Sunday, October 10, 2010

Top Down Perspective 10 - 10 - 10

Top Down Perspective 10 - 10 - 10

This week we discuss more Dead Rising 2 frustration, Comic Jumper, Enslaved, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and GAME BOAT!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Gamerscore Update: 04/10/10

It has been a long time since I did one of these. That was mainly due to PAX and then moving got in the way. Also, I didn't play anything 360-wise last week so the dry spell just kept piling up. I did get a bunch this week though.

Dead Rising 2
This was the clear winner this week with 400 points achieved in it. Though this may not seem like a ton, especially considering the amount of time I put into it, compared to most people with the game - it's a lot. On my friends list, I don't think anyone else have even broke 200. I really enjoyed it, and though it is an open world game, almost every achievement is for doing something non-story related. Oh and also, every achievement is 20 so that was annoying.

Quantum Theory
This game sucks and I have no idea how the points are because I only got 15 in it and didn't care to spend any more time with it.

Top Down Perspective 04 - 10 - 10

Top Down Perspective 04 - 10 - 10

This week Jon is gone but Nathan and Sean played a ton of Dead Rising 2. Nathan also did some more Halo: Reach but who cares cause Sean played Quantum Theory! He also spent a very little amount of time with Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution.

On the news side: Microsoft announces a great October deal. Also, the Just Cause movie gets a screen writer, the 3DS gets a release date and price for Japan and Gears of War 3 gets pushed back until Fall 2011. Last, NBA Elite 11 also gets pushed back but who cares cause NBA Jam is getting an individual release now.

Tuesday Movies

Good stuff came out last week! I wanna see them!

The Social Network
This movie I have been waiting for ever since I saw the full trailer for it. I really loved that trailer and made me realized this isn't just gonna be "the facebook movie." Also, the director alone should be enough to make you realize what this movie is going to be about. I can not wait for this.

Let Me In
My hatred (fear?) of scary movies makes me really nervous about seeing this but I am really interested in what I've heard about it. I probably won't get to it this week since in the next couple weeks, nothing is out, and then I can fit this one in there. I am looking forward to it though and I like Chloe Moretz.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Loot of the Week

Alright, back with some games cause stuff came out!

Borderlands: Claptrap's New Robot Revolution
I downloaded this on Tuesday but should note that I only did the first objective and have yet to return to it. This is because I realized that the level cap increase wasn't included and I didn't feel like wasting my time later when I have to grind through all that again. So I am planning to wait on that until I can level up while playing soon. The release date isn't announced but it was said to be before the GOTY edition so I have less than a month to wait.

1400 Microsoft Points
I bought more of these, I think I have around 2600 at the moment. I mainly got these because of Microsoft's 800 points back deal going on this month. I already knew I wanted to get enough stuff to meet the requirements but I just needed the points and Blockbusters was giving a good amount of trade credit for Bioshock 2.

Quantum Theory
I should start off by saying that this game is garbage and I can't wait to get it out of my house. I only have 15 points in it and I know I could get more but I'd rather stab myself in the eye.



Pick of the Week


Dead Rising 2
This game was a lot of fun. I never really got into the first one, despite owning it for the last few months and having access to it for years. I don't really know why, I think it was the psychopaths if I can't remember correctly but it was years ago. I very much enjoyed my time with this and already beat it, however, with it being very sand-boxy, I can't see myself going back just to mess around.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Review: Metroid: Other M

My long overdue review of Other M is online over at the Comic Book Bin now. It was alright, I enjoyed the majority of my time with it.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Top Down Perspective 26 - 09 - 10

Top Down Perspective 26 - 09 - 10

Jon is back and talking about Guilty Party and Dead Rising: Case Zero. Sean has been addicted to Professor Layton. Nathan on the other hand spent some time with Minecraft and Civilization V.

The Tester season 2 has an air date and cast, Netflix comes to Canada and PS3's are updated to block out some third party controllers. Along with this, Halo Reach doesn't land first in the top ten played games on the week of its release and girls can now play video games!

Tuesday Movies

This week features two movies. One of which I'm not excited to see, the other I physically can't see.

Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
I know this has been getting bad reviews and the story is apparently terrible, but as a huge fan of animation, I want to see how it looks. The trailers made it look good (aesthetically) and it's also by the guys who did 300 and that's just weird. I'm not super looking forward to it but it just came out and I have no desire to see Wall Street or You Again.

Buried
This is the movie I would really like to see but its limited release taunts and tricks me. The theater close to me has had it advertised as "Coming Soon" for weeks now but no sign of it showing up this week. I'm really confused when they are planning to get it and I hope it's soon. The concept behind this movie has me really interested and I'd much rather see it over that owl movie any day.

