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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!