Torchlight: Late Review [UPDATE]

Along with the Livestream videos I put up of Torchlight, I am also going to write a review. For those that don't know, Torchlight is a Diablo-esk game with loot, levels, skills, magic, summons and much more. There are alot of weapons but there are only a few weapon types. The art style is very similar to Fable 2, and if you have ever played a game called Fate on the computer (it comes with most gateway computers) then it is extremely similar. The combat is satisfying, especially when your character is decked out in the best spells, armor, and weapons. The story is very much, go do this, can you get this for me, kill that guy. The dungeons are connected to one another so you only have to go one place to go to all. The way that you travel from place to place is by portals, and you can open up town portals anywhere in the dungeons to go to and from town. The pet is pretty effective and a great partner. When you teach your pet spells and feed it fish, it becomes extremely powerful and will kill alot of the enemies for you. Torchlight overall is a very satsfying game and there isnt anything that I can think of to complain about. So, Torchlight gets a well deserved 10 out of 10. If you are waiting for Diablo 3, or just wanting another point and click hack and slash, pick up Torchlight for the PC, it's definatly worth you time.

Editors note: Also its only 20 bucks. to buy click on the title.

Uncharted 2: Review

The new big purple elephant for PS3 gaming is Uncharted 2. To kick things off, Uncharted 2 is EXTREMELY pretty. Most people will say its on the edge of uncanny valley, I say, "close". When you first jump right into the single player story, you immediately get cast into a hard situation, one of which I will not spoil. The way Naughty Dog presents the Intro of the game is amazing. The story of Uncharted 2 is one of the main points to keep playing. The story is full of twists and irony that just keeps on tying itself into a knot that eventually unfolds into something amazing. The main mechanic is platforming with a side dish of 3rd person shooting. The platforming is done very well and adds a new dimension to combat and level crawling. The shooting needs some work but the upgrade system and boosters really help to go through the game. While in the single player, there is always at least one other person with you, but they really don't help, they just make the enemies hunch over to give you a chance to shoot them. There is a pretty big variety of weapons, in which you can dramatically change the play style. The upgrades and boosters, as I mentioned earlier, really help with...well...killing dudes. Next is the multiplayer. The multiplayer works, that's basically all I have to say. Your boosters also carry over to the multiplayer, and the maps are interesting and work well with the ten player limit. There is also a co-op mode which is pretty much horde mode. There is some objective type stuff, such as; get the treasure to the chest on the other side of the map. Co-op is, in my opinion, one of the reasons to play this game. At the very most, the worst thing about this game is the shooting. The shooting isn't bad, it just isn't on par with the other big third person shooters. Everything other than that is amazing, and the game isn't focused on shooting, so that's ok. Story, multiplayer and co-op are all reasons to get this game, and hey they are the only thing in this game, so that is why Uncharted 2: Among Thieves deserves Game In A Nutshell's very first 10 out of 10.

Halo 3: ODST Review

Halo 3 ODST was not as hyped as Halo 3, it did not have a huge luanch event or a helmet packed in with the special edition. Most of all, some people didn’t even think the game was going to be any good, boy were they wrong.

