Tag Archives: Reviews

Embarrassment of Riches

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I started a post a few weeks ago (that, in typical fashion, I never finished), lamenting the lack of games in my Pile of Shame.

Oh how this situation has changed in the past few days.

I’ve been extremely lucky to have the opportunity to review games for Gamers With Casts and the last few games have been fantastic, especially the surprising Blacklight: Tango Down.  I’ve been, well, rather vocal in the past about my dislike of the online-focused FPS games of the last few years, most notably the entirety of the Halo and Call of Duty franchises.  There’s something different about Tango Down that made me fall in love with it pretty quickly.  The shooting is snappy, the whole data/pixellation feel of the interfaces and weapons is great, and, honestly, it’s a full-featured game for only $15.  Most people pay $60 for a game like this in a box.

The game that’s been taking up the majority of my game time, however, is at the farthest opposite end of the spectrum: Persona 3 Portable.  It’s certainly no secret that I love Atlus, a love that started with an impulse purchase of the original Persona 3.  I have a long history of console RPGs stretching back to the original Final Fantasy, but something about Persona 3 grabbed me and didn’t let me go.  It’s rare that a company has the opportunity to go back and revisit a game twice after its release and P3P shows a refinement.  Sure, there are things missing here and there, but I’m enjoying it for what it is rather than what it isn’t (usually. I miss some of the animated cutscenes).  I’ll give a full review a shot after finishing it.  I also looked up my time in the game so far, and I’m at about 80 hours with three bosses left to go.

Though I’ve had a long-standing love affair with console RPGs, fighting games haven’t always been a favorite.  Sure, I played the Mortal Kombat games and Street Fighter II like every other grade school boy, but anything else never really grabbed me.  I was walking through my local Electronics Boutique during a Summer break from college and picked up a used copy of Guilty Gear X on a whim.  When the next semester rolled around, Guilty Gear XX had released and Knobs and I were full-on addicted.  We made it a habit to play at least an hour or two every day before we headed to the cafeteria.

As much as I loved the original BlazBlue, the new release, Continuum Shift, is the full package this time around.  There’s finally a good Training mode for those that may be a little intimidated by the fast pace, along with a new Story mode (I seem to be one of the few that actually finished the story of the first one), and the Legion mode from the PSP version.  I need to spend more time with it, but there’s always this year’s biggest release…

StarCraft II has taken me by surprise, quite honestly.  Much to the surprise of everyone around me, I only played a small bit of the first SC; for some reason it never captured me.  But SC2 has its hooks in me something fierce.  I spent some time thinking about why during my playtime yesterday, and I think the story presentation is what really does it for me.  The story’s nothing amazing, but it’s well told and well presented, especially with the amazing voice acting.  I had to give Blizzard props for carrying over the ‘story recap install’ that they used in Wrath of the Lich King, since it gave me a chance to catch up on the story during the 12GB (!) install.

Those aren’t the only games I’m playing, either.  I still have Dragon Quest IX, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake’s DLC, Tiger Woods 11, Lego Rock Band, and the new Castlevania game coming out next week to play.

So, yeah, I’d say that my Summer drought is pretty much over.  Back to work!

My Week (Of Pleasant Surprises) Off

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I wanted to pimp a few things here quickly.  I know I’ve been gone for a bit, but I’ve been busy with a few things, along with taking a much-needed vacation (more about that below).  My most recent review was for 3D Dot Game Heroes (read it over at Gamers With Casts).  I’m very pleased with the review; this is one of the few things I’ve written that I feel captures my style (and I didn’t struggle with it like I do when I try to write almost anything).  I was pleasantly surprised by the game itself, too.  Hopefully my excitement and love came across in the review itself.

I’ve also been busy doing tons of work, production pipeline planning, and programming for my new podcast, Dynamic Soundtrack.  Don’t worry, TVGP is still going strong (with quite a few new things we’re developing), so Dynamic Soundtrack is sort of like a solo album for me.  I have such a love of video game music (the origin of that love was documented in one of my personal favorite posts, The Sounds of My Childhood) and I wanted to share some of my favorite tracks, new and old, with everyone.  The first episode should be coming in the near future.

Also, Happy Father’s Day!  I owe my Dad a lot for introducing me to the various geeky things I’m so enamored with (and classic rock) and allowing me to be who I am.  If you’re a total geek (if you’re reading this blog, you likely are), you should wear your colors with pride.  He’s likely directly responsible for my love of games and all things audio (my Mom thinks that I get my love of cables from him, which is likely very true).

I went on vacation recently to visit family in New York and decided to take a break from games while I was on vacation.  I’d been getting a little burnt out lately with so many new, amazing games in the first half of this year.  I was starting to feel like Mass Effect 2 had come years ago and I was just hopping from game to game without really getting to enjoy the depth of some of them (Split/Second notwithstanding).  So I took a week off of gaming, which I can wholeheartedly recommend.  I feel a lot better now after getting my palette cleansed, so to speak.  I read a few books, gave my terrible eyes a rest, and thought about filling out my PS2 collection a little more.

And thankfully I gave myself a little break, because as soon as I got back I dove headfirst into E3 2010.  I was planning on writing a wrap-up post, but we covered the vast majority of the stuff in the show in the latest TVGP episode, which we had a blast recording.  It sure was a divisive year for gaming, but we were able to come away with a few disappointments and a whole bunch of promising news.

The last thing I’d like to share this week is an amazing video I’m a little late to the party on, Avatar Days.  I’ve always been fascinated by how people’s avatars represent them (mostly in a pre-Mii world, though, for obvious reasons) and the combination of people talking about their avatars, in WoW in this instance, is amazing.

As always, thanks for reading!

This Week In Review

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Now includes exciting Google Calendar images!

It’s been a crazy week this week, all around.  But unfortunately, there’s nothing that really caught my interest in a way that would require a longer post.  So it’s bullet point time!

  • After dragging my feet for a week or so, I finally finished Bayonetta.  I totally understand where some people get a little uncomfortable about Bayonetta’s (the character) sexuality, but it’s not something that I feel equipped to discuss.  I personally didn’t find it offensive; I actually found it quite liberating that there was a strong female character who knew she was attractive and didn’t shy away from that.  It’s certainly better than the damsel in distress or stereotypical JRPG female characters we usually get.  Oh, and the Space Harrier level was brilliant.
  • I spoke about the whole Ebert Thing Part 2: The Return on TVGP this week.  I got all of my feelings out about it on the show, mostly because I didn’t really like the blog post I wrote here.  The long and the short of my post was this: Who cares?  I compared Ebert’s criticism of games to Michael Bay saying punk is dead on the show and I stand behind that.  In the end, we have someone who doesn’t “get it” and has no intentions of doing so.  We should be playing games and enjoying the community of gamers instead of rallying and shouting at someone who couldn’t care less.
  • Left 4 Dead 2′s Mutations came out this week.  It sounds like such a simple thing on the surface, but it’s a brilliant move to keep the second game’s longevity in the face of the mistakes they made with the first one.  As long as they can create a giant list (or algorithm) of different game types, that’s the type of thing that gamers will keep coming back for.
  • In weirdly promising news, Mad Catz announced they are the principal peripherals maker for the Rock Band franchise.  I find this funny because a few years ago this would have been the death knell for the Rock Band franchise, but after how well Mad Catz handled the Street Fighter 4 sticks/pads, they will probably do well.  I’m not sure how one of the most avoided (from the hardcore gamer’s viewpoint) peripheral makers became a company that’s oft mentioned in the same breath as Hori, but whoever figured that out needs a raise.
  • And lastly, a hopeful story.  A friend of mine dropped by the other day to invite me to his wedding and he was excited about getting a PS3.  He said that he put one in the registry so his fiancee and he could play games together, and he was optimistic that he was getting one.  I always like talking about how gaming has changed in the public eye; if you needed another example, that’s a pretty damned good one.

Programming Note: I’ve been writing more reviews (and have a few more assignments sitting here) for Gamers With Casts, all of which I’ll be cross-posting here.  Don’t worry, though I’ll be busier with these reviews, the site won’t turn into a pure reviews site; I would have started PUP with that intention in the beginning.  And if anyone wants to see more reviews, drop me a line.

Have a great week!

Review: Babeorella

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Babeorella's Stylish Intro

Originally posted on Gamers With Casts

Released On: iPhone (reviewed), iPod Touch, iPad (iPhone mode)
Available: Now
Developed By: doublesix

Babeorella puts you in the shoes to the buxom, space-faring titular heroine after she crashes her spaceship into an asteroid.  At first, the game seems like a fairly standard dual-stick shooter, but it changes a few small elements that makes it much more enjoyable than I would have thought. Continue reading →