One of the best arcade games ever made

Last November I mentioned the announcement that the Simpsons Arcade Game would be coming to XBLA, and with that being said, I assumed it would come to PSN. I have heard no new information since then, such as a release date for the XBLA version, the confirmation of a PSN version, or anything else. Then today the PlayStation Blog broke the news. Not only is The Simpsons Arcade Game dropping on PSN next week, it’s going to be FREE to PS+ members!

I was initially going to purchase it on XBLA simply because I wouldn’t have been able to wait around for the PSN version. Now that it’s coming out next week, at no cost to me, I’ll be all over the PSN version. You can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be online Tuesday night taking on Mr. Burns’ well-dressed goons and gigantic obese wrestlers as I fight to bring Maggie back home.

One of the best games of 2011 that I didn’t get to play til 2012

I picked up Gears of War 2 for my birthday last April. By then most people weren’t playing it as much, so I just ran through the campaign on my own. I never touched the Horde mode or any other online mode. But I felt like it was something that would be a lot of fun online. So for Christmas Gears of War 3 was on the top of my list, and Santa ended up delivering. However, I didn’t really start playing til this week after figuring out how to hook up the PX21 to the 360. Now that I started playing Gears 3 online, I’m pretty much hooked.

I met up with four other guys from Co-Optimus last night and they walked me through my first Beast Mode. I really, REALLY had a blast. If you’re not familiar with the game or mode, it’s basically a survival mode with a twist…YOU’RE THE BAD GUYS! You and up to four friends can team up playing as the Locust. You earn cash for beating up the good guy soldiers and heroes (like Marcus and Cole) and use that cash to purchase respawns of different Locust units, ranging from the usual grunts with guns to gigantic centipedes and beserkers. I’ve grown quite addicted to the Tickers, which are pretty much running suicide bombers. You use these little beauties to run up to enemy troops and with the tap of a button you explode, taking anyone nearby with you. Unfortunately there is a slight delay as you ignite, and it’s easy for enemy troops to evade the explosion. With some more practice I think I’ll get better at guesstimating their reactions and plan my explosions so they are more devastating.

Nothing’s more satisfying than blowing yourself away for the good of the collective

Then today I checked out Horde mode in a random public match. It’s the opposite of Beast mode, where you play as the good ol’ Gears and survive waves of Locust. Unlike Beast mode you use your cash to purchase fortifications and ammo, though if you’re playing with a bunch of tools who don’t like to revive you when you’re down (like I was today), you may be spending big money for a respawn. I had fun running around at the start of each wave placing barbed wire and decoys to help slow down the incoming swarms of enemies. The biggest problem I had, like I already mentioned, was playing with three other guys who 1. didn’t use headsets, and 2. didn’t worry about reviving their partners, despite the fact that I saved their asses plenty of times. I look forward to playing more Horde with the some of the guys from Co-Optimus over the weekend.

Both Beast and Horde mode have been successful in dragging me away from the PS3 for awhile, and just when I was getting into Dungeon Defenders and Payday. I guess getting to blow the crap out of “Cole Train” is simply more satisfying than robbing a bank, and that’s something I never thought I’d say.

]]> http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2012/01/20/hooked-on-gears-of-war-3/feed/ 4 http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2012/01/19/ps3-review-rayman-origins/ http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2012/01/19/ps3-review-rayman-origins/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:09:18 +0000 Rob http://www.bigbadbob113.com/?p=6105 PS3 Review: Rayman: Origins

Post from: BigBadBobs Wild World of Stuff

It’s flippin’ sweet

I’ve been cautiously optimistic ever since FOX announced they were developing a Napoleon Dynamite animated series. I’m a huge fan of Napoleon Dynamite and was bowled over by this news. At the same time I was a bit scared of how it would end up being. The series premiered tonight with two episodes, and I have to say that I was very happy with them.

