I'm am a recent owner of an iPod touch (8gb, nothing fancy) and with this new hand-held wonder I decided it was finally time to start listening to people when they talk about iPhone games since I can play them now.
I used to think that gaming on an iphone would be a terrible experience. I would think "dude, I need buttons for this... no touch screen is going to do the trick." Well, I'm glad to say that I was at least halfway wrong. After trying terrible demos of Megaman 2, Resident Evil 4 and Assassin's Creed I was ready to give up the hope of conventional gaming on the iphone (mostly because I'm too cheap to buy Monkey Island and haven't yet tried Peggle)--but then something wonderful happened: I stumbled across a game by Gamevil called Baseball Stars. Baseball Stars is a very simple to play, but very deep baseball game that took me back to the days of RBI Baseball on the NES. I wore my RBI Baseball cartridge out as a kid. I played that game for years on my NES until it was replaced by Sega's Sports Talk Baseball on my Genesis. This game took my right back to those days instantly.
I started out with the Lite version of the game and after a few innings I was hooked. They almost dared my to upgrade to the full version with the incredible depth this baseball RPG. You can play a full 32 game season, develop your own created player, play mission mode and each is fun and rewarding. The art and style of the game is totally Japanese (you can have a hot nurse, tiger-man and a martial artist to name a few) and it works great for the game.
At $2.99 Baseball Stars is a steal and it was a worthy first purchase for my first iPod touch. It's amazing that one game has changed my preconcieved notions about a platform, but look out world: I'm on the iPhone gaming bandwagon!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Red Faction Recap
I spent the past week or so romping through Mars playing Red Faction Guerrilla on the PS3 and overall had a good time with it. The story was severely lacking, especially since so much could have been done with the rebellion taking place on the red planet; but the good news is that the game itself brings the fun.
Taking out whole buildings using only a sledgehammer is some of the most fun I've had in a game in a long time, but you're not limited to a hammer you have a variety of weapon at your disposal. Destruction is made easy with rocket launchers, mechs, tanks, remote mines and all sorts of goodies that will allow you to take down any structure you see standing. If you don't like the way an apartment building looks, tear it down! The game won't puish you for needless destruction!
This brings me to one of my biggest issues aside from a lack of an involved story: though there is a penalty for killing civilians, there's no real consequence for it. City morale can be gained back faster than those recently killed can lose their body heat. This takes away from the realism of leading a rebellion on Mars--wait, did I just comment on the realism of taking leading a rebellion on Mars? Who cares? This is a fantasy! Let the bloodshed continue!
While Red Faction Guerrilla will never be mistaken for a deep game story-wise, the fun of running amok while taking out the Earth Defense Force will make you forget that this is nothing more than a fantastic sandbox. The shooting is fine, the driving is good enough, but what the game boils down to is busting up buildings and watching them fall.
Overall, I'm glad I purchased Red Faction Guerrilla, but I'll say right now it's not going to be a permanent member of my collection. It's worth a play, and a purchase if you can get it for less than $40, but even breaking shit can get kind of old when you don't care about the world or any of the characters.
Taking out whole buildings using only a sledgehammer is some of the most fun I've had in a game in a long time, but you're not limited to a hammer you have a variety of weapon at your disposal. Destruction is made easy with rocket launchers, mechs, tanks, remote mines and all sorts of goodies that will allow you to take down any structure you see standing. If you don't like the way an apartment building looks, tear it down! The game won't puish you for needless destruction!
This brings me to one of my biggest issues aside from a lack of an involved story: though there is a penalty for killing civilians, there's no real consequence for it. City morale can be gained back faster than those recently killed can lose their body heat. This takes away from the realism of leading a rebellion on Mars--wait, did I just comment on the realism of taking leading a rebellion on Mars? Who cares? This is a fantasy! Let the bloodshed continue!
While Red Faction Guerrilla will never be mistaken for a deep game story-wise, the fun of running amok while taking out the Earth Defense Force will make you forget that this is nothing more than a fantastic sandbox. The shooting is fine, the driving is good enough, but what the game boils down to is busting up buildings and watching them fall.
