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Unicycle Loves You

Highway Robbery

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Time

The Lightswitch

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V8

Pain is the Cleanser

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Revolution

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Substantial

My Favorite Things

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NBA 2K8 does not disappoint.

2K Sports

Reviewed on Tuesday, November 06, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

For the last few years the NBA 2K series has been the best of the NBA simulation video games and this year’s NBA 2K8 continues in that tradition. When playing this year’s version the first things you’ll notice are the excellent graphics and animation. What’s so impressive is that with the NBA’s superstars, the game captures their signature move and style of play. When controlling someone like Allen Iverson or Kobe Bryant, their game is captured so magnificently that when their running down the court or going up for a jump shot, you’d think you’re watching a real game. As always the venues are rendered very well with a very cool improvement of the crowd. The crowd responds to the game on the court, like if the home team is on a run, the crowd cheers wildly or if the home team is constantly missing easy shots, you’ll hear a smattering of boos.

The controls for the most part are the same except now that you have a “shot stick” (right analog stick) to make jump shots a bit easier, even though you still have the buttons to shoot. On defense the right analog stick is supposed to help lockdown a defender by putting hands in his face, along with the lock down D of the left trigger, but if you move to the right or left and the guy with the ball moves the opposite direction, he’s gone. And even if you down lock down the guy the ball, sometimes he turns into Steve Nash and becomes an incredible passer, hooking up with a teammate to dunk or lay it up easily. It seems as though the offense is a bit more powerful than the defense. No matter how hard you’re locking down your opponent, it seems as though there’s always a way for them come out of it and score when it’s just not possible. Although it may be a source of frustration in some moments during the game, it doesn’t take away all the fun. It just takes away some of the realism.

Also with the game is the new NBA Blacktop Mode which is sort of 2K’s NBA Street portion of the game. You can participate in one-on-one, two-on-two or three-on-three pick up games, play 21, participate in a 3-point shootout or compete in a Dunk Contest, which will keep you busy for hours. You also have the Association Mode, which is probably the deepest NBA franchise mode you’ll find this year. Your responsibilities as GM or coach increase to not only managing salary cap and drafts, but also the morale of your team. You have to make sure that each player gets their minutes or you’ll be reading in the paper the next day how someone wants to be traded, causing a distraction to the team, which affects their play on the court.

This year, by far, NBA 2K8 is the best NBA basketball game on store shelves. (Xbox 360, PS3)

Crash of the Titans

(Sierra)

Reviewed on Friday, October 19, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

For years Crash Bandicoot has been considered the red-headed stepchild of platform gaming. While everyone gushed over Mario and Sonic, Crash quietly ran through his adventures with moderate success. Now, he returns with Crash of the Titans, a new adventure where Crash not only takes on his nemesis Neo Cortex, but an army of mutated animals as well. The catch with this game is the ability to control these mutated animals and wield their powers.

The game begins with Crash chilling with his homies when Cortex shows up and kidnaps his sister. The adventure begins. Along the way you’ll be challenged by Cortex’s cronies as well as the mutated monsters. The fighting system is pretty simple, with X giving light attacks and Y giving charged strong attacks. To take control of the mutated animal you’ll have to hit him several times until he’s dizzy, then you jump on his back by pressing B. Once in control you have three different attacks using B, Y, and a special attack using A. There are approximately 15 different creatures you can control including mutated foxes that fire lasers, elephants that can tear down anything in their paths, and skunks that have powerful stench shots. One of the drawbacks is not being able to control the camera. As it focuses solely on Crash, you can’t move it around and may find yourself getting jumped from behind by some creature that’s out of frame.

Throughout the game when defeating enemies, you collect little bubbles called “Mojo”, which earns you new moves and upgrades Crash’s abilities. Another great thing about Crash is that gaining Achievements through Xbox Live is so easy, you may get all 1000 points your first time through. The graphics look great and could pass for a Cartoon Network series, but the story and gameplay is definitely directed towards the children. It’s real easy and can be beaten in 8 hours or less. If you’re a platforming fan, by all means get the game, if not, just leave it for the kids. (Xbox 360)

The Legend of Spyro:Eternal Night

Sierra

Reviewed on Friday, October 19, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

The Eternal Night is a sequel to the PS2/Gamecube title, A New Beginning and really picks up where the story left off. But even if you’ve never played the first game, Eternal Night doesn’t leave you wondering what’s going on. Basically, the bad guy from the first game, The Ape King, is making a comeback and of course, you have to stop him.

