Game Reviews

Hey guys, I won't really be writing on this blog for the time being, as I'm busy helping out writing for ButtonMasher. Though I will keep this post at the top of the blog and keep it updated, showing all the reviews I've done (most recent at the top).

2010 Reviews
January 25 - Dark Void via ButtonMasher

2009 Reviews
December 1 - Encleverment Experiment via ButtonMasher
November 24 - Plants vs. Zombies via ButtonMasher User Blogs
November 4 - Tales of Monkey Island: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood via ButtonMasher
October 25 - South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense Play! via ButtonMasher
October 22 - Lucidity via ButtonMasher
September 30 - Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan via ButtonMasher
September 27 - Dissidia: Final Fantasy via ButtonMasher
September 21 - Batman: Arkham Asylum via Salient
August 24 - Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay via ButtonMasher
August 11 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled via ButtonMasher
August 5 - Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures - Episode 4: The Boegy Man via ButtonMasher
July 9 - Tales of Monkey Island - Episode 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal via ButtonMasher
June 24 - Lode Runner via Xbox Forums (Winner!)
March 30 - Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned via Salient

2008 Reviews
December 18 - Gears of War 2 via Xbox Forums (Winner!)
September 15 - Army of Two via Salient
September 1 - Guitar Hero III via Salient
August 4 - The Simpsons Game via Salient
July 8 - Everybody's Golf 2 via ButtonMasher
May 19 - Grand Theft Auto IV via Salient
May 12 - Stuntman: Ignition via Salient
April 7 - Burnout Paradise via Salient

Opinion
October 18 - The Digital Distribution Take Over via ButtonMasher User Blogs

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned (360)

You can check out the Salient website here for the GTA IV: Lost and Damned review, click on the printed version for a closeup, or read it below...


Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Action Adventure
Developer: Rockstar North

Rockstar has produced some of the most incredible DLC to date (that’s downloadable content for you newcomers), or an expansion pack if you will. The Lost and Damned is an extension of GTA IV, and Microsoft paid Rockstar a lot of money to have it as an exclusive for their console.

You play as Johnny Klebitz, member of The Lost biker gang. You will get to meet up with Niko Bellic later on, the main character from GTA IV, as some of the missions will revolve around the story from the original game. The Lost gang are a tight group of folk. These characters are really fleshed out and captivating, especially Billy Grey, the gang’s arrogant president. Along with Niko you will come back into contact with Elizabeta, Playboy X and some other familiar faces.

For those of you who have never played a GTA game in your life, the basic premise of the series is that you have an open city to explore or destroy at your will—completing a grand array of deadly missions, involving drug dealing, murder, assassination, kidnapping, armed robbery, and of course grand theft auto—just things in general your mother wouldn’t be too proud of.

For most of the missions you will be riding with your gang, and it pays to stay in formation if you wanna converse with your biker mates. The Lost and Damned features new weapons, including a grenade launcher, pipe bombs, sawn-off and automatic shotguns. There is also new content for the virtual internet, radio and TV. The most important being the new songs for the radio, including that rocking track from the TV ad, Wild Side by Motley Crue. Between missions you can also partake in turf wars and races. These are both marked on the map in varying places. Turf Wars lets you and your gang go out and kill some dudes from rival gangs. Races are the same as in GTA IV, except now you’re on motorbikes, and you have baseball bats to knock the snot out of your opponents.

Johnny’s custom-built bike is just one of the new vehicles available. The bike physics have been drastically improved. It’s much harder to fall off now, less realistic of course, but it really helps when cruising the mean streets of Liberty City. New multiplayer modes have been thrown in for good measure—one pretty creative mode in particular is called Chopper vs. Chopper where the biker must escape a lethal helicopter.

