Friday, May 22, 2015

Beastly Bash: Dead Rising 2 (with Off-the-Record) : Crossing Dressing with the Dead [Spoilers!]

Just to set the record, Dead Rising 1 did not age well. While it was fun at the time, it would be recommended just to watch about the first game just to catch up to what happen, which I will spoil somewhat. And about Dead Rising 3, personally, the game has lost it's identity to the point that the game ended up becoming bland and the game was not ported too well on the PC. In the end, Dead Rising 2 is the best of the series, and with the lastest update on Steam to remove the gutted Windows Live that died of late, now would be the perfect time for a retro-review of the Zombie smashing hit.

We start off as Either Chuck Green, or non-canonically, Frank West in Off-the-Record. Both characters compete in the show Terror Is Reality for money to afford Zombrex, a drug that prevents the infected from becoming  Zombies. The infection is caused by either Zombie bites like Katie's or from being stinged  by one of the many queens used to the incident 2 years ago in the game. Just when things seem normal, Frank finds something fishy going in the background while Chuck runs off to get his daughter. All the sudden, an explosion happens and an outbreak occurs! After escaping, depending on which of the two games, Either Chuck or Stacy will be framed for the incident and it's up to the player to find the truth and stop whoever's behind the incident.

In terms of gameplay, the game is still the same, but the controls aren't as clunky as everything gameplay-wise has been refined from the last game as the characters run more straight and narrow than before. While the AI is not as stupid as before, they still are somewhat slow. However, that is easily remedied as they have UNLIMITED AMMO with shotguns and hand guns. Just make note that in Off-The-Record that the AI is worst as they are actually worst as not only they get locked by Zombies, but their Health drains, making them weaker than in the normal game! Keep close if playing the spin-off game.

One of the biggest features of the game, besides dressing the character for a comical effect, is the psychopaths, human turned enemies thanks because of their sanity snapped like twigs within their minds. You do get three new bosses in Off-The-Record, but the story remains the same. Beware, as most of the bosses are challenging and can easily butcher lower levels. This goes into an annoying pet-peeve of the game: While restarting the game dose help at times of low levels, it makes replaying the game somewhat a forced obligation.

The biggest addition of the game if the crafting system, as Chuck or Frank can combine weapons to make even bigger and better weapons. While most weapons are just for looks and humor, the other half is very useful for zombies and psychopaths that are within the game. Sadly, the player will often use few of the weapons are most wouldn't be as helpful as the ones the players usually stick with. For example, mixing the axe and hammer together makes a great weapon that pulverizes zombies with one jump attack or make a spiked bat to clear a way to pass by.

In summery, I would have to recommend getting Dead Rising 2 over Off-the-Record as the game should have been an add-on than a stand-alone game. Its an issue within the game industry as this is a habit that occurs more often than it should happen. However, if anyone likes Frank west for being a love-to-hate character, get Off-the-Record if fan of the "character." Oh, and avoid Dead Rising 3. It's just not a colorful game that gamers once loved. Sorry...

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Beastlt Byte: Midle Earth: Shadows of Maldor!

Well, since it's the start of summer, it means it is already the start of the summer drouth. However, it has been raining a lot of late, so it's not THAT kind of drouth. Instead,  this is the part of the year where game, both Triple A and indie usually slows down to a crawl. This would be the best time to review something that was either missed or, in my case, something I couldn't afford and/or that was limited to WB-Games being a total dick to independent reviewers and critics alike. Thankfully, this has finally lifted. Still a shady practice, WB!

So...How is the game?

Pros!
- This game mixes Assassin's Creed with the Arkam Games' gameplay
- Two main areas that is big, but not over-whelming
- The Nemesis system make failure critical as the Oorcs can be promoted, even to War-cheffs
- The runes and upgrades help make the player powerful
- TONS of side activities which fits and can benefit the main compain
-  Branding adds tactics as the play can have sleeper agents in the field
- Help the sleepers by fighting their rivals and climb up the chain

However, I can see WHY the reviews where limited the reviews (besides money) because...