Loot of the Week

It's been a while since I've done one of these but that was mainly cause I was moving and needed to settle in to my new place. I did get a lot of stuff since this last post (especially at PAX) but I only feel like writing about this last week's haul.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #14
Like with TWD above, this issue stood out amongst it's previous numbers. This book seems to have finished off the current story arc and it was pretty good to see how that will end. The cliff hanger at the end was also nice and got me excited to see how things are going to play out. The one downside is that I hope things don't change drastically with this story arc's ending.

1400 Microsoft Points
These are always exciting...right. I picked these up with some trade credit (along with pre-ordering Scott Pilgrim vs The World on BD). Along with my 400 or so points I already had on my account, I now have enough for both the new Borderlands DLC and Comic Jumper the following week.

Pick of the Week

The Walking Dead #77
This has probably been the issue I've enjoyed the most for the past few months. Mainly because it is starting up a new story line and it was a bit faster paced than the last few books. That isn't to say that I have been disliking these last few months of The Walking Dead, but I was starting to find it a little slow. With this issue though, I'm very excited to see where it goes from here.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Top Down Perspective 20 - 09 - 10

Top Down Perspective 20 - 09 - 10

This week Jon is sick and Sean messes up the release date of Comic Jumper repeatedly! Nathan talks Dead Rising: Case Zero, Shibuya and Halo: Reach. Sean brings up Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Puzzle Agent, Guilty Party and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

As for news, the Tokyo Game Show is happening and a smorgasbord of announcements come out. The next Devil May Cry game is announced. Suda 51 announces two new games he's working on. Along with this, Dead Rising: Case West, Alice: Madness Returns and Pixeljunk Lifelike get teaser trailers. Halo: Reach loads times are discussed along with some online co-op issues. Last, we talk about Team Ico's new HD collection coming to the PS3.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Tuesday Movies

Here are the movies I plan to see this week and what I wish I had time for:

The Town
My first reaction to this trailer was that it revealed way too much. Not sure if this next part will be too spoilery for some but: specifically the part where he removes his mask and we learn he's also a bad guy. I don't think that was necessary to show in the trailer but maybe I'm wrong and there's an even crazier twist later on in the movie. I really hope so. I'll find out this Tuesday.

Easy A
This movie I've been looking forward to ever since I saw the trailer a month or so ago and felt a bit weird for doing so. At first glance it just looks like another shitty teen romantic comedy but I found myself getting kind of a Mean Girls vibe from it - and who doesn't like Mean Girls? Anyway, it's been getting some great reviews but I feel I'd be seeing it regardless because for some reason, I'm really looking forward to it.

Alpha and Omega
This movie is not one I'll be seeing any time soon; however, that's only because there is a lot more I'm planning to see instead. If there wasn't anything coming out around this time, I'd go see it and I don't know why. This movie sounds and looks awful but for some reason I'd still like to go see it, probably cause of my love for animation....I hope.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Ni no Kuni TGS 2010 Trailers



I really want Ni No Kuni to come state side. It's being developed by Level-5 (who does one of my all time favorite game series) and animated by Studio Ghibli (one of my all time favorite animation houses). I think this is a winning combination. What makes this even more interesting to me is that it's being developed for both the DS (trailer above) and the PS3 (trailer below,) and I'm actually thinking of buying both versions. This is mainly due to the fact that apparently each console copy will feature a different story and, obviously, different game play. I really want this game.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Top Down Perspective - PAX Edition

Top Down Perspective - PAX Edition

We're back from the Penny Arcade Expo and we're here with and extra long edition of TDP. We discuss games like Duke Nukem Forever, Sonic 4, Dance Central, Hydrophobia, Bastion, Killzone 3, Portal 2 and much, much, MUCH more.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Planet Redwood

As the podcast I co-host (Top Down Perspective) grows, we all grow - fact of life. We recently received a wonderful email from one of our regular listeners informing us that they started a fan site devoted completely to Deadly Premonition. What links this to my podcast is the fact that we have been placed in the Media/Links section of the site under Video and Audio. The site's staff feels we are important to this community of DP fans if not to them especially.

As you know, the cast of TDP are all huge supports of the game and, I certainly, couldn't be happier to see more light being shone onto this game. More people need to play it, more people need to experience it.

The site is called Planet Redwood and features far more information than I personally knew about the game. I definetely recommend giving it a look over, I'm sure there's some information in there you didn't know either.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Top Down Perspective 30 - 08 - 10

Top Down Perspective 30 - 08 - 10

This week Nathan starts us off with some talk on older PC games and moves into the XBLA version of Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Sean picks up from there and rolls into some Shank and Monopoly. Jon finishes off with more Scott Pilgrim.

