The Year in Gaming: 2007, a retrospective

Yes, 2007 has been a great year for gaming. In this short year, we’ve had the biggest media release in history, our fair share of scandal, and some of the greatest games ever created. Let’s take a glimpse at what we’ve seen.

 The Hot Coffee Lawsuit

Dragged over by that bastard 2006 was the Hot Coffee mod lawasuit. Rockstar games, a subsidy of Take-Two interactive got into hot water over a mod made by an avidly perverted gamer. Thanks to the likes of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Take-Two was eventually sued over something they had absolutely no control over. Why you may ask? Because parents and lawmakers thought that it’s a companies responsibility to watch over what people do with their games. For one, most parents shouldn’t be buying this game for their kids, but that’s later on. Gamers had a good laugh over it, and with GTA:IV on the horizon, we may see something similar for the New Year.

Halo 3

The biggest media release of all time. Halo 3 was popular, but almost everyone was caught off guard by how popular it would be. Halo generated more revenue in twenty four hours than the most successful movie could do in a weekend. It practically crushed the only other major releases in other mediums so far in the year, which was mainly Shrek 3, Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Carribean 3, Transformers, and Harry Potter’s last foray into hogwarts (why so many three’s?!). It made Bungie and Microsoft so much money Bungie said bye bye to Microsoft. Halo 3 became the most played game in history. But it wasn’t game of the year. Why?!

Bioshock

Bioshock was an almost unanimous Game of the Year. Why? It didn’t have multiplayer, but it had everything everyone wanted. Fitting sound, terrific graphics, innovative gameplay, and, it was just damn fun. Bioshock was pretty much under the radar for a long time, and then it’s popularity exploded, making it an overnight success and prompting an almost instantaneous rise into the hallowed halls of “true gaming classics” along side Gran Turismo, Street Fighter, Pac-Man, Mario, Sonic, Halo, and Half-Life.

Portal

Thus bringing us to Portal. Quite clearly the most innovative game so far this decade, let alone this year. While still being an action game and a puzzle game, the use of portals to get through each challenge was amazing. And the ending song. Did I forget to mention the ending song? Yeah, it rocks.

I’m still alive. >:D

Call Of Duty 4

The first entry into the series that wasn’t world war II related, and it is hailed as the best multiplayer game of all time, muscling WoW out of that spot with it’s “Intuitive” class and exp system. Personally, the only thing I find special about it is if you’re wounded you can take “the easy way out” in muliplayer. Shooting your oponnents in a last dying attempt, or booby trapping yourself. Shweet.

This years Expos

Ah yes. The newly revamped E3 made it’s first showing, and the game journalism world wasn’t appeased. E for All was a flop, and PAX is now the place to be for game conventions. A short summary for a not very exciting subject.

An end of an Era

Red Vs Blue: The Bloos Gultch Chronicles finally came to an end. In episode 100, everything ended. It was a fitting ending to most fans, but almost every fan of RVB is still hungry for more stupid and violent antics. We’ll miss you old gal.

Wii winnnings

Looks like, though it has a limited stock, the Wii is currently winning the console wars, followed close behind here in the States by the Xbox 360, and both laying a whooping on the PS3 in the US, Japan, and Europe. Most predict the PS3 to die by next christmas.

PSP?!

The announcement of Sony’s competition to the iPhone, the Playstation Phone, which looks like nothing more than a PSP and a Pebble cell phone glued together, was slated for release “Christmas, but not this Christmas”, to the frustration and dismay of the general gaming public.

Gaming movies

Luckily, most came out in 2006 or will be coming out in 2008. The only ones to hit theaters was Dead Or Alive and Hitman. Dead or Alive, whilst being a decent game movie and an enjoyable fighting movie, completely bombed at the box office, while Hitman, not good but yet not bad, did moderately well, especially in the wake of Doom, House of the Dead, and Bloodrayne. The man responsible for most gaming movie monstrosities, Uwe Boll, is behind In the Name of the King: a Dungeon Siege tale, slated for release in January. With Joseph Statham, today’s best acton star, and Ray Liotta, not to mention the great Burt Reynolds, this movie may give Mr. Boll a bit of respect in the eyes of gamers. I myself am excited for this movie.

