• 23Feb 07

  Demos Galore! Part 2

  Next we’ve got Crackdown. I remember when this game was first announced and I saw the first screenshots. I had it burnt into my brain that this game would be disastrous. Tim, my Local GameStop’s manager, always told me about how good Crackdown looked and was going to be and why I hadn’t reserved it yet. I would always explain to him how I thought it would be a ridiculous game and not worth my time. I must say, my opinion has changed since playing this demo. I absolutely fell in love with the game. Yes, I know it plays a lot like Grand Theft Auto, but that’s all well and good, seeing as how you’re a super cop and seem to gain special powers, much like any comic book superhero would gain. Jumping 30 feet in the air, running at amazing speeds, lifting up a 10 ton object and tossing it 230 feet… amazing. Your driving skills and firearm skills increase with experience in those respective fields. What’s not to like? The city has a very real feel to it, and seems much more elaborate than anything in the GTA series. It’s a good deal larger as well. The one thing I have noticed is that the characters are all cel-shaded… which is not a bad thing at all, just quite different for this style of game. I can’t wait to try out the final version of this game and give a review on it. If it’s as good as the demo, I don’t see it getting bashed too hard now.
  
  Lastly, we have TMNT. Wow… it seems that the Ninja Turtles have bounced back from the early 90’s and survived quite well. It was a shame to see them go in the first place. While I liked the other TMNT games in the past, I will have to tip my hat to Ubisoft on this one. The creators of Prince of Persia have certainly breathed new life into the brothers and have given them the kind of depth they’ve needed for so long in gaming. The demo is simply amazing and has me dying to play the final version. The only problem I have now is deciding which platform to pick it up for. While I know the PC is out of the question, I’m debating between the 360 and the Wii version. I guess I’ll just keep up to date on everything to see how the Wii version handles in terms of the innovative remote. March 20 will tell all.
  
  
  That’ll pretty much do it for this blog entry. Check back next week for a new post.
  
  Later all,
  Hose
  • Posted Feb 23, 2007 9:39 am GMT
  • Category: Opinion
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• 23Feb 07

  Demos Galore! (Part 1)

  Welcome back.
  

  
  I have been promising another blog entry for over a month, so here goes. Last weekend I took the time to get on X-Box Live. As I usually do on a month to month basis, I checked for any new and interesting demos that might be out. I knew already that Def Jam: Icon was due out that week, and I have been dying to try it out, so I figured I'd get a couple more downloads while I was at it. I managed to score Crackdown, NBA Street: Homecourt, Superman Returns and Def Jam: Icon all in the same day. Wednesday night, I found another promising demo up for download. While I’m not big on PC games, I couldn’t resist downloading the new TMNT demo.
  
  First up was NBA Street: Homecourt. While I can't say I'm a diehard fan of sports titles, I loved Homecourt. I have never played the other 3 before it, but I had heard that they were kind of like the NBA Jam series that started on the SNES. The alley-oops and over the top dunks look amazing... especially the double-dunk maneuvers. I got irritated a few times while playing, mostly due to the fact that I kept pressing the shot button when I actually meant to pass. I suppose that's all part of getting used to a sports title like this. I haven't read anything at all on Homecourt, or the rest of the Street series... but I'm assuming you can create your own player. At least I hope so, as that would be the biggest draw for me picking this game up. I highly recommend at least trying out the demo to anyone with XBL.
  
  Next up, Superman Returns. I'll keep this short and sweet... I was overly disappointed in this game. I've never really been a big fan of the Superman movies or comics to begin with, but to me, the game just didn't have any sort of appeal whatsoever. If you're into DC Comics' Superman character, then by all means, give this game a shot... maybe you'll find some use for it.
  
  Now, let's talk about Def Jam: Icon. What can I say? I didn't particularly care with the new direction they're taking in this outing. I loved the first two Def Jam titles almost as much as the SmackDown vs. Raw games that THQ puts out, but Icon completely ruined my opinion of the series. At least, from the demo standpoint. I despised the way the buildings in the background bounced around to the beat of the music. All of the foreground environment looked nice… until I got thrown against a car and saw it break into chunks. The explosions from the gas pumps were all done very well, but everything else moving to the music and looking like something right out of Tetris made me sick! I also noticed that there don’t seem to be many moves this time around. I realize this is only a demo and a lot can change by the release of the game… but all I saw were basic punches, wind-ups and 2 different grapple moves… a bodyslam and a toss. Hopefully the wrestling aspect wasn’t completely scratched from the game as well. If that’s the case this game might as well just be called Street Fighter IV: The Def Jam Edition.
  
  (Check out Part 2 for Crackdown and TMNT)
  • Posted Feb 23, 2007 9:35 am GMT
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• 19Jan 07

  So many games... so little time

  These days it seems like I can never find the time to get into some serious gaming. For the past 3 weeks I have been hard at work putting together enterthezombiegod.com. I usually get some time on the weekends to game (that is if Rose approves)
  I've found myself at a point where I have started multiple games at one time and now have my dilema: Which game do I continue first? Right now, my list looks about like this:
  
  Final Fantasy XII - PS2
  Mega Man Zero 4 - GBA
  CSI - XBox
  Digital Devil Saga - PS2
  Marvel Ultimate Alliance - PS2
  Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - GameCube
  
  Right now it looks like Saturday will be my first time to start gaming again, so I've got a pretty good list to choose over by then. Hopefully my next entry will be somewhat of a 'gaming diary'.

  • Posted Jan 19, 2007 2:30 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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