The “entire cast” from the movie returned for the show, which was a very big draw for me. Most of the characters sounded great, particularly Napoleon, Kip and Rex. I was a bit put off with Uncle Rico, and Summer didn’t sound like Summer at all. However, what was touted as “the entire cast” was a bit off, as the actor who portrayed Don in the movie was the only one who did not return for the show. Also, Lafawnduh’s character does not make a return at all, and Kip is soon seen chasing other women on the internet. Overall, the voice acting was top-notch, even if Uncle Rico sounded like he was dazed and and spaced out (more so than his character was in the movie.)

They’re about to receive a roundhouse kick from someone wearing those bad boys

As for the show itself, the characters are represented pretty well. Napoleon is still the day-dreaming, exaggerating nerd, Kip is still the shy child, Deb is still awkward, Rex is still a self-absorbed badass and Don is still a deuche. It was interesting to see Grandma character develop more since she was absent for most of the movie. There are also some new characters introduced, particularly a couple of teachers at Napoleon’s school. All in all, the characters are all portrayed in a familiar light. The show does take advantage of being animated by having the characters do some ridiculous stuff and having vivid daydreams, but it’s all done well.

The two episodes were written well and proved to be entertaining. In the first episode Napoleon comes into contact with a medication that dulls his nerves and makes him super aggressive, which Rex takes to mean that he is destined to be a champion in the local fight club. In the second episode the high school science teacher develops a dating machine that matches Napoleon with a foreign exchange student, Pedro with Summer and Don with Deb. Throughout the two episodes there are events going on that just make you laugh and fit right in to the context of the characters. From Napoleon and Kip fighting over the last piece of fried chicken to Uncle Rico becoming Kip’s manager when he takes up a magic act, it’s all stuff that is believable within the “Napoleon Dynamite universe.”

Every cage fighter has their abs applied via spray paint before each match

I think it’s safe to say that the show is successful in paying a ton of fan service to, well, fans of the movie. The vast majority of the original actors reprise their roles in animated episodes that really reflect the silly/stupid/retarded humor that the movie captured oh so well. Is the animated series stupider than the movie? Definitely. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. If you liked the movie then you will enjoy the show. If you didn’t like the movie and didn’t appreciate the humor then you should go eat a decroded piece of crap.

One of the lamest-looking WWE Platinums, and one of the most annoying to get

Gotta catch ‘em all: I have the Platinum trophies for Smackdown vs. Raw 2010, Smackdown vs. Raw 2011, WWE Legends of WrestleMania and WWE Allstars. Thus I was destined to continue the tradition and work towards the Platinum trophy in WWE ’12. It was a mediocre one…there were a lot of easy trophies, but two in particular were a real pain to snag.

“You’ve Got Fans” was a particularly difficult one to obtain, and it should not have been. The trophy requires you to upload something to the servers and then have five players download it. Well the big problem is that the servers were constantly down. If you’ve played WWE games in the past then you’re used to servers being down or laggy when trying to get an online match going. But the servers are so messed up in WWE ’12 that it took me a couple of days just to get on long enough to completely upload a CAW (create-a-wrestler.) So with me having a hard enough time just uploading, it took even longer for five people to find my CAW and then download it. The servers have been cruddy since the game launched in Novemeber, and to this day they have not been fixed. It’s a shame not only for people who want to get this trophy, but for others who just want to download a crappy Hulk Hogan CAW that has an overall stat value of 100.

The second trophy, “Master of the Brawl” was annoying and repetitive. This trophy required you to play at least 44 free brawl matches and KO an opponent at each of the 44 different finisher locations. These locations were all very repetitive, and finding them all was a tad annoying. It was a very boring time trying to track down all these locations, but I eventually discovered them all.

So that’s my fifteenth Platinum trophy. 0I can now say that 1/3 of my Platinum trophies are from WWE games. They really are fun games, and even though each new edition has it’s own set of problems, the improvements they make somehow win over in the end. I’m darn sure I’ll be getting Platinums for this years two WWE releases:  WWE ’13 and WWE Brawl (which might me a rental rather than a purchase, depending on how it shapes up.)

For Platinum # 16 I have my sights set on either Skyrim or Trine 2.

