I know that all four of you who read my material are probably waiting for another review but Ive been going through a pretty tough year and now I’m trying to get past that by attempting to scrap what I was then to become someone stronger,smarter,more confident, and pretty much a better person than I am currently. I’ve been told that my look needs to change but I’m not comfortable with whats been presented to me. Either I can stay the way I am currently (A Krelboyne if you know Malcolm In The Middle) or to change my hairstyle,my facial hair, and my clothing style. All my life I just wanted to be smart which is why I’ve been jealous of most of the people smarter than me (honestly alot of them are douchebags). So the jist of what i’m saying is that I don’t know what to do. Plus as always with these issues there’s a girl that im amazed at so if your still reading up to this point then I thank you and if you have anything to say just message me on myspace.
Monthly Archives: September 2008
As the four or five of you who come to this site and read the content I place here you will be saddened with what I must announce. I will be ending this site along with my other two sites. I know that It will be hard to live without my reviews and game content but there is one other thing, in October out of the ashes of my three sites will rise one superior Uber site covering Games, Games, and most importantly games. I will import the features of my three sites, the reviews, previews, and game history of this site, the topic centered aspect of XGN Wetpaint and the blog aspect of Doodlekit and it makes me proud to say that this new site will be a landmark day for me.
Star Wars games haven’t had the best history when it comes to video games. With terrible games like Masters of Teras Kai and Obi-Wan people always had faith in Star Wars games but often were disappointed recently with games like Battlefront and the Jedi Knight series there’s a chance that there could be hope for the future of Star Wars games. The origins of The Force Unleashed started with a pre-vis trailer of someone pulling a star destroyer out of the sky and ever since the game has been talked about with high expectations.
The Review
In Star Wars The Force Unleashed you play as Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. All that is known about the apprentice is that he is very, very strong with the force. Also the game takes place in between episode III and IV which has a lot of things going on like the birth of the rebellion and the hunt of the remaining jedithat weren’t killed when order 66 was given. Another thing about this time period is that it was a very dark time with the empire crushing any resistance that opposed them. Also this Star Wars game by far has one of or the best stories this year. By the end of the game you will be emotionally connected to these characters and the apprentice is what Luke would’ve been like if he joined Vader in the Empire Strikes Back. There’s even a point in the game where Vader refers to that. Throughout the game you fight various enemies of all shapes and sizes for example on an occasion you fight a gian Rancor, Imperial Purge Troopers, and the Emperor’s Shadow Guards. You travel to some great and familiar locations in the Star Wars universe. You go from Nar Shadaa, to Cloud City, to Raxus Prime, and the Death Star, you even go inside the Sarlaac Pit. Although there are many great things this game does but as with hyped games there are always disappointments. One of the things this game suffers from is a poor checkpoint system which is very frustrating when you get taken down over and over again. Also a fault with this game is the enemy A.I which can be downright stupid sometimes. A great example is on the final mission you are completely outnumbered and out powered basically, since there are snipers, jet troopers, stormtroopers, purgetroopers, at-st’s, and the at-st that has a telekinesis gun which shoots objects at you. There are three waves that come in which is the aforementioned telekinesis at-st, an at-st, and about six purgetroopers with two jet troopers. All of that is pretty much impossible since the enemies take cheap shots at you once you get shot down. But thank the good lord that at certain times the a.i will just stand there and look the other way. This also goes with some of the bosses which again is frustrating. The boss fights consist of fighting the enemy and getting their health to the point where you can initiate a q.t.e or quick time events for those who have played Shenmue or God of War which takes away from unleashing the force when some of these cool action sequences when you have no control over it. On the location side you go to the same place two or three times. But as you advance through the game you can upgrade your force powers, abilities, and combos which adds an RPG element to the game. Some of the keywords to this game are story and immersion because you actually feel like you are the apprentice and you care for every character in the game (the good ones that is). The music in this game is amazing the mixing of original songs and the songs by John Williams add to the immersion factor and are like one of the characters. Lucasarts even put in some great easter eggs that you can stumble upon, two examples are an x-wing that you raise out of the lava type liquid and the other is the millennium falcon. Along with Uncharted this was a game who’s story made me want to get farther to see the cut scenes because I was excited to see what happened next. Maybe if the cut scenes and some of the gameplay made into cut scenes were released into theaters instead of the Clone Wars pilot maybe more money could be made. Some of the bonuses they have in the game are great especially the costumes. Throughout the game there are many unlockables one of which are costumes, these can be playable characters or various costumes for the apprentice. Once you get to the point where you can obliterate people as a droid the game becomes wicked. Another of the bonuses is the ability to edit your lightsaber this can be either changing the color crystal for your saber or changing the power crystal some of them you will remember from Knights of the Old Republic which again adds an RPG element to the game.
