Review: Too Human.

Hello and Welcome!

I know, amazing isn't it? another blog post!

I got Too Human when it was on sale a while back, with the hopes that I could play with Nate and his brother.  And that is where the drama begins...

 

Ah yes, the Drama.  You see, I thought that Too Human was a multi-player game.  You know, multiple players. As in, More than 2.  Yeah, that was not the case (though the initial information about the game said it would be 4 players) , leaving me to play it on my own, while the two brothers played together.

The game itself (maybe not this iteration, but the title in general) has been in development for 10 years or so, with the last 3 years being the title we have today.  Part of this delay was reported by Silicon Knights (the Developer) as difficulties with the Unreal 3 Engine.  Opting to use their own engine (and sparking a lawsuit, and counter lawsuit From Epic Games) Silicon Knights finally released the game in late 2008, as the first part of a Trilogy, maybe...

This game wants very badly to be a great game.  Unfortunately there are many technical difficulties and annoyances which prevent that greatness from shining through.  It also seems to lack the polish that one might expect from a Microsoft Game Studios title. Anyway, I am going to break it down for you in the style of old reviews:

GAMEPLAY

The concept behind Too Human's game play was interesting in theory.  Rather than mash the a,b,x,y buttons to pull of attacks you use the Analog sticks.  It sounds awesome, I know.  Unfortunately it was not implemented very well and you, more often than not, are just holding the stick in the direction of the enemy.  Not very exciting.

However, it may have been more interesting if you attacks did damage more than 25 % of the time... Easily 3 out of 4 times, my attacks do NO damage, as if I am not even hitting the enemies.  Which leads to me dying, a lot.

Ah yes, dying.  You know something is wrong with your game balance, when you have to put an achievement for DYING 100 TIMES.  Seriously, WTF were they thinking.  The fact that I had barely scratched the surface of the 4th and last area, and already acquired this 'achievement' is a clear sign that the balance of this game was broken.

Other than that, the skill upgrade system is laughable, and barely worth mention.

The Enemy variety is anything but.  The only Variety  enemies have are their polarity (Ice, Poison, Fire, etc).  But aside from bosses I would not put the number of different enemy models at more than 10.

Really for me the only redeeming factor was the loot drop aspect of the game.  Being the loot whore that I am, I enjoy getting a new weapon, or a new peice of armor.  Unfortunately, again, they did not balance that part, so my only good point is barely good.  Getting a new piece of armor every 5 seconds and only 2 percent of that actually being good just isnt fun.

STORY

Man, I think there could have been a really good story here, but it is told through disjointed cutscenes and difficult to hear environmental dialog so it ends up janky and hard to follow.

SOUND

THE SOUND IN THIS GAME IS CRAP.  Ok, that is not fair.  The sound effects and Music in this game are quite good.  The mixing how ever is atrocious.   My tone-deaf Luddite of a sister could mix better than that.  Why is it bad you ask?

• The in game dialog cannot be heard over any noise other than the music.  Even when you adjust the levels.
• Everytime you get a rare item an musical audio sample plays to let you know. THIS SAMPLE PLAYS AT 11.  It is so deafeningly loud compared to the rest of the audio, you have to turn the sound down to compensate (which further compounds the first problem)
• It is clear they tried to create dynamic dialog from your co-horts and peons in the game, but by the time you clear a world you have heard the same corny drivel 20 times each. 
  

GRAPHICS

The graphics in this game are actually ok, aside from the awkward cutscenes.  The armors you get are distinct and you can tell the difference easily between the styles and the colors.
The environments are pretty repetitive, but don't look too bad.  It is mostly just bad level design.

I kept trying to convince myself that I was having fun just collecting Items in this game.  But I think I only convinced myself enough to finish the game.

Do I recommend buying this Game?  Even at $10 it is hard to recommend.  Do I recommend playing it?  Again, very hard to recommend unless you just REALLY like getting loot, and maybe are a masochist.

