Thrillville: Off the Rails - Wii Review

Hopefully you all had a nice weekend?  Mine was equal parts fun and not-so-fun.  The not-so-fun is I've been fighting a flu-like something-or-other since Saturday afternoon and it's still kicking my butt as of this morning.  The fun came in the form of going to a nearby amusement park with my kiddos one day this weekend, which seemed like the perfect lead-in for this review.

My family loves theme parks.  Roller coasters in particular are a hit with us.  My oldest, maybe not quite as much, but my wife, two youngest and myself think a weekend at Cedar Point is one of the best experiences ever.  In terms of older theme park games, I played some title on my PlayStation 1 called Theme Park a zillion years ago, and don't recall a lot about it except my wife was fascinated with it and it served as her entrance into the world of Roller Coaster Tycoon titles.

Thrillville: Off the Rails is one of those titles I have been getting to reviewing lately that is older - a few years old.  As such you can probably find it quite inexpensively now either used, or in bargain bins.  I still think there is value in going over titles like this though, because people may decide to give it a try if they see it on sale somewhere - or maybe the premise interests them and they did not know it was out there in the first place.

This is a simulation/building title.  You manage your park, setting up rides, prices and layouts while trying to meet goals along the way.  Perhaps the biggest twist for me over those older titles I mentioned was the way in which the mini-games are incorporated into the parks and can actually be played by you.

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Mass Effect 3 Collector's Edition - Xbox 360 Review

Mass Effect 3 is probably one of the most anticipated titles to come out in some time.  Like Diablo III will be in a couple of months, Mass Effect 3 has certain expectations that will be almost impossible to meet for some people.  In truth, I feel the expectations are higher here then for Diablo 3.  Certainly the wait has been shorter, but Bioware did something incredible when they brought choices made from the first Mass Effect into Mass Effect 2, changing certain parts of the storyline to add continuity to the storyline you crafted.

As a result, Mass Effect 3 has become a title that not only has expectations due to being part of a popular series, but because players have already become greatly invested in the storyline to date.  Along the way there have been books and iPhone games to help tide gamers over, but none of those things compare to the primary three games in the series.  There were a lot of design choices that people questioned along the way such as the addition of multiplayer and the ending of the game.  I would have loved to have rushed out a rapid review on this game so it could be just a bit more timely, but my personal policy of playing through a game until I am done with it/beaten it once would not allow me to do so.  Here are my thoughts on it.

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Mass Effect 2 - Xbox 360 Review

In one of my last posts I was singing the praises of Mass Effect.  Even though that game is a few years old now, I feel as though it holds up quite well by today's standards still.  Well, about two years ago now, Mass Effect 2 came out, and while I had trouble getting into the first game, I had no such difficulty with the second title in this series.

Mass Effect 2 still fully embraces its RPG roots, and Bioware does an excellent job of still giving your character a sense of empowerment as your decisions help to shape the way the story unfolds.  If you have saves from the first Mass Effect game, you can import them into the sequel and your decisions from that game impact what happens here, which is a feature I cannot say enough good things about.  While the first title only has a couple of pieces of so-so DLC, Mass Effect 2 has quite a bit more and while it varies in quality from 'okay' to 'excellent', I find that it all helps add to the overall storyline, which I have become quite invested in by now.

There are some key differences between the first Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2.  Most of them come down to pacing.  While Bioware tried to update Dragon Age so its sequel was more action oriented, the results were considered streamlined and largely unsuccessful.  Here Mass Effect 2 benefits from a tighter focus on combat and menu navigation, and I think the sequel benefits mightily from it.

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Mass Effect - Xbox 360 Review

I remember hearing a bit about Mass Effect prior to its release, but it was not a title I was terribly excited about.  My only real experience with Bioware at that time had come in the form of Neverwinter Nights, which I had thoroughly enjoyed - but it was quite clear that this science fiction title was going to be a completely different animal.

Finally for Easter after it released, I picked Mass Effect up used because of the overwhelmingly glowing reviews it had released to.  I gave it a shot, did not much care for the shooting mechanics and put the game away in favor of other titles I was working on at the time like Oblivion.

