Demo’n: F.E.A.R. 2

F.E.A.R. 2: I have not played the original F.E.A.R. I will also not be typing F.E.A.R. every time I want to reference this game, so expect to see a lot of “fear,” being thrown about, perhaps with a capital f. The first thing you will notice about the Fear 2 demo, is that the menu is quite linear, and only one game mode can be selected (Launch Demo). The story isn’t what I’d call original, inspired, or even interesting. It starts out with a cliche’ little girl ghost leading you down a run down street, yawntastic. The game flashes “Interval 01, Premonition,” I walk through some gooey stuff, and come out to another cliche, fuzzy communications via radio. How many survival horror games have you trying to listen to scrambled speech on a radio? Too many.

A little more walking reveals a hole, and inside that hole is a man being executed at gun point. Pretty brutal, and was like the light at the end of the crap story tunnel. This game features a Slow Motion feature that aids you during gun fights, like Max Payne’s Bullet Time, if you’ve played it. Fear 2 doesn’t exactly have your everyday cover system, but you can pull things from the environment in front of you, and crouch for cover. This bit feels clever, and when you’re mid-gun fight, and you find a car door to pull open for cover, you get a feel for how deep the action can be. Another plus is how the weapons handle. The aiming is tight, the recoil is minimal, and the damage seems well balanced. I’d say that I may enjoy the gun play in this more than I did in the Call of Duty campaigns, especially since the environments are almost completely destructible.

In F.E.A.R. 2, you can look down, and see your character’s legs and feet, which is a small win in my eyes. There are multiple settings in the short demo, a school, avenue, and subway, so you get a feel for the kind of environments you’ll be seeing. The one thing about gameplay that I don’t enjoy, is constant jump cuts, that are supposed to add to the atmosphere. The setting jumping around, and ghosts popping up in front of you has been done to death (see: Bioshock, Fallout 3). This is the main reason I’ll never purchase this game, unlike the other two examples of this, F.E.A.R. 2 is broken because of it. While it is an improvement on the Condemned games, it also falls into a lot of the same traps while telling it’s outrageous story.

F.E.A.R. 2 has the gore ramped up to a high level, the gun play fine tuned, but the story, and atmosphere get in the way too much for my tastes. The music is forgettable, the settings have been done, and so has the little girl ghost thing. I don’t see myself going much further with this game, but may play through the demo one more time, since it only takes fifteen minutes.

Rating: Download, Play, Delete

Fun with Skate 2

My guy rocking my new Yankees gear, looks better in game, but I could have used a bit darker of a blue.

Skate 2: Just picked up Skate 2 the other day, and have been running around trying to make as much fun out of it, as I can. Like anyone I started it off with making a few videos, mostly of me owning spots… Check them out

Video 1… Here

Video 2 is of me jumping a guy, nailing the trick, and then going on happily ever after…Here

Also for anyone who needs Yankees gear for their character in Skate 2, go check that here, and you will be the NY. All right kids, catch you next time I play arts and crafts!

Chrono Trigger DS Review

Check out my review of Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS, HERE.

Skate 2 DLC rip-off?

Skate 2: I do not enjoy the current trend of paying extra for stuff that developer’s have ready for the launch of a game. This generation of games are ten dollars more on average than the games from the last generation, but now gamers have to deal with scams that companies (EA for instance, apparently) pull on the downloadable marketplaces (Xbox Live, PSN, etc). In Ign’s review of Skate 2, they mention that a feature from Skate 1, has been removed from Skate 2, so Electronic Arts can charge extra for it after the game’s release. The feature is mere editing effects for videos that are mostly used for EA’s free advertisement. Personally, my purchasing of this game has come into question because of this news.

I will not pay extra for editing effects, I can promise that.

Review: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Just wanted to let everyone know that my first ever review of a game has been posted over at Game and Player! Go check it out, and let me know what you think!

Movie Review: Resident Evil: Degeneration

Hey guys, check out my review of Resident Evil: Degeneration, over at Game and Player!

Demo’n: Skate 2

Skate 2: The Skate 2 demo has been released on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Upon downloading it you will be able to try a bit of the single player story mode, and some of the versus modes. Sadly, you can’t try anything online, and you can’t make your own spots (well not entirely), yet. In this game you’re able to see some of the improvements from Skate 2, like the ability to get off your board, and being able to move certain objects anywhere your heart desires. There are minor tweaks in handling as well.

When you first start the story mode, you are asked to create your character. The depth in this feature is refreshing for an EA title, but I guess it’s not in the “EA Sports” category, so that’s probably why. After that you’re treated to a little cinema about your character getting a ride home from prison, and by treated I mean insulted. I’m not sure if this is a silly complaint, but it sort of annoys me that the game starts off with the whole Skateboarding is a crime thing. This isn’t Grand Theft Auto, and most kids who Skate don’t go to jail, so it’s a little over the top being greeted with a ride home from prison in this game. I guess I feel like a lot of people felt about the Sopranos and Italian stereotypes.

Once you finally enter the gameplay portion you either run through a tutorial, or just advance to the main game. After the basic tutorial, you are forced to try some things that weren’t in the first game. You are told to get off your board to climb a set of stairs, and also to move a dumpster out of your path. You can continue the story for a few bonus moments in the demo, but basically you’re working with around 10-15 minutes of just riding. You can try a bails competition known as the “Hall of Meat,” which is basically an award given by Thrasher magazine for crashing in a cool/disgusting way. After your time is up, you are shown a few clips of the story.