You play as the cute purple dragon, Spyro, voiced by Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings). You have a variety of dragon breath powers including fire, ice, electricity and Earth attacks (square). You also have melee attack abilities (circle), jump and double jump (X) as well as “dragon time” (L1) where you can slow down the game, making it easier to take out foes. You also have a couple of special attacks that you can throw down when you’re being overwhelmed (triangle and R2)

The game is pretty much an action/platformer were you go around beating up enemies and accomplishing tasks like lighting up torches or slowing time to run through a closing gate. The game is very Disney-like and is directed toward the kids. Even so, the story along with the voice acting from Wood, Gary Oldham, Billy West, and Kevin Michael Richardson, make it a fun experience. (Playstation 2)

Monster Hunter Freedom 2

Capcom

Reviewed on Friday, October 19, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

There is so much to do in Monster Hunter Freedom 2, that you may be playing this game for the next couple of years before you get to the end of it. You play as a barbarian who finds himself in a mountain village who must go through some rigorous training to protect your people. Even the training program for the game will take a few hours to complete. Fighting and surviving isn�t as easy as it sounds. But the bottom line of the game is to hunt monsters and protect the village. With over 250 quests, 70 different monsters, 700 weapons and 1400 pieces of armor, this may be the deepest game on the Sony PSP.

And even though the purpose of the game is to hunt and kill monsters, it�s also necessary to survive. You have to eat, wear the proper clothing, as well as feed the village and find medicinal plants for the people. And don�t be surprised if you find yourself planting and harvesting, hunting for treasure all the while upgrading your character.

The graphics are amazing with detailed monsters and characters and decent environments that look vast. The soundtrack to the game is decent and the dialogue between characters, plus the grunts and howls of creatures add authenticity to the game. If you have the time and the patience, MHF 2 will definitely payoff. (Sony PSP)

NBA '08

(Sony)

Reviewed on Friday, October 19, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

The NBA season is finally upon us and so is a handful of games for all video game systems. There's always a debate on who makes the best NBA simulation game and Sony's NBA franchise is usually at the bottom of the bunch while 2K Sports NBA 2K franchise and EA Sports' NBA Live franchise reaps all the praise. And it looks like it's going to stay that way for awhile.

Sony did a few different things this year with NBA 08 is regards to the different Sony platforms. The PS3 version has the Games of the Week Feature where players are challenged to recreate the highlights of that week's games, the PS2 version brings in a new installment of The Life V3”, a very cool role playing game introduced a couple of years ago and the PSP has the block Party, a collection of fun mini-games. These additions add depth to the game and can keep your interest for awhile.

The main problem with this game, however, is the game play and mechanics. While the controls aren't too hard to get a hang of, it's what the players do when you're not controlling them. Throughout the game, your teammates are constantly jumping by the basket for an alley-oop pass or dunk and a lot of the time your pass to them is way off and goes out of bounds. And even if you're trying to pass to someone else, the pass flies toward the jumping teammate and gets intercepted or goes out of play. The icon-passing option helps this out sometimes, which you have to press two buttons at once, but most of the time you want to get it off more quickly instead of looking to see which icon your player is. The passing also becomes an issue in the transition or a fastbreak. A lot of the time when you pass the ball up court after a rebound it gets intercepted, and it gets annoying. One innovative thing about the game play, however, is the shooting gauge, where when you go up for a jump shot you try to get the gauge in the green area for a sure bucket.

Graphically the images are a step lower than games like NBA 2K8 and NBA Live 08.The character models aren't as detailed as the competition's, but they are decent. The animations and movements have that basketball look, but when a character is running from side-to-side or when others are trying to get open, they look like they're ice-skating. It takes the reality out the game.

