Rate the game!

[愛]

I'd like to give a quick review, as well.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Everything 10/10. My only beef with the game? I don't like the fact that every monster is the same level as me. I liked in Morrowind I could go to a certain area and get my ass kicked.

Comments? I didn't think so.

[Peanut]

Not all monsters level with you. I've run into some things that're at least 4 levels or more higher than me and I've gotten WHOOPED!

[ThirdMarioBro]

Ridge Racer 6 (360)
-------------------
Visuals: 7.5
Dosen't push the machine by any means, and the engine looks like a modded version of the PSP game. Same GUI except for the Pac-Man distance HUD. Although, the car reflections and lighting kick PGR's ass. Still, seems pretty bland.

Control: 9.0
Tightest drifting control of the series. Plays like the PSP version except without the stupid analog nub. Analog stick all the way baby.

Sound: 8.0
All Techno, and some classic Arcade remixes. Some suck, some rule some can STFU. All in all a good mix though.

Multiplayer: ??
I'll tell you when I get the wireless adapter.

Final Virdect: 7.9
Best in the series, and tons of replay with 201 races, but I wish there had been more. Still, it's more fun than PGR and it's sloppy real world physics. If I want a simulator, I'll get in my car and drive to Wal-Mart to get doughnuts. mmmm, doughnuts. Gotta' go.

[Peanut]

Less crap, more Oblivion! Come on, TMB! Get with the program.

[Barkworm]

Not really a review but I beat "Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time" yesterday and I'm slightly disappointed. Except for the graphics and the Bros. Items (which were totally badass) everything seems to have been done better in the previous game. It was longer, it had better music, better humour and much more to discover. Of course the new one is still an outstanding game but "Superstar Saga" was definitely better.

[Mecha Cow]

Yeah man, I totally felt the same way. It was just more of the same, and too much of a good thing. Good game but a very dissappointing sequel. 81/100.

On another note I beat Luigi's Mansion the other day and I really had fun with it. If I knew it was this cool, I would have bought it at launch. Aside from slightly clunky controls and cramped areas, it's a great and very original game, and a strong case for why Luigi can make a good lead character. 85/100!

[Peanut]

It is time...

Being the resident Elder Scrolls lover, I am here to bring you my review of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for Xbox360. I have now passed over 100 hours into Oblivion in 3 different game files. That's only 400 and something hours short of my Morrowind gameplay time, but rest assured, it will get there in the next couple years. I plan to lay it all out in this review. I won't gloss anything over just because I love The Elder Scrolls series. Just a warning, it may contain spoilers.

The Elders Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Bethesda Softworks, 2K Games

Graphics: By now most, if not all of you, have seen what Oblivion looks like. Much like Morrowind, Oblivion is a game made with so much love that it's easy to notice. The little details in the games graphics really make you sit up and take notice. I'll break this down into two pieces, the outdoor portion and the indoor portion.

Outdoors the game looks beautiful. Trees look like trees, grass looks like grass and rocks look like rocks. Up close, some textures may get blurry, but it's nothing you'll notice, as you'll rarely be staring at the ground anyways. Draw distance is never really a problem. On a clear day you can see the Imperial City from the other side of the province. One thing that's not quite as impressive is the draw distance on the highly detailed ground foliage. Very often, especially when riding on a horse, or traversing plains and fields, you'll notice the grass, bushes, flowers etc., being drawn in as you approach. When you look out across a large vista, the majority of it will be covered in a bland green texture, much like all of Morrowind looked at all times. This does detract from the otherwise amazing look of the game, but overall you probably won't care much as you'll be busy doing something else.

On horse, the game will take a noticeable drop in frame rate. As you move about at quick speeds, the game will attempt to load as fast as possible and, in some cases, this leads to a split second freeze while the game catches up on loading the environment. The frame rate will also take the occasional dip when it's raining outside. It's noticable that the game isn't running as smooth, but doesn't come close to detracting from the gameplay

On the flip side, indoors is an entire different story. Everything is pretty much seamless. You won't get slow down, even with 6 or 7 NPC's or creatures on screen casting spells, shooting arrows or swinging swords. One cavern in particular I went into had a giant brawl between two criminal factions, the Black Bow Bandits and the Cyrodilian Mauraders. At all times there was 5 to 6 NPC's on screen, all duking it out, and at one point it broke out into a 5 on 5 duel in the caves main cavern. All of this was going on and there wasn't a hint of slowdown. With shadows being cast onto the walls by the realistic lighting of the fires, explosions of magic, flying arrows and traps being set off.

One of the greatest things added to Oblivion is the physics system. Every item you can pick up has it's own system of physics, along with random world items like chains, ropes and traps. Did you ever want to blow someone away with an arrow, only to have them land spread eagled on a table, sending bottles, books, food, you name it, flying across the room? I know you have. Have you ever wanted to let off an arrow and actually see that arrow pierce your opponent and stick into their body? How about go into someones house and kick all their stuff onto the floor? Drag a body up some steps then toss it back down? Disarm an opponent of their weapon, then pick it up and toss it off a cliff? Well you can do all of this and more with the Oblivion physics system. The amount of hilarity that will insue because of this system is infinite. The right bumper is used as the grab button. Any type of item you can pick up, from food to weapons and armor, can picked up and tossed. You can grab creatures and people from their arms, legs, head, waists, and drag them all over town if you feel like it. There are also random things, like the chains in the opening jail cell, or already sprung traps. Want to pull back on a spike ball and let it fly at an enemy? Go ahead! Physics system = hilariously good times.

Overall, the game is very graphically impressive. While the slow down and small drawin of foliage is rather disappointing outside, the sheer scope of the entire province more than makes up for it. On the inside things not only look terrific, but run at a smooth clip and very very rarely takes a dip. Also, the physics system is such a blast to play with, really well done.

