Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on July 14th, 2012
Looking over my video game collection, there is certainly a feel of games that are either set in the past or set in the future with the exception of sports games and a couple of driving titles. In particular, I do not look at a shooter and think that I want to play something that takes place now. I am a sucker for fantasy and sci/fi shooters primarily. But today, I have just the opposite, a very realistic present day third-person shooter in the name of Spec Ops: The Line. Let us see how it plays.
Spec Ops: The Line is set in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. As you might guess, the game plays out like one huge desert. There are sweeping winds and an environment that looks trashed and forgotten by time. Even when the game takes to inside various buildings, there is still the sense of the dusty environment close outside. It is wonderful to look at but gives you the eerie sense that something horrible and deadly is right around the corner.
Posted in: 1 - 8 players, 2k Games, First Person Shooter, News and Opinions, Random Fun, Xbox 360 by Michael Durr on October 29th, 2010
Hopefully most of you enjoyed my experience of the first Bioshock game a couple of weeks back. Truth is, I’m still playing the first Bioshock, it is getting regular rotation with NBA 2k11 and Lego Rock Band. But, in an attempt to completely confuse myself, I decided to go ahead and tackle the sequel with only paper knowledge of the ending. This should go over as well as my first marriage. With only slightly less bloodshed.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on November 9th, 2009
The last time I had played a WWE wrestling game was way back in 2007. Triple H was on the cover looking more menacing than usual and I had played the game for a few solid months. But to be honest, I was burnt out and frustrated with the grappling system and spent the last few years messing with older wrestling titles and Fire Pro Wrestling Returns for the Playstation 2. Fast forward to late 2009 and I suddenly find myself excited for a WWE wrestling game once again. Hopefully clever marketing wasn’t the only reason.
It’s true. No matter how many times I play a WWE game, the first thing I always notice is the graphics. All of the characters here look great for the most part including John Cena, Randy Orton and even lesser talents like Chavo Guerrero who are realistic to their real life counterparts. Rey Mysterio gets particular praise for the designer’s attention to the detail in his mask.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on December 9th, 2007
Wrestling games are near and dear to my heart. From the first time I played Pro Wrestling for Nintendo or WWF Wrestlefest at the arcade, I knew I would be playing wrestling games as long as my fingers could mash the buttons. I've played some of the greatest wrestling games (Smackdown 2, Touken Retsuden 3) and some of the worst (WCW Nitro, ECW Hardcore Revolution). The Fire Pro series I've had a long relationship with. It's been love/hate mostly. I want to love it but I find myself more often than not hating the interface and struggling to play it. I've bought all three import games for the Turbo Graphix 16 system and the Fire Pro (6 man scramble) game that was released for Sega Saturn. However, when Agetec announced that they would be releasing it for the stateside Playstation 2, I was very interested. Maybe since I didn't have to import it, I would finally be able to see the menus in English and figure out the difficult interface. Every wrestling fanboy would tell me that it was the greatest thing ever. But what would I think?
Graphics
The first thing you might notice when looking at visuals is that Fire Pro Wrestling seems to have graphics that would come from a Super Nintendo. It's also quite possible that Super Metroid or A Link to the Past would be prettier. This is not going to be on par with a leading game like God of War or even another rival wrestling game like the Smackdown series. Keep it simple is Fire Pro's motto. The wrestlers are clear and many mock exactly popular wrestlers of today with clear cut likeness. The colors are good; however if you are playing this on a HD TV or like, you will experience some pixelation. Things like blood will just have that red splotch of color feel. You can make a wrestler look really close to what you are aiming for but it is still 2d with sampling of 3d animation.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on November 26th, 2007
Some of my most enjoyable gaming experiences have been with gaming compilations. "More bang for your buck" is the familiar slogan used to describe these games. Traditionally, these compilations show up late in console's life cycle in order to re-sell old titles that couldn't probably sell on their own. So needless to say the Orange Box surprised me on a couple of fronts. The 360 isn't an ancient or dying system by any means. Furthermore, by combining Half Life 2, the two sequels, Portal and Team Fortress 2 you bring together a package that from initial glance looks to be five great games in one. However, are these five games as vast as one would hope or instead are these five games that should have stayed on the pc to collect dust and be riddled about in debates about the best pc shooter to date?