Overall, I'm glad I purchased Red Faction Guerrilla, but I'll say right now it's not going to be a permanent member of my collection. It's worth a play, and a purchase if you can get it for less than $40, but even breaking shit can get kind of old when you don't care about the world or any of the characters.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
E3 09 Reactions: Two for Tuesday (Part I)
The first official day of E3 showcased not one, but two press conferences from heaver hitters Nintendo and Sony. Both companies had a lot to live up to after Mocrosoft's slick and content heavy presentation. Today I'll Focus on Nintendo's money train parade with news on the Wii.
Nintentuesday:
I'm going to be honest:I had little interest in watching the Nintendo conference. I was disappointed with last year's conference and though I had a feeling this year would no doubt be more exciting, I didn't feel it was going to be something I really wanted to see. After reading the recap I'm glad I didn't waste my time with it.
The low of the conference from what I have gathered was the introduction of the Wii Vitality Sensor. This device will hook into your Wiimote where your nun chuck traditionally attaches. The peripheral itself seems wacky, but the craziest thing about the announcement of the vitality sensor is that nothing was shown using it. The device recognizes your pulse and that will somehow help you relax when and if somebody develops technology for it. My biggest problem with this is that if you're going to make an announcement of a future product, why not give something more than a speech of what it has the potential to do. What was presented seemed that it would be more appropriate in an internal development meeting than a public press conference. I've made the mistake of doubting Nintendo before, but I'll stick to my guns and say this isn't going to have a big impact on gaming.
The conference wasn't all bad; the Wii Motion Plus was demonstrated for the second year in a row and all signs are pointing towards a more accurate Wiimote being beneficial for developers on the Nintendo's tiny sales titan.
The sizzle reel for the Motion Plus showed athletes in what appeared to be a holodeck straight from Star Trek with various people playing real sports and doing real activities with the Wiimote and Wii Motion Plus taking the place of their physical tools. This lead into a second year of Wii Sports Resort at E3. The sequel to one of the best selling games of all time will feature table tennis, basketball, samurai swod play, archery, Kaiyaking, firsbee dog action and the return of golf. The game looks fun and will sure to be a sales monster.
Other announcements showcases Nintendo's main man Mario in two all new Wii titles: New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2. NSMBW is a four player cooperative side-scroller in the same vein as Zelda Four Swords Adventures, while SMG2 is a direct sequel to arguably one of the Wii's greatest titles: 2007 release Super Mario Galaxy.
Nintendo continued its appeal to the core gaming audience with trailers from Sega's The Conduit, Capcom's Resident Evil: the Darkside Chronicles and EA's Dead Space: Extraction. This was the real meat of the press conference, but unfortunately these were only represented by trailers and no live game play was shown.
Big N ended the conference with the first glimpse at the new Metroid: Other M, which being developed by Techmo's Team Ninja. The trailer showed fast paced game play and a very Japanese art style to one of Nintendo's most hardcore franchises. Team Ninja is know more for big boobs and blood, so it's going to be interesting to see what their take on a Nintendo icon will be once it's in our hands come 2010.
The press conference wasn't so bad, but the lack of live demonstrations outside of a few first party titles was a letdown after Microsoft did so much the day before. This was a definate step up for Nintendo and the highlights of the conference reached great heights.
Stay tuned for Sony as I finish the big three conferences.
[ Nintendo Press Conference @ Gamespot.com ]
Nintentuesday:
I'm going to be honest:I had little interest in watching the Nintendo conference. I was disappointed with last year's conference and though I had a feeling this year would no doubt be more exciting, I didn't feel it was going to be something I really wanted to see. After reading the recap I'm glad I didn't waste my time with it.