Score: 9

Sound: Much like Morrowind, Oblivion has a very well written main score. The problem is it will play throughout. You'll get breaks when fights begin, but the music is always the same and if you're like me, you'll just turn it off anyways to take in the sounds of your surroundings. Turning off the music makes places like tomb's and caves much spookier. Especially when you hear the tell-tale sound of a zombie moaning or a ghost whooshing about.

In terms of sound effects, the game does a good job. The sounds of weapons clashing against other weapons or armor sounds like it should. The classic ES "WOOSSHHHP" sound of not having enough magicka is still in there and it still brings chills to the spine of a mage in dire need of a fireball. Creatures sound pretty nasty, like most ES games, a ton of them tend to make rather annoying noises that will either drive you to kill them as quick as possible, or scare you enough to make you run. Either way, the sound effects work and several of them really help in bringing the world to life.

The dialouge is probably the strongest point of the games sound. Everything is very well acted and some of the performances really nail it home. Patrick Stewart has an awesome, yet short, stint as the Uriel Septim, a character ES fans have been hearing about for years. His short performances is really memorable, and avenging his death is a really driving reason behind the story. Sean Bean also does great as Martin Septim, the illegitimate son of Emperor Uriel Septim and heir to the throne of Cyrodill. Martin is an extremely likeable character, and Sean Bean really throws down an awesome performance, without his kind voice, Martin looks like something of a snob, but once you hear him speak you can't help but want to look out for the little guy. NPC's are also well spoken, and with the exception of one High Elf female voice actress, who over acts every single line, their performances are spot on and really help make things feel a lot more lively than the text based dialouge of ES's gone by.

Score: 9.5

Story: Warning that there will be minor story spoilers ahead. While ES games are really about making your own story, there is an overall narrative throughout each game. In Oblivion, you play as, yet again, a prisoner. When strange assassins attack the Imperial Temple, Uriel Septim is led by a couple soldiers through a secret escape passage in your jail cell. Since everything is falling apart, the soilders really don't care that you can escape, they just tell you to stay out of their way. During this short tutorial, you'll be greeted by a couple of little scenes in which things play out. In the end, Uriel Septim is dead and he leaves in your possesion the Amulet of Kings, an amulet worn by the ruler of Cyrodil that keeps the dragonfires lit and keeps the province safe from harm. Since his two sons were killed in the attack, Uriel tells you of another son, an illegitimate one named Martin, who you must present the amulet to.

This sets you off on your quest. The province is in shambles with no leader and worst of all, the group that caused all of this, The Mystic Dawn, followers of the Daedric Lord, Mehrunes Dagon, who fans will know from Daggerfall and Battlespire, is opening up gates to Oblivion all over Cyrodil. The only way to "close shut the jaws of Oblivion!", best line in the game, is for the Emperor of Cyrodill to use the Amulet of Kings and re-ignite the dragon fires. This would all be quite simple, if the Mystic Dawn didn't end up stealing the Amulet of Kings. Basically, you'll be chasing the Mystic Dawn, meddling in their affairs and attempting to get the amulet back form their leader, Mankar Camoran, before Oblivion completely spills over into Cyrodill and destroys everything.

Besides the main questline, each of the four main guild have their own unique storyline, many of which are very very interesting and fun to play through. Three of four guilds are in the middle of some problems. The Fighters Guild, weakened by a loss of members, is struggling to hold their own with a newly formed group of mercenaries. The Mages Guild is in an all out war with Necromancer's. And the Thieves Guild is being put under a great deal of pressure by a hot shot Imperial Legion Officer. The Dark Brotherhood is pretty peach keen at the time, but things really start to un-ravel and you're stuck right in the middle of it. Each is very interesting and fun to see through and all of them have some really fun characters. Each little quest you find also has a bit of a story to it, so there's always something cool going on.

Score: 9.5

[Peanut]

Gameplay: And now we finally hit the big one, gameplay. All the amazing graphics, sound and storytelling in the world couldn't make up for a completely lousy gameplay experience, luckily Bethesda has had a great motor under the hood of the ES series for quite some time. Oblivion is much like Morrowind in terms of the way the game is played. You're dropped into this huge open-ended world, and the whole thing is your oyster. You can choose to follow the main questline and just blow through the story, or you can choose to completely ignore it. You can take on random quests and join some guilds, or you could wander around the province looking for hidden places and raid caverns and tombs. You're never short of things to do in Oblivion and you're never restricted to doing any of them if you don't want to.

Combat was always a weakness in the ES games. It's always been a pretty straight forward affair. You pull out your weapon and hit the attack button as much as possible until you hit your opponent and they fell down. It's so improved in Oblivion that the difference is amazing. There's still only one attack button, but you also have different types of moves and combos. At higher skill levels, you'll gain special feats, such as increased combo lengths, disarming abilities, dodge moves and even power attacks. To go along with said offensive moves, there's also a block button now. In pervious ES games, you blocked randomly, if you had a shield equipped and your shield skill was high enough, which was pretty much a waste. In Oblivion, blocking is done of your own accord. You also don't require a shield. Although much less effective, you can use weapons to block moves as well and with higher skills and some timing you can start pulling off parry attacks. The melee combat still isn't completely amazing, but it is VERY good. There's almost no comparison between the combat system of old. Gone are the days of 50 sword swipes and one hit.

Magic is handled in essentially the same way as it was in previous ES games. You have a list of spells and you cast them. Quite simple. There are varying types of spells and spell classes. For instance Conjuration allows you to conjur creatures, weapons and armor for Daedric planes, while Destruction is more straight forward; allowing you to shoot balls of fire or bolts of lightning. There are also defensive spells. The resoration class, as you may have already guessed, can be used to restore health on yourself or others, cure diseases and restore attributes. You then classes like Alteration, which allows you to do things like breath underwater and open locked doors.

