Posts (page 2)

Hi everyone, its been a while. I got dragged back into Lord of the Rings Online - but thats another post altogether.

Today I came home, with a rented copy of Lost Odyssey and an energy drink, ready for some role playing action while I wait for Grand Theft Tuesday. I opened the tray on my Xbox, and turned on my TV. As I turned away to get a controller, I heard a grinding sound and looked back to see my console doing the RROD. Shocked I turned it off, unplugged all the cables and sat on my couch in disbelief.

When I contacted Microsoft (at 1-800-4-MY-XBOX) to see about fixing my console I went through the computer customer assistance deal until I got a real person. Unfortunately I noticed that the scripted nature of the phone calls were equally frustrating - the representative I dealt with was obviously a veteran in the cubicle farm (I've worked call center positions and can tell when I'm being fed lines from a script); everything was the standard "Let me inform you of...", "Let me make sure you understand..."

Any concerns I had were answered, but I feel almost used as a customer. The rep wanted to just run the script, and sadly did not show any 'empathy' for my situation. But he made sure to ask me about an extended MS warranty for $XXX.XX. I am not impressed that I will have to wait 3-4 weeks return on a console.

I will probably pick up a new console this week.

The bargain bin can truly be a place of wonder and excitement for a gamer - on the other hand sometimes its filled with nothing but garbage titles - many of us thrive on the hunt, digging through these bottomless pits of games to find a buried treasure. Personally, most of my PS2 games came from the bargain bin. Classic titles like Frequency and Amplitude were $5 catches at Walmart. Dragon Quest VIII, Beyond Good and Evil, Zone of the Enders 1 & 2, all came from a used bargain bin at EB Games. I saved a ton of cash, and at the same time I found some of my favorite games in the process. Now, even the PS2's Greatest Hits titles are making their way into Bargain Bin status, most vendors are selling the titles under $20. Shadow of the Colossus did not take long to reach GH status with SCEA, and even a quick playthough of the first level makes it easy to see why.

Shadow of the Colossus (SotC) came out in Fall 2005, to rave reviews from most magazines, websites and especially players. It was a unique title, sporting some fantastic visuals, some unique gameplay, and more importantly: it was fun to play. Players assume the role of a teenage boy who travels to the end of the world to save his love. As he places her on a dias and asks the gods for their assistance, he is told to purge the land of the monsters depicted by statues in the temple. Setting out with his trusty horse and magical sword, one might think they are in for a Zelda-clone adventure, but that is only half true. While just as epic as Zelda, you soon find out how Colossus differs; every "level" consists of a boss fight against a hulking behemoth (or, Colossus) where you are armed only with your wits, a sword and a bow and arrow. You'll search the area for vantage points, find a way to drop the Colossus so you can climb onto it to find its weak point, there is even one that flies where you have to grab on as it swoops down on you. Each Colossus has its own attacks, weak points and unique environment, so each encounter is different.

Visually, the game looks great for a PS2 title. I could complain about blurry textures but it is just a PS2 title, not a next gen PS3 or 360 title that runs in 1080P, right? With 16:9 support this game looks great on my widescreen TV even now. The audio is slick too, everything has an epic feel to it, from the sounds of the galloping horse, the crashing of the Colossi, the voices of the boy and the gods. SotC really pushed the envelope with the PS2 from all angles.

At $20 you can't afford to miss this from your collection. But as we always condone; renting an older title is a great way to experience it on the cheap.

So tactical shooters aren't nessicarily my own favorite type of game. I like the teamwork aspect, but I am definately one of those guys who runs headlong into a room guns blazing. Guts and glory, right?! While the hotheaded Halo player may not fit into the mould set by Tom Clancy games, R6V2 makes it a little easier to pick up and play.

As with any shooter, the controls make or break a game. The game is responsive, shooting feels solid, the context sensitive stuff (Rapelling, breaching doors, etc) all are mapped to one button to make things easy to remember. Controlling your AI is all context sensitive as well, and telling NPC Characters what to do works well(for the most part). I still don't like having to push a button to press myself against a wall - Rainbow Six should take a page from Gears of War and if I'm pushing up against something, it should go to the wall sneak/cover mode.

The Story mode of the game can be played solo (with 2 AI teammates), or you can play Cooperatively with another player (along with 2 AI teammates as well). My biggest complaint is that some of the areas in the story do not have room for more than 3 players at a time; specifically certain repelling points - this is strange in certain areas during cooperative play because someone will miss out on the action. On that note, the game because a lot better with a second human teammate. There is something about being able to use every entry point to a room to the fullest to set up enough crossfire to make hamburger out of tangos. The co-op makes this game a ton of fun, the AI isn't the greatest by itself to push the Story mode solo.

That being said, the other multiplayer components (a myriad of team deathmatch modes) are fun to play. Its interesting to see how other players have outfitted their characters - some in the darkest camo possible, some at the opposite end of the spectrum. The Xbox Live games I've played have been pretty stable and run smooth.

Overall Score: 85%

Rent this if you're worried! The tactical play may not be for everyone.