The low of the conference from what I have gathered was the introduction of the Wii Vitality Sensor. This device will hook into your Wiimote where your nun chuck traditionally attaches. The peripheral itself seems wacky, but the craziest thing about the announcement of the vitality sensor is that nothing was shown using it. The device recognizes your pulse and that will somehow help you relax when and if somebody develops technology for it. My biggest problem with this is that if you're going to make an announcement of a future product, why not give something more than a speech of what it has the potential to do. What was presented seemed that it would be more appropriate in an internal development meeting than a public press conference. I've made the mistake of doubting Nintendo before, but I'll stick to my guns and say this isn't going to have a big impact on gaming.
The conference wasn't all bad; the Wii Motion Plus was demonstrated for the second year in a row and all signs are pointing towards a more accurate Wiimote being beneficial for developers on the Nintendo's tiny sales titan.
The sizzle reel for the Motion Plus showed athletes in what appeared to be a holodeck straight from Star Trek with various people playing real sports and doing real activities with the Wiimote and Wii Motion Plus taking the place of their physical tools. This lead into a second year of Wii Sports Resort at E3. The sequel to one of the best selling games of all time will feature table tennis, basketball, samurai swod play, archery, Kaiyaking, firsbee dog action and the return of golf. The game looks fun and will sure to be a sales monster.
Other announcements showcases Nintendo's main man Mario in two all new Wii titles: New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2. NSMBW is a four player cooperative side-scroller in the same vein as Zelda Four Swords Adventures, while SMG2 is a direct sequel to arguably one of the Wii's greatest titles: 2007 release Super Mario Galaxy.
Nintendo continued its appeal to the core gaming audience with trailers from Sega's The Conduit, Capcom's Resident Evil: the Darkside Chronicles and EA's Dead Space: Extraction. This was the real meat of the press conference, but unfortunately these were only represented by trailers and no live game play was shown.
Big N ended the conference with the first glimpse at the new Metroid: Other M, which being developed by Techmo's Team Ninja. The trailer showed fast paced game play and a very Japanese art style to one of Nintendo's most hardcore franchises. Team Ninja is know more for big boobs and blood, so it's going to be interesting to see what their take on a Nintendo icon will be once it's in our hands come 2010.
The press conference wasn't so bad, but the lack of live demonstrations outside of a few first party titles was a letdown after Microsoft did so much the day before. This was a definate step up for Nintendo and the highlights of the conference reached great heights.
Stay tuned for Sony as I finish the big three conferences.
[ Nintendo Press Conference @ Gamespot.com ]
Friday, June 5, 2009
E3 09 Reactions: Microsoft Monday
With the start of June came the new Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and this year was certainly one to behold. Now that the show is over and all has been said and done on with the big conferences and the show floor, it's time to reflect on what stood out the most Monday.
Today's Memories:
The first Major event of the show came the day before the show officially started with the Microsoft press conference. Microsoft came out of the gates swinging bringing out guests that are legitimate world superstars with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Steven Spielberg as well as gaming superstars Peter Molyneux, Hideo Kojima, Bungie and the Infinity Ward guys. But Microsoft wasn't going to get by on star Power; they showed a strong lineup of games coming soon.
The first game that made an impact was The Beatles Rock Band which is coming to the 360, PS3 and Wii this fall. I was looking forward to buying this game when it came out but I wasn't excited for its release until I saw the trailer and was reminded that the Beatles were the soundtrack of my early childhood -- Well played Microsoft, I'm on board.
Another game of significance to me was Splinter Cell Conviction. This game was stuck in limbo after facing countless delays, but the live demo at the conference cast aside any doubts that this game has the potential to be awesome when it releases in the fall. Projecting story elements and mission information onto in game environments is a unique way of keeping a game fluid and adding an element of style into what is essentially a dark and gritty reboot of a successful last generation franchise.
Modern Warfare 2 was featured with a lengthy live demo and a new snow environment, but it wasn't all that exciting for me. Not that the game didn't look great, but I'm one of the few people in the planet that prefers WWII shooters to modern shooters. Maybe it's the degree in history talking, but WWII is far more interesting than some near future, fake Middle Eastern and fallen Soviet countries. With that said I'm sure I will own this game before the calendar changes to 2010.