Some months later, I had beaten every game in my current library except one.  I decided to dust off Mass Effect and give it an earnest chance this time.  I made my way through the first few hours, fighting off the confusion over the strange blending of shooter and RPG as I became more comfortable with the mechanics and the game's universe.  Fast-forward about 50 hours and I had just beaten the game, and found myself wondering how things might have ended differently if I had made some different choices at key moments.  I then proceeded to find out as I immediately played through it again.  I would go on to beat the first Mass Effect two more times over the following few years as it became one of my favorite video game titles of all time.

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Sid Meier's Civilization V - PC Game Review

Civilization has a pretty long history in my house - and not with the usual gamers!  Where as my son and youngest daughter are the two biggest gamers in my household aside from myself, my wife and oldest daughter hardly play games.  That said, I got Civ II from a friend back in college and loved it.  My wife gave it a try on a whim and she also got hooked on it.  We played that game like crazy, but then skipped the next couple of iterations, not playing III or IV.  I did pick up Civilization: Revolution for my Xbox 360 a couple of years ago or so.  My son tried it, but did not really seem to care for it.  My oldest tried it, and took right to it, much as her mother had years before with Civ 2.

Well, a few months ago I picked up Civilization V for my PC through Steam.  For the uninitiated, this is a simulation title where you take control of a culture set way back at what is essentially the beginning of time.  All kinds of different cultures are represented, from the Romans to Americas to the Greeks - so clearly historical accuracy is not a concern.  What is important is the depth of strategy as you try to balance your resources, your armies, the land you occupy and how you interact with other nations.

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Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution

I will admit I have never particularly followed the Naruto series.  I don't watch a ton of TV, and when it comes to Anime I'm pretty limited outside of old Dragon Ball Z episodes.  My kids however, enjoy the Naruto series.  They have lots of the manga books that all three have at least browsed through, and in most cases read from cover to cover.

On top of that, this title is pretty old.  It came out in 2007 and it has been bouncing around our house for some time.  My son had played this game the most, but I was looking for something the play the other day and sat down with this game to kill a few hours and found myself playing it again for several more days.

It is a fighting game, usually one-on-one but there are quite a few different modes and variations you will have available to you as well.

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X-Men: The Arcade Game - Retro Reflections

Like Streets of Rage 2, this is another title on the PlayStation Network that is both something that can be purchased and a throwback to a classic title.  I'm going to treat it like a Retro Reflection though as I talk about it.  Now, Streets of Rage 2 held up pretty well for me through the glasses of nostalgia, but it was a free title where as X-Men was one I bought on the PSN.

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Tetris - PlayStation Network Review

I think it is safe to say that Tetris is not new - by any stretch of the imagination.  I was first introduced to Tetris back on the NES when I got both the official Nintendo version and the soon-off-of-the-shelves Tengen version that offered two player.  The nature of this puzzle game appealed to me immediately, but what was even more fun for me was that this was one of the few video games my dad would play with me.

I give him credit - my dad tried his hand at Super Mario Bros, Legendary Wings and Iron Tank.  However, while he had played quite a few of the games on our old TI99/4a, the NES itself was never a comfortable system for him - until Tetris.  Fast-forward a couple of decades, and this is still one of the few titles my wife will play.  I have owned it in a lot of versions over the years, from the two NES titles, to the Game Boy one, to Tetris: Splash and more, but I do believe that the PlayStation Network version of this game is my favorite so far.

So, because today's my dad's birthday, I'm going to post this review of what was probably his favorite game when I was growing up.

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Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway - PS3 Review

War is a frequent breeding ground for video games - often too frequently as our friend Jeff opined on his blog Volatile Mode.  It can serve as a grand backdrop for a variety of stories, and that is what this title is - a story about the horrors of war and how it affects those participating it.  This was a game that I did not even know existed, but that my son picked me up for Christmas one year, and I found myself pleasantly surprised by what turns out to be more of a tactical shooter that has more in common with Gears of War than Call of Duty.

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Gyromancer - PC Review

I have always been a fan of puzzle games.  I had Tetris and Dr. Mario on my NES, was extremely good at Columns on my Genesis and sunk countless hours into Bejeweled.  They are a good, often semi-mindless way to kill some time.  RPG's are probably my favorite video game genre, however.  The blending of puzzle and RPG in Puzzle Quest was a lot of fun when I first gave it a shot on my PSP a few years ago, and I have enjoyed a lot of similar titles since.  Of those, Gyromancer has been among my favorites.

