Wow, its hard to believe that less than a year ago, I was hauling all the Rock Band instruments out of the box, and trying to get my family to play it with me. And now, RockBand 2 has arrived.
Unfortunately for me, I broke my Drum Pedal about a week ago, during an intense online session with Nate and Dan.
The remenants of my Pedal
Thanks to a little ingenuity from Dan, I purchased some hardware to create my own Cyborg pedal.
Then New, Reinforced Pedal
It seems to hold up pretty well, so here's hoping I won't be paying $15 or more for a new one!
[EDIT] Some people wanted to know how I did this. See below: Required Parts:
a small piece of metal with screw holes (I found this at Home Depot, but they have similar things at Walmart)
small screws (about 6) that will fit flush with the piece of metal. Try to get the shortest length that will fit with your metal sheet.
Broken Pedal
Super Glue (optional, but helps)
Steps:
Do your best to fit the Broken Pedal back together (hopefully it is only in two pieces)
[optional]Once the pieces are flush librerally apply super glue to the crack. (careful not to get any on the hinge!)
[optional] Let the glue dry before moving on.
depending on where your fissure is, align the metal piece so that you are able to fit at least 2 screw wholes over the hinge piece. The more screws on this side the better. make sure all screws are placed at least 1/4" away from the crack line ( to prevent further cracking.)
once you have determined where your piece will lay, use something to secure the metal piece. (rubberband, tape, anything to hold it in place.)
Use something to mark the holes you want to use. Whiteout works really well. Otherwise you will have to drill the holes with the piece on, which can be a pain.
Remove the metal piece.
Drill the holes. Make sure you use the appropriate drill bit for your size screw!
Fit the metal piece back in place and put your screws in.
Viola! you know have your own Franken-Pedal. If you have any questions, post a comment! [/EDIT]
One of the features that I feel really makes RB2 shine (I am looking at you Guitar Hero) Is the ability to import all the songs from the original (minus 1 or 2). Sure, you have to pay $5 to do it, but if you loved the songs from RB1 and want to play them with a shiny new veneer, well now you can.
The basic set list has 75 songs (plus 9 bonus songs). Add to that 247 songs available for download as of today, 55 of the original 58 RB1 songs ("Enter Sandman" by Metallica, "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden, and "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath are not available, thanks Guitar Hero...) for a total of 389, the set list is shaping up to be pretty awesome. I won't list them all here but it isn't hard to find the list.
For the truly hardcore, Harmonix has created a premium package that includes this . This Drum set was created by the Ion drum Company, and is also a fully functioning electronic drum kit. Or you can settle for the MadCatz Cymbal add-ons to make your drumming slightly more authentic.
ION Drum Kit
My favorite instrument is still the drums, but I seriously doubt I will fork over the money to get this drum set... Maybe the cymbals.
All of this makes me feel sorry for Konami. Konami actually started this franchise, but never brought it to the states. They had 3 different games, Beatmania ( a dj simulation game) Guitar freaks and Drum Mania . They are trying to get into the American market with their game Rock revolution, but unless you just have money to burn, not many people will be able to afford ANOTHER Band music game.
I don't really have much else to say about Rockband. You either get it (and love it) or you don't.
I had never played the original Bionic Commando, but when I started hearing all the hype for the XBLA/PSN remake, I thought it would be worth checking out. Especially for the lovely little price of $10.
The best thing about the game is the co-op play. Probably the worst thing about the game is the fact that co-op is limited to one console - no online goodness. The often brutal difficulty of BC makes it wonderful to have a friend to back you up - mainly because when you die, you won't be sent back to the last door you went through, but instead resurrect next to the other player. This makes the more frustrating parts of the game that much more bearable because you know that you've got another player to fall back upon.
Enough about co-op, how hard is the game for just one player? It's actually not too bad on the normal level of difficulty, but if you try anything above that be prepared for a serious challenge. While playing through, you can definitely tell that it's a remake of an NES game. It forces you to memorize enemy placements and swing points so that many times your first time working through a level is more about learning where you are expected to go rather than getting all the way through it. This, combined with the inability to jump and the focus on learning how to use the claw really makes the game all that much more rewarding when you finish a level (and not just to see the quips when you fight the bosses). However, there is one piece of the game that feels like a true waste of time to me - the overhead levels.
