GameSpotting!

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…”

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

• Snapshot system is broken
• Sometimes, you can end up running up stairs and 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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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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Undertow Review

Posted on November 22nd, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Review, Xbox360.

Recently, you may have seen advertisements on the Xbox Dashboard about a game called Undertow. I normally download a lot of Live Arcade games to see if any are really good, as most of them are really boring and/or not fun at all. Undertow is one of the rarities in the XBLA, as it went over my expectations.

The game itself starts with a quote from a book talking about how humans can now live underwater. Thoughts of Rapture (BioShock) came to mind immediately. You play as an underwater town’s defenders as threats from pirates often occur. When the cinematic starts, you are fixing a leak with another guy talking about the pirate attacks when suddenly, you get attacked. What a coincidence!

You are then put into a battle where have to swim around underwater and blast people with a laser harpoon gun (different classes have different guns [I like the marine the best because I can swim fast and take out enemies really quickly]) and use Depth Charge (which is like a bomb) to survive. Battles are against the blue team (defenders), and against yellowish orange team (pirates). Undertow requires you to take control points (command posts), which you do by swimming in the area and taking out any near by bad guys. To fire you use the second control stick just like you do in Geometry Wars. You can turbo boost, which you can master for quick kills in awesome ways. The controls are easy to get used to and are pretty simplistic.

In graphics this game rules! Undertow is based on Unreal technology, I assume for the awesome water and lighting effects. Chair Entertainment (the company who made Undertow), did an awesome job on the level of detail for graphics. You really need to see them to believe it. Ripple effects, explosions, bubbles, etc. They are all nicely done. However, no one’s mouth moves when they talk. Something odd and extremely noticeable despite some shadow that is portrayed on the debriefer’s face (he is only your debriefer in the first few levels).

The biggest downside is it’s length, but being an Xbox Live Arcade game, it is okay, if it was not an Arcade game, this would be a problem. The story only lasts about 3 Acts, with each act having about 5 missions (2 of those missions are boss battles). However, this is an Xbox Live Arcade game so 15 levels is a good amount for a story mode. Thankfully Chair put in extra modes into Undertow, like a Co-Op campaign mode, as well as a Versus mode which allows you to duke it out underwater with the AI. The multiplayer includes 9 maps for up to 16 players. So, Chair makes up for the story length in the end.

And now to the ratings:

Sound: 9.0 - The sound quality was excellent and they did a great job with water noises. But the base being captured sound is played way too often.

Graphics: 9.4 - Well done. The water effects in themselves really bolster up this number, as well as the differences in bases and such. Just over all, greatness for an Xbox Live Arcade Game. However, the actors have to have their mouths move to talk. And the debriefer has a silly animation that causes him to wobble every now and then.

Difficulty: 9.6 - The difficulty is pretty good, Undertow covers many different difficulties, from Casual (like easy mode or people who play to relax), Normal, and Ultra (like super hard for people who have mastered this game). The changes in difficulty are easy to notice, enemies get smarter and will attempt actively to strike in groups for CP’s and try to get as many as they can. I mainly played Casual and Normal mode.

Story: 7.7 - Originally it does a very poor job introducing who you are as during the clip scenes, you are black but when you play in battles you are blue. The story is pretty interesting and makes you want to learn more. It does a okay job of drawing you in. It’s really hard to follow at times due to what seems to be the use of the same voice actor as the player (the player plays different characters).

Controls: 9.3 - The controls are easy to learn and master. However shooting can get a bit awkward at times with some of the slow to fire classes. I would also fix the character switching system. To switch you have to press A, but no menu or list of classes you can switch to (press a direction button to choose) isn’t very helpful.

Playback: 9.6 - The playback of the game is great, due to the fact the enemies don’t have a scripted fighting system, they seem to learn and battles are different each time you play.

Overall: 9.4 - This is a great game and I would suggest it to pretty much anyone. A must have!

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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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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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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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Hacker Evolution Review

Posted on May 13th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PC, Review.

We recently got the opportunity on a full copy of Hacker Evolution (from Giveaway of the Day [which I will talk about more later]), a new game about hacking for the PC.

