Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Polls

I know they aren't finished yet, and only five people have actually voted, but it's looking like mainstream titles are going to win. So I'm going to put up another poll of which titles that I currently own you want reviewed. Borderlands will, of course, be excluded since I already reviewed it.

Currently those titles include:
The games I own on the DS, for the most part.
Assassin's creed
Crysis
Lost planet extreme condition: Colonies
Halflife 2, episode 1, episode 2
Battlefield: bad company 2
portal
Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead
S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky
Global Agenda

Well.. that takes care of the list that exists on steam.

Mass effect 2
Oblivion
 Age of Empires III + expansions
Morrowind
Far Cry 2
Starcraft II(which has to be put on hold, as thanks to a virus, my account is locked for suspicious activity)

And that is all the games I currently have installed. Soon as I get a job and can plop some dollars down, I plan to get metro 2033 and a couple other games off steam, for the sake of having something new to play.

Edit:
I have decided that you have 3 points to put in any games you like, any distribution of points, etc.
Once I have a top 3, I will make a poll for the titles you want reviewed first. Remember, if you haven't played this game and really want a review on it, then this is a good way to put it up top by adding 3 points to it.

Example:
2 - Oblivion
1 - Lost Planet

Monday, January 24, 2011

Minecraft

Graphics:
Graphics, graphics, graphics. This one is tough, as I am a graphics whore and love to much my eye candy. At first glance, it's like low rez lego building, and it doesn't look that great. After you start playing it though, the environment builds on you. It all fits together quite nicely. It's all nice and consistant, and any higher quality would probably wrack lower-level computers, so I see this as a good choice.

Gameplay:
It's all in the name in this one. You mine, you craft. What the name doesn't mention is the expansive, randomly generated world. You can have something that looks like it's out of avatar, down to a bland, flat nothingness... all the way to a planet of swiss cheese.

Sound:
The sound is nice. Occassional original music tracks, decent quality sounds help keep the atmosphere built up. All of the music tracks are relaxing, and some sounds will instill fear in you. A good example would be the ever so popular "SSSssssssss"

Overall opinion:
Now here's the part where I tell you whether or not I like the game. I would say yes, but I wouldn't be very honest, as the original game is barely there. This game is java-based so there is a lot of modding capability. My shaders, textures, and other things have already been tweaked, so saying yes wouldn't be very honest, but it also wouldn't be a lie. I would say, buy it. If you feel you want a decent idea of how the gameplay is before coughing up the 20$ to pay for it, then try the minecraft classic. It's free.

Edit:
Don't forget to check out the other parts of the sites. Rate the posts, vote on the sidebar, etc!

Are you an indie game-creator?

Need someone to play and give your game a full-on review?
Look no further, for I'm more than happy to do so!

Indie games are my favorite, so toss anything my way and I'll be glad to give the most unbiased review possible.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Lost Silver

For those who have played pokemon silver back in the days when it was popular, there is a game floating around that very closely resembles silver.

Originally a copypasta that had been floating around the butthole of the internet, somebody got the bright idea of making an actual game. For those of you who don't know what lost silver is, you will probably get the best experience out of playing it before reading up on it.

The download link is in dabr1dg3's channel on youtube, linked here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dabr1dg3

Or alternatively, as I just wanted to give a ref to them, you can just click it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?q947hvqbp6q6s8s


Creepy, and quite accurate to the story that was floating around. Thumbs up to the creator of both the game and the original storyteller, helping remember those times now dead.

New Layout + DS Games

Fixed up this layout a bit. I asked a friend what he thought of the page and he didn't like the layout. As more people are finally visiting my page, I am driven to actually post a bit more, making me happy and making everyone else happy.

As for games I will be reviewing, it will be the DS games I own. Of which include:
Pokemon: Heart Gold
Pokemon: Soul Silver
Lunar: Dragon Song
Megaman Zero Collection
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Animal Crossing: Wild World

I've been playing them all somewhat infrequently, but just for you people, I will be picking them back up(including lunar) in order to let you know how good, or bad a game is.

