Alright, so I published my prior post with a little less bias that I normally review games with, as I really wanted to like it. It was pretty intriguing, and I'm always up for a challenge.

Demon's Souls became so infuriating to play that I avoided playing it. I sat down after about two weeks of neglect (to play Dragon Age Origins) and realized there was absolutely nothing ground-breaking or exciting to being punished by enemies on the first level of play. I promptly returned it and a few other games and purchased Modern Warfare 2, a game of which I'm much more impressed.

I'm Kyle Ruppel, and you should avoid Demon's Souls like the plague unless you're in a sadomasochistic mood.

To begin, I'm pretty sure I write mostly for my own amusement, as no one else in the known universe can handle my rantings, ravings, and various other rigamarole. That aside, it's been quite a while since I've written anything, and a lot has gone on in my life.

I joined the United States Army, for one, bought a PS3 and a Wii, had two more children, and moved to Texas. Exciting, no? On with the insanity, as it were:

Along with being a father, there comes the obligitory Father's Day. My wife not only took me to an Outback Steakhouse, but also alotted me a dollar amount not to equal more than $30. Demon's Souls just so happened to be on sale at Game Stop for the low low low price of $26.99. Having done my research, I snatched up their last copy and ventured home, and this is where the game review and critique will commence, at least what I have completed of the game thus far.

The graphics:

Standard fantasy fare. They're not breathtaking, nor are they revolutionary, but they are passable and a decent entry into the realm of HD gaming. Most textures are crisp and clear, where others leave much to be desired. It's hard to keep up, I'd imagine in a game of this scale, i.e. World of Warcraft, but it works, and I'm not going to shed a tear. At times, the lighting is annoying, as it's meant to be a dark game, but it just gets ridiculous at points.

The control:

It suffices to say the least. The issues with response time and the almost useless dodge feature are about the only negatives I can find.

The gameplay:

Two words: Holy crap. That's all I say over and over again, as I find myself dying and dying and dying. I often find myself on the verge of creating a Dual-Shock 3 shaped hole in the television, but I refrain and step outside for a smoke and a breather, then I'll either shut the damn thing off or slowly try again for about ten minutes. It's not that the gameplay is bad, rather, it's just an insane challenge, and at that, one that needs to be slowly whittled away at, rather than consumed immediately. It's a time absorber for the sheer fact that if you do not take your time you will die... Repeatedly.

The sound:

Very engrossing, the clang of the blade, the grunts and groans of the undead and dying are crisp, clear and entertaining. I have four small children, so the music is not noticeable over their din. Nothing much else to say, the sound is very tidy, very clean, and serves well to draw you in.

The verdict:

I'm not being biased, nor am I jumping the gun, but I will give this game a 7.5 out of 10 for the factor of the extreme difficulty and learning curve involved. I haven't been this challenged for a long time. I actually can't remember the last time I felt this challenged with a newer game. It's frustration that's keeping the score down. It may change once I have the time to plug into Demon's Souls, but until then, it's a strong 7.5, and that's that.

I'm Kyle Ruppel, and Demon's Souls is a game worthy of your time.

Countdown to Fallout

Holy crap, it's a little over 24 hours until I go to pick up my copy of Fallout 3, and it's not soon enough. I called about three days ago, thinking I would upgrade my standard copy up to a collector's edition, but unfortunately I was two days too late. GameStop had quit taking pre-orders on Fallout all together. DAMN! Oh well, there's always eBay, seeing as how I just want the tin lunch box and the bobble head.

I'm just yearning for tomorrow night at 10 o'clock so I can head to GameStop and snatch up my copy which I finished paying on a day ago.

Monster Madness (Need I say more?)

As I mentioned in the Waiting for Fallout 3 blog, I mistook Monster Madness for what may have been a great homage to Zombies Ate My Neighbors, minus the fun, satire, or atmosphere. I brought it home, popped it in, and tossed my wife a controller.

"What the hell is this?"

"Monster Madness, reminds me of Zombies Ate My Neighbors."

"Oh, cool!"

But it wasn't. What. The. Hell. It's basically like this;

Take a great genre, take a great system, and take supremely sub-par graphics, gameplay, horrendous voice-work, and generic, cardboard cut-out characters and what do you have? Monster Madness. We played, no, toiled through the first level and were left with a bad taste in our mouths.

The controls were inaccurate at best. I'd like to know who's idea it was to control the character in a top-down button masher with two analog sticks, but it was stupid. It's annoying, who the hell wants to aim where you're mashing the buttons?

As far as the graphics and gameplay? Normally I can look past that for the good gameplay factor, but even if the graphics were outstanding, it wouldn't save the gameplay. It's tepid and stale at best. It's been done many times over and many times better by its predecessors.

The level design is impossible, there's a vague reminder arrow that is supposed to show you where to go. Pssh. Whatever. I spent ten minutes running backwards, sideways, and upside-down through the level before I realized I had to jump over a hedge just to get to the other side of a police cruiser. What the hell?

Dear Jesus, the next time someone makes a top-down button mashing monster slaying hack-n-slash and it sucks, please, please, please borrow my soul from Bethesda long enough to get them to make it well as a favor to me. Besides, you owe me one. You still haven't returned my copy of My Cousin Vinny widescreen DVD.

I'm Kyle Ruppel and I give Monster Madness .5 severed heads out of 5.

Waiting for Fallout 3

My, oh my, I can't even tell where to begin to describe my yearning, nay, need for this game to come out. To those not actually waiting for anything specific, eight days is a pittance, a mere week. But to me, an avid fan of the Fallout games, it's an eternity. I stopped off at GameStop a short while ago to purchase the Darkness and, yes, Monster Madness (blech! Imagine Zombies Ate My Neighbors without the fun, satire, or atmosphere and you have Monster Madness. More on that later...) I noticed a large poster on the wall advertising Fallout 3. And what else? It's going to be out on the 28th?! My God, where do I sign?

The helpful guy behind the counter who happened to be ringing me up mentioned Fallout 3 and I just about hugged him. He was excited too, and had to mention these fatal words to me;

"Hey, if you pre-order Fallout, you get a free poster and soundtrack right now!"

Me, "Here's my soul, please take good care of it. It's not worth much, but I'm sure it'll stave Bethesda long enough to grant me a reserved copy."

So, I pay my fee and scramble out the door cackling and screaming like a drunken monkey, fling open the door to the Explorer and just giggle. I'm not kidding, I giggled. I've not been so excited for a game, or for that matter, anything to come out in a long time. At least not since the fake trailer for the Legend of Zelda movie debuted and for a brief moment hoped it was real. Or, quite possibly when I heard the Matrix had sequels on the way.

My wife just doesn't get it. I do. I'm a guy, I love Fallout, I love the Elder Scrolls, therefore, I NEED this game.

As a conclusion, just to sum up, I hated Monster Madness, but love Fallout so much that I traded it towards my pre-order fee, so, thank you, GameStop, I now owe two dollars and fifty-six cents less on my fee.

Stay tuned for the action-packed blog about Monster Madness.

Metroid Prime Hunting for a Fair Session

Not too long ago, I invested in a first-gen Nintendo DS. Along with it came Metroid Prime Hunters. I'm not a huge fan of the Metroid series in general, but I was very impressed with the smooth control and the gripping gameplay. Taking a break from the single player missions, I decided to have a go at the multiplayer element. It's great. Really great. The match-making tool is great so you're not hunting for stale rooms.

But, all good things must come to an end. And that end is a fair game session. Even when matched against players at or below your skill level, some of them are able to utilize the glitches on certain levels to snipe anyone, and it surely seem there's a cheating peripheral used by some, which is evident by their abhorrent aim, and rampant jumping and cavorting about the level uselessly, yet they are able to annihilate someone in one or fewer hits.

I'm not new to the FPS genre, and normally get the hang of methods of survival very quickly, but I cannot ever survive long enough to enjoy the multiplayer aspect of this game. I wish Nintendo could implement some form of update or patch to protect the players who wish to actually just enjoy a game instead of an odd rendition of cat and mouse.

Please, if any of you out there play this game, search for players that play fair, and the ones who don't? Paste their names all over forums and label them as cheaters and vagrants who wish nothing more than to destroy what most definitely could be one of the greatest multiplayer games on the DS.

Rock Band

Being a music buff and guitarist myself, this game was a definite choice. I had borrowed Guitar Hero II off of my cousin for a while, mastering the intricacies of songs and button mashing. I purchased the entire Rock Band set, and used my weekend decimating the easy and medium solo guitar tours to get myself warmed back up.

Even at first glance, the set-list is much, much, much better than the one I had previously experienced in GH II. As is the guitar controller. I LOVE the solo frets. The buttons are much smoother, and much more precise. And in a fit of idiocy, I thought that my energy was automatically triggered at random intervals, only to realize the angle I had the neck of the guitar at was setting it off.

The drums, of course, imitate the actual skill of drum playing, which, I must say I suck severely at. It is a tad awkward getting the pedal and drums at the perfect height in certain chairs, but I found that our simple kitchen chairs work out amazingly as long as I have the pedal juxtaposed at an odd enough angle where I need only use my toes to tap the bass.

The microphone is one outstanding peripheral. I am not normally one for karaoke (nor should I be with my tone-deafness), but I really enjoyed myself with this one. I started myself with a surefire win with Nirvana's "In Bloom" while my wife stared at me with wonder at how I was actually maintaining crowd approval.

Onto the general review of the game; the graphics are very easy on the eyes, nothing noteworthy, but nothing horrible either. It's very fun watching the characters play the instruments and cavort about the stage. The sound quality is nothing less than outstanding, feeling every strike of the snare, every twang of a string, and every scratch and growl from the vocals. It puts you into the game. The game-play itself is something to be reckoned with. They've definitely done their homework on this title. All in all, it's a great party game, and one of the few offline multiplayer titles for the XBox 360 that merits tons of replayability.

I'm Kyle Ruppel, and I give Rock Band 4.5 Severed Heads out of 5.