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Mercenaries 2 review…and a whole lot of flames to go with it.

Ok, let me get this out of the way first, if you like destroying s**t, then Mercenaries 2 is a game you should get. This review is a little late I know, so because of that this will just be a quickie of a review.

Well, since many people these days are graphics whores and cant stand anything not on Gears of War standards then they shouldn’t dare look at this game. This game was made for two, and only two types of people: the fans of Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction ( not me, never played) and people who just like to have fun, (me). Yes I do know the graphics could’ve used a bit more graphical touches, but when you have the power to level an entire country, I’m sure some things had to be sacrificed. And these sacrifices are: major pop-ins no matter what you are doing, repetitive buildings, and terrible textures. But if you look at the glass half full like moi, then; beautiful, sometimes jaw dropping explosions that light up the screen. Seriously, they are gorgeous. Also, great destruction, and lovely scenery when you aren’t seeing pop-ins.

Now for the gameplay, which may be the worst part of the game. Controls are the absolute worst, with driving just being an absolute pain. The cars are just so…heavy and…ugh, unresponsive. It just feels dirty and so slapped in there, and there are only about 10 to choose from anyway. Heli’s are better, yet still could’ve used some work as well. The combat is very unorganized, and that’s not even talking about the friendly/enemy A.I. . When calling in support, you have to pull up a menu in game which stops you from moving and has you take damage, which then makes you almost dead when your support comes in anyway. The shooting mechanics seems like it was just put in at a good enough point to ship the game, kind of like Army of Two, meaning the guns sound like pellets, or Dante’s guns, and it never fully feels satisfying killing anybody. It also doesn’t help when the enemies basically stand there and wait for you to kill them.

Wait, you know what? Forget everything I just wrote, cause everyone should buy this game, well everyone who wanted to crucify GTA4 that is, cause this game is as unrealistic as you can get. And if I remember correctly, everyone hated the realism going back to Liberty City, so this game should sell instantly when you think about it. I enjoyed this game very much, its fun to blow things to high heaven, and I do beleive it deserves atleast a rental.

Tags: mercenaries 2, mercs, PS2, ps3, review, xbox

The Power of Gaming

This time last year I was pretty bored as a fan of video games in general, something was very wrong. The industry revolved around the Dragon that was the PS3 and the Phoenix that was the Xbox 360. (if you’ve gotten a red ring you can figure out why the 360 is the phoenix) The two monsters fought what was essentially a cold war. There were very little exclusives and there only seemed to be one difference between the two consoles, the 360’s smaller price tag. For the whole year I felt as if there was no competition between the two major platforms. This year, however, I feel refreshed because it seems as instead of simply staring at one another the two beasts have finally begun to make moves. With the prominence of blu-ray discs developers have been boasting its power of storage, even claiming to be able to take gaming to new heights with the new technology.

We’ve already seen examples of how they’re attempting, breathing the flames that are  MAG, Killzone 2, Heavy Rain and the like. Does this mean that 360 owners are doomed to regret their purchase? Not at all, the bird’s still got some life in it, The 360 seems to be getting more cost effective by the minute with its frequent price drops, Sony has some catching up to do in that regard. Soon you will be able to store games onto your hard drive which will allow cut back on load times and increase the longevity of your disc by cutting down on the disc spins in the console. This allows developers to use multiple DVDs to equal the quality of a PS3 title because not only will multiple DVDs eventually reach the amount of space of a Blu-Ray game, with the new storage feature load times should be not a thing of the past but an inconvinence so minor it could hardly be considered one. Sony though has more than just the format to fight with, a Dragon’s got other tools and those would be the fact that Sony not only has 3rd party support but that also their first party titles are for the most part amazing games.

At this point it seems like the dragon has that phoenix pinned down.

Continue reading The Power of Gaming

Tags: 360, Gaming, ps3

The King of Fighters

If you thought Final Fantasy and Megaman were the only gaming franchises reserving the right to go double digits think again. The King of Fighters series started in 1994 with the aptly titled King of Fighters ‘94. Its roots, however, seep into other SNK titles including Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Ikari Warriors and Athena. The King of Fighters was the original dream match pitting characters from various SNK universes against each other. Also originated in the King of Fighters series was the 3 on 3 battle system. Worldwide it was one of very few games that could rival the money making machine that was Street Fighter 2. The King of Fighters series innovated fighting games far beyond Street Fighter, featuring better graphics, the 3 on 3 system, super combos and later having more than one super combo at your disposal.

The franchise saw a new addition yearly similar to a sports title featuring slight tweaks on the existing formula until three years would pass, traditionally, the King of Fighters series has an entirely different mechanic every 3 games followed by a dream match that collects the best parts of the previous three years. ‘94 itself was considered a dream match, ‘95,’96 and ‘97 featured upgrades and tweaks to the existing 3 on 3 formula. ‘98 featured the best of all three worlds. ‘99 through 2001 featured the Striker system which allowed you to pick three characters and then a striker who could be thought of as something similar to an assist in the original Marvel vs. Capcom. After the King of Fighters 2003, SNK waited two years to release the King of Fighters XI which seems more suiting that resuming the yearly title after skipping a year.

