In anticipation for Ready At Dawn’s God of War (PSP) game I picked up Daxter to see what their previous work was all about. It’s quite an impressive venture for the PSP, and while I enjoyed all aspects of the game I’m just not so big on platformers.
I had hoped to spend more time with the title but surprisingly I got matched up rather quickly to trade it away on Goozex. Was my own fault for listing it while I was still playing it, but I figured it was an old game and I was safe being so far down the trade list. Goozex is funny that way though, and today I said goodbye to a wise-cracking rodent that I barely even knew.
Virtua Fighter was in and out the door in 3 days. Not a lot of time to give the game a fair, ‘fighting’ chance - but all it needed was one night of on-line play to show it’s inadequacies. The ‘online’ function is featureless, especially when compared to what Dead or Alive 4 had to offer. Granted lag pretty much killed everything DOA4 had on-line, and while VF5 handles on-line matches much better there was no incentive for me to play them.
I thought about keeping the game and playing through the solo missions, but playing a fighter alone is truly playing with yourself. With so many other games to play VF5 just wouldn’t get the love it deserves, so back to Goozex with it.
I don’t plan stepping back into a fighter until the new Soul Calibur emerges. Well, maybe Street Fighter, but we’ll see about that.
Assassin’s Creed is quite a game. It’s a rare experience when I enjoy playing a game because I enjoy ‘being’ the character that I’m manipulating. That was the case for me with Assassin’s Creed. While the environments were incredible, the story intriguing and the action top-notch the biggest thrill I got from the game was just being in Altiar’s shoes.
Silently and unassumingly walking down bustling streets as I stalked my targets, filled me with a bit of an uber ‘bad-ass’ feeling. It was so much so that I continued to walk those very streets, hiding right out in the open, long after I had dispatched my assassination target.
For the first half of the game I played as intended, remaining in a low profile as to not draw attention - but eventually, the dark side of the force took over and I fearlessly walked with my head held high and at most times my sword drawn.
Crowds would scatter at my feet, guards called in reinforcements and I smirked as I stepped over their lifeless bodies as I continued on my quest. It was quite a rush.
I wasn’t a heartless killer mind you, I assisted every citizen in distress and would’ve done more for them had only the game allowed it. The few times my blade accidentally found an innocent victim left me feeling truly sorry.
I can understand complaints that the game is too repetitive. While some tasks flow along with the storyline others are just pure filler. They were all fun to tackle, but I would’ve liked to have seen a better integration between the story and the events that you were charged with during your missions.
While I enjoyed the story at it’s most intriguing parts, there were a few too many elements that I could do without. I’ll spare mentioning those there as not to ruin the game for anyone. Lets just say when Altiar wasn’t on my screen my enjoyment of the game would take a bit of a dive.
The ending also left me a bit disappointed, but I suppose it’s somewhat IP-suicide for a game company to give a complete experience in a title these days.
Assassin’s Creed is a difficult game to rate. Assigning a number score to it feels arbitrary. The game exceeded in some areas while being only really good in others. On a personal satisfaction scale, I’d give the game a 10. I got an incredible experience from being able to step into a very unusual pair of shoes, one that I highly recommend.
Off to Goozex a second time with Rainbow Six Vegas. The first time I foolishly and hastily traded the game away (my first Goozex trade) thinking that GRAW2 was going to get all the love. I was sadly mistaken as GRAW2 hardly got any playtime in our group while RSV became king.
I just couldn’t get into the multiplayer at all and the single player felt so GRAW-like that I felt I didn’t need both games. I’m not sure why, but when the opportunity to pick up the LE edition arose for $20 from Amazon.com I ponied up to give RSV a second chance. Needless to say I am extraordinarily happy that I did. I took on the game co-op with a buddy and had quite a fantastic time. So good that I’m eagerly awaiting the release of RSV2.
I was somewhat tempted to replay the game solo, but too many other games got in the way.
Adios RSV - see you in RSV2, the search for more money!
I’m not complaining about my SD900. No way, no how. It’s just… well, the SD1100 is blue! I’ve never owned a blue camera before and I’m finding it very difficult to resist.
Actually, it’s not the blue that is reeling me in. It’s the enhanced features of the SD1000 that I’ve been missing out on plus a whole extra megapixel.
Hopefully I’ll be able to pick this up alongside an underwater case for our trip to Grand Cayman in April!
There, I finally admitted it. I just do not like Burnout Paradise. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it by any means, it’s just not a game that I’m rushing home to play.
I’m not a big racing-game fan, so aside from Mario Kart I rarely venture into the genre. I enjoyed Forza momentarily, but it’s realism cost the game it’s allure for me rather quickly. Burnout Revenge on the other hand was hardly ‘realistic’. It was more like pod-racing than driving and it’s arcade-like quality drew me in.
Burnout Paradise is still a long way from Forza, but the races, the meat of Burnout for me, just aren’t as thrilling as I had hoped. One of the things I didn’t like about Forza was the fact that shortly after the finish line I would not see another car until the end of the race. Burnout Revenge on the other hand felt like it was much more neck and neck until the finish line.
Paradise falls more towards the Forza side of things unfortunately. After the race starts the pack starts to spread out. Takedowns just don’t happen as frequently anymore during a race, and now even scratching another car or barrier will cause your car to wreck.
Not to mention you need to use your breaks in a race. This is Burnout for pete’s sake, why the hell do you need to use the breaks!?!? In Revenge I never let off of the accelerator or the boost button, but in Paradise I am now hitting the breaks. Sure, you used the breaks to drift previously, but now I need them to SLOW DOWN and often times STOP. Not to mention when I have to turn around because I’ve made a wrong turn.
The racing portion of the game just isn’t as much fun as I was hoping. There are all the challenges which feels more like Stuntman than Burnout to me, but they are a nice diversion from how disappointed I am with the racing aspect of Paradise.
Yeah yeah, the game looks great, the city is huge and on-line play is seamless. It’s just a shame I don’t feel inclined to actually play it. I’ll stick it out for some achievements and fun multiplayer with the challenges, but Burnout Paradise just isn’t a keeper for me.
Can someone explain to me the logic in being forced to pre-order a game in order to get a copy of the demo? If I am pre-ordering I am committing to a purchase already, and therefore the demo only serves as a preview to my soon to be purchased game. So essentially the point of the demo is wasted.
Now if I was handed a demo for a game I had no prior interest in I may find that I enjoy the demo enough to purchase the game. This has happened to me numerous times on the Xbox 360, where I’ve downloaded demos of games to test them out and enjoyed them so much that I purchased the full retail version.Hell, it’s even happened on the PSP in a few occasions.
I received a Ratchet & Clank PSP demo in the mail from Sony. Here was a game I hadn’t been following and had absolutely no interest in. I played the demo and was so blown away I picked up the game. The game ended up being one of the best experiences I’ve had so far on the PSP.
My point is WTF!?!?! Why not try and preach Patapon to those not already looking forward to it’s release. Granted the demo comes with some exclusive weapon BS that is usable in the retail version, but c’mon!
This demo should be up on the Playstation store (like it is in Japan) along with oodles more for us PSP owners to sample. Get with the program Sony! You’ve got your store up now on the PC, make the most of it!
I’m a late Bomberman-bloomer. My first introduction to the game was the XBLA version. Due to that fact, and the fact that I spent the majority of time playing the game on-line with friends, this PSP off-line version didn’t really keep me interested for very long.
To me the joy of Bomberman was it’s simplicity, and it’s fun ‘laugh out loud’ multiplayer aspects. It just wasn’t the same when I was playing with myself.