You see, when you are travelling on the map from one level to the next, there are times when you will randomly encounter a truck on the map that forces you to go into a level with an overhead view (rather than the sidescrolling of the regular levels). The thing that is frustrating about these encounter levels is that they are completely pointless. Aside from being able to pick up a 1up, nothing is accomplished in the level. All I do when I get these encounters is equip my rocket launcher and sprint through the level to destroy the truck at the end, ignoring all guys in my way. Sure, these levels were kind of fun the first few times, but I've grown so sick of doing them that I will waste time on the map to try to go around the trucks.
As I mentioned the rocket launcher earlier, I thought it might be prudent to go ahead and say that the selection of weapons in the game is wonderful. Aside from a few moments in the game that it requires you to use specific weapons, you can go through the entire game using your weapon of choice (mine happens to be the vector cannon, which shoots lasers at an angle). Other choices include the shotgun (good for close combat), the revolver (default weapon, but it's actually really good), or the machine gun (great all-around, but takes time to reload).
The final thing I need to mention about BC:R is the challenge mode. Basically, this is a separate part from the story mode where you are set in an area and told to go from one point to another. It sounds easy, and sure the first few challenges are, but once the difficulty starts to ramp up the game becomes the 7th level of hell. Later challenges require you to hit an exact pixel to survive from one swing to the next, and while it feels rewarding to finish one of these super difficult challenges, failing 20 times in a row on one particular spot is pretty frustrating.
To sum up, especially for only $10 bucks on XBLA or PSN, Bionic Commando: Rearmed is a wonderful piece of gaming that really feels like you are playing an NES game (and that's a good thing).
This week, I am going to talk briefly about a game from the InstantAction website. A little BackGround for you: InstantAction is a website that allows you to play free, browser-based 3d games. It is the product of game developers Gargage Games. All that is required, is an internet connection, a plugin, and a one time download for each game.
The game I want to talk about breifly is called ThinkTanks. In ThinkTanks you pilot a small SD(super deformed) tank... with a brain on top (get it? :) ).
Loosing my mind in ThinkTanks
Think Tanks is pretty simple. Essentially, you just drive you tank around, shooting tanks on the opposing team. ThinkTanks has two modes. DeathMatch, and Scrum(Capture the Flag). Each level has some power-ups (Area Of Affect weapons, rapid fire, etc). The action, is pretty fast paced, but nothing revolutionary.
The most amazing thing for this game (and all of InstantAction) is the fact that they are fully 3D Games that run in your browser, with out the need to install a full game. ThinkTanks was orginally a PC/Mac game with a single player adventure mode as well as the multiplayer modes you see in the InstantAction versions.
A Lot is going on in this 3d Browser Game
So far, I really enjoy ThinkTanks, and the rest of instant action. Its still in Beta, so their are some bugs, but I think it definitely will expand as more people use it.
InstantAction uses a revenue model that we are seeing more often free online games these days: Free to play, extras you pay. This appears to be a more and more viable model for online games, and works out well for people like me who just want to casually play some new games every now and then. So, Come and join me in a game of ThinkTanks!
Thats it for the first week of Nerd's Natterings! I hope you all enjoyed it. Come Back, tell your friends, tell THEIR friends. See you all next week.
In light of our post Monday on Spore, We are going to talk about a Super Nintendo game: EVO - Search for Eden.
EVO was released in 1993 by Enix (The company behind the Dragon Quest games, who eventually merged with their rival Square ). EVO is an action platformer with some RPG elements. The game is broken up into five worlds or ages (Fish Age, Amphibian Age, Dinosaur Age, Mammal Age, and the "Age of Eden"), each with multiple stages. The world map (and levels for that matter) is structured similarly to Super Mario World. You progress through each side-scrolling level fighting enemies, and eating the meat they leave behind. This meat serves two purposes, first it restores your health, second it serves as an experience system (EVO Points) which allows you to evolve your character in a few different ways. You can save these evolutions in the "Record of Evolution" for later. At different points in the game, you can aquire crystals that give you special properties. The green crystal, allows you to turn in to any creature in the record of Evolution. The red crystal, allows you to unlock secret powerful creatures (which you can save in the record of evolution...) for a limited amount of time. Check out this video review of EVO.