The game has a lot of themes that remind me of the Matrix/that movie that had that computer named HAL. You play as Brian Spencer who is a former Intelligence Agent (AI backwards, pretty tricky) for the US. Set in the future, a new kind of internet connection has been made that allows files to be set at the speed of light. So that it messes with the Time-Space continuum and allows files to be sent before they are even requested. The game describes it as a Time warp digitally. When it was made, there was an AI put in place to make sure the internet technology never screwed up. And guess what? It screwed up.

It all starts when the NYC Stock Exchange got hacked (or at least that’s what the government thinks) and you have to figure out who did it. The game features a very very very helpful tutorial and is pretty realistic (with the exception of the crack and decrypt commands, it’s never that easy).

After going about the game, I find that it’s music is really helpful to keep the game fun (else you might go insane trying to hack the idiot who logged in to the exchange’s site right before the attack). Remember the game is extremely hard. Sometimes you have to guess (other times you have to cheat, which gets annoying). Money is also a problem in the game. Beware of high trace percentiles.

Now for the scores:

Sound: 6/10 - Nice voiceovers and other little noises. Can’t complain much

Graphics: 7.8/10 - It has a map, and very cool styles, but the game is mostly command line. The background is animated and very very cool.

Difficulty: 8.7/10 - (this can be a good and bad thing) The game is very hard to pick up, but the tutorial helps a lot. But it does leave out the fact that you can use the arrow up and down keys to recall previously typed commands. Remember: The guide to the first level is found in the manual.

Music: 8.5/10 - Draws from a huge library of music, some of it flows with the game, others not so much.

Controls: 9/10 - Yeah, no big complaints. However a copy and paste would be nice as almost every url has a - in it. The numpad . doesn’t make a . for some reason.

Playback: 6.2/10 -If you have the urge to try to complete levels, then you will be playing this game a lot. However, you can get traced a lot, even if you use tracekill, which degrades gameplay. You have a high chance of losing money, and your global trace carries on with you (ugh!). And if you screw up (like delete a file from a server) you are finished. Play with caution.

Overall Score: 7.3/10 - The game is fun, especially for people who don’t normally play puzzle/strategy games (I just run in and shoot). This game is great for people who like mysteries, puzzles, challenges or computers and the idea of hacking.

You can pick up the demo here, and view a movie about the gameplay here.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Game Pre-Review

Posted on March 12th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: DS, DSL, GBA, GCN, Gaming, PC, PS2, PSP, Review, Wii, Xbox360.

Recently, GameSpotting! got their hands on the new TMNT Game for the PC, and I gotta say, it’s pretty cool. The cinema scenes and graphics are well done.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it follows the story that the Ninjas split up and become loners. So, it’s up to Leonardo to bring them all back together. Anyways, the game starts about a year or two after Shredder is defeated.

Now you might be wondering why the whole post is not on the front page, this is because of all the images used. If you want to see the rest of the Pre-Review then click the more button at the bottom of this paragraph.

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Diddy Kong Racing Review

Posted on February 10th, 2007 by MASA.
Categories: DS, DSL, Gaming, Old School, Review.

Diddy Kong Racing is the first game in a long time to be published/developed by Rare that is not on a Microsoft console. And it’s not made by THQ (I despise THQ), so far DKR has a good start.

When the game first starts you get to see this really corny story video that was never on the N64, plus it has a completely different story starter then the N64 version. In the old game it talks how WizPig came from space and started destroying the island, but a wrong spell caused him to put a big head of himself out of rock and he is then trapped in it.

Now we go down hill. After you set up your game, you meet Taj the big elephant genie thing and get to race him. I noticed that for once the map is not on the touch screen (as it is in most DS games) but rather the top screen. The screens are like this until you start racing.

But what really sticks out to me as the biggest change is that the genie doesn’t have the same voice. He sounds like he is going to kill you (voice is much much lower, not as funny, and very little emotion) rather then help you (the original game had a cheery, upbright, funny voice). Also remember the how the characters would exclaim some sort of yell at the start? They took that out. Taj seems like he is the only character with a voice and he doesn’t even have the Arabic accent anymore. It would seem as Rare fired all the old voice actors. How sad.

The controls are a bit odd for a racing game. To go in reverse you have to hold B and then back instead of just holding down B. Otherwise it works out like the old version did. The hovercraft vehicle has improved, before it was hard to move around with the stick, now it’s harder! Hooray! It’s vehicle standard seems more like: “Okay, you wanna turn left but you haven’t mashed down left”. Then you mash down left and you then spin out. Thus there is the need to continuously tap right as you are going so you can avoid spinning out. Also, you can get a starting boost if you spin this wheel on the touch screen. It’s tedious and really hard to do with a stylus and then switching back to DS controls to move and race.