Cons!
- The game gets too easy in the end as upgrades make players feel Over-Powered
- The Add-on campaign starts you full powered, killing the challenge
- The game is locked at 30-40 Frames per secant, making it awkward
- Worst of all, Quick-time final boss, which is under-whelming
- The game is somewhat of a pain to complete

Rating: C

The game has a great start, but as soon as branding comes in play, the game became easier unless someone die alot. While it dose easily defeats Assasin's creed, it's not as long, which is fine.  If anyone was hoping for a total fusion, it's more of a Cheese and peanut-butter cracker snack. It's good, but it's not as filling as most (but one) Arkam games.  If anyone is hungry for batman, this will hold up until the final game of the series. However, I DO NOT recommend this game at full price due to it's short story missions compared to past WB games. The add on also are nice, but they end anti-climatically as well. Wait until the steam sales.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Beastly Byte: GTA V (PC )

This game is one thing that everyone been waiting for.  While the Xbone and the PlayStation 4 version been out for some time, PC gamers waited for some time after so many delays. As of this review, it has finally hit steam after quite some time! After GTA4, I found it to be under-whelming since the game-play clashed horribly with the story to the point I would rather play Saints Row 2 and even recommend that game over it. It would be nice if they patched Saints Row 2 and bring 1 to the PC master system, but that's neither here nor there. 

So, how IS the game. well...

The positive:
+ Best port of the game
+ Three playable characters that you would either love-to-hate or Hate-to-love with different abilities
+ The game is bigger as advertized
+ There are a lot of sub-activities from Heist to the simplest game of golf
+ Online can be a blast with friends
+ During crime sections, music cues with fitting themes
+ A lot of crime movie tribute pieces
+ Single player runs smoothly over +60 Frames

However, There are some big flaws, in my humble opinion. For example...

The negative:

- In summary, the story is a major dick-butt
             - Characters that are known are either killed, missing, or worst, butchered
             - The family sucks, as they are easily the worst characters in the game
             - Unskippible water boarding section, which is pointless
             - Plot-holes which the game contradict itself with
-  While most of the music nice, most of them doesn't fit GTA's ascetics .
- Graphical glitches can occur on some graphic cards. Recommend +800 Cards
- Heist in Online are currently broken on all ports; Dated Online Social system
- Path finding for AI drivers are broken,  especially the taxi drivers!
- Useless out-of-game phone apps for smartphones which don't really add anything to game
- Caps where not all your CPU power is not read properly; Fixed via notepad
- Online needs a passive-aggressive mode that prevents Friendly Fire to other players
- Worst of all,  Micro-transactions break the flow and ruins progress in the game.

Grade: B

If the gaming PC can handle the game, this is recommended hands down. The player can easily work around the micro-transactions, but they should NEVER exist in a triple A game. Thankfully most of the cut-sceans are skip-able besides the few parts of the game which act as loading zones. While the story and the micro-transactions do hold this game back from being a perfect game, there's no denying that this is the best port of the game!



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Citizens of Earth and Freedom planet; Games of tribute.

W'oops, look like winter attacked out from nowhere in it's dieing breath while I was planning to do the rest of my valentine's review and I have caught the stomach flu again. However, while sick, I was introduced two games that tries to capture the heart of what made the original games that they are based on.  Like Shovel Knight, which shows the good parts of the NES games like Mega-man and it's other cohorts, Citizens of Earth wants to show what's good about Earthbound and Freedom Planet wants to show the epic story of Sonic Archie's counterpart and Sonic 1-3 gameplay in the 90's.

  When the earth decided to unite in a cutesy world, it makes one wounder if it has been taken over by the female Illuminati. That is at least one thing they got right with right when it comes with the Earthbound influenced world as Itoi would make it. The player star as the president, as he recruits people to fight for him, as he doesn't exactly fight the random monsters, aliens, and creatures himself. The one thing that this game has over earthbound is the different citizens you could recruit like in The Wounderful 101. Each citizen has their special abilities they have can can unlocked, different dialog, and the different names they can take.

However, unlike Earthbound, it lacks the hidden dark tone and the humor of the game, as most of the jokes are either hit or miss. Personally, they seem to be mostly misses, as they wanted to hit the players with the punchline, but misses as it closes up to the end of the joke. Most of the lines, as much as the characters, are too two dimensional. While the fighting system is solid, it is just dose not have the heart as earthbound.

In the end, I recommend playing the fan translation of Mother 3 over Citizens of Earth.  Mother 3  that is a great sequel to Earthbound. Yes, the different cultural name for earthbound is different, but personally agree that at least mother is a much fitting name. In fact, there's a new fan game that's coming out this year. I recommend to look into that as well. Earthbound is also available on the Nintendo eShop, but beware, as the game is long.