Turn the volume down if you just want to see some gameplay.
And that is why I decided to post this week. The premise of this game is almost exactly the same as Spore. Sure, spore has slightly more complex game play, but the core element, the one that makes spore truly interesting, is the ability to evolve your creature. Sure, it isn't quite as dynamic as Spore's creature creator ( you can't say, articulate your spine), but each level offers a slew of different parts you can use to upgrade your creature. In total, there are eight different parts of your body you can upgrade: Jaws, Horn(s), Neck, Body, Hands&Feet, Dorsal Fin, Tail, and the Back of your head. Each part has multiple options each typically better than the last.
Really, there isn't much else to the game. To get the best parts for you creature, you always have to spend some time grinding (hey, it IS a game by Enix after all) as going straight through each level only nets you enough Evo P. to get the weakest of parts.
So, how does this game hold up today? Well, I started replaying it this week, and I can say, it holds up pretty well. While the backgrounds and levels are far from inspired, the creatures are detailed and well designed. The game play, while repetitive at times, is simple and fun. The music (composed by Kouichi Sugiyama from the Dragon Quest series) has a very classical sound, and easily compares in quality to some of the finest SNES RPG scores.
I was definitely suprised that my nostalgia for this game holds up even today (it rarely does). True, I am a sucker for anything that lets me build up my character, or make visable changes to your character.
All in all, I highly recommend this one. If you can get your hands on a reasonably priced cartridge, pick it up, you won't be sorry. Barring that, we will just have to wait for its release on Virtual console. But given Square-Enix's limited North American support for the VC, I wouldn't hold my breath.
Now that I have propagated my evil Darwinist evolution to our nations children, my plan is almost complete...
Hello and Welcome to the first Unplugged Wednesday post.
Recently (OK, 4 months ago) Wizards Of The Coast released the 4th Edition of the Dungeon & Dragons Rules. This was in the wake of the creator's, Gary Gygax, recent death.
That's right D&D. If you didn't know I was a nerd before, well I just displayed my laminated card baby.
This week, we are trying something a little different. Nate (our other editor) and I recently had an IM conversation about 4thedtion. Rather than belabor the point, and for the sake of brevity ( yeah right, I know.) I have edited the conversation below:
[EDIT: Due to the length of the chat, I have hidden our discussion by default. Click the heading below to view it.]
Kent: Ok. So we are talking about D&D 4th edition rules. Nate: Righty-O Kent: I think our first topic should be the difference between 4th and second edition. Nate: Well, obviously there is the reformation of the classes and the way spells are worked Kent: Right, they pretty much standardized everything in fourth edition. Before it felt like a loose set of rules, each class having almost a completely different set. Nate: It makes it so much easier to work with your class and know that you have some breathing room whichever one you choose Kent: Exactly, they did a really good job of balancing the over all game with the new rules. And that extends to the amount of work involved for all parties. DM and Player alike. Nate: Oh yeah, rolling seems so much more streamlined and easier to comprehend on both sides of the board Kent: Right. So, I think we should switch focus a bit and talk about The character Classes in the 4th edition core rules. Kent: Actually, before we go any further, I would like to clarify that neither of us has played 3rd edition rules, so we are basing all this on the 15 years or so between 2nd and 4th edition. Nate: exactly Kent: Ok, the classes. We have 8 base classes. Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, Warlord, and Wizard. So, Nate, you normally play the healer class in, oh, EVERY game we play. What class are you playing in 4th edition? Nate: Due to pressure from different angles, I decided to do a Warlord this time and try out dps/tanking what about you, Mr. I'm always an elf? Kent: Ha, right. Normally I go for the Ranger class. I always like the high damage classes, and the Mage class of 2nd edition, though appealing to me, didn't become even USEFUL until around 20th level. And that was only if you had good rolls. But, thanks to 4th edition's amazing balancing, I opted for a Warlock this time. Nate: What about the new races. I knew as soon as I saw the Dragonborn, that's what I would be Kent: Yeah, I think they definitely took an interesting turn this time and put some unique races in the core rules. The races are: Dragonborn, Dwarf, Eladrin, Elves, Half-elf, Halfling, Humans, And Tieflings. The new races, Dragonborn (Pretty self explanatory.), Eladrin (Basically elves for people who don't want to play elves), and choice, Tieflings (think hellboy...). Nate: Each one has