Jaggy's Corner - Saturday, March 14

Welcome back to Jaggy's Corner where I discuss video game topics and issues. This week, since the media has been inundated with an onslaught of cancellations (both in gaming and not gaming), I thought I'd mention some games that will still connect people together without risking their health during this quarantine.

As we know, video games provide entertainment that other mediums cannot. We can run around fantastic worlds with friends in an MMO or a shooter or experience a story narrative. So, if you are cooped up at home, here are some titles that could be interesting to our readers.

If you like point and click mystery games, I can't recommend Whispers of a Machine more. It's an indie game and it's published by Raw Fury and I did review it last year, so I might be biased, but it was a great solo experience that made me analyze my own beliefs. Here are a couple of screenshots for you.

For those of you like RPG games in your roster, look no further than Dragon Quest Builders 2 by Square Enix. Our amazing site manager, PY did an extralife stream yesterday. It was fun to kick back and watch it especially since he rarely ever streams. Take a look at his Twitch channel and support a great cause! Dragon Quest Builders 2 is highly rated (by that I mean it has a rating of 85% on Metacritic and a 9/10 on Steam) and seems to be fun. Right now, it is priced at $79.99 on Steam so don't miss out.

However, if that is too much money to dedicate to the cause, perhaps a free to play game that is similar in visual style. This is an RPG and I call "cuteness overwhelming." That game is Maple Story 2. Yes, I'm aware that it is nothing like its predecessor, but it's free and you can have all sorts of mounts. Events give you flying mounts, ground mounts, and there is a teleport feature meaning that movement in the game is fairly easy. If you play it on PC, you can enjoy the game with a controller because it has the ability integrated in the game. And, if you don't like Maple Story 2, there is no harm in moving on to another game. No money was wasted.

Those of you that are streamers, can engage with your newly found viewers because of school cancellations and whatnot with games out of the Jackbox Party Pack. Only the streamer or principle gamer needs to have a copy of the game and the rest of the viewers can connect in the lobby through their PC, phones, or tablets. I personally love You Don't Know Jack and Trivia Murder Party (where the little avatar can get crossed off the list.) Both of these games are very trivia oriented but there are other games in the various packs that appeal to a wide audience. So, find some streamers and go forth into shenanigans!

Platformers rejoice! If you hadn't yet heard, Ori's latest sequel launched and a ton of people have been playing through it. Since we all know I'm terrible at platformers, this is not one I'm personally going to play but Ori and the Will of the Wisps is available on Steam for $39.99. If you are like me and suck at platformers, watching streamers who are far better in the genre might be the way to go. It's pretty and from what I've gathered, the game is amazing.

How about Tycoon games? Humble Bundle this month (March 2020) has Planet Coaster and a DLC. I've only played it for a couple of days and I love it. This game has immense detail and is a lot of fun for people who like tycoon style games. I'm playing more and more of it as time goes on. In the last week, I've streamed the game twice, so if you want to check out the game before purchasing it, come hang out on my next stream and I'll show you how great it is!

Check out this clip!  

https://www.twitch.tv/jagtress/clip/PlacidSavageGoshawkFailFish

I'm a large fan of management games like Cities Skylines and its DLCs. Managing a city has its appeal in that some players like to decorate a whole city in whatever style they like. Various mods exist to have themes or building types that players want to include in their city. Plus, I know a lot of players that enjoy a traffic mod called Traffic Management Presidents Edition (TMPE). I don't use the traffic mod because I enjoy the challenge of dealing with it. Also, there are DLCs that come with a couple of challenge scenarios. In natural disasters, players will try to keep a city running while meteors strike or sinkholes hit various sectors. And in Mass Transit, players can take on the traffic challenge in a couple of different cities.

Maybe you want to relax with something nice like Stardew Valley. Yes, it's a farming simulator that has a multiplayer mode, a selection of different types of farm types, and a little story thread. While we await the launch of ConcernedApe's newest release that we don't know much about, take a dive into this game! Jojo Mart must go down! It can't be allowed to live! Community Center or bust. Anyways, there are options to romance characters, enter the mines for shiny gems, and fishing. Stardew Valley is a stress-free game that lets players focus on the next days tasks.

On that note, take a look at Slime Rancher! I feel like this game may have slid under the radar but it's cute. I love the slimes but don't let them get loose. They can eat all your food and potentially kill your chickens. Players can't help but smile at this nice little game. Sure there isn't a multiplayer mode in it but it keeps your mind off world events. Find Slime Rancher here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/433340/Slime_Rancher/

A week from now Animal Crossing fans can rejoice! New Horizons launches on March 20th for the Nintendo Switch and I know there are many readers that are excited about its upcoming release. It's a life simulation game where players create their own paradise. Players can fish, collect bugs, and enjoy the beach without leaving the comfort of home!

We all know people are scary, so why not find some games that you can enjoy solo or with friends without causing any health risk? I know there are hundreds of other great games out there. Let's signal boost some great titles in the comments so that gamers don't go stir crazy. Leave your game suggestions below!