This game is supposed to be part of a trilogy.  I really hope that they DO make an second and third game.  Hopefully they will take the story and fix all the gameplay elements to make a good game.

~K

New Release Tuesday: Left 4 Dead

Ever since I heard of its existence, I have been waiting to play Left 4 Dead. When the demo finally came out a few weeks back, I logged in and played the 30 minute piece nearly 20 times all the way through on all of the difficulty levels. Needless to say, when my copy arrived last week, I peed myself.

It must be said starting out that this game is not meant to be played single player. Although the AI characters do a great job of making smart decisions and healing you (and each other) when necessary, it is nowhere near as fun to play with the computer as it is to play with friends. Friends make mistakes (sometimes on purpose), and friends know how to communicate best with you.

Outside of the horde of regular zombies that you must fight your way past as you move to the rescue station or safe house, the game introduces 5 super zombies to make your journey that much more difficult. Smokers and Hunters are similar, in that they will lurk in the dark and try to either pounce on you (Hunters) or grab you with their tongue (Smokers) at that exact moment that you weren't paying attention and deal out some damage before your buddies can rescue you. Boomers will wait just around a corner just for the chance to either vomit on you, or be close enough that when you kill them, they explode on you. Outside of this being pretty disgusting, it also draws the horde directly to you and you have to fight them off while being temporarily blinded by the green gunk all over the screen.

The final two super zombies are complete bullet sinks and require a bit of work to get past. The Tank is exactly what he sound like - huge and nigh-unstoppable. He requires that everyone in the group focus on him until he drops, because if he gets close to anyone, there is little chance that they can get away without being injured in some capacity or another. Finally, the Witch is best left undisturbed. As soon as you start to hear crying, cut your lights off and keep your eyes open. If the Witch gets disturbed by you shooting next to her or your lights flashing on her, whoever did it, is incapacitated in one hit, and if everyone isn't fast enough to take her down after that, that person is dead.

Now, all of these super zombies (except the Witch) are controllable in the Versus mode, but since I haven't had enough time to sink into that mode, I can't comment much on it yet (I've been spending my time trying to survive the story modes).

Speaking of story, although it isn't necessary at all since all you do is try to survive from point A to point B and call in the rescue, Valve has done an awesome job with telling the story just through the environment. Any time I get to a safe house, I have to hang around for a good 5 minutes to read everything that is written on the walls. Sometimes it provides some hints for gameplay (like avoiding the witches), but largely it just gives the entire world some depth, as you read about people who couldn't wait any longer for a loved one or people who have left their theories on the time it takes to turn into a zombie.

Valve is all about making quality games, and Left 4 Dead is no exception. It is the best zombie game I've ever played.

New Release Tuesday - 360 NXE

Hello and Welcome!

Today we are going to talk about the New Xbox Experience. Ok, Ok, I know it isn't a game, but it will change how you interact with you 360 significantly.

My Avatar

Nate's Avatar

The NXE is set to drop tomorrow (Nov. 19) and will completely replace the 'Blades' that you currently see.

So, What do you get with the NXE? To me it is a combination of the Mii's from Wii, and Playstaion 3's (as of yet unreleased) Home.

The main features are:

Avatars - Mii like characters that represent your GamerTag. The design for the Avatars was done by Rare.

Netflix - For those of you who didn't by the Roku Media Player, you finally get your Netflix streamed to the 360.

Online Marketplace - Now you can buy your games for download on the Marketplace and they will start auto downloading! (exciting for me, hopefully they will have the demos as well.)

Party Mode - Lets you connect to 7 other people and share photos, vote and voice chat, play games (and watch your avatars respond to each other)

UPDATE: User Generated Content: With Microsoft's XNA users can now create, share and vote on user generated games! Look forward to Nerd Nats!

UPDATE 2: Oh yeah, you can also load a portion of you Games to the HDD for faster loading.

All in all it should be neat. We'll let you know our impressions after we play with it a bit.