some pretty good racial talents too, right? Kent: Right, it is funny, because this game (D&D) which created and influenced so many others, has basically changed itself to a table top version of World Of Warcraft. Nate: yeah, I really felt that influence when I was reading through my 4th ed PHB Kent: So, speaking of racial talents, I think we should talk about the new skill system or "Powers." Rather than make only a few races useful in a fight, they implemented a "Powers" System. Nate: Well, there are four types of powers Kent: Right: Daily, Utility, Encounter, and At will. Kent: So, this is where I feel WizardsOfTheCoast did their best work. Nate: you mean, you like this better than only being able to cast a spell 3 times before resting for a day? Kent: Ha ha, exactly. Or less.. So, At Will powers are basically attacks that you can do every turn, that never run out. So, rather than be a wizard with one magic missile spell to use in the whole dungeon, you are actually a wizard, who can command magical energies at your whim. The next level up from that, are encounter powers. These can be used one per encounter (battle) and replenish after fifteen minutes of rest. Slightly more powerful than At will powers. Nate: oh definitely, I know that as I level at-will will be useful, but when we started out the campaign, I haven't even looked at using mine yet Kent: The nice thing about at-will powers, is they serve as your basic attack (other than basic weapon attacks) So ,you know, that level one mage can actually do something each turn, instead of try (and fail) to attack with his crappy D2 damage dagger. Nate: I agree, it's definitely a good thing to have Kent: And it also allows you to have attacks, as a fighting class, that are a little more interesting than :: Attacks with longsword:: Ok, Next are the Daily powers. These are basically the spells of the old D&D - each one can only be used once a day, and then again after 8 hours rest. Nate: They are definitely the most useful of my current powers Kent: Of course, that's why we can only use them once a day! Nate: ...and that's why I like them Kent: Ok, Next are the Utility powers. None of us have these, (available at level 2) as we are all just peons at this point. Nate: Since I haven't really looked at these, what is the cool down on them? Kent: Well, the rules are kind of vague here. Essentially Utility powers are powers that can be used (given a specific trigger) to over come obstacles. They can be used as often as you like, given the specific conditions of the trigger are met. An example is the Shadow Veil Warlock power. Nate: tell me about it Kent: It gives me +5 power bonus against stealth checks, till the end of my next turn. I have to use a minor action for it, but other than that, it is unlimited. Maybe we should talk about the action types? Each turn in battle You can use a combination of a move action, minor action, or major action. Certain powers use different types of actions. Shadow Veil is a minor action. Nate: your major action is typically the attack, right? Kent: Typically yes. oh, I forgot one, Free Action. These are basically things like, battle cries, etc. Things that require no time or effort to preform. Nate: right, something that can be done while completing another action Kent: So lets go back to classes. I can't really think of any reason why this group of classes is bad. Especially with the introduction of the Power sources. Each class draws their "powers" from one of three sources: Arcane, Divine, Or Martial power sources. Nate: three so far, more are coming Kent: Right as they add more classes. Nate: These basically determine what your above mentioned utilities draw their rolls from, right? Kent: Right. All powers use these power sources. These are pretty obvious. Divine for healers, Arcane for magic users, and Martial for fighting types. Nate: Right Kent: Speaking of rolls, That brings up the "Roles" that classes play. Again another wow type convention. Nate:Nate: OH, you mean like tank, dps, and healer? Kent: Right. Defenders (tanks) Strikers (DPS), controllers(Controls animals or people), and leader. Nate: yes, as we mentioned above, I'm traditionally a healer class Kent: These are elements that help in roleplaying, and deciding what each character should do to contribute. Nate: yeah, so you don't waste time trying to figure out who can take damage, you just send in your tank Kent: yep. Kent: Ok, lets switch gears again. Kent: One of the most lauded features is the Amazing new online features they have added for 4th edition. 