There are some additions that might not be so noticeable at first glance but really pay off in spades; now mission checkpoints have been gracefully added in more convenient places. Driving back to the same location every time you fail a mission is long gone, and it makes it a lot quicker to get back into the action. Now Johnny’s friends finally stop calling you up on your virtual phone while you’re in the middle of fighting off some coppers. You can still call your friends out for air hockey if you wish, but more often than not you will only reach their answer phone. Getting denied in real life, fair enough, but in an action game where you’re the bad-ass hero, c’mon!

The missions overall are largely similar to the previous instalment. If you’re looking for something completely different, you’re not going to find it here. Some new gameplay would have been nice but Rockstar decided to stick to the tried and true. Of course there’s the whole new focus on motorcycle riding, we gotta give them that.

Thankfully in this update, the stuff that was taken out of our version of GTA IV because of Australia’s absurd rating system is now back in, even in the original game. Which means more blood, boo yah! Be warned though, this game also contains “full frontal male nudity”. Yes this is not a drill, in one of the cutscenes, Congressman Thomas Stubbs reveals all!

The Lost and Damned costs 1600 Microsoft points, or you can buy the code in a box from most gaming retailers, which is really a waste of cardboard for a game that you have to download! Remember: this isn’t a standalone expansion; you do need GTA IV in order to play it. All in all, The Lost and the Damned is a very meaty expansion. So if you’re still itching for some more missions and things to do in Liberty City it is well worth the purchase.

Michael Gray

Army Of Two Review (360)

You can check out the Salient website here for the Army of Two review, click on the printed version for a closeup, or read it below...

Army of Two
Genre: Third Person Shooter
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Although it’s expected these days, Army of Two was designed for co-op play. You play as two best buddies, Rios and Salem, who are private contractors hired by the American military to exterminate power hungry military corporations. These two mercenaries are so hard that they can stomach a friendly fist pound after slaughtering hundreds of soldiers. Story-wise there doesn’t seem to be anything compelling; to me it felt like you were just gunning down terrorist after terrorist with a few tougher ones thrown in for good measure. But in some pretty nice places. The game’s missions occur in well known locations; Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, China and Miami.

The unique element of this shooter is called Aggro. This means that if one of you starts shooting up a storm, your Aggrometer will build up and you will start to glow red. This attracts enemy fire towards you while your partner turns slightly invisible and can sneak up behind the enemy. The same works in reverse if you order your partner to attract attention.

The gameplay is novel. When you get shot your buddy can come and drag you off to safety and magically heal you. Of course the AI (who are a sandwich short of a picnic) sometimes continue to drag you off hundreds of metres away even when there was adequate cover just near you. At times while you play, Rios and Salem stand back to back and shoot in a circle in slow-mo, just like in those action flicks! Sometimes you’ll come in gliding, have limited control over where you go, and have to shoot, which is fricken hard, especially with a rifle! Other nifty features are Overkill which occurs when you have the Agrrometer down on one side for long enough. If you’re glowing red you will continue at normal speed while everything else around you is slowed down. If you’re glowing blue you also go slow-motion but this helps with precision and you get 2x damage.

This is a third person shooter so you’ll be needing to find cover the majority of the time. Unlike Gears of War you won’t attach yourself to walls but instead only crouch down behind them. This has its advantages as you can easily move out from cover, but on occasion while it might look like you’re safe, bullets will spew out at you from the sides. Annoying. Until you get to China, the environments you’re in are pretty drab. After a while seeing grey concrete walls and buildings things do become a bit dull.

Several times during the story you will come across the hovercraft. Linear progression of the levels makes it not that entertaining but it does break up all the shooting sequences. Your GPS is a very handy tool with an arrow pointing out where you should go. It looks pretty cool too, like you’re walking through a blueprint. Weapon purchasing and customization is here in all its glory, although you will need quite a lot of money to pimp out your artillery. Guns including the M249 saw, and incredibly powerful M134 Gatling gun are a must for your arsenal. Also for a price the metal masks that hide the pair’s faces and can be painted with a few menacing patterns.

