South Park: The Stick of Truth – review

South Park: The Stick of Truth is a pretty impressive game.  During development it faced many delays but seems to now be coming out of the gate strong. Using solid roleplaying game elements and a decent turn-based battle system, South Park: The Stick of Truth will be a favorite amongst fans of the show and RPG fans alike.  The writing is solid and it plays much like you are a part of the show, which is a blast. The only down side is that this game has its share of bugs that still need to be worked out.

You begin the story as a character named “New Kid” who recently moved to South Park. He soon befriends Butters, Cartman, and Kenny who are all role-playing as humans fighting against Elves.  You must do your part to determine your role in the game and determine which faction you wish to fight for in the defense of the Stick of Truth. Something much more sinister is going on underneath day-to-day events in town and whoever controls the Stick of Truth controls the universe.

One of the bonuses about this game is that it is very funny. The dialogue is hilarious; the quests are not too difficult; and the story is surprisingly linear for an RPG.  The class system lets you pick between fighter, mage, thief, and Jew with tons of options for customization.  Many of the characters you meet will offer you quests or will even join you in some way, which adds to the enjoyment and overall experience.

The biggest issue I have had was that the game has a couple issues of bugs.  For example, in one boss fight if you choose to use Kyle as a partner the screen will go black after the battle and force you to restart the console.  I have also come across a problem where I had to force a restart because I vanished at the top of some stairs as if I floated out of time and space.  Once you figure out what attacks you like the best almost all the battles can be won very quickly, especially at the higher levels.

The game itself is not particularly long but there is definitely replay value to it. If ou choose to go back through the game, you can conceivably see how the other scenarios play out and work towards the achievements/trophies.  South Park: The Stick of Truth is really a fun game and should be played by anyone who enjoys the show. There are tons of inside jokes and a lot of moments that are laugh-out-loud enjoyable.  It is certainly worth buying for any mature fan of roleplaying games or South Park.  Hopefully the creators will be able to work out the bugs in a patch and maybe we’ll even get some DLC.

Bioshock Infinite - Video Game review.

The original Bioshock game is one of my favorite games.  The story and roleplaying elements mixed well with a first-person shooter game to create an experience that captivating to watch and play.  The third installment of the series, Bioshock Infinity, takes a new turn.  This time they have moved away from the underwater city of Rapture and moved to the floating city of Columbia.

You play as Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent who is attempting to find a girl in the city of Columbia and return her to New York.  Columbia is a floating city in 1912 so everything is decked in Americana.  There are a lot of perils that Booker must overcome to find the girl. When he does, he will never be the same.

The graphics are vastly improved from the former games.  The people you meet all look authentic and react well to events of the story and the time period.  It almost looks as if the main street of Disneyland is brought to life on a grand scale.  Many of the enemies you fight are normal looking instead of the spliced- up freaks, like in previous games. 

While this is a fun game, there are flaws that make it fairly weak at times.  During the past games there were enemies that would randomly roam a hallway or a room.  You sometimes would see them wandering around talking to themselves.  In this game what happens is: You walk into an area, the area becomes closed to you, you have to fight off all the goons, then you can proceed.  It gets tedious fast. 

I don’t mind that they decided to stray away from the Rapture world and try something new.  I think the story is overly convoluted and borders on Stephen King’s Dark Tower territory.   The final boss battle is frustrating and took forever to successfully complete.  With all the footage I remember seeing online before this came out, it makes me wonder what on earth changed this so much?  They seemed to put out a lot of stuff to entice gamers with this new concept but in the end they were signing checks their butts could not cash.

As a whole, Bioshock Infinite is an okay game. It is pretty and the controls are fairly easy to get used to.   However, if you are looking for the better games I’d look back and start with the first Bioshock.  The idea is interesting and I look forward to the downloadable content add-ons.  It can only get better since they scraped the multiplayer aspect, which they had on Bioshock 2. It does not seem to have a lot of extras although it does come with a copy of the first game. 

Dead Space 3- video game review

Dead Space 3 is the follow up to the hit game Dead Space 2.  This time they chose to abandon the multiplayer game and create a co-op mode to accompany its single player game. Dead Space 3 still has a creepy concept and remains one of the better games in the survival/horror genre.  The fear aspect is still there and in game play it is sometimes a better option to run from danger when it arises. 

The story follows Isaac Clark after surviving the Sprawl incident of the second game.  If you are new to the series, the game is kind enough to create a nice synopsis of the events leading up to now.  He is a hollow shell of a man and he finds himself the target of a plot by the Unitologist Church.  He now has to escape the planet and find the home world for giant markers, which cause alien infections.

The game play is similar in all of the games’ previous incarnations, which is nice. The game has amazing graphics and uses sound and lighting to great advantages.  There are so many scenes that you will play through that seem reminiscent of an Alien movie.  It’s really well done and will have you hoping that a creature will not leap up behind you at every turn.  The story weaves a great tale of loss and betrayal as well.

There are some frustrating creatures that show up.  At times you might find yourself piling on F-bombs as you curse your controller for not reacting fast enough.  Oddly enough, it seems like there are entire levels that were really tailored for co-op and single player game as just an after thought.  The problem is that co-op is not nearly as scary as doing it alone.  When I play a survival-horror I expect to feel the tension. The fact that they have it as co-op might be a fun new way to play, but it takes horror element out of it. 

Dead Space 3 is a great game.  The story fit well and it is full of novel concepts.  It’s certainly worth trying if you are into something scary or something sci-fi. I can see a little replay value in wanting to try to go through it again with a partner to see what it’s like.  I imagine it’d be just like playing Resident Evil 5 and 6 but in space.  You will care for the characters and you will enjoy the fear a good game can give you.

Borderlands 2 - Video Game Review

The Borderlands series is an interesting mix of POV shooter and loot grabbing role-playing game. It takes elements of post apocalyptic fiction and science fiction.  While there are a lot of things that are fun and interesting it has some very strong moments that will make you want to pull your hair out.  The game is fun and worth purchasing.

Borderlands 2 takes place 5 years after the first game.  There are a new group of vault hunters now with new skills out to make it rich on the planet of Pandora.  The problem is Handsome Jack, the local head of the Hyperion Corporation, is out to kill your character. Finding out why is the huge undertaking.

The art style is still as good as it was in the last game.  There is a lot of humor woven into the story.  These factors make it pretty worthwhile for some of the quests and dialogue alone.  If you love a long game this one will certainly be up your alley.  They have already created several pieces of downloadable content with new quests and new loot. 

It’s a fun game that will entertain for many hours.  It has many optional quests that that will frustrate you or you will enjoy as you make your character more and more powerful. If you enjoyed the last game you will like this one.  If you enjoy RPGs or shooters this is a unique game that will entertain you for a long while.

The Walking Dead- video game review

The Walking Dead has been a huge hit since the television show on AMC.  Based on the hit comic by Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead faces a zombie apocalypse scenario with realism and a unique sense of humanism that is rare for this medium.  Telltale Games has clearly worked well to make a game that looks like the comic come to life in an episodic adventure.

You play as Lee Everett, a criminal on his way to prison at the time of the big zombie attack.   The game play is point and click and the dialog works very much like a “chose your own adventure” novel.  The great thing is that the game remembers your decisions so that in each episode events will change and sometimes the dialogue will alter depending on your choices.  There are a few really interesting plot twists that make it almost gripping to watch at times. 

It is a well-written script and the characters are interesting and for the most part likable.  While there are a few people that you don’t mind seeing zombies turn into lunch, it still allows a certain level of character development so you care if these people survive the episodes.  The game will also tell you how other players who have played the game made their decisions at the end of the episodes. You will also come across characters from the comics that are very well known such as Glenn and Hershel.

If you are a fan of The Walking Dead comics or the television show you will enjoy the game.  It’s fairly easy to get into and not too difficult to play.  This is the sort of game that you play for the love of the source material not so much for the challenge.  If you are looking for something to get you through those dry spells when the season is not doing anything, consider playing The Walking Dead video game.  

Resident Evil 6- video game review

Resident Evil 6 is the sixth installment of a survival-horror franchise that has done it’s time.  In this game instead of following a single storyline there are three separate campaigns and then a fourth that you unlock by finishing the previous three.  They all intertwine in different ways and it is in that way the makers of this game were trying something new.  The style of each campaign is a bit different each time as well.  For instance- In the Leon campaign  it’s more the standard Resident Evil game from the past, with Chris it’s more shooting and action,  with Jake it’s running away from creatures and situations, and in the Ada campaign it’s puzzles.

I was not a fan of the different campaigns.  My personal opinion is that one really decent and well-run story is so much better than four intersecting ones that just glance at one another and don’t let you care about the characters.  The intersections also mean that you are going to be fighting the same boss fights twice with multiple characters.  It comes off as really lazy on the part of the game designers.  They really needed to attempt to add some more variety to the monsters.  Every campaign faces a creature with the stamina of Jason Voorhees that you will face countless times and in several forms.  It gets so redundant fighting them again and again. 

The game play is okay for the most part. The AI for the partners has improved a lot more from the last game.  A welcome change I was happy to see that maybe twice I had to take care of my partner in a fight.  Navigating the new version of the inventory was a challenge at first but I got used to it.  The worst part by far is the constant use of “monkey-see monkey-do” commands. Since Resident Evil 4 for some reason these commands keep popping on the screen and expecting you to hit the button at just the right time or die.  It brings to mind games like Dragon’s Lair where the game gets frustrating incredibly fast unless you memorize the button actions.  As if that wasn’t frustrating enough the game added several death races against the clock sections where a single second off your game will lead to the character’s dying in an overly long cut scene.

I understood that Resident Evil 4 changed the series to be more action based.  The sequel added a teammate element.  The problem is that the Resident Evil universe has really played out its story.  Capcom should wrap it and Silent Hill up and start a franchise that is bold and different.  There are other really amazing games that have proven that survival-horror can still be an amazing genre of game.  The two Dead Space games still blow me away and they seem to have borrowed a lot of the feel directly from Resident Evil.  This game is superfluous.  It really ads nothing to the universe other than the side note that Jake is Albert Wesker’s kid and that is not even a shocking Darth Vader-style reveal since Jake is a new character himself. Nothing new is brought to the table. 

Resident Evil is okay.  It has become a neutered form of the survival-horror it once was.  There are sections of this game where you fly a crashing plane and have a car chase. That is not the mood I have at all with a Resident Evil game.  That is a mood I have with an Uncharted game.  If you are a fan of the series it’s probably going to disappoint you in its lack of growth.  If you are looking to start playing the survival-horror genre I’d look elsewhere because this is certainly not that genre anymore and you can find a lot better.

Lollipop Chainsaw- review

“Lollipop Chainsaw” should have its picture in the dictionary for tongue-in-cheek game.  It’s absolutely stupid at times and it can also be pretty funny at other times.  The music is killer and the voice actors do a really good job with their roles at least.  The biggest flaws come from the controls and the overall game length.

In “Lollipop Chainsaw” you play as Juliet Starling.  She is a bubbly cheerleader celebrating her 18^th birthday.  She also comes from a family of zombie hunters.  Her weapon of choice is her customized chainsaw which she wields to hack and slash at the undead that have taken over her town.  She carries around the still-living severed head of her boyfriend Nick. Together, they square off against the music-themed zombies that have arisen to raise hell.

This game is a button masher’s dream.  It tells you the combos to do to produce amazing results in zombie killing.  However, in the heat of the moment you won’t remember them and you will hit every button you can, only to produce roughly the same results.  In addition, the game is too short. There are 6 levels in total. The levels are long, but I was able to beat this game in the lesser parts of two days.  The only thing extra they seem to be offering is more outfits for Juliet.  The game pretty much wants you to ogle her.  You can even get a trophy/achievement for trying to get an up-skirt.  Stay classy game.

The game has an interesting plot and funny dialogue.  The writer is James Gunn who was the writer for the new version of “Dawn of the Dead” and the writer/director of “Slither”.  The voice actors do a good job and many of them are C-list celebrities such as Michael Rooker, Shawnee Smith, Michael Rosenbaum and Tara Strong. The music is really good.  Every stage is themed after a certain type of music: punk, metal, psychedelic, funk, rock and roll, and rockabilly.  The writer even has a few zombie fan references.  Juliet is a cheerleader for the San Romero Knights and there is an Arcade called the Fulci Fun Center.   

As a whole, “Lollipop Chainsaw” is okay.  It’s certainly one of those games that can be popped in if you want to just chill and kill zombies for a while mindlessly.  It’s a fun distraction really.  If you want to shut off your brain for a while, this is a great game.  What keeps this game from being bad is that it seems to be aware of its cheese factor. It expects others to at least enjoy the ride as well. If you are into the zombie genre and into tongue-in-cheek humor this game is really going to be up your alley.  If not then I’d wait till the price goes down or it’s available to rent.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception-review

I am sort of a “Johnny Come-Lately” to this series.  For a long time I avoided it because at first glance it comes off as a male version of a “Tomb Raider” game. For a game heralding itself as a star series for the Playstation 3 game console, I’m getting a better understanding why the hype is so big for the “Uncharted” series.

In “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception” you play as Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter who goes around the world seeking objects of mystery.  In this chapter he is looking into a ring that belonged to Sir Francis Drake and legend tells it might lead to a fabled lost Arabian City.  With the help of his friends, he must get there before a gang of nefarious criminals and unravel the mystery.

Elements of this game share a lot of “Tomb Raider’s” style of game play.  The major difference is that there is less emphasis on the puzzles and more on the shooter action. The biggest downside to this game is that it becomes repetitive quickly.  The game can be broken into sections that all flow like this:

-Cut scene

-Jump around high areas.

-Solve a puzzle.

-Shoot the villains

-Run from something.

-Repeat.

It is only on rare occasion there is a slight variant on the flow, but for the most part all 22 chapters of this game were comprised of these elements. 

I might give this game a bad time for being repetitive, but there is one element that this game does really well and that’s its story.  The story is solid and the characters and really well defined and it feels at time like you are playing a well crafted movie.  Even the voice actors seem to be doing a good job giving the characters an element of life that seldom seen in games lately.

“Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception” also has the option to play in multiplayer and co-op mode which I haven’t given much of a try to as of yet.  I would say the game is worth looking into if you like shooter or action games that are on sale.  Normally I wouldn’t have gotten it at all, but it came with the new PS3 which makes it a pretty smooth bit of marketing on Sony’s part.  If you are considering purchasing a PS3 and are thinking about getting one with this game, I’d recommend it. 

Silent Hill: Downpour-review

Before I played “Silent Hill: Downpour” I had only played the first of the Silent Hill games.  I enjoyed it a lot. The mood is haunting and the town shows your character a world that is so wracked by horrors that it consumes them in their own fears and despairs.  Downpour is the Eighth game in the series and at least made it an interesting story to add to the Silent Hill Saga.  

In this game you play as Murphy Pendleton, a convict who was arrested for stealing a police cruiser.  He and some other inmates are being transferred in a bus when the rain caused the bus to slide off the road.  From there, Murphy makes his way into Silent Hill.  The town is still very much deserted and haunted and Murphy must find any way he can out of town.

The game play is really good. There was not a lot of combat in the game which made the horror mood fairly high.  There are lots of times where it behooves you to just take flight form the rabble of monsters around you.  The puzzles are okay for the most part though some of them felt like big time fillers.  There are lots of areas to explore and lots of side quests to do.  I didn’t see a lot of motivation to do the side quests however, when the game can be beaten just as easily going straight through it for the most part.  

All in all it’s a fun game. This game is definitely a fine title to add to the survival horror genre. If you are a fan of the genre you’ll certainly like it.  Like the other Silent Hill games there are multiple endings based on the choices you made in the game.  It’s a chilling game that has a lot of great atmosphere and would be fun played in the dark.   Just try not to scream at the constant jump scares. 

Back to the Future: the Game-review

“Back to the Future: the Game” has been out for a while as a downloadable game in chapters.  I only recently found a copy of it in it’s entirely as one blu ray disc. The blue ray disc is not a bad deal considering how much space you’d have to allow downloading the entire game on your hard drive.  I honestly think that only the most die-hard Back to the Future fans will even remotely enjoy this game. 

The story is pretty good, as it was written by the folks who helped write the movies.  Six months have passed since the event of the last film and Doc Brown has been missing for all that time. Marty goes to an estate sale at his house and comes across the DeLorean.  The DeLorean takes him to Hill Valley 1931 where Doc Brown is in jail and Marty must interact with Gangsters, his Grandfather, and a teenage Doc Brown.  The story takes some unique twists and really feels like a sequel to the other movies.

The voice acting is fairly decent.  The guy they got to impersonate Michael J. Fox is spot on. Christopher Lloyd plays Doc Brown which is pretty awesome. Here is the strange part.  They couldn’t get any of the other side characters to reprise their roles.  The Biff Tannen guy sounds nothing like Biff.  What were Thomas Wilson, Lea Thompson, and Crispin Glover doing that they couldn’t do a voice over gig? 

The animation is really shoddy.  It looks like cartoon caricatures that were left unfinished or like action figurines.  The game play is some off the easiest I have ever seen.  It’s a point-and-click game and if a puzzle is ever TOO challenging you can hit a button and it TELLS YOU how to solve it.  To top it off, there is never a loose scenario.  You can’t die and there is no fail.  That is how this game took two days to cruise through for me.  It’s not a real brain buster and certainly isn’t a challenge.     

That is why I can really only recommend this game to a super fan of the franchise.  If you are a person who would just love to see how the story would continue beyond the third movie, then this will do the trick.  If you are looking for a good game, then look elsewhere.  I love these movies and it is was great to step into Hill Valley, hear a kicking Huey Lewis soundtrack, and remember what is was like when I could just “make like a tree and get out of here.”

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim-review

Having finally gotten through the main storyline of “Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,” I finally feel confident enough to talk about it.  It’s a damn good game.  There is a lot of content and there is plenty to do in game, which is really nice.  The character creation is pretty smooth the skill trees and leveling is easy to figure out.  It’s also pretty nice to see that after main quest you can continue questing on side missions.  This was something that Bethesda games made the mistake removing in “Fallout: New Vegas”.  

The concept is that the character you create is a Dragonborn, a person that can use the powers of a dragon and can absorb the souls of dragons he kills.  You begin on your way to get executed when a Dragon attacks.  This allows you a chance to escape and make your way into the world of Skyrim.  Skyrim is lovely world that looks like a mixture of Viking art and the style of the animated “Beowulf” movie.  The graphics are fantastic and the creatures are very clever. 

The good thing is that there is a ton to do.  This whole game is incredible. It’s beautiful to look at and it’s very detailed from the books you pick up to the music in the background.  You can create a character that is unique and very customized to whatever your style of game happens to be.  If you are a melee style person, ranged fighter, or someone that would rather hurl magic like champ it is easy to set up to switch it out on a whim.  The NPCs are all very stylized and show a lot of depth and are not usually the generic kind you see in most other games of this style.

The mediocre thing is that some of the quests will get monotonous over time.  That is not to say they all are. You will do a lot of running from place to place. Many of the locations you delve into will either be way too hard or way too easy so finding that middle ground is a fair challenge. Still, it isn’t hard to gain experience and find better equipment so if a place is a pain you can always return later when you are stronger and ready to meet the challenge.   

The bad is that like any Bethesda game this one has an irritating mass of bugs.  It freezes at times.  Sometimes characters will go into a dialogue loop or dead characters will vanish into the floor.  This is not the worst thing in the world but it is annoying that the kinks aren’t all ironed out.  The other thing I’ve noticed is that it’s a real pain to pick up stuff in close proximity to certain things since if you accidentally take anything that isn’t yours you will have a bounty on your head and will immediately have the whole town guard come down on you. 

The good far exceeds the mediocre and the bad on this game.  If you are fan of role playing games then this is a great one.  It allows you a lot of chance to explore and create a fun and unique character.  I highly recommend it since it shows a lot of potential and can only get better if and when DLC comes out.  It has an epic story with original concepts that make it an adventure that is really worthwhile and memorable. Even a newcomer to the franchise like me can easily get into this and find it easy to lose time playing.

Alice: The Madness Returns-review

This scene certainly is inviting.

Many folks who know me will know that I love the computer game “American McGee’s Alice”.  It took a time loved story and gave it a dark twist as we ventured deeper into the character, Alice’s mental problems facing the death of her family after a tragic fire.  Her only refuge is to regress mentally back into Wonderland which is no longer the whimsical place she knew as a child but is now more evil and primal than ever.  The art style and game play was a wonderful for 2000 and it still remains one of my favorite games of all time.

Yesterday a sequel came out and I gave it a shot.  After a problem with the disc that required me to get a replacement I finally got it running. So far I am incredibly impressed.  First off the look of the game coming from 2000 to 2011 has improved immensely.  The art style is nothing short of eye-popping.  Both vivid and amazing, it shows a lot of detail as scene goes between Wonderland and Whitechapel in London.  It looks smooth and the cut scenes are fun.  The music is still haunting and appropriate for where you are in the level.  The game play is a lot better.  Changing it from a keyboard control to a console control makes it a hundred times easier to combat enemies that are much harder and use way more gang tactics than the original game.

It's on like Donkey Kong.

            If there is a flaw so far it’s that the game can be maddeningly difficult at times.  There are times when in a platform game it’s all about timing and if it’s not precise you are screwed.  The other problem is getting ganged up on by a dozen or more creatures of various types.  The problem with this is that often certain creatures have a very particular weakness that require a level of focus that is damn difficult to give when getting a beat down by other goons.  The weapons choice has been interesting and fun so far.  Though for some items I would have preferred simpler one button commands as opposed to hit L1 and X to perform a block.  

Fee Fie Foe Fards! I smell a group of humanoid cards.

Still, it’s a fun and very playable game.  The best part is that it even comes with a free download of the original game as a console port.  This is an awesome add on.  Now keep in mind that the original does have primitive graphics compared to its sequel but it at least it got transferred into HD and the controller is a lot easier to maintain control of a person than the keyboard. So it improved on the original only a touch to make it work.

            All in all “Alice: The Madness Returns” is a great game.  Plus you get much more than you bargain for with the original game as well.  It’s a very worthwhile  purchase and I recommend it to anyone who might be in the mood for a more adult take on the Alice in Wonderland story.  It shows style and heart which we’ve come to expect from American McGee.  If you give it a try let me know what you think.  Frankly, I think this is the story that Tim Burton SHOULD have made into a movie if Disney hadn’t turned it into “Narnia” rip-off.

DC Universe Online-review

            What’s to say? It’s a fun enough game.  The character creation is pretty cool.  I have some issues with it still.  It was a huge download for a console game.  It still pisses me off that it has a monthly fee.  It also sort of chaps my ass that there are so few trophies to offer.   I mean good lord, I singlehandedly kicked the shit out of the Teen Titans and I got nothing out of it. 

            I am still getting used to wielding an MMO on a console.  So far it’s a fun experience.  I like the game a lot and really it’s neat to be in a world like the DC Universe.  I like going from the Hall of Doom to Metropolis and Gotham on a variety of fun missions.  It’s very intricate and I like that when you are knocked out it’s not a big challenge to get back into the fight.  No running to your body as a ghost and bullshit like that.

            If I could fix this I’d remove the fees.  That is why I quit World of Warcraft.   I also think if they were making it console based they should have made with the info already added rather than forcing you to download hours of crap onto your ps3.  That is just wasting time and memory space for me.  So I had to erase a bunch of shit sadly to get this game up and running.  Sure I can re-download it but what a pain in the ass.

            All in all I recommend it if you are ready to move away from WoW.  Plus if you want to give a MMO a try it’s a decent game.  I am not sure how long the novelty of it will last honestly but I am enjoying it for now and that works at the moment.  I have yet to experience it for all it has to offer, especially when it comes to the pvp aspects.  So if you are in the mood I am in the Crisis server.  Look for the villain coupdegrace. 

Fallout New Vegas-review

“War.  War never changes.” With these words from Ron Pearlman every Fallout game has started.  The PC game Fallout brought a new face to the RPG genre and brought a really wild post-apocalyptic world to the player.  Then “Fallout 3” came out.   It was the grown up version of the PC games with a first person shooter twist.  It took the original story of the California vault survivor and moved it to Washington DC.  Now the setting has been moved to Las Vegas and Mojave Desert bringing this Fallout back to its PC roots.

​In a lot of ways it feels the same as Fallout 3.  There are some nice differences.  A big problem with Fallout 3 was that, like Oblivion, another Bethesda game, it froze, CONSTANTLY.  This was such a problem that fans were in an uproar that the bugs be fixed.  I did have two freezes on New Vegas but since then they sent out an update online I haven’t had any more problems.

​Unlike Fallout 3, where you are born in at the start of the game New Vegas begins with you getting shot and being buried in a shallow grave.  Fallout New Vegas has a few bad aspects.  For example some missions require you to come and go multiple times like a damn postman.  I find that tedious.   In Fallout 3 you can get repairs and shop just about anywhere.  It’s a lot more difficult to find repairs and doctors in New Vegas without specifically looking around.

​Otherwise it’s really a great game.  I like that they have fixed the companions to be easier to command. In Fallout 3 you had to sort through a mass of BS text to tell your companions to fight a certain way or to access their inventory.  Now it’s a simple wheel which allows you to make changes.  It’s really nice and easy.  Plus you can have more than one companion at a time which can be very useful since their kills count towards your experience.

​There are lots of varieties when it comes to what sorts of character builds you want to make to survive the wasteland.  Generally I go with the smooth talking gunslinger (“I’m you’re huckleberry”) but it’s kind of neat to see that the replay is there if you want the challenge of playing as a sneaky ninja type or a melee fighter.   I don’t think you can survive for long without relying solely on a ranged weapon in Fallout 3.  It’s just a necessity, especially later in the game.

​Anyway it’s an improvement.  I did like the ruins of Washington DC’s wasteland.  It was a lot more haunting to see national monuments turned into rubble.   New Vegas is creepy and Las Vegas sure does have aspects of that.  But it’s not quite the same when you see the Lincoln Monument turned into a hideout for slavers  (ooh irony) or the Hoover Dam turned into a the site of a battle between survival factions. I still have a lot of game story to work through.  I have a feeling it will only get more interesting.

Dead Rising 2- full review

Ok, I tried to like it.  Especially, after waiting so long for a new game to come out and impress me.  Dead Rising 2 sucks.  There is no way around it and after less than a week with it I am already prepared to trade it back for credit.   But why is this game such a flop?  Oh I’ll feed you, baby birds.
For starters the graphics is somewhat lacking for a next generation game console.  The people really have wooden expressions and lack of depth in facial clarity which I expect out of the PS3.  This however, is really the least of the game’s problems.  When everyone plays a game the first thing on everyone’s mind should be: “Is it playable?” and this game fall’s flat pretty hard on that note.
Maybe I am a stick in the mud but it pisses me right off when I finally get my hands on a ranged weapon like a gun or a flame thrower and it takes 6 bullets to take down a zombie. Then if a human mercenary shows up that you need to take out he is bobbing and weaving like Muhammad Ali and your gun is useless to hit him it and now it takes even more ammo. So now you have to use a melee weapon to take him out meanwhile he has just about killed you because they don’t miss.
Yeah hit detection is very suspect in this game.  You can wade through a team of zombies and no one will touch you.  Then out of the blue you will be dragged down and have to struggle to wrestle away from the maniac chewing on your throat.  The boss battles may as well be a joke too.  Most times you spend running away because your hits do jack squat to the guys you’re trying to hit. Why does the A.I. for saving people suck so hard?  These people don’t seem to give a crap at all that it’s their ass you are trying to save.
The missions are ridiculous.  Unless you are the Beyonder and can warp time and space there is no way you can get to all these places and finish the story without running out of time.  Also this might be nitpicking but as a player I like to get the trophies that come in games. I don’t understand what the hell is going on but this game has been ridiculous about giving out the trophies for any successes.  Several hours in and I’ve only gotten a couple.  That is bad.  Normal PS3 games will actually toss out trophies left and right for playing and enjoying the game.  Bottom line Dead Rising 2 is a very broken game.  I know Capcom can do better.  After all Resident Evil 5 was better and that game really stands out for the PS3.