DeathSpank is a pretty strange name for a game but the strangeness of the name reflects the bizarre but hilarious dialogue used in the game. It is a hack and slash roleplaying game very similar to the Diablo series in quest structure and the loot system. You play as Deathspank and the basic objective is to complete quests in order to retrieve an artifact of great power, surprisingly called “The artifact”. The dialogue is hilarious and I had a smile on my face most of the time while playing it and laughed out loud on several occasions while talking to the quest givers. The humour comes from DeathSpank’s dim-wittedness and the strange individuals that you help in your journey for “the artifact”, all while collecting better weapons and armour and leveling up. That covers the type of game and the major aspects of the game that appealed to me.

The graphics remind me of the approach Diablo 2 took but much more detailed and better looking. It is one of the better looking arcade games in my opinion and the art style fits the game perfectly. The character models are 3D and the backgrounds are 2D. The cut scenes are short but look great and advance the story well. As you move around the background moves as if you are moving around a tiny planet. It is difficult for me to explain but works well and does not get in the way. It allows you to travel easily and fits very well with the rest of the game. Content wise it is pretty clean the humour gets kind of mature near the end of the game but it is not bad. There were no real sexual references that I noticed and there is no gore when killing enemies so in that aspect it is clean also.

The quests are mostly pretty easy for the most part and take just some logic and paying enough attention to the quest givers to complete. There is a hint system which uses fortune cookies that you find from killing enemies and smashing barrels to help you complete the quests. A few quests at the end of the game stumped me but I only had to look up the guide to one of the last quests online. After I did I felt kind of like an idiot as from talking to the characters involved in the quest made it quite clear what to do. The bosses were pretty easy with the right strategy and as long as you are at an appropriate level and have decent armour.

There are a few basic quests, mostly involving killing, things collecting things, delivering things and a short escort quest. There are loads of side quests to do and if you make an effort to complete all of them as well as the main quests you will probably get around 15-20 hours game play depending on how much you focus on leveling up. I think I was at about 20 hours after completing all the side quests, getting to level 20 which is the max level and beating the final boss.

It is 1200 Microsoft points which seemed a bit steep to me initially but after playing the 20 minute trial I was hooked and bought it the next day. I would recommend that anyone download the trial play for the full time it gives you and if you enjoyed what you played you will not be disappointed with the full game. There is limited replayability as once you have beat it you do not have much incentive to play through it again but the content you get in a single play through is worth the cost to me. DeathSpank is well worth the 1200 points it asks for, will you help DeathSpank Dispense justice, defend the down trodden and vanquish evil?.

Do you like the Bioshock series of games?  Like being immersed into a world that seems to have existed on it’s own for many years?  Do you like exploring said world and discovering that something has gone horribly wrong?  Do you like to manipulate time?  Do you like to kill creatures by shooting them or manipulating time?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, stop reading this and pick up Singularity.  Raven Software are the developers of this game and you may recognize them from Wolfenstein or X-Men Origins: Wolverine amongst other great games.  They do a great job creating a world that you can really get involved in as well as destroy or rebuild.

The shooting is pretty tight, the guns definitely feel real and the graphics are slightly above average.  A’la Bioshock, the game is a little creepy with it’s atmosphere and it’s story telling but that makes it fun and interesting for me.  The premise is this, Russia has created a substance called E99 that they plan to use to make themselves a stronger world power than the USA.  While developing E99 something goes really wrong and causes mutations in people and destruction of things.  Years later 2 American soldiers are investigating something (I forget what) and they end up on this island when their helo crashes.  1 of the soldiers ends up discovering this device called the TMD that allows him to manipulate time and space.

There is a bit of language as it’s an M rated game and when you are dealing with mutants and Russians you are gonna see some violent content.  Kids, stay away.

That’s it!  There’s a ton of fun to be had with this game, for me because I liked Time Shift and Wolfenstein this game was right up my alley.  Check it out.

I must say right from the start that the film adaptation of Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time is not the pile of garbage most gamers thought it would be. In fact, it ain’t half bad. Unfortunately, it is one-third bad, give or take a few stupid moments and under-written characters. But that leaves two-thirds of goodness, so all is not lost for gamers hoping for the first decent adaptation of a video game. Friends, we finally have one.

Before I go into what worked for me, I’ll get the bad stuff out of the way. First up is Ben Kingsley’s so-called performance as the film’s villain, Nizam. I say “so-called” because he doesn’t really do anything. Kingsley seems to be sleepwalking through the film, standing on his marks when required, speaking his lines, then exiting stage left at the appropriate time. I guess that’s better than the ridiculous over-acting he’s given the film world over the last decade or so, but I can’t help hoping for more from the man who once won an Oscar for masterfully playing Gandhi. (more…)

As promised, here’s a quick rundown of games I’ve recently played. Some were reviewed here; some were not. I won’t write a full review for the unreviewed games, but I’ll try to be as specific about what I liked and didn’t like as possible.

