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Kodu Game Lab: Make your own worlds Review

Posted on August 20th, 2009 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Review, Site, Xbox360.

The community games feature of the Xbox 360 tends to be plagued with unwanted games and stupid massagers. Not to say that all community games are bad (I personally enjoy the ones that actually have put in a bit of work into them) but there is one game that shines as a great example of the community games section of the marketplace. That game is Kodu Game Lab.

Created by the team at the Microsoft Research Labs, Kodu is an super simplified version of any old map editor (except you can also add scripting to the map without having to use any other application).

It strives to be easily accessible and feature tons of replayability through allowing the player to make more stuff. Kodu, while a tad limited, is so accessible I would say that it’s right up with commercial game editors. Kodu basically allows you to create games in the form of map files that include AI and level scripting.

The best feature, the very very very very best feature of Kodu is the Sharing system. Most games that allow content creation tend to be very limited in sharing. For example, Trials HD only allows you to share your tracks with only your friends and only those that are online. Kodu Game Lab figures that most people will not have friends that also play this game, so there are three default gamertags called KoduZones.

These gamertags act like community bulletin boards and allow you to upload anything that you’ve made to the tag. This allows others to download your content without you having to be online. The Kodu community feels so open and friendly, just patiently waiting for you to upload some of your works. The one thing that makes the community so special is the fact you can’t rate other people’s stuff. Which is probably a good thing. But to make up for that, Kodu automatically creates thumbnails of all the maps so that you can decide what you really want.

Kodu is limited in how many things you can have on the map, I would think it would have to be because of hardware limitations, but I can forgive Kodu for such problems. Kodu does a fairly nice job at keeping the game open. I’ve seen Halo remakes (that are actually really good), Left 4 Dead (not as good as the halo ones), racing games, top down fighters, football simulators, Zelda remakes, Portal (with dynamic portals) clones, and much much more made in Kodu Game Lab.

Kodu comes with a bunch of maps and tutorials right in the box, and it makes it totally worth the 400 MS points I paid for the game.

My main gripes about Kodu Game Lab are that it tends to lag with lots of objects on screen, and sharing/downloading new maps can take a very long time.

But other than that, Kodu Game Lab definitely deserves a recommendation. If you have 400 MS points to spare, I totally suggest getting Kodu. What I wouldn’t suggest is playing the trial, because the trial is extremely limited (blame MS’s XNA community guidelines) and you won’t experience the feel of the game.

Some people say that Kodu is baby’s first game maker and I have to say that’s not entirely true. Kodu is focused on just making games and making it easy to make games on the 360. Just because something is simple and friendly doesn’t mean it is childish. Kodu is for people who have never programmed before and always wanted to make a game. It’s for people who have programmed before or want to make something quick and easy. Kodu Game Lab is practically for everyone.

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Biking gone wrong: Trials HD Review

Posted on August 20th, 2009 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Review, Xbox360.

In the amazing event that is me updating this website (I’m planning on revamping this site sometime), I will be reviewing a game that is no where near my satisfaction, Trials HD.

Now before you leave thinking: “Golly, I can’t believe he’s actually updating this blog with more flame posts”, hear where I’m coming from.

Trials HD at its core is a great concept. The first levels are fun and challenging and leave you with the feeling that you might be playing a good game. Not good enough to buy, but something to pick up when you are bored.

“Crawling in my skin”

When I first tried out the trial to Trials HD, I felt like the game was a bit silly. It felt like it was trying to be hardcore but wasn’t really at that level. It’s only when you actually get the game you realize how bad Trials HD wants to be extreme.

On the first few levels I loved how I would go flying in the air, hit a wall and a big cartoony “Crash!” would appear on my screen. It was loads of fun. But then Trials HD started to listen to emo punk music and gave me this odd feeling that Trials HD didn’t like players.

And it wasn’t until the Medium difficulty levels that it became apparent that Trials HD HATES YOU. Not only does it hate you, but it really hates you. It giggles at slashing your car tires every morning, stealing your newspaper, breaking everything you’ve ever owned and so much more. Trials HD is dedicated to making your life miserable.