When you first drop into ODST you experience a little prelude text movie, I have to admit it was not all that great, it made me feel like I was 5, because of all the simple words. But as you get into the main menu screen, you see It is very similar to Halo 3, well of course. The other menus are a lot sleeker, and the games load a heck of a lot faster. There is not much customization that you can do with your character, other than taking their helmet off, and that looks pretty dumb. OK, so into the game. You are introduced with a cutscene where the ODSTs are about to drop into New Mombasa to take over a covenant ship. This game takes place in the events of Halo 2, by the way. As they drop, regret jumps into slipspace, causing an explosion that makes the drop pods go off course, but does not kill everyone. Your drop pod gets stuck in some debris and the tutorial begins, when you finish you jump don into the street, and, you take fall damage! Yes, that is new, so you can’t just jump from 200 yards and not have your legs cave in from under you. Your health is also extremely low, so, when your main health bar gets low, you better run for cover and wait for your “stamina” to recharge. Back to the game; Your first impression is, “Wow, it’s really dark,” until you turn on your VISR. Your VISR is basically your night vision, it puts orange lines around geometry, red lines around enemies, green around frindlies, and lights up objects of interest which you have to find to find out what happened to your squad. The new weapons are extremely effective, and you are never going to want to put them down, but they do run out of ammo pretty quickly. As you first encounter the super intendent you receive uplinks to the city’s navigation (that means you get a fancy world map) where you can place markers to follow. So as you find the objects of interests, or beacons, you trigger a cutscene and then a mission; where you play as one of your squad mates to find out what happened to them. When you get into the mission, it is light outside, which means the game takes place all in one day. The graphics are a bit more refined than Halo 3, and the AI has definitely been improved. The one new enemy is the engineer which is a pain in the but. You don’t get to see Elites (well there are some dead ones, but still). The story is pretty interesting and the characters are funny and you will love them till the end. Firefight is the big purple gorilla in this bundle. Sure it also comes with the Halo 3 multiplayer, and that’s cool at the very least. But firefight is a huge step forward. It basically works like this: There are 5 waves in a round and 3 rounds in a set, if you finish the set, you continue on a different map. Between waves, sets and rounds, there are weapon drops and bonus rounds. The bonus rounds are just tons of grunts pouring in and you have to kill every one that you can (did I mention all the skulls are on). Speaking of skulls, as you progress there are different skulls that turn on to make everything harder. Bottom line; firefight is the new horde.

With everything ODST has to offer I say it’s defiantly worth the sixty dollar price point. And with the new features, modes, and campaign, ODST gets a…9.5 out of 10

Halo 3: ODST

Midnight tonight (well the night that I am posting this) ODST will be released. I will only be getting it Tuesday night, so expect an ACTUAL Live Play, and a review up soon for it. This game is going to be great. BTW: Bungie, if you are reading, you know, you can always hook me up with the gae early next time, wink wink.

DSi Impressions

Yes, I gave in and bought a DSi with money from selling my broken PSP and Rock Band (also broken). I know I wrote a pretty harsh post on the DSi a while back, but now I kinda take that back. I had a old DS lite that I sold a long time ago, so I can have a say in what Nintendo improved. All the new stuff is actually pretty cool, the camera, first off, isn't that great in quality, but it is fun to mess around with the faces and distortion. Little ones have lots of fun with the camera. Next, the DSi Ware Store is pretty impressive, it's good to know that Nintendo can do stuff that Sony can't. I did get the free points, but I haven't decided on what to buy.The size is pretty much the same as the lite, the only difference is is that it's screen is bigger, and it's lighter...than..the..lite...hmm. Well anyway, the new texture of the skin looks cool but I'm constantly cleaning fingerprints off of it. The one major downside is that it doesn't have the GBA slot, which alot of games require for certain things. It does have better Internet connectivity so you don't have to open your router up to the "Come And Use My Internet" setting. The price isn't too bad either, $169, cheaper than the PSP and it has more variety of games. I defiantly recommend the DSi if you don't have a DS already, and if you want a score, I'd give it an 8.5 out of 10.So whenever you look at it you say to yourself, "I've got the newest handhold, and it looks awesome." Here is a couple of pictures I took and edited with the camera. The last two are me and the first is my dad.

Overview of the Strategy Genre

The very first Strategy game was created in 1992 by by a couple of geeks named Louis Castle and Brett Sperry. Their studio was named Westwood Studios. The game was called Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis.The game has up to six players, select a race, build a stronghold and attack your opponents for resources and power. Since then Strategy games evolved into more complex and fun games. Games such as Starcraft, Warcraft, and Civilization, were the games that finally defined strategy as a Genre. Finally strategy games moved out of the turn based ways and evolved into, what we call now, an RTS. The RTS had no turn just you rushing your opponents with as much units as you possibly can. Strategy games now are considered hardcore games, and not easy for a casual gamer to pick up and play. But now games like Halo Wars and Civ. Rev, are made for easy console play. This has been the first of many posts for strategy day, stay tuned for more opinions and retro reviews.

New Segment!

G.I.N staff will now be doing a segment where they live blog any new game they have received or bought. By this I mean highlight any cool moments or disappointing moments (without spoiling anything) and share their thoughts about the game and tell why they said what they did.

Example:

2 hours and 24 min: The cinematics are amazing but the controls of the game don't feel too tight. I may just have to get used to it.

This, along with the review of the game, will give more in depth description, helping readers get more of an opinion of the game.

