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Irene Lew

Geoff Geis — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:24:59 +0000

Oh dear.

So earlier I made that post about Tabitha Soren, and I said she was my first “legitimate” celebrity crush. That got me thinking – if Tabitha Soren was my first legit crush, who was my first “illegitimate” crush?

Honestly, it didn’t take me that long to figure it out: Irene Lew, the love interest of the blue ninja dude in the Ninja Gaiden video game for the NES (she’s illegitimate because she’s made of pixels).

I must say – it’s kind of ridiculous how much she looks like Tabitha Soren.

Hmm…. no one would treat Tabitha Soren like that though.

12 Great Games with Dreadful Moments on all platforms.

Shadow Wave — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:29:29 +0000

12 Great Games with Dreadful Moments on all platforms.

by Shadow Wave:

©2009 Bed Cadwallader:

It’s a fact; no game is perfect. Each and every game has some flaw, some issue, whether it’s a game breaking bug, a poor development choice or something else. AAA games with top reviews are no exception.

Here are 12 great games on All Platforms listing some of their flaws that some gamers might not notice but that others would find annoying. These issues may even have made some gamers put the controller down in total frustration and simply walk away from the game altogether.

This Top 12 List will focus on key moments that gave me and other gamers trouble, frustration and general annoyance.

Spoiler Alert – This contains spoilers on some of the greatest games ever made, so if you haven’t played any of the games mentioned below, I highly recommended you do not read about it and play the game for yourself!

1 – Mass Effect (PC, 360)

Space Exploration

Space Exploration - right

While I personally think Mass Effect is the best 360 game on the Xbox platform, it does however have one major flaw: Exploration.

Each optional planet that you visit on Mass Effect is essentially exactly the same. Sure the ground may be a different colour, and the sky looks different, but deep down, almost every planet is just a bare bones rocky, mountainous area that you must drive your ridiculous bouncy car around in search of exact same thing you found on the last planet.

It was highly repetitive, and nowhere near as fun as the fantastic main missions.

Let’s hope Mass Effect 2 has improved upon this majorly criticised area of the first game.

2 – Assassins Creed 1 (360, PC, PS3)

The Ending

Oh what an ending . . .

So once the player completes Altair’s full story, the credits roll and players are treated to an interactive ending that makes absolutely no sense and leaves you more on the edge of your seat than Halo 2’s ending.

Sure it gave players a lot of clues, hidden meanings and insight into the future and past of Assassins Creed’s story. But for a lot gamers who didn’t want to start Google searching every term they found probably didn’t connect the dots at all and were just left with a huge ‘wtf!’

I think what’s worse is that players were expecting Desmond to actually do something other than walk around in the game which sadly never happened…. Until 2 years later in Assassins Creed 2.

Now onto the final list.

3 – Metal Gear Solid 2 (Xbox, PS2, PC)

The Swimming Sequence

I can so swim, just watch me

During one of the later portions of Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden finds himself forced to swim underwater to save Otacon’s sister, Emma.

Unfortunately swimming can be quite difficult when the graphical effects such as motion blur and sensitive controls make it very hard for you to navigate through the sunken area of Big Shell.

You then approach the potentially most frustrating room in the game; this large underwater room is full of floating debris which constantly moves around forcing you to quickly find a path through the mess and to get to the other side. Sounds easy enough, but if you get caught half way it can be very hard to find a way out in time.

Then Raiden finally emerges from the water, saves Emma, and has to go all the way back with her on his back, and she can’t swim or hold her breath for very long… Great!

4 – Gears of War 2

Driving the Centaur

Driving the dreaded Centaur - help!

About half way through Gears of War 2’s campaign, the player gets to control the Centaur, which is essentially a odd looking tank with a little bit of speed thrown in for good measure. Sadly however, Epic Games failed at giving the Centaur anything resembling decent controls. They tried to replicate the Halo Warthog’s driving mechanics, but made it so the car turned wherever you were aiming your cannon. Basically it just sucked.