Free Massively Multiplayer Online Games

The advent of “Free” MMOGs came at us like a rocket. Sure, they were free, but for the good stuff you had to pay. While this has been around in RuneScape, it has been a growing format in popularity, used best by Ijji Games and NCSoft. Where this will all lead, no one knows. Hopefully it’ll be good. n_n

That’s all she wrote folks. I know that’s not all of what 2007 had to offer for us, but I’ll let you guys include what I’ve missed, what I can add, and how I can improve this article.

New Site

New blog site. All articles were originally on vicviper.gamebrink.com

Soul Calibur Legens Review (Wii)

December 26th, 2007

Soul Calibur Legends is amazing. It stands out in the hack-and-slash genre, a genre weighted down by un-original ideas and bland game play. The game starts off simply. You play as Sigfried at first, and pull the evil Soul Edge out of the floor of a ship. Que zombie skeletons. The game shows you what to do, from moving to attacks, and when you get to the top of the ship, the purple pirate captain attacks you, as the first boss. A fairly easy fight, but a good increase for the learning curve.As you get on with the game, you get to have a two player party, and press two buttons (I use B and C or B and Z) and you switch between them (and it does it automatically when they die). As you pass on, you gain more partners, including enemies sometimes, until you have different characters better suited for different levels. And what’s Soul Calibur without obvious cameos? Some of them are from older games (like the guy from Tekken) and some newcomers (Lloyd Irving). The in-game cut scenes are surprisingly stunning for the Wii, and the major beginning cut scene mixes 3-D animation and graphic-novel style art, is beautiful. The game is quite simple to play. Slash up or down for vertical attacks, left and right for horizontal attacks, and forward for slash attacks. Though the jump button is actually told to you (B), the game does a damn good job explaining the controls. The second character you have access to is Ivy, and the B button is essential for her strongest normal attack (A jump, a whip hooking with kaleidescope, and then a stomp). There are no frame rate issues when the action gets heavier, but there are some points where the game looks reminiscent of the Dreamcast (the barriers and other non-interactive objects). The Special move system is great. Just slash two or three enemies into the great beyond and then press the C button and unleash a powerful attack. It’s my favorite way to do an attack because it’s simply fun to watch. There are different ones for different attacks, find which you like best. :3

The cameras I have a problem with. They are, point and bluntly, handicapped, and you have no control over them. Are we really back on the PSOne?

Speaking of the controls, they are phenomenal. My only qualm with the controls is the nunchuck. In order to do a quick dash or side dash, you need to move the controller forward, backward, or side to side. It’s not very effective. In fact it’s counter effective. And the dash attacks with it are not only useless but hard to use. Another thing I’m unsure about. How does the slash of a sword puts out a fire? Uhm… work time fun?

One more thing. Can we get different victory phrases? I’m tired of “You can’t stop me.” And “You won’t stand in my way.”

Score: 80

Gameplay: 9.5

Graphics: 8.5

Sound: 7.0

Overall Replay Value: Moderately Elevated
Plays like: Onimusha and Soul Calibur combined.
Better than: Dynasty Heros, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, etc.
On par with: Most future sword fighting games for the Wii for the Wii

Learning Curve: Short and Shallow

The Halo Series – Greatest FPS to date, and here’s why

August 5th, 2007

Just as the title says. I believe the Halo series of games (Halo, Halo for PC/Mac, Halo 2, Halo 2 PC, and Halo 3/Halo Wars/ Project Orion) is the greatest series of FPS (First person shooter for non-gamers) on the market right now, and here is why Halo 3 will blow away the competition (Well, maybe not Gears 2, but that’s a way away :]). Many people don’t like Halo though, and you may wonder what I say about those people, who, I was one of once. These are some reasons why, certain people, might not like Halo:

- It’s a first person shooter, many gamers nowadays are primarily single genre, or rarely branch into other genres, as most gamers tend to stick with what they’re good at, unless they like to have a lot of titles under their belt.

- They just don’t like Xbox, maybe due to blatant Nintendo/Sony/Sega fanboyism (when really all the Xbox is is a Dreamcast that worked).

-It’s not made by Square Enix. Swear on my life I have heard this as a reason.

Enough o’ that.