Red Faction: Guerilla Review

Here is another review by our new writer PooAlOvaUrDream.

I recently got my hands on another game, Red Faction Guerrilla. This game is good, but if you’ve lost interest in most other multiplayer games (Cod 4, Gears 2, Gta 4, and Halo 3) then this game is right up your alley. I’ve got to say the single player story is uninteresting, for one, it’s repetitive and it does'nt give you any sense of obligation. For about an hour I just wandered around because I did'nt feel motivated to attempt any missions in the story. If anything I’d call this a destruction mode because the story is lacking any sort of depth. Next off is the multiplayer, which I might say is the reason to buy the game. The game allows up to 16 players and includes an interesting feature, backpacks, which bestow different powers on you. With purposes of locomotion, destruction, attack, and defense. Another great thing about this game is the variety of the game modes from a simple team death match to my personal favorite, siege, which is a game mode where two teams (attackers and defenders) try to attack or defend a group of buildings. With the usage of backpacks, the game provides a horde of different ways to play it and that’s what makes this game a buy. Red Faction gets a 9.0 out of 10

[Prototype] Review

Written by our new writer, PooAlOvaUrDream (or just Brian for short), here is his Review for [Prototype] by Activision. *Round of applause*

Of the games coming out this summer that I’d like to focus on is, [Prototype]. It’s hard to describe this game, it takes so many features from so many games and combines them all together to make a wonderful experience that, at the VERY least, deserves a rent. If I had to describe, it I’d put it as a brilliant mix between Xmen Origins: Wolverine and Spiderman 2 (without the silly webs) and the result is insanely fun. What the game lacks in graphics and multiplayer, it makes up for with the sheer excitement the game brings, whether it’s hacking giant mobs to bits (oh you can’t do that in your fancy InFamous can you Mr.Ps3) or messing with the parkour and exploring the city, the game never disappoints. One of my favorite things about the game, is the deep story, the game really gives you the feeling that you’re part of the story and that you fit into the character; Alex Mercer. The game is short and that may mean a rent for some, but if you’re like me you’ll be playing this game long after it’s over. [Prototype] gets a *dramatic pause* 8.5 out of 10.

XBLA Mini Review

I recently got a 4000ms point card (big mistake) and with it I bought a few games, one of which is Flock. Basically Flock is a want-to-be physics based puzzle game. The whole premise of the game is to use your little UFO to flock sheep, chickens, cattle, ect. into the bigger UFO, why they're doing this? I don't know. Early on in the game all you have is your little UFO to scare animals into the big UFO. Later on you get things like a speed boost, a tractor beam, and a de-tractor beam?. The physics are pretty over the top, if you try to pick up a sheep, they explode. And also sometimes the animals get stuck behind trees or fall off the map. The difficulty ramps up as you move along, so it may require you to think. There is a co-op mode, which is kinda fun if you have a partner that you can rely on. Also, the art style is really well detailed and vivid with colors. Flock is a good time waster if you have only 15 or so minutes, but dont expect much. The price point is a bit high at 15 dollors or 1200ms points. But, if youre into puzzle games this is a good buy. Flock gets a 9.0 out of 10.

Halo Wars Review

Yay! Finally, as I promised, the Halo Wars review.