A big surprise in the conference came in the form of Hideo Kojima "sneaking up" on Don Mattrick and delivering the announcement of Metal Gear Rising was in development for the Xbox 360 (which was later confirmed to be in development for the PS3 as well). No game play was shown, but the announcement of the first Metal Gear game for the 360 is significant.
Last year's big surprise, Final Fantasy XIII was shown for the first time on the Xbox with a short battle summons demo presented by Motomu Toriyama and Yoshinori Katasi. The visuals looked great, but my excitement for this game won't pick up until after the new year since it's a planned Spring 2010 game.
Nothing else is coming to mind as far as the presser goes (though I know I have left things out), nothing but Project Natal of course. Natal is Microsoft's new full body motion sensor that completely eliminates the need for a physical controller. Natal seems like a it can be awesome and it can literally change the way we play our games in the future. Natal was demoed live on stage with a simple game featuring motion capture game of a girl kicking and slapping balls in some sort of full body pong and it seemed to work well. Microsoft then launched a sizzle reel of what you could do with Natal in the future that showed facial recognition, item scanning and a whole host of different possibilities for what Natal can do with the right development. The biggest thing shown with Natal was the inclusion of Peter Molyneux's Milo, which is a young virtual boy that can sense your emotion and even engage in conversation with you.
My problem with the Natal demo is that most of the coolest possibilities weren't shown live. I have my doubts on what will actually work until it's right in front of me and working. I would love to see Natal in person, and if it works as advertised it's going to be a huge deal for Microsoft in the future.
Overall the Microsoft was big on style and substance and I don't think anyone could have walked away from that conference disappointed.
[Watch The Microsoft Conference @ Gamespot]
Today's Memories:
The first Major event of the show came the day before the show officially started with the Microsoft press conference. Microsoft came out of the gates swinging bringing out guests that are legitimate world superstars with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Steven Spielberg as well as gaming superstars Peter Molyneux, Hideo Kojima, Bungie and the Infinity Ward guys. But Microsoft wasn't going to get by on star Power; they showed a strong lineup of games coming soon.
The first game that made an impact was The Beatles Rock Band which is coming to the 360, PS3 and Wii this fall. I was looking forward to buying this game when it came out but I wasn't excited for its release until I saw the trailer and was reminded that the Beatles were the soundtrack of my early childhood -- Well played Microsoft, I'm on board.
Another game of significance to me was Splinter Cell Conviction. This game was stuck in limbo after facing countless delays, but the live demo at the conference cast aside any doubts that this game has the potential to be awesome when it releases in the fall. Projecting story elements and mission information onto in game environments is a unique way of keeping a game fluid and adding an element of style into what is essentially a dark and gritty reboot of a successful last generation franchise.
Modern Warfare 2 was featured with a lengthy live demo and a new snow environment, but it wasn't all that exciting for me. Not that the game didn't look great, but I'm one of the few people in the planet that prefers WWII shooters to modern shooters. Maybe it's the degree in history talking, but WWII is far more interesting than some near future, fake Middle Eastern and fallen Soviet countries. With that said I'm sure I will own this game before the calendar changes to 2010.
A big surprise in the conference came in the form of Hideo Kojima "sneaking up" on Don Mattrick and delivering the announcement of Metal Gear Rising was in development for the Xbox 360 (which was later confirmed to be in development for the PS3 as well). No game play was shown, but the announcement of the first Metal Gear game for the 360 is significant.
Last year's big surprise, Final Fantasy XIII was shown for the first time on the Xbox with a short battle summons demo presented by Motomu Toriyama and Yoshinori Katasi. The visuals looked great, but my excitement for this game won't pick up until after the new year since it's a planned Spring 2010 game.