The other major form of gameplay in Oblivion is stealth. Using stealth is exactly the same as it was in Morrowind, but this time around you don't have statues for NPC's, which makes things much more difficult. In Morrowind you knew where there were characters, which houses were empty and where guards were stationed. In Oblivion, every single NPC runs on a scheduale. If you're sneaking to pick a lock, you have to be warry that someone doesn't come by, even more so, you have to be aware of the NPC's who might inhabit the area you're attempting to infiltrate.
Trying to break into the guard barracks? Don't attempt it when there's a shift change, not only will the night AND day shift guards be there, but the officers and commanders are usually in there too.
Of course, the new A.I. leads to some pretty fun moments when using stealth. I needed to break into the prision cell area at one points, most guards will let you just walk on in there for a fee, but during this quest I wasn't allowed. Not only was the guard seated right near the door to the cells, but his shift replacement came in before he would leave, so I couldn't even wait between shifts. Quite craftly, I aquired a poison apple from my Dark Brotherhood companions. Once I had that apple, I tailed the night shift prison guard to find out where he slept. Once everyone was asleep, I snuck into the barracks and put the posion apple on his person. Once he awoke the next day, he decided to have some food. Having the apple on him, he decided to pull it out and eat it. Needless to say, he didn't make it to his next shift and I was allowed to make my way into the prision area un-molested.

Besides combat, a huge part, if not the biggest part, of the ES series has been exploration. Just wandering the world and finding new and exciting things is always fun. Exploring those places and finding cool things is also another great aspect. The latter portion has been dropped though, which I'll talk about in a little bit.
The province of Cyrodill is huge. You could explore for hours upon hours and still not see even a quarter of what it has to offer. When you add the size of the world, the size of the 6 planes of Oblivion, and all the hundreds of interior locations...this is the biggest game ever made.

Not everything is to my liking though. There are a couple things, quite obviously done for reasons, that aren't my favourite additions, as they were done better in previous ES games, Morrowind in particular. Number one on that list is the leveling of everything in the game, from weapon drops to enemy levels.
Leveling destroys the entire aspect of going through a dungeon and finding something completely awesome. In Morrowind, you could discover some really bad ass weapon/piece of armor, and the feeling would be amazing. In Oblivion, you'll never do any such thing. At certain levels, certain weapons/armor will be available for you to find. For instance, you could never hope of finding an elven helmet at level 1. It would never happen, because said armor doesn't begin to spawn until you're level 14 or above.
This also detracts quite a good deal from the overall feeling of realism the game hits home on just about everything else. At certain levels, petty bandits will be wearing things like full suits of glass armor, and give you the fight of you life. Shouldn't you be able to completely mop the floor with some goon on the side of the road when you're the head of every guild in Cyrodill?
The only good thing to come out of the leveling is you won't be getting smoked by something much too powerful for you at lower levels. You'll never be running through the woods and run across a Minotaur Lord, who'll crack open your skull in one hit. Much unlike Morrowind, where you'll wander into some deep chasm and be chased by a creature who's mere breath would kill your character.

The other problem is in the dumbing down of the equipment your character can equip. In other ES games, specifically Morrowind, each piece of your armor was a seperate piece. Gauntlets would come in left and right, pauldrons, which don't even exsist anymore, would also come in left and right. Now the game is limited to a curiass, which includes pauldrons, greaves, boots, gauntlets and a helmet. Some of the armor won't even let you equip top and bottom armor of different kinds. The Dark Brotherhood equipment is the first that comes to mind. There's a top half, a bottom half and a hood. If you attempt to equip some boots, you'll have no pants. If you attempt to equip some gauntlets, you'll have no shirt.
This also decreases the amount of magical items you can have on. Before, you could equip your left gauntlet to fortify your marksmen skill, while your right could fortify your speed. The thing is, the grouping of gauntlets, as well as the subtraction of pauldrons completely, wasn't done to balance anything out. You couldn't enchant a gauntlet to do as much as say, your curiass, or a helmet, so the enchant number was balanced. You're also unable to wear robes over your armor, which is another thing taken out for no real reason. It just seems like they dumbed down armor for no good reason, and managed to take a good chunk of the fun out of personalizing your look.

I could keep going on and on about stuff in the game for pages and pages, but this is already too long as it is. On the whole, Oblivion is amazingly fun and addicting. I do have to knock a point off for the disappointing leveling and pointless dumbing down of the equipment. Once you truly get into Oblivion, it's nearly impossible to get out. The quests are fun, and are actually more than just fetch quests now and include some really neat gameplay mechanics. Combat is fast and actually satisfies this time around, while stealth feels like it's become a whole new element. For the love of God, go get this game. The first time you get a kill with an arrow through the eye, find an awesome piece of equipment, or even brew your own potion, you'll fall in love and never want to stop. One word: Addicting.

Score:9.9

Replay Value: The main quest can last for well over 30 hours, and with 4 major guilds, the arena and hundreds of side-quests, this game is virtually un-ending. Add to the fact that there will be DLC, and playing through as different classes actually changes the way you'll approach things, and you've got the longest game ever made. You'll never find yourself without something to do.

Score: 10

Overall: Hundreds of NPC's, items, quests, secrets, and locations. Addictive elements including exploration and collecting. Amazing physics system with often hilarious results. So many hours of gameplay you could play it all year. Fun combat, great graphics and most importantly, a hell of a lot of fun to play. This all adds up to become, not only on of the greatest RPG's of all-time, but one of the greatest games of all time.

Overall Score: 9.9

[ThirdMarioBro]

That sounds to be one of the greatest games ever made period. Glad I'm buying it Tuesday. Would you recomend the collector's edition, or the standard version?

[Peanut]

The collector's edition is only worth it to a fan of the series. It basically just comes with things fans will want. There's a bonus disc with a 40 minute documentary and some artwork. It also comes with a Septim, which is basically a Cyrodillian dollar, and a cool book about the world. Probably not worth it to the average person, but cool stuff non the less.