3d character creators, character sheets, encounter creators, 3d dungeon creators, and a live dungeon map. ... Wait, what's that you say... Nate: hey Kent, this just in... none of that is up Kent: Oh, right, but, that'sOK, the new rules have only been out for... oh yeah, 4 MONTHS. Nate: oh, right, I thought it was going live with the rules Kent: That was their plan, at least, that is what they said. I mean, these features seem great, but the fact that they have been working on 4ht edition, and pimping these tools since early 07, and still have (almost) nothing to show for it , is somewhat ridiculous. Especially, when they expect you to pay an MMO level subscription fee for most of these tools($15.99 a month kids). unless you think that is reasonable? Nate: not at all, I don't think that a subscription is the right way to do this at least in our situation. We play once a week and paying for that really can't be justified for me Kent: especially, since, at most, we may get to play 5 times a month for two hours a time. 15 bucks for 10 hours of tool usage? And that is assuming that we play EVERY week, for the FULL time. Which hasn't happened in the what, 2-3 years we have been playing together? Nate: I know, but enough complaining. what are your final words on 4th edition? Kent: yeah, to be honest, that online stuff is just on my "nice to have" list. I think my excitement for 4th edition is pretty much summed up by the fact that I read the PHB cover to cover TWICE in one week, and BEGGED our DM to let us roll characters. This was almost an entire month before we started playing. Kent: And your thoughts? Nate: Oh, I definitely agree, although I haven't read it cover to cover, I've been thoroughly enthralled with all the new possibilities for our campaign (specifically our abilities to play online). hopefully some online stuff will work out better for us Kent: Indeed.
Well, that is it for this week. If you want more information, I recommend visiting the D&D site.
~K
[Edit: If you are interested in joining our campaign, shoot me an e-mail]
Hello and Welcome to our first New release Tuesday.
This week we are going to talk about a recent PC release: Spore.
Spore is the latest endeavor my Maxis studio's Will Wright. Wright is most notably the creator of The "Sim City", and original "The Sims" games. Spore was unveiled four years ago and has received numerous "Game of The Year" awards.
Spore is comprised of five main "Phases": Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and Space.
Each phase uses a different base game mechanic, that is tied together by a similar theme of growth. I say growth, because evolution of your creature is only a small part of the overall progress through the game. A bigger part of the game is the sociology and relationships that are established with other creatures of the game.
Spore's meta-game is almost a history lesson of PC gaming. The cell stage could be compared to a flash based browser game. The creature stage is similar in feel to an MMO like World of Warcraft. The Tribal phase is a basic RTS similar to the Age of Empires games. The Civilization stage is like, well, Sid Meier's Civilization games. The Space phase is more in line with Galactic Civilization games, where world conquering modes are prevalent. I will explain more on these when I break down the levels.
The most extraordinary part of Spore are the various creators that you are given through out the game.
The first creator you experience is the simple Cell creator, which allows you to modify the creature you start the Cell phase (and game). This creator only allows you a limited amount of customization of your creature( The cell stage is on a two-dimensional plane). You can attach different weapons, flagella, and orifices for food to your cell. Each part makes your creature better at a single aspect of its existence; Speed, maneuverability, consumption, attack.
The second creator, the Creature creator, is truly where, IMHO, Maxis and Will Wright put their best efforts. The creature creator has approximately three hundred different parts that you can use to customize you creature. These parts include: mouths, eyes, noses, ears, hands, arms, feet, legs, details, and Weapons. You can also specify the number of vertebrae in your creatures spine, as well as its curvature, and the density of each vertebrae. With approximately 17 million creatures in the Sporepedia there are some very off the wall, wierd, complex, funny, and plain creatures. Once you have decided on all the appendages and phalanges your creature needs, the game procedurally generates the creatures movement and mannerisms.
Later in the game, you encounter creators that allow you to create buildings, vehicles, space ships, among other things.
Once you progress to the creature stage, the game begins populating your world with content from the Sporepedia. Some of this content is created by Maxis, but the vast majority of it is player created. Who knows, you may actually see one of your friends creations in your world!
A brief explanation of the phases:
CELL: In this phase you start out as simple cellular organism, and must kill other creatures, or destroy meteor rock to unlock parts to upgrade your creature, till you amass enough DNA to progress to the next stage. This two-dimensional stage is simple, but fun as it gives you a glimpse of the customization to come. From the offset you choose whether you are a Carnivore, Omnivore, or Herbivore. If you choose Omnivore, your actions (how much plant matter as apposed to cellular matter you consume) affects what you will be in the next phase.