Until next time peeps.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_3YNL0OWio0

Article by: Susan N.

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EnglishFrenchJapanese-------- [ All ] --------AfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAssameseAymaraAzerbaijaniBambaraBashkirBasqueBelarusianBengaliBhojpuriBosnianBulgarianCantonese (Traditional)CatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Literary)Chinese SimpChinese TradChuvashCorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDariDhivehiDogriDutchEmojiEnglishEnglish United KingdomEsperantoEstonianEweFaroeseFijianFilipinoFinnishFrenchFrench (Canada)FrisianGalicianGandaGeorgianGermanGreekGuaraniGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHawaiianHebrewHill MariHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIlocanoIndonesianInuinnaqtunInuktitutInuktitut (Latin)IrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKazakh (Latin)KhmerKinyarwandaKlingon (Latin)KonkaniKoreanKrioKurdish (Kurmanji)Kurdish (Sorani)KyrgyzLaoLatinLatvianLingalaLithuanianLower SorbianLuxembourgishMacedonianMaithiliMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMariMeiteilon (Manipuri)MizoMongolianMongolian (Traditional)Myanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianNyanjaOdia (Oriya)OromoPapiamentoPashtoPersianPolishPortuguese (Brazil)Portuguese (Portugal)PunjabiQuechuaQuertaro OtomiRomanianRundiRussianSamoanSanskritScots GaelicSepediSerbianSerbian (Cyrillic)Serbian (Latin)SesothoSetswanaShonaSindhiSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTagalogTahitianTajikTamilTatarTeluguThaiTibetanTigrinyaTonganTsongaTurkishTurkmenTwiUdmurtUkrainianUpper SorbianUrduUyghurUzbekUzbek (Cyrillic)VietnameseWelshXhosaYakutYiddishYorubaYucatec MayaZulu

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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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Playstation Move - Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts? Sounds a bit foreboding huh? Well, there is a bit of a reason. With a dead PlayStation 3, I had to figure out how to replace it since it was the most heavily used system in our house. The PlayStation Move, having been free, was a great win - but the thing is, despite how good the tech is behind it, the titles to support it never seemed to interest me a lot. There were a couple of specific ones, and I got and reviewed those, but the scores were often somewhat middling.

The hardware's great, but even after E3 I didn't see many compelling titles for the Move. So, it was part of my trade-in toward the new PS3 Slim I got this summer. In truth, the Move and the PlayStation Eye were hardly ever used. A couple of times a month maybe. With the PS3 in the living room dead? Those devices were not getting used at all, so I decided to do without them. It was a fun experience, but not one that feels fully fleshed out and ready for prime time. There is a load of potential here, and maybe down the road I'll see some titles that make me regret the decision, but I doubt it at this point. The overall experience for me was probably about a 7 out of 10. Good diversion, but lacking in substance

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Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 - PS3 Review

Man, that's one long title. I had the original Duels of the Planeswalkers game for the PC years ago. It was a very different animal than the Xbox/PSN version that released a few years ago. I've also been a long-time fan of the collectible card game. I've won, bought, sold and lost (yup, I played back when ante was common) more cool cards than most players I would guess. That said, I was a bit disappointed with the last version of this game, so I had mixed feelings about the 2012 one that came out a few months ago.

The premise to the game itself is this:

You have cards in your deck that require mana to cast. Mana is generated by land cards you have in place. There are creatures, spells and more at your disposal. Your objective is to deplete your opponent's life before they do the same to you.

There is a ton more to the game than that, as the cards have a huge assortment of effects, but you get the general idea. So, what did I think of this latest iteration to the venerable collectible card game?

Graphics - 7:

The card artwork is amazing as always. There really is not much animation going on, which is fine. Truth be told, I would probably turn most of it off after awhile anyway to speed up the matches, but some additional effects or mabye even combat animations might be nice all the same. The menus and boards all look better than the last time around.

Sound & Music - 7:

The sound effects are simple enough, but mercifully they do not occur so frequently as to get annoying. The music is actually quite good, though another couple of tracks for the sake of variety would have been nice.

Gameplay - 8:

The cards and menu navigation are all improved from last time. There are quite a few options you can tweak to change how targeting and such are handled. I found the new archenemy mode somewhat frustrating at times - just a bit cheap. The idea is a three-on-one and that one has a huge life total and gets multiple draws per turn including from a deck of cards hugely overpowered - like the ability to wipe out all permanents on another player.

Intangibles - 9:

Oh, if only they had REAL deck editing. But it's closer than last time. In the last game you earned extra cards for your victory and you could shuffle them in and out of your deck - and only them. Now you can shuffle in or out any of the cards in your deck (except land). Maybe next time you can actually pull cards from other decks in, but it's a step in the right direction.

A lengthy campaign mode, a new archenemy mode, online play for both of these modes - there is a lot to do and a good number of cards to do it with. For those who like trophies, these ones aren't too hard to acquire as I have all but one - I haven't won that fifth online match yet (only have 4 wins - I don't play online too often though).

