Left 4 Dead

So i don't think this needs to be said but this game is amazing. Hey have you heard that yet from anyone out there in the gaming press... no, well let me elaborate. 

This game throws you in the shoes of one of four "survivors" after the Zombie Apocalypse has occurred. Your job is pretty simple, and the game lays it out for you right from the start, "Stay together to survive." Yeah that is pretty much it. Make it through 4 movies/missions/chapters and get rescued at the end of each. If you can keep all three of your friends alive in the process, even better.

Playing alone is fine, the bots can handle themselves, sometimes better than you can. They rarely miss and hardly ever get beat down so bad they need YOU to help them. However, you will rely on THEM quite a bit. You will be beaten, trampled, and dragged to almost certain Zombie doom over and over again, and you will love every minuet of it. 

Playing with three other friends is where this game becomes golden brown. You and your buddies take on the roles of the four zombie slayers on a mission to get the heck outta Dodge. Still you NEED to stick together. Run to far ahead, or lag to far behind, and you will be in serious trouble. Especially in the final stage of each movie when your rescue boat/plane/tank gets there and about eleventy billion zombies are all biting at your heels literally. 

Once you get tired of the story mode, you can play a versus match. This also is where the game shines. Now instead of playing as a survivor, you get to play as one of the "Special" infected. 

There is the "Smoker", who uses his extendo-tounge and drags people away from their buddies to their death. He sounds like a 3 pack a day smoker that has just run a marathon.

Then there is the "Hunter". Able to leap around, move very fast, and will pounce on unknowing civilians and attack them with lethal blows until they stop moving. Always lurking in the shadows... Sounds like someone that is having really bad night tremors. 

Next we have the "Boomer". He is just a big bloated, festering corpse. Full of god knows what, and ready to throw it up all over you. When he does yack on you, beware. The horde now smells you like a pregnant lady smells ... well anything really. Also if you get to be the unlucky one to shoot the Boomer in the wrong spot, he will explode all that foulness on you as well. This guy sounds much like every stereotypical fat man in every movie you have ever seen. 

Last but not least is the "Tank". Just like the name would suggest, he is a huge beast that is very strong and hard to take down. No need for finesse with him, just smash everything in your path until it is a bloody pulp. Moves slow, attacks slow, but packs a mean right AND left hand. He sounds like, well the Hulk™ I guess, minus the "Hulk Smash!" stuff. 

Bottom line is, this game is fun. I don't normally recommend that everyone get/play a game, however this would be the exception. This is a game not to miss. If you like first person shooters. If you enjoy horror movies, or at the very least just want to have fun with friends, get this game. I can't tell anyone to spend $60 on a game, but i think this one is worth a rent for sure. 

That strange sucking sound...

That strange sucking sound you hear, oh that's just all the good games being sucked out of the market. Welcome to the doldrums of the Holidays. 

Now is the time when most publishers and distributors just sick back and wait for the profits to roll in. They don't release any games worth a damn really anymore until spring. I have mixed feelings about this years slow period. On the one hand i want the party to never end, keep the Triple A games coming to me and i will keep buying them, or at least renting them. On the other hand i am glad that the train has finally come to a screeching halt. My wallet and calendar can't take much more of this schedule. 

I just realized that the 3 games that have been at my house from Gamefly, are the same ones that i rented at the beginning of November. After a very steady rotation of at least 2 games a week, the well has run dry. I finally have time to go back and play more of Fallout 3 and Fable 2. Oh yeah and some game on my PS3... what was it, oh yeah LittleBigPlanet. How soon we forget things when the tidal wave of media crashes on our heads, and we can't come up for air. 

I haven't written a "current" review for a game in weeks b/c i have had to much on my plate. One thing is for certain, I am ready to start taking games off my "Pile of Shame" instead of adding to it. 

Play the game with your Butt... seriously.

So this past weekend I got another game in the mail, this one was a request from my wife. Rayman Raving Rabbids; TV Party was the request. We enjoyed playing the first game in the series on the Wii, however the second one didn't hit on much. Actually thinking about it i can't even think of what the subtitle was for the second game, oh well. 

