Monday, December 31, 2012

A Virus Named Tom Review


A Virus Named Tom Review:

A Virus Named Tom is a complex puzzle game in where you are a Virus (Named Tom) and your goal is to take down the very technology that people take for granted.


Your goal is to spread your Virus to certain areas of machines in order to take them down, you do this by making a daisy chain where it will start at the beginning and connect through all of the other pieces and to the end. It's a simple idea but it is very triky and you'll have to re-start some levels a few times because they don't make it easy.

The story is that your a virus made by a known scientist who was fired. The scientist is seeking revenge because he created all of these technologies that people are using and no one really respected him for any of it.

The beginning levels are easy, so simple. However once the game picks up it becomes more prevalent that strategy will get you through the game and not just speed.

You will have to contend with (I guess you can could them) anti-virus bugs. If you touch one you die. The puzzles will also have the pieces hidden or "encrypted" and the only way to know if it's in the right position is to match the pieces up so your virus can continue the chain.

There is cop-op and like a versus battle, where either you and your friends team up in a puzzle, or you and your friends battle each other to see who the top virus really is.

Visually the game looks really good for the type of style that it is. You can easily see everything you need to and nothing will drown out something else.

The sounds in the game fit the game pretty good. They kind of match so well they might have done the same like what happened to the game Shatter where they made the music for the game. The sound effects of the tiles rotating around and the virus spreading to even things blowing up sound really good.

In the end this is simply one of the most challenging puzzle games I've ever played and I hope that one day you try it out.

I give it a 9 out of 10.

The game can be really hard and frustrating for some and I believe that they should at least slow down on their pace from this is normal to here, have fun.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

BIT.TRIP RUNNER Review


BIT.TRIP RUNNER Review

Bit.Trip Runner is another game in the long line of B.it.trip games. It's a challengin game that will put you to the test. The idea is you must jump, or slide over and under obstacles in order to collect these little gold blocks. You don't have to collect any of them and some are in precarious positions. In order to achiever the best score you must collect all of them on each level. One of the many hard parts about this game is that there are no restart points (checkpoints) if you hit an obstacle, miss a jump, miss a slide, etc. you must start from the beginnong of the level all over again.

If you successfully collect all of the gold on each level you get a chance to score more points byu going into a bonus level. The same applies here, the more you collect the more your score will be. However if you hit anything or messup, then the bonus round is over.

The graphics are really cool. I've always like retro style games and especially ones that give it a modern flair like this game does, It seems like if the games of old were made today this is what they would have looked like.

The music in these BIT.TRIP games is also some of the best. THe music matches the rythm of the game perfectly. SO each jumo would make sounds and add to the music.

The bottom line of this game and other BIT.TRIP games is you should check them out due to their homage to games of old and are just as hard as some of those older games as well.

I give this game a 9.5 out of 10.

It is challenging, but I like that in this style of platforming game.

I hope you all had a good Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you have a fantastic New Years. I hope you all had and continue to have a wonderful holiday time.

A whole bunch of reviews are coming starting right now!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Trash Panic Review + Information.


I was going to do a few reviews last week, but with my birthday I decided to hold off until this week.

*****Video of trailer at the end*****

The first review is Trash Panic (ゴミ箱 Gomibako?) PSN game that is fun but challenging, very, very, very challenging. Oh did I mention that this game is VERY CHALLENGING.

Trash Panic is a puzzle game where you must destroy trash in a garbage can. Sounds simple but it's not. You must use trash to break up other trash, like smashing a toaster into a light bulg, or a microwave oven into the toaster, etc. Some of the trash is burnable like guitars, wood crates, toilet paper, etc. However some items can not be burned like safes, ovens, etc. and some will put the fire out like toilets and barrels which contain water in them or a fire extinguisher. You have a predetermined amount of trash that yuo must go through in order to complete the level. It's not easy and it will put you to the test. There are 2 items you must watch out for, one of them is a Mottaina or special trash. This item MUST make it to the bottom of your trash can and MUST not be broken or burned or damaged. A little guy at the bottom of the screen will remove it from your Garbage can when he passes by it (Only if he can reach it) if the item is destroyed your garbage can will be filled with junk that will be hard to remove. The other item is a BOSS item. You must destroy the BOSS in under 10 seconds. If you fail to do the it will also drop a whole bunch of trash into your can, seriously messing up your chances of winning.

The music is okay, it's not great but it at least a little up beat and fun. The sounds are good, from items destroying to the sounds of water rushing and items burning /exploding. Yes you heard me correctly, some items like propane canisters can explode in your garbage can.

You will fail the game if 3 unbroken items don't go into the garbage can but instead fall to the ground. If you smash something down on the top of your garbage can and it breaks and falls out of the can and onto the floor, your  fine, no problems here. Just make sure that nothing unbroken hits the ground too many times. The game rewards you on your neatness or ECO. The more tidy and less cluttered your garbage can is, the better score you will have. Conversely  the more scattered trash you have and the more broken special items, etc then the higher your EGO will be and the lower your rating will be.

All-in-all this is a fun but seriously hard game that is worth the $4.99 price tag from the PSN store.

I give this game a 8.5 out of 10

This game needs to have a tutorial level, the learning curve is tough, but with practice comes fun, and hey who doesn't like to see an explosion from a garbage can anyways?

Stay tuned for more reviews coming  really soon!



Tuesday, December 4, 2012

God of War Saga Ultimate Bundle Review

God of War Saga with red controller is epic win.

First off you get a new Red PS3 controller (No charging cable which surprised me) and 5 games. What makes this bundle so special are the 5 games.

You get the classic God of War PS2 game (All of these are remastered for PS3 with trophy support) God of War 2, God of War chains of olympus, and ghosts of sparta.

You also get GOD OF WAR 3!!!

One thing did annoy me about this bundle, other than no charge cable for the controller, god of war 1, 2 came on a disc and God of War 3 came on a disc. God of War chains of olympus, and ghosts of sparta. came with a download code to download them from the store. I believe that they could've added them to discs as well.

I don't have any kind of review on the games since this will be me first time playing them, well I played the demo of GoW 1 many years ago.

This is what I know so far, the combat system is fantastic, smooth and precise. The character development and story line development is edging and all around fun. The music fits this game very well, whoever was in charge should work on all games.

The difficulty of this game is also very freaking well done. It's not too easy where you could breathe on the enemies and they all die, but it's not that it takes you hours on any enemy or a boss. It's somewhere in the middle that I call the sweet spot. It can appeal to games of every skill level.

This Ultimate Combo has 1 more trick of it's sleeve. It also contains a one month PS+ trial. Which as long as you cancel the trial you will never be charged and you could try out PS + for the first time.

So lets take the prices of this bundle apart (as if you were going to buy each thing.)

Red Playstation 3 Controller - $54.99
God of War Saga New - $39.99
One month to PS Plus - $7.99 (They did at one time sell them for about this price)

Total = $102.97

The Price of God of War Saga & Deep Red DUALSHOCK 3 Wireless Controller Bundle = $59.99

Yep, you heard rightr for just $5.00 more than buying a regular controller by itself, you get God of War Saga, and a one month to PS+.

There are other bundles like this, but none have as many games as this one does.

Remember that this sunday marks my steam game gicveaway on playfire.

Look for HappyBiscuit!

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Portal 1+2 Review plus giveaway to all who follow me on playfire

First off, hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving Day.

Portal 1+2 review will be 2 reviews in one mini-review

Portal is simple to learn but can be hard to master. You have 2 portals a blue one and an Orange one. You step in one and you come out the other. Sounds simple but the puzzles can be a little tricky. You use these portals to solve puzzles, escape danger and well to have fun.

The sounds in portal like the music can be a little stale at times  This is mostly the sound that gets stale and not so much for the effects like portals being fire. You shoot portals from a portal gun, but not everyplace can support a portal.

The puzzles can be easy and hard, it depends on how much you know about the game, and how you do on games styles along Portal's ilk.

There is a story, you awake in a small glass room with no idea of where you are or what you're doing there. You hear at first a voice "helping" you along the way. You must go through 19 levels and work your way to the end goal, what that goal is I won't say in case you've never played this before. You never meet anyone in the game, well no non-robots that is. No clue what heppened to them.

The graphics are really good on the game, at some times they have messed up in a few weird spots on my PC but since I can never replicate those results when I want it to, I count them as flukes.