On the news side, Microsoft strictly watching Halo: Reach pirates and is sending out beta testing kits for its new Kinect peripheral. Sony slows down sales on the new modding chip and chooses not to release the new Kingdom Hearts game on their PSP Go. Death Spank gets an incredibly early sequel and the new Xbox 360 Dashboard and Avatars are leaked.

Loot of the Week

I picked up a TON this week. I'm going to write about it all!

Alpha Bounce
This was the first game I ever picked up for the DSiWare. I found an article over at IGN that updates weekly with micro reviews for each DSiWare title. I basically ran through that seeing which ones they liked (or loved) and decided if the price point sounded alright. I believe this was 500 points and they really loved it. It's a traditional brick break game with some RPG elements (specifically a loot system). I definitely see myself playing this game a lot.

Escapee Go!
This was another of the DSiWare games I found from the IGN article and mainly bought because they "liked it" and it was 200 points. I find the $2 price point very appealing, that's basically pocket change and even if the game sucks, oh well. I haven't played much of it yet but the premise I got from the first level sounds interesting. Looking forward to diving more into it on the way to PAX.

Don't Cross the Line
This was the last DSiWare game I picked up this week. It's the most puzzle oriented considering it's literally a series of variations on one logic puzzle. You need to connect like images without letting your connecting lines cross - hence the name. It's very straight forward and the number of different levels make this an easy steal for $2. The one downside I find with it is the lack or a quick restart to each level.

Gunpey
I'll be honest; I know nothing about this game besides that it got some average reviews from almost everyone. I just found it for $3 and the box art immediately drew me in. The concept of a simple puzzle game developed by Q Entertainment is what sold me though. Considering the fact I'm going on a series of trips soon, it was an easy choice. I am really looking forward to playing it.


Ultimate Board Game Collection
I have no idea if this is really the ultimate in board game collections. I highly doubt it is. The fact alone that it doesn't have Scrabble is criminal, but it does have Go so there you are. It was $5 and I could really go for some Go (see what I did there?).


Shank
I am very much enjoying this game and feel that it's worth the 1200 Microsoft Point price. There is a great single player campaign and the fact that the co-op has its own prequel campaign is great. Co-op specific bosses and some great silhouetted moments are amongst my favorite parts to this game. I'll probably run through it again on hard to get every last achievement.

I've decided to start doing a "winner" or "prize pick" section to these each week. The prize pick (maybe "choice pick"?) will always be at the end and will be either the item I had the best time with, or maybe spent the longest with. It may also be the purchase I'm most interested in and haven't even tried out yet. I'll go about explaining them each time they come up.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game
My love for achievements made me wait for this game to finally come to the XBLA and I'm glad I did because they are easy. I've played through the game three times now and I'm already on my fourth and awaiting my fifth. Really great game, can't say that enough. Despite the numerous bugs I've found it still remains incredibly charming. There is so much detail in this game and the fact that it came out for 800 was amazing.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Gamerscore Update: 29/08/10

This week was mainly downloadable games and the total stands at 74 585.

Shank
This was an overall good game and, though I'm not done the main campaign, the achievements are coming in quite regularly. The majority of them are from beating each of the single player bosses so I'll get those at some points. I currently have 80 of them and since there's one for 1000 kills and beating it on hard, I'm pretty sure I could S-rank this game.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game
I am loving this game and the fact that the achievements are quite easy. I've beaten it three times already and plan to do it another two times to wrap up one more of the achievements. I currently have 170 points in it.

Monopoly
This is where the points really came rolling in this week. I have 480 points in it so far and that was around five hours of play. I should note that three of these hours I had another TV on so I could watch something else because Monopoly is SLOW. Most of the points seem relatively easy, and considering all of this game seems to be pure chance, I think I can get another hundred or so just by having it on in the background. I don't plan to spend too much more time with it however.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Everything about this is awesome

This game is my pick for the best movie tie-in game ever. It is so fun and there is so much detail in this (especially if you follow the comics and the creator).

First Impressions: Shank


  • Wonderful art style
  • Very fluid movement and combo systems
  • The co-op has its own campaign which is a great feature
  • Doing some of the co-op combos are very tricky - I have yet to figure out just how exactly I was pulling any of them off
  • This game is a hard Mature rating
  • Nice silhouette moment in the first level of the co-op
  • Long load times

Monday, August 23, 2010

Top Down Perspective 23 - 08 - 10

Top Down Perspective 23 - 08 - 10

Nathan starts us off with some Fallout 3 and moves into Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. Sean also shares his time with K&L2 along with X-Men Origins Wolverine, Bioshock 2 and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Jon wraps us up with Adventure Island, more of his usual old games and one very obscure Mario game at the end.

