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June 30, 2011

Review – Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers Dark of the Moon
After last year’s solid War for Cybertron (my review for which you can read here), I dared to hope that High Moon Studios might once again bring their talent to bear with Dark of the Moon, and perhaps defy the movie tie-in curse.

Of course, it was almost inevitable that the shorter development cycle would hurt the product, and so it has. In many ways, Dark of the Moon is the same game that War for Cybertron was; all the same core pieces are there, but unfortunately the execution is not to that game’s standard, and a handful of missing or altered features make Dark of the Moon a wholly diminished product.

Dark of the Moon serves as a prequel to Michael Bay’s film of the same name (though a largely unnecessary one); throughout the campaign the player will take on the roles of seven distinct transformers, Autobot and Decepticon alike, across seven missions in a roughly five hour campaign.

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June 20, 2011

Review – Infamous 2

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 8:42 am

Infamous 2
Like its predecessor before it, Infamous 2 is a game that teeters on the edge of greatness; it may not be quite there yet, but it surmounts its flaws with solid core gameplay and a consistently satisfying experience.

The player once again controls Cole MacGrath, the gravely-voiced electro-kinetic who must choose to follow a path of light or dark to defeat his enemies. As detailed at length across the internets, Cole is a little bit different from before; he’s no longer afflicted by an Infinite Scowl, and a new actor provides a slightly more human voice. Both alterations serve to make Cole more comfortable and relatable, though some of the changes to his design squander cool elements of his look from the first game.

Like most heavy-hitting franchises in the industry (Call of Duty, Gears of War) the plot of Infamous 2 is characterized by a solid concept and weak execution. Core concepts aren’t satisfactorily developed, competent voice actors are given very little worth saying, the emotional story is lazy and the core threat never really materializes the way the plot promises.

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June 14, 2011

Review – Arcana Heart 3

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , — Nathan White @ 12:39 pm

Review Arcana Heart 3
Button-mashing has come a long way. Over the years I’ve button-mashed my way through the best of them; why just two weeks ago I button-mashed my way to several near victories on a Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter cabinet at a local arcade. I’ve also recently purchased the HD version of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 for my PS3, and still occasionally pick it up and aimlessly thrash at the controller until my wrists get tired.

Being a casual veteran of the Arcana Heart series (Atlus’ PlayStation 2 port, anyway) I somewhat knew what to expect coming into the recently released 3rd entry in the fighting series; lots of cute anime girls based on a vast array of moe archetypes, all wearing skimpy and/or adorable outfits, and devastating each other with seizure inducing color bursts, which ignite the screen like cotton candy fireworks.

Is this what I got when I sat down to play Arcana Heart 3? Yes.

Is that a bad thing? Well, it is and it isn’t.

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June 10, 2011

Review – Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation

Call of Duty Black Ops Escalation
Last week saw the release of Escalation, the second Call of Duty: Black Ops content pack, on the PC. Escalation includes four new multiplayer maps (Hotel, Zoo, Stockpile and Convoy), alongside a new zombie survival mission.

What’s most immediately noticeable is that the new multiplayer maps, thankfully, offer a range of new visual styles—especially refreshing after all the browns and greys of Black Ops proper.

Zoo and Hotel are both distinctly colorful, offbeat maps that serve as decidedly unusual combat grounds. Meanwhile, Convoy takes place on a broken roadway that feels distinctly urban and familiar, while Stockpile features a farming village that’s actually a lot less humble than it seems.

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June 9, 2011

E3 2011 – Hands-on Picture Lives!

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , — Mister Raroo @ 3:44 pm

Picture Lives
I’m getting more than a little tired of seeing games where you run around and shoot things. Unfortunately, E3 is packed to the gills with ‘em. But thank the maker, because there are at least a handful of games for the few attendees like myself who would rather explore colorful worlds than fill enemies with bullets.

One such title, Picture Lives!, is tucked away in Nintendo’s booth on a lone 3DS unit. The game is being overlooked by everyone… well, everyone except your pal Mister Raroo!

When I walked up to have a peek, the lady at the demo station seemed shocked that I wanted to play it. And I’m glad I did, because it is quite a quirky, charming little game!

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June 8, 2011

E3 2011 – Hands-on Otomedius Excellent

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , — Mister Raroo @ 10:46 pm

E3 2011 Otomedius Excellent
Otomedius Excellent has some issues, the least of which being that nobody will likely buy it when it is released next month. That’s a shame, because underneath its somewhat rough exterior lies a game that is just a heck of a lot of fun to play. There is a definite shortage of happy, colorful, silly shooters these days, and Otomedius does what it can to fill that void.

Do you remember Gradius (or, if you’re cool, Parodius)? Good! Otomedius is the newest member to that family of shooters. You take control of a spacecraft and fire away at waves of enemies and big bosses until you destroy them all. Oh, and the spacecraft is piloted by a scantily-clad anime girl.

I know, I know. You’d rather have Gradius VI. But Otomedius isn’t that bad, despite what you might have heard! Honest! Sure, it’s a bit mindless, but in a good way.

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E3 2011 – Hands-on Magical Drop V

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , — Mister Raroo @ 10:44 pm

Magical Drop V
If you’re the type of person who cries yourself to sleep every night because you miss Data East’s classic games, dry those tears! Out of nowhere, Magical Drop V has appeared at E3, and it is so bright and cute it almost hurts your eyes.

I have no clue how popular Magical Drop is with the kids these days, so I’ll go ahead and break down the gameplay quickly for you. Essentially, it’s a color-matching puzzle game that’s kind of similar to Puzzle Bobble or Puyo Puyo, but really Magical Drop is also its own beast.

There are bubbles of various colors on a playing field that periodically move downward. Your job is to pull bubbles in toward a little character you move back and forth at the bottom of the screen and fire them back toward bubbles of the same color. When enough bubbles are touching – pop! It sounds simple but it can get super hectic.

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