Players might find the Centaur will get stuck on an object and will be forced to restart at the last checkpoint. They might accidentally drive off a cliff, or perhaps just miss the ramp they were supposed to drive over altogether.

As if almost to ‘rub it in’, players are forced to navigate over frozen lakes while the ice breaks at seemingly random areas of the lake’s surface. Due to the extremely awkward controls of the tank, it made it exceedingly frustrating and difficult to do what should have been a simple task- to drive over the safe spots on the lake, which ended up resulting in many deaths during that section.

5 – God of War 1(PS2, PS3)

Climbing the Rotating Spinning Blade Tower of Hell… in Hell!

Not the spinning blade of hell!

Towards the end of God of War, on his journey Kratos must climb on two separate occasions these huge, deadly towers that have many blades that spin around that are out to do damage Kratos and frustrate the player to hell.

And frustrate they did. These towers can take ages to complete because each time you try to climb up and get hit, you fall all the way back to the bottom and you lose health. And that means that every few tries you would die, and have to repeat the section leading up to the annoying towers, just to make the raging gamer even more angry.

There’s not really much more to say about it: the towers sucked, and were not fun at all. Thankfully, the rest of the game was so fantastic this small section of the game was forgiven.

6 – Banjo Kazooie (N64, XBLA)

End Game

Not the end game - ahhhhhh

After completing all of the worlds throughout Grunty’s Lair it is finally time for Banjo to try and defeat the witch and reclaim his sister from her grasp.

On your way up the lair, Banjo comes across Grunty’s next challenge – a quiz show game, where Banjo must answer questions correctly based about everything throughout the game and move forward on the game board – each time getting closer towards his prize: his sister. If you lose a question you will either die instantly, or lose health. If you die, then you have to start all over again!

Now as a young adult, I think this quiz show is a great idea, it’s unique, it’s fun and it’s quite hilarious at some points. However, back in the days of my childhood I found this incredibly difficult. And it took me a very long time to complete this challenge (it probably wasn’t very long at all, but I’ll never forget my frustration). A few of my friends at the time had trouble as well.

Then after finally completing the quiz show, you have to open a note door that requires you to have found like 95% of door notes because you will need to have collected everything if you even want a chance to try and kill the extremely difficult final boss.

Never has a game set such incredibly high requirements to complete the game. And unless you knew about these high requirements you probably went through the game not collecting every single thing in each world. Upon reaching the end you were forced to have to go back to each world and find and complete everything.

7 – Escape from Monkey Island (PC, PS2)

Monkey Combat

It’s time for Monkey Combat

So you’re right at the end of the game, the epic climax is almost visible, you’ve beaten all the bizarre puzzles and you simply just want to see the credits roll down the screen. But wait. Guybrush’s final task is possibly the most complicated, frustrating and hard sequence that has ever been in a Monkey Island game. Pull out a pen and paper because you’re going to need it. It’s time for Monkey Combat.

Monkey Combat works similarly to how Monkey Island’s trademark insult sword fighting works, although it’s a lot more complicated, and is in a foreign language. Guybrush must learn which words beat what and so forth. It’s very complicated and required me to use a pen and paper to write important notes down.

I have never beaten the Monkey Combat sequence again, but it’s one of those moments that truly question your dedication to the game, and there are many people I have spoken to who gave up at this section of the game.

8 – Ninja Gaiden (Xbox, Ps3)

Alma

Hey, let's fight Alma - not

Halfway through this tough game, Ryu comes across a bare breasted, pink demon with weird looking ears named Alma. But don’t let the pretty pink colors confuse you, this Boss has caused many gamers to give up and stop playing, she’s that hard to kill.

She dodges, flies and throws giant pillars at you, and each hit knocks a HUGE portion of your health bar off. It doesn’t take long for your health potions to deplete to zero and then you will die…

And try again, and again, and again. If you were one of the lucky ones who managed to beat Alma, you probably worked out some pattern in the fight and figured out how to kill the demon. I personally don’t find the boss fight very hard anymore. But damn, I remember I was screaming when first I played it.