The big downside to this game is how fast this games is to play and beat the story mode. I've beaten this at least 3 times in one day. They should have added more levels, but i don't think that they intended this game to be so popular. I mean after all this game first came out in the Orange Box with Half Life and Team Fortress 2.

On to portal 2

After the events of Portal 1, this game starts with a person in a suspended animation for a long, long, long time. Just like last time (At least for how far I'm along in this game) I have only meet robots in this game, and no people yet. You meet a new character who helps you along, why is a part that I will leave up to you, however you do meet a familiar face in this game.

The sounds and graphics are drastically improved in this game. They really stepped this game up a notch  They make this game look more like a traditional beat this puzzle to keep your self moving towards a goal, while moving through what looks more like a survival setting than the lab rat in a maze setting as that's how the previous game made me feel like.

The puzzles are more complex and MUCH LONGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally, they added more substance to the game and makes it feel more like a game than an add-on.

Portal 1+2 Bundle from steam is a great buy, I give the bundle a 9.5 out of 10

Portal 1 I give an 8 out of 10. It feels like they gave up a bit early and they definitely didn't add enough levels, or at least make them longer.

Portal 2 i give it a 10+ out of 10. First things first, they didn't change anything, they just improved upon it. Second their story ties with the first one so it helps answer some questions. The make the levels harder than the first game and longer to do as well.

Now onto my contest on a site called www.playfire.com

I would think of it as Facebook for gamers if I didn't think that it would tarnish playfire. People can track their stats from systems like Xbox, PS3, Steam, etc. and people also talk about the games their playing or just random stuff in general.

I had a contest a few days ago and I will be doing another one on my birthday on December 9th of this year.

All one needs to do is be a member of Playfire. It doesn't cost you to join at all, it's completely free. Then that person should track me, because on December 9th I will open my contest and how you enter si simple, just say why you want to win/why you should win. That's it! You can say I want to win because I just want to, or you feel like a winner, etc.

All prizes right now are in the form of games from Steam, here is a list of the games available in the contest as of right now:

2 Copies of Bunch of Heroes
1 Copy of Rome Total War: Gold Edition
1 Copy of Home
1 Copy of Magnetis
1 Copy of Left 4 Dead 1 + 2 Bundle
1 Copy of  Portal 1 + 2 Bundle

I should have more gifts available when the time the contest starts, well hopefully I'll have more.

Anyways, I hope you liked this review and I hope you join me on my Birthday Contest!

BTW Just like Playfire, my contest is free to join!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Battlefield 3 Premium Edition Review

Sorry it's been a while, between waiting on hearing from people I know who live in NYC Hurricane Sandy and the Elections I've been swamped with a lot to do.

However here is my review on Battlefield 3: PE

First things first, this is the Premium Edition where you get the Premium account,. which gives you the three Map Packs for free plus the 2 new ones for free when they come out.

Battlefield is what all shooters even Call of Duty should be like. I have played every CoD games except for BO 2,  Every time I play battlefield 3 it feels different from the last time. It has a uniqueness to it that is very refreshing in the dull FPS world.

Single Player was good, not great but better than other Solo ones out there. It has a story that sucks you into the game. They did drop the ball though, I feel like they could have added some more aircraft missions, which is a big deal in battlefield.

The cop-op is again okay they don't have many missions which is a bummer, but it can help you in the long run!

Multiplayer is the one thing I was a little worried about. I've been disappointed with CoD multiplayer (Mostly Black Ops, because World at War is freaking amazing, and the best shooter ever!) I didn't really want to play it at first so I just ddi single player until I said you know what? Let's rock this out. I'm so freaking glad I did.

MP is beast, simply no other other way to describe it. There are a ton of maps, weapons, and modes to get you into the mode of gaming. The guns are realistic, especially with the bullet drop for Sniper rifles and how much you have to lead them in order to gt a kill shot.

There are 4 classes


Assault class which is what we use to call a Rambo Medic. You get Med packs that you drop and you can even use defibrillators to revive fallen buddies.

Engineer Class, with a blowtorch and a rocket or 2 you can kill the enemy or fix your vehicles.

Support is my go to class. You can use C4, claymores, and even drop ammo boxes for yourself and your buddies.

Recon is my favorite class, I love sniper rifles but since I suck, it's a little hard for me which is why it's not my go to class.

The sounds are crisp and really makes you feel like your in the game. They took a lot of time and patience with this. Not a lot of games do and I;m glad that they did!

The visuals in this game are amazing, then engine in the game is fantastic. I wish that other games would use that instead of the IW engine that MW3, BO 2, etc are using. Frostbite 2 is the name of the engine that powers Battlefield 3, or as I like to call it the OMFG!!!!!

It's really intense, from the detail on the characters and buildings to the surroundings and vehicles. This is the most life like game i've ever played. Frostbite 2 also has an killer destruction aspect to it. It's not too over the top and it's not weak. It's in the middle which is where real life is, in the middle. Some other engines like the Red Faction engine has it where you can easily take down a building but in real life, it's not gonna be that easy. (I'm assuming here, I've never tried to destroy anything in real life, don't send me any messages please)

The vehicles are amazing but I'm horrible and I've not been in them long enough to know how well they are.

All in all this has proved to be one of the best purchases that I've ever made.

I give this game a 9.8 out of 10.

There is one downside to this game, and it comes from multiplayer. If you are in a game and the game ends, if you want to go back to the main multiplayer menu you have to quit your game session and it takes you back to the main menu, then from there you select multiplayer. If should just go back to the multiplayer screen and not the main screen.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

An update to my Mayflash review

This stick's rating has now gone down.

I have no problem on Soul Caliber 2, Marvel VS Capcom 2, Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

However when I used this on Street Fighter IV it's just plain awful.

The quarter circle moves are a pain in the a$$. I will be replacing it some day, just not sure when.

In the end anybody who buys a Mayflash should know that the stick will have to be replaced for games with moves like Street Fighter IV.

The score is now an 8.5 out of 10

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

mayflash Universal Arcade Stick Review

This was going to be put up yesterday but I couldn't test on my PS3 until last night so now that I've done some testing here's my review:

Arcade Sticks VS Controller, this has been a debate between many gamers for a while now and while both have points for and against not only their own products but each other (you as an arcade stick user can make valid points to using the regular controller, and vice versa) both of them understand that an arcade stick is more of an extension of oneself.

A typical good quality arcade stick can run you about $140+ while some decent ones are considerably less. This arcade stick is neither, it's unique. It's the cheapest/one of the cheapest arcade stick you can buy. However we're not talking about quality here, I mean price wise it's either the cheapest or one of the cheapest sticks around.

It has surprisingly sturdy quality to it, it doesn't feel like it's going to break anytime soon. It's the perfect size for me (that's one thing to consider about arcade sticks, do you want a bigger one or a mini one or somewhere in between). The buttons 1-8 are a little squeaky when you press them in (cheaper buttons) but they respond quite well. The joystick is also a cheaper quality one but it's not like you hit it once and it breaks, far from it. The stick is a little loose but that doesn't bother me a whole lot, I like things to have play/give to them. Allow me to clarify, I only like give in them if it's minute like this is. I don't want the thing to always be leaning to one side or another. The unit is loud from the joystick itself to the buttons but that doesn't bother me at all.

It has Turbo button and Clear (Obviously to clear the turbo settings) and on top of the regular 8 big buttons it has 2 more smaller buttons 9-10 those are the select and start buttons.

This Arcade Stick is universal to almost all video game systems, well almost and some you ave to pay more to get it to work. Brand new out of the box it supports Playstation 2 via the PS2 plug, Playstation 3 and PC via the USB cable. It's a cable that goes from the Arcade Stick itself and splits to two cables. It can support the following systems:

Gamecube, Wii, and the Xbox 360.

For the Gamecube and the Wii you need an adapter called the Mayflash Gamecube Joy Box, and for the Xbox 360 you need the Mayflash Max Shooter adapter.

I understand that you need to have an adapter to be able to hook up into other systems but they should not call this a Universal Arcade Stick. By default this is for PS2, PS3, and PC. This is not universal at all, not no way, not no how! This is an Arcade Stick that with adapters can be universal but is not by default.