Meanwhile, Freedom planet started out as a fan game to the Sonic 2D games, but in the end, the developers realized that the idea should be rewritten as an identity as it's own. It starts as a evil leader storms the castle, killing the king and brain-washing the prince to his bidding. meanwhile on a literal animal planet, a ship comes in, two women characters with abilities of their own, must fight to liberate the planet from evil leader...With also a help from a bunny/dog thing later in the game.

This game is a love letter to most Sega games within Sega's counsel era from the character's design looking like abandoned characters that Sega and time forgot, as well as the game-play controls, to even the Sega CD music.  This is a colorful game all around! You can play either by story or skip it via classic mode you would expect from any Sega game of the past. The story plays as the freedom fighter story, as it was a popular edgy story element since the 90's.

However, there is one minor problems with the game: One would be the very configuration issues. For one, the sound options are one in the same, so you cannot adjust the music from the voice acting in the game, which leads into another flaw with the game: The quality of the voice actors are phoned in. This is where the lines are in low quality because of limitations of either technology or quality.  The smallest issue is the design since there's a lot of anamorphic characters now. But the biggest issue is the controller configuration, as it easily confuse your keyboard as a controller. Joy-to-keys dose help, but it's an error that is usually rare and should not exist.

If Sonic couldn't scratch that itch to that one 2D sonic fan to another, this is the game for that one sonic fan. As for Sonic himself, I fear that he has really dug himself into a very deep hole that not even Mario can dig him out. Thankfully, Sega is making more careful investments in Aliens thanks to creative assembly and they're making money thanks to Free-to-play games like PSO2, so they are making back their investments.

All and all, The love for one thing can make another, especially when aliens help make games like Mertoid and Doom. Sure, it can be misused and exploited like with the spider-man franchise, but when use cautiously, it can birth some new IPs!

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Metroid Prime Trilogy: Samus at her Prime

Samus, it's sad that no one really loves you. Seriously, the other Nintendo series get more attention from Zelda and Mario's Peach, but then you're stuck with all the perv-y fan-base who have not gone out for ages. And when Nintendo doesn't know what to do with you, they scared you with a soft personality which doesn't really fit your character, a problem which even Lara Croft Reboot has been scared with since it started a annoying trend that everyone's adopting. Why do people confuse annoying characters with strong characters? ... Dammit, JRPGs....

Samus was at her prime during the GameCube days, where they manage to fuse Metroid-vania with a first-person shooter. This game series was the Metroid: Prime Series! While it was made to compete with Microsoft's Halo series, which was born on the PC, this game trilogy has left an impact within the Metroid franchise whenever anyone likes it or not. While the trilogy WAS rare, it has been  re-released on the Nintendo eShop, And before anyone say anything, no, some old GameCube and Wii games do not emulate well.

While it is a good trilogy, these are some flaws within the game that threw the classic fans off guard.

The common issue is what I like to call The Power Amnesia, where the character has all of their abilities but then loses them because of current story occurrence. Within all the Metroid series and other metroid-vania games, this is meant to tease the player to their full potential so it would encourage plays to one hundred percent the game  to help fulfill their power fantasy. When it's done right, it can help players feel entitled, the trope can wear out very fast to where it's not exciting anymore.

Another issue is the the dated motion controls, while it is prefect for shooting games and takes time to adjust to, It makes some parts in the games both easier and harder than originally intended. Take the opening part of Metroid Prime as you fight the mid-boss for regaining the missals. While they did added steps to easily keep you out of the acid, the boss quickly closes it mouth before Samus could get a few shots in. This causes inconsistency which can be jarring to returning players and newcomers alike.

Thankfully, most of the games are intact, dispute the issues with the ports and reports. While the game is annoying to scan with Samus, the lore within the game is somewhat fascinating. There is a ton of back-story within the game about the livelihood of the aliens of the past, from the enimies has somewhat of a story as they have ranks within their army to how an alien race met their end.

The graphics, while limited to 480p thanks to the Wii's limitations, managed to pull out nice graphical tricks to make itself look very nice. A reason Metroid Prime trilogy is good is because of how well the world was designed. While the lands are limited by metroid-vina's design, exploration always results in getting a health boost, new tools, or lore. 