Better than the original

I enjoyed playing Trine, but with it’s lack of online co-op I was forced to play it single player. When Trine 2 came out, I was hesitant to make the purchase even though I liked the first game and the sequel sporting a shiny coat on online co-op. However, when two buddies of mine from Co-Optimus purchased it and told me they needed a third, I gave in to the peer pressure and made the purchase. I’m glad I did, because Trine 2 is definitely one of the best downloadable titles of 2011.

Let’s get a few things straight. Firstly, it is a sequel to the original game, so the knight, thief and wizard return to once again save the kingdom. As I already mentioned, Trine 2 supports online co-op, so up to three players can meet up online to take on the puzzles that the game throws at you. In case you’re not familiar with the Trine series, let me give you a brief rundown: there are three characters who each have several distinct skills that are needed to get through the puzzles littered about each level. Along the way you are on the hunt for XP potions which will enable your characters to level up and unlock addition skills that are needed to get through levels. The knight has a sword, hammer and shield and is good for blocking projectiles, breaking down walls and beating down the baddies. The thief has a bow which can be used to take on enemies safely from a distance and she also has a grappling hook which can be used to access areas that other characters cannot. The wizard is not what you would expect, as his spells are limited to creating wooden objects (boxes and planks) and levitating objects, including obstructions, other players, and enemies. The three characters have to work together to make it to the end of a given level, and often times a single puzzle may require several different abilities from each character. A great example I encountered when playing is that the thief (me) had to grapple onto a platform of water to make it spill to one side. Then the wizard player had to levitate a box he created to angle the water flow off to one side. Finally the knight had to use his shield to further direct the water onto a tiny little plant that then grew, allowing us to climb it to the next section.

The game is much prettier but this is the best image I could find with three players

Trine 2 doesn’t just improve on the regular formula by allowing you to play long distance (and supplying top-not voice chat quality) as there are several key improvements over the original game. One of the first things I noticed was the visuals and audio. Trine was one of the best-looking PS3 games out there, but Trine 2 even blows that away. The character models are nice and crisp and the environments are extremely sharp and colorful. It’s really quite an artistic treat and you will find yourself taking a break from the puzzles to take in the scenery. Another great improvement is that there is no longer a magic bar. In Trine the characters, especially the wizard, were limited in what they could do by having a magic bar that was expended as they used their skills. This bar is gone in Trine 2 so the wizard can make as many boxes as he is able to without having to worry about running out of magic. Also, there is A LOT more combat in Trine 2 which gives the game some exciting moments that were missing from the original game. Luckily all three characters can hold their own to some degree, even the wizard; he can levitate enemies and either move them in front of enemy archers or other environmental hazards to finish them off. Oh, and there are a number of boss battles in the game also, which is never a bad thing. One of the only things I can say that I missed from the first game are the artifacts that you could find to boost character stats and abilities. These collectibles have been replaced by concept art and weird poetry, which are great and all, but not as cool as finding something that helps you play the game better.

The colors, Duke, THE COLORS!!!

I already mentioned how the co-op is improved with the online capabilities, but I also have to give kudos to Trine 2 for making co-op trophies. These aren’t trophies like “complete x levels in co-op” or “you and a partner do this.” Instead, most of the trophies require only one character to do something, yet will reward all players with the trophy. For example, there is a trophy for doing a 360 degree grapple spin with the thief. I did it at one point, and as I got the trophy my two friends also received the trophy, even though they weren’t playing as the thief. Not only does this make the game a great co-op game, but I would have to say it’s one of the easiest games to Platinum on the PS3.

“You get that trophy, I’ll get this trophy, and we’ll all live trophily ever after”

Trine 2 is an example of a game that improved on a formula that seemed to be top-notch during it’s previous outing. The attention to visual detail, the inclusion of online co-op, the end of a magic bar and more combat are all the ingredients that Trine 2 needed to surpass the original. I’ll admit that it is a bit steep now at a price of $15, but if you have two friends to play it with I would say it’s totally worth it. It may not be the longest campaign (we probably finished it up within under eight hours) but it is a heck of a lot of fun if you’re playing with two partners that you know and get along with. If you want an artsy fartsy puzzler (with a ton of gold trophies and an easy Platinum) then Trine 2 is the game for you.

