Game Reviews

Hey guys, I won't really be writing on this blog for the time being, as I'm busy helping out writing for ButtonMasher. Though I will keep this post at the top of the blog and keep it updated, showing all the reviews I've done (most recent at the top).

2009 Reviews
November 24 - Plants vs. Zombies via ButtonMasher User Blogs
November 4 - Tales of Monkey Island: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood via ButtonMasher
October 25 - South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense Play! via ButtonMasher
October 22 - Lucidity via ButtonMasher
September 30 - Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan via ButtonMasher
September 27 - Dissidia: Final Fantasy via ButtonMasher
September 21 - Batman: Arkham Asylum via Salient
August 24 - Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay via ButtonMasher
August 11 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled via ButtonMasher
August 5 - Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures - Episode 4: The Boegy Man via ButtonMasher
July 9 - Tales of Monkey Island - Episode 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal via ButtonMasher
June 24 - Lode Runner via Xbox Forums (Winner!)
March 30 - Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned via Salient

2008 Reviews
December 18 - Gears of War 2 via Xbox Forums (Winner!)
September 15 - Army of Two via Salient
September 1 - Guitar Hero III via Salient
August 4 - The Simpsons Game via Salient
July 8 - Everybody's Golf 2 via ButtonMasher
May 19 - Grand Theft Auto IV via Salient
May 12 - Stuntman: Ignition via Salient
April 7 - Burnout Paradise via Salient

Opinion
October 18 - The Digital Distribution Take Over via ButtonMasher User Blogs

Sam & Max next week on XBLA!

Well Telltale is really going at it this month! First they introduced the five-part Monkey Island season, and now they have announced their re-envisioning of Sam & Max for Xbox Live Arcade!

And such a good deal too; 1600 Microsoft points for the entire Season 1 collection, consisting of 6 episodes. That's around $24.75 (if you have 100 or so points already) versus $90 on Wii or $30 on PC.

A great deal for those into adventure gaming and who haven't already experienced it on the PC or Wii.


*The ButtonMasher link

ButtonMasher’s Upcoming Releases

I came up with the idea on the ButtonMasher forums to write down a list of games we are looking forward to and their release dates, New Zealand specifically if we could get them. So basically a giant release schedule but only for interesting games! I will be constantly updating it along with the help of other Button Mashers.

The Google Spreadsheet

The ButtonMasher Forum Post

Starcraft II Beta

Blizzard are now letting people sign up for the Starcraft II Beta. Just login to Battle.net, find the option under profile settings and follow the steps. Let us know in the comments if you get accepted.

I used to play the original Starcraft back in the heydey but it truly has been a while. Let's hope Starcraft II is a worthy sequel.

By Mriceguy

3D Realms Goes Under

Just when we thought the day was finally coming closer to Duke Nukem Forever's release, after 12 years in the making, developer 3D Realms has closed its doors. Shacknews reports that because of lack of funding 3D Realms has had no choice but to discontinue. Somehow after all this time they were still funding themselves. Take-Two will still own Duke Nukem Forever's publishing rights but I hardly think that they will hire a new developer to work on the game after this point.

But did any of us really believe that Duke Nukem Forever would ever come out?

In remembrance of Duke and his great one liners, "Your face, your ass, what's the difference?"

By Mriceguy

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned (360)

You can check out the Salient website here for the GTA IV: Lost and Damned review, click on the printed version for a closeup, or read it below...


Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Action Adventure
Developer: Rockstar North

Rockstar has produced some of the most incredible DLC to date (that’s downloadable content for you newcomers), or an expansion pack if you will. The Lost and Damned is an extension of GTA IV, and Microsoft paid Rockstar a lot of money to have it as an exclusive for their console.

You play as Johnny Klebitz, member of The Lost biker gang. You will get to meet up with Niko Bellic later on, the main character from GTA IV, as some of the missions will revolve around the story from the original game. The Lost gang are a tight group of folk. These characters are really fleshed out and captivating, especially Billy Grey, the gang’s arrogant president. Along with Niko you will come back into contact with Elizabeta, Playboy X and some other familiar faces.

For those of you who have never played a GTA game in your life, the basic premise of the series is that you have an open city to explore or destroy at your will—completing a grand array of deadly missions, involving drug dealing, murder, assassination, kidnapping, armed robbery, and of course grand theft auto—just things in general your mother wouldn’t be too proud of.

