Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on January 7th, 2009
Most Played over Xbox Live, Lego Rock Band & Illinois Senate hates alcohol? - Welcome to the column that would be rich if it had a nickel for every bad gaming idea to be made this year known as Dare to Play the Game.
I am currently not playing Fable II, I know you are in shock. So since my time in WoW is limited on purpose; what exactly am I playing? Believe it or not, Lego Star Wars CS and Burnout Revenge. Not Paradise, the older one. The one before they opened it up and tried making it a sandbox game. By the way, achievements are hard as heck in Burnout Revenge. But I did get a couple since I picked it back up. I still have the same problem with the game though. I can never gold star any of the Burning Laps. Races, Road Rage, Traffic Attacks, Crashes, Eliminators, & Grand Prix are not that big of a deal. But any of the so called Burning Laps or Preview Races where I’m trying to finish in a certain time, I’m just not cutting it. Even on the Harmless Ranking.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on December 31st, 2008
Video Game Physiques, Sixty Dollar Standard Disappearing & Michael Phelps: Next Action Hero? - Welcome to the column that brings in the New Year with as much booze, chicken wings and women that $10 and witty jokes will get him known as Dare to Play the Game.
This past week I found myself playing two games in the 360 arena: Fable II & Lego Batman. In Fable II, I went to the task of getting all of the achievements that I reasonably could on my “good” character. This included things like getting married, having a child, getting married again, etc. I am now currently up to 855. The problem is once I did those things it made me like the game a little less. It wasn’t because I felt I had reached the point of nothing else to do. Far from it. I still have about half the gargoyles and half the silver keys to find if I want to go that route. It’s because being married and having children opens up certain quests.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 30th, 2008
The series known as Duckman can be explained in one phrase. Guilty pleasure. The series ran on USA during the 90’s before they decided to re-brand themselves as something more serious. Though for some reason they still tend to show the dog show every year. Anyhow, as I remember it came on right before another guilty pleasure of mine from the 90’s, Rhonda Shear and Up All Night. I miss Rhonda deeply, plastic never looked so good. Heck Tupperware was jealous. Duckman was a series like no other; full of debauchery and indecency just like Grandma intended. Grandpa will never be the same. Paramount has brought us forty-eight episodes over seven discs to compose season 3 & season 4. One has to wonder if it will hold up after all of these years.
(*BTW, this review is written in inspiration to Duckman, so if you are easily offended by suggestive commentary and terrible jokes at the expense of others, then perhaps you might want to skip to a recent review of Petticoat Junction. However, if you read my weekly gaming column and are actually entertained enough to read my reviews, then you will be right at home. Enjoy!)
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on December 24th, 2008
Death to the Clamshell, Guitar Hero: Metallica Edition & Breath of Fire dismissed? - Welcome to the column that Santa Claus brought three non-working N64’s, two suspended WoW accounts and no Morgan Webb in a pear tree known as Dare to Play the Game.
This weekend I beat Fable II. Now, many beat this game a long time ago but I was taking my time. I wanted to be in line for certain achievements and my hard work payed off. As a result of buying Giles’ farm, I found myself to be the recipient of a wonderful weapon. Ever see Army of Darkness? I got me what can only be described as a boomstick. The thing has a short range but does double the damage of any normal gun. I figured I would take the thing into the Crucible for a little test. Twenty minutes and eight perfect rounds later I had me another legendary weapon, the Chopper. However, for melee I stuck to my master cleaver with an augment that gave me health back for everytime I sliced and diced. Level 5 Inferno didn’t hurt either.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 22nd, 2008
When I was a lot younger, I took a particular fancy to two martial art superstars: Raphael of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Hong Kong Phooey. There was also another guy running around at that time named Jean Claude Van Damme. Two of his first movies namely Bloodsport and Kickboxer solidified him as a complete badass and eventually landed him a role in Street Fighter: The Movie as Guile. Eventually when he started making duds such as Double Team& Knock-Off, most people stopped watching his high flying kicks. Soon Van Damme was headed for the direct to dvd releases. One of those movies was the 2003 release, In Hell.
