Today’s PSN update includes a demo for God of War III, and I for one am not downloading it. Not because I hate God of War, but because I don’t want to ruin the experience. I have the game pre-ordered from Gamestop, so I am definitely going to be owning it when it launches in a few mere weeks. I don’t want to spoil it by cheating and taking a peek at the demo before playing the finished game. That being said, I am not going to play the demo.
But I know it is going to rock!!!!
As you may know, I had some real issues with the AVP demo that came out two weeks ago. While the demo proved the game had a good premise and some great ideas, complex controls and the fact that it was impossible to get a game going left me a bit concerned for the final product. Well, I received the disc from Gamefly on Thursday, and have since then given most of the different game modes a whirl. Unfortunately, the demo gave a very accurate pretense on how the finished game would be…a game with great ideas, but executed badly.
First off, the story/background to the game is virtually non-existent. The game takes place shortly after the events of Alien 3, but I would not have known that had I not read it somewhere online. There is no background story at all, and the cut scenes, while looking and sounding good, do little to explain what the heck is going on. Im going to take a stab at it and say that humans find some ancient Alien/Predator temple and start creating mutant Aliens. The Marines and Predators come in to put a stop to it, resulting in a three-way battle royale to be the last species standing. There are three single player campaigns (Marine, Alien, Predator), and each three tell the same story through the respective species point of view. For example, as an Alien you are defending the hive from the invading factions, and as a Marine you are called in to clean up the mess. That being said, I’ll start this review up with the single player campaigns.
I just got the notification from Gamefly that Aliens vs. Predator has shipped, so I should be enjoying that by Thursday afternoon. Im looking forward to playing it since the demo was so lame and busted up. I have yet to check out the Predator, and I cant wait!!!
As I mentioned earlier, I had a bit of a hard time getting a match going in the AvP demo that launched on Thursday. I tried throughout the weekend at random times, and was unable to get another match going. Today I tried again, and I finally got into a match. I basically set it up and while it searched for a match, I walked into the other room and played around on the computer. After about six minutes, I began to hear other people on their head sets, which meant that I had finally gotten into a game.
First off, I must correct a previous statement. In my other post, I complained that you were unable to choose your character in the demo, and that both times I was assigned to be a Marine. That is only half true. You are able to choose your own character, but you have to be quick. For some reason, the developers didnt want an 8-Alien or Predator battle royale going down, so once the first few Aliens or Predators are selected (I do not know the exact number), the remaining players are automatically assigned to be Marines.
Ive been anxiously awaiting the release of AVP. I love the Alien/Predator series, and played the AVP game on the Atari Jaguar back in the day at my friend’s house in middle school. The game is right up on my Gamefly queue, so I will definitely be snagging it when it releases in two weeks. However, the demo released yesterday on the PSN, and I was excited to get my hands on it and try out the three races (Alien, Predator, and Colonial Marine) in the deathmatch demo. Unfortunately, the demo is plagued with failure, and I have been unable to enjoy it.
Apparently, the game servers were not prepared for the amount of people who downloaded the demo yesterday. As a result, it has been impossible to find a game to join. I tried at four different intervals to get a game going yesterday, and succeeded in getting two matches total going. After each match was over, the initial host left, so I was booted out and then unable to find another game. This inability to find a game to play is very annoying and frustrating. I hope it gets fixed so I can start checking out the game more.
My other complaint is with choosing a race. Both times I was unable to choose a race, and was stuck playing as the Marine. This is upsetting because the Marine is the least original. Playing as the Marine is just like playing any other FPS. While the Aliens crawl around and go in for melee kills and the Predator stays invisible and hunts, the Marine plays as you would in any other FPS.
But enough of my complaints. From what I did see and experience, it was a blast. It is a very intense FPS, and very fast paced. The Alien players are able to move extremely quickly, and can climb walls and hang from ceilings. Their main attack is melee based, and playing as the Marine I suffered several tails through the torso and eating of my face. The speed of the Aliens is what allows them to get up close for these devastating attacks. Oh, and in case I didnt make it clear, these are one-hit kills. So yeah, the Aliens are nasty.