Gamescon is going on this week in Germany and we get news such as Mortal Kombat getting real time updates when launched, Microsoft announcing Flight and Mass Effect 2 heading to PS3s. THQ bumps up their online play to $10 and begins development on a tablet peripheral on the Wii, Microsoft also announces a list of games coming to Windows Mobile 7.

Loot of the Week

This week was packed with games old and new!

Street Fighter 4
I constantly heard good things about this game and, though I'm no where near as competitive as the core audience for these games, I always wanted to play it. I have only put it on once so far and choose to turn on the anyone-can-jump-in-and-play-you-whenever feature which was a huge mistake since. I'm really bad at this game.

Bioshock 2
I am really enjoying this game, it feels great and the controls are smooth. I played through the first one far too long after it was out but did enjoy it. I'm only about four hours into this game so I am planning on wrapping that up soon.


X-Men Origins: Wolverine
This was a game I got in a three for $25 deal (along with Street Fighter 4 and Bioshock 2) and ran through it completely this week. I mainly picked it up after enjoying Singularity so much and wanting to try out some more from Raven Software. I love the references those guys put in their games. For the most part this game was great but it dragged on near the end.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
This was last week's XBLA release and the final item in Microsoft's Summer of Arcade '10. I ran through it completely in the local co-op with a friend and really enjoyed it. There are some, surprisingly, really good set pieces in that game. I do recommend it and I can't wait for the announced DLC.

Nintendo Points
I bought these to finally use on my DSi. I am hoping to pick up some DSiWare games before my plan trip to PAX this year. I'm currently looking at games like Divergent Shift and Chronos Twins. Hopefully I can find something good to occupy me. It's ridiculous that your points can't be used on both the Wii and the DSi.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Gamerscore Update 21/08/10

This week was good for points. I picked up several games since last weekend and earned around 1 300 points.

Gamerscore total is at 73 455.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
This was the big release this week and though I ran through it twice (once alone and again in coop) I can't bring myself to like it. I got 545 points out of it and almost all of it is from the main campaign. I don't have much interest in the multiplayer but I may jump into it for a few more achievements.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
This was the final release in the 2010 Summer of Arcade and it is really fun. I only got Limbo and this from the series this year so it wasn't the best. I got 175 points in this game, missing only one of the achievements. The last one is collecting all the relics, artifacts and weapons so it will definitely take some time.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
This was the game that got me the most points this week. I got 595 points in the game and I'm on the fourth level out of the five in total. Most of them come from killing a certain number of people in different ways. I'm quite enjoying it and I really like Raven Software. I plan to finish it which will get me another 100 points or so.

Singularity
I only got another 30 points in this. I finished up some multiplayer stuff and decided against doing a play through on hard. I had to move on to other games.

Bioshock 2
I got 10 points in this. I only played about 15 minutes so I can't really talk about it yet.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - E3 Trailer

I can not wait for this game, it's so close!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Top Down Perspective 16 - 08 - 10

Top Down Perspective 16 - 08 - 10

Once again we have Dustin here to fill in a fourth chair. He talks about his time with Star Craft 2. Nathan gets into detail about Wet, Peggle, Fallout 3 and a bit much on Spy Fiction. Jon talks Ducktales and Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game. And Sean wraps up with more Singularity and Split/Second.

Duke Nukem Forever might not be dead as well as the outcome of the Penny Arcade game series as discussed this week. Warren Spectre talks a new Ducktales game and Irrational Games announces Bioshock Infinite along with revealing a trailer for the game. Insane EVE Online hijinks go down, a Castle Crashers arcade cabinet will be at PAX, RAGE gets a release date and more are discussed in this week’s TDP!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

First Impressions: Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

This will be ongoing as I take part in the first bit of the game. I am playing it on the 360, hopefully things don't lock up.
  • Great start screen menu music
  • It has it's own in game achievements menu (love it when games do this)
  • Reloading takes way too long
  • Visuals are great
  • Progressing really fast, this is a short game
  • So many enemies

Monday, August 16, 2010

Loot of the Week

It's Sunday again (actually is 12:40 in the morning on Monday but that's close enough!) so let's talk about what I picked up this week.

Split/Second
This is a racing game that focuses heavily on blowing up and destroying the track you're competing on. What makes it so cool is just how many different ways there are to cause explosions and destroy the other competitors. One of my favorite moments was causing a dam to blow and crush four cars in front of me as I stole first place. I will say this though: the AI is mad cheap and can cause the latter half of the game to be a drag, this might be a rent (read some reviews!).

