GameSpotting!

BioShock Review

Posted on August 21st, 2007 by Wailord.
Categories: Gaming, PC, Review, Xbox360.

If you’ve played the demo, the opening sequence is identical, as is the story: it’s 1960, and you (Jack Fontaine- how do you not remember your own name?) are on a plane over the mid-Atlantic for a reason only you would know. For some reason, the plane crashes, and your lucky self doesn’t explode, but nearly drowns. In an effort to live, you find a lighthouse, which is all too convenient. You swim over to it and enter a Bathysphere, and pull a lever…probably not the smartest thing you’ve ever done: welcome to Rapture.
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GameSpotting! Giveaways

Posted on August 11th, 2007 by Wailord.
Categories: Gaming, Site, Xbox360.

We here at GameSpotting! love free stuff. So, we present to you a new GameSpotting! promotion- the first three to comment on a marked story get a two-day pass to Xbox Live Gold, absolutely free.

We don’t want a totally random “oh that’s cool” or some one worded comment like, “cool” or “wut”, but along the lines of, “I can’t wait for Corruption! It’s gonna rock!”. We have plenty of these to give away, so any post with the Giveaway Badge (the orange badge you see at the beginning of this post) is eligible- see a post with the badge, comment on the story, get a two-day pass to Xbox Live Gold. Once all the codes have been given out for a particular post, the badge will be removed from that post (the exception is this post). It’s that simple! We’ll kick it off with this post.

If you are looking to get more codes, check the home page of GameSpotting! often, as we have prize posts frequently.

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500th post

Posted on August 10th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Site.

GameSpotting! finally has hit it’s 500th post with this post right now! Yay for us! A big milestone (now I am thinking of kidney stones…gross) has passed, party!!

In other news, Halo 3 has become the best selling (even though it’s not out yet) preorder game so far in the history of video games with over 1 million preorders. Congrats Microsoft! It could also be because of all the promos giving away free stuff if you preorder the game. Like what Best Buy is doing giving one free accessory, $10 gift card (not much you can buy with that) and free shipping if you preorder the game from Best Buy

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Site Upgraded to Wordpress 2.2.2

Posted on August 5th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Site.

I just updated GameSpotting! with the latest version of Wordpress (the platform GameSpotting! is featured on). So there should be no more bumps in the site.

We are back online.

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Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition review

Posted on June 27th, 2007 by Wailord.
Categories: Gaming, Review, Wii.

Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition is a mix of the two (excluding the PC game) versions of RE4, combining the PS2’s extra weapons and modes and Gamecube’s stellar graphics, now adding the controls of the Wii. The original game for the Gamecube- which was easily in the Top 5 greatest games to ever grace Nintendo’s fourth-gen console- now ported to the Wii, can it live up to its name? The story is identical to the previous edition, with the 27-year-old special-op/secret service agent Leon Kennedy being sent by the US government to rescue Ashley Graham, the President’s daughter, who was taken by a religious cult in a remote, Spanish-speaking village somewhere in Europe. When he arrives, there’s something amiss with the villagers, and as you go deeper into the plot, you find out what the cult, Los Illuminados, is really about. The gameplay is almost exactly the same as the first version, but that’s because this edition is a port with a few changes.

Unlike a lot of other game ports, the controls don’t just feel “tacked-on” (except for one part- more on that later), but seem fluid and perfectly tailored for the system. You hold the trigger button, B, to pull out your equipped weapon, and move your cursor around by moving around the Wiimote. While in “gun mode” (holding down the trigger), you can do a couple of things: you can push A to fire, or hold it down if you have an automatic weapon, or you can flick the Wiimote (or push a D-Pad direction) to reload your weapon (if you finish a round and try to shoot, it auto-reloads). When in standard mode, the nunchuk is used to navigate, you hold Z to run, hold C to pull out your knife (push A to swing), and you can shake the Wiimote to auto-swing your knife, and it’ll aim at the nearest box or barrel for you. An interesting note is that whenever you need to zoom in (weapons with scopes), you only use the nunchuk’s analog, Z, and C buttons to move and zoom.