Here’s why it’s the best series:

- Fluidity. God, Halo is the smoothest FPS ever.It just glides, from the rapid motion of firing a weapon then reloading or switching, to being able to throw a grenade and almost INSTANTLY shoot. Motion is usually flawless, and NPc charachters and enemies don’t move along a set path.

-Non-linear linear game play. An oxymoron, yes? Well, these games have linear objectives. But the way you can approach these objectives is as different as you are. Maybe take ‘em out long range, or rush in like a berserker, or maybe mix it, for a bit of flavor.

-Smart A.I. Yes, hard to find, but finally enemies that don’t stay in walls and just use rush tactics. They can sometimes read what you’re doing, unlike in some agmes (we’re looking at you, Hitman and Brute Force).

-Originality. All the weapons, vehicles, and human characters, no matter if it’s been done, it’s still original. Don’t ask me how, it is. From the “hog, to the shotgun, to the Master Chief, it’s all original.

-Vehicles. It was the first fps with vehicles. It’s still the best one, as no one has been able to re-create a similar experience. It’s still a bit ahead of it’s time, as most other games with vehicles, well, the vehicles drive like cement blocks. And the fact that it’s vehicles are one of a kind (see above reason) makes it pretty obvious.
-Hilarity. Grunts. Joseph Staten. ‘Nuff said.

Finally,

-Backstory. It has more beyond shoot, kill rinse, repeat, there are books, comics, so much that adds such a huge story and developes an almost silent character. Don’t ask, they just do.

Here is why Halo 3 will be awesome:

-Armor Permutations. You unlock them, and make yourself look damn awesome.

-New weapons and vehicles. What’s been reveled, like the Brute shotgun (dual wield) and the various other new things (I ain’t ruinin’ it) add even more fun, especially for multiplayer. Brute only Valhalla anyone ?

-Huge story. It’s epic. Lyke H00G.

-Online Co-Op. Up to four players, each player a different character. Also works with System Link.
-Sgt. Johnson. ‘Nuff Said.

-Saveable videos and screenshots of campaign and multiplayer. Hellyess…

There’s more still to come.

Your opinion pleeze. -_-

~Mango~ aka Viraneth aka Na’Haram…

P.S. Burns from mac an’ cheese hurt.

P.P.S. Firefox helps with spelling ho’.

Welhp.

July 19th, 2006

No Doom review. Sorry, can’t find the CD to upload onto the computer. Oh well. Anyway, Cloning Clyde comes out today, and I have a review! But first…

News on the 360 party game front. While incredibly lacking on the original anchorbox, party games are trying to push in with Small Arms, a cheap game available at Xbox Live arcade. Think SSB without all the Cameo appearances. You play as various animals, including a cyborg calico cat. Expect the realease sometime in August, most likely after Pac-Man’s Xbox 360 debut.

Cloning Clyde review:

Cloning Clyde is the first solid platformer for the Xbox 360, albeit a side scrolling one. The levels are solid and original, and uses the Dr. Muto idea of gene splicing and uses it right. The only disturbing part is seeing Clyde’s rear end everytime you climd a ladder is quite disturbing. The “ninja attacks” you get from collecting DNA are spectacular, and never ever lags during times of intense animation. Collecting action figures for extra points is a plus, along with saving your clones. And, plus, who dosen’t love kicking chickens?

Sound: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Controls: 10/10
Fun Factor: 9/10
Learning Curve: Shallow
Difficulty: Easy to Intermediate

Overall rating: 9 (out of 10)

Buy or Try: Buy or Try. The jury is out.

Big Brain Academy review

July 22nd, 2006

Welcome to review number 2! Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo DS.

Big Brain Academy is a decent game, and probably the best in it’s kind of puzzle game. It’s, in my opinion, much better than it’s counterpart Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes A Day. It has 15 game modes spread into five categories. The games include seeing what weighs more, written math, and finishing shapes. Some of the game modes include hidden nintendo cliche’s like the classic NES controller, Super Mario’s head, or the power flower. The game really needs the stick stylus. That funky thumb strap stylus just won’t cut it. The game plays a little akwardly on the Old DS, but it should play perfectly on the lite. Graphically, the game is a tad childish, but you get past that, it’s pretty fun. You should read what the director has to say, it’s pretty funny. It also has wireless multiplayer, but it is card to card, unless playing the demo test. To get the most out of this game, you need the lite. It’s got a fresh new style that puzzle games need, and it’s sounds are pretty original. It’s a pretty fun game that makes you want to play until you have all gold and an A+ brain.