[Peanut]

Some quick reviews on the games I've gotten/beaten in the last month or so.

X-Men 3: The Offical Game of the Movie - Xbox360
Good - Early Nightcrawler levels. Multiple Man bridge level.
Bad - Everything else.
Score: 3

Sonic Rush - Nintendo DS
Good - Classic sonic platforming with some new mechanics. Great bosses.
Bad - Some cheap enemy and platform placement makes memorization of certain areas a must. Sometimes hard, but in a cheap way.
Score: 7.9

New Super Mario Bros. - Nintendo DS
Good - Glorious return to Mario's side-scrolling roots. Great level design. Plain fun.
Bad - Music is good, but not on the level of other classic Mario games.
Score: 9.7

Pac-Pix - Nintendo DS
Good - Fun and innovative. Clever puzzles and mechanics.
Bad - Short. Not much re-play value or variation.
Score: 7.5

God of War - PS2
Good - Fun fighting mechanics. Timing mini-games are very cool. Great atmosphere and story. Extremely crisp visuals (running in progressive scan and widescreen). Excellent presentation.
Bad - Slightly generic platforming mechanics. Enemies can sometimes be cheap, especially archers.
Score: 9.6

[ThirdMarioBro]

I'm not giving scores for catagories in these reviews.


New Super Mario Bros.

Graphics: Actually, I think they finally nailed it. Now I hope they stick to it. They've restored Mario's crazy "head into the wind" run from SM64, brought back the classic mushroom mounds, bobbing spotted pedastools, grass, bricks, everything. The game just "smells" like the Mushroom Kingdom, something that we've lacked the entire Gamecube era. How long has it been since you grabbed an invincible star, heard that blessed music, then went hell blazing as fast as you can, doing flips in the air (ala SMB3) tearing up everything in your path? Yeah, too fu*king long.

Sound: Now, this is an aspect that is debatable, I know, but here's my take. All the classic remixes in the game you hear came from Mr. Asuke Ota & Hajime Wakai. Asuke? Never heard of him. Hajime? He worked with Mr. Kondo on the music for Super Mario Brothers 3. Now, the new overworld theme (main grassland song), and the Athletic theme (used in moving platform levels) were done by Mr. Koji Kondo himself. Kondo did all the music for Mario Sunshine, and there is only one track out of 106 that I can remember and actually enjoy humming to myself. Those two new songs he did from this game? I was humming them within ten seconds of closing the trailer video. They are the best Mario themes since Super Mario 64. I also love the world 3 map music, world 7 map music, and all the classic remixes (you can't beat the invincible theme from SM64, so i'm happy it's here). Some songs are allright, but I don't know of a bad one of the bunch. I'm glad they threw some 8-bit samples in there for good measure. As for sound effects, I couldn't be more happy with the selection. I hope these become the standards for future titles, because those sound effects are irreplacable.

Replay: Endless

Control: Perfect, nothing more to say.

Final verdict: When other games try to adopt some of the elements in this game, they almost feel like they're mocking it. For instance, Mario Party 1000009 has goombas, "?" blocks, and Dolphins. Whoopie, its all "retro" dawg. Whoop-de-fu*king-do. It's not a Mario game. Its a fraud pretending to be classic. This game on the other hand, feels right. Its a true bread Mario game from the same materials its forefathers came from. It looks right, sounds right, plays right, and is just the thing the doctor ordered. Its a return to the Mario I loved back before all the tennis, golfing, soccer, baseball, and mindless drunken Mario Booze Parties. This is the game I've waited for since I was a kid who just finished Super Mario 64 and wanted more.....I wanted another true Mario title, not a cash in. It took a goddamn decade, but here she is in all her glory. Its not a fruad, its not a phony in "retro" clothing, and its not a wannabe. Its a Mario game, and I'm so damned thankful I don't know what to say. It makes me feel like a kid again, and as long as I'm playing it, it makes all the sh*t in the world go away, and for a short time, I feel like I've reclaimed my innocense. That's what past Mario games did for me, and thats what this Mario game does for me.

Is the game better than Super Mario World/Bros 3/Yoshi's Island? No, but its not trying to be. New SMB tries to recapture the spirit and style of the original 1985 Super Mario Brothers, and take it to the next level while adopting some of Mario's modern tricks along the way. On that scale, I think it susceeds and outright beats the original SMB. With the sales records this sucker is setting, I smell a sequel. I smell a new series. Hell, I smell a whole damn platforming renissance, and perhaps the acceptance from the public that classic gaming experiences are fun, and it don't need to be forgotten just because they don't push graphics to the next level. Fu*k graphics, long live gameplay. I think people are finally relizing it. Next up, Yoshi's Island 2, the game announcement that made hell freeze over.

PERFECT 10

----------------------------------

Gradius III: Arcade

I am a shooter (see: Shmups) fan. They're repetitive, endless, and all the same thing, but I love them all anyway (except for Perodius...that game can rot). Anyways, there is one game that I have a "special" relationship with, and that is Gradius III. You see, the game is impossible. It is ****ing impossible. Really. Its mean, evil, sadistic, and..well, whatever else you can think of. Now, for the remainder of this review, I shall refer to it as "Bastard" because that's what it is. A bastard.

The Gradius series is renowned for its difficulty, but when Konami decided to do III, they thought "Hey, lets kill off the player as fast as we can to maxamise profits". Ba-Ching! Nice idea you f*cks. Bastard is evil as hell, even on the easiest of the seven difficulty settings. Let's break it down.

Graphics: The visuals are great, and the art style holds up today. No shooter series has the style of Gradius, period.

Music: Believe it or not, Bastard has some of the greatest music in the whole genre, if not gaming. Every single tune will be stuck in your head. The SNES version has the exact same songs, but the Arcade version sounds so muc fuller. Its one of the things that keeps me comming back. Beautiful, fast, and fitting score.

