Thursday, September 11, 2014

Well...

behold my first .gif
     The end of Summer was a pretty odd time for me to say the least, and some of that did indeed effect this blog.You (and by you I mean no one since I'm doubting anyone outside of unlucky googlers read anything on here)may recall me mentioning I recently got a new laptop on that day. Well after getting me through my last two years of high school AND my first year of college, that ol' netbook has finally kicked the bucket technically only a small part of the screen broke and its still usable, but I rather replace it before something like the hard drive ends up crashing). Within a week of that happening my Android phone ended up breaking, so I had to go back to my messed up but still usable iPhone. Yeah this is similar to back in 2011 when my laptop and PSP ended up breaking on the same day (The PSP I fixed a month later though).
     Speaking of handheld consoles, both my DS and PSP ended up getting screwed up this Summer. For some extremely stupid reason I ended up updating my PSP, which removed the custom firmware, thus making it impossible for me to play my ISOs. To make matters worse I had a friend of my Pandora Battery that thing way back in 2010, so I currently don't have the means to fix it. On the DS front my "Personal Media Player" (which I use to play ROM files) became corrupt after I tried to add another game onto it (something I haven't done since 2012). Maybe in light of all this I'll end up buying a 3DS since Smash Bros. is coming out soon.
me breaking the new rig in
     Aaaaaand speaking of buying new consoles I did something I would never of expected; I purchased another 360. Shocking I know considering how I've been pretty much counting the days til I got rid of this thing. Who knew that only 8 months without it would make me have a huge craving for some PDz (technically it was Fallout: New Vegas that made me really want it but eh). For the record this wont affect the games on my "list of 360" games thing that I will eventually end up finishing.
     Yeah updating this thing slowly isn't exactly a new thing. Going back to school isn't going to help it since I wont exactly feel like writing game reviews after I just typed out 4 easy but tedious essays. But at the same time I don't have any plans of just not posting here. I honestly do love reviewing games even when no one gives me feedback or anything. I love how I put everything together back in 2011 too, and despite how horrible I think (or rather know) my reviews were, they are still part a part of my life I don't want to forget. I also have a decent amount of incomplete reviews that I started mostly in 2011 that I do want to finish at some point. I'll either continue them as I would've then, or I'll do my modern style after whatever is already there to see how badly they clash.
     On a final note, this is my first post on my new laptop I got a week or so ago! Its a 15.6 inch Toshiba with Windows 8.1. On the bright side it runs great for an extremely reasonable $240.00. On the downside though its massive. I did want another one the size of my old one, but it would seem the netbook crowd is being phased out by tablets. That and laptops that size are either really cheap with low specs, or extremely overpriced. Anyway, hope my extremely small (and unknown) reader base enjoy some future posts that I will eventually get to!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Top 3 Most Disappointing Xbox 360 Purchases

Probably what I did anytime I lost a receipt
     Disappointing purchases, we as consumers have all had them. It not that something is always bad, its more of just it wasn't what you expected, and thus you're annoyed you spent a certain amount of money on it. It make you want to tear your hair out, smash your laptop, rip a hole in the space time continuum and then eat a chicken taco (not necessarily in that order). Its not even that you bought something bad, hell you could still end up enjoying it, its just you wish you looked into it harder or you should've waited til it was on sale or something. Keep that in mind throughout this list as many games I post here I probably put a lot of time into and generally enjoyed, I just wasn't truly satisfied that I bought it.

#3: Turok

not an N64 classic sadly
      I've heard many people call this a terrible shooter, but honestly I disagree. I thought all in all it was a fair well rounded shooter with enough variety to help me make it all the way through til the final boss fight (which I never ended up beating). However; loose controls, a short campaign and frustrating difficulty made me feel upset over the $5 I spent on this game. I bought Rainbow Six: Vegas that very same day and it was disappointing transitioning between the games, epically since I had much higher hopes for Turok (since I assumed Vegas would end up being pretty much a first person GRAW). When I got this game, I had five FPSs in my 360 collection (excluding Rainbow Six). Turok sadly lacked the fluid shooting of COD: WAW, the open ended levels of Far Cry Instincs: Predator, the bot matches of Perfect Dark: Zero, and the simple fun of Soldier of Fortune: Payback. In the end it was a game I did almost complete, but I eventually lost interest in it once I got other games. I ended up gifting it to someone a year after I bought it. Sadly the person who got it didn't even give it a chance.