Sound: 10/10
Graphics: 9/10
Controls: 10/10
Fun Factor: 9/10
Learning Curve: Shallow
Difficulty: Easy for most people

Overall rating: 9 (out of 10)

Buy or Try: Buy.

Galaga review

July 27th, 2006

Today is Thrusday the 27th and Galaga, the arcade classic, came out for the Xbox 360 yesterday, and all I can say is Ouch. What is wrong Namco? I was expecting everything to rock since you teamed up with Bandai, but no, instead of doing something innovative with the Xbox 360 version of Galaga, you gave us a straight port. C’mon! They added to Frogger, why couldn’t you do anything? Alright, graphically, it is perfect, and it brings back the classic Galaga look, with the classic arcade background, to make it feel like you are actually playing the standal– are those ships wearing sunglasses?! Nevermind. The graphics are really the only good part of this old classic. The controls are clunky and slow, and the only sound is the shots of your guns, the flying ships, and the level start music. After playing for a few minutes Galaga gets bland and boring, especially wihtout any multiplayer to speak of whatsoever.Sound: 5/10
Graphics: 10/10
Controls: 5/10
Fun Factor: 5/10
Learning Curve: Shallow
Difficulty: Easy

Overall rating: 6 (out of 10)

Buy or Try: Try, unless you want a gamerscore boost.

Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting review

August 6th, 2006 Only one more. Wooo.

You remember when you were younger and you would go into a dark, damp, smoke filled room, with a bunch of boxes with screens? You would spend hours on end spending all your money in quarters playing the same games over and over. Yeah, I don’t, and it’s for people like me that Microsoft has been releasing these 2D classics, and that one game that no one ever heard of. I started playing and had a hard time putting it down. The game runs smoothly, and I didn’t have much trouble figuring out what took what.

Anyway, Street Fighter II was fun as a coin-op arcade game and is fun on the Xbox 360. The thumbstick works really well with the classic style of the game, but the buttons make it a lttle hard to play, and a little hard to do special moves like Ryu’s hadouken. The 360 controller is not good for the game. The trial version of the game lets you play one arcade style match before it takes you back to the menu screen, and only lets you pick Ryu and Guile, but the full version has all 12 of the game’s charachters. It let’s you choose which side of the screen you wish to be on, left or right, which is good if you love to start on one side, then move to another. It stays true to the game graphically while still adding a little something. Thankfully, if you get bored of the three single player game types, there is on system multiplayer and online multiplayer, including the quarter match that let’s it stay true to it’s arcade roots while giving newcomers something new to keep playing. This has been, so far the best use for Microsoft points to get Live Arcade games since Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, as not only does it bring back the classic arcade feel, but adds a little punch to bring in more new fans. With practice, this game even helps you get better at other fighting games, as I played Dead or Alive 4 much better than when I played before.

There really isn’t much more to say, other than that this game is good. Scary rediculous good.