Control: Perfect, and its a good thing too because.......

Gameplay: Whoever arranged the difficulty level of this game has to be the bastard child of Satan himself. You think Contra 3 is hard? Try this b1tch. Now, the game has replay value out the wazoo. You'll keep comming back because its so evil you grow a ventetta against it. Bastard is just one of those games that rams a hot pole up your ass, then you come back saying, "May I have another sir?"

The SNES version was dumbed down not on purpose, but by force. You see, the Arcade machine ran on twin Motorola 68000 processors. That's the equivilant of more than two decked out Sega Genesis' plus a sound chip. Bastard could slow down the combined power of a 25Mhz+ board. The SNES had 3.56Mhz to work with. Without the aid of a special DSP chip in the cart, the port would have been impossible, period. Genesis didn't have the graphical trickery needed to pull it off and didn't do well with expansion chips, so it was out of the equation completely. The SNES version had reduced enemy counts to accomidate, a couple of bosses are easier, and the game is frantic with slowdown due to so much happening. This makes it much easier to keep track of. The Arcade version almost always chugged along as fast as it could, which makes it evil. The music on the SNES version is sampled, but dosen't sound as full for some reason.

Point is, the game is a sadistic bastard and hard as hell, but it is beatable. I finally did it on my PSP, and no, that time with MAME and the savestates dosen't count. I beat it outright on one credit, but it is still a bastard. All you people who think games like TMNT, Contra 3, Mega Man 3, and the like are hard need to play this because it is all of them in one manicial package. Beat it, and you are a gaming legend. Walk away, and you will not be looked down upon. Either way, I love the game to death, but I still hate its guts. Strange relationship me and Bast....I mean, Gradius III have with each other.


Btw, it is so hard, they pulled it from Japanese arcades in a month, and it never made it to American arcades at all. Beat it. I dare you.

[Peanut]

A couple more quick reviews of the stuff I've gone through in the last little bit.

Hitman: Blood Money - Xbox360
Good: Lots of ways to handle a task. Some very cool scenerios. One of the coolest credits/endings ever.
Bad: Finding the best way to do something is sometimes a ridiculous chore. A lot of your success relies on luck. Gets slightly boring and tedious towards the end.
Score: 7.9

Guitar Hero - PS2
Good: Fun as hell. Good song selection for the most part. Amazing guitar controller makes you feel like a real Guitar Hero.
Bad: No progressive scan hangs HDTV owners out to dry. Characters and venues can't be selected outside of career mode. Some of the main songs are completely horrible, and all but a couple of the bonus songs are even worse.
Score: 9.2

Kingdom Hearts 2 - PS2
Good: Amazing presentation. Music, voice acting and animation is all A+. Worlds and characters all feel genuine.
Bad: Fighting can get slightly tedious and usually breaks down into button mashing at most times. Christmas Town music is the same as Halloween Town music. WTF!?!
Score: 8.5

Final Fantasy X - PS2
Good: Sphere grid is awesome. Auron is bad ass!
Bad: Main character is a tool. Too much worthless talking. Furthering story or character is fine, but stopping after every other fight to talk about the weather and laugh and stare at each other is retarded. Same dated battle system with some slight changes.
Score: 5

Feel The Magic - Nintendo DS
Good: Insane "story". Stylish visuals. Most games are lots of fun.
Bad: Horrible music that repeats over and over and over. Some games seem the same.
Score: 7.5

The Rub Rabbits - Nintendo DS
Good: Same insane "story" and slightly better visuals. Some better music.
Bad: Feels like the same game as FTM. Music, while better, still repeats waaaay too much.
Score: 6.5

[Peanut]

So, I just beat Kameo: Elements of Power. Since I'm the only one who posts in this thread anymore, I thought I'd give it a full review.

Kameo: Elements of Power
Rare
Xbox 360

Graphics: Kameo, if nothing else, is a very pretty game. While it's outshined now by things like GRAW and Oblivion, it was probably the most beautiful game on the 360 at launch. Not to say that it's bad now, it's still one of the best looking games on the console.

The environments are probably the most notable part of the game. They look beautiful at all times. Everything is highly detailed and have subtle little touches that make them stand out. Grass sways beautifully, plants and flowers part as Kameo moves through them, ice has a nice shine, and water ripples and splashes. The texture detail is also incredible. I challenge you to find a single blurry texture in the entire game. The lighting in these environments is also pretty amazing. Kameo has a dynamic day and night system. The entire world runs on a clock, behind the scenes, that determines the time of day. So you could spend, seemingly, 2 "game days" in a particular place and watch the sun set and moon rise. Midday in particular, looks fantastic.

The character models are also pretty detailed. Obviously, Kameo and her Elemental Warriors are the most impressive, with Warriors like Chilla sporting some nice looking fur, while Warriors like Flex have a slimy, reflective skin. Beyond that, though, it's pretty mediocre. All Trolls have the exact same look, with some slight changes and all of the Elven warriors have the exact same look without exception. Not to say that those models aren't beautiful and highly detailed, because they are. The secondary characters, with the exception of The Mystic and Thorn, are also pretty plain. Kameo's family in particular are pretty underwhelming, especially when it comes to character design.

That all being said, the graphics in the game are really stunning for the most part, but one thing sticks out in particular. The Badlands. This is basically the "hub" world of Kameo. A large sprawling landscape where battles between the Elves and Trolls take place through out the game. During these scenes, you'll see hundreds and hundreds of detailed characters battling it out. The first time you hop on your horse and ride through a huge line of about 500 Trolls, you'll see what I'm talking about.
Score: 9

Sound: Kameo is a Rare game, so you know you're going to get two things, British accents and an awesome musical score. Kameo doesn't disappoint.