]]> http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2012/01/11/psn-review-trine-2/feed/ 0 http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2012/01/06/its-not-a-purse-its-a-map-case/ http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2012/01/06/its-not-a-purse-its-a-map-case/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:31:27 +0000 Rob http://www.bigbadbob113.com/?p=6060 It’s Not a Purse…It’s a Map Case!

Post from: BigBadBobs Wild World of Stuff

With the start of the new year, I will once again take a brief look at my ten most popular blogs of the past year (thanks to the cool tools available through Google Analytics. I’m really curious to see which old blogs are still getting activity, and which new ones were strong enough to make their way into the top ten. Before I get into that, I just want to spout out some statistical info:

• My site had 69,771 unique visitors over the past year
• 9,536 of these visitors liked my blog so much that they became repeat visitors
• 42,852 of these viewers found my blog off of a typical Google search, while 16,831 came across my site via StumbleUpon
• 42,969 visitors were from the United States, 6,282 were from Canada and 5,536 were rocking from the UK
• The average visitor spent 31 seconds looking at a particular post before leaving the site
•  31,240 visitors used Firefox, 20,858 used Chrome, 11,540 used Internet Explorer and 8,665 used Safari (I wonder if next year will be the year that Safari beats IE)

I would say that not only was X-Men: Destiny the easiest Platinum I ever received, it is also one of the “unplanned” ones. I rented the game because I knew it had a short campaign, and I wanted to get something nice and light from Gamefly. This would allow me to devote only a limited time to it and then I could get back to playing my own games while waiting for Gamefly to ship the next game on my queue.

I finished my first playthrough in under six hours, and I found it to be a pretty entertaining super hero button masher. I decided to keep it around for a second playthrough on the hardest difficulty just to get the gold trophy, check out the other faction (my first playthrough was with the Brotherhood) and to rock through the new game +. So eleven-twelve hours later I finished my second playthrough and looked at the trophy list. Much to my amazement I had 92% of the trophies, and was only missing some of the “kill X amount of Y enemies.” I jumped in to the level selects and played some of the later levels through just to kill the required number of enemies, and then bam! I was in Platinum paradise.

It was a very easy Platinum game. Most of the trophies were story-based so there was no way you’d miss them. There were a few collectibles trophies but they were pretty forgiving. For example, you need to find 100 out of 100 treasures to get a Platinum trophy in any Uncharted game, but for X-Men: Destiny you only needed 15 of one and 25 of another, and there were plenty to be found (I got both these trophies on my first playthrough.) Most of the remaining trophies required you to kill a certain amount of varying enemy types, and these trophies proved to be the hardest for me to get. After two playthroughs I had not killed enough enemies to get any of these trophies, so I just popped into the level selects to visit the later stages that have more enemies running around. In less than an hour I had that beautiful Platinum trophy flash across my screen. Not only was this an easy Platinum, it wasn’t a chore at all and I enjoyed playing through the game twice.

As for my next Platinum there are a multitude of possibilities. I’m currently playing through Trine 2 with two friends from co-optimus, so chances are that by the time we’re done we’ll have received the majority of the trophies. I’m also still plugging along through WWE 12, Skyrim and Dead Island and plan on getting the Plats in all of them at some point (especially WWE 12, since I have the Platinum trophy in all four of the other WWE games on the PS3.)

Getting another Platinum trophy is a great way to start this new year!

Destined to be yet another mediocre Marvel super hero game

When I first heard the announcement concerning the release of X-Men: Destiny, I was excited yet pessimistic. The fact that the game allowed you to create a unique character with their own powers was a great idea, but I immediately thought about how horrible this idea worked in Activision’s X-Men: Legends game, in regards to the character Magma. I enjoyed both X-Men: Legends games in general, but how would this game, that was focused so much on a non-cannon character, end up being. I can tell you that after spending twelve hours across two complete playthroughs, X-Men: Destiny is a mindless, fun little romp yet leaves you yearning for quite a bit more. Spoiler alert: Activision has failed to live up to its work with X-Men: Legends.

