You're having a good old time playing your favorite handheld game and then it happens: you realize your hands have contorted into a pretzeld nightmare. Raptor claws. I, too, used to game in pain until I realized there was a better way. So let me help you get a handle on the situation. The answer, my friends, is molded plastic. But there are many varieties of such plastic and many handhelds. You want to avoid crippling hand pain but don't know where to start? Luckily for you, I'm crazy andhave money to blow. I have spent years acquiring a collection of handhelds and grips, perhaps in preparation for this day. So here it is, the event hundreds of dollars in the making. Find your preferred handheld below and get ready to board the train to grip town!
Kingdom Hearts has always been a little bit crazy, but Kingdom Hearts 3D ups the crazy ante in suitably crazy ways. The story, of course, has become even more convoluted (Or has it...? It probably has.) this time involving Sora and Riku ridding dream worlds of dream eaters so they can pass their Mark of Mastery exam and become keyblade masters. Still with me? Good. The game's new set of enemies are crazy neon animals that come in both "nightmare" and "spirit" forms. Nightmares are bad, but spirits will fight with you, replacing Donald and Goofy. And that's just the most minor difference.
If I could describe my experience with Heroes of Ruin in two words, it would be "pretty good". Heroes of Ruin won't revolutionize dungeon crawlers forever, but that doesn't mean it's not pretty good. The game has four character classes, and so is tailored for four-player co-op. The demo let me try out the warrior (lion man) and the ranger (hood man). I assume the other classes are a tank and some sort of mage. Anyway, since it's inevitable to compare this to similar games, Heroes of Ruin is definitely better than the last dungeon crawler I played. Nope, not Diablo 3. Crimson Alliance on the Xbox Arcade. Compared to that, this is amazing. It's a much deeper, more traditional dungeon crawl experience, only handheld. And it is indeed fully featured, with both local and online play with voice chat.
Limbo had a lot of hype behind it when it was released. I remember hearing about it here and there and basically everywhere, but I never payed it much mind. Then, of course, the reviews came out and Limbo was receiving a ridiculous amount of praise, maintaining a 90 on Metacritic. So I figured I had to check it out. I downloaded the trail version of the game which was actually pretty engrossing. Good enough to show off to all of my friends, at least. As the game starts off, you are a young boy lying in the woods. Continuously mashing any button wakes the boy up and then you're on your way. That's it. No explanation. Apparently, he's out to find his sister or something. Immediately I was sucked into the atmosphere and style of the game. It's all grayscale with a kind of grainy old film filter on top of it with a vignette effect that blurs out the edges. To add to the atmosphere, there really is no music in Limbo. For the most part it's all ambient noise, except for a few occasions where a couple of eerie chords sneak in. So the game was able to suck me in. Good.
|Assassin's Creed 3| I'm Not a fan of the Assassin's Creed series. I bought the first game and it didn't impress me. I found the repetition boring and the setting even more boring. Plus, the main "plot twist" was revealed at the very beginning. The whole "epic assassin game throughout periods of history" was ruined by it, well, not being that. It's just a dude hooked up to a machine who's "reliving" the history of his ancestors who are apparently all assassins. Yes, Desmond has one of the most multiculturally diverse family trees in the history of... ever. And while it doesn't necessarily make sense for Desmond to be Syrian/Italian/British/Native American, I really do like where they took the series. See, I foolishly bought Assassin's Creed 2 because the word on the street was that the sequel was much improved. It didn't do much for me either. Maybe it's because I've been taking Latin since high school, but I found the Italian Renaissance setting to be even less historically interesting than The Crusades. And those goofy Italian accents... And then they made that game into its own trilogy. When it concluded last year, I (and everyone else, no doubt) wondered where the series would go from there. Rumors pointed to the American Revolution. This instantly piqued my interest. It was uncharted territory for video games, and a really interesting creative decision. The more I learned about the game, the more I liked it. Then E3 happened and I got to see it. Oh my, does this look great.
First, there's that lovely CG trailer, which is one of the things the series has always done best. They're always extremely well done and hype-inducing. But more importantly, three gameplay demos came out of the show. There was the infiltration of a Redcoat compound in the snowy wilderness that was shown at the Ubi press conference. It looked fantastic. Leagues above the previous games. And the setting was gorgeous. But then Sony had the exclusive reveal of naval combat. What!? At this point I was double sold. Finally, I saw a floor demo of Boston. It had moving haystacks. Day one purchase. DAY ONE.
It's nearly here. E3 time. Gamer Christmas. No matter who wins it this year, us gamers all win. But I bet you want to know who's going to win anyway, don't you? Well then click on, my friend!
So I was at PAX East last weekend and I played some great games. Not as many games as I wanted to play, but I played some cool stuff nonetheless. What did this year's show have to offer? Impressions lie within, including a spcial preview of Party of Sin.
