The POP revisited
This is a redo of the POP review.
Why?
Be
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Star Wars the Clone Wars Review
The game is interesting, and pretty much the expected outcome of a controller system like that of the Wii, unfortunately, its also a bit disappointing. Though to criticize the game is a bit unfair, because after all, the system is new, and you’re bound to get it wrong, the first few times.
That being said, its not that ‘wrong’ either… in fact its quite fun, specially if you play in multiplayer mode, which is what this game was designed for. The single player mode, is slow and repetitive, and because of the opposition requires you to do specific, repetitive combination… until you get bored… with a friend in the fray, it becomes pretty interesting, because you will both be free wheeling, in a way. While the opponents in the single player mode, can parry, almost perfectly and so fights get longer and longer…
The controlling, which is what you really want to know about anyway, isn’t all that expansive either, literally… there are just four basic moves, slashes and stab. And they involve not majestic swishes but mere flicks of the wrist to get right… once you’ve mastered the skill of slashing, you really cant do much more. The fights as I said before are all pre-meditated on ‘combo’ lines, limiting the effect of free slashing.
But because the game has a decent story line, and fits in seamlessly with Star Wars story, its fun. All the environments are brilliantly done… and the fights have glorious cinematic effects… making them look a lot like the movies.
Another thing I’d really like to see, is the dialogue. Apparently they’ve dubbed separate lines for each character facing any other possible fighter in the pack. So Obi Wan and Anakin taunt each other, as though it were a practice session, while Obi says considerably worse things to other fighters. That sort of attention to detail, will go a long way to preventing the game from getting stale… specially if you play it the way its meant to be… against your friends, because once you establish your favourite characters, their having their own personality goes a long way.
The other thing that I should mentions, is that while its not evident in the single player mode, each fighter in the game has his own special kind of fighting style, something which is very evident in multiplayer mode. Personally if there’s anyone I want to kill, I’d introduce him to this game.
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Transformers Animated : The Game Review
Well, the first thing you need to know about this title, is that its not the old transformers… in fact it barely transforms. Bad jokes apart, its true, the game has significantly reduced the amount of ‘transforming’ you do. Rather a let down!
Well anyway, the game is designed to please kids, and I mean real kids here, not the average pre-teen, but the true inner child, we are told to get in touch with. There’s very little violence, and mostly obstacle courses.
The characters to have been changed, with Prime and the others not quite as strong, or serious as they used to be… in fact to anyone familiar with the older games, it would be quite disturbing.
The game play is based on a side scrolling, multiple character platform. You play as one of the triad of bumblebee, optimus and bulkhead. Each one has his own special skill, bulkhead can break things, bumblebee jumps, and optimus can grapple on walls. Not quite what you expect these grave characters to do. But if its any consolation, they’re not quite what they used to be either.
The game play however is good, and the visuals are slightly better, and in keeping with a cartoon feel, on which the game is based. It’s a licensed game after all. The controls are smooth, and combined with the good graphics, it makes for a fun, sure play game. With the violence levels low enough… its all good for a kid brother’s birthday present or the equivalent, though the chances of you enjoying it, are fewer.
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Kill All Humans, the Path of Furon Review
This is another in the long series of kill all humans games. And yes I’ve played none of them.
The game play seems to follow a simple enough, GTA like structure, you go around town blowing up people, buildings and the like. You have missions and stories etc. The screen shots looked impressive but the textures, background elements and things like cars are blocky. A definite take away if your playing on the 360, which should frankly not have any such issues. Crypto himself is really beautiful, and the visual effects are beautiful.
Matrix sort of stuff… which may excuse the bad backdrops.
The game play involves like I said missions, and lots of killing, with a variety of weapons, using both handheld guns and a brilliantly lit, purple saucer. The guns sound interesting, with a tracer bullet firing anal probe and much more…
Another interesting idea is the special abilities crypto has, ranging from being able to stop time, to more, apparently this is an old idea… from the second title in the series.
One thing though, that the reviewer didn’t like, was that the game played too much the ones before it, the story elements and game play are repetitive, with boredom a real possibility despite the cool effects.
The dialogue though is genuinely funny, and the sound effects are pretty good, with the score coming largely from old B movies.
The look they’ve given Crypto makes him seem interesting and suggestive, and with such advanced abilities like time stopping, and the very pleasing prospect of killing people, and bashing things, I think it I’d pick it up.
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The Principle
Today I am not pleased at all.
Seriously!
My computer just crashed. It was a scheduled crash. Yes! Such things exist, when you deal with pirated software, torrents, borrowed disks, and god knows which websites, system crashes are only part and parcel of life, and in fact could prove beneficial.
Crashes usually substitute, at least in my case, for driver upgrades and the like, a crashed system automatically gets the best software outthere! But the problem is how much trouble collecting all that software can be.
You need to remember the minutest details, down to which sub-series, and sub-model your sound card belongs to, and which year the model was released. Sometimes, if you aren’t lucky, even the mother board’s specs. The only good news is, is that with better net speeds, the downloading is a relatively painless process.
Or should be… except!
My net access is through the University, the university doesn’t let us download .exe files from the net. Abominable! I mean, you need drivers to run a PC, period, whether you play games or not, is immaterial.
In preventing me from playing games, they are preventing so many potential users from completing their assignments and the like.
And yes, it is entirely besides the point, that computer without the latest drivers, or 256mb of video RAM can still run office, and therefore, even without these drivers, I could extract total academic function ability from my computer.
What matters as usual, is the principle.