So the hook or the gimmick for this game is that you can use the Wii Balance Board along with the Wiimote and the Nunchuck. You don't HAVE to use it but if you do have the board you can use it with the rest. I thought it would just be really gimmicky and stupid... which i guess it could really be, but i was having to much fun to really care. 

I am not sure exactly how many minigames there are in the main game but there are more than a few. Also there are about 10 different styles of mini games as well. Some make you play music along with the TV, some make you dance, racing games, driving games, etc. 

What i will say is that this game is made for the ADD gamers out there. As you play some of the longer minigames there will be commercial interruptions that sort of take you out of the experience but are still fun. Also after each minigame there is an advertisement that will give you the chance to gain control of the "game board" for another turn. It's an interesting concept that makes you really pay attention to what is going on so that you can make the choices in the match. 

My wife and I played through a session of the game last night and really enjoyed it. We are both looking forward to the weekend when we can play a little more of it. Oh and you really can play with your butt...

Valkyria Chronicles

I hate to say it but this game just didn't get the time devoted to it that it should have. I rented this one midst the wave of games that came out over the past several weeks, and i just couldn't seem to devote enough time to it. 

That being said, I am not giving up on this game. From the 10 or so hours that i did spend with it, I was quite pleased. The art style is amazing, kinda like watching someone paint a comic book on canvas right infont of you. Playing mostly like a RTS it was able to catch my interest on the PS3 simply b/c there aren't a lot of original games on that system in this style. It also throws in a dash of third person shooter in the way that your characters are controlled. The story was involving enough (a small town caught up in a World War), and the characters themselves were likable. 

Like I said I just didn't devote enough time to it as I should have. I put the blame solely on myself and nothing else. I have sent it back to Gamefly but I anticipate as the holiday gift giving season approaches I will soon own this one. I don't want to commit to a review of the game as a whole but i think saying simply that i will purchase the game, or rent it again speaks to the fact that it is a game worth checking out. 

Out of Afrika

So Afrika is coming to the US... as strange as that sounds it's true. National Geographic has picked up the publishing rights to the PS3 game already out in other areas of the world.  

Afrika is pretty much a digital safari. You go out on tours and take pictures of digital representations of real life animals. I am not so sure about this one, but it seems like it would be a pretty relaxing game. Also, who needs anymore reason to buy a game than how GREAT it will look on an HDTV. I may have to put this one in the Queue. 

Bob Barker should have Neutered this one...

Well I thought how bad can you screw up a game show that has been on for literally decades? Oh how wrong I was. 

Yeah that isn't the best of endorsements for this game, but it's the truth. I rented this one for my Wii with the hopes that my wife and i would have a lot of fun bidding on things, spinning the "Big Wheel" and playing the Price is Right Games. Sadly, it didn't happen. 

Starting off the game boots up with the Price is Right music, and i start thinking, "Oh yeah bring it on Bob!" Much to my dismay there is no voice of the beloved Bob Barker in the game... nor is there the voice of the new host Drew Carey. Just some run of the mill voice over actor (no offense whoever you are) that reads the lines that you WISH Bob was. 

The game starts and you get to choose between several different avatars to use as your on screen character. Nothing really of note except that the only African American person looks like a homeless crack head you would see on Cops for some reason. Input your name, and let the fun begin. The next item up for bid... Actually this is one of the things that did impress me about the game. They show you a full motion video of the item you have to put a bid on, complete with "The Bob Barker Girls" showing it off. Then it breaks down again. Everyone places a bid and the winner gets the value of that prize added to their "winnings". No second chance for the other players you automatically move on to the first game. 

You get four different games to choose from, i don't remember what they were b/c they all pale in comparison to "Cliff Hangers" which is in the game. The winner of the previous game gets to choose first, then so on down the line until all the participants have played a minigame of their choosing. Nothing much more than that, again there was FMV but the video at one point didn't match the item description they were giving me on screen, that's a downer.

Next we have the Big wheel spin. You know the drill Spin the wheel get the closest to the Dollar that you can without going over and move on to the Showcase Showdown. Well the only flaw here is that if only one human player gets to closest to the dollar then the game is over. so even if you don't get the dollar you move on anyway. . . 

Showcase showdown is pretty much the same, watch, bid, and hope. Don't go over and win, come with in $250 of the amount and win BOTH. Prizes were shown in the FMV, bids were made, and the game was over... that's it.