Overall 7.75:

If you like collectible card games, and Magic: The Gathering in particular, there is a lot to like here. It's far from perfect - my favorite part of CCG's is the deck-building, but you have more control over the deck than in the last version and there is a good number of cards to experience. The additional modes add value to the package as well. This is slow, thought-provoking strategy. People looking for an action game of any type need not apply.

More Magic: The Gathering %2D%2D Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 Videos

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Game contest

I got a free copy of Cogs recently on Steam. Seeing as I already have it, I thought I would give it away on here. The rules? Very simple:

- first, you do need a Steam account so I have someone to give it to

- second, leave a comment below just stating you're interested in the game

- third, for an extra entry - follow me on Facebook here.

- lastly, for an addition entry - follow me on Twitter as well.

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter (or already are) - feel free to email me your names so I can verify. You can email me at chalgyr@yahoo.com

Lastly - if you're curious about Cogs, it's a 3d puzzle game that you can find out more about here.

Really hoping to get some new follows, and just looking to share a free game. Also, some people who don't have Steam accounts might actually get one now. ;)

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Gaming Thoughts... 9/24/11 - New Poll

Just a brief on here, but I put up a poll along the left side here about a week ago, and I thought I would call some notice to it. The idea of it is just to see what things you like most about this blog and hopefully indicating things you want to see more of.

I'll leave it so you can choose multiple items, but keep in mind that if everything gets checked, well, that doesn't really give me any idea where I should put the majority of my focus.

Areas include:

- Game reviews: pretty obvious, but do you come here mostly to see what I score things?

- Gaming thoughts: these are usually just random bits that aren't all scoring and metrics, like my musings about playing Warcraft or 'projects' like the Playstation Home

- Retro reflections: these take about the most work for me as I have to hook the system I'm playing up so I can record the playback and then edit it up, which is why I've sort of slacked off on these. But basically just me looking back at older games on the variety of older systems I still have about

- More Facebook/Twitter updates: I've been using these mostly to update things like what games I'm playing right now, quick impressions of games I haven't had a chance to fully review - things like that. And hey, if you're not fanning my FB page found here or my Twitter account here - now would be an awesome time to do so. :)

- Gaming news: I haven't done this in awhile either, but once a week I used to go around gathering up articles that piqued my interest from varied sites and often linked back to them - but not sure if this is something people are interested in or not

- Including images, art, videos: these do sometimes slow down the process for me - do you like seeing this stuff? Does it slow down the page loading too much? I know when I did the King's Bounty review there were a couple of people commenting on how the images and trailer looked - but that was one of the only times I've heard the images brought up, so just curious if the preference is to include them or not.

- Game deals: I go to a fair number of gaming sites and pages - almost every day. Most of the time, I don't see anything great, but once in awhile I'll see a bundle or gaming deal mentioned that might be of interest to others. Would this be something you'd like to see?

- Increase post frequency: I've kept a pretty steady every 3-days rate on posts for awhile - is that frequent enough? Do you stop by every day? Every other?

- Decrease post frequency: Opposite of the above - but do you only come by once a week? Do you find my current 3 days per post pace is too fast and you miss articles?

And of course any comments would be very welcome also. I will leave this poll running until the first of November. Thanks!

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Gaming Thoughts... 9/15/11 - Word of Warcraft

So my last post got me all nostalgic as I thought back to some of my earlier Blizzard titles like Warcraft, Diablo and obviously StarCraft. I spent a lot of time on these games. But like many people, the Blizzard game I probably spent the most time on was World of Warcraft. In fact, I've been a player on two different occasions.

I did not play right when World of Warcraft began, but I was not terribly far behind. I spent a good deal of time playing Alliance and got a couple of characters to level 60, and even went ahead and did the same for some Horde on another server afterward. I was really big into it, had quite a few epics and eventually got tired of playing and just quit.

I was an awkward MMO player though, especially that first time around. I almost never grouped, at all. I hardly ever did raids of any kind, which meant I was missing tons of content. Sure, I'd go back and run lower level stuff when I was bored/high enough level to solo it, but I just never really wanted to group much.

Fast forward a couple of years or so, and several of my old real-life buddies I used to play D&D with are all playing World of Warcraft on the same server. They wanted me to start up again and went so far as to chip in and get me the expansions. I played (very) heavily once again, and shot multiple characters up through the ranks again. I was even more diligent this time, having all of the crafting professions completely covered, tons of really good gear and even ran instances now with my friends. It was certainly a lot more fun the second time around, but still not ideal.

On the one hand, I noticed I was sinking just an absolute ton of time into the game. I play video games very heavily, and even I had to admit my time spent was probably unhealthy. The other thing is I still tried to be a husband, parent, full-time employee and found myself distracted when trying to group. There's no pause button. If a kid gets sick or dinner boils over, I have to hop up and deal with it. Now, my friends were pretty understanding - they know me, know my family, but it still made grouping with other people pretty much a migraine for me.