I would cautiously recommend this game since not everyone can get into a first-person shooter. However, this game trilogy is still fun! While the motion controls are dated as even Nintendo have left the trend somewhat behind, this is one trilogy I am glad that I have played as a teen. While this is a way that Nintendo can milk money from their fan-base, at least it's not their Youtube "union" they have formed on the Internet...

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Grim Fandango Remastered; A tale of olde mexican lore

Bleh... I didn't feel like recalling the last year, as some games that was released this year was disappointing and somewhat glitched. The only developers that is actually doing work was Nintendo at the end of the year,  especially when a few of high end that only ported old gen works to the new gen counsels. Pointless when you think about PC games since a good graphics card is all you need for a good time. Plus with all the "exclusives" becoming outrageous,  and all the craziness of the world being just a giant  baby that needs to be spanked...

Before I become weirder, lets move on to to Grim Fandango Remastered! For those who fallow me on Deviant Art knows, not only how laughable crazy the new logo is, but that Grim Fandango is one of my favorite games of all time. However, the man behind it, Tim Shafer, tends to be stuck in the past.He did make games like this game, Phyconaughts, and helped with cool games like Sam and Max: Hit the road... However, he also made a few "misses" that to his business practices like in Broken Age, which is unfinished dispute making millions, and a few failed kickstarter projects like SpaceBase DF-9. However, his games still influences today's companies like the German adventure company Daedalic Entertainment, as well as other developers, to fallow in his footsteps.

While the game now runs on all windows platforms now because of the engage over-hawl, it still have it's lazy patch jobs that is quite noticeable. While the game dose render some cutscenes very well, some of the original cutscenes are still there and are noticeable as they run in thirty frames per secant while the game's renders are at a full sixty.

For those running the game on the PC version though Steam or GoG running on HD Graphics, this is very noticeable, as some older graphics pop out like an old crumbled paper compared to a new one. There is also some animation hick-ups when one swears they almost T-pose for at least one moment. For those on the Playstation version, you can use the touch-screen to control the character, but we know tank controls are better on horror games than adventure game, especially when you count that 3D Monkey Island game and, the worst offence, Simon the Sourer 3D.

There's also the annoying small pet-peeve window boarders, which can be switched out with a stretched widescreen, which is somewhat annoying the least. I, personally, don't know why game re-releases, or remasters in this case, like those on Xbox-live games have the boarders like they're trying to compete with the Super Gameboy, which is easily defeated by modern emulators.  However, this can be easily fixed if the patch-works aren't lazy on the steam version.

However, there is a lot of good with the game! The story is just as awesome as ever! The player stars as Manny, a salesman of the dead, who is after redemtion and revenge on the corrupted Department of the Dead while looking for a runaway woman named Mechie who he felt he let down. Meeting all sorts of characters within the main game, which last up to seven to twelve hours, Manny find the truth behind all the conspiracy and redeems himself at the end.  

Another new feature is the controls! While the original tank controls are still here, they can be moved with the comfy 360 controller, or best yet, point-and-click controls. Where has that been so far? Ever since telltale went with their controller setting at Sam and Max: The devil's playhouse, the mouse controls went with the inde-games! I know they threw mouse controls out just to sell on the new gen counsels and to spam the Quick-time Events, but one should never throw out an mechanic that actually survived the passing of time. Something that Sega should have learned with Sonic...

For those who have a hard time emulating the old version of the game, I would actually recommend this game as this game is a classic that should be played for the great story within the game. For the viewers, they can tell if they will like the game by the gameplay alone. Knowing my friend, Orewaussop, he's going to try let's playing the game soon. So let me sell out to my old friend so it would help thy viewer decide to either watch or buy the game.

...No, I'm serious.... Watch his upcoming let's play when it's out...Or at least I hope he got all the kinks out... Seriously, Chris!
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Also, thanks for the one thousand views!!~ I am planning to do a group Let's play on this one game that I have in mind. I would update on my youtube, but since of my computer HDD burning out, this could take awhile. I'm also doing graphics and other works on my Patreon. Donate and I'll make some logos, twitch goods, and other graphical goodies.  I will try to make a special for the one thousand plus views, so please stay tuned.  Thank you and goodnight...

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Christmas Guide 2014

Well now, it's about time for Christmas and it's almost about one thousand views in my blogg, which I'm thankful for past thanksgiving. With that, also comes games that have been released and a prices go down to sucker parents to buy shovel-were. This is where the buyers guide comes in, unless it recommends another Sonic game. You're better off playing the lotto when it comes with sonic, since Sega started off as a rival to Nintendo since the creator was kicked out from their casino.