Now I know what your asking, how can this be a good fight stick for anyone if other ones are made with better quality parts, etc. Easy the mayflash is completely moddable! Other sticks might be too but who would really mod a $160 arcade stick? I wouldn't. You can get quality Sanwa Push buttons and stick and you can add them into this unit. be warned though that soldering is required in order to get everything in and working. You can also change the color scheme of the buttons from the default black to whatever you want! White, blue, red, black, yellow, green, etc. So in the end it will be an expensive Arcade Stick but it would be more of yourself than just buying one off the shelf. I would much rather build one and at least mod one then spend the exact same amount on one already built. It would give me a sense of pride and joy that a shelf bought one just wont deliver.

In the end I give this little buddy an 8.5 out of 10.

Falsely stating universal while you know that people have to buy special adapters is not a good thing, I also wish that the buttons were a little less squeaky. The stick will have to be replaced for games like Street Fighter IV because the quarter circle moves are a pain to pull off with this stick. It's restricted enough to mess it up.

Here are some pictures, there are not mine but this is what it looks like and what the box it came in looks like too. I don't have a digital camera, sorry!



Wednesday, October 17, 2012

My internet was wacky for the last few days but I'm back + Tokyo Jungle and NFL Blitz Review

Here are 2 reviews for not being so active. I will now though since everything is working perfectly now!


NFl Blitz PSN review:

Before I get started this does not have the same feel or energy/excitement that the original had. However this is still a very cool game.

NFL Blitz first appeared on the arcades, which where I spent most of my time was on two machines. One of them is Tekken Tag Tournament and the other was NFL Blitz. This game does have some of the same feel as the original. You still need the 30 yards for a first down, you can still make awesome tackles and long bomb throws down field. Why does this not seem like the original you ask? Simple they took the fun out of them game by removing the late hits. You know, when a play ended you could still tackle someone and cause a massive blur of carnage. Or you could while still as the ball carrier keep making dives and looking like a fool. All of that added to the games originality, and uniqueness.

You can't change the length of the length of the quarters, well for the most part a game that has so much potential has come up way short. I want to have full length games, I want to customize my game in any way I feel that I should be able to. There are some cool things though, like the Blitz Gauntlet which pits you up against a bunch of teams that you go up the ladder to beat. During the gauntlet you face BOSS teams and upon winning earn codes to use in games. You can also use codes before a game starts I believe there's a trophy for entering something like 10 different correct codes before a game starts.

In the end NFL Blitz is a fun game to play, but it's nothing like the original, maybe one day we can get a Blitz game that truly feels like the original. This game does come really close though, hell very close!

9.0 out of 10

Not having the customization that we should and not really offering that much in extra has hurt the score, slightly!

Tokyo Jungle

How much can I say about this game? About a game that is only about using animals to survive and thrive after humanity has vanished? Actually quite a bit!

Tokyo Jungle takes place years after humanity has vanished, there are traces, logs that can lead up to why this happened. (I didn't finish the game, only started playing some today)

There are 2 modes Survival and Story, but you can't just play Story mode. You have to first play survival mode and unlock extras and discover what happened to unlock Story mode.

There are something like 50+ animals to use (you have to unlock most of them) before you can use them.

The game is played by moving from left to right and either up on top of buildings or down into sewers. The goal is simple survive. You must kill other animals and eat them to keep your hunger and life in check and you must also find a mate and reproduce in order to ensure the survival of your kind. You will come across easy foes like baby chickens (Which I believe is one of the types of animals that you can use to try to survive) to fierce animals like hyenas and wolves. You can pick up items like medical supplies that help with healing your health and radiation levels. To customizing your animals with clothes like a helmet for better protection, etc.

It's a simple sounding game but it's not easy, with moving food (you must kill it) to radioactive rain and environments  to larger animals that want to eat you too. It's easier sounding than it looks, you will be pushed to the limits  nothing is easy. This is pure survival, only the strong survive. Survive and thrive, or roll over and die (You see what I did there?)

In the end this game gets a 9.4 out of 10

Forcing you to play survival mode is stupid. let's be honest here survival mode comes after you beat story mode, like beat story mode with animal X and you unlock survival mode for animal X.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Review

Sorry that this was not up on Sunday/Monday, I had a problem with my PC that was causing problems for me.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the sequel to one of the best games (Tekken Tag Tournament) which started as an Arcade game then was ported to the PS2.

The game is different from other Tekken games because they normally had 1v1 fighting but now you can have tag or 2v2. It sounds simple but is very effective with the possible tag combos that you can create.

There are over 50 playable characters and each one of them have multiple costumes (well from what I've seen I'm assuming each one has at least one extra costume)

Fan favorites are back like Jin, Jun, Heihachi Mishima, Ogre, Bryan Fury, etc. as well as some extra characters that are new to the Tekken Tag lineup such as: Bob, Zafina, Miguel Caballero Rojo, etc.

The lineup is amazing, but the gameplay is even better than I thought that it was going to be. It is smooth, fluid, and I never felt that the I was hindering myself and not the game. It's great to see that as a whole the moves have not changed. They added new moves and new counters, but they didn't really mess with what was already working for them in the first game. The take downs are the same, the combos are still the same, but they execute these moves better than ever. You can also buy items to customize your characters. You buy these items by collecting money from your matches. The better you do the more you can make.

The multiple stages make this game feel fresh and new during every battle. Even if you've played that stage a few moments ago the stages have surprises in them which keep the feel alive.

The music in the game is okay, I preferred the music from the first Tekken tag game, but fear not. They have released music track DLC (one for each of the earlier games 1, 2, 3, and tag) or you can buy the whole tracklist at a decent price. I wish that they would've added these into the game from the beginning but then again how can they make more money out of this game.

The plot is well what plot? To be honest it's kind of like the first Tekken game where there is a mini plot when you beat it but nothing that really adds to the game. It also doesn't really take away from the game all that much either, it's just a filler spot to be honest.

Tekken Bowl is missing! Really??? Why did they not include this? In case your new to the whole Tekken Tag universe let me fill you in. In TTT there is a mode call Tekken Bowl. It's a mini game in which you select 2 people and play a game of bowling. It's sounds stupid but it's fun. This time they substituted it for a new mode called Fight Lab. You play as a Combot going through fight simulations and basically training for the game. This mode is flawed like nobody's business and doesn't really help anyone out all that much. I guess you can say that this does have a plot to it but it's not all that good of a game mode. You are better off playing in practice or just play the arcade mode to get better than try this mode out, it will waste your time.

There is a lot of cool online features like Ranked Match, Player Match, etc. One of the coolest features isn't a match per se, but it's what you can do while it's searching for an opponent. You can do a practice game with  the AI to just get you ready for a fight.

Well all in all this game is loaded with awesome new features while still retaining what made this game great. There are new characters that came out for the game in recent updates with more characters still yet to be released (fingers crossed) hopefully this month we'll see at least the rest of the regular extra ones. This is a very fun but challenging game, a must have for not only just people who are a fan of fighting games or Tekken games, but use who really love the Tekken Tag Game (The only Tekken game I've ever played is the first TTT).

I give this game a 9.8 out of 10

I wish that they would've added the Tekken Bowling game into this or at least some other cool mini game but oh well!

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD Review

It's time to get on board!!!!!

No serriously, I've been a fan of the series and my favorite skate games are the first three Tony Hawk's Pro Skater ones. I must say that this game is well....lackluster. I was and still am excited about the HD remake of the game, but they dropped the ball servery with this game!

The graphics are good, they're not the worst but they're also not the best out there. However for what this HD Remake is it fits the bill decently! They kept the same while updating it. Which one would think would be the norm for HD remakes, however others just look the same as they did previously.

The music in this game are a mix of awesome and okay, Old and new collide in this game and I think they did themselves a great disservice by adding a lot of  new music to the game and taking about other great songs!  Now I did hear (but have yet to try) that you can play music on the background from your ps3 while playing this game, so maybe you can just get the soundtracks and play them instead of the crap that they added.

The gameplay is the way it was and the way that it should be, with one exception. While there is online play (Once again I have yet to try it out) they removed split screen completely! WTF were they thinking??? I know online this and online that, but what about when two people are in the same place want to play a little one-on-one? I guess all they care about is scraping a few levels together and calling it a happy day, well they are wrong...WRONG I SAY!!!