Although this fight was incredibly frustrating, it felt damn good when you finally succeeded.

9 – Final Fantasy 8 (PS1, PC, PSN)

Disc 4

The Sorceress Ultimecia rules

Final Fantasy 8 is my all time favorite game. Period. But there is just something about the final portion of this game that is a huge let down. When you reach disc 4, you will shortly travel into the future, where Sorceress Ultimecia rules over a damaged world.

The downside is that besides the Ultimecia’s castle and the secret Bahamut/Weapon dungeon, almost every other town, city and area are no longer able to be visited. That often meant that any special item or quest you wanted to do in a city could never be done, unless you started a new game. Even your flying ship was taken away unless you looked really hard to find it.

A lot of gamers followed the normal RPG way and played through the story up until the end of the game and then before defeating the final boss, went and did the majority of side quests, grinded up levels etc. And a lot of gamers were surprised that they could not finish all this in FF8. It was an odd choice by Square. And ultimately it left a lot of disappointment about the final portion of the game.

10 – The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (Gamecube)

Finding the Triforce

Now where's that key again??

So the final dungeon is completed, Ganon must be stopped, Link finally has all of his gear. But wait, you need to find 8 pieces of the Triforce which have been scattered around the world. But before you even find them, you need to find the maps which show the location of the actual Triforce pieces- oh and usually before you can take the Triforce piece you will have to undergo some small or large challenge before the piece is finally given to you.

Look, I just want to save the world while I have the adrenaline still in my blood; I’m not looking for some lame attempt to extend the game because the game didn’t have enough dungeons in the first place.

I am not the only gamer to feel the rage at attempts to artificially extend this (or any) game, but by tacking the task of treasure hunting right onto the climax of the game’s story was so stupid. I know it put some gamers off completing it because they simply couldn’t be bothered searching the boring seas for the Triforce. The long search completely killed off the excitement of saving the day.

11 – Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox, PC)

The Library

Halo Library is just all messed up

So you guys knew this was coming right?

The level ‘The Library’ is the biggest copy and paste level I think anyone has ever seen in a video game. The level consists of walking through the identical areas for 30 minutes while fighting constant waves of the flood as you make your way through the complex maze.

Besides its boring repetitiveness, and uninteresting layout, many gamers became lost and did not know which direction to go. And quite simply The Library takes the cake as one of the worst levels ever seen in a first person shooter. Thankfully the rest of the game was quite amazing so most gamers found it quite easy to forgive Bungie for this terrible development decision.

Enough said!

12 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64, Gamecube)

The Water Temple

Time for some watersports with Link

Did you just feel a shudder down you’re spine after reading that? You might have had some very frustrating memories about this particular section of Ocarina of Time.

The Water Temple did a few things to annoy the crap out of people.

1) Link needed to sink or float throughout the majority of the Water Temple, and Link had to change shoes extremely frequently. And to do this required the player to pause the game, find the right area of the menu, select the opposite boots, and then resume the game. Which became extremely tedious, annoying and ruined any immersion/pacing the dungeon might have had.

2) The Water Temple has been known to hide some its small keys extremely well. Most notably are 2 specific chests that come to mind. One key is hidden right underneath an entrance to the tower in the middle of the dungeon, and the worst one of all, is a key that is hidden by a ‘Block of Time’, which is hidden behind the chest for the Longshot. It’s one of the only rooms in the game that have 2 important chests in the same room, so it was extremely unexpected, and a lot of people just grabbed the Longshot and left, without exploring the tiny room (why should you need to?) The search for the 2 (or maybe more) keys have put many gamers into a rage, quite often resulting in an angry facepalm at the end.

3) Players had to raise and lower the water level to explore different sections of the dungeon while searching for that pesky small key, and being forced to change the water levels just added a lot of unwanted time onto their search.