Once I was at the top of the food chain yet again, all that was left was lots of grinding. The sense of exploration was gone and it was just more of a chore than fun - and steadily sapping away some money every month to boot. So, this account eventually went the way of my old one - given to someone else I knew.

Still, when I look back on it, I still enjoyed Wold of Warcraft a good deal. I'm a big fan of RPG games. I played more than my share of computerized/console titles and D&D over the years. I run a MUD with my wife, which I usually describe as online, text-based dungeons and dragons. It's easy to see the influence MUDs have had on the MMO community over the years. They were the first MMO's - just without graphics.

Unfortunately the Warcrafts of the world have had their own impact on MUDs, and it fewer and fewer people invest in MUDs than they used to. Our own game used to have 50+ players a night, and now on a good night we see maybe 10. I think if my wife had gotten into World of Warcraft, I'd still be playing it today. I love doing things with her - the MUD is an example of that, but she tried it and just never took to Warcraft - but at least she did try it.

Still, I have a lot of fun memories from my time spent there. I've tried looking at some of the free MMO's out there like Dungeons & Dragons and Lord of the Rings - and I once won a copy of Guildwars, and while there's good things about each of them, none of them ever captured my imagination quite the same way World of Warcraft did.

Any of you reading ever play a MUD, or a graphic MMO? Did you stick to it? Were you a loner or a grouper? Do you still play?

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God of War III - Playstation 3 Review

Kratos is an angry, angry man - and he finally gets his revenge.

Sony Santa Monica tells a good story here, but perhaps not quite as good as the first two God of War games. That said, the story they do tell feels like a big budget movie at times, and delivers a ton of bloody action set against a fantastical ancient Greece. In the first God of War game for the Playstation 3, expectations were high -and rightfully so. The God of War series is one that has exhibited a ton of polish and this game is no different.

Graphics - 10:

Wow. I know this game has been out for awhile, but visually it still may be one of the most impressive titles I've played on any system ever. The sense of scale is amazing. Games like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow have you fight mammoth creatures at times, but God of War just feels better. One fight you are nearly crushed by a titan, only to blind him and carry out a prolonged battle against creatures on his body as you travel across an arm, over shoulders and so much more.

Even the way the game starts - *Spoiler here for those who haven't played #2* -

But you end God of War 2 on a titan's back, and you start 3 the same way. It looks like a forested area like you might see in any other game, but you are in fact battling enemies while riding this massive titan. The attack on Olympus is amazing - there always seems to be something going on in the background. On top of that, action is bloody, smooth and the framerate holds up despite everything that is always going on.

Sound & Music - 9:

As with the rest of the series, there are some fantastic musical scores in the background that really help to set the tone. I did notice a few of them are a bit shorter it seems than in the past and noticeably loop if you spend too much time in a scene, but the quality was so good I didn't really care. Voice acting was again very solid and the sound effects are even more varied than ever before.

Gameplay - 9:

The combat has been and continues to be amazing in this series. It has not really changed much over the years, but the formula works so I cannot fault the developers for that. Some of the puzzles still annoyed me, and there were times I thought the platforming led me to a couple of cheap deaths, but frequent checkpoints kept me from loosing my cool too often.

A very important note: Quicktime events. I hate them most of the time. They are heavily used in the Chains of Olympus and God of War 1 & 2 - so why didn't I bring that up? Well, to be honest, most people just accept them now. I've had a mini-rant about these in the past in other game reviews, and I just don't like them. They take my focus off of what is happening on the screen, and if I try to take in the action I - well, it can mess up the actual progression and get you killed. I just really do not like them. So, why am I bringing it up now?

Because Sony Santa Monica handled them brilliantly. Did I mess up several times? Sure, but they did something very different than most companies. Usually Quicktime events show up as a button press in the middle of your screen, covering up what's going on and generally just annoying me. Here, they put the triangle on top, X on the bottom, circle on the right and square on the left with a sort of faded white background. Kind of hard to explain, but a) it doesn't cover the action and b) I know which button to press based on periphery vision. I was able to enjoy what was happening on-screen without having to panic half the time. There are other Quicktime events too - like rotating the analog stick, tapping the shoulder buttons and my poor Circle button got abused in these three games (you pound on it lots) - I could have done without all of those all of the time. But, if more games followed God of War 3's lead on the button presses, I'd be a lot happier in general.

Intangibles - 7:

Off all the God of War games, I think this one might have taken me the longest to beat, but that's not saying much - I still probably won in ten or elven hours. There are varied levels of difficulty, things you can unlock like costumes and powers for subsequent playthroughs, and another set of trial/challenges to keep you busy. Still, none of the games in this series do much to keep me playing a 2nd time through, and unfortunately I suspect that this game will fall into the same category despite how excellent the adventure itself is.