#2: Mirror's Edge

Proof of concept, nothing more
      This is another fairly controversial game when it came to reception. Many people believe its unique concept pushes past whatever flaw it may have. Other however feel the small package and limited gameplay hurt it too much for salvation. I'm closer to the later half of the group sadly. I bought this game during a "buy 2 get 1 free" sale on used games back in April of 2012. I wanted to do a semi-theme for some reason so I ended up buy three games with female main characters; this, FFX-2 and Resident Evil: Zero. I had extremely high hopes for this games, as I was growing sick of the slow, stereotypical first person action games I owned, and I was getting back into platformers, so I felt this game would be perfect. Hell even before I had a next gen console I saw commercials for this game and thought it looked amazing. Sadly all these good feelings were not meant to last. I honestly did have a good time with the game for a little bit, but after a while it sort of fell into a funk. The free running was far to linear and the combat was awful. I tried to compare it to Breakdown, a 2003 Xbox game that had a heavy focus on a realistic first person perspective, and honestly it didn't really stack up. I believe I just totally gave up at a section where you had to run up a building, since it was slow and not very exciting at all.

Special Hardware Mention

     "Sigh" I don't know what I was thinking buying this piece of crap. I was always worried I would get a Red Ring of Death the entire time I had my console, so in early Summer of 2013 I ended purchasing one of these cooling fans at a pawnshop for around $6. All this thing did was make my console louder than a freaking lawn mower. I even went online and found out these things actually increase the chances of getting a Red Ring by draining power from the console. Probably the most infamous moments with this thing was when I downloaded Assassin's Creed 2 in July of that year, and then Sleeping Dogs in January of 2014. The later was even funnier since I was playing my PS2 while it was downloading and I actually had to turn my TV up to hear my game!
     Also for an honorable mention we have a headset I purchased in December of 2011 for $14 at Radioshack. This was a third party one and for months it was pretty much useless since I didn't have Live Gold (or even a wireless adapter). When I finally got a wireless adapter, I was using it for the first time one a free Gold weekend playing Halo: Reach and GRAW. It worked perfectly fine that night (I even got yelled at by a 12 year old for singing). Flash forward to the next day and the thing didn't work at all. $14 and 7 months of waiting all for nothing.

#1: Stoked: Big Air Edition

The title was not how I felt
      Remember how I said most games on this list would be games I generally enjoyed? Yeah this one is the exception to that. I do want to make sure that I say its not really a BAD game, it was just not my things at all. This is a very sim based snowboarding game. So much so that I got bored with it very quickly and ran up to my Gamecube to play some more 1080 Avalanche. But the most disappointing thing about this game was that I ended up paying a disturbingly high $15 at Gamestop. Before this the most I spent on a game was $20, and that was because I bought it off of a friend (it was Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood). To make matters worse, the not much different regular version was only $5 and this version went down to $5 a few months later. So I ended up spending a decent amount on a game I didn't put more than 10 hours into. For the same price I could've afford up to four of the other games I eventually ended up adding to my collection. Again this was honestly not a bad game, and it even had some features I really liked (a pretty sweet soundtrack, nice graphics, open world mountains) but it was not at all what I expected. I almost ended up selling it in the Summer of 2012, but at the last minute I backed out. I did try to give it another try multiple times, but nothing made it better. That is why Stoked: Big Air Edition was the most disappointing game I bought for the Xbox 360.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Number 9: Tomb Raider: Underworld