~K

New Release Tuesday - Wii Music

Hello and Welcome.

This week we are going to talk about why I don't play my with my Wii anymore. (what?)

Wii Music is the latest creation by famed Mario (and Zelda, Pikmin) creator Shigeru Miyamoto. However, lately Miyamoto has been content to create stuff that only really appeals to people who did not, on a regular basis, play much if any Video games at all. These things can really only be referred to as Software for the Wii, rather than the oft used moniker "Games". I am of course referring to things like Wii Fit and Wii Music.

Miyamoto, the Impresario of my cynicism

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is not a place for these "Casual Games". I mean, who am I to challenge Nintendo's right to print money. I just think that there should be a modicum of production value put in these games.

I tried variable ways of playing this game, and just found myself not enjoying any of it. I played by myself, improvising and Jamming out on songs left and right, but I wasn't having any fun. The main reason behind this is the HORRIBLE public domain set list (there are a few decent licensed songs.. but not many). Sure, there are a few good Nintendo classics: SMB Theme, Zelda theme. But forcing me to play Twinkle Twinkle little star 5 + times as a tutorial, and to unlock stuff in a word: Blows.

So, Its better in mutliplayer right? WRONG. Even if you are playing with someone with a remotely good sense of rythm and music theory, you still have to rely on their abilty to complement your own freestyling. And if they don't possess any of those skills? I might as well strap the WiiMotes to my dogs forheads and let them wrestle through "Yankee Doodle".

Ravi, losing his mind over Wii Music

Anyway, I am going to go play some RockBand. Angry Nerd out.

~k

New Release Tuesday - Fallout 3

Hello and Welcome.

This will be our first entry in "Fallout" week (sorry for missing yesterday...).

So, lets talk a little bit about Fallout 3 shall we?

 

First, a brief history of Fallout.  Fallout was originally developed by Black Isle studios and Interplay, whose most notable games include the Baldur's Gate series..  The rights to Fallout 3 where sold to Bethesda (makers of The Elder Scrolls Games: Morrowind, and Oblivion being the most recent.)

The previous versions of Fallout where Isometric Turn-Based RPGS.  Fallout 3 takes the system used in Oblivion, the 1st and 3rd person perspective and twitch based action.  The new feature in Fallout 3's combat system that we didn't see in Oblivion is the V.A.T.S system.  The V.A.T.S. system allows you to spend a set amount of action points to target specific parts of your adversary's body: Head, Torso, right and left, arms and legs, as well as their weapon.  This typically ends in a the targeted body part exploding in a bloody mess.  One hilarious result of these explosions:  each piece of your enemy is searchable.  I found two pieces of armor, a gun, and some ammo in a jaw bone.  A JAW BONE.

V.A.T.S. in action

Other than the V.A.T.S. system, combat is inaccurate and annoying.  And don't even think about using the 3rd person view.  It is really only good for watching your character skate around D.C. and looking at his armor.  I find myself running out of ammo and switching to a crappy baseball bat, or board full of nails, which tends to do very little damage very slowly.  This means that I end up losing most of my health during each fight.  This further complicates my situation because I am always low on health items.  And the ones I DO have all increase my radiation levels significantly.

Visually, Fallout 3 exceeds Oblivion in most aspects.  I say most because there are no lush landscapes that you would expect in a fantasy game.  However, the level of detail in each ruinous city, town, and ravaged landscape is very impressive

The scope of this game is very ambitous.  With a total of 200 possible endings (though each only minor change from the previous) it should keep people (like me, who tends to get all or most of the endings in games like this) busy for a long time.  The endings are based on choices your character makes through out the game many with far reaching consequences, like setting off the nuclear device in the town of Megaton ( I did. ).

There are many things in the asthetic of Fallout 3 that reminds me of some other great First Person games recently.  The black humor of all the fallout games, but specifically the radio stations and music (which I love), remind me of Bioshock.  The open areas, and mutated enemies, and general lonliness of most areas reminds me of Half Life 2.