Nope i didn't miss anything. Start all over again if you actually liked playing a really bad version of "America's Favorite Gameshow". I didn't enjoy the first trip (it didn't help that my wife won) so after trying to talk myself into playing again (and losing) i put it back in the envelope and back to the warehouse it went. 

This is one of those rare games that makes me very happy that i have a subscription to Gamefly. I don't think i can even recommend this one to the fans of the show that haven't left with good ol' Bobby B. 

Cue the sound ghost of Rod Roddy!!

Bom bom bom ba bom  waaaaaaaaaa....

Dead Space

Ok well first things first... NOT A GAME FOR KIDS!!! 

Little kids i mean. The 12 year olds that just learned what "four letter" words are fun to say in an almost public place... they can still play b/c they are anyways b/c their parents don't care. No, i mean the little little ones. They need to have this game well out of reach. 

Second. Take a look at the pic, a good long look at it. Yeah those things are everywhere. They will attack you, from front to back above and below. They will find you and get you. 

This game is, in short, very well put together. Slick production on every level, music, sound, voice acting, lighting, everything. I don't think this game is a "Horror" game really though. I would say it falls more to the "Thriller" category. Sure there are several moments that you will jump at, maybe even yelp like a little girl that just had a frog shoved in her face like an old 1930's sitcom. More so than that though is the overall sense of dread. Turning every corner with you gun out, opening every door waiting for something to try and rip your face off. Playing last night i actually turned my ringer off on my cell phone b/c i knew that if my wife were to call me in the middle of playing this game, i could very well crap my pants. 

The rest of the game is just average i guess. Not to detract from the game as a whole, but if you are looking for a beautiful story arc or looking to gain something from having played this game, its just not there. The story is run of the mill "In space no one can hear you scream." stuff, and by about chapter 5 you pretty much have a clue of how it will all end. 

That being said this game is still great. I am very happy that i am playing it, it was well worth the wait. I just don't see a lot of "replay-ability" in it. Once you finished the story and the game itself, your done. 

They say it's not the destination its the journey that makes it all worth it. Well that couldn't be more true with this game. The ride to the end is well worth the effort put into the game, just don't expect a watershed moment when you finally hit your stop. 

Mercenaries 2; World in Flames

After two weeks of being stuck in mail from Gamefly, my copy of this game finally showed up on Saturday. 

The first game was a lot of fun, and i have been looking forward to playing this one for a while. The first was maybe a little too open-ended, they didn't really give you enough direction so you kinda spaced and just ran around the country side GTA style. 

It's basically the same premise as the first game though, just in another setting. You are a high paid Merc that is out for revenge on a guy that didn't pay your bounty and ended up getting you shot in the ass, literally. You have to work with (or against) several different factions in order to get the information that you need to find the final guy you want to get to. That is pretty much the bulk of the story, it's kinda weak but it's enough to hold your attention and keep you moving. 

The one thing that this game (was and) is known for is blowing stuff up. It does that very well. There are numerous fuel tanks, red barrels, trucks, tanks, pretty much anything that you think will explode does, and well. When things go BOOM the screen goes white and then gets very dark. Considering that is exactly what your eyes will do when forced to take in very bright lights,  it is a very nice use of the effect. 

Also in the game you make money at an almost alarming rate. I thought when i started that it would take a while to earn up to the Million$ mark for my "Tattooed Millionaire" achievement on the 360 but it really didn't take long at all. You have to "hire" a helicopter pilot, mechanic, and jet pilot. Once you get all them then you can pick up literally pallets of money ($100K), drop air strikes, and fix your vehicles and other things. 

You get "quests" from other factions that you want to help in order for you to find your final goal. One thing to consider is that if you work for one faction you may piss off another then have to pay said faction off in order to get them to help you more. It's a nice little strategy aspect of the game. 

All in all it seems like a short game. Considering that i have had the game two days and have moved through almost 50% of the game (according to the in game ticker). I don't see myself holding onto it for long, except for the fact that it has a pretty fun Multi-player aspect that allows you to jump in and out of a friends game at any point. 

When it comes down to it I would score this probably around a B- or a 4 out of 5. Well worth the slot in my Game fly Queue.