Viking: Battle for Asgard Developer: Creative Assembly Publisher: SEGA Price: $59.99 Platform: PS3, Xbox 360 Category: Action/Adventure ESRB: “M” for Mature Release Date: March 25, 2008
I have always been enthralled with Nordic legends, and anything Viking related. Far be it to call myself a Nordiphile, I am hardly that – I just like mythology of all sorts. I have also thought that Vikings were too often ignored in video games, and I have never understood why they have been largely shunned by the industry, This is why I was so excited about Beowulf until it was announced that it would be a movie tie-in – and in my opinion, both sucked equally.
When Viking: Battle for Asgardwas announced a few moths after Beowulf, my love of Nordic mythology took a back seat to the wariness in my brain. I decided it would be rented instead of purchased and while the waiting list for the game was long at my local Blockbuster – I am glad I waited. Whether Viking: Battle for Asgard was worth the wait or not is open to interpretation. On the one hand, I liked the visuals and some of the executions you could pull off, but the game had so many things wrong with it. It was repetitive, contained shallow swordplay, choppy framerates galore and so many other things wrong with it that by the time I was a quarter of the way finished with the game, I wanted my rental fee back. Of course, Blockbuster does not give refunds for unsatisfactory rental purchases.
In Viking: Battle for Asgard, you are Skarin - a warrior on the edge of death who is brought back from the brink by the Goddess Freya. In exchange for this life saving turn of events, you must do her bidding – and no, there are no sexual undertones to this despite the fact that she is a hottie. Her desire for you is only for you to prevent Hel, the Goddess of the Underworld from taking over Midgard. The plotline gives you the impression that the game would be full of hack and slash potential, and that is indeed true. The game was oozing with potential, and when playing I kept waiting for the goods to come to fruition but, alas, they never surfaced – probably because none were present to being with.
Posted by Daniel on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm under Hands On, Videos
This past weekend, I headed out to the New York Comic Con to see all of that latest and greatest in the Comic Book community. To my surprise, Komani was there showing off Metal Gear Online. Not only did I have to play it, but I made sure I got footage of myself completely sucking at… er.. I mean pwning the enemy! We all know that folks who play video games for a living must be good at all of them…right?!
I must say that I was completely surprised at how well the game handled. It stayed true to how Metal Gear Solid feels, while finally adding a multiplayer component to it. The game was setup as a local 4v4 LAN match. As you’ll see in the video above, this was the first time I ever played MGO, so I didn’t quite have a grasp on what the controls were yet. I did like how you can change weapons or accessories by simply press the R2/L2 buttons instead of having to hold it down in order to select what you want to use (even though I can’t recall at the moment if that was something previous Metal Gear Solid games did).
Playing Metal Gear Online was fun for the short time I got to try it out. Thanks to this hands-on impression, not only am I looking forward to MGS4, but I’ll also probably be checking out MGO whenever I have the chance.
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher: Ubisoft Price: $59.99 Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC (in April) Category: Action ESRB Rating: M for Mature (Blood, Strong Language, Intense Violence) Release Date: March 21, 2008
Someone once said “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” (and an advertising firm soon trademarked it). I doubt whoever said that was talking about terrorist cells and international conspiracies, but man those seem to flock to Sin City in the new Rainbow Six Vegas 2. This being the sequel to the smash hit Tom Clancy title, expectations are understandably high for this follow-up. Even more so since the team behind this game has said this is their final excursion, because they’re tired of working with Vegas. Well frankly their apathy shows through at times, particularly since this feels like the same old Rainbow Six Vegas, just with a few changes. But still, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. My full impressions after the break. Read the full article
Condemned 2: Bloodshot Developer: Monolith Publisher: SEGA Price: $59.99 Platform: PS3, Xbox 360 Category: Action/Adventure, Psychological Horror ESRB: “M” for Mature Release Date: 3/12/2008
When I first heard that the folks over at Monolith were making a sequel to Condemned: Criminal Origins, I was both excited and leery at the same time, because let’s face it, sequels are not usually up to par with the original. Granted, the God of War titles seem to do justice to our favorite Spartan, but that cannot be said of the majority of sequels sitting on shelves. My initial disquiet over another offering of Ethan Thomas and the maimed world in which he resides seemed to mitigate slightly when I viewed the first set of screenshots from the game, and the more I saw, better I felt. The trailers looked great, the weapon selection was both pacifying and hilarious at the same time, and the overall ambiance the trailers portrayed finally allowed me to let my guard down completely for Condemned 2: Bloodshot. However, before I get too far ahead of myself, I would like to point out that while this was indeed a very fun and entertaining game, it was far from perfect. So far, to be quite honest, that afterwards when I had played through it a second time, I started to feel extremely let down.
Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors Developer: SquareEnix Publisher: SquareEnix Price: $49.99 Platform: Wii Category: Action/Adventure, FP/RPG ESRB: “T” for Teen Release Date: 2/19/2008
Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrorstakes place in a town that lies at the foot of Avalonia Castle. There, a young man enjoys a peaceful life with his lecherous father until his sixteenth birthday approaches and he must take the Walk of the Worthy. This is a trial of strength, which all young Avalonian males must undergo upon coming of age. As the main character, you will need to put all of your training in the ways of the sword into practice if you are to pass the test, and take your rightful place amongst Avalonia’s warriors. Sounds like your typical RPG doesn’t it? Unfortunately the storyline is the only thing typical about Dragon Quest Swords.
Lost: Via Domus
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher: Ubisoft Price: $59.99 Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC Category: Adventure ESRB Rating: T for Teen (Alcohol and Tobacco Reference, Blood, Mild Language, Violence) Release Date: February 26, 2008
I am a complete sucker when it comes to video games based on my favorite TV shows. It’s for that reason that I’ve suffered through both The Sopranos: Road to Respect and 24: The Game. So when I heard that there was going to be a game coming out based on Lost, I already knew I would be playing it. It didn’t matter how the developers approached the title or even if it were declared unanimously to be the worst video game adaptation ever, I’d still be drawn to it like a mosquito to a bug zapper. Thankfully, this is probably the best game based on a TV show that I have ever played. Of course, that’s not saying much. Full review after the break.
Bomberman Land Developer: Hudson Soft Publisher: Hudson Soft Price: $29.99 Platform: Wii Category: Action, Arcade ESRB Rating: E for Everyone (Cartoon Violence) Release Date: January 29, 2008
These days, I approach anything dealing with the “Bomberman” franchise with apprehension. As far as I’m concerned, the more recent games have been kind of “hit or miss,” and few have really stacked up to the ones from the NES days. I tend to approach collections of mini-games for the Wii in much the same manner. So basically, before I even sat down to play it, the new Wii game, Bomberman Land, already had two strikes against it. Is there anything to redeem this latest adventure involving Bomberpeople? My full impressions after the break. Read the full article
The Club Developer: Bizarre Creations Publisher: Sega Price: $59.99 Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC Category: Action ESRB Rating: M for Mature (Blood, Strong Language, Violence) Release Date: February 19, 2008
When I first heard about The Club and it’s concept of combo-fueled killing, I was actually a little refreshed. In these times where video games are seemingly under constant scrutiny by the public for their violent content, here was a game that decided to ignore all that and make the gameplay about nothing but the killing. It sounded like a great way to take the third-person shooter genre back to basics and focus on nothing but the action. Unfortunately, I soon realized just why few games these days take such a simple approach. My full impressions after the break.
Culdcept Saga Developer: Namco Bandai Publisher: Namco Bandai Price: $39.99 Platform: Xbox 360 Category: Strategy ESRB Rating: T for Teen (Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Suggestive Themes) Release Date: February 5, 2008
For me, just being within earshot of the term “card battles” is enough to make me break out in a rash. That’s why I was even surprised in myself when I started to become interested in a game like Culdcept Saga. I never played its PS2 precursor, but the idea of card battles mixed with a board game intrigued me enough to try out the demo. Sadly, the demo only fueled my interest in this game, practically forcing me to seek out a copy — probably the only one within ten miles of my house, I might add. So does this game’s charm still hold up after several hours of card/board gaming action? Well, yes and no. My full impressions after the break.
I’ve been a fan of racing games for some time now. Everything from the Gran Turismo Series to Project Gotham Racing 4 is on my shelf. I have been sticking to simulation style racing for years and was never really interested in an arcade style racing game. I was speaking with Daniel, our marketing guru and he told me that he loved the instant action he was experiencing with Burnout Paradise. I paused for a while and realized that this was the first time Daniel had said something exciting about a racing game. He normally hates racing games. I knew that I had to go ahead and check out Burnout Paradise. Over 800 miles of racing later, I am completely hooked. Read the full article
I’ve been curious about The Club ever since I heard about it’s interesting “kill combo” concept. With many recent shooters combining top-notch story elements with inventive and fast-paced gameplay, it seems a little strange to have a shooter come out that just has you blast things as quickly and stylishly as possible. But if there’s one developer that could pull it off, it’d probably be Bizarre Creations, of Project Gotham Racing fame. Luckily, this week a demo for the game finally made its way stateside so I could see what the game was all about. Read the full article
Recently I had the opportunity to preview Akella’s latest RTS naval simulator game PT Boats: Knights of the Sea, and if WWII games are your thing and you are tired of playing aerial or ground war titles; then this game was made especially for you. With the video game market overly saturated with WWII games, Akella wanted to produce something different starring one of the most under-appreciated heroes of that era, the Patrol Torpedo Boat. Faster and easier to maneuver than a large battleship, PT Boats were used when accuracy and speed were of the utmost importance and they got the job done. Being smaller did not mean that they could not cause serious damage to a larger vessel though, because they could take a tanker down with their torpedoes - and while they were indeed more vulnerable than their larger counterparts, they were essential to any maritime battle.
