Yes, the game all about inflicting pain on your little avatar has finally arrived. And here is the review.

Pain Review

Aw crap... I knew I messed up.

Anyways, I don't know where I'm going with this, except for it being an "Anti Let's all beat the dead horse to death Jeff G Left Gamespot Type Blog".

So yea...

How's the wife/husband and kids?

I promise I'll have a better blog later, but the 3 Video Game State of the Unions killed my loading times, so I had to get rid of it.

Now here is a random picture for your enjoyment:

Well, I figure I should review almost every game I have for the Wii before I really get into it, and I have, just before November flies out the window.

I'm going to do it this way, so follow along if you know the words.

Nintendo as a business is absolutely brilliant. They sold a million Wiis in November. They are at 12 million sold, already surpassing the 360 with a year lead and by far the PS3. The DS has sold, according to Wikipedia, 53.64 million units. So, having said that, Nintendo knows how to make a great amount of money. And I am very happy for them, they make profit right out of the box for their systems, something Sony and Microsoft couldn't say.

However, we must look at WHY this is the case.

1.) Nintendo has traditionally been behind in the technology war, eschewing disc formats, online capability and now this generation, high definition graphics. The components in a Wii basically couldn't be GIVEN away if they were in a PC or Laptop. A 733 MHZ processor and 96 MB ram (yes, I know this is a relative term compared to PCs), but statistically, it is neck and neck with the Xbox of last generation.

While the 360 Has a 3.2 GHZ tri core CPU and a powerful graphics card and half a gigabyte of ram and the PS3 has the Blu-Ray disc, Cell Processor and a half gigabyte of XDRAM, they are leaps and bounds ahead of the Wii in terms of performance and cost.

Now it doesn't mean graphics should be the be all end all, but when you are playing games that look like they are Gamecube or prior in terms of quality, that says something. But what about the gameplay? We will get to that.

2.) Nintendo is a marketing genius. Pander to the lowest common denominator while claiming you remember those of us who supported them through the dark times (namely N64 and Gamecube). I've had every Nintendo system aside from the Virtua Boy (which is conveniently swept under the carpet). Now the point is that they eschew the hardcore Nintendo devotee for the most part in favor of last gen crappy graphics games and minigames and a multitude of licensed products (which everyone knows almost always suck).

So while they can market to families, grandparents, etc, they for the most part forgot their original supporters.

Yes, you have your Zeldas, Marios and all of that, but why do they not have the same charm or power they used to for the most part?

1.) I saw the same game last generation graphically.

2.) I don't even bother with the Virtual Console... 8 dollars for something that should have been free or a dollar? 5 Dollars for THIS?

That isn't the only other atrocious game put on there. For every Link to the Past or Super Mario World, there are 12 absolute stinkers. Besides, this is only good to people who weren't there in the beginning. I have my copies of SNES and NES masterpieces still.

3.) With the exception of replacing a button press with a wiggle of the Wiimote, I saw the same gameplay. I hate the Wiimote. It is an overly sensitive POS that does not make games more realistic or immersive, and heaven forbid, better. I was envisioning playing a swordfighting game (Such as the upcoming Force Unleashed) and being able to guide my sword stroke a certain direction and with a certain force and such.

Nope... you get wiggle waggle. Basically you can swing the sword fully, or just snap your wrist. If the accelerometer moves then you get motion. And motions are not tagged very well to sweeping arcs or thrusts or quick slices, nope, just look at Twilight Princess.

Racing games are over sensisitive but if you turn the controllers more than half a turn, the controls reverse and everything goes haywire.

That being said, I don't think for the most part Nintendo or other companies can accurately use the Wii to it's fullest. When it is used properly, its not as if it is a new feature, it's just using motion instead of a button press rather than actual concerted motions that go beyond mere depression of a button.

It has been only a year since the system was released, I'm hoping the system will become evolved past the "Wiggle Waggle" fest it is right now.

Another downer is the supposed "Wii Ware Channel". So far it has 4 items in it. What happened to the new innovative games that independent developers were supposed to be able to add? A year since the release and we see none? C'mon, where are the new versions of Double Dragon and beatemups or other dead genres?

