Microsoft has recently decided to start re-releasing old Dreamcast games on Xbox Live Marketplace. This is an idea that intrigued quite a bit of people (including me), and the first game released, Sonic Adventure, is here. I was fairly excited to dive back into this old game that I once thought was a “classic.” How well does it hold up 10 years later?
Command and Conquer 3 is a dead simple strategy game… can you expect any less? It’s dead simple and that’s all I can say. Ok, that’s too simple an analysis… and sorry for being so cold about the game, but from what I’ve been experiencing, the game feels far too dead simple to be considered a strategy game at all. Many of the units feel too weak, some don’t serve much a purpose, some just clutter the screen, and some just take up space. Well, that may be… but the game is so much fun in all cases, what a contradictory statement considering how much I just said in the opening few sentences. But ask yourself, what makes the game so addicting to some? Why does the game keep pulling you back for more after you finished a few hours of straight game after game? Well I’ll tell you a few things that can help convince the point on this matter.
Cabela’s North American Adventures is a hunting game… nothing more I can say about it—it’s a hunting game where you take pretty pictures of pretty animals whilst they loath and squander about the landscape… your rifle ready and willing to put a bullet through its head before it has a clue of what to say about you. This game isn’t great… it isn’t terribly tense; if you did buy this game, you either did it for two reasons… one, achievement whoring (yeah, I know what you did there…) or you really wanted to take pretty pictures of animals. This series doesn’t make anything really fun when it comes to hunting, and while this game was a weird revival, it still has a couple tricks up its sleeve to make it somewhat a bearable experience…
It’s really hard to find a decent superhero game nowadays. Developers seem to have a hard time getting the formula just right for telling a superhero’s story; whether it’s game breaking glitches, terrible story, or controls that make you want to dropkick your console, something always goes wrong in the presentation. Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions defies the conventions that a superhero game is going to end up like Superman 64, and instead delivers a multi-dimensional gaming experience that is very enjoyable.
Shattered Dimensions is pure fan service. Basically you don’t get a whole lot of backstory, (unless you read the character bios) but the game is interesting enough to stand alone without prior knowledge of the different Spidermen. The game features 4 different incarnations of our favorite wall crawler; you have the original Amazing Spiderman, Spiderman Noir, Ultimate Spiderman, and Spiderman 2099. During the game you switch between them on a mission by mission basis, and each Spiderman brings something different to the table. The original Spiderman doesn’t have anything special other than his attacks are web based and his combos are very easy to pull off. Spiderman Noir has the ability to hide in the shadows and execute stealth takedowns, Splinter Cell style. Ultimate Spiderman has the black symbiote suit, which allows him to activate a rage mode that allows him to take half damage while dealing double damage. Spiderman 2099 can activate “accelerated vision” which slows down the action while allowing him to move at close to normal speeds.
I ran rave about this game when I first heard about it—yes, if I ran rave about it… there must have been something about it that made me do so. The concept it brought to the table is mind-numbingly good to me (when’s the last time you could lie in a strategy game to your opponent?), the presentation the game has on screen and in game is dreadfully serious, but in a good way—you’ll feel like a field marshal commanding their troops on the front lines… on a planning board. RUSE is one of those games that makes you stop and say, “Wait, do what now?” because it’s a game of wits—a massive game of chess of which both sides strive for total domination using what unorthodox tactics at stock. Now when such stakes are present, you’d think that brute force would be the coup de grace of the game—massing powerful tanks to thwart your opponent off the map, but there are twists that this game makes that creates a game so original… so flooring that you just may want to rent this game just to try out these new ideas this game throws at you. But before I get into all that jazz, let’s take a look at what this game has to offer and break them down before you buy the game.
Plants vs. Zombies isn’t a new game by any means. It’s been out for over a year and has managed to make it’s way onto virtually every platform with a screen. However it’s late arrival to the Xbox Live Arcade brings with it a slew of new co-op and vs modes as well as the insanely addicting core gameplay that made PvZ so popular to begin with.
For those unfamiliar with Plants vs. Zombies, it’s a tower defense style game based around a simple premise. Zombies are attacking your house from any angle they can and the only way you can defend yourself is by fortifying your yard with plants that. It’s goofy and cartoony but it’s amazingly fun. Like most PopCap games you will sit down to play and then find yourself shocked at all the hours you have spent on it.
Since the release of Mass Effect 2, players have been clamoring for a real expansion pack instead of the scant offerings such as new weapons and armor. The two new characters, Zaeed and Kasumi hardly took more than an hour to complete their offerings and the recently released “Operation Overlord Pack” looked to be the expansion fans were hoping for, but it turned out to be little more than a very linear and short taste of more action. The Lair of the Shadow Broker expansion makes up for all of that and more.
Cerberus has ascertained (by questionable means, I’m sure) a lead as to the location of the Shadow Broker’s lair and it’s your job to team up with Liara T’soni and help bring down this mysterious force. As you delve further into the 3+ hour expansion, you’ll uncover the secrets of the Shadow Broker. This expansion extends the story arc that is established in the “Mass Effect: Redemption” comic book, in which Liara and a drell named Feron recover Shepard’s body from the Shadow Broker and turn it over to the Cerberus Corporation. It isn’t necessary to have read the comic for the DLC to be entertaining but it’s a very good companion. If you have followed the story diligently then you will not be disappointed by the way the characters are portrayed in-game.
Scott Pilgrim is doing pretty well right now for a story that is based on an independent comic book series. The final book in the series came out recently, it has a great and entertaining film (go see it by the way!), and now we have Scott Pilgrim vs the World the Game! However is this just another cheap buck, or is this a trifecta of awesomeness?
Stab, run, shoot. I just described Shank in three words. Shank revolves solely around these three things and these three things alone. How does a game that is four hours long and only features three main core components deserve your fifteen dollars you may ask. Read on to find out, dear reader.
In Shank, you play as a man, named Shank (quite clever if I must say so myself) on a mission to get revenge on a bunch of people for doing God knows what to your beloved wifey. It’s a simple, forgettable story that throughout the game only takes a backseat to the ridiculous and hyper-violent action. The only positive thing I can say about the story is it allows them to show off their creative juices with the cutscenes as they all looked fairly great and extremely similar to anime’s such as Afro Samurai.