Which takes me to another point, they are so freaking greedy! The game only comes with 7 levels. Granted these are great levels, but come on, only 7 levels??? The levels you get are:

Warehouse
School II (In my opinion, the first school level was better)
Hangar
Mall
Venice Beach
Downhill Jam
Marseille

I also believe that they should have at least added the first 2 Competition levels from the first game like Skatepark, Chicago,  Burnside, Portland. Those are 2 really great levels and they were also the 2 that me and my friends would battle on all day long.

I know that they have a DLC planned for I believe 3 more levels these are from THPS 3, Canada (YAY!!!) Airport (EHH) and Los Angeles ( I loved the earthquake on that level)

I wish they they would leave the rest of the levels (You know they love money) to the fans. Have a contest, one for each game THPS1, 2, and 3. Give the fans the opportunity to decide what 3 levels would appear on each pack. I bet you most people aren't happy about Canada being there, I loved the level and I don't see a smart move there, but whatever!

All in all this is a good game, but they ruined the core of it by omitting certain aspects of it and changing what they feel needed to be changed (Which we know they're wrong)

I give this game a 9 out of 10

Stayed Tuned for an exciting Review next time, it will be either SSX or Tekken Tag Tournament 2!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Budget Kills Series: Part 3 Food Chain Elves

This is a very simple, but very deadly deck. First the decklist and then I describe how it works:

Land:

16X Forest

Mana Creatures:

4X Llanowar Elves
4X Fyndhorn Elves
4X Priest of Titania
4X Birchlore Rangers
4X Heritage Druid

Searching Creatures:

4X Sylvan Messenger
4X Fierce Empath
4X Regal Force
4X Deranged Hermit

Rest of Creatures:

2X Maga, Traitor to Mortals
1X Myojin of Night’s Reach

Other Spells:

4X Food Chain
1X Gaea‘s Blessing

First things first, the average price for this deck is:

$75.00 it's a little more than the other decks, but it's really worth it.

The way this deck works is Food Chain let's you remove a creature card from the game in order to add x mana to you mana pool, where X is the casting cost of the creature + 1. You can choose the color that it produces as well, so you can remove a green creature and make red mana.

So a Regal force is 4 generic + 3 Green so a total of 7, if you use him to add mana by way of food chain you get 8 mana of any one color added to your mana pool.

The way to get this deck rolling into a victory is as followed:

Heritage Druid, Heritage Druid, Heritage Druid,!!! YOu really need him early on, Heritage Druid + 2 other1 cmc cost elves + food chain = YAY.

Once food chain is in play if you have Fierce Empath in your hand you can play him to search for your Regal Force. Once you get regal force in play and draw cards, you must keep the combo going as long as you can of tapping for mana and drawing. You need 2 cards out.

The first cards is:

Myojin of Night's Reach

Myojin of Night's Reach enters the battlefield with a divinity counter on it if you cast it from your hand.

Myojin of Night's Reach is indestructible as long as it has a divinity counter on it.

Remove a divinity counter from Myojin of Night's Reach: Each opponent discards his or her hand.

With that one card you removed their hand which ultimately gives you an advantage, now you can play your kill card:

Maga, Traitor to Mortals

Maga, Traitor to Mortals enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.

When Maga enters the battlefield, target player loses life equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on it.

So when he comes out if you have 55 mana in your mana pool he will come out with 52 +1/+1 counters on it and he will deal 52 damage to target player.

This is a relatively fast deck when it wants to be, don't ever try to force it on the deck. here is a breakdown of stats that I've done over the years with this deck:

Vs. Goblin Legacy - %60 in our favor, I went 3-1. Lackey being dropped down early plus us really not wanting to use our creatures as blockers = very quick.

Against my Pox deck -%60 In our favor, I went 3-1 as well but I almost lost my second game due to being so badly starved for cards needed.

Vs. Draw/Discard Vintage Deck - %60 In our favor, someone was using a draw/discard deck with underworld dreams, mox, black lotus (All printed Proxy cards) Out of 3 games I won 2 and made us tie, the underworld dreams took me down to 0, thank god for maga.

Vs. Elemental/Goblin Legacy Deck - %80 in our favor, out of 4 games I went 3-1, it's a quick deck capable of turn 3-4 kill, they got ball lightning's and other cards of the same ilk like 7/1 trample & haste.

Vs. Painter's Servant/Grindstone Deck - %90 In their favor, Force of Will and Hydroblast got me badly in 4 games I went 1-3. I only won because they only had one counterspell in their hand and I had 2 Food Chains.

It's a great little deck and can be lots of fun, hopefully you will at least check it out!

Monday, September 24, 2012

Binding of Isaac Review + Video

The Binding of Isaac is a great little game, it has awesome gameplay and a cool soundtract. However it's also very fun to play.

The story is bad, there really is no story. You play Isaac who seems like a good kid, but your godly mother hears a voice that commands her to remove all evil from your life. She takes away your toys, your pictures that you were drawing and your pants. Then he instructs her to lock you away from all that is evil;, to which she agrees and lock you in your room. He calls yet again for one more favor, a sacrifice! He instructs your mother to kill you as an offering to prove her devotion to him and nothing else. She again agrees and she grabs a butcher's knife. As she makes her way to your room, you see what is going on through a hole in your door. Isaac run around trying to find a way out when he finds a trap door leading to the basement, just as your mother comes into your room he jumps down and enters the basement.

The game has multiple levels and each level does get progressively harder, however there is one really great thing about this game. The levels are randomly generated! No play through will be like the last, which adds variety and depth to the game.

You fight with your tears (literally) you shoot tears at your enemies. You can increase your tear damage and rate of fire and range by picking up various items. You can increase your health and have special weapons like a huge bomb or a lot of little bombs litter a room. There is one downside to the great items, you don't know what they do. When you pick up a special item or a pill, the only thing you get is a name sometimes the items name will be ???? because you've never used it before. It would've been nice to include a small description to what the item(s) do when you get them, because some items can hurt you as well. The more you play, the more you unlock like new characters. There characters don't have the amopunt of hearts that Isaac has but they have special abilities like increased speed, etc.

The enemies aren't pushovers either, you can get swarmed by little worm like dudes, or get bloody zombies coming after you. Some of them can only be dealt damage when they do something, like in the case with one enemy it can only be damaged when it goes to attack you. Some enemies attack with a projectile like you do, while others simply charge you to deal damage. The hardest thing about this game is that you only have one life. When you hearts are depleted, your done!

The sound effects are superb and the music is killer. I recommend to anyone to buy the game and the soundtrack at the same time.

Here is the video:



I give this game a 9.8 out of 10

The game can be a little tough and only having one life tacks this game down a little for it!

Monday, September 17, 2012

Shatter Review + Video I uploaded:


Breakout games have been around for a while, and for a good reason! They are hard, easy, fun, relaxing, and frustrating. However they are one more thing that makes them all enjoyable, they are essentially you vs yourself. You see in other games like battlefield, CoD, Madden, etc. you face opponent(s) and while this game does have a boss battle at the end of every world, the essence of breakout like games is that you try to beat yourself. You shoot ball at wall and try to hit the ball back to it when it comes your way, that's all there is to it, and while some poeple say that simplistic games are boring, they have never played a breakout/Arkanoid.

Shatter takes a proven formula and changes it for the better, not only do you hit the ball abck and fourth but you get to blow away blocks and items or you can suck them towards you. This mechanic gives a while new approach to this style of game because if you are trying to get the little orbs that grant you your powers you need to suck them towards yourself, but what about those rogue blocks that are also attracted towards your vortex? That's why you have the ability to push them away as well. Also your ball gets affected by this power so you can either bring it towards you, or push it away.

The visuals are great from the backgrounds of the different worlds to the explosions, even to the normal blocks, everything has a nice vibrant color to it.

The sounds/music is fantastic, so much so that I'm thinking about buying the digital soundtrack for it. From the sounds of blocks breaking and or exploding to the sounds that the boss' make, everything has a feeling to it. The music is fantastic, simply outstanding which doesn't surprise me at all because it is an Indie game. In my opinion the best musical soundtracks that are in games are in Indie games. They know what others don't, they know the type of music that goes with the game. Many games fail with this little part that makes a tremendous difference.

There are many modes of gameplay from World (kind of like a story mode but with no story), endless, time trial, co-op, bonus level mode, boss mode (battle all of the boss').