Army of Two does try a lame attempt at making co-op seem worthwhile by including doors that require two people to knock them down. Coop gameplay also makes sense when giving your friend a boost up on your shoulders to reach higher places. Online is two on two and unfortunately I couldn’t find an online match to try it out. Modes include Versus, Warzone, Extraction and Bounties. A huge downer is that Army of Two is bizarrely not cross-region compatible, so if you have a friend over in the States with an NTSC disc there’s no way you can play with them.

Army of Two is a pretty decent shooter but can get rather derivative at times. More fun split-screen with a friend at your side or online across the tubes. Sometimes the AI being recognizably artificial becomes more than apparent, your partner and enemies included. But you can’t go wrong with a good old terrorist hunting, blood spilling action game.

By Mriceguy

By the way the last issue of Salient has been published, so Army of Two is my last review for this year. However I may write a few reviews just for this blog before hopefully writing for Salient again next year.

If you can, please digg this article - I appreciate it! :)

The Simpsons Game Review (360)

You can check out the Salient website here for The Simpsons Game review, click on the printed version for a closeup, or read it below...

The Simpsons Game

Developer: EA Redwood Shores
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, Ps2 Wii, PC
Publishers: Electronic Arts
Genre: 3D Platformer

There have been many Simpsons’ games in the past but really they weren’t any good. So the aptly named The Simpsons Game was produced to change all that and make something that stands up to The Simpsons name. The game starts off when Bart discovers a manual for The Simpsons Game and realizes he is actually a video game character and discovers the unique abilities he and his family has.

You have the entire town of Springfield to explore, discover every unique nook and cranny which is quite a task with all the collectables on offer. Unless you’re extra careful on your first play through, you’re gonna have to go back to each level if you want the illustrious achievement of collecting every token in the game.

Each character you play has unique abilities; Homer can change into a large ball and easily smash through obstacles and roll with extreme speed. Bart turns into Bartman and can glide, rappel and climb walls. Lisa has the palm of Budda which she uses to pick up objects, squash enemies and solve puzzles. Marge has the power of nagging which she uses to recruit nearby people to her mob of flames and pitchforks. Maggie comes into play when Marge finds airducts she can climb into, so she can solve certain puzzles. As you progress through the game you gain extra abilities that add to or extend your current performance. Very humorous moments are when you come across common video game clichés, The Comic Book Guy pops up and tells you how wooden crates and your character not being able to swim is quite unoriginal. Hilarity. The Simpsons Game often breaks through the fourth wall with selfreferential dialogue; especially in the cut-scenes. Even Electronic Arts isn’t spared from the irony. A video game designer and other famous people make cameo appearances. You also come across other video game characters such as Mario, Sonic, Madden football players and Ryu from Street Fighter. In a nice touch many of the voice actors from the show lend their voices to the many colourful characters of Springfield.

Splitscreen co-op mode is pretty fun – apart from fighting over who wants to be Homer. A huge downside is that only one player can explore Springfield, player two is kicked out until they enter an episode. My guess being that the town is too large for players to go their separate ways.

The graphics are appealing. The game is presented in 2D so it looks like you’re actually in the Simpson’s cartoon world. But the game is a bit short and can probably be finished in a single weekend. The platforming aspects aren’t really amazing and nothing is exactly original but that is excused by the fact that the game is only trying to act like a typical video game. If you’re into The Simpsons at all, interested in a parody game, or are just looking for a simple platformer that passes the time, try this one out.

By Mriceguy

Guitar Hero III Review (360)

You can check out the Salient website here for the Guitar Hero III review, click on the printed version for a closeup, or read it below...