Graphics
Half Life 2 is a pc first person shooter that was also found on the old Xbox and is backwards compatible with the 360. To be honest, it looked good then as did many Xbox titles that got the upconvert treatment. In bringing this to the 360, the visuals have received an upgrade. It's not perfect but it is very serviceable and on-line with many first person shooters on the Xbox 360. The two sequels get better with every turn and Episode 2 cranking out some impressive visuals to best the group. Portal while featuring similar graphics suffers from giving the player possible headaches due to the 360 degrees of interface. More on this later. Team Fortress 2 rounds out the group with a more cartoony style to its graphics design. TF2 is a case of either love it or hate it, it just so happens that it very much suits the game's overall style.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on September 23rd, 2007
Bomberman has long been a friend of mine. I spent most of the early to mid 90's playing either the original Bomberman or Bomberman '93 for the Turbo Graphix 16 System. I played each until their eventual conclusion and then wouldn't touch them for years. So when there was word that a Bomberman game would come to Xbox Live I was very excited. But at the same time I was very skeptical. So skeptical, it took me about two months to download it and the accompanying first expansion pack. However, what came out of it was quite possibly the best multiplayer Xbox Live Arcade game of all time and one of the best reasons to own an Xbox 360 that doesn't involve a first person shooter.
Graphics
The main difference between Bomberman Live and Bomberman games of old (at least like I remember them) is the 2d to 3d jump. My eyes did a flip when taking in all of the new boards and how they looked in three dimensions. They are all very detailed from the Bombermen themselves to the blocks and surroundings. This is further helped by the widescreen presentation. No silly borders filling half the screen here. Bomberman has been completely redone and it shows in the presentation. The only difficulty anybody will experience in admiring these graphics is that there might be seven other Bomberman on the screen at the same time. So it can get crowded especially once you clear the explodable blocks out of the way. That and keep tracking of all the bombs on each path can lead you to some crazy frustrating situations. However, the graphics (up to 1080i) are crystal clear and rival some of the larger retail releases in crispness and vibrancy.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on January 7th, 2007
Gameplay
Hype. Hype is a piece of the media that we never want to admit to ourselves, or anyone for that matter, we let get the best of us. After all, how many times has the hype for something become so huge that it turned out to be a real bummer once you finally played it? When message boards started rambling in 2005 about a game coming from Microsoft Studios (made by Epic) entitled Gears of War, a small look into Microsoft’s history of product release, would easily entail a game that would ...ake forever to actually hit the store shelves. So low and behold the shock when Gears of War hit store shelves in November of this year. Taking over a year to make and amid numerous delays, would this spell a sign of things to come for Gears of War?
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on November 28th, 2006
Opening
Promotional games have come and gone. Typically they involve some movie or tv show, kid or blockbuster related. Once in a while, they center on food such as the M&M's game for Playstation 1 or perhaps the 2 or 3 McDonalds games. Burger King decided that their king character which was a cartoon character onto himself deserved not one video game about him but three. Better also make that for one of the top systems today. The XBOX 360. What will we charge, just $3.99 with a value me...l. I mean if Whopper Jr can sell himself for a buck then why not. A fine trio of games (Big Bumpin, Sneak King and Pocketbike Racer) deliver on a fine time of good graphics, entertaining gameplay and fresh food (well maybe not so fresh).
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on January 5th, 2004
When the PS2 and Xbox were released both promised to be full home entertainment units. No questions that they both shined with the cutting edge graphics and sound as well as performing admirably as DVD players with both Dolby Digital and DTS decoders built in. This year both systems have tried to push another venue into home entertainment : Karaoke. Love it or hate it Karaoke looks like it’s here to stay. Earlier this year, X-Box had the X-Box Music Mixer which provided karaoke features – with mixed results. Could th... PS2’s Karaoke Revolution outdo it’s X-Box rival?
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on January 3rd, 2004
X-Box’s first venture into the racing genre gave us Project Gotham. A great looking title with its own unique charms but also had a fair number of shortcomings. Would the sequel address these shortcomings and live up to the hype? In a word: YES.
Graphics