Hits
- Amazing Story
- Great RPG elements
- Good Unlockables
- You can unleash the force in style
- Fantastic Music
Misses
- Not the best A.I
- Not as good as the Jedi Knight series
- Repeated levels
- Cheap shots by enemies
- Trickery at the final choice
Star Wars The Force Unleashed is a good game but it won’t be the massiah game that fans were looking for. But it shows where LucasArts can go with these games storywise and it could and probably will be a building block for future Star Wars games.
I recommend this game to Star Wars fanboys, Action game fans, and people who love the quality of games.
8.0 out of 10
Back in 2002 a promising wrestling promotion was born in Nashville Tennesseefrom Jerry Jarrett and Jeff Jarrett. Known as NWA-TNA it featured the outstanding X Division and the wrestlers that WWE didn’t want. Men such as AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, Jerry Lynn, and Raven. And with the X division led by the Phenominal AJ Styles, Low Ki, Christopher Daniels, and Jerry Lynn. Also faces that people hadn’t seen before or haven’t seen in a while those men were led by Ken Shamrock, “Wildcat” Chris Harris, Abyss, Ron Killings, Brian Christopher, and Malice. Across the years they even picked up legends and stars from WWE people such as Sting, Rhino, Christian Cage, The Dudley Boyz, Scott Steiner and more. Originally TNA Impact was set for release during the summer but was delayed. The game has been in development for two and a half years and the face of the game has gone from Jeff Hardy, Monty Brown, and AJ Styles to Kurt Angle, Sting, and Samoa Joe.
The Story
The story of TNA Impact places you into the boots of the greatest star in the company Suicide and he is on top of the world when he is told to take a dive from LAX of course you disregard there words which ends up with you getting beaten to the point where you are left for dead in Mexico with no recollection of what happened. Which leads to a persona makeover. You fight across areas such as Mexico, England, Japan, and of course the Impact zone. Plus you face such personalaties as Samoa Joe, Jay Lethal, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley, and AJ Styles. You rise up the ranks from the Tag Team Division to the X Division and then finally to the Heavyweight division. For those hardcore wrestling fans you may like the story if you like the early years of TNA.
The Audio
The sound authenticity in this game is great since they have Don West and Mike Tenay commentating and Jeremy Borash announcing. The entrances of the wrestlers are pretty short about five to ten seconds long while the music is barely noticeable. All the TNA wrestlers you encounter are voiced by the wrestlers and it adds to the authenticity of the story mode. On the commentatry side it gets repetitive after a while as with most wrestling games. Also the announcing will sometimes say the same thing for caw only matches.
The Gameplay
The controls for Impact are very simplistic which is a great thing for the casual gamer. Which leads to some fun gameplay. One of the best classes to play as is an X Division wrestler like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Chris Sabin, etc. Because they will pull off some amazing some amazing moves such as springboard reverse DDTs, asai moonsaults, and springboard DDT’s. Also some great out of ring moves such as diving cross bodies, and dropkicks. The bad part is that a lot of people have the same moves, taunts, and sometimes finsihers even the wrestlers only can do one of their finishers for example Booker T can’t do the scissors kick, Rhino can’t do his spinebuster, and Sting can’t do the scorpion death lock. The matches in this game are the standard matches like Singles, Tag Team, Submission, Falls Count Anywhere, and the best Ultimate X. Again going back to faults in the game in all the matches there are no rope breaks, count outs, and disqualifications. One of the biggest things with this game is when you get knocked down you have to move the right analog stick in different areas and it will mess up your hand and/or thumb, the enemy A.I has one of two things to do is either to go out of the ring and get a chair and beat the hell out of you which is not reversible or they will go on the top rope and do an aerial move and build up their finisher and beat you which is one of the most frustrating things in the game. Even in Ultimate X there are little things like not being able to see your enemy when he is able to kick you and knock you down and win the match. A great part of this game is the animations, every move you can possibly do is reversible and everything runs fluidly and it looks fantastic. The graphics are among the best I have ever seen in a wrestling game due to the mo-capping which captures every little detail and makes it look great. Only in the tag matches which are terrible is the only mode that shouldn’t be in the game since the camera is pulled back and stays there while you are getting your butt kicked by some fat caws. The tag teams such as Beer Money, Motor City MG’s, and Team 3D don’t even come out together.