Though there are some negatives in Fallout 3, in general, my journey from vault 101 across the vast wastelands of post-WW3 Washington D.C. has been an enjoyable one.   If you enjoyed Oblivion, or Bioshock, you will love Fallout 3.

~K

New Release Tuesday: Fable 2

Hello and Welcome.

For our second entry in Fable week we are going to talk about the newly released Fable 2.

Before I get started I just want to give you a list of the things I have done so far:

• Worked as a Blacksmith, Woodcutter, And Bartender, and Bounty Hunter
  
  
• Courted and Married "Jen the Barmaid"  who is described as "Good, Straight, Raunchy, and Unchaste"
• Bought my first house and made it our Marital home.
• Attempted to consummate my marriage by having Protected Sex with Jen (come on, she is a "Raunchy, Unchaste" BARMAID),  She didn't like that.
• Tried again, no protection, she went for that.
• She immediately got pregnant, and I immediately got an STD.  My character is now a poster child for Safe sex.
• "Accidentally" lightninged the 5 random people that walked into my home while I was looking at my baby.  The baby and wife got lightninged too.  Oops.
• Kicked 6 chickens.
• dyed my clothes and hair with "Red Letter Dye"
• Posed for multiple statues.
• Purchased numerous Shops and a few houses, and rented them all out.
  
  

Anyway, I loved the original Fable.  It was one of the gateway games I used to get my wife to play WOW. So I was obviously excited about Fable 2.

So, what is new about Fable 2?  For one it is significantly larger than its predecessor.  Peter Molyneux has been quoted as saying it is about 10 times as large as the original.  You now have the ability to choose your gender, something that Molyneux desperately wanted in the original.  Within that, as a female character you can become pregnant (and impregnate as a male, obviously) and have children who grow throughout the game. 

Another new addition to your 'family' is the dog.  The dog can be taught a number of skills (mostly tricks and expressions like your character), but the most notable skills are treasure finding, and combat.

In the previous Fable, your character would take quests to earn renown and gold.  In Fable 2, quests only net you renown.  To get gold, you must take one of the various jobs: Bartender, Woodcutter, Blacksmith, Assassin, Slaver, Slave Liberator, or Bounty hunter.

You may also purchase and rent real estate and shops.  With each piece of property, you can change the rent (or rates in a shops case) by a certain percentage.  You can also decorate your houses, etc, with finer furniture to make the basic rate (and selling price) higher.  Higher rates make you more corrupt, where as lower rates make you more pure.  Each piece of property you own pays you the specified rate every 5 minutes of real world time, even when your game is turned off.  Subsequently, your family(ies) deduct a certain amount of your income for household upkeep.

In the previous Fable, your character's apperance morphed as he progressed in age as well as based on whether he performed Good or Evil deeds.  In Fable 2, these features and others contribute to your appearance:

• Good or Evil
• Pure or Corrupt
• Wealth & Poverty
• Slim or Fat
• Young or Old

The hero's Skill, Will, and Strength attributes play also affect your appearance.  Strength makes the character more muscular, skill affects height, and magic gives the hero glowing blue veins.  Also, any combination of  the above extremes can be combined,  you can have a Good, yet corrupt Fat Cat, or a Pure, evil pauper.

The main reason that I was excited for Fable 2 was the concept of Offline, and Online Co-op.  I was excited to play this game with my wife, and with my friends.

Lionhead was unable to complete the online portion before going to print, however, a patch was available on Day 1 of launch to enable this feature.

Unfortunately, the Multiplayer still sucks.  Both locally and online.  I was really excited to have my hero traipse around in my Wife's world, as well as my friends causing havo... I mean joy, to all of their inhabitants... But no, I have to be one of 6 preset "Henchmen" (good, neutral, evil/Male, female).  Sure, I can import my Hero's abilities and experience as well as take home a portion of the gold and experience I recieve in my friends game.  But that is not enough.  Fable is a game of virtually limitless customization, but I can't show that off.  Bad form Lionhead, bad form.