Check out the following video to see it in action:
CREATURE: This phase begins with your cellular creature developing legs and moving from the primordial goop to dry land. The play-scape changes from 2D to 3D and the world opens up. you acquire parts and DNA as in the Cell phase, but your relationship dynamic with the creatures around you changes. In this stage, you must either befriend, or subjugate the other creatures to allow your creature to evolve. You can also form a party of (eventually) up to 3 other creatures to help you impress or suppress the other creatures. Your attitude towards other creatures, hostile or friendly, affects your social skills in the next phase.
Check out the following video to see it in action:
TRIBAL: In the Tribal phase, you switch from controlling a single creature, in WOW style gameplay, to Controlling a group of creatures in an RTS style mode. In this mode you will gather resources to help you build more creatures, Buildings, and equipment for your creatures. You can either ally with the other species on the planet, or annihilate them. Your actions in this mode, affect your civilizations behaviour in the subsequent mode.
Check out the following video to see it in action:
Having only progressed to the Tribal phase of the game, I will now give you my impressions of the next levels.
CIVILIZATION: The Civilization Phase switches you from Creature units, to vehicular units and focuses on building and conquering cities. Based on your actions from the previous phase, you will be either a Religious, Economic, or Military power. Each "power" allots you vehicles that correspond to your alignment. You can convert to your religion, build trade routes, or destroy with force, respectively, based on the alignment.
Check out the following video to see it in action:
SPACE: The space stage, for me, appears to be the most interesting stage. In this stage, you progress from commanding vehicular units to being the captain of a spaceship. With this spaceship you can abduct creatures from other planets, terra-form uninhabitable planets to lush paradises, invade and conquer enemy worlds, among other things. In all your world conquering goodness, you may even come across a tribe of creatures that you created (maybe abducted from your planet when you where in a previous phase?).
Check out the following video to see it in action:
Now that you know a little bit about the game, why not check out my family's creations so far:
All in all, spore is a great game (should be after 4 years of hype...) but it still has, what some might call, failings. For one, you can install spore only three times per box. After that, you must wade through EA technical support before you can reactivate the game a 4th time. This may not seem like a big deal, but to someone who reformats their machine often ( I do once every 6 months, barring any incidents.) this could be an issue. On top of that, say you bought one copy of the game for your household, and you and your significant other each want to have an account to share your creations. Well, too bad, as EA only allows one account per activation key.
Despite all this, I still love the game, and highly recommend it to pretty much anyone.
And now for this week's releases (there were a lot. :) )
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2009 - 360, PS3, PS2, Wii LEGO Batman: The Videogame - 360, PS2, PS3, Wii ~my pick of the week. N. DQ4 is good too. Igor - NDS, PC, Wii Cabela's Legendary Adventures - PS2, PSP, Wii Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway - PS3, 360 Line Rider 2: Unbound - NDS, PC Armored Core for Answer - 360, PS3 Baja: Edge of Control - 360, PS3 BUZZ! Master Quiz - PSP, PS3 SimCity Creator - NDS, Wii Battle Fantasia - 360 Birth of America II: Wars in America - PC Brain Quest - Fifth & Sixth Graders - NDS Brain Quest - Third & Fourth Graders - NDS Crysis Warhead - PC DanceDanceRevolution X - PS2 Dark Horizon - PC de Blob - WII DRAGON QUEST IV: Chapters of the Chosen - NDS ~ my pick of the week. K. Dropcast - NDS Football Mogul 2009 - PC Ford Racing Off Road - PC Hell's Kitchen: The Video Game - PC Kirby Super Star Ultra - NDS La Tale - PC Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked! - WII Mazes of Fate - NDS Mount & Blade - PC Namco Classic Fighter Collection - PS2 NARUTO: Ultimate Collection - PS2 Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals - PC PAC - MAN Power Pack - PS2 Peggle Nights - PC Pirates: Duels on the High Seas - NDS Rebel Raiders: Operation Nighthawk - WII Red Baron Arcade - PS3 Red Bull BC One - NDS Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization - PC Speed Racer - The Videogame - PS2 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - WII Starpex - PS3 The Witcher Enhanced Edition - PC Time Hollow - NDS TNA iMPACT! - WII Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (War) - PC Wario Land: Shake It! - WII
If you have comments, you know where to stick them.