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #13
This is a series I enjoy quite a bit. It follows Peter Parker in his high school days and features some team ups with Ice Man and the Human Torch. This one in particular is dealing with a kidnapping and some body switching and is a good lead up for what is sure to be some cool events.

The Walking Dead #76
I cannot get enough of these. It has to be my favorite on going series right now; to the point that I open it up and start reading on my walk home. This issue is quite good in terms of dealing with the main character psychological situation. It however leads to a great cliff hanger to what will hopefully be some great character development next month.

Daytripper #9
I can't say much about this issue since I haven't read it yet. I really enjoy the series though. It follows an obituary writer depicting specific moments of his life. What makes it so interesting though is that at the end of each book, our main character dies in some form or another.

Gamerscore Update: 16/08/10

This week was two games mostly, however there was an extensive amount played of both of these.

Total gamerscore stands at: 72 100

Singularity
I finished this game and enjoyed it vastly. I currently have 765 points in it. What really surprised me is how much I enjoyed the multiplayer as well. I was content with just running through it once and being done with it there but I heard the online was good so I gave it a chance. I really like it. So much in fact that I have almost all the class-specific achievements for the multiplayer. I have a couple more online ones to get and I think I'll just back in for a run on hard to get a few more. I might even S-rank this game.

Split/Second
This was a new one to me and I ran through all of it in about three days. Granted these days consisted of about 4-6 hours of gameplay straight. I got 455 points in the game and I feel I'm done with it. Like the reviews have said, it puts it best foot forward early and the AI cheats a TON. With that, there aren't many online achievements to keep me staying with it. The main ones are reaching certain ranks but with the number of games I played and where I ended up in the rankings - that's more time than I want to commit.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

He-Man is always great

I just started up Split/Second and upon using one of my event triggers I unlocked an achievement. What makes this so note worthy is the name of the achievement: I Have The Power. References to He-Man are always great.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Top Down Perspective 09 - 08 - 10

Top Down Perspective 09 - 08 - 10

Due to technical difficulties, we ended up losing the last ten minutes of the podcast.

This week we bring on a special guest and get in some brief talk on Starcraft 2. Nathan and Sean talk a bit more about The Signal as well as get into depth on Singularity. Jon finishes us up with some Castlevania: Harmony of Despair.

Pokemon Black and White will have exclusively new pokemon until you beat the game. NHL 11 releases a TON of DLC before the game is out. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s multiplayer demo can only be obtained by preordering it through GameStop and much more is discussed this week!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Loot of the Week

It's Sunday and as I wait for some Tales of Vesperia video walkthroughs to load and enjoy some great Tested.com video features I figured I should show what I picked up this week. There was a lot.

Chew trade 1 & 2
This is a series of comics by writer John Layman and artist Rob Guillory about Tony Chu, a cop, who has an unusual psychic power. He is a Cibopath, a person that gets visions when they eat food. With this power and the writers bizarre sense of humor, the comic is a great read. Can't recommend it enough and now is the time to get into it before filming begins on the television series.

Kick-Ass (Blu-ray)
If any of you follow my podcast (Top Down Perspective) then you know I'm a huge fan of this movie and that it came out this week on dvd/blu-ray. I picked it up on the first day and watched it twice since then. Still a great movie and I'm told that the fact Lionsgate did the disc is a good thing? Can't recommend this movie enough.

James and the Giant Peach (Blu-ray)
This was an old movie from the 90s that never got ported onto blu-ray over the past few years that this media format has taken off. I'll be honest, this was more of an impulse buy as my friend gave me a $10 off coupon and his excitement increased mine. Still haven't watched it yet but do enjoy the film.


Singularity (360)

The last this from this week was an Xbox 360 copy of Singularity. This came out a couple weeks ago but I was so busy with other games that I wasn't able to find time to grab it. I've already jumped into it and am enjoying it quite a bit. For a more detailed break down of the game, stay tuned for my podcast in the next few days.

Gamerscore Update: 07/08/10

Alright, another week has gone by and another week's worth of points has been gained.

Current total is 70 980. This is about 400 points more than last time, let's see where those came from.

Clash of the Titans
This game isn't that great for points, by finishing the game I got 365 points. This was around eight hours of play - and repetitive and terrible play at that. Most of the points were for just completing each of the chapters and a few were for getting some quick time events perfect a few times. Getting any more points would require some grinding with the combat. Considering that 99% of the game is repetitive combat, I couldn't come to do any more.

Singularity
I only have 100 points in this so far. The majority of them seem like weapon based ones, specifically were you need a certain number of kills with each. I'm definitely enjoying my time with it so far. I also hear the multiplayer is quite fun so I'll definitely check that out at some points.