At the start of the game you select one of three unique characters. Which character you choose doesn’t necessarily matter… they all have access to the same pool of powers and there are no unique missions or anything associated with each different character (though there will be dialogue changes to coincide with your selected character’s backstory.) Once your character is selected they immediately find themselves in the midst of an attack, during which they will finally discover that they are mutants. As you continue through the game your character will develop their skills, equip the genes of famous mutants, and ultimately decide if their loyalities lie with Cyclops and the X-Men or Magneto and the Brotherhood.

Your three character choices: the football jock, the ninja chick and the ex-soldier

I’m sure you’re asking yourself about these powers. In a game where you create your own mutant, this is probably one of the most important features. While it is basic, it works well given the short length of the game (as I indicated above, one playthrough will take approximately six hours.) You are able to choose from one basic iconic power and from there you will gradually choose three out of six abilities for each tree. The three iconic powers are shaped around your general combat skills; there’s a melee build, a ranged build, and a weapons build (think Pyslocke with her blades.) I went with the ranged build, so by hitting the attack buttons I would fire out bursts of energy at enemies. When I started to unlock mutant powers I had choices ranging from a force field (heals me hurts enemies) to a massive energy beam to a sphere that decimates everyone in the room. Once you select which mutant powers to unlock you can then assign your XP to level these powers up, increasing damage and area of effect.

The other “powers” part of X-Men: Destiny deals with X-genes which come in three varieties; offense, defense, and utility (movement.) These little collectibles are awarded for defeating certain enemies or completing side missions and challenges, and they augment your current powers with the powers of the associated mutant. For example, by equipping Pyro’s offense X-gene gives fire damage to my attacks, Colossus’ defense X-gene helps reduce damage and Magneto’s utility X-gene gives you the ability to float. All these X-genes can also be leveled up using your XP to unlock additional features. You can also come across suits for your character, and rather than just make you look like your favorite mutie they also give you additional abilities based on the mutant. Now here’s the kicker; if you manage to come across an entire set of a particular mutant (their suit plus all three X-genes) you are given the ability to unleash X-mode, during which you will be able to take and dish out a crud load of damage.

A mighty combo of Wolverine’s suit with some ranged energy blasts

So while creating your own mutant and fighting alongside other muties may sound fun, there is quite a bit lacking from the game that stops it from being awesome. For starters, the “choices” you have to make based on which side you will take (X-Men or Brotherhood) are for all for nothing. By the end of the game you are given the final option to choose a side, and there is no perk to taking one side over the other. You won’t get any special powers or special levels…just a different ending. The fact that you can run about and side with the X-Men the entire game and then at the end switch sides to join the Brotherhood just makes the whole process rather pointless. Also, the gameplay can probably be boring for any but the most enthusiastic button-mashers; the mundane combat didn’t bother me but I can definitely see some people quickly grow tired of mashing buttons and using the same three abilities the entire game. The other thing hindering this game is its length. I completed the game in under six hours, and that’s pretty sad. The lack of content, combined with mediocre gameplay make me feel sympathy for anyone who went out and purchased it.

Just chillin’ with Iceman

X-Men: Destiny has a few hits that are overshadowed by misses. The basic storyline has a lot of potential, and the ability to create your own mutant and overpower them by combining the abilities of different mutants is a blast. However, the ridiculously short campaign, the lack of consequences for your limited choices and the repetitive combat mechanics are all major turnoffs. X-Men: Destiny is an example of a franchised game that had great potential by not being tied to a movie plot yet still comes off as nothing but shovelware for comic geeks. I would recommend giving the game a rental (it would make an excellent Redbox rental for a day) if you’re a fan of the X-Men or mindless button-mashing (guilty on both accounts) but otherwise I would avoid it.

Perhaps this game can be redeemed one day with the release of X-Men Legends 3…