Overall - 8.75:

This game can be found at Gamestop for $15 used. The replay value is lacking, but the game itself is completely worth it at the used prices you can find it at now. Not even slightly kid-friendly, this outings is even more verbally, sexually and violently explicit than any of Kratos' other adventures I've played. The game feels incredibly polished and while some of the puzzles and jumps frustrated me from time to time, it was an excellent overall experience.

More God of War III Videos

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God of War: Chains of Olympus - PSP Review

I've been on a bloody good tear with video games of late, but perhaps none of them are bloodier than the exploits of Kratos in the God of War series. There's currently 2 PSP games in the series out there, and this is the earlier of the two, Chains of Olympus.

For those unfamiliar with this Sony exclusive series, these games are a mesh of combat, puzzle-solving and platforming in a 3D environment set in a fantasy version of ancient Greece. Chains of Olympus is actually a prequel to the original God of War game that came out on the PS2 some years ago.

Now, most of my PSP favorites are some form of action or strategy game. I just don't often feel comfortable playing action style games on the smaller screen, whether it's due to the controls, the smaller screen, weaker audio - whatever the combination of reasons are, I usually wind up disappointed. So, question is - how well does Kratos' prequel translate to the small screen?

Graphics - 10:

For the PSP, this game's visuals are absolutely amazing. Right on par for me with Crisis Core which I thought had some of the best cinema screens of any PSP game to date. God of War however, keeps the impressive presentation going right through the gameplay itself. There are moments of epic backdrops where you really just have to take in everything that's happening around you, and it's all brought in a tear and stutter free framerate that keeps the action moving along perfectly.

Sound & Graphics - 10:

The voice acting is generally good, the sound effects are varied and compliment what is happening on screen. The music in these games is amazing, and the PSP version does not disappoint on that front. A great sound track that really brings out the best in the action and atmosphere.

Gameplay - 9:

It's a tried and true formula that has been imitated a lot over the last several years, but this series still does the combat better than most. The RPG elements really keep you invested as well. As you topple more powerful enemies, you unlock new abilities and spells that can be leveled up through the red orbs you gather. On top of that, there are platforming and puzzle elements to help break up the action. Now, I will admit the platforming stuff sometimes got on my nerves, and this series for all of the things it does right, does sometimes struggle in that regard in my opinion. However, the PSP game did not often leave me feeling like I died cheaply and the controls actually work very well despite the fact there are fewer interface buttons than the ps3 controller.

Intangibles - 7:

It's a great game, but it is a bit on the short side - I think I beat it in about eight hours. The puzzles are good, and only once or two really had me annoyed. The storyline was interesting and there's plenty of things to unlock along the way. There are some bonus content as well, such as The Challenge of Hades which is a series of trials. You can unlock new costumes for other playthroughs and even some cool art and behind the scenes stuff as well.

Overall - 9:

The game is a bit light on replay value and there are no online modes of any kind. That said, if you enjoy these types of combat-oriented action games, then you will probably find a good deal to like here. It is a game that can be found pretty inexpensively as well - I've seen it at use game shops for around $8 and that is pretty hard to beat. Of note, this series is in no way appropriate for kids - I don't even let them go into my bedroom when I'm playing it, between the gore, language and nudity.

More God of War: Chains of Olympus Videos

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Gaming Thoughts... 7/28/11 - 3DS news

So, Nintendo made some big announcements. Back when the Vita announced its $250 price point with what looks to be superior hardware, I predicted that Nintendo would have to drop the price of the 3DS as a result. I will admit I figured that this would happen a bit closer to the Vita release, but Nintendo has said it will be effective in August. I think that's a smart move because while they no doubt could have stretched that date out closer to the Vita release and gotten a bit more money out of it in the process, I think the sooner-than-later approach will help them out in the all-important battle to get their handheld into as many homes as possible before the Vita releases.

When I first read that though, my first thought was - what about early adopters? Well, they get a bit of a deal too - as Nintendo's promising twenty free older games through their e-shop. Now, those game offerings are cool - but they do work out to effectively paying $4 a game for customers who adopted early and I've seen some blog and forum posts claiming it's not enough. Certainly if I was in their spot as well, I'd want to get as much out of the Big N as possible, but I think all early adopters are aware that hardware prices are bound to drop. I still expect the Vita will eventually come down $50 or so after about a year as they get a bit cheaper to make and this is one of the reasons the Wii U probably won't find a place in my house until it's had a price drop as well.

Overall, what are your thoughts? An $80 price cut? I'll be honest - I may be considering one of these at some point once I've built up a bit more in trade-in stock. For those of you who haven't purchased a 3DS yet - is this price drop enough incentive? For those who were early adopters, how do you feel about the price drop and proposed compensation?

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Big gaming sales

So, there's a theme right now I'm noticing - Steam, Amazon, Gamersgate, Good Old Games and Gamestop all have various sales going on for digitally downloaded games. I don't usually post sales like this, but I found a ton of great stuff out there and thought others might be interested too. Anything here catch your eye?