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PC
Genre: Music/Rhythm
Developer: Neversoft
Publisher: Activision

Guitar Hero is a recognised brand globally, although it was really Konami that invented the music/rhythm genre with GuitarFreaks. Yet Guitar Hero, by porting to the console from the arcade, really capitalised the genre and brought it mainstream. This time around Harmonix have moved on to bigger and better things with Rockband, (still not released in NZ) so Neversoft of Tony Hawk fame have taken the reigns as developer and here we have Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Not much has changed since Guitar Hero II - a bit of a graphical overhaul with the user interface, but of course what more can you really do to Guitar Hero? The addition of Battle Mode is interesting and slightly amusing against friends but really, using power-ups against virtual reincarnations of Slash or Tom Morello is just embarrassing. Power-ups are used as weapons against your opponent by causing broken strings, breaking the whammy bar or increasing the difficulty. Winning Battle Mode is achieved by firing enough power-ups so your victim misses notes, and falls into the red.

The Sex Pistols got back together to do an exclusive rerecording of Anarchy in the UK, since their master recording mysteriously vanished. Many classic songs appear in the set list such as Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones, Hit Me with Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar and Welcome to the Jungle by Guns ‘N Roses. There are a couple of song packs available for download for consoles with the ability but the selection is really pathetic, plus there is no option to download songs singularly from song packs.

The new plastic guitar that comes with Guitar Hero III, if you’re that way inclined, is a black Gibson Les Paul. The first wireless Guitar Hero controller is a blessing. No more tripping over tangled wires as you jump off your couch! It also hosts a removable faceplate, and the neck can be disconnected for carrying round to mates’ places. You can’t do that with your electric guitar now can you?! However at $80 the peripheral bears a price tag that only the most extreme Guitar Hero fan could justify.

Guitar Hero III does little to improve upon its predecessors, and even removes some of the charm of the originals but if you’ve yet to own a Guitar Hero game, than this is as good a place as any to start. Otherwise sticking to what you already own will save you money and disappointment.

By Mriceguy

Grand Theft Auto IV Review (360)

You can check out the Salient website here for the Grand Theft Auto IV review, click on the printed version for a closeup, or read it below...


Game: Grand Theft Auto IV
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Genre: Action Adventure
Developer: Rockstar North
Publisher: Rockstar

Only once in a while do games really remind you of why you play video games in the first place. Grand Theft Auto IV is one such a game. On the surface it may seem like a mindless romp: running over pedestrians, firing on hotdog stands and soliciting in the service of prostitutes; it is that and oh so much more. Behind it is a gritty story of crime and alliances all encased in a virtual city, showcasing the irony behind American culture.

You play as Niko Bellic, a European immigrant arriving in Liberty City (based on New York City) to meet his cousin Roman who says he’s been living the American Dream. Niko soon finds out that it is anything but and Roman is heavily in debt. This is not a story from rags to riches but as Sam Houser, Rockstar President, puts it, “a story from rags to slightly better rags.” The plot has many twists and turns and Niko’s dark past will inevitably catch up with him. The characters are dynamic and engaging, and there was never the urge to skip a cutscene. Every cutscene is interesting and enjoyable to watch, from the comic relief of Brucie the oddball auto garage owner, to Little Jacob the Jamaican arms dealer who is near impossible to understand!

Liberty City is smaller than the state of San Andreas, but the developers have substantiated that it is better to put in greater detail than large areas of nothingness. In GTA style you have streets to run around in, cars to jack, shops to visit, pedestrians to bowl over. At the beginning you only have access to a section of the city, but once you have unlocked all parts of Liberty City the world is really yours for the taking. The scope is incredible, from surfing the web at an internet café, to listening to all eighteen radio stations and competing in darts at the local pub. The game pokes fun at TV shows such as CSI and 24, and brands like Sprite. Even the series itself is fair game, with the Xbox 360 achievement ‘Warm Coffee’ after taking your girlfriend inside, alluding to the controversial hot coffee mod in San Andreas. Even something as simple as a taxi ride is made satisfying as you sit back and look at Liberty City go on around you, while Niko chats to the cabbie.

