with new weapons, a revamped multiplayer, a thrilling campaign, and great visuals. The game was an instant masterpiece and cemented the franchise for anticipated sequels. We now get the next installment, CoD: World at War, which takes us back to WWII again. Has Activision allowed history to repeat itself with another great title, or are we taking a huge step backward?
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November 21, 2008 – 7:00 pm
After playing Zombie Drive only a few times, it’s easy to see the potential that exists, but it’s hard to understand why it wasn’t fully realized. I wish I could review the game based on the fact that it brings back grand memories of my hours spent running people over in Carmageddon, but I can’t. Zombie Drive feels more like an entertaining tech demo than a fully playable game.
Everyone loves to destroy zombies, I have heard it’s actually a national past time. Zombie Drive has the simple concept of you as the wheelman of a hot rod running over zombies. The story goes a little something like this. A city has been infested with zombies and the army has barricaded the entire city with you in it. The objective is to take out as many zombies as possible within the allotted time. The gameplay is very easy to grasp. The camera is stationary in the standard behind the vehicle view and the player steers by tilting the iPhone/iPod touch. Tilt it forward to go, back to reverse and side to side to steer. It takes a little getting used to especially if you haven’t used the accelerometer before in a driving game, but it’s much more entertaining than buttons.
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November 19, 2008 – 5:00 pm
Developers: Treyarch/Shaba Games Publisher: Activision Release Date: 10/21/2008
A SPIDER-MAN GAME YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO PLAY…WHO KNEW?!
Wow. As Spider-Man swings through the cityscape of NYC, you can actually hear the wind whistling past him - sometimes no music at all is the most exhilarating thing to experience in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.
Then again, if it was, it would have a whole lot to contend with in the game. No movie license, an original story, and some RPG elements are just what the doctor ordered for the series. I was as excited as I ever was when I heard this was coming out (except for Spider-Man 3…ewwww). But the moment I got the game’s acrobatic and intense style wrapped around my head, it was Spider-Man bliss.
This is what the past games should have been, folks. Let’s jump on in.
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November 19, 2008 – 12:00 pm
Trace is one of those free games at the App Store that at first glance a lot of people might just pass on because of the simplistic art style. The game is completely free-handed and the animations are extremely simple but the gameplay is what makes Trace a joy to play. Think Line Rider with a controllable character.
Developer Bovinedragon Software’s first foray into App Store gaming is a solid effort. The game controls are straightforward. The iPhone/iPod touch is put into a landscape mode at all times to create more screen real estate for the platforming portion of the game. All of the controls are located at the bottom of the screen with the left and right character control arrows on the left side of the screen and the jump button all the way to the right. This small area doesn’t take up much of the screen plus the controls are mapped just like a basic gaming controller. A retry, back and draw/erase button are all located in this area as well.
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November 18, 2008 – 3:00 pm
Most mobile games are built around the idea that the player has a somewhat limited amount of time to play. Due to this concept Apple’s App Store is loaded with simple puzzle games. Sometimes these are intriguing enough for a quick play once in a while throughout the day to fill your down time and sometimes they aren’t even worth your time to download. Cosmic One by oeFun, Inc. falls into the latter category.
The funny thing about Cosmic One is that its simplicity and ease of use is its biggest up-side and its biggest pitfall. The game is so simple that you can play it for a few minutes and have it mastered but it gets quite boring after a lengthy playtime. Here’s how it works, you have a catcher on the bottom left or right of your screen with three different shapes on it and a randomly selected shape falls in from the opposite side where you must match your catcher’s shape to the shape that is falling by spinning your catcher with your thumb. Remember as a child when you had wooden shapes of squares, circles and triangles and a board to hammer the pieces into so you could learn shapes? Cosmic One is exactly like that and about as entertaining too. The pieces can be sped up by tapping them as they are falling to earn more points, which is required in the earlier levels because the gameplay is so slow. As the pace picks up you are spinning your catcher quite rapidly to keep up but it doesn’t really create any more of an entertaining game. This is all you do for the entire game. The developer never deviates from this simple formula. Cosmic One has no twists, power-ups or basically anything to reward you for getting further in the game.
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November 17, 2008 – 1:00 pm
There are few games that define a genre and even fewer games that can define a generation. Fanboy or not, you have to respect the Gears of War series as the latter. Gears of War, when released, wowed gamers to what was now possible with graphics engines and now Gears 2 has set the bar just a little higher. Nevertheless, we expected the game to look great, the question lies in the game play. Is Gears 2 a standalone killer app or just really Gears 1.5?
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November 17, 2008 – 11:00 am
Sony continues the long line of SingStar expansions with Legends, a look into some of the biggest musical hits you’d want to sing in your living room. Whether you want to drop down low as Barry White or kick it old school with Biz Markie, there’s some gems here for you.
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November 17, 2008 – 10:00 am
If you’ve never played SingStar on the PS2, it’s a karaoke rhythm game where you get points for singing the proper notes to your favorite songs. The previous editions have been enormous hits throughout the world. To add to the great series, Sony recently released an expansion for Country music.
SingStar games feature the original videos of each song where available. Things here are pretty much standard for the series; there’s not much needed in terms of graphics for a karaoke game. Sound-wise, this is the area that SingStar is designed to shine, and it works very well. Each song has terrific original sound for you to rock out with.
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