All in all this is a really fantastic little game that has quickly risen to be one of my most favorite games that I have. I give this game a 9.5 out of 10.

Here is the video that I uploaded, enjoy!



Sunday, September 16, 2012

Update - I feel like I got run over by a semi + Shatter Review information.

I got hit with a massive cold, the likes of which I've haven't seen in over 5 years. I use to get really bad chest colds that would be hard to breathe, painful to breath and I would always cough, well I got it again.

I've been sleeping since it's hard to even stay awake, let alone move around. Tomorrow I will have a shatter review for you.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Update and mini review

A few posts back I said that I was going to start playing Final Fantasy X, well my copy is toast and apparently so is my controller. I bought them today online and I'm waiting for them to arrive.



I did however buy a new game on steam called Home, which is going to be reviewed below. I didn't post this yesterday because I've been sick and yesterday is still a blur to me.



Home is a side-scrolling 16-bit look pixelated horror game. This game proves one good thing, you don't need blood and guts flying all around you to give you the feel of fear and terror. This little game packs a great punch of making you feel disturbed, and scared by what's going to happen next. The story of the game is you play a guy who awakens in a dark room with no clue as to where they are, or even how they got there. You have to search every area you can to find clues to might lead you to the truth. There is depth to the story but only if you look for it. There are items that you can pick up, but you can also leave them alone. The choice is yours weather you want to/feel that you need to carry item X, but remember that picking up items can change the outcome of the story. There are multiple endings, and each decision you make can either keep you on the same story path, or (albeit slightly) alter it.



The game has some good eerie sounds, but the do become repetitive after some time. For instance if you go through steel door x and y, they could have had a slightly different sound for each door but that's just me being a little picky.



The game does have one major flaw though, it's super short. The first time I played this it took my slightly more than an hour to finish it, but once I beat the game i played it again in about 45 minutes I beat it again. once you get to know the layout of the land so to say, it's easier to re-play it again, but I just wish that it was a little bit longer.



In short, this game is fun, it plays on fear very well, but it's way to short of a game, if the game would've been about 30-45 minutes longer than this would be getting a perfect 10 because of how much fun it really is, however since it's short and re-play isn't all that good to be all honest with you, I give this game a 9.4 out of 10.



This game is cheap at just $2.99 on the Steam store, you should pick it up on the fact that this is what all horror games should be, fun, exciting, and scary.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Budget Kills Series: Part 2 Blessing

This is my W/U/G Gaea's Blessing Deck (BUDGET VERSION)

This is the budget variation of my Gaea's Blessing deck, and this is the deck that I ran for over 2 years with great results!

6 Plains
5 Island
5 Forrest

White:

4 Wrath of God
2 Island Sanctuary

Blue:

4 Ponder
4 Counterspell
4 Daze
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Narcomeba
4 Dreamborn Muse
1 Frozen AEther
2 Bamboozle
Green:

2 Gaea's Blessing
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

Artifact:

4 Howling Mine
4 Mesmeric Orb

The way that this deck works is by having mesmeric Orb in play. Whenever anyone untaps a permanent he or she takes the top card from their library and puts it in their graveyard. Dreamborn Muse says that during your upkeep for each card in your hand (all players hands) that player puts the top card from their library into their graveyard.

Gaea's Blessing says when this card goes from your Library into your graveyard, shuffle your library into your graveyard. This is the foundation of the deck, cards like fact or fiction help you with getting Gaea’s blessing into your graveyard. Narcomeba is an interesting creature, when it goes from library into your graveyard you can instead put it into play. It's really nice to have it in the deck because you can have creatures in play without having to actually use precious mana. This is all about stalling, stalling enough to get Mesmeric Orb and or Dreamborn Muse into play.

The average price for this deck:

$53.16

You might not need the Wrath of Gods but you can use them in your sideboard, I always have them in my deck to be on the safe side. Also you can replace Daze for the cheaper priced card Mana Leak to bring the total of the deck down. Basically This is your essential core of the Deck:

2x Gaea's Blessing
4x Dreamborn muse
4x Mesmeric Orb
8x Any combinations few counters (Like 4x Counterspell + 4x mana Leak)

I hope you learn from this deck, sometimes it can just misfire and you're gonna lose the game and other times this deck just dominates.

This deck signifies life, always have patience! You never know what's in store if you just wait!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Final Fantasy X Review

Final Fantasy X review: PS2


Final Fantasy X for the PS2 is the first FF game on the PS2 so it was not only a big leap, both in terms of audio and graphics but it set the trend for what not only future FF games would follow but others as well.

The game literally came to life, with improved graphics and voice acting. Voice acting is something that a lot of games have now but not many did when Final Fantasy X came out. It is true that if Final Fantasy X were to come out now that the voice acting would be done better but you have to remember that this was done 10+ years ago when ideas like this were relatively new to some games.

The gameplay has some similarities o the other Final Fantasy games but it has one really big difference,. Instead of the Active Time Battles where depending on how long you take to activate or issue a command, your enemies can attack. Time doesn't stop while you play a command. Final Fantasy X however introduced my favorite system called CTB or Conditional Turn-Based. This system is much better because not only does the gameplay show who's turn it is on the right hand side of the screen, but it shows how their (your) actions will affect not only the enemy's turn but how it affects your own characters turns as well. Time is stopped with this system and because of it's uniqueness it also allows you to switch out any characters during a battle. Yep you heard me correctly, during the game if you have characters in your party that are horrible to Enemy X and you run into Enemy X, you can switch out your character to help with the defeat of Character X. This battle system of being able to literally customize your party on the fly is what makes this game so engaging. Let's be honest though, that's is how an RPG is suppose to be. Who would walk with a group of 40 characters (Chrono Cross, I'm talking to you!) and only use 3, like okay you 2 with me and the rest just wait here until we either die or we win.

Final Fantasy has had mini-games in it from the beginning, like Snowboarding, puzzle game where you slide the pieces, and 2 awesome card game, one for Final Fantasy VIII called Triple Triad (The best Card game in the world!) and Final Fantasy IX's Tetra Master (Tetra Master is horrible, just saying!).
Final Fantasy X on the other hand has Blitzball, which is more of a part of the game than a mini-game. It's a game where you're swimming underwater and you play a game of underwater soccer (just about). Blitzball and myself don't mix, I'm horrible at the game but I like the idea of it though. It's not only a mini-game but it's a part of your main character's story and the lives of other characters that you meet.

The story is your Tidus, a star blitzball player for the Zanarkand Abes who comes face to face with an entity called Sin. When he's father's friend Auron who sent Tidus into Sin, he awakens to discovers that he's in a ruined city of some sort and is now all alone. Where is he and where is Auron? There is more to the story but I only give away what you can learn in the first 5-10 minutes of a game. The story is surprisingly good, it's not the best, but it gets the job done well!

Another interesting thing that they added is the Sphere Grid. It's a Grid of Spheres (I had to do it) where you character can either follow a straight path or you can customize their path to what they learn. You can keep it like the game wants or maybe give your self a challenge, either way it's fun but it can be a little annoying at certain times.

Final Fantasy X for the PS2 is one of the top fun games I've ever played. From the interesting and quirky characters, to the many diverse parts of the world that you are in, this is one of the games that's a blast to see and experience.

I give it a 9.5 out of 10.

There are some drawbacks like the Sphere Grid sometimes getting confusing and overpowering the experience, but on the whole it's still a fantastic game to check out, You never know, you might just like it!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Budget Kills Series: Part 1 Saprolings

Welcome to my first deck of my Budget Kills Series.

This is a B/G (Black, Green) Saproling Token Deck.

Before I begin I said that I was going to post a Food Chain Saproling Deck, but I won't. I had to cannibalize the deck so much that if was Food Chain with some Saproling Tokens which didn't work out for me.

Lands: 16

8x - Swamp
8x - Forest

Black: 12

4x - Nether Traitor
4x - Deathspore Thallid
2x - Attrition
2x - Grave Pact

Green: 24

4x - Thallid
4x - Sporoloth Ancient
4x - Utopia Mycon
2x - Thallid Shell-Dweller
2x - Vitaspore Thallid
2x - Feral Thallid
2x - Thorn Thallid
2x - nath's Elite
2x - Savage Thallid

Artifact: 8

4x - Genesis Chamber
2x - Phyrexian Altar
2x - Coat of Arms

This is a very good deck and as a bonus stay well within budgets.