Finding the cover for this game was a pain
    Some might consider a game that I probably didn't put more than 15 or so hours into within the 3 years I owned it an odd choice for this top ten. Hell it even beat out the previous entry, which I have far more time put into. Probably the reason I didn't put too much time into this was because I got a shooter and a racing game the same time (along with three gamecube games). Pretty much every one of the other five games I purchased that day had more pick up and play value than Lara's adventure. But I'll get onto that later, here is the number nine spot.
     Tomb Raider: Underworld is an action adventure game released in 2008 on the 360, PS3 and PC (in more or less the same form) as well as the Wii, PS2, mobile phones and DS (which vary in faithfulness to the HD versions). It is the third game in the Crystal Dynamics reboot trilogy of the former PlayStation classic. Being a direct sequel to "Legend" the game picks off around where its predecessor left off. From there is plays off in a series of flashbacks (starting I believe two weeks before the into training mission). Basic gameplay elements include platforming through complex levels, puzzles, and combat.
its a balancing act deary
     This is a game in the franchise that time seems to have recently forgotten about. People will often think about the PS1 classics, Legends, and the 2013 reboot. This was the first strictly next gen installment into the series, and it seemed to have garnished mixed reviews due to its sort of half gen feel. By that I mean many elements feel "next gen" while others didn't exactly feel new, original, or fresh. Thankfully, Crystal Dynamics gave the players a backstory feature, so players who didn't get to Legend two years prior could know what going on. My biggest complaint about the game would have to be its glitches however. There seemed to be times where Lara would get stuck in an area and you would have to sort of jiggle the thumbstick to get her out. Hopefully that wouldn't happen over a huge ledge, or you'd be done for. An area I had no complaints on was the audio/video presentation. The graphics in this game were, and still are excellent to me. Beautiful complicated vistas are the game's specialty, and it makes sure you get a front row seat to the view. Character models are also wonderful, even if a little more dated than the environments. Your ears get some sweet candy as well, with film quality music and superb voice acting. Guns are loud and the creatures you fight sounds wonderfully convincing.
a vista not unlike this one
     I purchased this game in April of 2011. This was in the first batch of 360 games I bought outside of the two that came with my console. Its worth noting I bought these around 14 hours away from my hometown on a beautiful spring thunderstorm. Come to think of it, the memory of buying the game could almost be considered my best with it. Honestly this game seems to hold a place in my heart for the memory of that Summer, as it was pretty much felt like my last true childhood Summer. I remember getting home from one of my last days of Sophomore year and turning this game on, stuck at a part with a huge green and grey vista in front of Lara, not unlike the weather we were having that muggy June day. Had to stop playing for an hour to talk to a friend of mine on the phone.All these superficial memories may make it sound like I didn't enjoy the gameplay, but its quit the opposite. I've been dying to play this game ever since I got rid of my console, and I'm thinking of rebuying it on the PS3. Tomb Raider is one of those franchises I grew up with (which might be why, unlike many people, I have a hard time looking at Lara as a sex object) and getting this game resparked the interest in the franchise that I lost by playing Tomb Raider 4 on the Dreamcast (....just don't do it). Its a wonderful franchise, and its persistence is generally why Underworld is number 9 on this list.


Monday, June 30, 2014

Number 10: Fatal Inertia

Sonic and Knuckles in metal form
     The bottom of this list seemed to be the hardest position to figure out. In the end it came down to this game and the infamous Perfect Dark: Zero. What made me choose this Unreal powered futuristic racer was one simple question; which game gave me more satisfaction per amount of frustration. I came up with this solution by realizing that although I probably have sinked many more hours into PDZ (mostly due to the lovely bot matches) I generally enjoyed this game a lot more. Even though I never finished the career mode, I never had to stop a higher difficulty playthrough due to a damn bridge not loading (nice coding Rare).
     Fatal Inertia is a fairly basic futuristic racer. The gameplay relies heavily on combat, not unlike what is found in the popular wipeout series. A key separation between this and its contemporaries is the organic environments that can be an advantage and hindrance to your racing. There is also some nice customization features to be found in the four different types of ships, each of which have interesting sets of advantages and disadvantages.
reminds me of crimson skies
    "Fatally Average" is how IGN felt about this game, and personally I feel that may be a little harsh, but not by much. This was the first exclusive Xbox futuristic racer since 2002's disappointing "Quantom Redshift". Unlike that game however, this was not a Microsoft developed game, nor did it have former developers of wipeout on its team. Rather, it was made by "Koei", known for Dynasty Warriors,Dynasty Warriors, and Dynasty Warriors (thank you X-Play for that joke). Overall, the game was fortunate enough to avoid the big issue Redshift had, in that this game is actually playable throughout the entire experience. It also avoided Redshifts selling point in that the Audio/Video presentation isn't the best for the time. You can also tell the game clearly wasn't complete, as graphical pop-ins are extremely clear, glitches show up from time to time, and the controls clearly don't make use of the controller properly.
Magnet Cluster was always my personal favorite
     I purchased this game at Gamestop used for around $5 in late August of 2011. I also bought PDZ and Enchanted Arms that day (pretty nice variety I gotta say). One really sweet memory I had with this game was it being the first game I hooked up to an HDTV about a month after I bought it. I played on a 20in Standard Definition TV for the first 9 months of owning my 360 (though I did get to play on an HD one briefly in July of that year). Seeing the colors in this game flourish made me get a bit more respect for it. Of course, once I saw games with far more coats of polish at that LCD screen I saw the game for what it truly was, but even then it had its own charm. As I mentioned earlier, I never ended up unlocking everything in this game, as it was one of those "get into a groove for a few days and then put it down for a month or two" games for me. I remember getting into grooves around a year after I bought it and then in late winter of 2013. I believe it also ended up being the final game I ever played on my 360 before I sold it to Gamestop. All in all, I ended up having one good time with this mediocre but charming little racing game. 

Sunday, January 12, 2014

The end of an era: my Xbox 360 top 10

Despite what the title may have you believe, this is not a list made because of the recently released xbox one. In reality, the 360 I had since January of 2011 is finally reaching its last leg. So I figured why not do a top ten list of my favorite games I own (or extended borrowed) for the console? But then I thought "eh thats dull and boring" so I decided I was gonna do five top 3 lists after every couple of entries. Each game in the top ten will be a single post of its own while all three in the top threes will be a single post.

Here are the five top 3 lists I'll be doing:
  • Most Disappointing purchase
  • Ugliest and prettiest 
  • most unique
  • most unfinished
  • flat out worst
Now since I haven't played through every game released for the console, this  list will only be using the 50 or so games I own (or extended borrowed). Below is a list of every game that could make any of the lists!
  1. Prey
  2. Virtua Fighter 5
  3. Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
  4. Halo Reach
  5. Forza Motorsport 2
  6. Turok
  7. Stoked: Big Air Edition
  8. Halo 4
  9. Golden Axe: Beast Rider
  10. Prince of Persia
  11. Harms way
  12. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
  13. Happy Wars
  14. Rogue Warrior
  15. Duke Nukem Forever
  16. Enchanted Arms
  17. Alone in the Dark
  18. Hexic HD
  19. Fatal Inertia
  20. Pure
  21. SEGA Superstars Tennis
  22. Devil May Cry 4
  23. Kameo: Elements of Power
  24. Tomb Raider: Underworld
  25. Mirror's Edge
  26. Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
  27. Doritos Crash Course 2
  28. Battlefield: Bad Company 2
  29. Lost Planet: Colonies Edition
  30. Borderlands
  31. L.A. Noire 
  32. Batman: Arkham City
  33. Rainbow Six: Vegas
  34. Assassin's Creed 2
  35. Project Gotham Racing 3
  36. Final Fantasy XIII
  37. Far Cry Instincts Predator 
  38. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
  39. Gears of War 2
  40. Perfect Dark: Zero
  41. Far Cry 2
  42. Call of Duty 3
  43. Fallout: New Vegas
  44. Call of Duty: World at war
  45. Soldier of Fortune: Payback
  46. Burnout: Paradise
  47. Sleeping Dogs
  48. Left 4 Dead
  49. F.E.A.R. Files
Expect #10 later tonight. Heres hoping I finish this list by the end of the month or so