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Hoard - PC Game Review

It's fun being the bad guy.  A lot of people who get a chance in games with moral choices go to the dark side in Mass Effect or Fallout.  There are some titles completely designed around this idea such as Dungeons and Overlord, though their degree of success can be debated.  Hoard embraces this role though as you play the part of a dragon who spews fire and collects gold and princesses every chance you get.  I picked this particular title up off of Steam fairly cheaply awhile back and have enjoyed it for the most part.

Graphics - 7:

This is not a pretty game.  The top-down graphics do a good job of showing you everything you need to see, but the world itself is fairly dull and lifeless unless there are a lot of moving units active on the map at once.  It looks like some sort of an old board game as you soar around the countryside looking to cause trouble.  That said, at times there can be several things happening at once on the map and I never experienced any glitches or slowdown.

Sound & Music - 5:

Not a real big fan of the music to be honest.  It does not fit the game very well, much like I felt Record of Agarest War's metal music was a bad fit with its medieval fantasy setting, the music in this game seems out of place as well.  The sound effects are simple, but effective.  To be honest though, this is a game you can just as easily play with the music turned down and something else playing on your computer in the background.

Gameplay - 8:

Your dragon handles pretty well once you get the hang of things.  Blazing knights and thieves, burning down towns and terrorizing princesses is a lot of fun and the controls work well.  Getting around the game's menus is easy enough as well.

Intangibles - 8:

The multiplayer is a lot of fun, and there are enough varied objectives to give you something to do as you move from map to map.  If you are a fan of achievements, there are a ton of them if you are playing this game through steam.  Adding to it is a leaderboard that I will never be at the top of, but for fans of the game it gives them some definite goals to try and attain.

Overall - 7:

This game is a lot of fun in quick, short bursts.  It would be perfect on a handheld.  The graphics, sound and music do disappoint, but they don't actually take anything away from the gameplay itself.  That said, once you play it for awhile, there might not be a lot left to do outside of the multiplayer.  I played this game very heavily at first, but scarcely since.  The same can be said of my son, who seemed to enjoy the premise for awhile, but after about a week hasn't touched it.

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Streets of Rage 2 - Retro Reflections

This could fall under a Retro Reflection or a PlayStation Network Review, but I really did not want to break this down into a series of score points.  One of the titles I got to play while using PlayStation Plus was Streets of Rage 2 on the PSN.

This was a classic beat 'em up game from Sega that I played over and over again on my Sega Genesis.  I actually played Streets of Rage 1, 2 and 3 back then - but 2 for some reason was always my favorite of the trilogy.  By today's standards, it can be a bit slow and sometimes the fighting is a bit 'cheap' - but it is still a good throwback to the older days of gaming for those of us who recall Final Fight, Golden Axe, Double Dragon and Streets of Rage so fondly.

The premise is pretty simple - you walk from one side of the screen to the other, causing it to scroll in your direction as you take on wave after wave of street thugs.  Each level culminates in some sort of a boss battle that is equal parts amusing and frustratingly cheap.  Along the way you will pick up a variety of items like food, money and weapons stored in random barrels, benches and more from the environment around you.

You can play the game with a friend, which I recall doing repeatedly when I was younger and it is still fun today.  There is an online versus mode as well that does not hold up nearly as well, for a variety of reasons.  One, the fighting mechanics are really shallow - Street Fighter IV this is not.  Additionally, it seemed like the connections were flaky at best a lot of times.  If I can run around environments like Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 and suffer no lag, then it seems baffling to me that a game like this would consistently have trouble keeping up during a single isolated fight.

Beyond that, it seemed like every time I was about to win, my opponent would disconnect with no fear of tangible penalty that I could detect.  Anyway, not a big deal as the majority of my time spent playing was just trucking through the actual story mode on my own.  I beat it two or three times over the span of a few days, and it definitely provided me with a nice dose of nostalgia along the way.

