Ok, I just got this and played it for an hour today during my lunchtime (the only free time I have left now :{ )

Some of you may have noticed the ludicrous hype and obviously bought out/biased review scores this game is getting in the press.

All I can say from my first hour is that it seems quite cool and fun, but graphically it does look pretty dated for a 360 game (it's basically Halo 1/2 in hi-def with HDR and a few pixel shaders). The surprisingly sub-par character modelling/animation is quite apparent in the opening cutscene.

More impressions to follow I guess, but it looks initially like quite a bit of simplistic fun even if it doesn't exactly look cutting-edge :) 

Sat down with my roommate, and completed it. Total playtime: around 6,5 hours. Either it's very short, or we're very, very good. Or both.

It was fun though, and a blast in coop. Not really different from the previous two games, but I didn't really expect it to be. However, it really could've used one more level in the campaign, with a more climactic ending and a better ending cinematic. "That's it?" we asked, as the credits started rolling. There was much better stuff in Halo 2 near the start, with a real sense of awe.

The Covenant were cool enemies, as usual, environments were varied, as usual, Flood quickly became dull and repetitive, as usual. It's a true sequel. 

I just finished Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the DS. It's a standard "metroidvania" game in terms of the world exploration and using items to unlock new sections of the castle. There is also a "soul" system which I am told was already used in a previous castlevania game, but basically it is this: you get new abilities by collecting souls from the monsters and bosses. Some enemies have a very low chance of dropping a soul, so you either have to get lucky or farm the soul (which i did in some cases.) Boss fights were good.

The game is set up so that you don't have to collect all souls, explore all rooms, etc. In order to beat the game, but those goals are implicit in the "percentage complete" stats, so you have an incentive to collect everything. It sounds tedious, but they give you some items near the end of the game that makes it easier to clean up loose ends rather quickly, such as a ring that makes souls drop more frequently, another one that multiplies the amount of gold dropped by enemies, and some movement speed-increase souls.

One thing they didn't do much of, which is unfortunate, is making the new movement abilities create shortcuts through old areas in addition to unlocking new ones. Usually even after getting a new ability which unlocks a few areas, you still have to trudge through old areas at the same pace. 

I just picked up the new Zelda DS game over the weekend. Not much to say yet, but:

1. The game actually uses ONLY the touchscreen for all control, with the select button for the item menu. The dpad and B button do have a use, but it is redundant with an icon on the corner of the touchscreen, so you don't need them. You could actually play this game one-handed if you didn't have to hold the DS.

2. Unfortunately, I wish I didn't have to block my own view of the screen with my hand/stylus. Mario 64 solves this by putting the main 3D view on the top screen. Zelda can't do this because you're actually tapping on THINGS on the screen, drawing boomerang routes, etc, which requires drawing on the screen with all the action.

Anyway, seems cool so far, but it's too early to really judge it. 

the game takes place inside an abandoned hospital. on a rainy night. the player wakes up without any idea of whats going and so far (i'm on chapter 4) i still have no idea whats going on. hopefully something will start soon.

so here's a small list of what i think so far:

*atmosphere: the 1st time playing through it was very "whoaa!" but then, it gets very repetitive. its very typical horror stuff anyway. the music, the sounds, the setting...

*levels: they are wolf3d styled maps. corridor after corridor... and closets with boxes and such, and monsters sometimes inside of them. and if you hear a zombie and there are two closets on the corridor, you know he is in one of them.

the coolest part was so far was chapter two. going to the roof of the hospital was a nice break from corridors. but i am back to that.

the levels are detailed. if you ever been inside an abandoned building with lots of stuff left behind, you know its messy shit. and this is messy. with lots of blood. and very dark. oh yes, there is a flashlight, like doom3, i find myself using it a lot.

gameplay: so far puzzles are easy, and there was a very cool one (not story related but spolier maybe?) where you have to play keys on a piano, and the hint to the melody you have to play is written on the wall (with blood of course). and if you know about music notes and such, its easy to figure out.

the levels are populated with zombies or zombie looking creatures (they remind me of hl2 zombies) and they are not hard to fight once you get used to the movement.

the shit thing about this game is that every time you die, you start at the beginning of the chapter! say you are at the exit of a long level, you die and you have to start all over again. it sucks because every time you open a door to go inside a room, it saves the game! so why do i have to start from the beginning if the game was saved before i entered the room with the boss dude? gah. this is the only frustrating thing so far that i can think of.

music/sounds: well, again. very typical horror stuff. the piano melodies... the rain.. the kids voices on the dark deserted corridors... it still gives the game a cool atmosphere.

anyway. i am stuck on chapter four. there is a boss battle and i keep dying. the dude is too strong, and there is no health (that i haven seen) on the room i am suppose to fight this fat monster. :-(

if the level design was more varied, or at least, wasn't just corridor after corridor, it would be pretty awesome. i mean, there is a port for doom and it looks to run pretty smooth, so why cant they have at least levels that way? but whatever, it doesn't suck. and i am curious to know why the player is on this abandoned hospital, and what happened and blah blah. the atmosphere, even though is very clich� horror stuff, is pretty cool too. though i cant say its scary.

i just wish one wouldn't have to start from the beginning of each chapter (or level) every time one dies. and damn this boss battle! the dude is tough! gah.

if the review sucks or its confusing, then i blame lack of sleep. :)

man, wrote so much. hehe. 

http://dementium.com/enter.html link to the game's website.

there are tons of things i didn't say and you can look at screenshots and all that stuff. 