Diddy Kong Racing has also got rid of Banjo (from the Banjo-Kazooie series that was extremely well known) and Conker (Because Microsoft now owns Conker and this was before Conker was rated M for mature [he appeared in a kids game called Conker's Pocket Tales for the Gameboy Color]).

The racing is not that bad (the other guys are pretty easy), it still stands up to the N64 version of the game. The racing levels haven’t changed much, if at all. And the weapons are still as crazy as ever. The create your own track is a cool feature, allowing you to make some pretty crazy tracks. Wi-Fi is really fun, as you can use all the tracks and so far there are no cheaters playing (just watch though). And you can have way more people than just 4 (like in MKDS). More people = more fun, right? So let’s get to the ratings.

Sound: 4.8/10 -The music is okay, sounds like the N64 versions but at a lower quality and people singing (which isn’t needed). Voices are terrible, especially Taj’s.

Graphics: 7/10 - Not bad, looks like the N64 ones

Controls: 6.2/10 - Controls are fine with the exception of the hovercraft (but it isn’t super bad if you are a good driver)

Playback: 6.8/10 -I like Diddy Kong Racing, the game is fun and with a few fixes could have been just as good as Mario Kart DS

Improvement: 4/10 -WHY!?!? I liked Taj’s voice! YOU GET A 4 RARE! YOU HEAR ME??!? A 4! The only reason it isn’t a 1 is because of Wi-Fi, the ability to make your own tracks and customize your craft.

Overall Score: 6.3/10 - A few fixes like hovercraft problems, a better script, improved music (so it doesn’t sound like midi versions), the original voice actors and minor other fixes and it would have been a 8.2

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Tony Hawk’s Project 8 Review

Posted on December 31st, 2006 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PS3, Review, Xbox360.

Here we go again with a new Tony Hawk game. This is his 10th game and it’s still like other Tony Hawk games. Like American Skateland, Project 8 has Tony looking for a new skate team of 8 skaters. And you are “the rising one” which makes the game sound mythical. The game still has weird goals and sometimes, challenging events. You are in a leader board. Depending on how well you do in an event, your rank rises up and you become closer to pros.

The game’s graphics are not bad for a Tony Hawk Game. They are also not superb. I can’t complain. However, I do like how all the areas of the world flow into each other and how there is absolutely no load times in between worlds. And the level design was incredibly nice. Big and great to roam around in, and very hard to get lost in. Activision has also lowered the amount of product advertising. The only real ads I noticed were ones for Nokia.

The game can go extremely off topic by showing you ads for a golf video that will improve your swing. Of course the video isn’t real but how does this flow with skateboarding? I have no idea. The music isn’t that great either. Metal? No way. And I couldn’t say much for the sound. It’s really no different from any other Tony Hawk game. It seems like Activision just stuck to it’s roots of what it knows works well with Tony Hawk games.

However, Activision added a really cool new feature to the game. It’s called Learn the Trick, it’s where you actually…wait for it…learn the trick…what a surprise! Anyway, Learn the Trick is a great idea but you can’t master the trick in one try. It takes multiple tries. And the game insults you if you mess up. It’s not very helpful. And the game can be very frustrating in general. Almost to the point where you will either:

A) Scream at the game

B) Use a Cheat and then figure out it really doesn’t help anyway

C) Take a break from beating the game

D) Give up

One goal I am stuck on is where I am given 4:30 on the clock and I have to complete 5 events in a small space. The events are quite easy..except..one…where I have to nail a 50,000 point combo. All I got was 25,000 and then I died. It’s hard because unlike other Tony Hawk games, you can’t buy new stats. You “earn them” but the game never reveals what you have to do to get them. You just get them as you go along. Also, you can “steal” money from other skaters..but then they will chase you. I found that it is easier not to be caught by getting off your board and then jumping onto a high wall (By the way, something the game doesn’t tell you but is extremely helpful in the Xbox 360 version is that you can climb walls and hang from edges by pressing the RB button)
So to the ratings:

Sound: 7/10 -The music isn’t that great, just a bunch of metal. And the sound has barely changed from other Tony Hawk Games
Graphics: 8/10 - Nothing to really complain about. The worlds are nice though.
Controls: 7/10 - Controls are fine. I really wish that it could at least give a picture when you first start career mode that shows the controls rather then forcing you into a very hard tutorial for a beginner.
Playback: 6.8/10 -I thought this game had good playback but was too frustrating. Watching out for skaters who try to run into you is pretty annoying in the skate park.
Improvement: 7.8/10 -Almost no real improvement. Other then the fact that you can move from place to place without having to have loading screens. And a new feature called learn the trick.
Overall Score: 7.8/10 - Not much changed. Good game, but I personally would not continuously play it.

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Sonic the Hedgehog Review

Posted on December 29th, 2006 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PS3, Review, Xbox360.

I know that this game is arleady out but I decied that it needed a review anyway. Sonic the Hedgehog is a much needed improvement from SEGA’s last sonic games. Sonic the Hedgehog is the best sonic game we have seen for a long time.

The story is that Doctor Eggman is looking for these things called “The Flames of Disaster” which is some sort of mystical weapon that will do something secret (I don’t really want to give it away [SPOILERS] but I am pretty sure it is linked to this huge evil molten dragon thing in a huge flaming whirlwind [/SPOILERS]). The key to this mystical secret is a girl named Princess Eliese, a 17 year old who rules over the City of Soleanna (The game calls it the City of Water even though the name suggests that it is the City of the Sun). All of the old characters (except for Big the cat, Cream and Cheese) appear in the game as well as a new character named Silver who is another foe of Sonic. Silver thinks that Sonic is going to distroy the world so he goes back in time to stop Sonic. Each character (as always) has a background story to how they are related to the story line.

The graphics are very detailed and the levels you play in are huge and very nicely done. Even to the point to say that they are beautiful. The game can be quite annoying when you are rope jumping. Sonic can jump on ropes like they are trampoleans to get somewhere. However you can fall off the rope if you push the control stick up and the problem is that using the control stick will not move you towards the land but rather push you into oblivion, however no other direction does this, for some reason. The voice acting is well done, they finally got rid of Omochao as being the one who gives you hints and tips. Naration is normally done by Dr. Eggman with a few exceptions where it’s the person who plays Dr. Eggman’s voice. Another great improvement to the game is that there is mulitiple ways to complete a level. There used to be just one and if you didn’t follow it, you would die.

This game is not like Shadow the Hedgehog which some people feared where it was heading. However it has some elements of Shadow the Hedgehog, like shadow can drive a jeep that has been tricked out with weapons and such and a motorcycle.

As with all games this one has a few downsides. Sega has fixed a lot of problems with the Homing Attack, like the problem of homing things that are not really there (this appeared in Sonic Heroes) or homing jump pads rather then enemies (Sonic Adventure Battle 2 and Sonic Heroes) but now the homing attack now has a shorter distance (making it harder to rope jump) and if you push forward and homing attack you miss your target while in the air. The game feels like you are doing missions for everybody (Like Sonic Adventure Battle 2). Another downside is that camera doesn’t move around so well and is pretty slow when you hit the camera buttons (LB and RB). The controls are a bit too simplified. With the player only really needing the A and X button. The problem with this is that the X button has 3 features and the game often chooses the wrong one. The X button is your attack, light dash (sonic will go in the direction of a line of rings) and regular dash. Another problem was that the pause menu wouldn’t let me start over. It kept on skipping the start over option and went directly to quit. Now to the ratings.

The Ratings:

Sound: 8/10 -The music and sounds were great and are an improvement to songs with lyrics in them (which never sounded good for Sonic type games).
Graphics: 9.2/10 - Graphics have severly improved since Sonic Heroes and other Sonic games
Controls: 5/10 - Major problems with the X button. This could have been fixed. Also the forward on the control stick while rope jumping was really awkward (you would think that it would move you towards land).
Playback: 6.7/10 -For some reason I don’t want to play this game over and over again, which other sonic games have made me do. No unlocks maybe?
Improvement: 7.9/10 -Sonic the Hedgehog is a huge improvement to Sonic Heroes but still lacks a few minor things.

Overall Score: 7.6/10 - If controls were fixed and the playback was better then this game would have gotten an 8.2. Some levels could have been worked on more.

Wow, that was long.

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