The first thing that people might think when heard the word Halo (other than it being a extremely drawn out franchise) is the story, hence, the thing I'll start with. The story is amazing, you would never think that this story would be for an RTS, because usually with an RTS, the story is the last thing that the developers worry about, but nope not Ensemble.The thing is, there really isn't a twist that you won't expect other than (spoiler maybe?) the contact with the flood, because the first contact with flood was supposed to take place in Halo: CE. This game takes place before Halo: CE, I don't know the exact date, but you get the general time. Next is the Game play ie: controls, feel. The controls are extremely simple, as a hardcore RTS fan going into this game, it was a little bit tough and maybe a little bit too simple. There isn't an extremely strategic element to it, such as in Command an Conquer Red Alert 3, there were tactical things that you can do like move you troops to a spot while they face the enemy so they are going backwards and they have more defense and blah blah blah. No, none of that here. Just get a krapload of money, pump out as many troops as you can, and "Zerg Rush". You can be tactical, such as flanking enemies on each side, and pairing you aircraft with anti-aircraft, anti-vehicle, and anti-troop units to make an unstoppable force, but who does that. This game is all about who can rush who. The controls are, once again, simple (for the layout just look at the Halo Wars demo impressions). It is definitely the console RTS that Ensemble claimed it to be, and probably the best console RTS out there, as of right now. Now the Graphics in-game are not really that impressive, Command an Conquer 3 has better quality in-game graphics than Halo Wars. But, the thing that is un-matched by any game out on the market, in my opinion, is the cut-scene graphics. If you can make a movie jsut with cut scenes from Halo Wars, you just made the best CG Sci-Fi movie in the world. The cut scenes are very deep and detailed. Alot of the story depends on the cut scene quality, because if the cut scenes were just tacked on, the story would seem boring an incomprehesive (I admit I have no idea what that word means, but it sounds smart). The lighting is also something the developer did very well. If you would look closely the lighting effects are very detailed, even down to the shiny hood of a Warthog. One map (I'm not going to attempt to put a name on it) has, not exactly real time, but it does have a day and night cycle. The mutiplayer is also superb for an RTS game on the console. The Co-op campaign is where its at. They do alot of really cool stuff in the campaign for co-op and single player. In co-op you can give your buddy your troops, but you can't in single player. You can also collect skulls, which you can use in campaign and private multiplayer and single player matches. The mutiplayer is very fun. There is 1v1 2v2 3v3 and ditto with deatmatch game type (in which you already have a whole bunch of supplies and a limited amount of unit space, but as you build more bases, your unit limit expands). The objective for multiplayer is; coordinate with you team to , once again, rush you opponent before they rush you. In 1v1 your alone and, you guessed it, rush your enemy before he/she rushes you (remember; a good defense is a good offense (turrets ar'nt good defense though)). Overall this is a high quality game with alot to stand up for, which it has as a good console RTS. The good things are the controls, multi player, and cut scenes. The let downs is the somewhat confusing story, the in-game visuals, camera, and if you are a hardcore RTS player, don't expect to be very good at this game on you first try, it'll take a while. So Halo Wars for the Xbox 360 gets a 8.5 out of 10.

Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack Review.

As I have told you in the last post I have gotten Halo Wars, and with Halo Wars I got the Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3. And today I will review them for you.
First of all I would like to talk about the Achievements and skulls, they are way to easy to get, moving on. Texture -wise they look great, lots of detail and a huge line of sight. All the additions such as the scarabs being assembled overhead in Assembly, and the giant laser towers in Sandbox are some of the many things that make the maps entertaining.The very first map is Assembly, which is a symmetrical map and very Covenant tech tier looking. Assembly is a medium sized map that has some bad weapon spawns and regular player spawns. All the power weapons are basically in the middle and all the other team has to do to win is sit right outside the other team's base and spawn kill. Overall this map is good for almost all slayer game types, but not so much objective based games. Second is Orbital, which takes place on a UNSC space station. Orbital is an asymmetrical map that is great for CTF, Neutral bomb, and Team Swat. Orbital is not one of the great maps we were looking for, but it's good enough. Last but definitely not the least is Sandbox, the forge playground where you can delete and make anything. This is a map maker's heaven. There are 3 layers to this map, the main, the basement(or crypt), and the top which overlooks the main layer. The top layer really makes me mad, because obviously you have limited supplies, but to make a full platform that would allow you to make a proper level on this you would need more than what you have, way more. There are many new forge items with the map pack as well, such as kill balls and 7 woods. Overall the map pack is great for playing just about any game type. There are now a whole bunch of forged maps already being made, which extends the life even more than any other maps. The only let downs are the achievements, some weapon placements, and some spawn locations. But If you were on the edge of spending 10 bucks on this, then go out and buy it and support Bungie. After all, they gave out more map packs than just about any other game that is remotely good. So the final verdict is...8.5 out of 10

Expect More Soon!

I've sort of been busy in other work lately so I havnt posted alot. Expect that to change. I have recently finished Fallout 3, Fable 2, C&C Red Alert 3, Almost finished with Far Cry 2, and I recently picked up Halo Wars and the Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3. And my other writer is working on COD:WaW, and Saints Row. So expect reviews and opinians for all those games and more such as DLC, like Mythic Maps, Operation Ancherage, Knotthole Island, and more.