Score: 90

Gameplay: 9.50

Graphics: 9.00

Sound: 8.50

Overall: 9.00

(Multi) Sonic the Hedgehog preview

October 2nd, 2006
I know what your thinking. “Another 3D Sonic game? Oh god.” But on the contrary, this game has enormous potential. Only having the demo level at hand, I was unable to play with Shadow or the new white hedgehog, but what I was able to play with a perfectly rendered and sleek Sonic was, I have to say, a little more than decent. At first play, it’s clunky, unorganized and boring. But with a bit of trial and error, I found it to be fast paced and exciting, albeit this demo level was quite short. There’s all the things you love, rings, rails, bumps, rainbow loops and all that stuff, but with a better incorporation of boxes placed around the levels to take out the new, fancy enemies, which look like they just flew out of Ghost in the Shell or Zone of the Enders. Dr. Eggman’s new cronies are more mature, and pack much more punch, with missiles and machine guns to try and block the path. Right now, only attack, jump, and homing are incorporated into the game, but with a bit more work, we may see new attacks, and maybe new abilities. The homing attack works incredibly well with environmental triggers, creating wind paths that can nab you short cuts, extra points, and extra rings. The homing dash from Sonic Heroes was finally useable, and to great effect, adding a great deal of speed and adrenaline to this already fast paced title. Another feature I found great is, when you are hit with a small projectile (like bullets) from enemies, you only lose two or three rings and instead of falling, you keep going, which makes the game much better to play. There are many paths to the objective, which can take you up walls, over wind paths, across slowly falling bridges, and past a giant enemy more befitting to a mech game, which means that when this title hits shelves, you know it’s going to make a splash. Though I have some qualms with the camera system, where tilting the camera in any way is near impossible, and it’s slow movement makes for a death trap. Some technical issues need to be worked out, including frame skipping, but all in all, what I have seen so far of Sega’s new Sonic title is promising. Superb graphics, new engine, great new enemies and environments, this game looks promising.

Obscure Game Reviews 1 (DS) Scurge Hive

May 29th, 2007

This is one of those games that is so obscure that most gaming sites don’t even have a listing for it. So sad. But this review will also bring in a new review style. It’s all good.

Scurge Hive. In just a few words, Metroid with a longer attention span.
Let’s put this bluntly. This game rocks. Scurge is a very solid game, which should have put developer South Peak Interactive on the tongues of every DS owner in America. Sadly, that is not the case.
I decided to pick this game up when I saw it in the back of a Gamestop’s used section for $7.99…
I wasn’t expecting all that much out of it. When I began to play, I didn’t stop for a few hours. The game has everything a successful game needs, it is an addictive interesting challenge. It’s not a 3D FPS like Metroid Hunters or even a side-scrolling action/adventure game like Megaman ZX. It has a slightly top down camera angle, but it still lets you see what is going on. When your charachter goes behind a structure, the structure becomes opaque and anything behind it, like a node, enemy, or you, becomes a shadow, so you can still see what you are doing, which I think is a huge help, and can be implemented in a lot of games out there. Unfortunately, my only qualm with this game is its lack of a good soundtrack. All charachter sounds are good, but the soundtrack tends to get annoying and a bit repetitve. The gameplay mechanics are good, you start off with a normal blaster, and you slowly get more, like the E.M.P blast for Machine enemies, the Fire blast for Bilogical enemies (raises the ATK of Energy type), which are also used on various environmental objects. When you finally get the adreniline rush power, the developers found a way to integrate it flawlessly to make it seem like a challenge to use right, not a gimmick. Another great feature is the tether, but, I’ll let you feel the joy of it yourselves. One of the strongest areas ofthe game is working in RPG elements like HP, EXP, and ATK, so it can be said that this is the DS version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl. There are no in-game cut-scenes, except for at the beginning and end of each chapter of the game, and they use classic RPG style anime-art text cut-scenes, with no actual voice acting (which I have yet to see on the DS… it has the power.) It also uses the Doom mail style to give you information and push you along, but it also throws in the scientists picture, to make the game seem more RPGish. The games story is slightly cliche, chick bounty hunter gets an impossible assignment and gets infected with a virus. What’s not cliche: the virus is slowly killing you, if it reaches 100% on the infection gague you need to find a decontamination room (also the save point) to take it back to 1% and recharge your HP. This adds a time trial element, which makes you want to get done faster. The game, even if you die and get back to the main menu, keeps track of your kills, efficiency percentage, and rank. Everyone always starts out at about 100-110%, and at rank trainee. Depending on what rank you get at the end of a chapter defines what rank you finish the game with, the highest of which is master. There are four difficulty modes, Normal, Hard, Insane, and the hidden mode, Ultimate, providing many more challenges and adding a high replay value to the game. This game is in no way flawed or terrible, it just wasn’t advertised and therefore suffered the consequences, which goes to show, adverts go a long way, and can make even a good game sink.

Score: 95

Gameplay: 10

Graphics: 9.50

Sound: 7.50

Overall Replay Value: High

Plays like: Metroid meets Megaman. And I like.
Better than: Everything between Megaman X3 and Megaman ZX
On par with: Metroid Fusion