The average price for this deck is about $30.00.

I always try to keep my budget decks under $50.00 and this one fits perfectly.

The way this deck works is that ever creature with thallid in it's name gets a Spore Counter placed on it during your Upkeep. After three Spore Counters are on it, you may remove 3 of them to put a 1/1 Saproling Creature Token into play. Cards like Sporoloth Ancient make this remove 2 instead of 3. Sporoloth Ancient is a must in this deck because it speeds your deck up by an extra turn.

The big killer combo in this deck is not a Saproling or a Thallid, it's the Nether Traitor + Attrition + Grave Pact + Genesis Chamber + Phyrexian Altar.

This combo alone kills a lot of other creature decks that you run across, and I'll tell you how!

You don't need to have Attrition + Grave Pact but they are amazing because Attrition Says pay 1 Black Mana Sacrifice a creature: Destroy target nonblack creature. Grave Pact states that Whenever a creature you control dies, each other player sacrifices a creature. So when you sac a creature to destroy a non-black creature Grave pact kills one of their anyway by forcing them to sac one. You can use Attrition even if your opponent has all Black Creatures. Attrition won't kill the creature but because you killed one of your own Grave Pact will still trigger!

Nether Traitor + Genesis Chamber + Phyrexian Altar = Infinite Creatures and infinite mana.

have a Genesis Chamber in play and bring in 2 Nether Traitors. When a creatures comes into play when Genesis Chamber is already in, This Happens:

Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield, if Genesis Chamber is untapped, that creature's controller puts a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the battlefield.

So after you put your 2 Nether Traitors in play you have those 2 Traitors and 2 Colorless Myr Creature Tokens. Phyrexian Altar states: Sacrifice a creature: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. So you sac a Nether Traitor for 1 B mana, then sac one of the tokens are a saproling token, or whatever. When you do that The Nether Traitor's ability triggers (The one that's in the Graveyard) Whenever another creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, you may pay B. If you do, return Nether Traitor from your graveyard to the battlefield. Upon doing this you get another creature token from Genesis Chamber. So if you had all 4 Genesis Chambers in play, each one would make a creature token. This is turn gives you as much mana as you want, plus you can sac for Attrition and if Grave Pact is in play while you are just using the Phyrexian Arena + Genesis Chamber + Nether Traitor, you are forcing them to sac their creatures as well. This deck is slow, so I would suggest using Howling Mines to get through your cards faster, I also recommend the best card for token decks, but it's a little expensive.

Doubling Season ($23.46 Each) but what makes the card so perfect for not only this deck but token decks in general is that it does the following:

If an effect would put one or more tokens onto the battlefield under your control, it puts twice that many of those tokens onto the battlefield instead.

If an effect would place one or more counters on a permanent you control, it places twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.

This would literally Double your output of creatures and tokens. One Doubling Season with 4 Genesis Chambers + 1 Nether Traitor coming into play = 1 Nether Traitor + 4 1/1 Myr Artifact Creature Tokens + 4 more Myr Artifact Creature Tokens from Genesis Chamber.

It doubles the speed of this deck and steamrolls through a lot of decks.

I hope this deck gives you some help, please feel free to use this deck as you see fit, or don't use it.

Total price of the deck  without the Doubling Seasons' and Howling Mines:

$30.00

The Grand Total with the deck and the 4 Howling Mines and 2 Doubling Seasons':

$92.92

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Minecraft Review

Let's Build something together!!!! Or leave me alone while I blow stuff up.

Minecraft can be many things for everyone. it can be a fun and challenging  survival game for you and your friends, it can be let's just be creative and build whatever I want. or it can be a solo challenge game or your choice. It's versatile, and that's what a lot of games struggle with on a regular basis. I for one love it because I just go around and build whatever I want, whether it be a huge wooden mansion (or stone) or a roller coaster, or a big maze of TNT waiting to be blown up.

There is a lot to learn about Minecraft before you can really relax in the game. While you can gather resources necessary to ensure your survival, you need to know how to craft them. The greatest thing I ever did for myself was to look online at instructions for noobs to see how to create the first basic things needed. After I knew how to create the crafting table and a torch I took the time to create everything else I needed. Well to be fair I think I created (Without looking) about 85% of what I know about Minecraft.

Even though it was hard at first Minecraft has become my favorite game to just have fun with. I don't care what is going on a Creeper could sneek up behind me and blow up and I'm still having fun. Mostly because I love wacking them off my Roller Coaster Rails!

Why did I blow up the house that I spent 20+ Hours working on??? Because if was fun! Just make a backup of your saves, :P

The expression The World is your Oyster really does apply here. You control what happens next, more so than with an RPG with a morality based engine because if you don't craft the items that you need to survive, then your gonna be in for a world of hurt!



One of the best things about Minecraft is that when you click on create a new world you don't really know what your gonna get, or where in that world you'll wind up. I've wound up in the middle of a dessert to the tops of a snowy mountain, if gives it a realistic flair!

Another great thing is installing different mods. There are a lot of mods for Minecraft. They range from new items to create more amazing objects like a Nuclear Facility, to mini maps that can be placed so you never get lost. There are also texture packs that you can install to change the skin of Minecraft as well. You can really do a lot with  Minecraft because it can change to whatever you want it to be!

Minecraft is a fun game and one that I will always enjoy because of the shear adventure and the not knowing what's coming around the corner.

This Creeper gives it a 9.5 out of 10

Update on Budget Kills if was going to start on last Friday but moving furniture took too much time for me from thursday through yesterday. Budget Kills will not only start but be on every Tuesday/Wednesday.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Sad gaming update:

There will be no more updates for the PSP as of right now, I was cruising along pretty good and now the psp is broke, I will replace it when I can. My disc 1 of Legend of Dragoon is missing so that's on a hiatus. However I do have many more games and I will be taking a few of them on, first up is Final Fantasy X for the PS2.

I have never played the whole thing, I stopped a certain point and I never progressed after that. I didn't level up enough and I was getting annihilated by the boss of that area. I will beat it this time since I want to play Final Fantasy X-2 some day.

 Magic the gathering update:

I have changed my Gaea's Blessing Mill deck to where I'm quite happy right now:

6 Plains
4 Island
2 Forrest
4 Tropical Island
1 Seaside Citadel

White:

4 Wrath of God
2 Island Sanctuary

Blue:

4 Ponder
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Sage Owl
2 Dreamborn Muse
1 Frozen AEther
1 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
Green:

2 Gaea's Blessing
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

Artifact:

4 Howling Mine
4 Mesmeric Orb
1 Chrome Mox

It is at a point where my turn 1 drops are almost at the 50% mark (I think it's at about 45.8%)
And my Turn 2 Drops are about 98.8%

I want to add 2 more cards to this deck: Sensei's Divining Top

They will aid with my Turn 1 drops and they are really killer in decks where looking at the top cards is very critical, plus you can draw that card it you so choose to.

Including Jace, the Mind Sculptor in the deck is probably one of the best decisions behind adding the Tropical Islands and the Force of Wills.

In a few days I will start a weekly Budget Kills Series.

I will post budget Magic the Gathering decks that I've built and tested that can stand their ground against a variety of other decks:

The first deck will be a Budget B/G Saproling Token deck. And as a bonus for this being the first in a long line of Budget Series I will make a Budget Food Chain Saproling Deck as well. Food Chain and it's possibilities will be explained in that post.

So please stay tunes for update/information of Final Fantasy X + the new Budget Kills series!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Review of the week - Age of Mythology

We're going back to a different Age! An Age of Gods and Titans, and Lightning Bolts/Earthquakes/Tornados/Plagues, and every other power that the gods had to use.

Age of mythology is from Ensemble Studios who has created and bestowed to use one of the best game RTS series ever Age of Empires. AoM was a step in a different direction for the company, because of the fact that Age of Empires was all historical based and this was/is mythological (Who can really say that it is fiction though, one never knows!)