Van Damme plays the role of Kyle Le Blanc. Kyle is an American working overseas and has a beautiful wife named Grey (played by Marnie Alton) who is somewhat happy but lonely to be the housewife. Late one night while Kyle is coming home, the lights go out in the Le Blanc house. Grey goes to the switchbox and flip the breaker only to find her face to face with a robber named Sergio (played by Mihail Elenov) who attempts to rape her. Kyle hears the commotion via cellphone and rushes home to save her.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 22nd, 2008
Power Rangers come, Power Rangers go. By the time Power Rangers: Jungle Fury had come into existence, some incarnation of Power Rangers had been around for sixteen seasons. The series however was unique due to two qualities. The first was that it centered on three Power Rangers where as other series typically encountered five. The second differentiating characteristic was that it was written during the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Written by non-union writers, would the series still have the appeal that the Power Ranger shows had in prior runs?
The Order of the Claw has selected six students as potential guardians of Dai Shi’s prison. Dai Shi was an evil spirit who roamed across the earth waging a war against any human that stood in his path. The Order was able to secure his spirit and lock it away in a box that would be guarded by those who were up to the task. The six students were paired into three couples and squared off in mortal kombat. Wait, wrong show. Fatalities in a kid’s show could be uncomfortable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 18th, 2008
Comedy movies can often bring together two or more separate groups of people. This can be groups among the races, culture, and even nations that have been feuding for years. It brings these groups a chance to laugh together, a chance to perhaps look over stereotypes and realize that people aren’t so different at all. You Don’t Mess With the Zohan while not meant to be taken seriously does bring together Israelis and Arabs into one picture. A picture where they can have a good time and hopefully everybody regardless of their race or creed can laugh right along with them.
Zohan Dvir (played by Adam Sandler) is loved in his nation of Israel. He is on vacation in Tel Aviv and is the attraction of every man and woman whether he is showing his Hacky Sack poweress or his bulging biceps. However, Zohan has a very important job, he is the top Mossad agent. His vacation is cut short when Israeli helicopters arrive and whisk away Zohan back to the base.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on December 17th, 2008
Crying in Games, Need for Speed headed for the scrap heap & the Used Games debate - Welcome to the column that can be bought new, used or in a junkyard underneath the blue cowboy boots that your mom gave you known as Dare to Play the Game.
My 120gb hard drive for my 360 has been working quite well. I had the opportunity to test it on Fable 2 quite a bit over the past week. The Xbox no longer sounds like a tractor train ready to explode at any moment. As reported, loading is much faster. Any of the major areas in Fable load much faster giving me more actual playtime. So far, the investment seems worth it which was something I was quite worried about at one point.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 13th, 2008
July 18th, 2008. The movie: The Dark Knight is unleashed into the world. The budget is large but the profit generated was so much larger. After amassing nearly a billion dollars in revenue, the Dark Knight is considered the most successful film of 2008. Many wished to focus on Heath Ledger’s death as a major source of the generated revenue. However, the film benefited from strong performances from its cast and production crew. This tied into the fact that Heath Ledger put on an Oscar worthy performance and his unfortunate overdose made the movie huge. So, if you are one of the eighty people who have not seen this movie (78 of which are living outside of the United States), please step inside for the 2-disc review of the Dark Knight dvd, a must own for the holiday season.
There is a new district attorney in Gotham City. He is described as a white knight and his name is Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart). He wishes to clean up the streets of Gotham with the help of the assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal). However, the resistance against Dent is strong and headed by the mob, in particular mob boss Sal Maroni (played by Eric Roberts) and other crime families around the city. But there is a new villain on the horizon and his name is the Joker (played by Heath Ledger).
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on December 12th, 2008
The World of Warcraft is home to over eleven million people. Think about that figure for a moment. That's the size of an Ohio or Michigan or even more astounding parallel to the number of people inside Tokyo, Japan. A bunch of people playing gnomes, trolls, orcs, night elves and more. For four years, players have battled through the original World of Warcraft and the adjoining expansion pack: The Burning Crusade which allowed characters to play in Outland and bring their character to 70 levels of pain, sacrifice and dedication. Now they have a new task. The Scourge has come to take over Azeroth and bring an end to all life. They are lead by the Lich King Arthas and nothing will stop them until their mission is completed. This opens up players to a whole new area called Northrend as well as bringing us a new class: the Death Knight. But is it enough to stop the forwarding advance of the Scourge Army and Arthas' quest for blood?
(Please note, this article could not have been done without the cooperation of my girlfriend, Sarah. Her characters including her druid and her death knight were the instruments by which this review was created. I merely became a medium for the crafting of this article. I hope you the reader enjoys this interview and review of Lich King. Thank you.)