While Nintendo has made a lot of money with promises of the newest Pokemon, Zelda and a quirky game like Brain Age (which doesn't make you smarter, just good at repeating things) and Wii Fit, it hasn't delivered its promise to the hardcore gamer that made them what they are.

What have they offered?

I wish I had this game on the Gamecube to be honest... The controls were frustrating as my review said (click on the link).

Click the box... I gave this game a 7.1 I think. I was mistaken. This should be worse. The core gameplay, which actually was good and would be acceptable... except for the fact that I actually returned this game for the full value it was SO bad graphically. I'm serious. I was extraordinarily generous with giving it a 3. This was PSone level graphics, which at this time makes a NEW 50$ game atrociously unplayable on a system that should be capable of much more. This game deserves a like a 4.0 that the graphics hamper the game that much.

That brings me to this point.

Remember this?

Yea, that's back when Nintendo was good.

This is what it says now. Notice something different? Like the "Of Quality Part?"

Nintendo traditionally allowed for almost no games to come out on their system. Now it's anyone who will develop a cashin crapbox game and pay royalties to Nintendo can do it.

My point being...

Smackdown Vs. Raw 2008 = 4.5

Spy Games : Elevator Mission = 2.0

Anubis II = 1.5

My point is, just look. Proportionately for every game thats AA or AAA on Nintendo systems, specifically the Wii especially, you get a dozen stinkers (wow, doesn't that sound familiar...)

Even one of my favorite GBA games can't be accurately or rather, better updated on the Wii. Yes, 8.3 is a great score... but man, this game is SHORT and nothing new, it didn't wow me like the original.

Again, another amazing game from a generation ago. This game plays a lot like the original predecessors, except it's a platformer. The difficulty is completely missing and the graphics look like they were swiped from the Thousand Year Door. Also, this DID NOT take advantage of the Wii controller. The original NES controller was probably sufficient to play it.

While I gave it an 8.0, I expect more from a game series that I rated in the 9.6 to 10.0 range...

But it's not all bad:

While I haven't been playing it that much recently due to work and that my Wii is back at my parents house an hour away from my school, this game IS good, rather superb. It has a lot of the magic you were looking for to be in Sunshine that wasn't there. The graphics are actually fantastic and DO take advantage of what the Wii can do. The controls are spot on, and this game even allows a 2nd player to help Mario out.

Finally, something that uses the Wii properly (although I wish this was in HD, that would truly be a sight to behold).

And now for why I really still have my Wii (no, not Wii sports, althogh that is a fun game to play drunk with friends, it's VERY boring by yourself... as are most other Wii games).

Considering I gave a 10.0 to Melee, this game has a lot to live up to, and since it features Solid Snake, Zero Suit Samus and online play with a full game mode beyond a mere 30 minute run, this game should be the epic that the hardcore community wants. My play time will be devoted to this game for a LONG time.

I must have blew a good number of study hours in undergraduate study in my senior year playing this with my friends on my floor. Yep... amazing game.

Mario Kart for the N64 was possibly my favorite game of all time on that system, even more so than Ocarina of time or ... well, Mario 64 was the bomb. Anyways, I can't wait to see how this turn out. And this is also coming out in Q1 2008.

There are a few other things I'm keeping my eyes on, but I'm not going into that.

If I didn't sell my DS to fund my PS3, I'd be looking for these two games personally.

Probably due to the fact they aren't either Pokemon, a brain training game or some licensed junk, that's why they appeal to me.

So like Sony, Nintendo has made some bad choices in terms of games in the past few months and year I believe, but they are turning it around. So while being a phenomenal business machine, get your act together Nintendo and make it so most of us hardcore gamers and Nintendo fans aren't so disenfranchised with you. You're starting to see the light, now open that window.

Oh, it's only about 7 months since the game came out, but I actually have finished it.

Super Paper Mario Review

I had a lot of mixed feelings in the start of this game, but in the end it turned out to be a great game, even if not as amazing as the previous two entries in the series.

Oh yea, watch Zeropunctuation's Review of Super Paper Mario.

He says the same things more or less, just a whole lot more clever...er.

