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Blood Bowl Review (xbox 360)

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Not a Super Bowl

Some board games make excellent video games, some board games make average video games and some board games really shouldn’t bother.

There will have been a few of you standing on the sidelines, watching the development of Blood Bowl and hoping with everything crossed that it would turn out to be a gem, a word to the wise prepare yourselves for disappointment. There might be a Bowl in the title, but it’s not Super by any means.

I believe the key to my opening statement is whether the original game is actually good enough to survive the transformation to the screen, Carcassonne for example is an addictive and fun diversion. You get all the pleasure and strategy of the game, with none of the clearing up afterwards. After spending some time with Blood Bowl and forgiving it for it rough edges in terms of presentation I started to realize something, it’s the original gameplay that really turns you off, and that gameplay is as authentic as it can be.

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Dante’s Inferno Review

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Visceral Games are starting to get a name for themselves, the name might be new, but their last big hitter, although released under their previous generic title of EA Redwood following up Dead Space with a game as ambitious as Dante’s Inferno takes some doing. The premise is fairly easily guessed from its title, Dante in Hell, or to be specific, an action adventure reimagining of what it would be like if Dante were an ass kicker and name taker instead of a scholar.

Taking from the literary instalment of Dante Alighieri’s dark age, dogma breeding work of religious sojourn, The Devine Comedy. It see’s the protagonist aptly named for the writer of the trilogy is tasked with rescuing his maiden that has been snatched away by the devil. There’s more to the story than that, but in sum, the story is one of rescuing a maiden while also battling his own demons, literally.

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Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep Review (Wii)

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Only Nintendo could get away with releasing a ‘non-game’ title like Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep. Actually they have made a mountain of money with ‘non’-games’ on their DS and Wii platforms. Now don’t get me wrong, ‘non-games’ have just as much, if not more, entertainment value as the latest and greatest shooter or RPG, to the right person. What is it that makes a ‘non-game’ you ask? Well think along the lines of edutainment or interactive environments, something where time and direction have no real affect on the outcome. There is also no negatives for any of your actions, no shark bites or bends to worry about. How’s that for child friendly.

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Vancouver 2010 Review (PS3)

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

If it wasn’t for titles like California Games and Winter Games and Summer Games and World Games….. and Summer Games II, there would be a fairly substantial lack in mini-game titles in the world right now. These were a staple of every 80s kids gaming diet, and with some friends over enabled many people to appreciate the joy of group multiplayer gaming for the very first time. Type in your name, choose a country to represent and then take turns trying to best each others scores or times. We have a company called Epyx to thank for those memories, and it seems that because of them more and more developers have tried to take the torch and run. The problem is, it’s very rare for a game based on any of the world games events to actually knock it out of the park with a success. Sega is trying this year with Vancouver 2010……

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Bayonetta Review (Xbox 360)

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Bayonetta is the kind of game that creates awkward lines of dialogue when trying to describe it to a friend, because of how crazy stupid it is. However, it takes it just far enough that you can add “awesome” to those adjectives. Here’s a sample conversation, I’ve italicised the lettering at the part where it becomes awesome: “So, Bayonetta is this witch, and her clothes are her hair and her magic, so using magic depletes her clothing. Oh, and she has guns attached to her feet so she shoots when she kicks and her hair magic can summon gigantic monsters that will actually eat the bosses she fights… Oh and she can breakdance.” More »

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Dark Void Review (360)

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Dark Void is a game about jet packs, pure and simple. Now with that premise you would think it might be something rather special. But that kind of thinking is flawed, dreams of grandeur are usually dashed and obviously I’m just not jaded enough. Even with jetpacks, Dark Void is merely just another average shooter.

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Band Hero Review (Xbox 360)

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Ever since Guitar Hero III, it’s felt like one of the key objectives Neversoft decided upon when they took over the custodial franchise duties was to sell out. I want to point out that I’m not just saying this because sometime way back when I had a weird (maybe hostile) interview with someone in the Neversoft brass; when they brought out the Axe dancing girls and started dropping what had to be significant investment dollars into securing the rights for relevant artists to appear in their caricature likenesses, it was pretty obvious that it was now less about rock and more about being bombarded with creepy brands. So upon having this review thrown at me, I was pretty much ready to hate on a franchise that was already dead to me…

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Rock Band 2 Review (Xbox 360)

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

The release of Rock Band 2 in New Zealand seemed like an after thought. ”After” is the crucial word there, incidentally; almost a year after, in fact. Rock Band 2 was released in North America in September 2008. We didn’t see it until December 2009. One major consequence of this delay has been that most people who’re interested in it have already imported it. The dearth of marketing has meant that more casual players are mostly ignorant of the release.

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Madden NFL Arcade Review (XBLA)

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

When it comes to sports games I have to be about as casual as they come. I have the obligatory football, gridiron, ice hockey, golf and snowboarding titles in my games collection mainly for when mates are over and we feel like a bit of friendly competition. This outlook on sports games places me in the very average to decidedly crap section of sports gaming ability. Queue Madden NFL Arcade, following on from 3 on 3 NHL Arcade, a sports title targeting decidedly crap players just like me.

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Zelda: Spirit Tracks Review

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Another handheld Zelda, I was half interested, half apprehensive when I realised that Ahmad was too deep undercover on a ButtonMasher sponsored initiative to conquer Asia to send him the game. My main point of concern was something that might not faze the enamoured Zelda/Nintendo fan, but to me it was off putting, a locomotion powered dungeon crawl.

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