Pros: Great tactical gun play, lots of weapons, great locales

Cons: AI is pretty stupid sometimes, Co-op mode almost feels tacked on.

If you're wondering about buying Army of Two, but are skeptical of the game's format - fear not. A demo was released on Xbox Live this week, check it out. The multiplayer portion of Ao2 really shines compared to the singleplayer component. A great control system really stands out. It's fun.

Also, Rock Band's content this week is Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive", which was the ending credits from Portal. A free download makes this a must have for anyone.

One of the last great SNES titles, Super Mario RPG held a special place in my heart. Some funny dialogue, interesting characters and great graphics really make it stand out as a piece of Nintendo's history - a better attempt than Paper Mario on the N64. The vivid graphics and isometric view were a change of pace for Mario fans, the characters had a "3D" look to them that really changed the way I looked at RPG titles. With the sheer amount of great role playing titles on the Super Nintendo, the game had to find its own way to float Mario content amongst Square's other offerings; Final Fantasy III, V and Chrono Trigger were some of the giants of the SNES' time and many players played them repeatedly (I think I've finished CT ~8 times, FFIII probably more) and Nintendo enlisting Square's development team really made sense. Square stepped up to the challenge and hit another home run. This is one title that the Wii's Virtual Console is practically begging for; Nintendo would sell thousands of virtual copies. Here's hoping it hits the market soon.

Rockstar hit the tubes of the internet with a new trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV; which will be in stores at the end of next month!  The trailer gives us a peek at some more of the supporting cast of characters you'll be interacting with. The RentalGamer crew is excited to get our dirty mitts all over the seedy underbelly of Liberty City once again. Check it, over to the right!

I fired this up on Tuesday, haven't had a great chance to sit and put it through its paces yet, but it feels like a solid Battlefield game so far. The map I played had lots of tanks (fun to drive and shoot just like the PC counterparts) and the environments were pretty slick. I'll have an indepth look at Battlefield: Bad Company, next week.

Yes the time has come for those who didn't want to spent the $10 on the Heroic Map Pack... it is now available for free, on the Xbox Live Marketplace. With another pack coming out soon, one might as well just wait three months and get it for free again.

Hey Bungie, we already dished out upwards of $60 for your game. A few extra levels for free isn't going to break the bank and with CoD4 holding the charts, you need all the help you can get.

Caught it on Digg

http://digg.com/arts_culture/Q_Which_Evil_Robot_is_Most_Evil_A_All_Of_Them

Hit it!  Cutman! Don't forget to check out www.mahalo.com

I started playing Call of Duty 4 a little while before the launch, I was lucky to get into the Beta with a few friends and we had a hoot playing. The multiplayer action was fast and furious, but more importantly to me, rewarding on the long term basis. When the game finally hit the market I was excited to play the single player campaign as well, as Call of Duty has some great immersive environments and is always exciting to participate in the grand scale battles. Infinity Ward did not disappoint, as both the single and multiplayer aspects of the game are fantastic.

I originally picked up an Xbox360 version of the game; the same few friends in the beta had all vowed to play regularly. We were online nightly for several weeks, but interest waned a bit and some dropped off the bandwagon. Though I stuck through I found myself getting frustrated by the controller (CoD4 and Halo3 being the two big shooters I've played on a console in a long time) and wanted to switch to the PC version. After some hardware updating and a lucky sale at a local retailer, I had picked up COD4 for PC (at $30!) and was ready to start playing again.

The multiplayer experience is a blast. The few problems exist solely in the explosives; and some will argue that point. Being able to shell out 3 Stun/Flash grenades, a Frag grenade, then drop another Frag when you die is a bit much in my books. However even when you die, its only a few seconds and you're back in the game.

The game employs a ranking system, when you kill an enemy, complete objectives or win a match you receive experience which goes towards your next rank. Every rank unlocks some new goodies, be it guns or parts or even skills that can provide more health, better stamina, extra grenades to name a few. These skills stick with your character forever (much like a role playing game) - extra skills like UAV Radar, airstrikes and assault helicopters are available when on a kill streak in a round.

The few things I noticed that differ between 360 and PC versions: the PC servers accomodate a lot more players! This can be an even more frantic gameplay, especially on Free For All servers. I perfer the 32 players myself, even 16 players is nice from time to time. However the extra accuracy from having the mouse instead of the gamepad is much preferred in my opinion.

The singleplayer campaign, clocks in at around 10 hours, is not a long game but has that classic COD feel, the Chernobyl sniper mission being one of the best examples of the game's immersive feel. Unfortunately the game still uses the "Bad Guy Portals" that tend to spit out enemies until you've reached a specific area or accomplished an objective. When you watch 50 terrorists run out of an alley that ends 10 feet down as a dead end, you wonder what kind of technology is really working under the sand!

That being said, Call of Duty 4 is one of the best games I played in 2007 and continue to play in 2008. With a Game of the Year edition coming out soon, I suggest if you haven't picked it up yet, that you do so!

Overall Score: 90%

Pros: Great Visuals and Sounds. Lasting Multiplayer, Immersive Singleplayer

Cons: Grenade Spam, Short Singleplayer