Game Review- Assassin’s Creed- Playstation 3 Console February 18, 2008
Posted by 54071 in : Video Game Reviews , 2 comments
Assassin’s Creed by Ubisoft
First Review by Johnny.
Hi everyone.
This is our first game review from a guest reviewer.
This reviewers name is Johnny, and he is 15 years old, and while this review is a bit short, I left it just as it was written by the reviewer…
Assassins Creed is a role playing game based on beliefs and customs of religions of many people.
You start out in the game as a top ranked assassin, but get demoted for a crime in the eyes of your master.
Then you start as the lowest rank, having to work your way back to the top to become the head of the assassins again.
Your character travels from town to town to be the best again using stealth, skill, and to put fear in the eye of the beholders. Altogether Assassin's Creed was a very good game to play.
I also liked the fact that you got to learn about old customs and beliefs of ancient times, and how they once used to live in the holy cities where the game takes place in.
Another reason I liked the game was because it had a very good storyline and it well planned out as a videogame. It was a game that you need to pay attention to and remember what the master has taught you as you rank, so that you know where to go and what to do. A Reason I did not like the game was because the weapons you get are pretty much all the same, you get throwing knives and a sword but they are not any different when you become a top ranked assassin.
Also, I did not like the fact that when you go to kill the leader of a certain town or "clan" you do not have to do any thing different than the guy before. But the game was all round pretty good and I highly recommend this game.
And there you have our first guest gamer review in the can.
Guitar Hero Legends-XBOX 360 January 22, 2008
Posted by 54071 in : Video Game Reviews , add a commentHi there.
Here is my first review on a game for the XBOX 360 called Guitar Hero Legends.
Now I have seen tons of reviews for this and other Guitar Hero installments for the Playstation 2 and the other systems, but I thought I would give you my take on this game from a different perspective…
First, I play an instrument…the drums. I don’t play in a band, and this is a hobby for me…a way to test myself and see how far I can push myself and progress. I enjoy this immensely…
Now, I play the drums, not the guitar…so this is the appeal of the game for me…trying to coordinate my little fingers like I would my hands…not an easy task.
I got this game back around the Christmas holidays, and I was drawn to this edition because of the commercial with Slash…yes I was hooked after the commercial.
And I made sure that I ordered the one with the Les Paul Guitar.
My daughter’s boyfriend Brett and I enjoyed the game alot on Christmas Eve and we both took turns playing and beating the the Guitar Duel Bosses, and I finally beat the head boss a few days later.
Of course I did this on easy
Some of these tracks I’m very familiar with…
ZZ Top’s La Grange
Aerosmith’s Same Old Song and Dance
Heart’s Barracuda
Pat Benatar’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Kiss’s Rock and Roll All Night
This is just a small sampling of some of the songs available…my favorite…
Pearljam’s Evenflo
I just love to play that song!
And I guess for me the other thing is the fact that this is supposed to be a game targeted for kids, because of how they(or you ) look , while holding a plastic guitar that doesn’t have strings, but buttons that you have to push that coincide with the notes of the song your playing…but you see…that is the real draw of this game…being able to rock out in your living room to some of the best songs ever recorded on vinyl ( for all of you new people, vinyl was what we older folks used to listen to our music on and played on a new fangled thing called a record player!) without having any real talent what so ever, and thus this drummer can become a guitar god….in the comfort of my own home!
This game is highly addictive and highly recommended, and if you haven’t experienced the feeling of this game, deny yourself no longer and lay down the bucks and get this game right now, and you can be a guitar hero too.
Sega vs Sony…The Console Wars…I Was There!/ Sony-Part 2 January 12, 2008
Posted by 54071 in : Video Game Reviews , add a commentDid I say that I would have this posted on Wednesday? I guess I meant Saturday!
Anyway, where was I…oh that’s right…Sony and their Playstation!
Playstation
I remember when I first heard that Sony Entertainment was going to get into the console game, I thought that they ought to just stick to their Televisions and Electronics, I mean that was what they were famous for anyway. I did not think they could become players in a market that was dominated by Sega and Nintendo.