Now, go out and pick up spore, or one of these other great games!
This week we are going to focus on a downloadable game on Xbox Live Arcade: Castle Crashers
Castle Crashers is the newest game by the team that brought us Alien Hominid. [EDIT: some people where asking who the developer was: The Behemoth. There, are you happy?] This game is basically an amalgamation of Gauntlet and Golden Axe with a few RPG elements thrown in. It all boils down to a fun beat'em up with a ton of re-playability.
Gameplay consists of running around while hacking and slashing enemies. As you progress through the stages you gain experience and levels, allowing you to upgrade one of four attributes; Attack, Magic, Defense/health, and Agility/Pet. Throughout the game you will collect various weapons that affect you stats in different ways (about 80 or so in total, with subsequent playthroughs) and include such ridiculous things as a fishing pole, Umbrella, Chicken, Sausage, LightSaber and more. You will also collect various pet "orbs"(kind of like animal heads...) throughout the game, all with varying abilities (increase defense, knock down foes, etc).
You start the game with only 4 playable characters(Red, Blue, Green, and Orange Knights) but unlock more characters by beating the game, with each knight, then beating the game again with the unlocked character. You can also unlock characters in one of the two minigames: The arena. Each character has a unique look, and a unique magic.
The other minigame is called "All you can quaf", an eating contest for up to 4 players which doesn't require any skill beyond who can alternate button presses the fastest. This is my least favorite part of the game, and luckily is completely optional.
The Character and level designs are often hilarious and just plain weird. The game rips-off borrows many games and popular culture memes. Lightsabers, ride-able mounts ala GoldenAxe, Terminator 2 death scene, All in a very Rube-Goldberg manner. While the levels are interesting and well drawn, they fall into the stereotypes (intentionally I believe) of most games: Desert, Forest, Ice, Lava levels, etc. There are many other homages to games that I won't spoil here.
The music in the game is silly at times, but for the most part complements each level nicely.
The game is not without problems however. Though it allows for online and local co-op, most people (myself included) have experience difficulties with connecting to an online session. Also, I experienced numerous anomalies in game play that caused me to repeat whole levels: Enemies freezin on screen and becoming invincible (you have to kill them all to progress), overwhelming number of enemies attacking me to the point that I was frozen in place and couldn't die (you have to fall down to die...). A patch is coming in the near future that should address some of these issues.
Despite these issues, I really enjoy the game (beat it last night) and look forward to subsequent playthroughs. I am sure there are a lot of features I missed, but, download the demo (then the game, believe me, you will) and see for yourself.
And now for this weeks DLC releases(and some of last weeks)Click the names for more info: Virtual Console:
Vectorman(800 points) - This was a great Genesis game that really pushed the system with some impressive 3D and great music.
Nerd's Natterings is intended to bring you a variety of Nerd related news, information, and speculation from many different facets of Nerdom. Our main focus will be video game related, but we will also venture into the realms of comics, books, movies, music and pretty much anything that falls into the realm of nerdy.
In general, our format will be as follows: Monday:DLC Monday. We will focus on at least one recent downloadable content whether it be from Xbox Live, Playstation Network, Wii Virtual console, Steam, or another downloadable service. We will also provide a list of the weeks releases. Tuesday: New Releases Tuesday: We will review one new release a week, and also provide a list of all the new releases for DS, PSP, PS2,PS3, 360, Wii and PC. Wednesday: Unplugged Wednesday: Humpday will be mainly focused on all things non-electronic; Comics, Books, Tabletop gaming, movies, music (ok, not TOTALLY unplugged...) and any new releases that catch our eyes. Thursday: Retro Thursday: This spot will be for any retro games we are playing, or any remakes of old Games. Covers a pretty wide scope but should be fun. Friday: Free-Play Friday: Every Friday we will recommend a free to play game. Look for anything from Pop-cap to F2P MMO Games.
Also, look for related and unrelated news for each day's post.
It seems to hold up pretty well, so here's hoping I won't be paying $15 or more for a new one! 
