DP’s Gaming Videos #1

March 5th, 2008

game video film

Ever since I started working on some video content for the site last December, I’ve had a couple of ideas floating around about what I could offer beyond the video retro reviews. So far I have a few, very ambitious ideas for upcoming posts which you’ll probably see a long way down the track.

What I also plan on doing is capturing anything that I find interesting while I am playing a game and then share it with you readers. So with this in mind I have four videos which I have recently uploaded which are worth discussing.

Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams PAL Options

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuHh0ey4Ti4

This is a quick snippet from Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams for the Playstation 2. The video is of the frequency and language select screens (PAL regulations) with some fantastic localization.

GameBoy Camera – Run! Run! Run! Speed Run

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwr5Gw6gQZs

Remember the GameBoy Camera? It was that dodgy, first party camera peripheral for the Gameboy Pocket. If you have used one of these before then you’ll know that the camera cart comes with a surprising number of extras such as some primitive photo editing tools, slide shows and mini games. The mini games are notorious for having insanely high scores, this video displays me hitting the 15 second mark for the impossible, button mashing mini game; Run! Run! Run!

I hooked my camera up to my Super GameBoy and then used a SNES turbo pad to cheat my way to this high score. By past memory, I reckon that the set high score to beat is 15 seconds which I could have beaten depending on the timing of my jumps.

Today Tonight – Red Ring of Death Article

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SA1jG6Y7h8

Today Tonight is a current affair program which plays weekdays in Australia. They ran this segment about the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death problem. In typical Today Tonight fashion there is plenty of cringe worthy mistakes, I think that the worst one is how the guy in the clip states that EB Games pay for his replacement consoles which I found quite hilarious. My apologies on the out of sync voices and meh quality.

Mario Kart 64 – Awesome Finish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIb3m7HlBYs

I played a surprising amount of Mario Kart 64 multiplayer last holidays, this 3 second snap is of one of our great finishes. I (Toad) was about to hit a bomb (another friend) while my brother (Luigi) was floating in mid air.

I’ll be keeping a close eye out for any other unique video ideas that come my way over the coming weeks.

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The Gaming Race for the Holiday Season

November 17th, 2007

Its been a very fruitful few weeks for the gaming industry, with release after release of the year’s most anticipated games all in one very short time span. Its been a very interesting time for us gaming enthusiasts. During this time period I’ve been using websites like Game Rankings to find out which games are hits and which games are misses, and what makes them good or bad.

I have to say its been an interesting race for the best game of the holiday season. With most of the major games out the way, I think that its a good time to analyze the situation. So lets run through some of the big games. Here is what I’ve discovered over the past few weeks.

Major Disappointments and Surprises

I want to start off with Assassin’s Creed; 2008′s most ambitious game title with it’s unique go anywhere, climb anything game mechanics. Now Ubisoft definitely delivered in this field but they unfortunately slipped up in a number of important areas. If you’ve been following the game’s progress, especially over E3 then you’d be familiar with some of the game’s bugs and glitches that occurred during presentations and also during hands on with the game. ‘m talking simple things like some unresponsive AI etc. Unfortunately these errors still exist in the final build, in fact when taking a closer look it appears as though the game in some ways might have been a little rushed out the door. The other main problem is that the gameplay remains fundamentally the same throughout the game; find intel and then assassination a person of importance, rinse and repeat 9x and you get the idea. This game is currently scoring about 82% on GameRankings which isn’t bad but its seen some average reviews from IGN (7.5/10) and 1up(7/10). Also the GameTrailers review, despite talking criticism thought out gives the game a 9.1/10.

assassians creed logo

Now while Assassin’s Creed was a little disappointing, Super Mario Galaxy came out and surprised a lot of people. At the moment its sitting on a strong 97.4% with 18 reviews. The game is pretty much what you would expect, the plumber reinvents himself in a space like environment. Each planet that Mario traverses has its own respective physics which make for some interesting platforming environments. Presentation wise Mario Galaxy hands down is the best game on the console, sugary coated goodness.

Just What We Expected

Overall the majority of anticipated games all turned out like you’d expect, generally its because most of them are in some ways safe bets. So its a bit hard to mess up. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a kick ass “dude raider”-esque game with perhaps too many pirates, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock relies on the same formula with a few new elements such as boss battles to not make it feel stale (but don’t worry thats Rock Band’s job ;) ). Crysis is a stunner with its graphical prowess it removes some of the annoying gameplay elements that were in Farcry.

Battalion Wars 2 for the Wii was as you’d expect another decent Wii adaption of a Gamecube franchise. Most of the motion control works although there are a few issues here and there. Naruto: Rise of a Ninja for the Xbox 360 is your above average anime affair that makes use of its lisence well. A simple battle system drops it down a peg.