Some examples? Good Old Games has Interplay games for 50% off (think early Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics and more)

Gamestop has Fear 3 and Duke Nukem for $20 off. God of War 3 for the PS is listed as normally $30, and they have it for $15. There's a lot of others too.

Gamersgate has had some 2K sales this week. Today's big one? Civilization 5 for $17. That's $33 off. I may be picking this one up later tonight as I've been eying it for awhile...

Amazon has downloadable titles for up to 75% off. Two titles that caught my eye were Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition and Spore. Big discounts on those 2 titles, and plenty more. One thing to look out for is several of the shown titles don't work on Vista/Windows 7 so make sure to check the specs on those, but there are plenty of good prices there.

I know there's a few of you out there who haven't actually gotten into Steam and have talked about it for awhile (I'm looking at you Coffee with Games - who has a great gaming blog of his own) - and the Steam Summer Camp Sale is off to a quick start. They have some contests going right now, but plenty of games too through July 10th - and they started yesterday. This means that what's posted now may not be there for much longer. Ones I bought (hiding this from his wife: Borderlands Game of the Year Edition, Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe, Recettear, Bit Trip Beat Runner and an expansion for Spectromancer. In total I spent $26. The normal going rate on those would have run me $95.

If you're curious about the breakdown:

Oblivion: Normally $25, on sale for $8.50
Borderlands: Normally $30, on sale for $7.50
Bit.Trip Runner: Normally $10, on sale for $2.50
Spectromancer: Truth and Beauty: Normally $10, on sale for $2.50
Recettear: Normally $20, on sale for $5

There are all games I've eyed in the past, so it seemed like a pretty good time to pick them up :P That said, one thing to watch out for on Steam sales like this is that lots of other content is on sale. For example, I think everything from Epic is like 25 or 33% off. Several times individual titles will show up with steeper discounts on Steams daily sales, so those are usually what I focus on (they had something similar over Christmas. When I picked up King's Bounty, I had seen it listed for 25% off at one point and considered it, but then held off. Glad I did, because it was later offered for like 75% off as a one day sale).

Not all of the deals out there right now are specific to computer, however.

Digitally Downloaded (another really good blog) posted these titles earlier at half off on Xbox live:TMNT: Turtles in Time Reshelled -- was 800mspts, now 400

• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light -- was 1200mspts, now 600
• X-Men Arcade -- was 800mspts, now 400
• Comic Jumper -- was 800mspts, now 400
• Hard Corps Uprising -- was 800mspts. now 400

Last but not least, there's some discounted games on PSN right now too:

• Dead Space Ignition (PSN, Discount)
• Deathspank (PSN, Discount)
• Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue (PSN, Discount)
• Funky Lab Rat (PSN, Discount)
• Magic Orbz (PSN, Discount)
• Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom (PSN, Discount)
• MicroBot (PSN, Discount)
• Shank (PSN, Discount)
• Spare Parts (PSN, Discount)
• Tetris (PSN, Discount)
• The Fancy Pants Adventures (PSN, Discount)

I've been keeping a pretty good pace on reviews lately - about every 3 days. I am hoping to keep that going for awhile and would appreciate any comments about titles of interest - they're all over the place in terms of age, system, genre. And glancing up at the list above... I suspect I'll have plenty more incoming over the next couple of months. :)

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Best Free Games

So, I stumbled onto an article awhile back on IGN called "Best Free Games', so I thought i would take a look and see what it was all bout. I thought: that's a pretty cool idea. I don't really play many free games myself, but my kids do and I know some people at my work place do.

Now, I get the idea that IGN's 'best games' means completely coded from scratch, where as if I were to find a good game out there, I wouldn't much care if it was built from an RPG Maker, or Game Maker, etc. So, I may do some digging around online, find a few games here and there. In the meantime, I thought I would critique some of the games IGN put out there. I'll link to their article, and to the game, and share my thoughts. I've given 2 a go to this point. First up -

Hot Throttle:

This was the first game IGN recommended. It can be found on [adult swim] games.

The premise is pretty basic. You race around tracks and occasionally use power-ups to gain an edge on the competition. The storyline, loose as it is, is that this group of clothing-less people get together and race around, acting like/thinking that they are in fact cars. It's as weird as it sounds.

Pros: original graphics, free, web-based so there's nothing to download

Cons: the sound track annoys me, the graphics (while original) are pretty mediocre and the racers handle like they're on ice, sliding around oddly.

I didn't really care much for the controls, and upon closer inspection it's actually a pretty low-rated game on the site at 5.-something. Some credit here for creativity, but the overall package is pretty rough, and after doing 4 or 5 races, I had lost interest

Next game -

The next game they recommended was called Megazey and Demons and the actual game's page can be found here. The story is pretty simple: demons are trying to escape hell and cause havoc on Earth. This is a sort of platforming/action game.

Pros: The biggest one for me was the graphics. The backgrounds actually look pretty nice. Nothing too detailed, but the use of color catches the eye quickly. There's actually a fair amount of variety in the combat. You have a couple of different guns you can acquire, a sword, some basic power-ups too. There are a few boss fights and you need to use different tactics on them from time to time. Kind of funny, though maybe at times not intentionally so.