It has been two years since the Xbox 360 has been released to the public. This has been a tumultous time in gaming history with the release of the sales juggernaut the Wii and the successor to the highest selling console of all time, the PS3 which I highlighted some of the strong points and explaining the weaknesses. By keeping things fair and balanced, let's get the bad things out of the way and end on a good note.

1.) The 360 has a 30% failure rating. I don't believe this. My launch model 360 hasn't given me a problem at all, except for one programming error with Saints Row (that wasn't the 360's fault), however many of my friends have had this problem, and I know they wouldn't lie. Additionally, my uncle who developed the chipset for the 360 was one of the people who told Microsoft "The damn thing runs too hot, we need another set of fans or more flow space". Negative, Microsoft denied this, and due to some marketing and engineering jerk (not a technical engineer), the current 360 model is what we see, while it clearly is a faulty model. So when people say it is a poorly designed machine, even ATI employees who worked on it said the same thing. It's not that the components are faulty, it is the way Microsoft desired it put together that is the problem.

The board overheats and melts and the graphics chip comes loose, that is one of the major problems of the ring of death. One ATI lab in Massachusetts is currently testing 50 retail purchased boxes by turning them on for one half hour, and turning them off for a half hour for 3 months straight. Currently after 3 weeks of testing, only one box has the red ring of death. What this will prove in the end, I don't know, but Microsoft did not listen to their suppliers and allied companies. So, had my box suffered the same problem, I would be quite angry.

A hint though, get the fan stand for your box, it really saves the life time of it. By the way, the smaller processor does help, but it's the graphics chip that is the real problem.

2.) Aside from the failure rates, I want to mention the problems with being an early adopter. Particularly the 360 (Sony is no better though mind you) releases more hard drive space, an HDMI port... and if I am hearing this right from my uncle who works at ATI, a 200 gig hard drive dual HDMI port HD-DVD installed 360 model. Supposedly its for multimedia (he's actually seen the prototype of it), so it's not necessarily a gaming machine. So this doesn't make me too mad, but the fact is, it's annoying to get all the bells and whistles later on. But remember, these are GAMING consoles, so games should matter most.

3.) Backwards compatibility. Where the #$^# is it? Oh, patches and updates? Sorta like the gimped PS3? That's lame. Anyways, my uncle again comes into play. 3 doors down, the engineers are drawing up the plans for the Xbox 720's graphics card, and let's just say the thing has the 360's architecture built in, so out of the box backwards compatibility is no problem. Beyond that, I don't know muc more about the Xbox 720 (It's a codename, don't worry he said... I hope).

4.) Massive hypeage. Bioshock was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Sorry, it's just a high quality presentation of another generic FPS with crummy FPS mechanics and a forgettable story that totally lacks the morality play that was one of the major selling points. Same for Halo 3. 640p? WTF? How the hell can a next gen game run at 640p but play the exact same as Halo 1 and 2?

Now, what has Microsoft done right in this past two years? Pretty much games, which is what a video game console should do.

How so?

Games that are out (Click on box for my review on them if I wrote one):

I'm aware this is a multiplat, but this game kicked ass, longer and harder on the 360, and is possibly the best boxing game since Mike Tyson's Punch Out, so it was worthy of being put in my list of awesome games for the 360.

Now this game is a "Grand Theft Auto Clone". I don't think so. If it has better graphics, more refined gameplay and controls and generally has improved upon everything else while having it's own feel, this game is not just a clone, but something else. In that case, every FPS is a rip off of Spear of Destiny or Wolfenstien 3D or Doom essentially. This game stands on it's own and is a great exclusive for the 360. (I'm also mad I didn't write a review on this yet...)

* Special note. This game is 39.99$ new when it was released, it's cheaper now. Read the review. I gave it a 7.7, but it was such a genuinely fun (if not aggrivating at higher difficulties mind you) game, that it was worth mentioning, seeing as I got all 1000 achievment points and played it for 60+ hours. Shame this game was so overlooked.

I just got this game, but it is a visual and audio masterpiece and is a fresh change in the RPG realm... if not a little button mashy. At least you get your exercise playing. Well, your thumb does. Still, a living watercolor version of video game with an engaging story and unique combat system on a traditionally RPG barren platform can't be missed.