Hits
- Authenticity
- Ultimate X is Amazing
- Ok Story Mode
- Amazing Moves
- Afro Thunder FTW!
Misses
- Terrible A.I
- No DQ’s or Rope Breaks
- Shortest Entrances Ever
- Tedious Create A Wrestler
- Only One Finisher, Can’t Be Stored
- Recycled Moves
- More than 2000 moves Mo-Capped A lie
TNA Impact is a bad wrestling game but it’s not terrible. Midway did an okay job on their first wrestling game. Hopefully the next TNA game from Midway will be better than this, I reccomend renting this but if you really want it than you can purchase the game which comes with a bonus disc with matches from the early years of TNA one of the matches being The Flying Elvises (Jimmy Yang, Sonny Siaki, and Jorge Estrada) taking on AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, and Low Ki. Another being Jeff Jarrett and K-Krush (Ron “R-Truth”Killings) facing Brian Lawler (Grand Master Sexay) and Scott Hall.
Rating
6.0 out of 10
A few years back a game came out for the Playstation 2 and Xbox and in some people’s eyes it was a kickass game. I am of course talking about Mercenaries. The game in which you played A mercenary who kicked ass and took many peoples names, money, and lives. Four years later pandemic has finished Mercenaries 2 world in flames. Which leads me to say it’s a disappointment due to graphics issues, bugs, and downright retarded a.I. If this game came out in another year or so it couldve been good. The game starts with a routine mission but then the number one mistake with a mercenary occurs you don’t get paid and you get shot in the ass. Thus making the entire game destroying Venezuela to find the guy who stiffed you.
The Game
Mercs2 has a lot of differences from its predecessor the biggest is the mission structure. In Mercenaries 1 you were just going through a deck of cards to get your targets, but in Mercenaries 2 you are still subduing and verifying targets but they are merely sub targets since you are gathering money, resources, and allies to take down the aforementioned guy who screwed you over.But it’s not easy as you’d think it would be, due to poor a.i and buggy gameplay you will be cursing the high heavens and punching walls in no time. All of that aside you have the choice of playing as one of the three mercenaries from the first game but most people will likely pick Mattias since his swedish dialogue is hilarious.
The Audio
The audio in Mercenaries 2 is mediocre compared to sandbox shooters and even Mercenaries 1. The biggest thing is that maybe four or five lines of dialogue were written and the same line would be recorded with different people and it is very irritating when you hear the same line over and over again. Plus the allies will say the same thing which will make shooting them and becoming hostile very much worth it.
The A.I
The A.I in this game is atrocioussince the enemies will continuously shoot rockets at you or any projectile weapon until you die. Also when you are flying in a helicopter rockets are always shot at you no matter where you are in the world and since there is no parachute you will stay in the same animation until you hit the ground and when you do hit the ground your health plummets down to one percent health in which you are a yelling bullseye. Even your allies are stupid when you are on an outpost mission you have to call in your allies to take over the outpost and when they are dropped in they will just stand there at certain times and run past the outpost. Making them vulnerable to getting shot at by enemies with rockets who respawn in 2 seconds after you kill them and the only way to eliminate them is to destroy the compound they are in.
The Bugs
When I say bugs I mean things that messes up the game and makes it run bad. There is a lot of that and texture pop-in as in Mass Effect. A prime example is when you are in a helicopter, at certain times you will just fall out of the helicopter to your demise. Another is when you are grappled on to a helicopter in the co-op mode you can see the cable running down your head and through part of your body. Even if you use the binoculars you are looking through the cameras eyes and not yours since you can see yourself which doesn’t make a lot of sense.
The Co-Op Mode
The real saving grace of this game is the fantastic co-op mode in which you and a buddy can either go through the story or you can blow up every single thing in Venezuela. A nice perk that the other player has is being able to ride your coattails and buy things he hasn’t unlocked yet which can be very amusing to the other player. But it’s not fun when you are the player who has everything who is helping a friend who barely has anything. Aside from that and the chance of lag this game has one of, if not the best co-op mode in this generation.
Hits
- Fantastic Co-Op
- Beautiful Explosions
- Great to vent anger on
- Good amount of toys to play with
Misses
- Terrible A.I
- Horrible Audio
- Disappointing Bugs
- A lot of Texture Pop-in
- Annoying Mission Structure
Mercenaries 2 World In Flames Is a disappointment but the co-op mode and destruction save it. I reccomend this game to people who are fans of the games and people who like blowing stuff up.
7.5 out of 10