Apparently, I was mistaken.
The Playstation 1 was launched in September of 1995, a few months after the Saturn launch. Playstation was loaded for bear. It was small and compact, and it had a pleasing design. These two factors alone made Playstation a desirable purchase. Of course the price point of $299 was $100 dollars less than the Saturn ( I remember saying that if Sega were smart, they would lower the Saturn’s price just in time for the playstation launch…never happened..at least to my recollection anyway) and had what had to be an “A” list of games and developers on board at the time of launch.
The games were also excellent…Battle Arena Toshinden ( my favorite!), Warhawk, Ridge Racer ( which was a much better game than Daytona on the Saturn ) and a game that would turn out to be a real renter for my business Twisted Metal, featuring a demented Clown driving an ice cream truck, and other characters.
For a first effort, I thought that Sony just handed Sega it’s head.
The Playstation had just one CPU which made it much easier to program for, which would explain why the unit did not have a problem having developers jump on board right from the launch.
While there were several different versions of the Playstation 1, with different configurations, the basic premise of the unit stayed the same…small, compact, and one cpu driving the graphics.
Sony finally stopped production of the Playstation about ten or eleven years later, and I cannot imagine that anyone reading this post did not at some point in that time play a video game on of these consoles.
On a side note…what I found troubling at the time was Nintendo’s not getting into the 32 bit wars, and I say this because of the NES’s dominance in it’s time, but Nintendo stood behind the Supernintendo or Superfamicon in Japan.
Don’t get me wrong, the Supernes had a great line up of games, with plenty of support from third party developers, but I thought that this was move that would bite the big N in it’s behind, and in my opinion it did.
To this day Nintendo is definitely the third player in today’s console wars with ( and this is just my opinion okay, so don’t bite my head off here ) XBOX 360 being the console to beat right now, with Sony’s new Playstation 3 coming in at the number two spot right now, and Nintendo’s Wii in third right now.
I will say thou that if you were a parent looking for a Wii this past Christmas for the kiddies, you might have been very frustrated, as they were very ( if not impossible ) to come by. The big retailers were constantly out of stock of them, and now Nintendo has a new commercial use the phrase ” We ( or Wii, which is what is really meant here ) finally got one home, with the commercial showing the interactivity of the unit, bringing family together is what Nintendo is targeting.
I have gotten to play the unit twice now, once with my family on a visit, plus once in an EB store that had ” Mario Galaxy ” playing and I was hooked, but I have always played ( and yes been frustrated by ) the Mario games, but the Wii console definetly is lacking when it comes to graphics in comparison to the other two consoles by Sony and Microsoft.
Well, this was the console war beginnings, and of course the war has only escalated in today’s generation of everything on the go, the internet, which I think all three new consoles can take advantage of, which only adds to the playability of these new games and consoles, and only enhances our gaming experiences in today’s console wars.
Sega vs Sony…The Console Wars…I Was There!/ Sega-Part 1 January 8, 2008
Posted by 54071 in : Video Game Reviews , 1 comment so farFor my business ( and for my own anticipation at the time as well ) 1995 were the real console war years between an established player ( Sega ) and the new upstart on the video game block ( Sony ) with two next gen consoles Saturn and Playstation respectively.
May 1995-Sega/Saturn
Released in May of 1995, ahead of it’s supposed announced release, in order to be the first to market, and also carrying a high price tag ($399) which Sega felt targeted gamers who absolutely had to have the console first and could afford the higher price point ( Sony’s Playstation would later retail for $100 dollars less ) Sega fired the first shots of the 32 bit console wars, I remember walking into my local EB ( Electronics Boutique for the uninitiated ) and looking at the Saturn and my first thought’s were about nthe console’s size… up to this point the average console was pretty compact, and lightweight, and the Saturn was none of those things, and it’s price tag was not very appealing either ( this would be an advantage for my gaming rental business ) but…..ohhhhhhhhhhhh……..the games!!!!!
Clockwork Knight, Panzer Dragoon, Daytona USA, and Virtua Fighter, were some of the first games to come out for the system and these games really showed the power of this console.