Nothing else is coming to mind as far as the presser goes (though I know I have left things out), nothing but Project Natal of course. Natal is Microsoft's new full body motion sensor that completely eliminates the need for a physical controller. Natal seems like a it can be awesome and it can literally change the way we play our games in the future. Natal was demoed live on stage with a simple game featuring motion capture game of a girl kicking and slapping balls in some sort of full body pong and it seemed to work well. Microsoft then launched a sizzle reel of what you could do with Natal in the future that showed facial recognition, item scanning and a whole host of different possibilities for what Natal can do with the right development. The biggest thing shown with Natal was the inclusion of Peter Molyneux's Milo, which is a young virtual boy that can sense your emotion and even engage in conversation with you.
My problem with the Natal demo is that most of the coolest possibilities weren't shown live. I have my doubts on what will actually work until it's right in front of me and working. I would love to see Natal in person, and if it works as advertised it's going to be a huge deal for Microsoft in the future.
Overall the Microsoft was big on style and substance and I don't think anyone could have walked away from that conference disappointed.
[Watch The Microsoft Conference @ Gamespot]
Sunday, May 31, 2009
A Weekend With inFamous
This week the PS3 saw two exclusive retail releases in Sucker Punch's inFamous and NIS America's Cross Edge and I had the pleasure of receiving them both in the mail this Saturday afternoon. Great news, but I had to decide which game to open up and which one finds a place on my shelf to be returned to when the weather is hotter. And as you may be able to infer from the title, Cross Edge is on my game shelf sitting next to unopened copies of Valkyria Chronicles and Disgaea 3.
Now on to the meat.
So I spent the majority of my Saturday and Sunday playing the hot new Sony exclusive and I'm going to say it was well worth not getting anything done. The game starts with a bang (literally!) as you're set in the middle of a disaster area known as Empire City as soon as you hit start on the title screen not fulling knowing what has happened to the city around you; but the one thing that is for sure is that you need to make your way out. As you escape what is seemingly the epicenter of the blast you witnessed at the title screen you're introduced to the first of three districts you will either work to conquer or reclaim as the gravel-voiced protagonist Cole MacGrath. The fate of Empire city is in your hands as you have developed the ability to harness and manipulate electricity in a variety of unique ways. Cole has an effective arsenal at his disposal, which only grows in power as you progress through missions at your leisure.
I decided to live out my dreams of becoming a superhero, so I walked the path of the righteous and defend Empire city from drugged up thugs and crazy homeless men thus far. In what I would estimate is roughly 2/3 of the story progression I have encountered countless minions of evil and some great complementary characters. The city itself is a character as it is in shambles after you start your journey. The more good deeds I did for citizens and police in specific districts, the more land I reclaimed for the people to conduct their lives safely. The safer the land, the better the city started looking as trash was cleaned up and life started to get as close to normal as a quarantined city recovering from a large explosion can be. Along with the rejuvenation cane the support of the people who once labeled me a terrorist. Initially I was assaulted verbally and threatened by people on the street, but once they saw the work I was doing I became the belle of the ball! The same people who wished I was dead are now flashing pictures of me as I go by and supporting my fights with lesser enemies by throwing rocks at them as distractions. You really feel a part of the city as the people rally behind you.
As for how the game play, you can tell these guys made the Sly Cooper games for the PS2. You can climb on anything you see and it controls as smooth as butter. Your primary lightning attack controls like a third person action shooter and the further your progress, the cooler your abilities come. Whether you're jumping from the tops of buildings bringing down the thunder on some fools or grinding the rails as you zap nearby enemies the game never stops being fun and never reaches any significant level of frustration. The variety of missions will keep you from feeling like you're repeating yourself and the rewards for completing your missions will give you a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.
All in all this is a good looking game that performs exceptionally well with absolutely no loading times. The comic book style cut scenes compliment the stylized character art and give you the feeling of playing through a graphic novel. The character voices are well acted and the dialogue never feels cheesy or forced.
inFamous is the perfect cure for the summertime blues and a must buy if you own a PS3. The trophies are awarded in such a manner that encourages you to play through multiple times as there are morality specific choices that can't be repeated. I have a feeling playing as a bad Cole will result in a far different experience than my good Cole has produced so far, so I'll be back for seconds when this play through is up.