Mass Effect 2

Though I was knee-deep in homework at the time of Mass Effect 2‘s release, I couldn’t pass up the chance to play the sequel to one of my favorite games of this console generation. I’m glad I did, as ME2 ups the ante in every possible way, making for the best sequel to any game. The control is tighter; the combat is more focused and a lot smoother; the AI is smarter; the story is longer and more character-driven; and the graphics will blow you away—and without any texture pop-in to boot. The DLC leaves something to be desired, but that’s a minor complaint. I can’t to see where Commander Shepard and his crew go from here. (more…)

From the outset Red Dead Redemption starts off as a mildly tame Rockstar game in comparison to games like Grand Theft Auto or Max Payne, however as you dig deeper into the game you will find that the heart of all Rockstar games lies beneath a semi-clean sheen of deception.  That being said, expecting such a game, you will probably enjoy the mess out of it.

“Grand Theft Auto of the West” probably best describes the game though it’s more than that.  It’s an artistic recreation of the history of the United States.  It’s hard to believe that not too long ago our country was once being discovered inch by inch, square mile by square mile until it bloomed into what we know of as today.  With our lightening fast internet speeds and our airplanes it’s hard to imagine a world where it took literally days to get from one point to another on horse or carriage, but that is exactly what Rockstar recreated.  As frustrated as this may sound, it’s actually quite enjoyable to get back to the simpler ways of life.

As with all Rockstar games you are able to take the path of good or bad, honor or dishonor.  You can become infamous or famous and each of these traits are displayed with a meter letting you know your progress.  You can also decide to run around killing everyone and stealing their horses, or you can play it nice and save every damsel or gentleman in distress.  Yep, there are brothels but for the most part they are tame places where the women are dressed in their bloomers or underwear.  They will make comments to you but as far as I have played you are limited to just that.  No picking up prostitutes or the like which would lead to a negative impression of the game.  In fact the main character comments on the fact that he is happily married when approached by a prostitute.  The game is fun, and that can’t be denied but now we get to where the game falls short.

The game is “M” rated, so you can expect some very, very rough language and sexual context.  There are many times where you will hear Jesus’ name taken in vain or the reprehensible “GD”.  Throw in a gaggle of “F bombs” and you won’t want to play this game around your children or pastor.  As your progress through the game you will also bear witness to a sex scene in which the woman is topless and you will see some pretty explicit gyration. There is murder, bloodshed and general disrespect towards women and religion.

With all of that said, the redeeming qualities would be an experience that has yet to be done since the semi-linear “Gun”.  The graphics are top notch for an open world game and it is possible to be a good person, yet still experience some bad content.  Immersed with mini games like Texas Hold’em, Dice, horseshoes and Blackjack you can find a plethora of things to waste your time on.  In the end I can’t recommend the game as it just has too much negative for me to say “go get it”.  Take what I have told you and decide for yourself.

Every now and then a game comes along that I desire to play through to completion.  Just Cause 2 is one of those games.

I played Just Cause long after it had been released in preparation of the sequel and I was a bit disappointed.  While the game had some cool features like the grappling hook and parachute, they felt very under-utilized.  It was fun to grapple a passing car and to commandeer the vehicle from a distance but I just wanted more from the tools I was given.

Square Enix’s goal for Just Cause 2 was to fix the complaints of the first one and add a bit of fun to the challenges of Just Cause.  The end result was just that, a fun game that you could play for hours in a virtual playground with plenty of weapons, vehicles and locations. You can grapple literally any item within range including enemies.  As you grapple them you pull yourself to their location or pull them to yours.  You can also lock your grapple onto an enemy and then attach that grapple to another item.  This move will allow you to attach your enemies to walls or passing vehicles or in some cases, a passing helicopter to a building restricting it’s flight.  The imagination is your only limit when it comes to the fun you can have with Just Cause 2.  If that doesn’t make you want to play this game, maybe the fact that the achievements are challenging and fun to attempt.  You get Achievements for doing stunts in the vehicles, for finding various faction items and more.  This isn’t a game that you would just want to finish in a few hours, there are literally multiple hours of game time to be had.  I have played over 35 hours in game and have only completed 40% of all there is to do.

There are 3 factions that you can complete missions for, in addition to the Agency missions which lead the story on to completion.  You are also able to discover and complete various towns or military bases planted throughout the world which consists of causing chaos and blowing up enemy items like gas tanks, radio towers and missile launcher platforms.