The King of Fighters XI was on a new arcade system which featured better graphical effects, all new possibilities for the 3 on 3 tag system that was implemented in 2003 such as the Saving Shift which allowed you to break your opponent’s offense by tagging out, or the quick shift which allowed you to combo with one character, switch to another to continue the combo and then switch to the last character to complete the combo. Skip a few years yet again to 2008 and we have the announcement of the King of Fighters XII which SNK has promised to be the greatest 2D fighting experience ever. Screenshots and a trailer have been released since then and so far we’ve only seen graphics and a few characters. The graphics are the best hand drawn hi-resolution sprites ever seen in a 2d game period. More information about the King of Fighters XII will be seen at Japan’s AM show later this month.

Tags: Fighters, King, of, The, XII

Quick Megaman 9 revelation

Just a few quick words on Mega Man 9. The E3 trailer revealed it is not in High-Def 2D graphics, but rather in old 8-bit graphics. This surely upset many of those who have HD sets, but to those loyal fans, the 2 minute trailer gave them nerdgasms. The release date isn’t set, but it is set to release on all 3 consoles.

As a side note; Gary has quite a few words to say about this topic on last nights Vice News Daily, which will be up very soon for your listening pleasure.

Tags: 8 bit, 9, man, mega, old, school

Another Gears of War 2 Update

During Microsoft’s Press Conference today, Fan favorite Cliffy B came out and demoed the higly anticipated Gears of War 2. He presented a 15 minute excerpt from a level where Marcus and Dom are fighting there way to a huge Locust sinkhole. The graphics are improved in tiny areas, especially the characters and shadowing. A few new enemies were featured, like a chain wielding locust and a pyromaniac locust wielding the new flamethrower which was used in the demo. Towards the end of the demo there is a hint at riding a Brumak, with Marcus’ line being, “If they can ride it, so can we…”. This will surely be a huge aspect of gameplay and please all the fans who were upset at Gears PC being able to fight the Brumak, but now they can ride one!!

Tags: 360, E3, gears of war

The Battle of the Bands - literally

Yes, this year will in fact be the true battle of the bands for the music-games genre, for this year Guitar Hero: World Tour will now feature drums and vocals. The drums for the new Guitar Hero are vastly improved aesthetically over the Rock Band drum kit. As many already know, this kit includes 3 pads and 2 symbols, all of which are touch sensitive and will make sounds based off of the intensity of the hit. Gameplay wise, this hasn’t been discussed much, and most gameplay hasn’t shown much of the drum aspect. Guitar Hero: World Tour also has a music creator, all of which can be shared over the Live/PSN service. Vocals however, are not in the creator mode, due to ” legal issues”, which is what one producer said in an interview on an episode of Gametrailers’ “Invisible Walls”. The game is set to feature 85 songs, consisting of the most Master Recordings of any other music game to date. Metallica’s new album which is set to release in September will be downloadable for both Guitar Hero 3 and World Tour, and 3 songs off of REM’s new album will be downloadable.

On the Rock Band 2 side, the entire set list was released in a joking manner during the Microsoft Press conference. Basically, the whole RB2 conference was on the set list, which is what I will mostly write about. The set list was displayed on the huge screen but in tiny font which caused the crowd to laugh. I will post the set list at the end of the article for you to drool over. There are 80 songs out of the box, plus another 20 available for free during the holiday season, one song consisting of a new Guns n’ Roses song, Shacklers Revenge. AC/DC has also made there debut into the music-game genre with the release of their popular song, Let There be Rock! The last major artist, Bob Dylan, has made his first ever debut with licensing his music in a video game with his song, Tangled Up in Blue. For those who purchased the first Rock Band can upload all the tracks onto the new installment in order to make life easier for players, which is a cool addition. Rock Band 2 will be a timed exclusive for Xbox 360 this September.

See the track listing after the jump.

Continue reading The Battle of the Bands - literally

Tags: E3, gutiar hero 4, rock band 2

E3 News: Square Enix Panel, Talks of Final Fantasy

If you’ve been keeping up with E3, Square Enix had breaking news; Final Fantasy XIII will be released on both the Playstation 3 and the Xbox360… in Europe and North America anyway. It will still remain a PS3 exclusive in Japan. Final Fantasy Versus XIII (not to be confused with FFXIII) is still planned as a PS3 exclusive.

It turns out that the decision to release FFXIII on both consoles was quite recent and the reason for it is because of console sales in Europe and America. There is no announcement for bringing FFXIII to the X360 to Japan.

Also at E3, Square Enix unveiled a new trailer. This trailer had Japanese text, new scenes, a new character, and some looks at what might be summons (Shiva/Ifrit?). The trailer didn’t show much of the battle system, just a glimpse of it recycled from a previous trailer. At the very end of the trailer , it states that it is for the Playstation 3 ONLY… in Japan. The game does look nice. Character models look very smooth and the effects look dazzling (especially the machinery, gunfire, and magic). Square Enix did stress that it will have a different feel/atmosphere.

Good news, Final Fantasy XIII will be multiplatform in Europe and North America. Bad news is it looks like the death of console-exclusive games will be coming very soon.

[Via Silicon Era]

Tags: E3, FFXIII, Final Fantasy XIII, News, ps3, X360