For most of the missions you will be riding with your gang, and it pays to stay in formation if you wanna converse with your biker mates. The Lost and Damned features new weapons, including a grenade launcher, pipe bombs, sawn-off and automatic shotguns. There is also new content for the virtual internet, radio and TV. The most important being the new songs for the radio, including that rocking track from the TV ad, Wild Side by Motley Crue. Between missions you can also partake in turf wars and races. These are both marked on the map in varying places. Turf Wars lets you and your gang go out and kill some dudes from rival gangs. Races are the same as in GTA IV, except now you’re on motorbikes, and you have baseball bats to knock the snot out of your opponents.

Johnny’s custom-built bike is just one of the new vehicles available. The bike physics have been drastically improved. It’s much harder to fall off now, less realistic of course, but it really helps when cruising the mean streets of Liberty City. New multiplayer modes have been thrown in for good measure—one pretty creative mode in particular is called Chopper vs. Chopper where the biker must escape a lethal helicopter.

There are some additions that might not be so noticeable at first glance but really pay off in spades; now mission checkpoints have been gracefully added in more convenient places. Driving back to the same location every time you fail a mission is long gone, and it makes it a lot quicker to get back into the action. Now Johnny’s friends finally stop calling you up on your virtual phone while you’re in the middle of fighting off some coppers. You can still call your friends out for air hockey if you wish, but more often than not you will only reach their answer phone. Getting denied in real life, fair enough, but in an action game where you’re the bad-ass hero, c’mon!

The missions overall are largely similar to the previous instalment. If you’re looking for something completely different, you’re not going to find it here. Some new gameplay would have been nice but Rockstar decided to stick to the tried and true. Of course there’s the whole new focus on motorcycle riding, we gotta give them that.

Thankfully in this update, the stuff that was taken out of our version of GTA IV because of Australia’s absurd rating system is now back in, even in the original game. Which means more blood, boo yah! Be warned though, this game also contains “full frontal male nudity”. Yes this is not a drill, in one of the cutscenes, Congressman Thomas Stubbs reveals all!

The Lost and Damned costs 1600 Microsoft points, or you can buy the code in a box from most gaming retailers, which is really a waste of cardboard for a game that you have to download! Remember: this isn’t a standalone expansion; you do need GTA IV in order to play it. All in all, The Lost and the Damned is a very meaty expansion. So if you’re still itching for some more missions and things to do in Liberty City it is well worth the purchase.

Michael Gray

Bike To Parachute

Some friends and I are set to tackle on biking from Upper Hutt to Hamilton next year for Parachute 2010. Are we crazy? Of course we are!


Please check out our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=68153082896


And if you could sponsor us online, it would be much appreciated!
http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/BikeToParachute/

Gears of War 2 Review

I wrote a review for Microsoft's game review contest and was a winner!

You can check out the Xbox Forums here for my Gears of War 2 review or read it below...


Gears of War 2 is described as the videogame equivalent of a ‘summer blockbuster’ by lead designer, Cliff Bleszinski. And that’s exactly what Epic Games pulled off, a high impact thrill ride, blood fest, through war torn settings and is something else altogether in the graphics department.

The story was criticized in the first Gears of War for being too shallow. In Gears 2 however things are a bit more deep and emotional, especially with Dom’s new search for his wife. All the major players are back from COG Delta Squad for this instalment including Dom, Cole, Baird and Marcus Fenix himself. Some new characters are introduced also; Benjamin Carmine, Dizzy, and the spiritual Tai. Even after their assault and activated lightmass bomb on the locust underground tunnels, the locust horde kept on fighting and the war raged on. Gears 2 is set six months later, and the COG are “taking the fight to the locust” by sending troops underground in grindlifts. I cannot reveal much more about the story without giving away too much but it has much improved since the original and is a real driving force to motivate you to finish the game and find out what happens in the end.

A new feature to the Gears of War series includes riding familiar enemies Brumaks and Reavers which gives some diversity to the gameplay. New weapons include the mulcher, mortar, ink grenade and flamethrower, and bring gunfights to a whole new level. Chainsaw duels now occur when two lancers come into contact, this has you rapidly tapping the B button fending for your life. In the first game, once you were killed you were stuck waiting for someone to revive you, now there is a small but ever so handy ability to crawl around, avoiding any executions and hopefully finding a teammate to revive you. The ‘meat shield’ is one of my favourite new features, letting you grab onto a downed enemy, providing pretty decent cover when moving about, using nothing but your pistol.