In the end, NBA 08 has a cool thing that doesn't involve actual on-the-court game play like mini-games, and role-playing, but when you and your buddy just want to go head-to-head there will be some disappointment. The PSP version is probably the best of all three, and may even be the best basketball game on the PSP system. But maybe sticking with the guys who have been perfecting their craft like 2K Sports or EA Sports for the last couple of years is who you should get for PS2 or PS3. (Playstation 3)

Project Gotham 4

Microsoft

Reviewed on Friday, October 19, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

For its fourth entry, not too much has changed with the Project Gotham Racing franchise. The goal is still to win races, the environments are still spectacular looking and there are too many great-looking vehicles to choose from.

What is new is the addition of motorcycles. Of course the motorcycles have a faster acceleration speed and can go a bit faster than most cars, but it’s also the most sensitive vehicle to control, which will see you flying off the bike at least once during early races. The fun part is learning how to master the control of the bike.

There’s still a plethora of things to do in the game though, ranging from building a career, which is a new addition, arcade mode where you try to earn a variety of medals and a bunch of different events ranging from speed, racing and style.

Once you master some of these events and earn the game’s “Kudos”, you’re able to unlock a variety of goodies like cars, tracks and other items. While PGR4 really isn’t breaking too much ground this time around, it’s still one of the best racing franchises on Xbox 360. (Xbox 360)

Final Fantasy 2

Square Enix

Reviewed on Monday, September 24, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

It’s always cool when game developers go back to the archives and update an old game with fancy CGI animations and new imagery within the game. That’s what Square Enix has been doing with its Final Fantasy series on the Sony PSP. The thing is, after the great looking CGI, it’s pretty much the same game it was when it dropped back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. That’s the case with Final Fantasy 2. Although the story is much cooler, there’s more depth to the game, and the graphics are slightly improved, it’s still pretty much the same.
But die-hard Final Fantasy fans well definitely want to add this game to their library, while other gamers may grow a little impatient with the experience. We’re still hoping for Final Fantasy VII making it to the system though.

Jeanne D’ Arc

Sony

Reviewed on Monday, September 24, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

One of the greatest stories of France is that of Joan of Arc. Joan was the teenage girl who said she received visions from God to save her homeland from the English during the Hundred Years War. She went into war and fought and won several battles before she was captured and executed by the English at age 19.

Now Sony has come in and turned Joan of Arc’s story into a really cool role-playing game with some excellent fantasy-like twists. The story begins with an anime cut scene telling the story of how the war started in a dramatic, fantasy video game way. You’re then taken to a small village where you’re introduced to Jeanne, a young girl who finds a powerful armlet that gives her the ability to hear God. Of course God tells her to save France and she takes off on her journey and brings friends to join her as she meets them along the way.

Not only are the anime cut scenes and graphics superb, but the gameplay is excellent. The battle-system is very similar to tactics styles games like Advanced Wars or Final Fantasy Tactics. Each character has different weapons and battle range. One character may have a sword and only be able to attack an enemy next to him, while a character with a bow can attack from long distances. You can also equip character with different magic and spells for attacking, defense or healing. Jeanne D’ Arc is one of those role-playing games that you won’t be able to put down, and is probably the best one to come to the PSP.

Project Sylpheed

Square Enix

Reviewed on Monday, September 24, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

From the moment you put the disc in, it seems as though you’re preparing to enter a fantastic epic battle with some cool spaceships. The game has some excellent cutscenes, but the story is somewhat difficult to follow. You play as Katana, a top space pilot, who is called to stop his former best friend Magras from destroying your people and your fleet.
Now the learning curve for the game is pretty steep. Your ship has a bunch of weapons and gauges you have to pay attention to as well as radars with like almost 20 different symbols and icons that you have to know. Plus there’s a bunch of different maneuvers and special moves that you can do with your ship. However, when your thrown into battle, it just looks like a convoluted mess. You basically have to depend on your aiming mechanism because you can’t tell the difference between your enemies and your allies, and when your mission is supposed to be protection of a certain aircraft, most of the time you don’t know where it is. And once you get past the first few stages, the game gets even harder.

Besides trying to earn unlockable weapons and maneuvers, you probably won’t be playing this game too much. Sure it’s a good-looking game, but after the first few missions, it gets pretty boring and you’re ready to move on to the next thing.

