So I finally found a place that wasn't selling Uncharted for near full price (although I actually hear that it's going to the Greatest Hits line in a few days anyway.  I'd been looking forward to playing this game for quite a while now, but having gotten to Chapter 13 so far my feelings are a bit mixed.

Naughty Dog put a lot of effort into creating a really detailed setting.  The graphics and level design are amazing.  I don't generally care too much for story outside of Western RPG's, but what's here is well done for what iit is.  The problem is that Naughty Dog took all this and then used it to make a below average third person shooter, with the occasional climbing around bit.  Even for a console shooter, the controls are very imprecise here.

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The latest offering in the SMT franchise ventures into SRPG territory. The summoning and fusing of demons is still present, but dungeon exploration is replaced with a battle grid. Each character is grouped with up to two demons; when a character attacks an enemy both sides make one round of traditional RPG combat before returning to the grid (similar to Soul Nomad and Ogre Battle, although you are granted full control over each unit). The mix of SRPG and traditional RPG combat works really well. As in most SMT games, battles are challenging; exploiting elemental weaknesses is key to victory.

The story borrows a page from The World Ends With You; the characters are trapped in Tokyo, which is locked down by the military following a demonic invasion. Actions taken in game consume time-a half an hour of time per story sequence or battle (although there are random battles that do not, for when you inevitably have to grind a few levels)-and there are indications in game of a 7 day time limit.

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This is one of the easiest BiiFs ever.

If you like Mortal Kombat, this is worth checking out. If you're not really a fan of the MK series, this is the same old shit in a slightly shinier package.

Since that's probably too few words, I'll continue.

If you're a casual partaker of the MK games, as I am, then this is, essentially, the same old shit in a slightly shinier package. There are some nice visual touches, such as visible bruising and damage to characters' costumes as the fights progress. The character models are nicely large and detailed. Backgrounds look fine, if uninspired. It's pretty much got all the same old MK-things in it. Fatalaties, "Heroic Brutalities" for the DC heroes who don't kill. (which are typically awkward to pull off using a 360 gamepad) Yadda yadda, you get the drill.

Still, I found the controls to be stiff and wooden, even allowing for the 360 pad I was using. I find Tekken/Soul Calibur/DOA much more fluid.

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A lot of games have a physics engine of some sorts these days, but very few can be bothered to do something interesting with it besides make prettier explosions. The games that do make use of a physics engine for interesting gameplay tend to look like they were beat with the ugly stick. Trine manages to have fun physics-based gameplay and be one of the prettiest games to grace my system in years.

It's a 2d side scroller/beat em up/platformer where you play as a wizard, a thief, and a fighter. You bounce through spike, fire, and skeleton infested dungeons and forests in search of the generic fantasy end goal. The thief has a grappling hook and a bow, the wizard can summon boxes and planks as well as levitate objects, and the fighter hits things.

The beauty of Trine is that you can switch between characters at any point at the press of a button. Big army of skeletons? Switch to the warrior and bash them. Or switch to the wizard and summon boxes and planks over their head to crush them.

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Call of Juarez: BiB is a game with lots of small twists, but it's your run-of-the-mill shooter at heart. It doesn't quite pull the whole package off, but it comes quite close in many cases. The gunplay is fun enough to last the length of the game, in part because you have two different characters to choose from every level, a fun use of gimmicks (like the showdown minigame) and a wide selection of upgradeable pistols, rifles, shotguns, derringers(!), knives and bows to murder people with. Oh, and because it's quite short, about five hours.

Really though, Call of Juarez is about shooting people in the head (or, in showdowns, in the family jewels. You'll see.) Full stop. If that kind of game isn't your thing, neither is this game. For you, my verdict is: wait for a demo to be released, then Demo It.

The gunplay is somewhat similar to a zombie shooter, with enemies being weak but quite dangerous in numbers, small clip sizes and constant reloading.

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So I never played the first one, nor did I play either on the Gamecube. I did read a review of the "New Play Control" version of part 1 which suggested that part 2, with it's lack of time limits for exploring and generally fucking around would be great, and so, with this on discount-status at EBgames when I went out there to pick up my copy of the Fallout 3 DLC disc, I picked it up.

So, there's a long-winded, non-skippable exposition section. Apparently you work for some kind of Space Trucking company, and while you were fucking around in the first game the company's other employee lost a ton of money, requiring the boss to take out a loan to pay off the debt for the freight losses, which gets your spaceship respossessed. Aside from these morons never having heard of Space Insurance, I really don't care.

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Did you like the first one?

It's the same game. The exact same game. 4 creature types, spend money to spruce up your castle, forge new weapons, armor. Really. You even have the same set of armor.

The only difference/improvement from the first is occasionally your browns can ride wolves to move faster and there are also stationary constructions like ballistae and catapults you can pilot. There's also a ship you can sail around in one level.

If you liked the first and played it long enough ago that the gameplay will be somewhat fresh and new,

Rent it.

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I am writing this review from the perspective of having beaten the SNES version (not counting Lavos shortcut Game+s) at least fifteen times.  To get the easy parts out of the way:

(1) People who have never played Chrono Trigger and own a DS and don't hate RPGs- must-buy.  Thousands of different reviews anywhere on the internet can explain why.  The story is not terribly innovative, but is executed very well.  And considering the graphics (which still largely hold up for me as great stylized art), music (spectacular), depth, replayability, etc.- its one of the greatest games of the 90s, and imho of all time as well.