Another thing to note for this game was the new engine that it was created on, this was their first shot at a 3D engine and it did a really amazing job. The graphics are amazing for the time and can still hold up to this date. You can easily tell an enemy from an ally or even one of your own armies. The game does make a note for it as well when you put your mouse over a unit like a soldier or Medusa, etc. that if it's an enemy you have the sword/attack pointer as the regular mouse pointer. It's still easier to tell them apart then other games I've played both recent games and older games. The attention to detail that they put into the game shows very well from buildings have some kind of animation (lanterns, glowing items, etc.) to the waves of water crashing against the shores. There's always something moving making it feel more real than a game. The sounds in this game are also stunning, from the music in the background (which is actually quite good) to the sounds of your villagers mining for gold, or chopping down trees, or even your units attacking enemies. Both the visuals and the sounds make this game feel more alive, like it has a soul.

The story of the game is lengthy but exciting, it keeps you on your toes. It's not one of those games that has a 60 minute story or part of a story and before you know it either the game is over or you fell asleep and forgot what happened. You control Greek, Egyptian, and Norse forces (The three main factions of the game) over a span of something like 26+ missions I believe. Each force has their own buildings (Although each building is technically the same, they way the look/the style is different for each) The forces are also like the building i9n the fact that an archer is an archer but depending on what forcwe your using depends on what they would look like.

There are many different types of units that you can use like villages, regular soldiers, cavelry, minotaurs, mythical creatures, and heroes. There are more but I forgot what they are exactly and there are 1-3 different ones for each unit. I believe the caverly one there are 3 different ones that you can create.

The random map mode is really fun you can choose a variety of options like an arid desert of Egypt, to the shores of Atlantis. You can also make the opponent harder or easier depending on your skill level. You can also create a map of your own and make it so that either you or them have more resources at your disposal.

Online multiplayer is fun, I can't tell you eactly everything about online because It's been years since I've played online and I don't know if you can anymore. I doubt it. Basically you can have 1v1 or a have 3 duke it out at once. Depending on your skill level though I suggest trying the map mode giving your opponent the advantage because the online players (When this game came out) were incredibly good at it.It was super easy top find people to play wether you were playing with someone you knew or never met before, it was so easy to find people wanting to play matches that were the same as you were.

The game playes really well, as well as other Real Time Strategy games play. The controls and how to play come second nature if you've either played Age of Empires or another type of RTS. Or even if you never played an RTS like me it was really easy to learn how to play it.

I would suggest you pick this game up, also get the (I think gold edition) because it comes with the Titans Expansion for free. The Titans expansion added more storyline missions and units to control, but unfortunatly they didn't amek any more expansions.

I give this game a 9 out of 10!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Hello all...

Here is an update for all fo you. I recently bought Fallout 3 GotY and I've been loving it. I like the mods that you can get for it like Fellout and Fook 2. Fallout 3 is so much better on the PC then on the PS3 (Which I've already beaten it on)

In Final Fantasy I for the PSP not much, been leveling so I can get level 5 magics.

Here is also an update for anyone who cares about Magic the Gathering:

I've recently been playing again, both on MTGO and with the real cards. I'm re-building my favorite deck in the world and here is the decklist and strategy in case anyone cares:

Lands:

4 Mishra's Factory
4 Plains
5 Island
5 Forest
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Tropical island

White:

4 Wrath of God
2 Island Sanctuary

Blue:

4 Ponder
4 Counterspell
2 Mana Leak
2 Frozen AEther
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Sage Owl
2 Dreamborn muse

Green:

2 Gaea's Blessing
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

Artifact:

4 Howling Mine
4 Mesmeric Orb
1 Chrome Mox

The way that this deck works is by milling. milling is the act of taking the top card of your opponent's library and putting it into the Graveyard. This deck Mills both your Opponent and yourself. Once all of their cards are in the Graveyard they will lose (well once their next forced draw step starts) but this can also happen to you, so what do you do you ask? You make sure that you have Gaea's Blessing. When Gaea's Blessing goes from your library into your graveyard you shuffle all of your cards back into your library.

Cards like fact or fiction help out tremendously because you can use it to see if Gaea's Blessing is one of the cards so you can put her into the Graveyard reshuffling your cards back into your library. This is a slow deck at first but when it comes off it's really quick. 4 Mesmeric Orbs are needed (as are 4 Dreamborn Muse but I only have 2 right now) because when you untap a card you have to mill a card.

I will be posting some more decks and combos in the near future. Also stay tuned for a review of a game. I'm not sure what game because I give all of the games I want to review a number and use Random.org to randomly pick a number and that's the game that's gonna get a review!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories

Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories PSX

"It's time to D-D-D-D-D-DUEL"

Or is it? You see that's the ultimate question for this game, to
duel or not to duel. This game doesn't stay true to the CCG at
all, which is surprising because it's not all that hard to do. in
case you don't know in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh cards each Monster
(creatures you use to attack/defend with) have a set number of
Stars (Levels) from 1-12 (I think 12). monsters with 1-4 stars
need nothing special to put them into play (Unless a card says
otherwise) you just select the card from your hand and play.
Monsters with star levels 5-6 require a tribute (sacrifice a
creature in play) in order to play the monster. The more stars you
go the more tributes are required, just not in this game. If I
remember correctly Dark Duel Stories for the GBC was the same way
as this game. All you do is play the monster! it doesn't matter
if your monster is a level 1 or a level 12, just play him. It
really takes the strategy out of the game and while it does make
it easier for you, it also makes it 10 times worse for you as
well! one good feature is if you want to burn through (get rid of
junk cards in your hand to replace them with more from the deck
you press up on each card you want to do this for. This is also
the same way that you would create a fusion of cards. Another
downfall with this game is that (unlike the real CCG) you can only
play one card per turn. So you can't put down a creature card and
then put down a magic/trap card on that same turn, you have to
wait. One other good thing about this game are the opponents that
you get to play against. From Kaiba, to Joey, to Rex and just
about everyone else. They really added a lot of good famous
characters, each with their own types of decks. Another thing to
point out is that the real cards have abilities, while this games
doesn't have any. It's not so much a deal breaker as it is another
nail in the coffin. Another thing to note about this game is that
if you want the best of the best cards, or even slightly decent
cards, you're gonna have to earn them. By earn them I mean grind
for ever and ever in order to earn enough star chips. For each
game you can you get a set number of Star Chips that you can use
to buy a card. I believe the lowest is 1 and the highest is 5. So
if you wanted a card that cost 500 star chips you have to either
earn it in battle (you get a random card depending on your
performance for either power or defense) you need to win 100
games. That sounds crazy right? Well hold on there cowboy a Blue-
Eyes White Dragon cost an astonishing 999999 Star Chips to buy ONE
OF THEM. At the max of 5 chips per game you need to play 199999.8
games. It's outrageous and ludicrous at at the same time. But wait
there's another downfall with this game (I'M SERIIOUSLY NOT JOKING
HERE!) Each monster card when played has 2 symbols that can be
played, these are called Guardian Stars. There are 2 sets of
Guardian Stars that are used. here are the sets of stars and what
they are strong and weak to:

Mercury beats Sun, Sun beats Moon, Moon beats Venus, Venus beats
Mercury.

Mars Beats Jupiter Beats Saturn Beats Uranus Beats Pluto Beat
Neptune Beats
Mars.

What all of this means is that if your creature is Mars and your
opponents GS is Jupiter you get a power and defense boost of (I
believe 500) it can also go the opposite way where your opponent
get's the boost.

This is a tricky aspect to try to figure out right away, which is
why you should have this information with you at all times while
playing so you can know which to play and which not to play.


The price of the cards in star chips, not being able to play more
than one card per turn and can play whatever you want whenever
you want (Remember it's a Double–Edged Sword) really put a death
grip on the gameplay. I wish they would’ve took just a bit more
time to work on the gameplay, and not spend all of that time
working on the characters and their individual stories.

The story of the game is that you are in Ancient Egypt as Prince
who (After playing a few duels and progressing the storyline you
wind up in modern times playing as Yugi in a big tournament. Does
this sound somewhat familiar? It should because it follows the
anime pretty well.

I like listening to the music, well I should say I like listening
to it some of the time. It can quickly become repetitive and
annoying. the aren't really any good sound effects either. There
is a 3D fighting with (I believe different sounds) I never sued it
since it takes much more time to watch then a regular animation
because it loads up a 3D representation of the creatures in
battle. Most of the time the attacks are the same so it because
really repetitive and boring fast!

In the end the game can be fun when it doesn't cheat (Your
opponents can get their better cards out much faster than you can
dream of) but it's still really boring when your trying to come up
with a decent deck.