And sadly, the Water Temple remains as one of the most sour moments in one of the greatest games of all time.

And that’s the end of yet another top 10 list: what great games do you love that have some annoying or dreadful moments?

©2009 Ben Cadwallader:

• Other games at discount $’s for ALL OXCGN readers + extra Bonus Points

Ninja Gaiden 2 - Ninjascape (rem. Ashane)

deserthat — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:23:44 +0000

December 5 is Ninja Day. This might be why I spent two hours stuck in traffic and went out to eat sp

GamePro's Top 25 Games of the Year

mcalamia247 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:56:56 +0000

Okay so last night I went to New York City for a hockey game, and needed something to read on the long train ride home. I went into the many book and magazine stores in Penn Station, scoping out the video game magazines. They didn’t have Game Informer, and I sure wasn’t reading Nintendo Power. The only independent magazine sitting on the crowded shelves was GamePro.

On the cover reads “24 of the Best Games in 2009 Reviewed.” That basically means their top 25 games on the year, but in no particular order really. I’m going to give my opinion of all of them, being that I was able to play a majority of them. Here goes.

Dead Space Extraction for the Wii- Well I was wrong, I didn’t play that, nor have I played Halo: ODST or Halo Wars for the Xbox 360 yet.

Infamous! I played that, and I have to say, I did like it. It just got too annoying, as the reviewer, in this case Tae K. Kim, states. The number one issue I had with this game was the enemies and their ability to sharp shoot from the tops of buildings and be dead right now. It annoyed the hell out of me. Other than that though, it had a cool story, and was a lot of fun to just explore the city, and what it had to offer.

Little King’s Story for the Wii is another I haven’t played, but one that I’m dying to check out. If I still had a Wii, or if I buy one in the future, is one that I would have or will be checking out. It looks like a blast, especially since I love Pikmin.

Madden 10- ya played one, you played em all. The NHL series is by far the best sports series out there.

As far as I know, MadWorld on the Wii got decent reviews from reviewers and gamers alike, but didn’t sell much, which is sad. I don’t know much about this one either, because again, I don’t have a Wii.

Prototype was a mixed bag for me. The enemies got annoying, as did the missions, but I had a BLAST just destroying the city up, and messing around with it, much like I enjoy with the Grand Theft Auto series. It was more fun than InFamous though. And more violent, which is great.

Red Faction: Guerrilla was another I didn’t play. Man, maybe I should re-write the statement about me playing a majority of these titles…

Resident Evil 5 was a game I owned, but played twice and returned. I’ve learned that the R.E. series just isn’t for me. I don’t like that you can’t move and shoot at the same time. What is up with that? Cool story though, and the game looked amazing.

Scribblenauts was the most confusing for me to be on this list. The magazine gave it five-stars, yet I haven’t heard anything good about it from people I talk to. Can this be a case of bias video game journalism? In the writer’s defense, he does bring up that the controls are horrible, which they are. I’m getting this one for Christmas- it came today to be exact- but I have played a downloaded version, and did enjoy it.

Street Fighter IV. I can’t really comment on this one to be honest. I do own, and have played a little of it, but I’m just terrible at it. It’s another game that I’ve talked to people who really didn’t care for it. And they were S.F. enthusiasts. The magazine on the other hand, gave it five-stars.

Possibly my favorite game of 2009, UFC Undisputed 2009 deserves to be on this list. It’s a great all-around fighter, whether you enjoy the sport of Mixed Martial Arts or not. You have to appreciate the amount of detail put into each fighter, and the massive amount of dialogue the commentators are stocked with. The best part is that this is THQ’s first offering with the UFC brand. Next year should be even better.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves makes me think I may have spoken to soon throwing out the ‘my favorite game of the year’ line. This game was just amazing on all fronts. It had action, it had story, it had those moments that made you say “holy shit” after you picked your jaw off from your dirty carpet. It has everything a gamer can ask for in a game. Even a really hot chick. Oh, and did I mention a killer multiplayer? This is the best PlayStation 3 exclusive on the market. Hands down.