Tales of Vesperia
I finally got back into this never ending RPG. Just as fun as I remember but I still have a ton of stuff left to do in it. As it is an RPG, the points are terrible, I only got 30 since I got back into it and that was around 12 hours of game play.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Top Down Perspective 03/08/10

Top Down Perspective 03 - 08 - 10

Nathan kicks us off with some of his Limbo wrap up, The Club and the Kane & Lynch 2 demo. He and Sean also discuss their opinions on Clash of the Titans and Alan Wake’s first piece of DLC: The Signal. Sean also brings up some of the Darkness and more on Wanted: Weapons of Fate. Jon wraps us up with Klonoa 2 and Dragon Quest 9.

When it comes to news we talk about punishing people in Halo: Reach, Sony Lifestyle and just how excited we are about The Tester season 2. Valve decides to help out other developers and Kick-Ass is now out on DVD/BD so go buy it!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

First Impressions: Singularity

Ongoing as I play through the first bit:
  • Way similar to Bioshock in terms of themes and feel
  • Friggin' jump scares
  • Damn monsters don't die very easily
  • Dismemberment is great
  • Handles nicely
  • The Seeker is very fun to use but doesn't turn enough to be incredibly useful

Saturday, July 31, 2010

You know what's Freakin' Sweet?

Not playing Clash of the Titans, that's what.

Gamerscore Update: 31/07/10

It's been a while since I've done one of these, then again it's been a while since I used this site. All is changing and change is good (not really).

So the current total is 70 535.

Red Dead Redemption
I finally got around to making my way through the main campaign for this. I really didn't get into it back when it first was released but with all the positive talk I kept hearing about it, I figured it needed a second chance. My opinion changed significantly but it's still just not my game. Open world games tend to turn me off a bit. It should say something when I tell you I never once did anything apart from story missions. This shows why I only have 320 points in the game which, compared to the time I put into the game, isn't that much. The ending is great though.

The Darkness
This came from my run of the $2.50 games at Block Buster and sat in between finishing Red Dead and waiting for Clash to come out. It's an interesting game, the darkness powers definitely set it apart from other first person shooters. I'm enjoying it for the most part; my only grievance is the lack of a navigation system. I can't tell you how many times I got utterly lost. As for the points, I have 235 of them which, once again, isn't a lot for the time put it. I do like the achievements though since the majority can be collected just through playing the game normally. I can see a lot of them unlocking closer to the end though since I have to get a certain amount of kills with each power for the most part.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate
I rented this game, since it's around three hours long. I already played this game on the PS3 since I picked it up from Block Buster for $2.50 and felt that I could get some easy points and fast on the 360. I was right. I have 485 of them and that's just from one run through on normal. I'm not sure if I'll go through it one more time on hard, I probably should since that will get me another 300 or so. It doesn't seem like a hard S rank at all.

Alan Wake
I mention this because I gained around 200 from it just from playing through The Signal DLC. That's the only reason I went back to the game, I had already finished it. I enjoy the DLC, found it pretty solid - especially for being a free download. It's much harder than the standard game so getting the two collectables achievements got really frustrating. Overall, good amount of points for the hour or so I put in.

Clash of the Titans
I don't really have much to say about this yet, I haven't played that much. I'm maybe an hour or so in and have around 90 points. A lot of them seem like they'll take a bit, we'll have to see.

Fallout 3 (PC)
I left this one for last since it's the one that got me the most. As I'm sure any achievement hunter knows, the points in this game are mad easy since you can just type in an unlock code for everyone; this includes the DLC. So it might be a little dirty but it got me 1 550 points in about three minutes.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Review: Crackdown 2

My review for Crackdown 2 is finally online and over at The Comic Book Bin. Took me a while to buckle down and get it up but it's there.

For the most part I was having fun. I did address some of the issues there are but the biggest by far is the games relation to the first Crackdown; mainly the fact that they're almost the same thing.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Star Craft 2 midnight launch

Star Craft 2 comes out tomorrow. The local game store near my house is having a midnight launch for it. I continue not to play computer games so I didn't preorder it. With no intention of picking it up, I will be going down there tonight. Two main reasons for this: I have to give my friend, who works there, a copy of Viva Pinata 2 and I have Clash of the Titans preordered.

The latter is clearly the better reason.

I miss these

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Top Down Perspective 24 - 07 - 10

Top Down Perspective 24 - 07 - 10

We talk about a ton of movies this week but that doesn’t stop Sean from bringing up Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Red Dead Redemption and, along with Nathan, Limbo. Jon talks about Chrono Trigger DS, Apollo Justice and how he can’t seem to start Dragon Quest IX. Nathan finishes what we’ve been playing with Death Spank.