There have also been a number of game breaking bugs, but I won't go into detail here.

These things aren't enough to destroy, or even tarnish past a certain part, my love for this game.  It is still a great game, I just hope they get these bugs fixed (before I find them) and enhance the Multiplayer.

Well, I am off to adventure in Albion.

:: Rude Gesture::

~K

New Release Tuesday - My Japanese Coach

Hello and Welcome.

This week we are going to talk about a ... well, not really a game per se, but a piece of DS software:  My Japanese Coach.

I swear, the power of the Nintendo DS continues to amaze me.  Even before the Wii, Nintendo managed to create a device that transcends the common notion of gamer.  Considering that they have sold 81 MILLION DSes world wide up till now, I would say it is a pretty viable platform for anything.

So, now we have software on the DS that will help you to learn man languages: French, Spanish, Chinese, among others, and finally Japanese.

Being someone who took 2 years of Japanese in college and has been to japan numerous times, I was a little skeptical of this at first.  My main skepticism came from how the experience would be presented.  Would it be for those people whom knew no Japanese? People who knew just a little (I know some of you Anime watchers out there no SOME japanese...).  Or people who had formal training in the past?

Surprisingly there is enough here for all but the most fluent Nihongo speakers.

With a total of 100 scripted lessons (teaching grammar), then 945 more lessons of Vocab, this is a fairly fleshed out piece of software.

There is an initial "Placement" exam that allows you to skip up to 11 levels based on your proficiency.  For the unitiated, it starts of using "Romaji" or english characters, but by level 13 it is consitently using Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji for reading, and writing with Hiragana, and Katakana.

Lessons start with basic vocab and grammar and are completed by "Mastering" words and phrases.  To master these phrases you must play a number of games (Very much like Brain Age actually) that involve writing, listening, and even speaking.  There are also flashcard and memory style games, just to name a few.

Will this game make you fluent in japanese?  Far from it (though it might help study for the 4th (lowest) level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT)).  But it will give you a great base to build your Japanese proficiency on.  As with any language (even your native), mastery comes from constant studying, practice, and every day speech.

Anyway, I plan on buying this for my wife, so she and I can talk bad about all those Gaijin around us.  Hopefully my friends *hinthint* will get it too so we can all talk to each other in this wonderful language.

Come on people, I need someone to practice with!  All that being said, I leave you with this:



I mean really, don't you want to know WHY they have these games?

~K

New Release Tuesday: Star Wars - The Force Unleashed

I was pretty excited when my brother-in-law said he'd let me borrow The Force Unleashed when he was done with it. This excitement lasted all the way through the first level, when I got to walk through Kashyyyk as Darth Vader and throw Wookiees from bridges to their death. The second level brings you into control of Vader's apprentice (who you find as a child in the first level), and from there things seem to go sour.

First of all, the combat is bad. When my character is facing a bad guy and I press X to attack him, the Apprentice should not turn around and attack at an explosive pod that causes him to lose half of his life bar. It would be funny if it happened only once, but its a continual problem. I was faced up against a rancor and pounding away at him, only to have the Apprentice decide that a flower was more dangerous and turned his back, allowing the rancor to pummel him from behind. Also the typical enemies can negate about 90% of your force powers, which takes away everything that makes being the Apprentice cool. Let me run down a typical combat encounter for you: press x 4 times... watch the Apprentice's lightsaber connect one of the four times... try Force Lightning... watch the enemy reflect/ignore the blast... get knocked over by the enemy.... get attacked on the ground and during the animation while you get up... die... scream expletives and throw controller into couch.... repeat.

Moving away from the combat, the camera has got its own set of issues. Take for example the time that I Force Pushed a door open and proceeded into the little room to get the hidden holocron, only to find myself stuck behind the same doors I had blown open, because the camera decided to move to a position that made them invisible. I had to Force Push another 10 times before the Apprentice magically jumped from the room back into the hallway. I also spend way too much time babying the camera, contiunually moving it into a position so that I can see what's going on around me (and yet it's still not enough to keep from being hit by unknown baddies that always lurk beyond view.