Voices in the game are used sparringly outside of towns, with the exception of your guide in the Wotnot book. When they are used, they're often highly exaggerated and pretty entertaining. Lots of those kooky British and Scotish accents you've come to expect from a Rare game. There isn't much, but what's there is good.

I don't really know what to say about the sound effects in the game, except that I really didn't take particular note of any. All of the Elemental Warriors have their own little growls and sound effects, but they don't really stick out. Everything sounds pretty much the way you would expect it to, which is a good thing in this case.

Finally, the music in the game is outstanding. There are a couple tunes that really get you jumping and some that can really take the wind out of your sails. The way the music jumps up and down during battles is very effective and the music that kicks in during a huge action scene will get your blood pumping. The score for the huge battle sequences in The Badlands are particularly good and really got me into the moment.
Score: 9

Story: Kameo, unlike a lot of action/adventure games, takes a good stab at having a story, but it ultimately falls short. Beside the fact that you get very little backstory before you're shoved into the game is a little akward. It stumbles a bit at the beginning, but attempts to build up some steam after the first section. You won't actually learn what the hell is going on for awhile and things that seem like throw away plot points are actually stuff you should have learned in the beginning.

Basically, Kameo is given the Elemental Powers and her sister, Kalus thinks she should be the one who gets it. Kalus, out of jealousy, betrays her family and awakens the evil Troll King Thorn, who once lead the Trolls of the world on a revolt before being stopped by Kameo's dead father. Kalus releases Thorn and the Trolls begin to wage war on the Kingdom of the Elves again. The only way Kameo can stop Thorn and her sister, is to travel over the land and return the Elemental Sprites, weak forms of her father's Elemental Warriors, to the fabled Wotnot book, in order to restore them to their former selves and give her the power to stop him.

Beyond that, there really isn't much. The Trolls take shots at special barriers around the Enchanted Kingdom through out the game, but that's about it. Kameo just goes around looking for the Elemental Sprites and saving her random family members.

One of the things that makes the story so ineffective is the fact that the cutscenes are pretty bad. There isn't any lip-synch and nothing ever really happens. The brief chat you have with your family members after rescusing them doesn't do much either. They throw in something that's an unforseen twist, but doesn't really matter either way and it in fact doesn't have any effect on the story at all, making it pretty much redundant. The other "twist" is obvious from the very beginning, you can see it coming from a mile away, not to mention it also has no bearing on the story in the slightest. Nothing really gets resolved through out the game. When something interesting does come up, it's thrown away and forgotten about.
Score: 6.5

[Peanut]

Gameplay: Kameo is one of those games that really makes an awful first impression. When you first get dropped into the game, you have control of 3 Elemental Warriors, all of which you lose and two of which you don't get again until about half way through your journey. There's no tutorial, no instructions, nothing. You just go. While this wouldn't be such a big problem in normal circumstances, Kameo isn't a game that lends itself to "pick-up and play". The real baffling thing is, once you get past the opening act, you're given a basic tutorial, but for what!?! After playing the game for about 30-40 minutes, now you're telling me how to move the camera and hover? Thanks.

Once you exit The Mystic's house and begin your journey. Things go very well. You gain your first Elemental Warrior, probably the most useful and one of my favourites, Pummel Weed, right off the bat. To obtain most of the Warriors, you need to defeat a Shadow Troll. Basically, you hop down a well and face off against this shadowy monster in his "domain", so to speak. You'll do this to gain all but 3 of the 10 Elemental Warriors, and each time is essentially the same. Although they do start varying in attack patterns, you'll still only ever need to do one thing to defeat them.

Once you get Pummel Weed, you're off into the meat of the game. From this point on, you travel across the land and run through what the game calls "Action Sequences". In between these sequences are things like the Badlands battles, visits to towns, and treks to temples. There are three temples in the game. Forest, Water and Ice. Each one containing one of your poor captured family members. Much like Zelda, you'll need to traverse the various puzzles and traps, defeat the enemies and finally defeat the boss to beat the temple. The difference is, you use the various powers of your available Warriors to do these things in Kameo.

The Elemental Warriors are really the highlight of the game. They're basically transformations Kameo can use at will. There are two Warriors releated to each element. Pummel Weed and Snare for nature, 40 Below and Chilla for ice, Ash and Thermite for fire, Deep Blue and Flex for water and finally, Major Ruin and Rubble for earth. Each have their own special powers, weaknesses and strengths. For example, Pummel Weed is a straight fighter, you can beat down Trolls easily with him, but he's worthless against element Trolls, in which case you'll need to use someone like Ash, the dragon, to burn up Plant Trolls, or Deep Blue to put out Fire Trolls. Many of them also have special abilities that are used to solve puzzles. For instance, Rubble is the heaviest, so he's used to push down switches, while Flex uses his suckers and stretchy limbs to reach out and pull himself across large gaps.

Using your Elemental Warriors and their various powers is easily the funniest part of the game. Each one can also be upgraded using fruit that you find on your adventure. These upgrades include things like extra powerful attacks, or added attack power, some of which change the look of your Warriors. Unfortunately, and predictably, some of them get left in the dust. Rubble, for instance, becomes worthless after the first temple and you'll use him rarely, if ever, for the rest of the game. While some, such as Pummel Weed, Chilla and Major Ruin, are used in just about every scenerio.

A real bright spot in the game are the bosses. Most of them are very fun to face off against and actually require some thinking to defeat. Which brings me to my next point. The difficulty. The game is pretty easy for the most part. There will be sections where it's ridiculously annoying, though. The end of the game is more difficult than the rest, but still nothing too bad. The Wotnot book is what really brings the difficulty or thought process of puzzle solving down. Whenever you don't figure out how to kill a boss or solve a puzzle right away, the book will nag you to read it. Once you do, it will give you a pretty obvious "hint" at how to defeat a boss, or solve a puzzle. About 20 seconds later, it will begin to nag you again and give you a complete walkthrough of what to do. Overall it's a very forgiving game.