Cons: The creator was clearly not English-speaking natively, and the localization is pretty horrendous. The backgrounds look great, but there's not much to the basic character animations. Your main dude's walk is sort of odd, with his legs spinning in a pinwheel effect. While the weapons vary up, the overall battle against the hordes of demons really doesn't consist of much more than plowing into them gun blazing/sword swinging. It's also a pretty short game - probably less than 15 minutes.

Overall, it's free, and it's nothing more than a short distraction, but it did the trick for me the other morning when we were about to head out to drop our daughter off at camp for the weekend. It's funny on the forum the creator hosts, because people do comment on the abrupt ending, and the user admits he did not expect anyone to ever finish playing it. Not sure if he just did not expect the exposure his game got due to IGN or what, because the difficulty is pretty low. I had to do one boss battle 4 or 5 times, and one other map twice, and that was it.

The actual walking/climbing/jumping mechanism is odd. I can't really put it under a pro or con, I didn't mind it when I got used to it, but it's definitely not what you would expect collision-wise from a typical platformer.

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Bloggin', a few quick hit thoughts in general

So, I've been trying to decide what's a good amount of content to blog or not blog. I've been trying to do no more than 1 a day, but hoping to do at least a post or two a week. I see a wide range of video game blogs from those who post several pieces a day, to those who go with maybe one or two a week at most. What is your preference, out of curiosity? Is it hard to 'keep up' with a blog that's putting out a post or more a day? For example I had my game review and retro review done yesterday - but I scheduled them out to keep things spaced because I don't want to push content too far down before people get a chance to see it. If someone doesn't post regularly, do you quit visiting?

For me, I prefer lots of content - but I have that sidebar in my Blog that shows my most commonly read blogs like Coffee, Little Gamer and 8-bit, so I see when they update.

Also, is there anything in particular you like to see? When I started this blog, I was just doing a review every week or two. Then I started sprinkling in News & Notes. Then I started the Retro Reflections. Now I've been tossing out a bunch of less easily categorized articles. Just curious what people thought of that.

I finally pulled the poll for game systems. It was pretty even with the Wii the overall winner. Replaced it with the gamercard/contacts for myself.

Last 2 thoughts:

Game I'm looking forward to the most right now: Mortal Kombat
Game that recently disappointed me a lot: Fallout - New Vegas

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Gaming News and Notes from 3-30-11

Been a bit since I did one of these, so here goes:

Mortal Kombat may be requiring Online Pass? My disliked of this practice is pretty well-documented by this point, and sure - I have it on reserve and will be buying it free. There's some speculation that it won't be for just 1 system, but 1 user per system. I'll let you know...

Resistance 3 will be supporting both the Move and 3D when it comes to the PS3.

I signed up for the PlayStation Rewards program, but it sounds like it may be getting nixed.

The same studio that brought us SOCOM is getting ready to work on Resident Evil: Operating Raccoon City.

It looks like the 360 may be getting a disc format increase of 1GB.

There's been a lot of speculation for some time about what the Wii successor will and won't have, but Nintendo put to rest the likelihood that 3D will be part of the equation.

Super Street Fighter IV coming to the 360? Looks like it. It'll be interesting to see if yet another release of this game will generate sales or not, but given the recent resurgence of fighting game popularity, it could pay big dividends.

Last but not least, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has been a project that caught my eye awhile back. IGN has had some articles about it, including this one, which also has a trailer. It looks like an action RPg, but the list of people involved is pretty impressive: Ken Ralston (Elder Scrolls III & IV), Todd McFarlane (Spawn) and probably most exciting for me is writer R.A. Salvatore, who has a ton of great books to his credit, but is probably best known for his work in Forgotten Realms for the D&D franchise. This game is a precursor to what will be an MMO follow-up from 38 Studios and I am very excited to see how this comes along.

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Got my coffee and games calender...

Just got a rather nice surprise tonight. I had entered a contest on one of the blogs I follow:

Coffee With Games

Fun site - mostly focused on Wii games, but also posts about topics like the 3DS, PS3 games, deals at Amazon.com. One of the few blogs I hit pretty much daily. He had a contest recently with names drawn out of a coffee container (fitting, no?) and I won a free Club Nintendo calender I'll be fighting to keep from my son, and some instant coffee that I've already had to hide from my oldest daughter. A very nice surprise after a long day at work.

My son and I were both just looking through the calender - I particularly dug October - Metroid: Other M - which is the Wii game I spent most of the weekend playing. April was Kirby's Epic Yarn, which my youngest is currently playing - very cool. :) Thanks again!

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Gaming News and Notes from 1-26-11

Since I led off last week with discussions about Nintendo's new upcoming portable, I thought I'd do the same for Sony this week. Here's a discussion about the Playstation Phone in IGN. And here's some news on the PSP2 as well.