I give this game a 3 out of 10

Side note that this is one of my favorite yu-gi-oh games but I
will still bash a game when it's horrible, and this game is!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Update

Sorry there hasn't been an update in a week. I started my new job and things got a little crazy. However I bought a new game from Steam:

Fallout 3: GotY

Now I already completly beat this game on the PS3, all sidequests, all trophies, every weapon, everything!

The only reason why I bought it (Besides that it was on sale $6.79 or something like that) is because I can mod this thing. Some of the mods like Fellout look amazing, and the dynamic weather with Acid rain is freaking awesome.

Just in case anyone cares, I'm in Rivet right now!

I have not done anything in Final Fantasy I for the PSP but I will son. I'm also getting back into Magic the Gathering, which brings me to my first point and I might even make a pool about this too. Should I also throw some Magic the Gathering info on this blog as well?

I've played in Vintage, Legacy, Extended, and Standard Tournaments. I play mostly Legacy but I can make a deck with just about any cards. For some reason I have a knack for putting together cards to make a really killer combo. Look up the Thopter Foundry Sword of the Meek combo. I came across that combo about a month before everyone else. I can look at a spoiler list of cards coming out in a new set and instantly see great combos.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Chrono Trigger Review


Chrono Trigger is a game that send trends and others try to replicate but
can never duplicate. Even the sequel failed to live up to the original.

The whole game is built on one aspect, Time Travel. One of the best things
in this game that I wish would have been in the sequel Chrono Cross is are
the combos (Techs) in the game. Now what separates this game from other
RPG's of the same ilk is that you have Dual Techs where 2 characters (or
more, not really sure if there are 3, it's been years since I've played
this) are both used in order to achieve a cool move. It not only adds
depth from a who should I try stance, but it also adds some fun and
originality into the battles. You might never go into battle being bored
and you might be able to play this game over and over again for the fact
that you might develop/learn new Techs. Another good thing is that the
battle are quick, nothing is really long and drawn out. You can have a
variety in your group but you can only have 3 active people at a time.
Weapons range from person to person. Chrono uses swords (Katanas) while
Marle uses Bows, Lucca has Guns, etc. Another thing to note here is the
New Game + feature that was in Chrono Cross. It's a great feature that
makes the game more fun and also helps with endings.

The Time Travel really makes this game into what it is. Not only can you
add new battles and new environments to check out and explore but it also
incorporates it into the storyline and that's what really propels this
game like no other. Once you add Time Travel (and good TT, not some
garbage look where go here, now we go here, etc.) into a storyline you
just added a layer of depth that can not only sustain itself, but other
aspects of the story and the game as a whole.

The graphics in this game are excellent. Forgetting that this game came
out on the SNES this is still a please game to the eyes. The colors are
are vibrant and the details are perfect. There is now errant glitches in
the game at all, everything just seems and feels fresh and crisp.

The sounds in this game rival some of the best in the world. There are
some songs in Chro0no Cross that are better, however there are many in
Chrono Trigger that CC couldn't even touch it with a boom lift! The attack
sounds are also very, very good. Some sounds are re-hashed but that's
expected from games as early as this and games with as many attack as this
game does.

One last not is cause and effect. There is a law of motion from Sir Isaac
Newton:

Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

What this means is that for each one of your actions in this game there is
a different ending for the game. There are multiple endings in this game
and each one is affected by the choices you make in the game. There are
about 15 different endings to the game in all. So choose your actions
wisely. While there are other games that do this, like Chrono Cross,
Catherine, (Catherine is a great game and I'll be reviewing this sometime
soon) Silent Hill, Dead Rising, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, heavy
Rain, Star Ocean: The Second Story (I believe that it has the most endings
of any game with like 80+ endings). All of those games have one thing in
common Chrono Trigger. While it's not the first game (Look at Bubble
Bobble) but it set the trend that a lot of games have followed since then.

Well in the end Chrono Trigger is a great example of what a RPG should be
and I hope that if you never played this game that one day you just might.
You can pick this up on SNES, DS, PSX, Wii, iOS, Android, etc. it's out
there!

I give this game a 10 out of 10!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Update on Final Fantasy I PSP Status

I have successful defeated Asto, I have reclaimed the Crown and the eye. Went to Matoya and got the Tonic that will heal the Elf Prince. I have to give him the Tonic so I can get the last few awesome treasures and move on to the next chapter.

Oh By the Way my Part Consists of 2 Warriors, one White Mage and One Black Mage. They are all Level 15.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Chrono Cross review - for those Radical Dreamers

"For those Radical Dreamers"



Unfortunately for some Chrono Cross was not what they wanted, they wanted a
direct sequel to the outstanding game Chrono Trigger (Which I will be
review this week as well) but for those who didn't care that it wasn't a
sequel like me, it was and will always be one of the greatest RPG's of all
time.



The gameplay in Chrono Cross is one of my favorite for a list of reasons.
First they followed Chrono Trigger in suit of being able to see the
creatures before you fought them. Yes, yes, yes I know that other games
have done it in the past and present but it's nice to know that they kept
some things similar to the original. You can escape from just about every
battle, in fact (It's been a while) I don't remember a battle in which you
couldn't. What other game had that, and if a game did have that what game
could let you run away as fast as this game does? The battle system is one
of my all-time favorites. It's a little confusing at first but once you
figure it out it's a breeze. It's a little hard to explain but here's a
short version when you start a battle everyone in your party starts with
7.0 Stamina that you use for Attacking, Defending, and Magic. You can
restore your stamina when your other party members attack and when you
defend. There is also a Field Effect Grid which tells you/shows you what
color or magic the field is made up of. If all three parts of the grid are
one color magic for that color is increased and you can use a summon of
the corresponding color. The battle system is very complex but its
downright awesome once you get use to it.



What's really nice about this game is there are 2 worlds, your "Home"
World and "Another" World. In both there are differences and similarities
and because of that you can do things in one world that you couldn't do in
another. it really adds another layer of depth to a game full of stuff to
do.



Speaking of being full of stuff to do this is by far the most characters
filled RPG that I've ever played. There are something like 44 characters
that you recruit from both of the worlds. (It's a really great feature)



The graphics are really good here, the colors are vibrant and nothing here
looks dull/boring. Even the world map(s) look great. The bosses are hard,
they are challenging, are some are really, really really annoying. But one
thing they almost all have in common with is how freaking amazing they
look. The people being the designs did a fantastic job with not only the
characters design but the design of the bosses as well!



The story is surprisingly really good. It isn't the whole boy saves girl
saves the world (Well it kind of is but the main story isn't) the story
has some bleh parts in it (What game's story doesn't? heck what story in
general, game, movie, life doesn't have bleh parts in it) but on the whole
the story is always in the back of your mind because it's literally linked
into everything you do, everywhere you go, and everyone you meet.
basically the story is that Serge (the main character) is at the beach
with your childhood friend Leena, when all of a sudden you hear a strange
voice calling your name. You look at into the sea and notice some kind of
weird rift opens and a black and white group of images appear. A tidal
wave is coming and is about to crash into you when some kind of magic
force appears below your feet. When you wake up from whatever happened you
go back to your village and find out that you not longer in Kansas
anymore. You're in "Another" World and you find out that in here you died
10 years ago. This is where you story takes flight. You're on the quest to
find out what happened to you and how you can go back to your real World.



The music in the game is outstanding. The scores in this rival the music
in Chrono Trigger. (There are few that can beat Chrono Cross) One of
coolest things about the music is that there are different songs for both
the Home World and Another World. I even found myself buying the
soundtrack because it really is an amazing piece of art. The sounds of the
game are also pretty dang good, from the sounds of the world to the sounds
of battle there is hardly any dull moments.



Replay in this game is huge because like how I said that Chrono
Trigger and Chrono Cross have some thing in common this is another one of
them, it's called New Game +. In case you don't know you can start the
game all over again with all of the items you had before like weapons,
armor. All of it is back (sans key items).



All in all it's a really good game with a good story that does tie into
that of Chrono Trigger (Albeit loosely) but it's still one to play because
forgetting that it's not a sequel to one of the best RPG's of all time and
you see Chrono Cross as it should, an excellent RPG and one of the best
that's ever been made!



Bottom line is I give this a 9.5/10