I didnt see much of the Predator, and from what I did, he was just invisible. Well, not totally invisible, as you can faintly make out his outline. However, I killed quite a few Predators, and I didnt meet death from any, so I dont know how their attacks are. What I do know is that many of the Predators stronger weapons are scattered throughout the map, and you have to track them down to use them.
I could have sworn I did a review of Dead Space, but I could not find it in my archives. What I do remember about it was that it was horrible. I was not a fan of the slow gameplay or the controls. However, many people online have said how awesome it was, and one friend in particular mentioned that the final game was better than the demo. Now, I needed to have a game in from Gamefly to last me until AVP comes out, and I decided to try Dead Space. So far, I have not been disappointed.
The game is a classic space-survival story. A crew is sent to work some routine maintenance on a large spaceship, and arrive to find that the crew of the ship are missing. It becomes a game of survival as you and your small crew must survive a creature manifestation aboard the large ship.
On paper, the premise behind Dark Void sounds awesome. The game features the player donning a rocket pack and guns to defend Earth, and is advertised as being able to fight “anywhere”, from the ground to the air. However, the demo for the game did not do it justice, and I am in no rush to try out the completed version.
The game begins with your character hanging out outside. As he works on a vehicle he chucks his wrench behind him, which hits a jet pack that happens to be just hanging on a nearby wall. Then his friend enters, and this guy looks like the Iron Shiek, being topless and dancing around with a turban and whatnot. Neither character knows what the jet pack is, yet the player’s character pops it on. At the next scene, he has a gun in hand and is ready to fight some bad guys. Oh yeah, and all of a sudden the Iron Shiek is an expert on the jet pack and teaches you how to fly over the radio. And that is how you are introduced to the story behind Dark Void, or the lack of a story, as it seems.
Ive had the site since April, and I was curious to see what my top ten blogs were. So I went into my Google Analytics records and checked it out. I love using Google Analytics, and its so much easier than trying to read the reports from Blue Host. I knew two of the posts would be up there, but others were quite a surprise.
1.Explanation of Combat Arts in Sacred 2
This came as no surprise. I knew from looking at other reports that this was my most popular post. I think I did a search to see why, and there is some combination you could put in about Sacred 2 and combat arts that landed me on page one on google.
This also was not a big surprise, and was the post that had the most random comments. If you google the term whale wars sucks, I come up at number four, which is awesome. Man, I hate that show…
3. My Shadow Warrior Character Build Guide
Another post I knew was very popular. I had made a build guide for the Shadow Warrior in Sacred 2, who seems to be the most popular character to play as. Thus, this was a pretty big hit on my blog.
4. My Announcement of Future Character Builds in Sacred 2
For some reason, a post about what I intended to do in the future made it to my number four most popular post. It doesnt really do much but say “hey, pretty soon I will start making some character build guides.”
5. Axis & Allies 50th Anniversary Edition
This one was a surprise. I didnt even play the game…I just commented on how cool it looks and how much I would love to play it. Man, I need to get some nerd friends up here to play a game of A&A…
6. Resistance: Gathering Storm Book Review
This one was also a surprise. I dont know how it got on here, but my little review of a fairly unpopular book (as far as I can tell) made it to #6 on my blog. Bravo Resistance. Bravo.
7. My Guess At an NHL Announcement
This post makes me laugh. In July the NHL announced that it would make a major announcement at Fenway Park. Common sense told me that that would be the location of the 2010 Winter Classic, and I indeed was correct in my guess. The best part is that this post did not get popular until December, when the Winter Classic was approaching.
8. Batman: Arkham Asylum Demo Review
This only cracks me up because my review of the demo is more popular than my first impressions of the full game… Hmmm, I just realized that I never wrote up a full review of the game…
This came as a complete surprise. I didnt notice that my review of the Wolverine game was this high up on my blog.
10. My High Elf Character Build Guide
I thought this one was going to be more popular. Its my build guide for the High Elf in Sacred 2.
So there you have it, my top 10 most popular posts. Thanks for looking, and I look forward to seeing how it changes in the coming months.
I have been enjoying Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard on the PS3, so when I saw that he had a game coming to PSN, I was pretty excited. I checked out the demo last night, and all I can say is that Im glad there was a demo, or I would have wasted $15!!!