In the Party Mode you can play either Hall of Meat, or Spot Battle. Hall of Meat is the same concept from the career mode, but with a friend, or few. The Spot Battle is basically a best trick competition on one specific ramp, rail, piece of ground, etc. Sadly, like I mentioned earlier, the demo doesn’t allow for online play in these modes, but I can appreciate the fact that multiplayer was added at all to the demo.

Overall the demo doesn’t seem to be that deep, but for anyone with an imagination, there is tons that can be done with the allotted time. Anyone who doesn’t appreciate this demo, clearly didn’t play the original demo for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater on PSX, we’ve come a long way.

Muska rips the 1st Tony Hawk

Rating: Download and shred!

Mission Complete: GTA IV

Spoilers for GTA throughout

GTA IV: With the Lost and Damned Expansion coming out in the near future, I decided to finally finish the Grand Theft Auto IV story, once, and for all. I had mostly just Phil Bell and Jimmy P’s missions left to do. I did all of those, and what was left of the Bernie missions. Had to do missions like “Trespass,” “Flatline,” “To Live and Die in Alderny,” so I was constantly having gunfights. I had to finish off Little Jacob’s courier missions, and the Assassin missions also. I wanted to get the Liberty City Minute Achievement, and was about 25 hours in when this all started, so it was going to be a tight squeeze.

I quickly wrapped up the “Assassin’s Greed,” and “Courier Service” achievements, so I could get those out of the way. After those I finished up Phil Bell’s crazy Heroin extravaganza, and found that Roman’s Wedding was just around the corner. Before the Wedding, I got a call regarding the man who betrayed Niko in the old country. Darko “That Special Someone,” was delivered to myself and Roman at the docks. Here I decided it was time for that cold blooded revenge, Niko had been looking for the whole game. I gave him the business, and went on my way. After this, the real business picked up.

Jimmy P basically asked me to be cool with that asshole Dmitri from earlier in the game, and find a way to start a business relationship with him. I called Roman and Kate, who both told me to do something different in regards to the situation. I took Kate’s “Melfi-like” advice, and whacked Dmitri, who was on a boat full of drugs and henchman. The next day, Niko took Kate to Roman’s wedding. Everything was going all right until Jimmy P pulled a drive by, and killed Kate. Her words are what convinced me to kill Dmitri, which led to Jimmy P exacting revenge, so in essence it was her own fault.

Anyway, I go off to avenge her with the help of Little Jacob, and the whining of Roman. We eventually get into a high speed, boat versus helicopter chase, which ended in a sweet crash landing. Afterwards, I finished Jimmy P, and the game’s story. The ending wasn’t anything special, but it never is in the video game world. I achieved Liberty City Minute, and You won! I’ll probably play some more of GTA IV before the Expansion, but I’m glad to have wrapped up the main story.

Metal Gear Marathon for Charity!

Metal Gear’s OTP

Kreyg and the guys over at Hot Blooded Gaming are currently running through the entire Metal Gear Solid Series (1, 2, 3, 4) to raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They’re over 1000 dollars, and are on a roll. Come join in on the party…

METAL GEAR SOLID MARATHON

UPDATE (1/04/09): Victory! All 1500 dollars were raised before MGS4 was finished… I guess the World would be better without Snakes…

Demo’n: The Lord of the Rings: Conquest

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest: To start off I went with the Single Player portion of the demo, but was glad to see I could chose to play online also, always a big plus in the demo department. In single player there is only one selection that can be made, “Tutorial.” After I made my selection, a video explaining the battle I was about to enter played. As soon as the video ended, I was thrust into a battle “3441 years ago.” I was prompted to choose a class, but could only select Warrior. A Warrior wields a sword, can throw daggers, and charge his sword up with fire to lay waste to the enemy. After taking the mission’s first capture point, I was told to select Archer, while in the capture point.

The Archer primarily fires arrows, but can also kick close range foes. The Archer has the special abilities of fire arrows, poison arrows, and shooting multiple arrows at one time. After romping through the next capture point, I went through the same drill, to select The Scout. With a Scout, you have the ability to use camouflage, much like the Predator would. The Scout seems heavily used in online play, most likely because it has a one hit kill move. Next in the tutorial, I was abl to select Mage. The Mage used electricity in a variety of ways, heals teammates, and wields a bow in ways Gandalf the White would be proud. Out of all these classes, I most enjoyed playing as the Warrior, so I switched back for the fourth capture point. After taking this point, Sauron attacked my team, and I was switched to a “Hero.”

The Hero seemed to be very similar to the Warrior in this scenario, but I do not recall the character’s name. I saw online that you can also be Gandalf, and Tree Beard as heroes, but I never acquired such an ability. Anyway, I went on to destroy Sauron, and finish the tutorial. Next I went online to try the two demo maps, Minas Tirith, a map that takes place around Mount Doom, and features a castle like setting, and the second map, The Shire, which is more of a farm setting. Both maps are fun, and with the A.I. characters being added in the full game, the online matches are going to be EPIC. After trying this demo, I’m excited to see what the full game looks like. There is no reason not to download this free demo, especially if you have an Xbox Live Gold account, and can try the Xbox Live Portion.

Rating: Download and War