They looked great, they played well, and I was in videogame heaven!
The only real regret I had about the console was the fact that there really was not a great ” Sonic The Hedgehog ” game for it.
Ultimately, the real problem for Sega, was their’s console’s chip design.
Two main processors, along with six other processors, made the Saturn a problem child for most third party developers, and thus third party support lagged for some time for the Saturn.
This would be the first of several mistakes and miscalculations on the part of Sega, and would eventually ( several years later ) lead to Sega’s bowing out of the console wars as a console developer and becoming strictly a software developer.
Ironically, several years later, Sega would have it’s mascot, Sonic available to play on the Playstation Two ( which I own and occasionally enjoy playing ) and in 2006 for the XBox 360, and again in 2007 for Sony’s own Playstation3
Wednesday it’s Sony’s side of the story.
The Console Wars…I was there!-3 The birth of 3DO December 25, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : Video Game Reviews , add a comment3DO
Hi there.
In 1993, the video game industry would enter what I would call their Golden Age, and in this age there was a man named Trip Hawkins, who was a Silicone Valley Entrepreneur, and was the founder of Electronic Arts ( EA ) a video games publisher.
Long story short, Hawkins would eventually leave EA, and form another company, 3DO, a Video Game Console Company that would eventually change it’s company strategy and become a games publisher, a strategy that would later be adapted by Sega also when it finally succumbed to poor console sales, but I digress here….
The 3DO was actually the first to market of the big three at this time, the other two at this time were the Sega Saturn, and the Sony Playstation. The 3DO was the first into the market, the games for the system were CD based, as were the other two consoles, but the 3DO was also the highest price point of the three consoles, coming in at a retail price of around $700 a console. This was the first console that was purchased for my Video game rental business, with the Saturn and the Playstation to be added shortly thereafter. I should also note that there was another 3DO console that was produced by Panasonic and had the same architecture under the hood
The games for the system were pretty decent for first generation games, and some of my favorites were the following…
Way of the Warrior- Universal Interactive
This was a next gen fighter with a wicked soundtrack from White Zombie and was a favorite game to play on a Friday Night.
Wing Commander III- Origin
I liked the game but I never got anywhere with.
Waialae Country Club-Golf Sim-T E Soft
This was my first foray into golf games in general, and it was a very enjoyable game.
Alone In The Dark I & II -Interplay & Infogames ( respectively )
The first games that introduced me to the ” Horror ” genre, and the precursors to the ” Resident Evil ” franchise.
Ballz- The Director’s Cut - P E Magic
This was a unique 3D fighter game with fighters that were made out of 3D spheres, and of course each character had it’s own unique personality and special moves. This was the only fighter that I was excellent at, and just loved to play.
Gex -Crystal Dynamics
This was the first of the platformers of the next gen systems and this was an enjoyable game to play, often, very often as a matter of fact, and this was one of the reasons why I was dissapointed when the system finally crashed and burned.
I won’t go thru the whole list of games for the 3DO, but they were pretty decent for the first of the next gen consoles. The system did pretty well for my business as a rental unit, but sales of the consoles in general were pretty low due to it’s high price point at the time of release. If I remember, 3DO’S price would be lowered at just about the time that the Playstation came onto the scene.
Next time when I post we will look at Sega vs Sony, the real video game war!
Guitar Hero III Rocks! and a few other words… December 22, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : Video Game Reviews , 2 commentsOkay, I admit it!!
I admit that I just love this game.
Guitar Hero III- Legends of Rock, arrived at my home yesterday at around 2:50 in the afternoon ….I had the Les Paul Wireless Guitar set to go…and by 3:15 I was playing the game and I didn’t put it down except for the necessities of feeding my two dogs and letting them out…otherwise, I played the game till 6:30 in the evening when I had to put it away to actually make my dinner.
Love the game and I can’t wait to play again.
and now to…
A few other words…
I will not be doing any game reviews till the beginning of the new year, and my next post will not be here till either Sunday night or Monday morning ( or Christmas Eve, for anyone who wasn’t aware ) which will be a continuation of my ” Video Game Wars ” piece, and in that post I will look at the 3DO.