The game is bawling with laughter right now

The game expects that you can magically foresee the future and change the outcome of a jump (of which the outcome is always you dying [and sometimes it will kill you anyways]). And unless you have the reaction time of Jesus, you will fail. Trials HD loves to make you backflip and die. Hitting anything will cause your bike to go ballistic and backflip into the air, no matter how small of an object that might be. Basically, the game knows you are doomed and makes fun of you for it.

If real life bikes handle the way they do in Trials HD, then God must really like Evil Knievel.

Levels are designed to keep things fresh, showing the player all the different ways they suck. Now, I don’t consider myself bad at games. I am or used to be in the top rankings in the Battlefield games and I very very very rarely lose at Burnout games (which requires that you can react extremely quick). But to be good at Trials HD must mean that you are #1 MLG whatever competitive competition thing that people with no lives do.

The ability to replay a level runthrough is really nice.

I really enjoy the level design and the cool little features in each one, but the levels really boil down to tons of button and stick mashing and a bunch of curse words.

The difficulty curve basically looks like this:

I didn’t play any of the tournaments because after I tried to beat the second level in the Extreme category, I just gave up. In the second level, you have to drive backwards, but the problem is that you also need to drive forwards in order to gain speed by going backwards and not to crash. Plus, LT is the button for brake and reverse, so you can imagine all the fun that will ensue! Also, if you fail by a centimeter, you fall into a pit of atomic bombs. Oh joy.

Bob the builder!

The level creation system is cool and I think it would be awesome to make some tracks if you actually wanted to spend the time to do so. The community sharing system is horrible. I mean, you can only share maps you make with friends, which is too bad because no one on my friend’s list is insane enough to go buy this (except for other reviewers like myself). Kodu, a game I plan to review next, came up with the clever idea of making 3 gamertags that are basically, the community’s file servers. Why Trials HD developers didn’t think of this, I don’t know. But they really should have.

Conclusion

I’m happy I got it for free because there is no way on earth I would ever pay for this game. Ever. I suggest other people stay very very very very far away from it.

If you put BMX, Tony Hawk’s Project 8, the daytime levels of Sonic Unleashed, Paperboy and the extreme unresponsiveness of the physics engine in Mirror’s Edge in a blender you would get: BTYPWQUNSONCIWQLKAPYREMXOYGE, and also Trials HD.

The only people you will ever see that continue to play this game are the ones that are trying to get all the EXTREMELY DIFFICULT achievements or ones that will continue to play the Easy levels. In fact, there is no point to playing the Hard or Extreme difficulties. Save yourself the trouble.

Final Result: Don’t buy. Trials HD is fun to play with if you can ignore the horrible controls and the constant gloating of how much you suck. But if you are like any average human, you will avoid failure or atleast try to avoid failure. So why don’t you just help yourself and avoid Trials HD.

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Get a CoD: World at War Beta Key, on us!

Posted on October 22nd, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Giveaways, Site, Xbox360.

This drawing is currently closed and the winners have been sent their keys. Thanks to everyone who entered!

A few weeks ago, Treyarch announced a multiplayer beta of CoD: World at War, for their “friends and family”. We’re doing something similar. We’ve gotten our hands on 5 beta keys that we’ll give out to 5 randomly picked commenters on this post.

All you have to do is comment on what you think will be the best part of World at War.

One key per household. If you try to enter more than once (and we can tell if you have), you will be removed from the drawing and not receive a key.

Giveaway ends this Thursday (October 23) at 5:30PM PST. We’ll send the winners their keys via email then.

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SBCG4AP: Strongbadia the Free!

Posted on September 20th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PC, Review, Wii.

“Onward to Strong Badia, Strong Badia the Free!”

In Strongbadia the Free, the King of Town has imposed an email tax where all send and received emails cost one swisscake roll like snack item. Strongbad, being the email checker he is, calls for a rebellion against the King of Town.

He’s immediately placed under house arrest for calling for a rebellion…in an email. From there, he has to escape his house before he goes insane from his little whiny brother, Strong Sad.

Once you escape (with some help from the protesters outside your house), you move to Strongbadia, where you call a meeting with other fellow “countrymen.” When the countrymen do not want to go to war, they secede from Strongbadia into their own independent nations.