Vampire Rain

AQ Interactive

Reviewed on Monday, September 24, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

Originally a Japan-only release, Vampire Rain hit shelves this summer to the delight of fans everywhere. Too bad it isn’t as good a game as everyone hoped for. You play as John Lloyd, a special ops agent who enters a city infested with vampires and is charged with taking out the blood suckers. For some reason it’s raining the whole time too. The third-person shooter is supposed to be like Splinter Cell but instead of killing terrorists you’re killing vampires. You get all the stealth action, the cool weaponry and of course the night vision. Oh so you think.

That premise is excellent, but it doesn’t translate well into game play. First off the acting, dialogue, and story is just as bad, if not worse, than an B-movie made by Uwe Boll. But we’ve played badly written games before and they’ve been fun right? Not this one though. Don’t expect anything in game play comparison to Splinter Cell at all. As the main character, you get to sneak around and accomplish different tasks, which isn’t too difficult. Thing is, certain areas of the neighborhood are blocked off, but in your map it appears you can go that way. It’s pretty frustrating. And to add to that, if a vampire spots you, and starts rushing you, no matter how many pounds of lead you pump into his body, you will always lose. The only time you can kill a vampire is during a “cut-scene” or if your whole crew is blasting the monster with you. It’s kind of like what’s the point? The story is wack, you can’t kill vampires, and the stealth action doesn’t let you go where you want, what else is there? Oh, the graphics look alright, but that’s about it.

The Bigs

2K Sports

Reviewed on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

2K Sports is sure taking advantage of their exclusive Major League Baseball license. After releasing the excellent MLB 2K7 earlier this year, they have now released something for the casual baseball fan. The Bigs is an arcade version of the big leagues, as opposed to MLB 2K7’s simulation style, for the baseball fan who isn’t interested in the hundreds of different ways you can throw a pitch. The great thing about The Bigs is that it focuses on the highlights of baseball, you know, the only thing they show on Sportscenter, like home runs, awesome strikeouts and incredible catches and plays on the field.

How it works is that when you’re playing the game you earn “Turbo” by making base hits, throwing strikes, and making catches and good plays you’re your turbo adds up. Once you’re turbo gets to a certain level you get a sort of special power when at bat or pitching. Once you power up the turbo on the mound, any pitch you throw, fast ball, curve ball, etc., will zoom past the batter with no chance of being hit. The same can be said for when the batter powers up, if you hit any part of the ball, it’s definitely going out of the park, smashing a billboard or some lights on its way out. It gets interesting when both the pitcher and batter are powered up. But the actual game on the field is only one aspect of The Bigs. While you have your “Play Now” and “Rookie Challenge” modes, the Home Run Derby and Home Run Pinball will keep you busy too. Home Run Derby pits you against another to see who can get 10 home runs first while Home Run Pinball puts you and a pitcher in Times Square where the more damage to create in the city, the more points you get and the more hyped the crowd gets. Graphically, the game looks excellent across all systems and is a good title to have even for someone who isn’t a baseball fanatic. (PS3, Xbox 360, PSP)

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

2K Games

Reviewed on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

During summer blockbuster movie season you can usually expect a slew of shoddy video games to hit stores in support of a big movie. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is no exception. What could have been an excellent opportunity to make a decent game based on classic comic book characters fails once again. The game loosely follows the movie’s storyline with a couple of side missions. At the start you’re dropped in the middle of nowhere in some cave base with no explanation. At the beginning of the game, you can choose which hero you want to be, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, The Thing or Mr. Fantastic, but when the game begins, you can choose to control any character. Those familiar with the X-Men Legends series, the controls are very similar to those in F4ROTSS, where you use the directional pad to control which ever character you want.