The San Diego Comic Con is on so we run down some of its more video game centered announcements. Dead Rising: Case Zero gets a price point and we’re both excited and worried. Kinect bundles and prices are finally revealed and Demon Souls online/white tendency is increased.

We want you to write in a lot this week with three separate questions for you to answer. 1) Would you like to hear us do a podcast all about Spy Fiction? 2) Do you think the next rookie (Carmine) in Gears of War 3 should live or die? 3) What do you think happened to Frank West at the end of the original Dead Rising? Send in your responses to the email address (topdownperspective@hotmail.com) or comment with your answers on the site.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Tron Legacy




IGN Preview - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

The Walking Dead on AMC

Limbo

The new banner is some concept art for the yesterday-released Xbox Live Arcade Game: Limbo. In no way do I own this image, I am simply a thief and Google is my weapon of choice.

I've already completed the game and enjoyed it very much. The atmosphere it sets up is great. This is a product that I feel would only work as a video game. Though, like most people are saying, it is quite short and due to how long I spent with the game - granted I will be going back through it again - I'm not sure I'm totally for the 1200 price point. With the amount of content in this game, 800 seems like the perfect price. I mean, it's not like the developers had to go out of their way to create a highly detailed game here - aesthetically speaking.

It's the first in the Summer of Arcade 2010 line up this year. I'm looking forward to Castlevania: Harmony of Despair but that's about it. I have no interest in Hydrothunder or Monday Night Combat. These might just be a "wait for the review and then decide if I want it" game. If anything, I may pick up Tomb Raider as I do enjoy dual joystick shooters.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Top Down Perspective 13/02/10

Here is the third episode of the Top Down Perspective. It is now stationed at a new website along with it's own domain account. Now you can see each episode and nothing else if you wish. Along with the new updated podcast, I have added a new sidebar widget that allows you to see some of the more recent episodes and play then from this site. Without further ado:

This week we get in deep about the new Heavy Rain demo, Nathan’s opinion of Dante’s Inferno and Jon’s list of old GameBoy games that (for some reason) he is running through. Also, we wrap up any unfinished business regarding No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle and Jon beats, once again, another game while we chat - this time Contra.

On the news side we discuss Microsoft’s X10 event. This brings up our opinions on everything from the Xbox Live Game Room to the new Perfect Dark XBLA. Dead Rising Case Zero is also discussed along with Dead Rising 2 being talked about at length.


You can access the episode here.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Top Down Perspective: 07/02/10

The second installment of my (and by "my", I mean what I'm included in) podcast The Top Down Perspective is now live. Like before, it can be found at its main page here. If you would like a direct link, here's one. And if you want a quick download to your iTunes library, well here you go. Here's a recap of the episode:
This week's episode has taken some of the feedback from the first episode to heart and is a little more structured. A smaller file, shorter length (At 1 hour 10 minutes instead of 2 hours) and just a little bit more focused (but only a bit). We're also trying out a new sound setup and meeting in person to do these, so bear with us.

This week's episode deals with the closing of the Xbox Live servers for original Xbox games, last year's top selling XBLA games and overall games, along with Project Needlemouse/Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and the new reality show on the PSN, The Tester.

As always, any questions, comments, feedback, fan/hate mail, etc... can be sent to topdownperspective@hotmail.com

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Here we go

It's live! The first episode of Top Down Perspective is now live and can be found here. I think Jon put it elegantly when describing it as such:

The inaugural episode of the Top Down Perspective introducing your three hosts: Nathan, Sean and Jon

We talk about the latest news in the gaming industry while also talking about new releases such as No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Mass Effect 2, and more.

Any questions, comments, feedback, fan/hate mail, etc... can be sent to topdownperspective@hotmail.com and who knows, maybe we'll read it out next time!

So go on and take a listen, or download it onto iTunes if that's your thing. Soon (as we get more episodes up) we will be putting it on the iTunes store. I hope you enjoy it.

Top Down Perspective
Here's the RSS feed (cause I know some of you like that)

Friday, January 29, 2010

Last week's thoughts

Here are some thoughts about what I played this last week:
  • Dark Void ended in an awful way
  • Darksiders is really good
  • Muscle March is still great
  • Bit. Trip Void is still boggling my mind in concept
  • Mass Effect 2 is great despite my grand dislike for the first one
  • I need to get back to Dragon Age: Origins
  • No More Heroes 2 looks incredible so finishing the first is now a mandatory task
  • Why did I buy the second No More Heroes with only three hours clocked into the first?
  • Spirit Tracks is still a great game and I'm quite enjoying the heavy music aspect
  • Battle for Forli is garbage

Top Down Perspective

With two of my friends, Nathan and Jon, I am starting up a podcast again. Like Blown Speakers, it will be weekly and all about the games we're playing and the industry surrounding them. It will be called Top Down Perspective and I am very excited to get it going.