And my last words till Sunday night or Monday is…
Merry Christmas to you and yours, and….
A Very happy, Joyous, and safe New Year
till next time…
Lew
Your Fanboy@50!
I’m gonna be a Guitar Hero on my XBox 360! December 19, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : Video Game Reviews , add a commentI haven’t been back in the videogame scene too long, but I still think I know a game that ROCKS…literally!
I will be playing Guitar Hero 3 ” Legends of Rock ” by Christmas
I just think that this is one excellent game, of course I’m a drummer by hobby, but I know I am gonna just love this game, with songs like ” Rock and Roll All Night “, ” Slow Ride “, ” Evenflow ” and the scorpions ” Rock You Like a Hurricane “, this game will definitely rock hard!
For more on Guitar Hero III, you can just go here to get more info.
Rock On Man!
The Console Wars…I was there!-2
Posted by 54071 in : Video Game Reviews , 1 comment so farHi there…I know, it’s Tuesday, not Monday…but lets get to it shall we.
Coleco Vision
Coleco Vision was released in 1982, but I did not acquire this ” Next gen ” piece of hardware till a year later, and I have to admit that the only game I remember playing for this console was a game that I just loved in the arcades around this time called MR.Do
Mattel Intellivision
Here was a console I had several games for at the time I owned it, which was the same year I owned the Coleco Vision. I will say before we go any further, that the Coleco Vision had the better games of these two consoles, but truth of the matter was Intellivision…just had more games!
My one favorite game for this system at the time was ” Burgertime “, in which you were a Chef, putting together…wait for it…that’s right, Hamburgers, and yes in my youth I had worked at McDonald’s, which might just explain my fascination with this particular game. I just loved putting those burgers together before the time ran out.
and than came…
Nintendo
The Nintendo Entertainment System
And what a time it was!
Well, me me anyway. My introduction to Nintendo’s simple powerhouse came in 1988. The NES had already been on the market for five years before I picked it up used from a comic book store as a bundle with two games for around $100.
The two games were Super Mario #1 & The legend of Zelda. The latter was the game that got my wife into video games, she totally owned Legend, and finished it within a month ( if memory serves me well ), and I had to wait for Zelda Two for her to be happy with the NES again.
Now I just want to say that this was kinda the ” Silver Age “Â of the video game industry, and at least at the time it was special for anyone who was playing video games at the time, and mind you this was after the ” Video Game Crash ” of 83 or 84 depending on who you ask.
My next post will focus on the first of the NEW consoles released in 1993 by a fledgling company called ” The 3DO Company.
I’ve taken the jump and bought an XBox 360- Let the reviews begin! December 17, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : Video Game Reviews , 1 comment so far
Okay, I took the step and I bought an Xbox 360, so you can expect to see some reviews coming in the next couple of weeks along with some personal recommendations so stay tuned….and I’ll also explain my choice of consoles from the big three.
The Console Wars…I was there! December 16, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : Video Game Reviews , add a commentI had already mentioned my involvement with videogames in an earlier post here, but I really want to take a look at what I have played and maybe give my view of where the industry is today, by taking a look at where it’s been, along with where is was with it….so lets start here….
The Atari 2600 - My First Videdo Game Console
It was around 1980, I was living with my girlfriend ( who would later become my wife ) Sue in an upstairs apartment on Dolson Ave in Middletown and my first experience with a video game console was the Atari 2600.
I remember spending alot of time in front of a tiny color tv screen playing a black and white game called Missle Command and another game called Pitfall featuring a character called Pitfall Harry, and unfortunately, that is the only game for the system that I can remember with any real clarity.
Atari would put out another system after the 2600, the 5200 with better games and ( for the time of course ) greatly improved graphics, but I never experienced the console myself
After about a year and a few months, I was already looking at the new kid on the block..A new console would be released by a little known company called Coleco, and again the video game industry would be revolutionized by a new console called the…
Coleco Vision
Tomorrow… Coleco Vision
and for a list of old Atari 2600 ( for your Nostalgia ) you can click here.
and for a list of Atari 5200 games you can click here.