Kameo is a game that will start of rocky and throw a lot of people off, but if you stick at it for a little bit, you'll get into it. The Elemental Warriors are a real blast to play as and the overall game is a ton of fun to play. You'll never find yourself saying "Oh, man! Not this again", because the game does a good job of moving you around from point to point without sticking in one place for too long. It does have it's problems, though. Some of the enemies can get pretty annoying and you won't get a chance to use all of your Warriors as much as you'll want to, but you'll have fun with the game from (almost) start to finish.
Score: 8.0


Replay Value: Straight up...Kameo is short. On my first time through, with a good bit of exploration, I clocked in at 9:34 from start to finish. There seems to be a little bit left to do once you beat the game, but not all that much. You're encouraged to go back and finish the "Action Sequences" again, in order to get better grades and unlock achievments, but it doesn't seem like it's worth it.
Score: 5

Overall: Kameo really is a great game. After the extremely rocky start, it really gets into a grove and it's hard to let go of. I've been spending a bunch of my spare time on it over the last couple days, and it seems like one of those games I'll want to go back and play from scratch on a rainy day. It's a blast to play and I can only hope we haven't seen the last of the Elemental Warriors on the 360. While some parts aren't as polished as other, as a total package it really shines as a great Action/Adventure game in the Next Gen. It's absolutely worth picking up for anyone with a 360 at it's new lowered price tag.

Overall Score: 8.7

[Peanut]

Since no one else posts anything, I thought I would!

Dead Rising
Capcom
Xbox360

Graphics: The 360 has thus far created some pretty beautiful games. Both in terms of just plain graphical polish (GRAW, Kameo) and in terms of scope (Oblivion), but Dead Rising is the first 360 that really seems to try and go for something that is indeed impossible in anything but the Next Gen.

Suffice to say, Dead Rising cannot be pulled off by any previous generation hardware. Not with the scope and detail that Dead Rising presents on the 360 at least. In case you've been living under one of the largest rocks in the world, Dead Rising is all about hundreds of zombies packed into a mall. And when I say hundreds, I mean hundreds. There are points in this game where literally 800+ zombies are on screen. Probably more, I never exactly stopped to count.

This is what's so impressing about Dead Rising. The sheer amount of zombies on screen, all doing their thing, wether that be standing around looking stupid, chewing on hands, falling down steps or being destroyed by whatever weapon you happen to be in possession of. The character models aren't overly detailed, unless you're watching one of the cutscenes, which are all done with the DR engine, but are quite obviously much more optimized to look better. The zombies, Frank and survivors all look like high-end Xbox character models, but with some obvious texturing improvements. The zombies themselves have a good deal of variation, but you'll quite often notice 5 of the "hawian shirt wearing, knife zombies" clustered together, or several security zombies. It doesn't really matter, as you usually be too busy plowing them down to care.

Your surroundings, the gigantic mall the entire game takes place in, is also finely detailed. There are tons of stores, with plenty of stuff and it all looks great. There is a loading screen between sections of the mall It isn't really a bother though. The game runs at a very very steady clip, especially considering the completely insane amounts of action going on on the screen at all times. I believe the game runs at a solid 30 FPS, but don't hold me to that. The only time there's ever a dip is when you cause mass damage to a large group of zombies. For instance, swinging your sledge hammer around you in a wide arc with almost always cause the game to take a slight, and noticeable, dip in frame rate, depending on the amount of zombie skulls you're cracking. This doesn't detract from the game and you'll pretty much get so used to it that you don't really take note of it or care.

Overall Dead Rising is a pretty impressive looking game. The character models, while not overly detailed, are still very well done. The cut-scenes are easily the most impressive looking part of the game, but in terms of sheer size, the entire game is stunning. Places like the setting of your final "boss" encounter, or the underground tunnels of the mall, are so packed full of zombies you'll be amazed that they can pull this kind of stuff off now.

Score: 8.3

Sound: Dead Rising has what has to be one of the most well put together soundtracks of all time. Not in terms of music, but in terms of sound effects. There's virtually no music at most times of the game. There is one song you'll hear constantly, and that's the song some convicts are listening to in the courtyard area of the mall. You'll be quite sick of it by the end and eventually want to kill them, not for annoying you while trying to save people, but just because you want to shut the music up. You'll sometimes hear music in the mall, but it's usually drowned out by moaning, screeching and chainsaw noises.

Which brings me to the most impressive part of the sound department. The sound effects. How in the world the sound team got so many amazing effects is completely beyond me. Everything from chainsaws, to umbrellas and baseball bats sounds amazing. I've never heard a person get smacked in the skull with a bowling ball, but now I have a pretty good idea of what it would sound like. The ungodly noises some of the weapons in the game make as you slice, crush, shoot and bludgeon your way through hoards of zombies is incredible.

The game uses surround sound to full effect, and it sounds amazing on my Sony digital system. No matter where you are in the mall, you always hear that constant moaning. Wether it be soft and distant, or loud and near. It creates the perfect atmosphere for the game. Even inside the Security Room, the only safe place in the mall, you hear scratching and moaning coming from the other side of the main entrance door. It's creepy and it's amazing. A real mood setter.The voice-overs are also surprisingly good, especially for a Capcom game. They still have a bunch of completely annoying voices though, so you still know who made it.

It's slightly disappointing that there is little to no music in the game, but the sound effects and voice acting more than make up for it.

Score: 9.0

[Peanut]

Gameplay: Dead Rising can really be summed up as an old school beat-em-up in most cases. Quite often you'll be using whatever you can come across as a weapon and just slamming the attack button to drop your zombie opponents. While there are plenty of fire-arms available in the game, you'll rarely use them to dispatch zombies. You'll usually want to save them for boss fights. In these you'll often find yourself trying to hide away from a completely over-powered psycho with a large and powerful weapon.