In this GTA your mobile phone plays a crucial role. By pressing the up button, a virtual phone comes onscreen that you can call on or receive calls and texts from characters you have met in the game. Once you do enough missions for a character, the phone presents new options and you can go socialising with them in a number of activities such as bowling, dining out, or even visiting a strip club.

The mission structure is pretty similar to previous installments where you head out to a destination on your radar, a cut scene plays and the mission starts with the location mapped to your radar. Although there are variations, sometimes missions start as soon as you answer a call. This time around if you fail a mission you can easily restart it from your mobile phone, which is a godsend after getting fed up with travel time in San Andreas. One small nitpick however, the game does autosave after completing missions, but saving is still a pain as you have to travel all the way to your safe house and save there.

Using the powerful Euphoria animation technology, the animation plays smooth and believably well. For example, if you gently ram into a pedestrian they will lose balance and topple over, then carefully pick themselves up. After a long night at the pub, Niko will stumble around for a good while, falling over easily and using whatever he can to balance himself. Yes it is possible to go drink driving! Be prepared for real nausea as your screen is distorted and your eyes punished as a reward.

Multiplayer has arrived for the first in the GTA series. There is no main menu in GTA IV so like Burnout Paradise, multiplayer is accessed in-game through your mobile phone. It is definitely mayhem as you and up to fifteen others parade around Liberty City guns a-blazing and cars a-squealing. There are fifteen multiplayer modes comprised under team, cooperative, competitive, race and party focuses. Free Mode is the highlight where there are no rules, and you have free roam of the city alongside your mates.

Not only is Grand Theft Auto IV one of the best games ever created but it has got itself into the Guinness World Records for the biggest entertainment release of all time! Rockstar have really cornered themselves now. How can they possibly improve upon this? If you own an Xbox 360 or PS3, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

By Mriceguy

Stuntman: Ignition Review (360)

You can check out the Salient website here for the Stuntman: Ignition review, click on the printed version for a closeup, or read it below...

Shinigami, editor of the Games Reviews page also wrote a review for Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.

Game: Stuntman: Ignition
Genre: Action Racer
Developer: Paradigm Entertainment
Publisher: THQ

Stuntman: Ignition is the sequel to the stunt driving game, Stuntman released on the PS2. It does try to improve the formula but that still isn’t enough to save this title from being left alone on store shelves.

This is quite different to the usual racer where you play as a vehicle stuntman in Hollywood. In the Career mode there are six fictional films where you take part in six fast action scenes. Each film is a take on an actual film or a stereotype of the genre: First starting off in Aftershock a volcano disaster movie, taking control of a variety of vehicles like a motorbike and fire truck among the rubble and flowing lava. Whoopin and a Hollerin’ II is a take on The Dukes of Hazard, the definite highlight is crushing cop cars with a monster truck! Strike Force Omega is a straight up action movie in the desert. Overdrive is a Starsky and Hutch clone, set in the 70’s. Never Kill Me Again is obvious even in the title that of the James Bond film Die Another Day. Night Avenger pretends to be Batman and lets you perform the craziest stunts in the game.

Stunts have to be achieved near perfectly, fail several and you have to restart. At the end you are given a score and a star rating out of five. It’s near impossible to get 5 stars as you need to link each stunt together to create a chain. The trial and error is the most frustrating part of Stuntman: Ignition. You will find yourself repeating scenes over and over to perfection, so depending on your patience will make or break this game for you.

The Stunt Constructor was a nice gesture but ends up being a bit messy and especially irritating when you need to unlock items in the Career to actually start building anything. Online Multiplayer doesn’t really suit a game of this type and is not even worth playing unless you’re an achievement whore, good luck finding a match though!

If you’re looking for something new in the driving action space it may be worth a rental but it’s safe to say you probably won’t miss this game. Earlier this year THQ have confirmed that there will not be any more sequels to Stuntman or THQ’s street racing game, Juiced, another indicator of the game’s failure to please the masses.