Now you might think of me being hypocritical for listing these two next games...

Don't get me wrong, these games are overrated... but that does not disqualify them from being good, or even great. I am saying is they (In my opinion) are not "OMG THE SKY IS FALLING BUT I DONT CARE BECAUSE I HAVE HALO 3 AND BIOSHOCK AND MY LIFE IS FULFILLED" kind of good. They are indeed worth playing, don't misinterpret me, otherwise I'd not have included them in the list.

New Games that fall under the 360's jurisdiction in my book that are worth getting.

* This falls under the single player clause. I.E. its no different from the PS3 version, except it has gamerscore points, which if all things are equal made me buy it for this console. Either way, it's a good game and the 360 should be blessed to have it.

C'mon.. It's Grand Theft Auto 4, but with more exclusive content than the PS3 version. Need I say more?

If you don't know what this game is, you've been living under a rock. Granted... the hype for this game is off the charts, but from what I've seen... KOTOR + Gears of War = Epic win. Oh yea, it probably has the best graphics of any game to date, just as a side bonus.

Coop Mercenaries in HD with achievements??? Hellz yea!

Same as above just insert Army of Two where Mercenaries used to be??? Hellz yea!

While Blue Dragon was "good" I don't want just merely "good" from Hironobu Sakaguchi. This better be fantastic.

That's a huge list of games that I am looking forward to on the 360. Things without even any box art yet include Gears of War 2 (sequel to possibly my favorite FPS, ok Third Person Shooter, of all time) and Saints Row 2 (although I don't have any alliegences formed with either the 360 or PS3 for this game yet depending on online play.

If Microsoft was smarter and listened to the engineers at ATI they would have the lead with sales and software, putting them squarely in the lead this generation... Too bad for them huh?

Oh well, I'm enjoying my 360 to the maximum now.

Yes my fellow gamers, it has been just two weeks short of the Playstation 3's 1 year anniversary, as well as the Wii's and the 360's 2nd birthday. This week and in the future weeks of November I will be having a blog dedicated to my thoughts on the consoles (and handhelds) after a year of release, where they stand and where I feel they are heading into the future. I have no fixed outline in my head on how I wish to compare the three major companies, however I will try to keep the focus similar. As I have said, Sony is the first company I wish to address.

I remember over a year and a few months ago, everyone was talking like Sony is the future, and that people are going to buy as many as they can, sell em for 3000$ on Ebay and make killing. Hell, I tried to do the same damn thing, but since everyone bought into the hype and no one wanted to play the PS3, the "get rich quick off Ebay" scheme died out in oh... 12 hours of release.

Well, I will say I avoided the Playstation 3 like the plague for the first half a year. Why?

1.) The console was 600$. Don't give me "Oh, it's 499$ because of the 20 gig model" line. I saw one of those once a day after the US launch, and someone was buying it. Beyond that, I've NEVER seen a 20 gig model on the shelves, so it's as if Sony never released them even.

2.) There was no price drop until right around E3 (which is what got me to buy a PS3, but more on that later). And technically, there hasn't been one, rather a bunch of convoluted inventory liquidation and hard drive swapping and feature removing technical "upgrades". Right now, I think we have a stable and official price point of 399$ for the 40 gig model, but... that leads to my next point.

3.) I had to act around E3. The 60 gig models just had a price drop to 499$, however the key reasoning in my purchasing one over the future 80 or 40 gig models was due the removal of the Emotion Engine backwards compatibility. I need my PS2 fix of masterpieces like Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 3, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, etc. I ain't gonna download some emulator programs to play my PS2 games. I thought Sony touted their 100% BC functionality.

4.) The firmware and software upgrades were sketchy at best. Issues with 1080i output, no upscaling of PS1 and PS2 games, and other general bugs that needed to be worked out.

5.) REALLY strange commercials about weird crying plastic baby dolls, eggs being thrown at the wall, and other just nonsensical crap that makes me NOT want to buy Sony products. This is also related to Ken Kutaragi being bat **** insane. Firing him was probably the best move Sony has made in a long long long long time.

6.) Liek omg its a supercomputer 4D disease curing Blu-Ray player. I.E. it's not a video game console, but a PC replacement. Smooth guys... smooooottthhh.

7.) Like the PSP before it, the PS3 lacked a lot of quality titles, real or in theory. Wow, you have Resistance Fall of Man... um... yea... that's it. Anything else could be essentially found on the PS2, 360 or Wii for the most part. PSP and PS3 both lacked quality exclusives. Those that came out generally were last gen ports, remakes or totally craptastic. Until right around the beginning of June/July, almost everything on the PS3 was worse than the 360 version or just non existant.

Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid 4 were in debate of whether they were going to be released for the 360 or not. That has since been proven otherwise as PS3 exclusives thus far, but for a long time that was debatable. Devil May Cry 4 was lost as an exclusive as was Resident Evil 5 and Grand Theft Auto 4. There was justifiable cause for holding out on the PS3 as a viable gamin console, especially when the 360 actually performed as well, or better in multiplatform games and clearly in price.

Well, I was at a point where I was going to be anti Sony this generation. But, as you probably all know by now, I have both the PS3 and the PSP. To illustrate why I had a change of mind, let's go through the positives, but not without first saying that my first two PS3 consoles were defective with non working HDMI ports. They were sequential serial numbers, and my 3rd console down the line 6000 units was perfectly fine. So I don't wanna hear people telling me the PS3 is 100% rock solid and never has problems.

Ok, that being said, "out with the bad vibes, in with the good".

1.) The PS3 DID have a price drop... of sorts. To me, money isn't an object, providing the games are commensurate with the price. Well, a price drop is a nice thing. I acted on that.

2.) The 60 gig model has backwards compatibility. I needed to move while I could.

3.) Ken Kutaragi being fired. Restored my faith in Sony, not having statements like "Experience Toy Story live rendering" and "Jack into the Matrix with the PS2" and "The PS3 can cure cancer when not playing it" and "You will experience the 4th dimension". He may have been the Playstation's father, but he was almost it's executioner.

4.) E3 really restored my faith in the console. Why? It showed me that Sony actually has games. Yes, I said, it, games coming out for the PS3. I will go into detail as to my key games in each console (including the PSP), but the two things, well 3 maybe, that sold me were Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XIII and a little game called Pain. Oh, trust me, there were many many more, but those three stood out as solid upcoming games.

5.) Blu-Ray IS nice. But it's not my main concern on a gaming system. Yes, it is an added bonus, but don't try marketing a system for 200$ more than your competitor. I would like Blu-Ray a lot more if the damn discs weren't on the order of 35$ per movie. Regardless, it is a nice treat, as is the built in web browser (this allows me to actually play my PS3 on my school network mind you) and other functions.

So after the price drop I ran out and bought a PS3 with Ninja Gaiden Sigma, which if you have played the original or Black, chances are you really don't need to bother with this game, as it's not a whole lot different, and the graphics aren't THAT much different.

However, the few key games I have picked up that are out as of now are the following:

Heavenly Sword:

(Click on the link for my review)

Folklore:

These two games are what hold my interest in the PS3 as of right now. Heavenly Sword is great, but terribly short. Folklore is all around great, but very underappreciated. I mean to pick up Resistance, but I am going to wait for it to become the first Greatest Hits for 29.99$ first.

Now in terms of multiplayer games, I am going to side with the PS3 (assuming the 360 version isn't DRASTICALLY superior) for a few reasons.

1.) It costs me nothing to play.

2.) I can't log onto Xbox Live with my 360 due to school network issues and lacking a web browser. This makes my game purchasing in multiplatforms a bit easier, generally leaning towards the PS3 for online play and eschewing any gamerscore points on the 360 (eh, I broke 10k anyways, that's all I ever cared about).

That being said, Key multiplats that are coming out very soon:

Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare :

The Orange Box :

Unreal Tournament 3 :

Funny... those are all shooters. But since they have an online component and a modding component for the PS3 version, I will chose those as I previously said. Army of Two, Mercenaries 2 and GTA IV will be relegated to split screen fun on my 360 AND I can increase my gamerscore (yea I know it's a gimmick, but it has me playing a game for longer).

Now to move onto the key exclusives for me :

Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns of the Patriots :

So super ****fied it doesn't even have a box icon yet. Metal Gear Solid 3 was my favorite game of all time, yes, beating a few other contenders. I will be there at the midnight launch of this game.

Final Fantasy XIII :

Say what you want... you know you're gonna buy this.

Star Ocean 4 :

Very few details are given about this game, but I have been waiting for the true successor to Star Ocean 2 for ages. More to talk about the Star Ocean Series in the PSP section at the end.

Pain :

You may or may not have heard about these two physics engine type games called Truck and Stair Dismount. You basically take a little rag doll man, put him into various dangerous positions and let the physics go to work, the more damage you inflict, the better the score. This game is like that. Who can abuse who better? If I played a free game like that for hours upon hours, imagine what the PS3 an do in an entire city rather than falling down one set of stairs?

White Knight Story :

Sony is going to need a lot of RPG muscle to wrest the crown away from the 360 with Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey and Infinite Undiscovery under its belt. This may be one of the deciding key titles.

While there are many many more games I've yet to discover or put as on a high priority, you can tell I am very interested in the future of the PS3 which is unfolding nicely. Hopefully programmers can get it under control, or Sony will step their game up and educate people on how to program for the excessively complicated Cell processor. I know it has potential, but it hasn't been realized fully, let's see what the future holds.

Finally, the PSP slim model was just released and I picked one up to play one of my favorite strategy games of all time:

Final Fantasy Tactics - War of the Lions :

I've yet to write a review on this game, but it is the video game equivalent of chess, it's that complex. The PSP version "merely" adds multiplayer skirmishes via wireless play and full motion animated cutscenes in addition to a few new characters and job ****s. You can play this game for hours.

Upcoming titles (Yes, the PSP plays more than just UMDs) that I look forward to:

Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Plus :

The reason I don't already own MGS:PO is I found out that this enhanced version of the epic saga is coming out next week. More characters, more stories, more modes = Metal Geary Goodness in portable form.

Star Ocean 1 - The First Departure :

Star Ocean 2 - The Second Evolution :

The first Star Ocean was never released outside of Japan, and the Second Evolution (AKA Second Story) was released almost a decade ago on the PS1 and for those of us looking to get a hold of a new updated copy, this is the ticket. Star Ocean 2 is among my favorite RPGs, if not games of all time.

The PSP shows me that it can hang in terms of full length RPGs and in depth action adventure games.

I think the whole reason my faith in Sony and the Playstation brand has been restored mostly is that the company is making the right steps in terms of consumer satisfaction and most importantly, the focus returning to gaming, which is what we are all here for.

That's my piece on where I though Sony was and why I have hope for the future with the PS3 and PSP.

Feel free to let me know what your feeling is towards the Gamer-Sony relationship as I have just shared mine.

An amazing game that didn't get the time of day here at Gamespot. Too bad, it's one of those great games that Sony took a chance on, but isn't getting a huge payout. Heavenly Sword + Folklore = Good times.

In short before clicking on the review, I must say visually and sonically this game is one of the most immersive games I've ever played, the level of detail and polish is very high. The story and characters intriguing and the gameplay solid. For a more in depth look, read here:

Folklore Review.

As my title said, I finally broke 10,000 Gamerscore. It just feels nice being in 5 digits, now I feel all 1337 n stuff.

The little story related to how I broke the 10,000 score marker. It was the "Get 1,000,000 gold achievement for Blue Dragon". The funny thing was my gold I had the second I sold my items was 1001337. Portent of my awesomeness maybe?

Wish I had a screenshot so I could put it up in my sig. Even better would be if it was in my Gamerscore.

That's all, just figure I'd put that out there.

Little late, but better than never.

Blue Dragon Review Link

Again questions, comments? I'm leaving the threats out this time. That will have to wait for Halo 3.

Here it is...

My Heavenly Sword Review.

Questions, comments, thoughts (this isn't Halo or Bioshock so I don't expect any threats)?