The best part of Dead Rising is, in all honesty, not the hokey story missions, or the boss fights (although some are pretty cool), but just enjoying yourself in the mall and doing completely terrible, horrific and all-together DELIGHTFUL things to thousands of un-dead. Just about anything you can think of is available for you to use as a weapon of destruction in the mall. From CD's to shower heads, lead pipes to wide screen tv's and all kinds of other assorted goodies. There's just something completely satisfying about chopping zombies in half with a chainsaw, watching their head explode as your treat their body like a t-ball stand, or burning the skin off their face with a hot frying pan. The sheer amount of interactivity with items in the mall is amazing. And things that you just wouldn't expect. Want to throw a pie in a zombies face? Go ahead! Toss some cooking oil on the floor and watch them slip and slide all over the place. Put masks on them, throw soda cans at their face, shove coat hangers down their throats, cut them in half with swords and axes. There really is no end to the torture you can put these zombies through. If only the rest of the game was this fun.

The boss fights in the game are really up and down. Besides rarely being entertaining, they're also usually pretty cheap; although not overly difficult. It really all depends on the weapons you have in your inventory at the time, which isn't a good way to set things up, as you could end up with anything. In my first play-through I ended up with a lone sledge hammer during one of the earlier boss fights. While just as easy as fighting a zombie when you're equipped with a gun, the fight gets nearly impossible when you attempt and use a melee weapon. You simply cannot get anywhere near the boss. The only hope you have is for his AI to break and have him stuck in a doorway or running in circles. Not so fun.

Speaking of the AI, it seems like Capcom missed something. If there's one completely and overly bad part of the game, it's that everyone in this game is STUPID! For instance, survivors will run head-long into a large group of zombies for no reason at all. You may be calling for them from the complete opposite side of the area, and they'll just run straight on into the pack. You can equip some survivors with weapons in hopes that they'll defend themselves, but this only makes them last slightly longer. You may be in the middle of carrying an injured survivor when another moronic companion decides to run into a group of 20 zombies armed with a pistol. Not only will this require you to put down the injured and defeneless person, but it also requires you to back track to wherever the afore mentioned moron is screaming Frank's name and save them. Before long I would just leave people who couldn't keep up, or who constantly got stuck in a group of zombies on purpose and just continue on my way.

Dead Rising also contains a game breaking weapon. The small chainsaws. You obtain two of these completely deadly weapons from defeating Adam the Clown early in the game. These chainsaw's, unlike the normal chainsaw, can be stored in your inventory and never need to be turned on. They can also be made to last for about 1,200+ zombie kills each, which is a hell of a lot. They also respawn everytime you re-enter the area without one in your inventory. Of course, you can choose not to use them, but who ever turns up an ultimate weapon? Very few people. They kill bosses in very few swipes and that's something that has a lot of appeal, as you'll usually want to get out of those as fast possible.

There has been a lot of talk about the save feature in Dead Rising. Some people hate it, some people love it, some people, like myself, don't really care. It is a broken system, I will admit that. Like many parts of the game, it seems like it was designed to force replayability, something that didn't need to be done. It can essentially make you "lose" the game. If you save too far away from one of the missions, you have no chance of continuing.You'd have to restart from the beginning again to continue with the story missions. Speaking of the story missions, most of them are pretty lame. I'll come right out and say that I'm not a fan of timed games. I think it detracts from enjoyment. Forcing a player along on a very very strict schedule isn't exactly a recipe for fun. Dead Rising is a worst case scenario for those of us who strongly dislike time limits, because the entire game is on a time limit. Busy having fun killing zombies? Don't have too much fun, you'll need to rush back to point A before time B or you'll have to restart from your last save, or in a bunch of cases the very beginning of the game!

Dead Rising really does a bunch of stuff right, but it also does a lot of stuff wrong, in some cases horribly wrong. Killing zombies is so fun you'll want to do it for hours. Unfortunately things will constantly get in the way. Cheap boss fights and border-line boring case missions on a horrible time limit will interfere on a regular basis. Capcom also didn't seem to have the foresight to include a true free-roam mode. You'll get "infinity mode", which is horribly named, as it isn't infinite. You do whatever you want in the mall, occasionally molested by some different enemies and bosses, but you also have a limited supply of food, as it doesn't respawn. This wouldn't be all that bad, but your health is constantly dwindeling, making this mode more of a "forage for food" chore than anything else. The potential for this series really is through the roof. Capcom has built a great base, now they just need to improve on it. There's more than enough room for improvement.

Score: 8

Story: The story of Dead Rising is slightly intriguing. Then you learn about some of the truth and it gets terribly lame. They really dropped the ball on this one.

Score: 5

Replay Value: You'll play through this game 2 or 3 times. Not just because you want to, but in some cases because you have to. The 72-hour mode is real trouble at some parts doing your first play through, so you'll probably restart once or twice about half-way through to keep your levels and skills and make things a bit easier. Forced replay is completely lame. Capcom had a winner on it's hands anyways, so why they decided to kind of break the game is a complete mystery.

[/i]Score[/i]: 8

Overall: Dead Rising is a game that'll really get zombie enthusiasts going. The setting alone is enough to make those familiar with the classic Romero zombie flicks froth at the mouth, but the problems the game has are undeniable. It's a good thing that Capcom really did a great job on the "killing thousands of zombies in a huge mall with anything you want" part of the game, because if that was mediocre, this game would be completely worthless. Please make a sequel Capcom and please clean up your mess this time.

Overall Score: 8.3

[Kid Icarus]

Sounds a bit too much like RE4 gone beat-em-up to me... I'll have to check it out though.

[Peanut]

It's nothing like RE4 actually. The differences are even further lessend by the fact that RE4 doesn't have zombies.

[Kid Icarus]

Zombies...

Spoiler:

aliens

... they all want to kill you. Like I said, I'll give it a go when we get a 360 here.