By Mriceguy

Burnout Paradise Review (360)

You can check out the Salient website here for the Burnout Paradise review, click on the printed version for a closeup, or read it below...

Burnout Paradise
Genre: Arcade Racer
Developer: Criterion Games
Publisher: EA Games

Burnout Paradise flat spins the Burnout franchise in an entirely new direction, creating a huge open world named Paradise City. Paradise City is a fictional American location consisting of mountain ranges, a beach and a harbour town. As soon as you start up the game, Paradise City by Guns N’ Roses blares from your speakers, you’re thrown into a junk yard, and you are free to chose a car, and roam the city. Criterion Games promised an open world to explore at your leisure, and that’s exactly what they delivered.

There are no boundaries or set paths, the beauty of this game is that you clear your own route through the streets to the finish. At each intersection marked by traffic lights, there is one of five different events on offer. Races involve you competing against the AI to a set landmark. Stunt Run has you performing outrageous stunts like a madman before your time runs out. The classic Road Rage mode is back, from previous titles with the aim to score the most takedowns (crashing into an opponent car and obliterating them from existence). Marked Man is a game of cat and mouse as you try to escape from your pursuers.

Showtime mode is the evolution of Crash mode. Crash mode was a feature in the previous Burnout games where you picked an intersection, and drove your way into traffic, trying to crash into as many vehicles as possible. In Paradise you can enter into Showtime mode at any time, which has you flipping over endlessly — steering your wreck left and right as you bounce along the streets, smashing into traffic to rack up the points.

The Online component of Burnout Paradise is absolutely seamless between offline and online. One moment you’re driving on your own, and the next racing or competing for challenges among your friends or other gamers. The Freeburn challenges are so different to what Burnout has been before and work perfectly with the open world of Paradise City. Some involve racking up jump distance, drift meters or performing a jump in a specific location like the airfield or the mines. Headset support is an added edition with players usually helping each other out when someone needs a hand.

I don’t own a Live Vision camera for the 360 (PlayStation Eye for the PS3), but every time you score a takedown, their camera snaps a picture and adds it to your collection, which is rather neat. Of course my collection is mostly made up of people with their middle finger outstretched!

If you loved the original Burnout series there is a good chance you will love this game too. If you haven’t played a Burnout game before, Burnout Paradise is the perfect open world racer. There is just so much to do in this game, and you can do it your way!

By Mriceguy

salient and a fall from grace

Okay, so its not as easy I thought running a website/blog by yourself. Geekpulp seem to be doing a pretty good job of keeping kiwis informed on the world of videogames. Who knows maybe one day i'll join their ranks? You can find me there on the forums www.forums.geekpulp.co.nz.

So the announcement: I will be writing Xbox 360 game reviews for Victoria University's Student magazine, Salient. I have to admit i'm still feeling a bit giddy from having something of mine published, even if it is only reviews. The reviews will also be published online at www.salient.org.nz. I will post each time there is a new Games Reviews page up. Tell your friends, and leave some comments over at Salient on my article's. I'm not getting paid to do this at all but it is enjoyable to do, and I hope it will be something useful to add to my CV.


So I guess you're wondering what my fall from grace is all about. Well, last night I started up the family scooter i've been using lately, to get to the bus for Elevate. I revved the accelerator far too much and drove at a straight angle into the curb across the road. The scooter fell on top of me, my leg got trapped underneath and I couldn't lift the scooter off me. Luckily a passerby came to help and lifted from the handle bars so I could climb out from underneath. If that guy wasn't there I don't know how long I could've held the scooter up from crushing my leg. Thank-you stranger! Those scooters are surprisingly heavy when placed on top of you. The damage... the scooter is badly scratched on the side it hit the ground, it still seems to work fine however. I am scratched in various places on my body, worst case my right leg. Kinda hard to walk at the moment but i am still alive!