The graphics are awesome, and probably one of the best-looking games on the Wii, though it’s nearly 100% identical to the Gamecube version. There is almost no noticible graphical difference between the two versions, and it’s fantastic anyway. Now with all survival-horror games, sound is a very important part of the game, as it sets the mood. When you’re walking down a dark, candle-lit hall, you need just the perfect music in the background, and Resident Evil 4 does this quite well. When slowly walking across a dark room filled with all sorts of electrical machinery, the only sound is the soft pitter-patter of your footsteps, and the distant humming of a generator. When an onslaught of enemies come after you, dark, orchestral music kicks which usually flicks on the “oh crap, better run” switch in your head.

Now, even if this game is flat-out awesome, no game is perfect. There are some unavoidable issues with the Wii’s control scheme, like my hand getting tired of holding the controller out in front of me for too long, but if I don’t aim like that, the aiming reticle gets glitchy. The controls to skip the cutscenes are really annoying, too. Instead of L+R like in the GCN version, it requires you to shake the Wiimote like there’s no tomorrow. Even with those small blemishes, this game is about as close to perfection as you can get. The story grips you throughout, the graphics are stellar, new controls, the eerie noises; it all comes together to make a great port, well-worth its price of $29.99.

Now, how about we get to the ratings?

Sound: 9.5/10 -The sound does an excellent job of setting the haunting mood that goes along with the genre- not to mention the dialogue is great and funny

Graphics: 9.5/10 -Probably the best the Wii can muster (right now); near 360-quality, and just simply awesome

Difficulty: 8/10 -Unfortunately, this game is a little on the easy side. Even the scariest things in the game can be defeated pretty easily, and most boss battles don’t even require a second try.

Story: 10/10 -The story is great. There are twists and turns all throughout the game- I don’t want to say much more, as not to spoil it, but it’s one of the best stories I’ve ever seen in a game, if not the best (except for the whole “President’s daughter” thing…).

Controls: 8.8/10 -Now, the controls are great, don’t get me wrong- it adds an element of realism to the game, which is welcomed- but there are definitely some things wrong with them. The “Wiimote shaking” seems tacked-on and annoying, and the aiming can wear out your arm. The controls aren’t so bad that you won’t like them, they just take some adjusting to.

Playback: 9/10 -I’ve played through the game eight times, and I’m on the ninth right now. It’s not everyday you’ll find a game that has great replay value just from the single-player, but this is definitely one of them. Once you beat the game, you unlock three different modes (all of which are great, albeit short) and can replay the game again with all of your weapons, which is also great.

Improvement: 9/10 - From the PS2 version, the upgrade in graphics are great. From the Gamecube version, the two new modes and weapons are great. With this version, you get the best of both worlds, which is fantastic.

Overall Score: 9.5/10 -Overall, the great graphics, story, and replay value put this as one of the Wii’s best games yet, even with some of the small control problems. For only $29.99, this game’s practically a steal- you’d be crazy not to go out and buy it!

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Welcome our new contributing writer

Posted on June 18th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Site.

We have just captured Wailord from MPHTools.com (alright, bad pun) to come and write some articles for GameSpotting! He will be writing stuff for the next few days or so, and he might become GameSpotting!’s new editor. So be on the look out for his name in the next few articles.

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Winners for the RumbleBox Tournament

Posted on June 6th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Game Contest, Gaming, PC.

The winners for our (low attendance) RumbleBox Tournament are:

1. Sentynel - 10,004,900
2. Efity - 7,027,000
3. Andres - 5,902,900

And the winner for the random drawing was:

Will - 2,406,900

Sadly, not many people entered (you lazy people you) but it was fun anyway. Each winner gets a copy of Pinnacle Game Profiler. Congrats to our winners!

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Star Wars 30th Anniversary!

Posted on May 25th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Site.

While this isn’t specific to gaming, we at GameSpotting! are major fans of Star Wars and love watching the movies over and over. We have most of the newest Star Wars games sitting right next to our PCs right now. Star Wars is probably the awesome-ist movie trilogy that we have seen besides Lord of the Rings. Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars movies, based on the release date of Star Wars: A New Hope, which was May 25th 1977. Hooray for Star Wars! (now if they would release the new Star Wars: Force Unleashed game, we would be really happy).

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The chronicals of 403 errors

Posted on May 21st, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Site.

