I’ve never been a fan of games made in conjunction with a movie, but a few weeks ago I was tapped to review GI JOE The Rise of Cobra the game and couldn’t help but be excited.
You must understand though that I grew up in the eighties and so for me GI JOE represents not only countless childhood cartoon watching, but also it’s a chance for the powers that be (studio heads and game makers) to redeem themselves after having already thoroughly destroyed the Transformers franchise.
After 30 minutes of playing:
After watching the game intro, I already knew I was in trouble. The graphics were dull, blocky and showed lots of visible jagged staircasing (and this is on my 60″ Sony with full 1080p). Just for fun I loaded up COD 4 and Killzone to compare quality and it was night and day. The difference is so glaring, but again I remind myself that I am comparing apples to oranges and reset my sights accordingly. Continue reading »
This past week at work sucked for me. This is why this past weekend I was excited to try out the Nintendo Wii’s latest boxing title, Ready to Rumble Revolution (by Atari). It would allow me to relieve some stress and have some fun punching somebody’s lights out.
With the latest incarnation by Atari, Ready to Rumble Revolution makes its way onto the Nintendo Wii console. If you were a fan of Midway’s original Ready to Rumble Boxing, or the follow up Ready to Rumble Round 2, there is definitely a striking resemblance. Both those previous games had a sizable following and accounted for countless hours of button mashing good times.
Here are my quick thoughts on the game.
Santa was a little late this year for me, but the big guy did come through. I recently got a copy of Activision’s newest World War II shooter, Call of Duty: World at War.
Although the game will be very familiar to fans of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (uses the same game engine), this version is anything but just a reskinning of its predecessor. There are new enemies, weapons, maps, modes, challenges and more.
Students of history know that the battles on the Pacific and European fronts were some of the most brutal in warfare history and Call of Duty: World at War reflects that. It’s a bit more grittier and altogether more chaotic. Having the likes of Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman who lent their voices to the title yelling orders at you was great in a weird as well.
Things we liked about Call of Duty: World at War
- The ability to play the campaign in either single-player, two-player (split screen) or four-player (online co-op) mode was a very welcomed addition.
- Vehicle mode – Maybe it reminded us of playing Ikari Warriors back in the day, but there is something about being in a “tank” that will never get old.
- The flamethrower (aka blowtorch) was a nice weapons upgrade that we had heard a lot about. It is indeed the signature weapon in this installment. It took a few uses to get the hang of it, but after that it was easily the weapon of choice. There are also molotov cocktails which were typical, but cool nonetheless.
- Zombie mode. If you remember only one thing from this review, just remember that Zombie mode rules. You have to beat the game once on any level to unlock, but trust us, it’s worth it. The first couple rounds you’ll think the zombies are dumb and slow (because they are), but as you progress the Zombies get faster, have more entry points and become that much harder to kill. If you’ve ever had nightmares of being chased or attacked by zombies, you will find it pure entertainment purchasing new weapons and defending yourself against these zombies.
- If you are familiar with Halo’s “Skulls,” you’ll appreciate the Deathcards which are tucked away in the campaign which unlock certain modes and cheats.
Whether or not you want to admit it, our economy is in a slump, my wallet has been saying so for the last few weeks. Now in these perilous times when money starts to run tight but bandwidth is still a plenty you can ease your troubled mind with these 5 completely free online games that only cost you your time.
Which MMO is right for you?
Right now the Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) Role Playing Game Industry is a battlefield, filled with screaming Orcs, caped super heroes, and Majestic Elves setting fields a flame and other such creatures buying for your attention and ultimately for your checkbook. But in this fast paced world where, you, the player can make a fortune looting dungeons and defeating enemies you should know which game is right for you.
In order to figure out what MMO is right for you we need to assess what type of gamer you are, or think you will be. Most current MMO’s are based strongly on teams, these teams are primarily made up of other gamers. So if the game heavily relies on you going on quests with real people, I’ll make a note of it. The second element you need to take into consideration is whether or not you’re willing to pay a monthly or yearly fee for your gaming fix. Whether or not you’re willing to pay and ultimately how much you’re willing to pay will greatly affect which game you eventually pick up. The third element you need to take into consideration is how much time you’re willing to invest on the game. If you’re a freshmen in college, or better yet still in high school you no doubt have more free time to spend than someone who’s working 40 hours a week and this will affect which games you will be playing.
Granted each one of these games have many more elements to them than what I could even begin to go into here. And most certainly this article is not a be all end all list. Instead it’s a suggestion, if you disagree, feel hurt or angry that your favorite MMO was left out or want to suggest a game that we haven’t even heard of yet feel free to do so in the comments. Of course the games I mention here are not the only MMO’s out there either (WarHammer Online and Conan the Barbarian Online are the new kids on the block), but hey, these are great starting places for this conversation.