Each character also has a very simple upgrade factor. As you move through the game you collect points that you can attribute to a specific skill of character, but it’s not as cool or in-depth as X-Men Legends. The game play isn’t too hot either. As you enter the caves and other locations, you fight a bunch of robotic characters and whatnot and move on to the next section. Wash, rinse and repeat. Sure, Sue Storm can turn invisible and make a force field, Johnny Storm can throw fireballs and fly around, Ben Grimm can clobber folks with power punches and earthquakes and Dr. Reed Richards can reach to the other side of the room to punch a dude, but you don’t really need to use these powers to pay the game. It’s basically a “beat em up”-style game that’s very repetitive. At least Dr. Doom and the Silver Surfer make cameo apperances. Hopefully next time the developers will have a little bit more respect for the comic classic instead of just trying to cash in on merchandising. (Xbox 360, PS3, PSP)

PaRappa the Rapper

Sony

Reviewed on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

Remember when hip-hop heads were totally ripping this game apart because they thought it was a mockery of hip-hop and commercialized the genre? Then they played it and were hooked. Sure the beats were sub par and the rhymes were weak but it was a fun and creative game. That was 10 years ago, but now PaRappa has been resurrected. PaRappa is now on the Sony PSP but not much has changed… at all. It’s exactly the same game as it was on the original Playstation. Same beats, same raps. You do have the option to download a few new beats from the PSP website using your PSP’s wireless option, but still, it’s not much of a change. There’s also a multiplayer mode which allows you to compete against a buddy with a PSP and the same game. But all it does is compare scores. It’s not like you’re fighting or anything. But for those of you who have a PSP and are feeling nostalgic, PaRappa the Rapper is exactly how you remembered it. (PSP)

Dawn of Mana

Square Enix

Reviewed on Monday, June 25, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

Dawn of Mana is actually the long-awaited sequel to Secret of Mana, which dropped back in the 1990s. The game actually tells the story of how the world of Mana came to existence or something like that. You play as a Keldy, a naďve teenager who is into exploration and adventure and has no clue what calling will come before him. One day while he’s out exploring the forests looking a magical beats with his girl Ritzia, he comes across a magical acorn. The acorn attaches to Keldy and gives some weird tree sword attached to his arm. There’s also a cool slingshot attached to it as well. With this new power, Keldy and Ritzia continue on, thinking they found the lair of the magical beast, but they’re in-store for something more; something that would require Keldy to save his girl and the world as they know it.

That’s basically the premise of the story, but the game play is pretty solid as well. The game is not as complicated as the Final Fantasy series. The simple way of powering up the character is just by defeating enemies and collecting the items that they drop. You also get to acquire different magical powers with the help of your spirit friend Faye, who can heal you, give you strength and let you use your slingshot to toss magic bombs and whirlwind magic, among others. There are numerous ways to defeat enemies, so it keeps you interested as you move along in the story.
The graphics aren’t anything to go ballistic over. It serves it’s purpose, but it would have been cool to get some CG action in there the way that other Square Enix titles do.

Other than that, it’s a fun game with an interesting story that won’t take you 40 hours to get through. This is one of the role-playing games that you’ll see on the Playstation 2.

Motorstorm

SCEA/Evolution Studios

Reviewed on Monday, June 25, 2007 by Quibian Salazar-Moreno

After the show-stopping preview at last year’s E3 convention, gaming fans were eagerly anticipating the release of Motorstorm. And it was well worth the wait. The off-road racing game is probably one of the best looking games on the Playstation 3.
To start you’re offered a variety of vehicles to choose from ranging from trucks and rally cars to motorcycles and dune buggies. Each vehicle has its strength and weaknesses and you choose your path on the track based on that. For example, if you’re on a motorcycle you want to stay on the higher ground tracks and stay away from the deep muddy tracks of a valley, because you’ll get stuck or get knocked around by bigger vehicles.
There really isn’t a premise or a story mode for the game, except that the scenery looks like some post-apocalyptic war terrain. It really is just a straight up racer with single and online play. There’s nothing much more than that.
But what makes this game a must-have for PS3 is the graphics. First off, the tracks are so detailed with mud and dirt flying in your face as you race through mountain and desert terrain. There are bombed out cars lining the tracks with funny signs sprawled out through the hills. When crashing into other vehicles, you’ll get spectacular slow motion destruction. There are pieces of shrapnel flying all over the places, if a guy is on a bike or ATV, he’ll fly off into the air and it just looks great.
The only thin that sucks about Motorstorm is there are only eight tracks to choose from, so it can get boring after awhile on single player. Plus the major flaw is there isn’t any multi-player, meaning you can’t play your homie sitting next to you. The only time you get to play someone else is online.
Besides that, this is a definite must-own for Playstation 3 owners.

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