The difference between this and my previous podcast is that I have much more faith in this one. Doing a podcast with one other guy can be very hard. If only one of us has played the game, the discussion on it will be short. If one of us isn't available to do it, it can't be done. With three people we are able to have much more engaging conversations and can bring extra flavors to the news. the guys I'm working with on this are great, their passion for games is as great as, if not above, my own and they really know their stuff.

So far we have been doing these on Friday nights but it will most likely just be one day each week that we're all free. We will be doing our first official recording tonight and hopefully it will be up by the end of the weekend.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Uncharted 2: Why I love it

So I finished Uncharted 2 a little more than a week ago. As I'm sure you have heard, it's great. The thing is, I disliked the first game. In fact, I almost hated the first game. The second game however really fixes everything, like everything. Overall it was a great game, but let us explore just why I enjoyed it so much despite my hatred of the first.

The Combat
In the first game the combat sucked. It had all the mechanics that it should have but the difficulty of them and the execution wasn't the best. First off, the enemies never died. Those guys could take so many hits without even being fazed. And the ones that could get knocked around a bit seemed to be able to take even more bullets before dropping.

Along with this, you ended up having to use a LOT of bullets, bullets that can't do much damage, bullets that need to be picked up off of fallen enemies. You can see the problem. Countless times I wasted several clips on a group of enemies to end up finding myself having to run into the group to pick up some more. Leading to an easy death.

This brings up the idea of the hand-to-hand combat. It wasn't very good too. The only time you ever wanted to use the melee attacks was when there was only one man remaining. If you do it with a few guys around, they will kill you before you're doing beating the first guy down. What ruined it was the very precise timing you needed to have when hitting the square and triangle buttons. Don't get me wrong, needing a sense of timing isn't bad, but needing that precise of it when being rained down on by gun fire is very hard.

Difficulty
So you might be thinking that I just sucked at the game and should have changed to an easier difficulty. Well the thing is, I was playing on easy throughout the whole game. I choose this off the bat since I had heard how good the second game was and needed to finally start the first. I had to get through it quite so I could experience it and know the story and characters.

So you can see why I had become so frustrated with the game when I was losing so much on what should have been easy, at least the choice of difficulties lead me to believe this.

The Platforming
This was the only part I enjoyed about the first game. It had some really good landscapes and made you scale some really crazy towers. The issue with this was that there wasn't enough. After around five minutes of climbing and traversing the environment, you had to go into another gun fight. The whole game was just moving from one gun fight into another. This really made me notice how short the one aspect of the game I enjoyed was and ended up ruining for me.

If Uncharted: Drakes Fortune had less of a focus on the gun-play, it would have been much better.

So what did the second game do that made me love it so much? I'm glad you asked.

The Combat
Fixed. Enemies now don't take ALL the bullets to go down. I can stay in one spot and shoot out people easily. This makes the gun fights last significantly shorter. One bad thing is that picking up ammo is the same but with the ability to actually kill the guys when you need to makes this not as bad.

The hand-to-hand combat is also much, much better. Instead of needing the exact timing when hitting the guy, you can just mash the square button until he is dead. They even add in a counter attack mechanic. This allows you to fight back whenever one of the enemies grabs you or blocks one of your punches. Much better.

Difficulty
Also fixed. I was able to go through the whole game on Normal and find it easier than the first one on Easy. With the enemies actually dying after a realistic number of bullets I found myself having a much better time and even enjoying the gu fights. The only downside was near the end when you have to fight these incredibly over powered enemies. They can kill you in about two hits from either their melee attacks or their crossbows. Thankfully this was only for about one or two chapters at the end.

The Platforming
Great. I enjoyed it in the first game but the way they set it up in this one was much better. They last so much longer, the gun fights don't take away from the traversing and the camera alone both helps point you in the right direction and forces you to look at how gorgeous the environment they created is. In fact, the movements of the camera are one of my favorite parts of the game. The quite cuts and ideal slow motion moments make seeing Nathan Drake jump from a collapsing building better than ever.

The Set Pieces
This is where Uncharted 2 really shines. Not only did it fix everything from the first game, but it managed to make some incredible lasting impressions by making you play incredibly one time moments again and again. Whether this be running down a city street while a tank follows close behind trying to blow you up, climbing out of a train dangling off the end of a cliff with a bullet in your gut or even fighting enemies in a tower that is falling over and making you jump through a window in order to live, everything was amazing. These moments - along with countless others - are what gives me such a good lasting appeal about the game and make it a hard one to forget.