As the title of the game states, these unsung heroes are the boats you will be manning and your mission is to get the job done without getting yourself blown to bits. While that is the basic premise of any video game where you are in battle, PT Boats: Knights of the Sea is a bit different than your standard war game. Your job is to not only join the battleships and carriers during battles, but you will also be called upon to escort convoys, do a bit of reconnaissance and protect strategic coastal points.
During the demo of the game, players can choose one of three sides, Allied, Germany, or the USSR in six different mission episodes and experience battles twice via either defensive or offensive mode. Now, please note that this was just a preview demo, so some of the graphics features were not running at 100%, so be rest assured that the graphics within the full game will be less banal. The map is very easy to navigate and can be viewed in 2D or 3D mode and the wonderful thing about it is that you can click on anywhere in the map grid and be taken directly to that point without having to get to your destination in real-time mode. While in map mode you can also pause the game and change your speed for up to 4x the norm.
Omega Five Developer: Natsume Publisher: Hudson Soft Price: 800 Microsoft Points (about $10) Platform: Xbox Live Arcade Category: Shooter ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10 and older (Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes) Release Date: January 2008
Every Wednesday, I log into my Xbox Live account and check the Marketplace to see if there are any new gaming goodies to try out. And almost every Wednesday, I’m disappointed by a re-release of a twenty year old arcade title or a strange puzzler that’s all flash and no fun. But every so often I can find one game that piques my interest enough for me to throw down the Microsoft Points needed to get it. This past Wednesday, that game was Omega Five.
Sam and Max Season Two: “Moai Better Blues” Developer: TellTale Games Publisher: TellTale Games, GameTap Price: $8.95 (free for GameTap subscribers) Platform: PC Category: Adventure ESRB Rating: E for Everyone Release Date: January 2008
Sam and Max, the adventurous Freelance Police have finally returned after a short hiatus to dive right back into their point-and-click shenanigans. TellTale Games has just released “Moai Better Blues,” the second episode for the second season of their popular episodic game series. This time the dynamic duo head off to the tropics in search of more adventure and setups for one-liners. And once again, it’s a veritable laugh riot. Read the full article
Contra 4
Developer: WayForward Technologies Publisher: Konami Price: $39.99 Platform: Nintendo DS Category: Arcade/Action ESRB Rating: T for Teen (Blood & Gore, Fantasy Violence, Language) Release Date: November 2007
“Pain is weakness leaving the body.” and “That which kills me makes me stronger” are two motivational chants that ran through my head over and over again when I fired up the latest game in the long running arcade series on my Nintendo DS.
I was one of the generation that grew up loving the Contra games on the NES. I was never good enough to get through the games without using the multiple life cheats and like most of the fans of the title that cheat didn’t bother me so much. I enjoyed the mindless run and gun, I fought my way to the next scattergun drop all in the name of obliterating the alien menace and trying to see just how few of those 30 extra lives I could complete the game with. Needless to say even at the peak of my Contra skill I never managed to do it with more than 20 lives intact.
Advance 20 years and we now have a new Contra title. Sure there have been a plethora of games called Contra released over the last few years – all of them with mind numbing difficulty intact – but none of them ever managed to recapture that initial joy of defeat I felt the first time Bill and Lance were killed 5 seconds into the first level of Contra by an alien soldier who managed to avoid a bullet and run right through me. Contra 4 is that nostalgic pain returning to torment my masochistic side yet again.
Fantasy Wars (a.k.a. Mythic Wars) Developer: Ino-Co Publisher: 1C Company/Atari Price: $39.99 Platform: PC Category: Strategy ESRB Rating: T for Teen (Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language) Release Date: October 2007
Fantasy Wars is a turn-based strategy game set on a hexagonal combat scheme with RPG elements throughout the game. When I first heard about it, my initial thoughts were the standard “great… another run of the mill turn-based strategy game”. You know what? I was correct. On the surface, you have your usual suspects fighting it out for supreme dominance of the land - elves, humans, and orcs - and while this may seem like just the “same old same old”, the pleasant surprise with Fantasy Wars is that you get a turn as each. Also, with most hex-based strategy games, not much is given in the way of presentation and variety - untrue with this particular game. Fantasy Wars is a vibrant 3D game and having played this type of game numerous times, I was very pleased with the amount of detail on everything from the buildings and trees to the characters themselves. Usually, your units will look like blurry pixilated blobs running around on green blocks of grass; therefore I was extremely impressed with the amount of focus dedicated to the overall look of the game. While indeed I was impressed with the graphics, the rest of the game’s features are clearly lacking; therefore the esteem I originally felt vanished like oatmeal cookies at a Weight Watchers meeting.