And when I say that, I mean themes that aren't the Zelda series theme or a variation on that theme. Believe it or not, that's used in a ton of the games: The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past (though not the Dark World), Link's Awakening, Majora's Mask, Oracle of Seasons and Ages, Four Swords Adventures, and The Minish Cap. The other seven games are fair play!
Last year was nuts. Tons of quality games came out and there was no way I could play them all. There was also no way I could play the ones I had as much as I wanted. Also, this is going up way later than I wanted. Having said that, it's finally time for the BOOTY Awards!
My first impression of Kingdoms of Amalur were based on about 90 minutes of gameplay. I've since played for 10 hours and I've realized that this is a game far too massive to do a single writeup for. Instead, the review will come in parts. In this first installment, I'll explain what Amalur is and is not as well as commenting on what works and doesn't at this point in the game.
The GameBoy graphics are simple, yet strangely effective.
How did I miss Tower of Heaven when it came out two years ago? How did I miss it again when it was ported to flash with extra content last year? I may be late to the party, but this party is so damn good that I don't care. A lot of us here missed this gem, so the logical conclusion is that it flew under many a radar. Well, I'm here to introduce you. This is Tower of Heaven, and he is a work of art.
The Nintendo 3DS: the point of a lot of discussion and controversy this last year. It had a rocky start and some thought it would never make it. The terrible launch lineup, no eShop, and $250 price made it a tough sell in early 2011. Then came word that this year would bring Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, Star Fox and Kid Icarus along with the launch of the eShop. Unfortunately, two of those were remakes, two more wouldn't be out until the year's end, and Kid Icarus would be pushed to a release almost a year after the system's launch. The eShop didn't have much going for it early on either, with no original games and only Super Mario Land worth buying. No one expected what would happen next. The surprise $80 price cut was like cutting the weight off a balloon. Sales jumped 260% and by the end of the year and the system ended up selling over 4 million units in the US alone in 2011. Nintendo didn't stop there with the craziness. They threw in 20 free games for early adopters, and soon announced the circle pad pro which adds a second c-pad. It's been one crazy first year for the machine.
If you didn't pick one up at launch, after the price cut, or for the holidays, you may be asking yourself if it's worth getting considering the PSVita is right around the corner (though it's having similar launch troubles in Japan). Read on to (hopefully) reach a verdict.
Note: only include candles near your gifts if you want them to catch on fire and burn up.
Oh noes, Christmas is only a week away and I accidentally the gifts! What should I do? Is this dangerous?
Not to worry, resident of the internet, Installation 04 has got you covered! Read on for a handy list of gifts. All you have to do is hand over the money. And if it doesn't make it before Christmas, don't fret! At least they'll have gotten that perfect gift. After all, it's the thought that counts, right?
*NOTE* I have repurposed this review from a now defunct website. If it looks familiar, you're not crazy.
I don't buy a lot of third party accessories for my gaming systems. Though cheaper, it's usually a better investment to go with the first party stuff because it's more likely to last. Regardless, there were a lot of choices back when controllers were wired. Nowadays, Microsoft has a monopoly on wireless controllers and Sony doesn't allow for Bluetooth compatible ones, meaning you need a USB dongle. Nintendo doesn't give a crap, which is why I've only bought third party stuff for Nintendo systems this generation. What I buy, mostly, are controllers. I had a few PS2, Xbox, and GameCube controllers back in the day that weren't very solid. I haven't bought a third-party controller since. Well, until recently.
Remember that super kickass trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Remember how awesome the music was? Well now you can download it for free from the official website. Awesome.
The following is apparently test footage made for WB by an unnamed director who wants to reboot the franchise (it is assumed) in movie form. I have to say, it looks pretty fantastic. I'd see it. Between this and Street Fighter Legacy, which may actually become a series (!), it looks like game-to-screen adaptations ar looking up!
What is this extremely epic image you ask? Why it's from Axe Cop, the greatest comic ever created. You see, Axe Cop is a cop who uses an axe and is great a fighting. Together with his pals Flute Cop, Sockarang, his talking dog Ralph Wrinkles, and his pet dinosaur with machine guns for arms, Wrexer (and a lot more people) he is on a mission to wipe out all evil in the world. What's the best part? It's written by 5 year old Malachai Nicolle and edited and illustrated by his 29 year old brother Ethan. It's super awesome. Trust me. If you enjoy my nonsense stories, it's actually just like that but with pictures. Check out the first comic below and click here to see the rest.
I've probably played enough of Mario Galaxy 2 to review it. However, I'm going to wait until I get to the end because the game seems to never stop throwing new stuff at you. I want to make sure I cover every awesome thing this game offers. In the meantime, know that Mario Galaxy 2, though it shares a name with the original, is a very different game. Calling it 1.5 is an insult. It most certainly is it's own game, sharing only basic gameplay elements. Review should be up fairly soon I hope. My internet sucks right now, so that explains the lack of posts and possible late review of this game.