Super Smash Bros for Wii U
      For anyone who a BIG fan of Sakuri's party fighting game, this is the game for you. While the 3DS version is an ok single player experience, I personally do NOT see why anyone would go back to that port of the game. However, the Ethernet battles add replayiblity, especially when all of your friends are distant from one another. While this game may have it useless modes, it's not as pointless as the modes found in the 3DS version. And as this will be the last smash bros game Sakuri will be working on, this COULD be the last good game of the franchise, Ala Mario Party, as the games after the forth installment became mediocre. I recommend getting this over the 3DS port since Mewtwo is the only DLC character. Should have used the DLC cost idea from Skullgirls, Sakuri. Better than ripping off Angry Birds, I will tell you that...

Shadows of Maldor
     This game is Sandbox game of the year for a good reason: it ups Assassin's Creed games very easily with it worked-in Arkham fighting system. Also when the player falls by one of the monsters in the game, time passes as the monsters actually get promoted, making the game fairly harder. Whenever the gamer is a fan of the Lord of the rings books/movies or not, this game is  a nice experience. Later on, they can branded to force the creatures on the player's side, so the game gets very tactical in the middle of the game. The player can work up sleeper agents to take over and take out the line of commands within their own system. While some parts of the game can be repetitive, I recommend this game, but for PC users on steam, make sure your system can run the game.


Pokemon X/Y OR Pokemon AlphaRuby/OmegaSaphire 
   Pokemon Remakes can be either a hit or miss. For example FireRed/LeafGreen ended up a disappointing remake, as while it did fix the glitches in the gameplay and adds balances, it is disappointing in the end as its added unwanted difficulty as some Pokemon where nerfed thanks to the special status. Meanwhile Pokemon Soul Silver and Heart Gold is the best remakes as it adds the last gen Pokemon plus the ones in current,and keeps the huge after game proton of the past. Where dose Alpha Ruby and Omega Saphire stand? In between the two games, of course. While it doesn't change some of it's past problems, it adds elements from X and Y with Mega-Evolutions with new ones as well. It may not be as an awesome remake as HG/SS, but if the player has already got Pokemon X/Y, get this game. However, there are some disappointing elements like no more red head in the game. Sadness...

Shovel Knight
     For those hardcore players who didn't get enough hard gameplays of the past, this Inde-delight is the game for you. It mixes up elements from past games like Mega-man, Zelda 2, and Ducktales puts them into this tittle. But even without the nostalgia, this game can be great for those who need that platforming itch. It dose abandon the annoying and dated life system and instead stabs shovel knight right in the wallet with a Dark Souls like system, where the players have to get their money back when they die. While it can be frustrating at points, this is a game for hardcore players. The cgame is also available for every system, so pick their poison.


The Nintendo Wii U
     Yes, it's been two years sine the game system has been released and since some of the games have been sliced to 30 bucks, including the wonderful 101, now is the perfect time to buy a Wii U. There's also games for the system now unlike the Xbone games which ended up being disappointing. If you're too poor to buy the bundle, anyone can buy a refurbished Wii U for only two hundred dollars, saving around one hundred dollars so you can buy the accessories and perhaps two thirty dollar games. And since the Wii U is backward-compatible with Wii games, The choice is never been better....


Aliens Issolation
    While Colonial Marines ended up to be one of the worst games ever behind other bad games, this game decided to wipe the slate clean by making it close to Amneisa than an actual shooting stupid game. Thanks to Creative Assembly who also remade Strider and Killer Instinct, this game is a horror hit. While the game is horribly padded with ice breakers within the story like bioschock, it is a experience that both  the gamer fans and the horror fans both been itching for from the series. Available for most system platforms.

Well, those are my recommendations, however, I personally know that I probably missed something along the lines of Xbone and the Playstation 4. Some of the games are just simple reports of hit games like Sleeping Dogs or the last of us. And for the last time, do not get Sonic Boom! You would be the worst parent of all time. There are tons of reviewers AND critics that has panned the game:

-- Brutal Moose
-- Nintendo Fan FTW
-- Projared
--  SomeCalledMeJohnny

Excuse me while I blacklist the annoying deviant-Art fan-boys...