There has already been multiple DLC released for the game to enhance your gaming experience such as new vehicles, weapons and jet packs to propel your parachute as a vehicle and there is more to come in the future.  If you are looking for a game to pass time between titles and are in the market for a game that you don’t need to feel pressured to finish right away then Just Cause 2 is right up your alley and I cannot recommend this game any more than I have already.

Blood: Minimal

Language: Slight but nothing more than Prime Time TV

Violence: Strong

I had the pleasure of testing out a high quality HDMI cable from a company called “PS3 HDMI cables”.  The company appeals to the PS3 users however as we know you can use HDMI universally.  I plugged the cable in to my PS3 and the picture was very clear and colored perfectly.  The cables are high quality, gold plated and come in many different lengths.  They also sell for a very inexpensive price as well.  If you are looking for a new HDMI or want to finally upgrade from component to HDMI this is the website for you.

Started at 1 foot length and going up to 50 feet with competitively priced cables I would highly recommend them to you.  Free shipping is being offered right now, it’s quite a good deal.

For this review I’m going to break down this game in three, different sections .

1.) Singleplayer

Well when I bought Bad Company 2 I didn’t plan on playing singleplayer at all but with all the server issues that EA has been having I started to play singleplayer. My first impressions were…. Wow this really sucks. It was dull and boring and felt like it was just tagged on. I kept on playing and it slowly starts to do more things then just run with a gun, shoot a rocket at the tank and pwn noobs. I still have yet to finish the singleplayer but from what I’ve heard it’s a great ending. One major thing that really bugs me is the amount of cussing in the story it seems like every other word is a guy screaming a F Bomb, which is a MAJOR turn off. Overall 6/10

2.) Graphics and Sound

Before I go ANY further in this review I must say the sound in this game is AMAZING! With my Tritton AX Pro headphones I could hear everything from a tank to a boat-from afar to the rockets being shot at my building. The graphics could be better, they don’t seem very polished. Not enough to make the gameplay any worse just something that EA screwed up on.. Overall I give the sound a 10/10 and the Graphics a 7/10

3.) Multiplayer

Now this is why everyone bought the game and I must say this is a BLAST. There’s always something to do whether it be raining down gun fire from a blackhawk or storming the base with tanks. One thing that I don’t enjoy about the multiplayer is the fact that the guns you get at a levvl like 23 can destory a team of level 10s. Overtime I could see it being a issue. One other thing I really enjoyed was the fact that you get blow up anything in your way like being a wall or a tank. I give it a 9/10

Overall I have to say this game is one of the best games I’ve played and if anyone asked me if they should buy the game I’d say YES!

My Overall score for the game is a 8.5/10 with a boost in the graphics for this game it would be a 9/10.

UPDATE:

This is a formal apology to Drew.  Jeff pointed out to me that it was him that wrote the article.  Upon looking at the author of the title, I see that it was Jeff that wrote the article.  Sorry Drew.  I have therefore removed all references to Drew. 

P.S.  You need to fix the forum posts on these articles.  It looks like Drew wrote them.

I was going to post this yesterday but did not have time.  Good thing.  Looks like Jeff has gone and trashed Heavy Rain and mocked the people who bought it.  I guess I will have to disagree with Jeff on this one.

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There is perhaps no other game in electronic gaming history as universally loved as the original Super Mario Brothers.  The game is nearly 30 years old now, and people are playing it to this day.  The bizarre combination of plumbers, turtles, princesses, fireballs, man-eating plants, lava, coins and of course mushrooms (which was perhaps the key ingredient the designers utilized when coming up with this strange game formula) somehow worked together to capture the imagination and attention of most the children, and even some of the adults in the 1980’s.

Mario, Luigi, Toad(s), The Princess and Bowser are back, but this time there is no taking turns.  Instead the designers have taken many of the successful elements of Super Mario Brothers 3 and Super Mario World and combined them with co-operative and counter-operative (I’ll explain later) elements for the most fun and infuriating side scrolling game I have played in years.  The game allows up to four players to go through the level simultaneously and does it with a high level of success.  Players can grab each other, work together for mega jumps, utilize Yoshi and the new propeller hat to help them go through levels with a new and simultaneously familiar design.  Where the counter-operative element comes into play is the fact that you cant just “run through” one another…you will bump into, jump off of, and be the victim of friendly turtle shell fire time and time again.  It’s one of those experiences where 80% of the time, it is annoying in that funny endearing kind of way, but there is that 20% of the time when peoples’ playing styles will interfere with one another.  You will get speed players (like myself) trying to fly through a level as fast as possible bumping heads with players who are more explorative (Like Jenn).  As long as you can both agree to a speed to going through a level, it is a ball and really takes me back to my childhood in a number of ways.

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