For Mortal Kombat fans, there will be a series of shorts similar to the Mortal Kombat: Rebirth that found some viral popularity last year. Oh, and the new Mortal Kombat game is coming out April 19th.

Dead Space 2 has been arrived to solid critical reviews, and already some DLC has been announced for it as coming soon.

Knight's Contract is a game I've been keeping an eye on, and it is slated to release Feb 22nd this year.

There's a rumor on Gamespot citing Bioware sources as saying Star Wars: The Old Republic will be releasing in September this year, and not spring of this year as was announced before.

I've got a long-standing relationship with Ninja Gaiden. I played it in the arcade - loved it when I was a kid. It doesn't hold up so well now. The NES titles were tough, but I beat all 3 and enjoyed their cinematic approach to storytelling. Then I played the newer iterations on the 360 and while I could appreciate their technical excellence, I really did not enjoy them as much as I hoped I would. Now Ninja Gaiden 3 is being put together by a new team, and it promises to be a very different game than the last two.

A little info on Final Fantasy Versus XIII - with no release date given yet.

Here's one for my wife - talking about Diner Dash for Facebook.

Here's some Playstation Network news as reported on IGN. I got an email about some of this and what caught my eye was all of the half-priced games:

• Comet Crash
• Costume Quest
• Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue
• Hoard
• Motorstorm 3D Rift
• Peggle
• Shatter
• Soldner X-2: Final Prototype
• Space Invaders: Infinity Gene
• Swords and Soldiers
• Top Gun
• Tumble

There are some excellent games in that list (Peggle in particular has been a hit with me, my wife, my kids and even my dad).

And last but not least, for computer gamers, Steam has released the Sega Genesis Classics Pack 4.

Not a bad list of games, which are listed at a 2.99 price point each, or you can buy the collection of 10 for 7.50, which is a pretty good price. There's some solid games in this collection as well, including some of my all-time favorites like Shining Force, Shining Force II, Streets of Rage and Streets of Rage 2.

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Gaming News and Notes from 11-9-10

Been awhile since I've done one of these, but here goes:

Playstation 3 owners finally get to discover the Mass Effect universe - that's old news. but now there's some details released about how they plan to catch you up on the story and what you can expect to get with the Mass Effect 2 release.

Back Ops has been out and kicking butt in sales (while getting some good initial scores from critics) for about half a day now, and there's a secret mode that has already been revealed.

Interested in a Microsoft Kinect? Gamestop expects to be able to keep up with the demand, though one interesting thing I noticed on their online page yesterday when I was peeking at their weekly ad - my local Gamestop was listed as being out of the non-bundled Kinects already.

Anyone else out there a big fan of the Scott Pilgrim Arcade release? I was - and now here's a trailer about new content coming out for the game. Hoping to have a review out there on this game and EA's MMA soon.

Fallout: New Vegas released to pretty good reviews and sales - but was reported to have a ton of bugs including some that could ruin you game save. Yikes. Well, Bethesda has heard the complaints and are planning to release a very large patch for the game soon.

Last and... well, least in my opinion - there's some new games being confirmed - Naughty Bear 2 and Wet 2. Sales on these were okay if not great, and Wet had a lot of issues even getting released so this is a slight surprise, but good news to fans of the two games, which released to lukewarm reviews and sales, with Wet faring slightly better overall.

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It's been quite awhile...

Since I posted. To be honest, I was strongly considering taking some time off from posting here. I may not match my earlier pace - time will tell, but I was trying to post quite regularly and then got very busy irl - and that mixed with the relatively small amount of traffic I get through here made it really easy for me to ignore my blog here. That said, two people emailed me in this past week just to check in and make sure all was well - which I really appreciated. And well, overall I do have a ton of new games to write up about.

I also had both good and frustrating news. I picked up some Wii games like Silent Hill and Metroid and then my Wii died a few days later. So now I'm waiting for my UPS package label so I can send it back - so hey, I can comment on how that process goes. So far? Not too well. We put in a request on 10/23 and finally yesterday emailed them and asked about the label I should have gotten. They agreed to send me a new one and said that I should get it in 4 business days, so if I count today as the first, hopefully I'll have it Wed - maybe Thurs at the latest.

So, that was the bad news. The good news? I won a Playstation Move set, complete with 2 Move controllers, 1 Playstation Eye and Singstar dance and some microphones to go with it. I still will probably want to spring for one of the $30 side-controllers for the move wands, but I'm hoping to get some detailed reviewing out in the somewhat near future. I want to get some time in on it with several games, that sort of thing.

I'm very curious about the Kinect. The release lineup has been getting better reviews and while the Move has always felt like a Wii HD, the Kinect has always felt to me like more impressive tech. Still, at $150 it's going to be a hard sell. Maybe I'll win one of those too. I'm curious if people have had a chance to use either yet and if so, what are your thoughts?

Hopefully I'll get a new review out tonight or tomorrow - I've had a handful of new games on hand: Dead Rising 2, Fable 3, NBA 2k11, MLB The Show 10 and EA MMA.

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