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure Developer: Off Base Productions Publisher: Capcom Price: $50 ESRB Rating: E for Everyone (Cartoon Violence) Release Date: October 2007
“Not another Wii game based on the odd control scheme!” I thought to myself. We’ve had enough of those already and the only thing worse is a Wii game littered with mini-games and a bad story to string them together. Shortly after firing up the game though these trepidations faded and I found myself enjoying the puzzle aspect of the game and much to my own amazement the odd controller based gameplay.
Zack & Wiki Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure is a game that would not work on any of the other consoles. Despite being at its core an adventure game, this is an adventure game designed around the motion sensing nature of the Wii remote and it gets just about everything right in its attempt to involve players in the telling of its story.
The game revolves around the two title characters – the pirate in-training Zack (who reminded me, heaven forbid, of Luffy D. Monkey of One Piece fame at first – minus the poor translation) and his golden sidekick Wiki. Wiki is some sort of golden Incan flying monkey demon, and his origins play a big part in the mostly coherent plot that follows between puzzles and adventure segments in the game. The two stalwart characters find themselves stranded on a mysterious treasure filled island after a run in with a rival pirate and the cursed talking skull of the pirate king joins them in the search for his scattered bones and treasure. Read the full article
Xbox Live Arcade was in desperate need of a more diversified list of genres. Dungeon crawlers are definitely a type of genre needed to boost appeal for the arcade. Wanako Studios delivered us a winner with Assault Heroes, so the bar was set high for this game.
Wanako’s description of the game follows. Read our full review to see if it’s a realistic description.
Ready to release the warrior within?
Arkadian Warriors, the action-adventure game that spans treacherous dungeons where players embark on a trek of unimaginable proportions filled with countless enemies and powerful bosses has just been released for Xbox Live Arcade. Developed by Wanako Studios, the award-winning creators of Assault Heroes™, Arkadian Warriors allows players to fight in epic solo battles or join forces with a friend in the intense multiplayer co-operative mode – online over Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network or locally on the same system.
The Unreal series isn’t really considered the grand-daddy of gaming; in fact, it’s more like the middle-aged uncle. But as some of you may know, a middle-aged uncle (who, in my case, lives out in the backwoods and has a surplus of guns and fireworks) can still be a lot of fun. The newest installment in the franchise, Unreal Tournament III, is finally out; and while it may show of the series’ age with its simple FPS gameplay, it can still provide an endless source of entertainment. Full review after the break. Read the full article
Posted by William on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 12:36 pm under Hands On, THQ, Sony, Microsoft
Word on the street is that the PS3 version of WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2008 suffers from serious frame rate issues, so I decided to sample the Xbox 360 version which has been reported to be the best by most I have talked to concerning the title. If anyone has played the Wii version, feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments below. I’m definitely curious what gamers think about that version as well.
The first thing I should mention is the fact that I have yet to play a wrestling game that I came out of with a positive feeling about. I was a big fan of wrestling when I was little and have some fond memories of the sport even though I am not much of a fan these days. I continue sampling wrestling games through the years in hopes of a truly great one, but always feel let down.
WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2008 is another let down in my book. The character creation options are last generation if that. The other noticeable problem I have with the game is the insane load times. You will spend more time on load screens than actually wrestling someone. The game does look fairly nice; the movements are a little more fluid than past WWE games and some of the new moves and controls were welcomed. If they could get rid of the long load times, add a tutorial mode or two and then just lightly polish the rest of the game and possibly throw in a detailed character edit mode, we’d be looking at something really nice. Right now it’s simply an average game at best. If you are a die hard WWE fan and have tons of patience for boring load screens, drop $60 on the game. For anyone else, this could be a fun game rental for a couple days, but much past 3-4 hours of gameplay, it gets really old. I look forward to the 2009 wrestling game to see if they made the necessary tweaks to finally give us a wrestling game worth writing home about.
Viking: Battle for Asgard
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Condemned 2: Bloodshot
Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
Lost: Via Domus
Bomberman Land
The Club
Culdcept Saga
I’ve been curious about 
Omega Five
Sam and Max Season Two: “Moai Better Blues”
Contra 4
Fantasy Wars (a.k.a. Mythic Wars)
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure