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Magic Orbz - PlayStation Network Review

I have always liked a good brick busting game.  I remember Arkanoid quite fondly from when I was a kid and even as recently have been playing Shatter on my PC.  One title I had never really planned to pick up was Magic Orbz on the PlayStation Network, but last year when Sony offered it cheap with their Welcome Back program, I picked it up.  There was also some free addon content you could snag for free with your month of free PlayStation Plus trial.  This was not a long game by any means, but I did enjoy it for the most part and it caught my wife's eye as well with its cute visuals.  Here's a bit more of a breakdown on the specifics.

Graphics - 7:

This is a bright and colorful game that masks the 'brick' layout with actual buildings and hedges and other objects that fall apart when struck.  These visuals caught my wife's eye and she actually took over the controller and played for about an hour that night, and for about half an hour the next.  Keep in mind she spends probably less than 15-30 minutes a month playing video games, so this was quite unusual.  In some ways, the graphics are both this game's greatest strength and weakness, because the visual style is very inviting but it can get cluttered at times and make it hard to see what it going on.  I am okay with losing a ball because my reflexes were not up to snuff, but there are times when there is just so much going on at once on the screen that you cannot even see the ball until its too late.

 

Sound & Music - 6:

The music is pretty bland, to be perfectly honest.  That is not to say it was bad music, it was not - it just was not particularly interesting either.  The sound effects help as there is a fair amount of variation in them, and they seldom got repetitive.  Similar to the music, the sound effects really did not impress in the end, but they served a purpose pretty well.

Gameplay - 7:

The gameplay is pretty solid, though I found the directional pad more useful than the analog stick for accurately controlling my paddle.  There is a decent selection of power-ups (and power-downs) to be had which keeps things interesting.  Some of the later levels were a bit challenging (some would even argue cheap) by how close to your paddle the blocks were placed.

 

Intangibles - 7:

There are quite a few levels, and the free expansions helped extend the fun.  Still, I think you can blow through the main set in under five hours, and the side ones seemed to go even more quickly.  There are trophies to collect for people who like those, and for the most part they are pretty easy to collect just by playing.

 

Overall - 6.75:

I would have a hard time suggesting this title at full price, but I believe I got it and the expansions for about $3 in total, and I felt pretty good about that.  The steep spike in challenge around midway through the levels turned my wife off to it, and my kids though.  That's worth noting because the visuals appealed to both groups of people, but they grew tired of the (you could argue 'cheap') difficulty spike quickly and have never played it again.  I gave it a longer run, but even if you stick with it like I did, you can get through the majority of the content pretty quickly and after doing so there is not much reason to go back to it, though there is multiplayer as an option - but one that just never appealed to me.

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Madden NFL Arcade - PlayStation Network Review

With the Super Bowl upon us, this seems like the perfect time to talk football.  I already reviewed Madden this year, and if you want to review it, you'll see that I enjoyed it despite its several glaring flaws.  So I decided to review Madden NFL Arcade, which I picked up some time ago when it was on sale for $5 on the PlayStation Network.  It's unlikely this game is on anyone's radar right now, but because the NFL is going to be a theme today, I decided I should do my civic duty here and warn you away from this title.

Basically, this was a way for EA to try and capture over-the-top fast and furious football action without any of the slowdown found in the actual Madden sim.  The experience is a game that seems confused right from the get-go as you play with smaller teams and with altered rules that just are not as much fun as they should be.  Do not confuse this game with the recent Blitz release, though their style has a few things in common

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Heavenly Sword - Playstation 3 Review

There were a handful of games I picked up when I first bought my PlayStation 3, and Heavenly Sword was among them. The trailers I had seen impressed me while reminding me of the first God of War game - which was a title I was very fond of. I recently played this again, and thought I would put down my thoughts now - since I was not blogging when I first played the game.

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Defense Grid - Review Revisited

I did not give Defense Grid a full review, but it was part of my lengthy examination of the Steam Potato Sack deal. I gave a quick review of the game, stating that it was one I was particularly fond of. I also have this game on my Xbox 360, having acquired it prior to the Potato Sack bundle.

The game's premise is pretty simple - it is a futuristic tower defense game. For those unfamiliar with the genre, waves of enemies enter a map and move along routes to collect power sources and then try to exit the map. At your disposal are upgradable turrets of varying functionality that help to destroy the waves of aliens.

Having played the game on the PC and the 360, I will state that the PC version was my preferred, but I found both to be very good. Here's the breakdown:

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Gaming Thoughts 1/31/12 - PlayStation Plus for Feb

I just saw this rundown of the PlayStation plus deals for February.  I cannot say I am regretting my decision to re-up for a year.  My backlog is eying me angrily as I post this...

IGN posted these as the freebies for the month:

PS3 Full Games:
Far Cry 2 – 2/14 (V-Day Special One Week Offer)

PSN Games:
The Simpsons Arcade Game – 2/7
Sega Genesis Bundle – 2/21
Altered Beast – 2/21
Comix Zone – 2/21
Golden Axe – 2/21
Sonic 1 – 2/21
Sonic 2 – 2/21
Streets of Rage 2 – 2/21
Battle Fantasia – 2/14
Fatal Inertia – 2/14
Hamsterball – 2/14
Inferno Pool – 2/7
Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom – 2/14
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars – 2/14

minis:
Hungry Giraffe – 2/7
Gold Medalist – 2/7

PS one Classics:
Final Fantasy V – 2/7

Full Game Trials:
Grand Theft Auto IV – 2/14
Deus Ex: Human Revolution – 2/21
Tom Clancy'S H.A.W.X 2 -2/21
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 -2/28

Early Access Demo:
The House Of The Dead III Exclusive Playstation Plus Demo – 2/7

Media:
Qore Episode 44 – February – 2/7

Avatars and Themes:
The House of the Dead 3 Dynamic Theme
Start The Party 2 Dynamic Theme – 2/21
The House Of The Dead III – Agent G Avatar
The House Of The Dead III – Lisa Avatar
The House Of The Dead III – Z1 Avatar

And some discounts too:


PSN Games
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition (Bundle) – 2/14 (PS+ Price: $23.99)
The House of the Dead III – 30% off Crazy Taxi & SEGA Rally Arcade – Drive Me Crazy Bundle – 20% off – 2/21 (PS+ Price $9.59)
Sonic Rivals 1 – 25% off – 2/21 (PS+ Price $5.99)
Sonic Rivals 2 – 25% off – 2/21 (PS+ Price $5.99)
Sar – Search and Rescue Mini – 20% off – 2/21 (PS+ Price $TBD)
Hamilton's Great Adventure – 50% off Sale Price – 2/21 (PS+ Price $2.50)

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Gaming thoughts 1/29/12 - what I'm up to

This is going to be a long post.  I appreciate anyone with the fortitude/interest/lack of anything better to do that sticks with it, and fully understand those who do not.


It has been a busy, busy month for me.  Christmas, New Years, two of my kids having birthdays, a lengthy process at work where I was applying for the vacated manager's position of our tech support department, managing festival/holidays on my online MUD, getting tax returns around, getting a new car thanks to this story - and yes I've still been managing to squeeze in a fairly high volume of video games!

Now?  Now it feels like after about 6 weeks of craziness, I can stop and take a deep breath.  For starters, I did get the job.  *accepts applause and fanfare now*  Seriously though, I am excited.  Of course, the pay hike doesn't hurt, but the change in responsibilities presents several new challenges for me, and like most gamers, I love new challenges wherever I can find them. 

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Scrabble - iPad Review

I read a lot of articles about games - and one that I see pop up pretty frequently is a list of 'best games for the iPad' or 'best tablet' games. Of course, this is a very subjective list and opinions will vary widely, but one of the most common titles I see on these lists is Scrabble.

For those unfamiliar with the board game - well.. come out from under your rock. :)

But seriously, the premise is simple yet the experience changes every time you play, which is a good deal of its charm. Opponents get sets of letters, and they use these letters to spell out words on a board. There are various things that can affect the score, from the values of the letters used (Q is worth a whole lot more than E) to the types of spaces you spell your word across (such as double letter or triple word).

This happens to be one of the first games my wife acquired after buying her iPad, and it's one of our most heavily played.

Graphics - 5:

Okay, there's really not much going on here. You have a static board and some letters on tiles. That's it. So why am I not being harder on the score? There really isn't much more to do with it really. Any superfluous animations and effects would probably just get annoying. However, tiles are easy to read, the board is a good representation of what you see in the boxed game. It's clean, concise and functional. That's really all anyone's looking for in a title like this.

Sound & Music - 5:

See above. Seriously, there's just not much of interest going on, but I can't honestly say I'd expect much either. With as much time as you spend staring at the small screen though, some nice, varied background music would have been a plus.

Gameplay - 9:

Everything works like it should. It's easy to slide tiles, the game checks word validity for you, and you can play against the computer or another human opponent. My wife and I play this when we're laying down just watching a movie. It's easy to hand back and forth and there are some clear advantages to an electronic version versus the board game:

- no cleanup
- built-in word checking

Talk about some valuable time savers. When it comes to touch detection and drag, there's almost never any problems or missed gestures. It just does what it is supposed to and stays out of the way, so to speak.

Intangibles - 9:

If you like word games, then it is really hard to do better than this classic game. There's always a good challenge to be had if you play the AI and it's fun playing against a person as well. Obviously if there's a significant skill difference between people, the challenge is reduced, but the various score tiles and random nature of the letter acquisition helps to balance things out as well. There is even a handy 'best word' feature each player can use 3 times a game. Stumped? The game will find you the highest-scoring possible word you can spell and then ask you if you want to go through with it. Nifty feature when I have a ton of odd letters and can't see anything useful on the board.

Overall - 7:

This score's a bit misleading in that it really depends on the person. If you like word games or enjoy playing board games like this with other people, you're going to get a lot out of this. If we drop out the technical aspects of the score, this game would have been a 9 out of 10 for me. That said? If you don't particularly get much out of these types of games, this is not going to interest you at all. It's exactly what you would expect from a board game of Scrabble - for better or worse depending on your preferences.

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Next gen Xbox won't support used games?

So, I recall when a topic like this came out for the PS3 a long time ago, about how they were trying to patent some new technology that would prevent gamers from using a 'used' disc on another PS3 system to combat the used game marker.  I am surprised I have seen little/no references to this yet amidst the other topics about the next Xbox and whether or not it will support used games.  Now, nothing came of that Sony rumor, just as a lot of times that kind of speculation never comes to fruition when pertaining to upcoming game consoles.

That said?  A very similar rumor has come up again - this time for the next generation of Xbox 360.  IGN posted about it here.

I love gaming - and I have been playing them for longer than most people.  I get very excited when I read reports that the next Xbox will be 6 times more powerful graphically than the current generation model.  But this sort of thing is a deal killer for me if it comes to pass.  A lot of people believe that digital distribution of games is the future, and it might be - but it's not the immediate future.  There's too many problems with that distribution model (not everyone has blazing internet speeds, and as games continue to age, they also grow in size.  Compare the 10 gb downloads we have for a game now to what game sizes were a generation or two ago.  If rumor is true that the next Xbox will support Bluray the way the PlayStation does, that means that games could be quite substantial in size.  Not only will the hardware have to compensate for these potentially 15-45 gb games, but think about our bandwidth limits.  I have one ISP provider in my area, and they limit our household to 200gbs per month, and we flirt with that monthly now.

Digital at this point is an option, it's not however the only method of distributing games.

So that leaves us with discs still, which has value because people like to borrow games from friends.  They like to go over to a friend's house with some games to play.  My house has two Xbox 360's.  Would my games work on both with this model?  Under the current 360 model this is a real problem because I can play titles on both systems - but my wife and kids can't.  If the title is associated to the person's gamertag does that mean other people on the same system in the same household can't play it?

Of course, this leaves more questions than answers, and in fairness it is all speculation for gaming sites and blogs.

Of course, Microsoft wants people talking about their upcoming console - buzz is generally a good thing and it helps pique interest.  That said?  This is potentially very damaging for Microsoft, and when the PS3 rumors came out several years ago, Sony was pretty quick to respond that the rumors were false.  I really dislike the online passes and other codes that game companies use to try and get people to buy their games new, but at least used is still an option and it then falls on the gamer to decide the value of the code materials.  This is something more, something much more potentially damaging to the market I think.  It will be interesting to see if Microsoft speaks up quickly about this topic or not as Sony did a few years ago.  If not, it's only going to add fuel to the fire.

Thoughts?

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