From here, it becomes your primary goal to rally all the nations to help you conquer the King of Town. Using logic, and a variety of silly ways you can reach your objective.

“Hey, that’s the name of this…” “SHUT UP!”

One of the first things you’ll notice is the amount of changes in Strongbadia the Free. The game no longer has trophies that you have to unlock by doing certain things. You can collect flags of each country. The map has changed, mainly because the King of Town ate your old one (odd….). In following from the last game, Snake Boxer 5 is replaced by Math Kickers: Featuring the Algebros, which is a parody of those math games and Double Dragon.

And you can go into Strong Sad’s room now (not that you would even want to go in there anyway). Emails are less emphasized and you start out with all your email “hints” that are “supposed to guide you through the game” according to TellTale. It’s probably not the best idea to read them all until you get at least three or four countries. The story is a lot better than Homestar Ruiner, but that might be because it’s more linear. You have a tad more freedom to explore and use the metal detector in more places.

“We can never be truly free until we reject the fat-thority of the King of Town”

As with every game, there are some problems that make this game far from perfect. But doesn’t mean that it sucks. It has it’s good points, and not-as-great points.

Pros:

• It has a great story that is more linear than the first episode
• The puzzles are a bit tougher than Homestar Ruiner
• The graphics have improved
• Featuring more characters!
• Strongbadia the Free has better jokes
• It doesn’t feel repetitive

Cons:

• In some puzzles it can be hard to tell if they are making a reference to an sbemail or if they want you to do something completely different. The 2^nd appearence of Strong Sad is like this.
• You can’t take over Bub’s country, but it isn’t obvious enough. He does say he’s neutral, but when has that ever stopped anyone from invading?
• It felt a tad short
• It’s a really big file, you will have to delete several other games in order to play on the Wii. Or buy an SD card.

Overall, it’s a pretty good game. I’ve never been of point and click games, but this game is an exception. I do wish it was a bit longer though. If you are not a Strongbad fan, play the demo. Otherwise, get the game. I rate this game: 4/5

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Battlefield: Bad Company is Good Company, a review

Posted on August 27th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PS3, Review, Xbox360.

Welcome to Bad Company, Soldier!

Soldier? More like cannon fodder. The 222nd, Bad Company, is the “expendable” portion of the military made up of the leftovers and troublemakers that the Army bunches together rather than throw them into prison. It has the highest mortality rate of the whole army.

Which explains why the the division is only made up of three rejects (You [Preston Marlowe], Haggard, Sweetwater) and a Sergeant (Redford) who rather go fishing. The game opens with some wisecrack jokes and some great humor (a reoccurring theme in this game). After you are introduced to everyone, you hop on a truck and ride off to your next position. Redford proceeds to tell you everyone’s backstories. Haggard, the not so bright demolition expert, got transferred to B-Company because he blew up an army ammo cache and the officer’s latrine, Sweetwater was “promoted” to the position because he uploaded a virus into the military’s secure network and Redford was transferred when he made a deal with the army to have his term shortened in turn of leading B-Company.

So you’re driving down the road, with a helicopter that flies over you head going the opposite direction and Sweetwater starts to get tense. Suddenly, the whole area gets bombarded, and DICE gives you a first look at the explosive power of the Frostbite engine, which allows 90% of the terrain to be destructible.

And then you die. Game over. I rate this game, a 5/5!

Oh wait, you aren’t dead. Just sleeping/fainted. The game takes this opportunity to teach you the basics as a series of “Are you okay? Look up. Look Down. Shoot those Barrels. Bounce Around. Duck. Make me a sandwich.” Maybe that last one was improvised.

What’s Single Player really like?

Well, to put it in one word, fun. This game makes sure you have a good time playing it. The humor fits the situation and rarely feels forced. The game wants you to blow stuff up. Make a mess, they don’t care, they will probably be dead anyways. Run in, guns blazing, blow up everything. While the list of levels are short, they are very large and free roaming. And the game gives you a list of collectibles (guns) and gold bars, which are like the Halo 3 skulls. Everyone is getting tired of the army, until they find their first gold bar.

“Wars are fought for a number of reasons, and sometimes, if the one they gave you isn’t good enough, you might need to find your own”

From there on, we pretty much carry out A-Team style in the most bad ass way. The game doesn’t require you to find your own medic in single player, nor does it require you to heal your teammates (who are invincible). Enemy AI is decent, player AI is pretty strong, but unless I missed something, I haven’t really found them actually killing the other guys (normally I do it before they can).

I think my favorite parts of Single Player was blowing stuff up, the locations, the characters, and the dialog. The story was great, too, but DICE gave away some of it already during their advertising. So you can pretty much figure out what happens up until you get the first gold bar.

How’s Multiplayer?

Out of the box, there is only one multiplayer gametype, Gold Rush. Gold Rush is like one flag CTF with two teams; Attackers and Defenders. Attackers have limited respawns and can get more by destroying gold crates by either arming a crate or just shooting at it. The Defenders have to protect the crates by taking out the Attackers and defusing the bombs placed on the crates. If the all the crates are destroyed the Attackers win, if the attackers respawn bar is completely depleted, the Defenders win.

DICE recently released a Conquest mode, which I’m not a huge fan of. Basically, get more CPs than the other team to win.

All your stats are available online, with the exception of how much more EXP it takes until you rank up. As you rank up, you receive credits which you can buy new guns with.

“Now that’s what I call an explosion!”

The graphics in this game are great, they are very detailed, from far away and up close. The music fits perfectly with this game. It doesn’t suddenly break out into techno while you are trying to sneak into a base or something. Explosions are really explosions, not some crappy blast. If you want boom, they got it. The multiplayer maps are very nice and open with quite a few places for cover. It’s fun.

“It’s like a real live palace. It’s like uh..uh…”

It’s not all perfect. The game has a few bugs that look better in a list.

• Sometimes, you’ll be running up stairs and end up going right through the wall.
• When jumping up terrain, you can lag between when you pressed the button and when your guy jumps
• You can get killed by nothing
• When you drive a vehicle and get out, sometimes you get out right in front of it. And if you were driving fast, you will die.
• Some objects will be magically floating
• When you want to play on a specific map, the game often chooses a different one
• Sometimes, teammates won’t show up as friendly until after you shoot them.
• Friends very rarely end up in the same squad or team

Multiplayer on some maps can be annoying. One of the Gold Rush maps, Harvest Day features infinitely respawning tanks that respawn instantly. It’s annoying if you are defending as very few people play as demo man. Also, there is very very very little splash damage to the point you would think there isn’t any at all. Respawns take forever in multiplayer.

All in all, you would game is pretty much standard from any other military combat game, right? Wrong. This ain’t a serious military shooter, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy this game.

If you are thinking about purchasing the game, you might want to rent the game first or maybe play the demo. I rate it a 4.5/5.

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Downtime

Posted on February 4th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Site.

Gamespotting.net is currently transferring domain registrars, so expect some downtime soon. This is also the reason the blog hasn’t been updated recently.

Sorry. Once the domain is back, posts will start showing up again.

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New backgrounds!

Posted on January 13th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Site.

I have just uploaded some new backgrounds that I created from wallpapers I made. They replace some old backgrounds that really don’t fit the site anymore. Some of them are kind of expanded to fit, and due to size restraints to keep the site quick to load. I might make a portal one soon. That should be neat.

Currently, we have:

1. Sonic
2. Legend of Zelda (just Link from Twilight Princess)
3. Samus (from Metroid for the Gameboy, to Metroid 2, to Hunters, to Prime)
4. Halo 3 tribute called Do you Believe?
5. Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass

Read More for Download Link

Read the rest »« Show Less

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GameSpotting!’s 2007: A Year in Review

Posted on December 31st, 2007 by Wailord.
Categories: Best of 2007, Gaming, Site.

Starting at 1:30PMPST/4:30PMEST, the editors of GameSpotting!, both me, ddawn and MASA, will begin to countdown the top ten games of this year. Every 30 minutes will give a new game, starting with #10, and the #1 game will be revealed at 6:30PST/9:30EST.