Call of Duty 4 is a fantastic rush, Infinity Ward has heightened the intensity of the game’s scripted battle events. In a way these events and the game’s length can be seen as slighty problematic but the authentic combat look and feel easily brush these aside. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is a game made for fans of the series. Although the motion controls aren’t perfect and the game can be a little finicky with enemy weak points its still a good, lengthy arcade shooter for any one interested in the genre.

call of duty 4 modern warfare

For the portables, Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness was pretty much an ungraded version of the original PS2 game, nicely rounded into a PSP title. Both Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles and Contra 4 are as tough as nails which is a real set back for newer players. Contra limited itself by sticking to a safe, conventional design while Castlevania had a few platforming quirks.

Just Plain Average

Out of the bunch there were a few titles there were pretty meh; Clive Barker’s Jericho failed to live up to the horror author’s name and was pretty average. The same applied for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was pretty much what you’d expect, a mini game romp with some mildly interesting Wii mote games.

Conclusion

Putting things into perception, safe bets are still financially secure for developers with games like Guitar Hero III. Franchise favorites like Mario or Call of Duty continue to move the industry forwards with expansions on tried and true gameplay. And games are still being hyped beyond potential and no matter what the end result gamers everywhere are disappointed.

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Halo 3, The Not so Nice Take

September 28th, 2007

halo 3 master chief

Hey guys, I’ve been a bit out of the loop lately with my posting habbits. I’ve intentionally done this now so that it will be smoother sailing from here on in. Thanks for bearing with me. On with the show!

Over the last few days there has been quite a commotion about the release of Halo 3 and for all good reasons. The game has successfully concluded the popular franchise and the overall majority of gamers seem to be happy with what the latest installment brings to the table.

Now despite this postive energy surrounding the game, I myself actually dislike the series. Its not that I can’t apreciate a quality game, its just something about the game makes me dislike it. Maybe its the culture surrounding the game, the comparisons with Metroid Prime…as of now I am not sure. But if there is one thing I know, Halo bothers me(don’t worry I will write more about this in the near future).

So to fulfill my (perhaps) senseless disliking towards this title. I want to discus the downsides to this title. Here goes:

Halo 3 = Halo 2.5

Most of the reviews on Halo 3 have at one part or another hinted at this aspect. That is, when it comes down to the crunch Halo 3 is just a more refined version of the original Halo, more modes, features and weapons have been included but when it comes to major gameplay changes Halo really is a safe bet.

Obviously the map creator and video editor are excellent additions to the game. But they don’t change the core gameplay mechanics. Of course this definelty isn’t a bad thing. But this ‘ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ idea that Bungie have taken doesn’t really help evolve the franchise beyond its foundations.

“the gameplay doesn’t stray too far from Halo 2, which, in turn, didn’t exactly reinvent the original Halo”
GameSpot Review

“You get all the staples of the series but there’s nothing trail blazing, like the rebounding health meter”
GT Review

“but nothing could’ve prepared us for our slight feeling of disappointment. The game’s far too reliant on old gameplay tricks and recycled levels, and it really lost its narrative power “
Daily Game Review

Still a Lacking Single Player Campaign

Much like a few other good FPS games Halo suffers from a multiplayer mode that far overshadows the single player experience. This gap widened with the phenominal multiplayer seen in Halo 2 and has since expanded.

Once again the single player experience is fairly short lived. A friend of mine said that he finished the game in 6hrs, most reviewers are saying about 8-12 hrs in length depending on skill.

Lacking the Spark

Another point that popped up numerous times was that Halo 3 single player campign lacked the spark of the original title. Considering that this is meant to be the exciting conclusion to one of the greatest franchises of all time a bit more focus on this aspect probably should have been taken.

“The campaign, which is very good, is Halo 3′s weakest point. It doesn’t capture the cavalier spirit of the original Halo”
IGN Review

Weaker Graphics

A few reviews did seem a little disappointed about the graphical prowess of the game. Despite fantastic design and a good use of effects the game does seem to be slightly lacking here.

“That said, compared with a game like Gears of War or Lair, it doesn’t particularly scream ‘next-gen’”
Slash Dot Review

“Some aspects, such as some of the character models, texture work and animations seem to have needed more work or have been ported over from the Xbox. That said, while we can understand that Halo 3 isn’t a graphical revelation, at least it manages to remain consistent with the rest of the series”
PALGN Review

Did you Notice these Points?

Two points that most people would have overlooked about the titles release. Firstly, check out the Halo 3 love that went on over at GameTrailers.com, this was the day after the video review came out:

halo 3 gametrailers main page advertisement

What isn’t shown in that picture is the countdown to GT’s video review of the title. This was taken of once the review was up. So with all of this splish splash going on, you’d assume that the video review would have easily been the most downloaded video for that day. Well think again:

gametrailers most downloaded

Thats right, both the Halo 3 video review and HD review were out down by the brief video stream of Oboro Muramasa for the Wii.

The second point that I want to mention is the new poll put up on IGN Stars. Its one of those Master Chief Vs Samus polls. So lets check the results:

master chief halo 3 poll

Woah, what a landslide! Even I wasn’t expecting this.

Conclusion

Please don’t take this as an attack on a fantastic franchise, the Halo games are awesomeness. I just wanted to talk about Halo 3 from the other angle. I reccomend checking out the latest PALGN podcast as they give a genuine take on the series.

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