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Nouveau riche
The lifestyles of the rich and famous never got it easy. The list of billionaires of the year 1991 is rather intriguing. The Nouveau riche mentality sets them apart from the rest along with heavy publicity. They form a clan that is often talked about spreading little bytes of their family that were so far hidden. To cite an example, a site called http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1991/09/09/75462/index.htm lists the best of the best nouveau riche gentry that one could imagine. It’s definitely worth many clicks for an interesting insight! With over 20 names gracing the list, the site contains features to each name, country and the company that sets him/ her a cut above the other.
Lets take ESTEE LAUDER, for example. At 83 today she is a part of the NEW YORK unit that amounts to closely $5.2 billion dollars, a 100 percent profit making company under the name of Estee Lauder Inc. With little to do with the management of a company that she founded, she joins the exclusive nouveau riche family. While her son Leonard is the CEO, her younger son Ronald, former U.S. ambassador to Austria, does the hopping around for investment opportunities in the erstwhile communist bloc.
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SingStar ABBA review
SingStar ABBA is an expasion of a competitive Karaoke franchise. The ideas is simple, you collect a few videos, their lyrics, program a pitch meter, and get kids to sing into mics and compare their notes, and highs with that of the song, and depending on closeness give them a score.
Nothing really that spectacular afterall.
The ABBA version, doesn’t add anything new to the idea, in fact the only thing it does add area 20 or 25 if you play it on the PS3 songs. Though the sound quality is good for a PS2 Title, and the pitch meter is good, the point of it all, isn’t clear.
Of course if you’re a fan of ABBA or just like singing, the game might engage you, but with just 20 songs, anyone would get bored of it soon enough. I mean imagine a Karaoke night with only 20 songs, and then imagine just those 20 songs forever…
Of course its not really that bad, you could just put in another game disk!
Videos which usually tend to balance out the blandness of the game, in the case of ABBA aren’t all that bright to start with.
The worst part is, the game doesn’t even include the SingStar mics you need to play the game.
All in all, I’m wondering, “what’s the point?”
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POP on the PS3 concluded
So carrying forward the last review…
The PS3 POP has changed the way the fighting works too. Instead of the basically button punching, in mindless patterns bit, you now have more delicate combos to aim for. While this makes the game more challenging, it’s not quite as much fun, something I find a little irritating, in a very real way. The game, during combat seems to slow down, and the prince looses almost all his powers. Apparently it becomes somewhat linear based, what ever that means. He’s actually better at blocking than at attacking, and much faster, this is supposed to foster a more precise sort of attacking strategy. It also makes the game run longer and slower. The combat is definitely one of the fames weaker points.
Apparently the amount of combat too has been lowered, and you fight in very predictable patterns across similar parts of the world. And have to combat the boss of each level multiple times, which also makes the game a little repetitive.
There are fewer puzzles though, something I appreciate, and more run and jump, death, and gravity defying feats, a definite plus as far as I’m concerned. Though the way in which they work has changed a little too, its not quite as structured or fixed as before, and apparently, those moments in which you were suspended in air, wondering what to do next, and then watched yourself fall into the pit, have been eliminated, or atleast, you have other options. But with the game being so elaborate, the tutorials etc. are very long too.
The environment and effects, as I’ve said before are a real USP, and anyway, anything tha the PS3 magazine rates with an 8 on 10, has got to be good. If you like POP buy it, if you like Fun, I’d suggest the same course of action.
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PS3 POP I
This too is a secondary source piece. I’ve not played the game, I don’t like the PS3, but the game seems interesting, actually pretty good, good enough to get an 8 on 10 from the PS3 magazine. But that is not supposed to be its greatest achievement.
The game is slightly new, and has done away with the old time warping system, something I found really irritating. On the other hand, one of my favourite parts of the game, the lady is far more prominent. She appears right at the start, and plays a really imp. Part in the game, actually, as his guardian angel. Everytime you make a mistake that should cost your life, she very coolly put him back on safe ground. A bit of a hit for our egos, but a convenient substitute for all the time wasted redoing bits of the game, and watching that LOADING screen.
The story is based as usual on the prince having to save the world. And blah blah… its been corrupted by some bad magic, or whatever….
But what is cool is the world itself. Apparently its huge, with really well done everything, and if PS3 says it you better believe it. I’ve not yet seen it though.
The prince has some pretty cool new moves too, as well as all the old ones. He can slide down walls with his iron claw and use the woman to make extra long jumps, and a few other nifty moves. This has also changed the way in which the game reacts to things, its no longer quite as linear, both in geometry and in story line.
But more on that later.
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NFS Undercover Review
Anyone who’s read my blog so far, will know that I’m a fan of the NFS underground series, simply for the variations in racing styles it offers you, and the amazing mods you can pull off in the game. I mean it’s great fun… and that’s what makes a good game for me.
The latest title in the game seems to less inclined to be fun. The title is based along the lines of the fast and the furious with you playing and undercover cop. The game is based on a story, and the only reason you’re trying to get to the top of the cities racing circuit is to bust it.
The game play is standard NFS stuff, though apparently the Muscle cars are a pain in the ass, with handling being virtually beyond the average human. The tuners as usual are the most fun.
Upgrades have been simplified to a degree, where you can buy both ‘packages’ and individual components. You can also strap on visual mods, etc. and change the way your ride looks… a standard feature right now.
The game looks really good, and the soundtrack is done by some of the top artists right now. But even with Maggie Q throwing in the occasional appearance, intense police chases, which are stressed on in this game, and decent sound effects including radio chatter, nothing I’ve read so far would induce me to buy this game. Yes even the pirated one.
Sorry NFS but its just too bad a case of been there done that right now.
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