2007 was one of the greatest years EVER for gaming- it won’t be an easy thing to rate them, and to snub some. Anyway, we kick off in 20 minutes, and I hope you all enjoy this. Feel free to speculate…

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Have a Happy New Year!

Posted on December 27th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Site.

Hey, it’s almost 2008! Woohoo! 2007 has been a great year, loads of new games, many of them were stars of the gaming universe. It’s been great having you guys, and we will see you next year.

Our gift to year during these last few days of the year, we are giving out 4 2-day Xbox Live Gold codes. In other words, this is our last prize post on GameSpotting! You know the drill. Tell us your favorite game of 2007, and if you are one of the first four, you will have the fabulous prize.

All codes have been given out! But feel free to post your favorite game anyways.

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Super Mario Galaxy Review

Posted on December 27th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Review, Wii.

One game I got recently was Super Mario Galaxy, a spiritual successor to Super Mario 64. While Nintendo doesn’t actively say that it is a spiritual successor, it sure does feel like one. While it did release in November, I was unable to review it due to mass amounts of work. So I will review it now.

The game starts out with the usual story of Mario getting a letter from…you guessed it, Princess Bowser Peach. And, of course, Mario has to go meet the Princess at the castle. Upon entering Toad Town, Bowser attacks everything. Same old, same old there. Much later, Bowser finally kidnaps Peach and Mario goes flying. Then comes the basic training that you go through (however, I thought it was apart of some messed up storyline). And afterwards, you come in contact with this big flying castle ship with this Wizard lady who looks almost exactly like Peach.

So now you are on this ship, which needs power from these Power Stars, to light up a section called an Observatory. Each Observatory is made up of several Galaxies, many contain at least 3 regular stars (and the occasional bonus star). Once the whole ship is lit, you will fly to the center of the Galaxy to save Princess Peach.

Most of the controls are spectacular, I really like how the game utilizes motion, shaking the WiiMote makes you do spins. It also allows you to use the Mote at the same time to pick up these StarBits, which was a bit awkward at first but got easier to control over time. The levels and graphics are outstanding, and really really take advantage of the Wii’s power (and limitations). The music and sounds are well done. The levels are fun and not easy to get lost in (something that happened to me a lot in Super Mario 64).

However, I am disappointed with the camera and its controls. The camera is really annoying in Galaxy. Especially when you are underneath a platform (yes, you can walk underneath most things), or walk on a spherical surface. The camera moves to a really awkward angle and the controls respond to those odd angles. So moving forward may make you go right or left or diagonal. That’s really annoying. Especially since it’s never consistent, so you can’t guess where what the control stick is going to take you. Sometimes you can and sometimes you can’t control the camera. Just something I found annoying. In less then two hours I was about 3/4th’s through the game. This is with most bonuses (missing two of them) and almost all stars collected from all the available galaxies (I am currently at the Bedroom Observatory). I haven’t finished the game, but I will be soon.

And now to the ratings:

Sound: 9.7 – The music and sound was great in Super Mario Galaxy, but sometimes I very very rarely noticed it was there.

Graphics: 10 – While they aren’t the most realistic anyone has ever seen, you have to give credit due to the fact it’s on the Wii. The graphics in this game are awesome. Very nicely done.

Difficulty: 8.4 – Few levels are very difficult, if you know what you are doing, you can blaze through a whole Observatory in about 20 minutes with one or no lives lost.

Story: 9.2 – While it’s still the same old, same old, Super Mario Galaxy contains lots of new story elements to keep things interesting.

Controls: 7.8 – The camera controls really hurt this section. I hate the fact that the camera will turn awkwardly and change how Mario reacts controls at random. Can we keep it consistent, please?

Overall Score: 9.7 - Overall, Super Mario Galaxy is a pretty solid game. It’s fun and enjoyable at the same time.

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New Contributing Editor: Dddawn

Posted on December 2nd, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Site.

Recently, there were a few posts by the author, Dddawn. To clear up things, Dddawn is our new contributing editor to gamespotting.net. We welcome her to the GameSpotting! site and hope she will stay for awhile. Be on the look out for more posts by her in the future.

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