(2) Chrono Trigger Fanatics like Me- if you are a fanatic, you already own this.  And if you don't, you'd buy it even if it added one new item or character.  But be warned:  they have changed some iconic lines of dialogue which may cause nerdrage.  They even changed my sig line to something far less cool.    

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This 4X game has gone through quite a ride. I tried it out when the base game was released and frankly, it sucked. Since then, it's been through Three(!) different companies and development studios and has picked up three expansion packs, the most recent being "Argos Naval Yard", released yesterday. I have not put a lot of time into the expansion and the new techs it adds, but that scarcely matters.

This game is the spiritual successor to MOO1. I say MOO1 and not MOO2 because like MOO1, it focuses less on planetary structure optimization and more on overall economic strategy, research, ship design and fleet combat. Economic strategy and research are a few planetary sliders that you rarely touch and one overall one that you adjust almost every turn (Savings<---->Research). Ship design is simple but deep, relying on 3 different ship sections (Command, Mission, Propulsion), and 4 different weapon mounts (small, medium, large, special) which gain expanded options through a MOO/CIV-like research tech-tree.

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So here's the deal. Baldur's Gate is a great old game, but after playing through it often enough the existing story starts to get a little old. The scripted lines of party banter have all been heard to the point of memorization, and it's all become routine after so many years. So with that in mind, I've decided that on this playthrough I'll be taking things into my own hands.

Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, and all those familiar faces are out. Six homicidal maniacs of my own creation are in, courtesy of the old "multiplayer game by yourself" trick. Oh yes, this is going to be an evil party playthrough. You'll notice I take a lot of liberties with the narration, making up dialogue and motivations for my characters that clearly don't properly exist in the game itself.

That's half (or more) of the fun, serves to liven up a brilliant but ancient and much-played game, and maybe takes a crack at the notion that players who would rather use their own characters are just powergaming munchkins. The vanilla evil playthrough should be as much fun. Note that I'm actually playing Baldur's Gate in the Baldur's Gate 2 engine, thanks to the Baldur's Gate Tutu mod.

With that out of the way, here's our new cast of characters:

As Saints Row 2 is probably my Game of the Year so far, I recently picked up this DLC pack for it quite enthusiastically.

It's made up of 3 missions, and some other junk - some outfits, a few vehicles including the EDF Scout from Red Faction 2 and a cool Attack chopper vaguely based on a Blackhawk, some clothing, a bunch of Moustaches, and Tera Patrick as a new homie once you finish the mission arc.

Well, the missions are a little longer than the norm, but the first two of them are a little bland. Third one is kinda cool though.
There's a few new Multiplayer maps. - Meh.
Also a "meta-game" in co-op mode, where one of you can get some extra cash for killing more enemies than the other guy, or doing more tricks, or blowing up more stuff. Meant to be a non-intrusive little add on of fun for co-op missions. This would have been good if it were included in the base game initially. As an add-on mode, it's really too little too late.

Tera Patrick is a pretty sub-par representation of Tera.

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3rd in my ongoing "I have no DSL so let's dust off the pile of single player games and see what's worth keeping" BiiF series is Roller Coaster Tycoon 3.  I've had a run of really bad luck with sim/building games lately (Spore, City Life, and Civ 4 all looked promising and all disappointed me), so I was starting to wonder if I'd just gotted tired of the genre entirely.  Turns out, no.  Roller Coaster Tycoon is pretty damn fun.

The title of the game gives you a good idea of what sort of game it's going to be.  You build an amusement park and try to make money with it.  And for what this game is, it's implemented REALLY well.  Your success or failure is determined by a horde of simulated parkgoers' ("Peeps") reactions to the stuff in your park, and you can measure it by looking at high-level stats on how much money each ride is making, or follow one Peep around on his visit to see what he does, or lots of levels in between.

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I was initially not going to write anything about my experiences with Civ 4 for fear of the ensuing nerdrage destroying the known universe, but after talking to a few people about it I think a public service announcement needs to be made.  If you are not already a Civ player, Civ 4 is not For You.  If you are not prepared to spend a lot of time and effort having other people help you have fun with Civ, and you don't want to devote your life to figuring it out on your own, Civ 4 is not For You.

If you are one of those people who does already like Civ because you were inoculated against it at an early age, this review is not For You.  Especially the rating at the end.

As for myself, I like the type of game Civ supposedly is, but I couldn't get into it.  The interface is clunky, and behind it I couldn't see a lot there.  Managing the military is a giant pain in the ass, but if you're not doing that you're just watching your cities level up so you can...

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So my home internet is out for a few days (thanks AT&T) and in my enforced vacation from TF2 I'm firing up a few of the single-player games that I keep installed for just such an occasion.  First up is Assassin's Creed.  I've played worse, but after a couple of hours I think I'm done with it.  There are faint glimmerings of a good game there -- I like the plot (such as it is), and I like climbing and jumping around stuff.  And it's kinda pretty even if it's mostly brown.  But the walking.  Dear God, the walking.  Not just the walking, but the fact that if you walk any faster than an amble past one of the Templar guards, they get pissed at you and you have to run around looking for a hay bale to jump into.  I just got to the point of needing to travel cross-country to the next town, and although galloping around on my horse is fun I keep getting hung up on medieval speed traps unless I go at crawling speed.  FTS.  I got this game on sale for $10 and right now I'm feeling like I got robbed.

Rating: Avoid.

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