Before I get into the story, I have to admit that I am not finished with the game, I still have 3 missions left to accomplish. With that said, the story is pretty good so far. There hasn't been anything life-changing to come from it yet, but I understand that the ending is supposed to be pretty dang awesome. It's a pretty neat idea, giving Vader an apprentice to go around and hunt down the last few Jedi (I can believe that some escaped Order 66 - they are Jedi after all). I just hope that the obligatory choice between the Light Side and Dark Side that I sense coming never actually arrives. It would be nice to just continue on being a bad guy and not have to worry about making a choice that will affect the ending of the game (although I already know there will be).

To put this simply, if you are a Star Wars fan - rent or borrow this game first. You might find that everything I've said doesn't apply to you, then you can go ahead and buy it. Just be warned - it's not the greatest Jedi game out there, for that I suggest playing the Jedi Knight series (particularly Jedi Academy).

New Release Tuesday: Dilemma

Hello and Welcome.

I know you are excited to hear about this awesome new game: Dilemma. Dilemma is the newest game by developer Tnek Sllennur of some other game he released before....

Ok, that's all completely made up. Dilemma is not actually a game (as far as I know of). It is, in fact, a dilemma.

So what is this dilemma? Well, writing about games is the dilemma. It isn't really the writing about games that is the problem, its the constant reviewing of games. With the limited resources we have available to us here and Nerd's Natterings it gets difficult to play (and review) a new game each week. Plus there is the fact that in the summer (yeah, I know it is already over) new releases are less frequent (though this summer had a decent amount).

Furthermore, I really want this site to be (as someone so eloquently put it) more than a bunch of press release inspired reviews. I would like to cover more interesting things, editorial style, all the while keeping it in the confines of our self prescribed parameters. Not that their is anything wrong with reviews.

Ok, enough rant. Today I want to talk about new releases, not a specific release, but the concept of new releases as they pertain to physical media.

With the advent of digital distribution (see DLC Monday) and the increasingly widespread use and availability of Broadband internet many, myself included, thought that physical media would soon be a thing of the past. Especially with each major platform promoting their own DLC service: Wii's Virtual Console and WiiWare, Xbox live arcade, and the Playstation Network, not to mention services like Steam and others on the PC. However, it seems that the opposite is happening. With Gamestop, one of the key distributors of video games here in the states, reporting increased earnings of 25-30% for the last few quarters of the last few years I don't see digital distribution becoming the mutually exclusive way to get games.

For me, it is a hard choice to make. On the one hand, I love the idea that I can sit in front of my TV or PC and see what came out this week and be playing it in minutes. On the other, I like to collect things and I am sort of a packrat. I enjoy seeing my collection of star wars DVDs, among others.

Of course, the thought of one less thing cluttering my house, and cheaper more easily accessible games is always appealing.

So, I pose the question to all of you readers. Would you rather pay $60+ for a game and have the physical disc, an addition to your collection, and more clutter? Or would you prefer to download all your games (and all that entails: more harddrive usage, no clutter, less driving, no collection.)?

Leave us a comment with your thoughts.

New Release Tuesday - RockBand 2

Hello and Welcome.

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:

1. Do your best to fit the Broken Pedal back together (hopefully it is only in two pieces)
2. [optional]Once the pieces are flush librerally apply super glue to the crack. (careful not to get any on the hinge!)
3. [optional] Let the glue dry before moving on.
4. 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.)
5. once you have determined where your piece will lay, use something to secure the metal piece. (rubberband, tape, anything to hold it in place.)
6. 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.
7. Remove the metal piece.
8. Drill the holes. Make sure you use the appropriate drill bit for your size screw!
9. 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.

~k

New Release Tuesday - Spore.

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!

~K