Bloodbath and Beyond once again has Matt Hazard going through his previous video games, breaking the fourth wall as he goes. The humor from Eat Lead is definitely still present in the game, which is a good thing. However, rather than a third person shooter, this time its a side scrolling adventure. On the plus side, you can bring a friend along locally for some co-op goodness. But then again, if the person is your friend, you dont want to drag them into this mess of a game.
So I had a tough call this week. There were two releases out, and I had to decide which one I would be getting in from Gamefly. I had to choose between Bayonetta (which had an awesome demo) and Darksiders. In the end I chose Darksiders. I think I just liked the sound of the story better. I had to choose between a hot witch who uses her hair to eat enemies, and the first sign of the Apocalypse . I made my choice…
Well, it wasnt a full night of gaming, but there was over an hour of PS3 goodness going on in our house. I started nice and easy and let Shell check out the Peggle demo, which she enjoyed. I liked Peggle a lot also, so it looks like I’ll be snagging that in the near future.
After that, I popped in Buzz! Quiz World, and we played two online matches against four other players. It was my first time playing the game online, and I enjoyed it. However, we both did pretty badly. In the first round I managed to stay in fourth place, and after losing that, we decided to rematch. During this round, I ended up doing horrible, and was in last place for most of the game. That was sad. But I was glad to get some gaming in alongside Shell. Tomorrow we will be playing some Rock Band 2 and the Rock Band AC/DC Track Pack that I bought her for Christmas while we wait for the ball to drop and drink cheap wine.
When I first saw and heard about Bayonetta, I wasnt interested. It looked like an unappealing God of War clone to me, and reminded me too much of Heavenly Sword, which was a game that looked cool but sucked when I played it. So I had no intentions of checking out Bayonetta. That is, until I played the demo. Then I changed my tune.
Without knowing too much about the game (from not reading up on it due to lack of interest), from the demo I can derive that you play as some hot chick who lives amongst a secret society. The game has her going off to fight a bunch of demons (some of which are HUGE). The main character is very interesting. As you control her, you fight with hand to hand combat and guns. As you defeat enemies, you can pick up their weapons…some of which are ridiculously huge. There is also some magic thrown in there to spicen things up.
One of the craziest things about the demo that snagged my attention was the combat itself. Aside from what I just mentioned, there were a few large enemies where, at the end, you had to finish the enemy off with some on-screen button prompts. By successfully doing this, her clothing comes off to reveal the fact that it is her hair. Then her hair turns into a monster’s mouth, and proceeds to bite the giant enemy in half. It was so unexpected, yet so cool to see a hair monster bite a huge chunk out of some other large monster.
In the end, the demo succeeded in blowing me away. I wish it was a little longer, but it was still enough to grab my interest and leave me wanting more. I will definitely be renting this game at some point when it comes out in January.
Ive been interested in checking out this game for awhile, and after playing a demo, I am looking forward to it even more. Not because it is based on the epic poem/ode/whatever you want to call it, but because it was being compared to God of War. After playing the demo, I can say that this is a true comparison, and a good one at that.
From the controls to the gameplay to the story, it is all very reminiscent of God of War. In the demo, you play as a knight during the Crusades, and you go about killing the “heathens”. However, it turns out that God did not see it as being just (despite the fact that the Church claimed it was), and the hero finds himself murdered. You are then suddenly pitted in a boss battle with Death, and after defeating him you acquire your signature weapon, which is his reaver. The remained of the demo has the hero attempting to go to Hell to save the soul of his murdered wife.
Uncharted 2 comes out next week, but last week they released the online multi-player demo. I loved the first Uncharted, and enjoyed playing the Uncharted 2 beta a few months back, and Im really looking forward to Uncharted 2. In fact, my Gamefly queue is currently empty so that Uncharted 2 will ship on release day. But enough about the full game…this is about the demo for the online modes. The demo showcases seven different online modes. From what I could tell, two of them were co-op, and the other five were competitive. Steve and I met up and decided to rock through the co-op ones and see how they were.