Now on to the meat.
So I spent the majority of my Saturday and Sunday playing the hot new Sony exclusive and I'm going to say it was well worth not getting anything done. The game starts with a bang (literally!) as you're set in the middle of a disaster area known as Empire City as soon as you hit start on the title screen not fulling knowing what has happened to the city around you; but the one thing that is for sure is that you need to make your way out. As you escape what is seemingly the epicenter of the blast you witnessed at the title screen you're introduced to the first of three districts you will either work to conquer or reclaim as the gravel-voiced protagonist Cole MacGrath. The fate of Empire city is in your hands as you have developed the ability to harness and manipulate electricity in a variety of unique ways. Cole has an effective arsenal at his disposal, which only grows in power as you progress through missions at your leisure.
I decided to live out my dreams of becoming a superhero, so I walked the path of the righteous and defend Empire city from drugged up thugs and crazy homeless men thus far. In what I would estimate is roughly 2/3 of the story progression I have encountered countless minions of evil and some great complementary characters. The city itself is a character as it is in shambles after you start your journey. The more good deeds I did for citizens and police in specific districts, the more land I reclaimed for the people to conduct their lives safely. The safer the land, the better the city started looking as trash was cleaned up and life started to get as close to normal as a quarantined city recovering from a large explosion can be. Along with the rejuvenation cane the support of the people who once labeled me a terrorist. Initially I was assaulted verbally and threatened by people on the street, but once they saw the work I was doing I became the belle of the ball! The same people who wished I was dead are now flashing pictures of me as I go by and supporting my fights with lesser enemies by throwing rocks at them as distractions. You really feel a part of the city as the people rally behind you.
As for how the game play, you can tell these guys made the Sly Cooper games for the PS2. You can climb on anything you see and it controls as smooth as butter. Your primary lightning attack controls like a third person action shooter and the further your progress, the cooler your abilities come. Whether you're jumping from the tops of buildings bringing down the thunder on some fools or grinding the rails as you zap nearby enemies the game never stops being fun and never reaches any significant level of frustration. The variety of missions will keep you from feeling like you're repeating yourself and the rewards for completing your missions will give you a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.
All in all this is a good looking game that performs exceptionally well with absolutely no loading times. The comic book style cut scenes compliment the stylized character art and give you the feeling of playing through a graphic novel. The character voices are well acted and the dialogue never feels cheesy or forced.
inFamous is the perfect cure for the summertime blues and a must buy if you own a PS3. The trophies are awarded in such a manner that encourages you to play through multiple times as there are morality specific choices that can't be repeated. I have a feeling playing as a bad Cole will result in a far different experience than my good Cole has produced so far, so I'll be back for seconds when this play through is up.
Friday, May 29, 2009
The Return
For a long time (53 weeks if you're counting!) I've been away from this blog, still reading and dreaming of becoming a gaming journalist. Well, in January of this year my dreams started slipping away with the unceremonious end of Electronic Gaming Monthly--better known as EGM. I was a subscriber to EGM when it was left to die and had a dream of one day writing for my favorite magazine and when the magazine was discontinued by parent company Ziff Davis my writing aspirations began to leave me as I finished my final semester in college. As I took my last finals and applied for graduate school my urge to write reamined, but my shining beacon of light was gone; EGM was finished and I needed to continue on with my path to becoming a teacher. As teaching opportunities dry up in the midst of a state budget crsis with no forseeable I am still determined to become a credentialed teacher, but my dreams of writing have been given a new life.
After a day of observing high school students I saw something in a Kotaku headline that reivigorated my desire to write: Electronic Gaming Monthly To Return! So with the return of my favorite magazine I've been inspired to return to Last Generation games and write once again, but take a different appraoch to what I was doing. I no longer want to focus on older games or just writing reviews, I want to cover news and give a personal input with my own style. So we (and by we I mean the "royal" we) here at last gen are back!
Have a look at the EGM press release announcing an imminent return.
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