The multiplayer has been criticized by many with lag and match waiting times. Luckily a recent patch has improved gameplay for most people. Horde mode, a new addition to the franchise, has you with up to four other players on the regular maps fighting waves of locusts. Playing with just yourself or with a friend is extremely challenging but a completely different experience. There are 50 waves but fortunately you can resume from the highest wave you got up to. There are different waves of spawning enemies and the locust get stronger and tougher to beat. It’s surprising how much time you can actually sink into this mode. Who would’ve guessed that bots would be brought to the other multiplayer modes? There’s nothing like honing up your multiplayer skills within the safe constraints of offline play; no humiliation, and no guilt for heading your team’s downfall.

Gears of War 2 adds three new multiplayer modes to the mix, Guardian, Wingman and Submission. Guardian picks one person from both sides as the leader, everyone can respawn but when a guardian dies that team lose the ability to respawn. Wingman splits players into teams of two and everyone can only be killed through executions (killing the enemy up close when he is down). Keeping close to your partner in Wingman is critical to your team’s survival. Submission is like Capture the Flag, except the flag is a Stranded called Chaps, also known as the ‘meat flag’. His shotgun can catch you off guard in the best of times.

There are ten maps on the disc but with the purchase of a new copy of Gears of War 2 you get the code to the Flashback Map Pack with five maps from the first game spiced up and looking prettier (or is that dirtier?) than before. Three new maps just released in the Combustible Map Pack for 800 points. So with a maximum of 18 maps, there’s plenty of variety to wreak mayhem on.

As with the first game you can play with a buddy online or offline cooperatively throughout the entire campaign. A not so well known problem, which has happened to me, was when I finished the campaign, my ‘War Journal’ which saves all my collectables, unlocked characters, Horde, and Achievement progress, was entirely erased. Such bugs, when they do occur, make the game extremely hard to go back to. Why they couldn’t find these bugs in testing is completely beyond me.

If you enjoyed the first game, Gears of War 2 has plenty of new features to make you stick around. However after shooting through countless locust you may start to get tired of the repetitive gameplay. The multiplayer, especially Horde mode is a blast and the campaign is just really fun and exciting through every turn.

By Mriceguy

ButtonMasher Avatar Photo

Here...

http://www.mriceguy.webs.com

Major Conflict In Congo

Renewed and heavy fighting in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo had forced the suspension of World Vision's relief and recovery programme recently. We need humanitarian relief to continue to be able to get through to the people in need in the Congo. Up to 50,000 women and children have been forced to leave their homes. The total number of people displaced is now over a million and all seeking shelter in refugee camps. The safety and protection of women and children in these camps is absolutely vital. Also children that have been captured by rebel forces, have been forced to fight for the rebel cause. Bring hope to the broken lives of these young children who have been separated from their families. Please pray for an end to the conflict there very soon and that peace efforts would be successful.

The people of Congo need our help. They are being terrorised - murder and rape are rife, hundreds of thousands have fled their homes caught between the brutal violence of both rebels and the Congolese army, without food or shelter. Only the hesitating EU can deploy an effective, neutral force in the next two weeks.

There's no military solution, but right now a neutral force in the region to protect civilians, helping to reconstruct the UN peacekeeping presence and putting real diplomatic pressure on Congo and neighbouring countries will greatly boost our chances of stopping this humanitarian crisis and starting to build a lasting peace. So sign the petition below and spread the word - it will be sent to key European and international officials once we have reached 100,000 signatures.

Sign the petition here to spread the word, they only need 7526 signatures to reach 100,000! Avazz will then send these to European and International officers.

This is the letter:

To EU and UN Security Council leaders:
We urge you to address the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Congo by supporting the immediate deployment of a neutral European force to protect civilians from rape, murder and starvation and secure humanitarian access - United Nations peacekeepers are crying out for this help, and it would provide impetus for them to play a more effective and balanced role in Congo. UN, EU and African officials should step up political engagement to strengthen the peace processes, acting as honest brokers and guarding against partisanship and exploitation.

learn more here

So please I beg you that you sign the petition, send it to friends, talk about it and make some noise. I have digged the petition, so please spread the word by giving your digg to that article here.

If you can please donate here as well:

Oxfam - Select Crisis in Congo 2008

World Vision - Select Democratic Republic of Congo