Reviews
In a world where everyone seems to be a critic, we have…yet another critic. Catalogued below are some of the gaming-related reviews I’ve published at various outlets — unfortunately, it’s tough to look back once you’ve grown as a writer and some of these may be pretty rough, so stay tuned for more updates from future endeavors. Click the title for the actual post, and check below for a small snippet of the text.
Xbox 360:
Similar to GTA creator Dave Jones’ roots, Crackdown is an open world, third person hybrid of all the great things we love about video games. It has your typical sandbox style game play and manages to mix it up a bit with some platforming and RPG elements.
One minute I’m cruising through Pacific City at 100 miles an hour, barrel rolling my way over ramps, and running over members of the Russian Mob.
The next I find myself closing my eyes, praying I make the next rooftop building jump to pick up that pesky Agility Orb to level up my skills. These are the kind of situations you’ll find yourself in when playing through Real Time Worlds’ surprisingly original Crackdown title.
Alien Hominid HD is a dressed-up port of the unforgivingly hard cult favorite flash game, which also made its rounds on last generation consoles. It features a quirky art style, and great sense of humor that’ll keep you coming back for more.
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2:
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 is the follow up to one of last year’s first blockbuster next-gen titles. Completed in less than a year, GRAW 2 still manages to bring all the action and excitement of it’s predecessor, but can feel a little light in content.
It’s the year 2014, one year after the first game’s events, and right away Captain Scott Mitchell is being put back into action to prevent and discharge several nuclear missiles that Mexican rebels have threatened to deploy on U.S. soil. Much like the first game, you can expect to encounter pretty much the same types of enemies, in the same deserted Mexican environments of last years iteration.
Guns, Cowboys, Indians, and drunken bar fights — all synonymous with the vision of the Wild West that’s permeated our entertainment culture for decades.
Be it the iconic characterization of John Wayne in many of the best Western flicks, or any classic “Cowboys vs. Indians” battle, Hollywood has always had a love with the iconic West, but why isn’t this theme seen in more games? Call of Juarez is the answer to that question, bringing in all these classic elements in spades.
While not our first entry into the Wild West, Call of Juarez for the Xbox 360 does manage to saddle up a certain amount of freshness in it’s presentation. Originally a PC game released over a year ago, CoJ has survived the journey to console-land, and builds upon the foundations set by previous games such as Gun and Red Dead Revolver.
PlayStation 3:
Take one look at Super Stardust HD and it will seem like just another derivative Robotron clone trying to get by off of the Xbox Live Arcade hit, Geometry Wars’ hype — and it’s a very fitting description. However, the Stardust series pre-dates Bizzare’s mathematic hit by nearly 15 years, and the newest iteration of the series serves up one of the PlayStation 3’s most compelling software releases to date.
While I cannot attest to the original’s value and contribution to gaming as a whole, Super Stardust HD fits right in with the rest of the pack of downloadable games providing exciting, tense, and beautiful gameplay, all while still being playable in short bursts, yet rewarding those willing to sink in hours of play.
Amidst the AAA titles of E3 2007, it’s hard to grab headline space when developers have to go against already established juggernauts such as Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Killzone 2, and Super Mario Galaxy. One of the games that caught my attention through all the coverage is Everyday Shooter, an indie-developed PlayStation Network title due out this fall.
A winner of GDC 2007’s Game Design Innovation award, the announcement of Everyday Shooter (which was shown on PC) coming to consoles hardly seems like a surprise. Since the launch of the Xbox 360 and it’s instant hit Geometry Wars, in November 2005, we’ve been plagued with the fun, yet somewhat burdened release of dual-stick shooters offered up by the Xbox 360 and PS3’s downloadable services. Super Stardust HD just launched with critical appeal, and proved the genre hasn’t quite run out of juice yet.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Preview):
Shown off at Sony’s E3 2006 press conference as the “Unannounced Naughty Dog Project” from the guys that brought us, of all things, Crash Bandicoot, this realistic, Tomb Raider-esque game caught the public’s attention from the lush visuals and a pretty sweet trailer to boot.
Now, after several appearances at trade show events, we have a name, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and quite an imminent release date of November 20th in the future. PS3 owners are starving for content and Uncharted might be their last hope for a Holiday blockbuster title. Without further ado, let’s get into the details starting with the most obvious feature of the game…
Nintendo Wii:
Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and the rest of the gang are all back for yet another epic adventure in the Mushroom Kingdom , making their next-generation debut with Super Paper Mario for the Nintendo Wii. While not quite staying true to the RPG elements we’ve come to expect from the Paper Mario series, Super Paper Mario manages to pack in many of the characteristics found in previous Mario games, leaving older gamers with a heartwarming dosage of nostalgia.
Nintendo DS:
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords:
Puzzle Quest is a handheld title that actually manages to tread some ground in the popular gaming trend of mashing together two beloved game styles that one wouldn’t ordinarily think would work successfully.
Picture a hybrid of two completely different game genres and you will get D3’s handheld adventure Puzzle Quest, which combines the strategic and fantasy elements of an RPG, and the formula of puzzle game classic Bejeweled. Sounds awkward, right? But, the strange thing is, the game actually plays out favorably.
It’s hard to look back on your older stuff. Reading some of mine is just embarassing, but after deleting all my oldest bits, I am in deep regret – I’ll never do it again. You’ve gotta start somewhere.