And those of you that love me, you can add me if you like on my DS games. When I get my friend codes, I will post them in here. You can comment if you like with your friend code. 

Friday, January 21, 2011

Aurora

Aurora is a pretty awesome little 5$ indie game that can be found at http://www.emcneill.com/aurora.html

The Idea behind this game seems to be the basics of an RTS game, of which it will be reviewed as one.

Graphics:
Graphics are an important part of most games, and this one's graphics aren't lacking, for what it is. Your 'units' are particles, and your 'bases' are blue-hued suns. There's a little bit of a graphical beat that goes with the music as well. Enemies are red or green, while the neutral bases are grey.

Sound:
The sound is is up to par with the pretty graphics. A good music track that has a nice beat. As you move towards your enemies and your units clash, they create their own underlying background music track, which is also pretty awesome and it doesn't ever really clash with the main track that's playing. The sound effects are also nice and high quality.

Gameplay:
The gameplay on this is simple and easy to learn. Grab your units inside your circle of selection and drag them to where you want them to go. You can also click multiple times in one spot to prepare your units for an 'assault' which gathers them together and makes them hit an opposing or neutral sun faster. There are Six of each easy and hard levels, and as you progress, they do seem to get harder, so this is also a plus.

All around:
This is a nice little indie game, and I'd actually like to see a lot more from this guy, since he seems to know what he's doing. I'd say play the demo, and if you like it, then throw him the 5$ and get the game.

Opinion on the game:
While this isn't a game I see myself playing years from now.. but who knows, I may be wrong. I still occassionally pull out the old gameboy for some good old tetris.. I think it's a great, fun game, that will allow you to burn a good 20-30 minutes if you need something to do for that time period, like tetris.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Game Reviews

May as well start a general review of games, since that's a lot of what I do, is gaming. May contain spoilers.

Borderlands

Borderlands, an FPS RPG(First-Person Shooter Role-Playing Game),  brings a few new ideas to the table, but re-uses a lot of others. For example, the levelling system in an FPS game was also used in the Fallout games. A fun game, but probably not a must buy. I'd say rent it on a console, play it for a week, beat it, and take it back.

Graphics:
The graphics on borderlands are a nice, pleasing change to the newer halo games that throw a ton of Bloom effects in your face. The world almost looks like it was painted. The cell shading is also very nice, but I've noticed a few issues with the graphics. On my graphics card, since I play it on the PC, everything starts to look flat, much like a halo-2 esque loading. Everything loads, then fills in. Other than that, a fun change to more popular games' graphics styles.

Sound:
The best part of the sound in this game is the humor, which there is no shortage of. While playing, I was getting a good laugh in during different parts. The DLCs aren't any different, and some are actually better at laying on the funny.
The worst pat of the sound on the other hand.. I'd have to say it's the bandits. The enemies you are always fighting until near the end of the game. I probably have all five of their lines memorized, and can usually predict what they're going to say.. before I even run into them. Good humor, repetitive enemies.

Gameplay:
I didn't expect some of the key bindings to work as well as they did with this game. The defaults are a bit odd, especially since I'm used to games like crysis, or battlefield, where F is melee or something. But it worked, suprisingly well. Most of the combat comes in short, fast bursts, with a lot of wandering.. until about mid-game. This game have vehicle sections, but they drive a lot like halo's warthogs. They're easy to control, but they don't let you turn your camera without turning the car. I didn't see too much of an issue with this though, because if you're doing it right, the vehicles can turn on a dime anyway.

All in all, I'd shy people against buying this game, as I know few people who will pick this up again after playing it for a month.

Personal opinion on the game:
The game in itself was fun, if a bit unrefined.  I liked it, in the same sense that I like cake or shrimp. Great taste, but too much upsets my stomach and makes me want to kick it's dish away from the table for good. Although I usually just keep eating shrimp 'cause it tastes so good.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Game Systems

Currently own the following gaming platforms:

PSP-Slim
Nintendo DS
PC (Yes, a PC, not a mac. Macs are not gaming platforms).