Fun fun fun. If you have ever gotten banned from the site you would know that the email address to get unbanned is banned@ the domain above. Emailing that address might get you unbanned. But it really doesn’t help when you run the site and somehow you are banned from your own site. Not sure how it happened, but the main server we are on keeps feeding me 403 errors. So in the mean time I will be attempting to write stuff and hopefully put it on the site via email. Hope that works.

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Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars Review

Posted on May 19th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PC, Review, Xbox360.

I recently played a copy of Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars from EA. And I must say, that the game is pretty good. It’s story makes sense and flows very well. However, it’s not all fun and games. This game can be very difficult and it requires a lot of strategy at times (some levels, this is not needed). This game also features live action acting (meaning real people act out the story sequences).

So, let’s get on with the story no? The game starts out in a cool login sequence and then gives you a Defcon rating of the day, which is low. In the future (2047 to be exact), the existence of humanity is at stake, thanks to a group called the Brotherhood of Nod (these guys are the bad guys, fyi). Nod believes that the element called Tiberium is needed to make the progression to the next stage of human life. Tiberium is a deadly element, and exposure to it can kill someone. During this review I played as the Global Defense Initiative (GDI, who are the good guys). There is an option later to play as the Nod but I didn’t decide to do so.

The first level is an incredibly easy level, you can wipe every Nod guy out in less then 30 minutes. And it gives you some ideas of what the game is like. Thankfully, the game automatically assigns your guys to attack enemies, if the enemies are in range. The game has great sound effects. Something that is normally not so great. But music..well…there really isn’t any..except if you listen really hard or are not blasting something you can then hear it. The music is not super great. It tends to loop and isn’t that enjoyable.

EA did a great job with the graphics, they tended to be very detailed. I personally enjoyed the explosion effects for the Ion Cannon, as they cause the huge explosions and are super cool. I could play with that thing all day (well maybe not). The terrain is partly destructible, donut shops are invincible (I think some EA employee likes donut shops) and some of the signs too. Cars can be destructible when you build things. Camera controls are great and are set for levels where you really need them. However, this can only be said about camera controls. Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars has some great levels, except boot camp. In boot camp, it wastes about 45 minutes of your life trying to tell you what everything does, it’s much better to just skip it when you are on the Xbox 360 (you will learn more if you just look at the first few pages of the booklet).

Oddly, the Video Uplink that occurs a lot caused my Xbox to lag for some reason, other times it doesn’t lag, not sure why some videos cause that to happen. Which brings up the point that C&C 3 has a lot of bad acting. Like seriously, it just doesn’t seem real. HELLO?! HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF PUTTING IN EMOTION? They sound like robots with crappy feelings. And it’s quite obvious when someone is about to run in, as the other person pauses for a little while. I laugh at their bad acting, it’s so cheesy. They hired good actors, but none really gave it any emotion (however the guy who played Darth Vader in Star Wars was pretty good).

Overall, this game is pretty good, probably the best in the Command and Conquer series.

So here are the ratings:

Sound: 9.9/10 -Awesome sound effects, gotta love those explosion noises. However the computer voice can get a bit annoying. Voice acting is done well.

Graphics: 8.7/10 - Explosions are awesome, and the world is very detailed. Most elements are destructible.

Story: 7.6/10 - The story is cool but it doesn’t seem real thanks to the actors. When you are briefed by the computer, it seems more realistic.

Controls: 6.3/10 - Controls, while seeming easy to learn, were actually harder. If by chance any video uplink, voice actor, or computer message happens, you will get kicked out of the interface. This is annoying when you are building something and just about to place it when something talks to you. The interface layout is odd. I would think it would be buildings and infantry near the top, as you use those the most. Holding the interface down and then building stuff is annoying. Especially since you have to have the interface open in order to place said building.

Playback: 7/10 -The playback in this game is good, but some levels you might not want to play again because of their difficulty.

Overall Score: 7.5/10 - It’s a good game, but it’s something that you will either blaze through or will spend your time on. Also destroying your own base doesn’t end the level for some reason (I ion cannoned mine [several times] and yet the level didn’t end).

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Website Updated

Posted on May 16th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Site.

I just finished updating the website to the newest version of Wordpress. Everything should be working again, thanks for the patience.

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