I was pleased to find that the controls remained the same, as did the basic style of gameplay. Uncharted is not a FPS where you run around with a machine gun and blow everyone away…you really have to do a lot of duck and cover firing, meaning you will constantly be hiding behind objects, then firing off a couple of rounds, then hiding again. The health system is how a lot of FPS are going these days…as you get hit, the screen begins to turn red, and as you are near death it will turn gray. You can regen health by hiding somewhere and avoiding damage for a set period of time. The game looks and sounds amazing, with great graphics and voice overs. I cant wait to get into the single player campaign. Its gonna rock! But on to the demo!
I was a bit on the fence with Brutal Legend as I was watching its progress. It had an interesting premise with Jack Black voicing a heavy-metal loving dude stuck in a fantasy-metal world. However, I didnt know how the combat or anything else would work. After playing the demo, this game is a must-play for me.
The demo reminded me of Bioshock’s. Not that the story or gameplay is similar, but the effort and content put into the demo was enough to blow me away and make me know this game is a must-play. The demo has a long intro video setting up the story. After the movie is complete, you can play through a few stages, checking out the combat system and vehicle driving.
I havent played an NHL game since 08. NHL 09 I wasnt a fan of. I tried it on the PS2, and tried the PS3 demo, but I wasnt a fan of it, and never went further with it. I just stuck to 08 on my PS2 when I wanted to play hockey.
However, I have been looking forward to 2010. One of the biggest reasons I didnt like 09 was because it made a big move control wise. Rather than having one of the buttons assigned to shoot and pass and what not, the right analog was made to control shooting. I never got comfortable with it in the demo, and thus never had an interest to pursue it. In 2010 the right analog once again controls shooting and deking, and I am now ready to accept this fundamental change and get used to it.
Much like it sounds, Mini Ninjas is a game about cutesy little ninjas. The main character must go on a quest to save his friends and the animals of the forest from some evil Samruai forces. I was pretty impressed overall with the demo.
The main character is Hiro, and the game is similar to most adventure games where you walk around a 3D world. Hiro uses a sword for his basic attacks, but he can also learn ninja spells, such as casting fireballs and lightning bolts. Another pretty neat ability he has is to enter the bodies of animals, and thus take control of them. So you can fly a little with a chicken or bash some bad guys with the bear or boar. You must also explore and snag all sorts of collectables, including ingredients to make more spells. Along the way there are side missions you will be able to activate by talking to people in need (for example, I had to find a flower for a giant stork.)
So while Hiro is fun to play with, it doesnt stop there. You also have the ability to switch between Hiro and a bunch of his friends. The demo had two others already unlocked. One was a big guy who swung a hammer, so he was definitely a slow but powerful character. The other was a faster moving ninja girl. The demo reveals that there are other characters, each with different weapons. For example, I saw a girl with a bo staff, an archer, and a guy with Wolverine-like claws on his hands. This ability to switch characters to overcome different obstacles is pretty cool. Im not sure if there is two-player co-op, but there sure is room for it in this game.
So overall, the demo did a great job in displaying the potential this game has. Its an action-adventure game where you run around an adorable environment filled with great characters. Im not sure if I would recommend purchasing it yet. I would have to wait and get some other initial reviews, and determine how much play time is actually in the game. Its just that the demo made it seem that the game is going to be short in length, and if thats the case, I wouldnt recommend it. But if there is two player gameplay in it, it will definitely be worth looking more into.
The demo came out last night for Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I was pretty excited. The game has been getting a lot of hype, and seemed to be a much more in-depth and realistic Batman game. Ive been looking forward to it, and was glad to see that the demo launched last night. I downloaded then, and woke up and played it this morning. I was not disappointed.
The game pretty much starts off as Batman delivers a captured Joker to Arkham Asylum. For those of you not familiar with Batman, Arkham is a mental institution for the criminally insane, and is where many of Batman’s foes are put away until they eventually escape. So Batman delivers Joker, but it turns out that Harley Quinn and the rest of Joker’s goons have already taken over the asylum, and it was actually all a trap to lure Batman there. Now Joker is holding Gordon and other cops hostage, and Batman must make his way through Arkham to reach Joker and put a stop to his plan.
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