You have to tell what the game is LIKE not tell about the plot and atmosphere. Is it a shooter? An RPG? 3d? 2d? Realtime? Turn-based? Sigh. 

haha, i suck at reviews. :D

its a horror fps. 3d. real time. not turned based. and a few sighs too. its slow, lots of exploration which i like in games, but its very linear so far. what i hate is that it takes place in a hospital, and i never knew hospitals had so many storage closets! gah. 

Might have to get that, as soon as I complete all the battle maps for Advance Wars. 

Stranglehold (360):

Clunky, unpolished, and a complete rip-off of Max Payne and the whole Matrix bullet-time thing, but bugger me with a fire hydrant if this isn't more fun than a bag of weasels.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360):

Whoa, this is more than a little bit more impressive than previous COD offerings. The gulf (no pun intended) in quality between this and last year's COD3 makes me wonder exactly how they managed to bang this one out so quickly. (Ah, nevermind, they were different teams working in parallel no doubt sharing assets and a codebase).

Medal of Honour: Airborne (360)

Well you see the interesting thing here is that you start each mission on board a plane and have to- ooh hey is anyone using that copy of COD4 over there? No? Mind if I have a quick... 

Super Mario Galaxy: Simply the greatest game ever made.

Nintendo has made pure, concentrated awesome here. Every level is filled with varried challenges, great visuals, and well designed mechanics that are used very well throughout.

Go buy it now. If you don't have a Wii, get both. Now. 

Better than Mario

Its soooooo much better than Oblivion I could cry, Oblivion team probably are crying.

Similar roof-to-roof antics as Crackdown, jaw dropping graphics, etc, a lot like Theif otherwise... 

cant say anything about it since i cant find it anywhere! and it came out on the 13th. :(
you get a free stylus too, which looks like wooden staff. i think its u.s only though.

still, why stores don't have this game? why i says! whai!! 

but no tv, wii, or mario - should I get all of the three missing things? 

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii): Mario 64 with Wii gimmicks. The best Wii game around at the moment, but in this gaming climate it doesn't quite feel like the second coming of Jesus (like 64 did).

Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction (PS3): Not very far into this, but it's obvious from the start that this is just simply a much prettier and more balanced version of its PS2 predecessors.

Assassin's Creed (360): an ultimately dull medieval-flavoured Crackdown knock-off that somehow lacks the free-roaming fun of its "inspiration" game. With the stealth elements coming across as rather unimaginative and under-developed, this game ends up leaping off the spire but sadly landing just a couple of feet short of the hay wagon. 

somehow I eneded up writing "scampie" in the name field instead of "scampie:" in the title... 

Is the second player star bits thing worth buying a second controller for - have you tried it?

I haven't bought the game yet but I'm basically collecting top down from the metacritic high scores list. 

Ijed: it appears that the idea behind the second player star bit collecting is to appeal to those who maybe don't really play games, but would enjoy being given an easy side-role to the main player.

Seasoned gamers would find it a bit boring, but I'm sure say, a girlfriend or family member for example might find it amusing. Thing is you can make Mario jump using either controller, which has the potential for all sorts of mischievous sabotage by player 2 - it certainly did when I tried it >:} 

we bought mario galaxy for my sister's birthday, haven't played it yet, but i did look while my sister played and man, it looks very childish to me. the graphics and all... a few parts looked very gay too! like too cute or something. i don't think mario should be all mature w/ blood and guts and shit, but a lot of times it looks gay! :)

still, it looks fun. and its mario, i always liked the mario platform games. 2d or 3d. they are always fun, so i'm sure this one will be too. 

dont hate me. :) 

 

really, it's all about looking beyond the visuals.

Although I'm beyond the stage in my life that uses the term "gay" to describes things that I don't like/understand, I felt the same with Zelda: Wind Waker. I hated the visual style so much, I never bothered really getting into it. I'm sure it's a good game though. 

really seems to divide people into camps but to me visuals were among the best video game visuals I've seen. It did have a lot of uninspired parts but the highlights were VERY good.

There are so many games that try to be at the cutting edge of graphics technology but totally forget about style and design. 

it's Marmite basically. 

i don't hate galaxy because how it looks. it looks very pretty and its looks like its a really cool game, just thought it looked too cutesy and kinda like made for girls in some parts.

but whatever. i like the original nes kirby game a lot. and i feel the same way about the cuteness of that game as i do with galaxy. but never hated it.

as for wind waker. well, i dont know. never played it, and i remember only one or two screenshots i saw from it. i did get phantom hourglass for the ds, which is my first zelda game ever. i played the 1st zelda game on a nes emulator, but only for a small time. i wish i could find it for the game boy advance though, since it has a save feature.

one thing i noticed is that in mario galaxy, mario has a guide, just lik in super paper mario. and on phantom hourglass, the player has a guide as well! whats with all these spiritual guides on nintendo games? are these all or there are tons more?