My sentimental favorite of the year is Beatles: Rockband. This game has done more than just make parties that much funner. It has introduced the Fab Four’s legacy to an entirely new generation of fans (myself included). It’s more than just a Rockband game. It makes you feel like you’re playing a piece of history, even if you’re still holding a plastic guitar.

I didn’t play Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, and don’t know much about it.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the DS is a game I downloaded, and did enjoy what I played. I liked the design of it, going for more of a cartoon/comic book approach, rather than it’s normal, realistic look. It’s nice to see some mature titles go to any Nintendo system, especially the DS. It’s also being ported to the PSP, so check it out.

Guitar Hero 5 is a game I haven’t played, along with Half-Minute Hero on the PSP. The latter is on my games I gotta check out list. GH5 isn’t.

Everything else on the list are games I haven’t played, but I’ll list them for you guys: Ninja Blade (played demo, and liked it), Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Patapon 2 (liked the first one, may check this one out once the price drops), Punch-Out on the Wii, Sims 3 (played a little at my girlfriends house, and it’s much of the same) and WWE Smackdown v. Raw 2009 is the same game as last year I’m sure.

Okay so there you have it. So I didn’t play MOST of the games, but I was able to check out the heavy hitters this year.

Do you guys agree with their list? Tell me why or why not in the comments!

November 09 Dwelling of Duels

Dan Vincent — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:00:40 +0000

This month’s DoD theme was Ninja Gaiden part deux – meaning it’s the second time w

Ninja Gaiden Video Game Katana Sword

chanzztbuz — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:58:53 +0000

Ninja Gaiden Video Game Katana Sword This Ninja Gaiden Sword is a beautiful design sword with the sc

Relics of Gaming

Kaonazhie — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:34:49 +0000

To celebrate the (near)eve of the blog’s 2 year anniversary, what could be better than a classic rant?

The target of my ire this time happens to be “old school” gamers, specifically, this IGN article. I read through it and found myself shaking my head, shouldn’t professional writers be unbiased? That article certainly isn’t. I have found recently that “old school” gamers love to argue, yet their arguments are ineluctably flawed. For starters, these are some of the major points they bring up:

Games are too easy nowadays.
Games lack imagination nowadays.
Console games suck compared to PC games.

You understand that I summarised that, but you get the idea. At least, you’re getting something. I can point out two classic signs of an “old school” gamer, or to be less polite, a moron. First off, they incessantly complain about modern games lacking, oh, be it colourful graphics, good gameplay, a challenge, or whatever the hell else. Second, they almost always raise Street Fighter 2 as a “good” old game.

I may be going off on a tangent, but allow me to explain something about fighting games. Simply put – 3D fighting games are superior to 2D fighting games. However, most of the gaming generation has been raised playing Street Fighter. There’s a good chance you are shaking your head and disagreeing with me as you read this, but I’m afraid to say you are wrong. 3D fighting games are superior in every single way. Just because you were raised playing Street Fighter does not make it better, just because SF is played at EVO does not make it better. Popular =/= better. If you were going to raise that argument, you would be saying that Twilight is the best novel to come out in the past decade.

Oh I’ve tried of course, I’ve tried to convince people, but do they listen? Nope. It is practically impossible and unheard of to convince a moron otherwise, they stubbornly refute your points whilst failing to uphold their end of the argument. Indeed I’ve yet to hear a single good reason why people think Street Fighter is a good fighting game. I’ll tell you what a good fighting game is, Dead or Alive and Virtua Fighter. These are the pinnacle of fighting games. I’m stating that as fact. Oh Lant you’re no pro, you’ve never won a tournament how do you think you know more than [some pointless gaming celebrity] Silly question, does a football manager need to be better than his team to understand a strategy? My favourite fighting game is Smash Bros, but I can understand how VF and DOA are superior. Oh – but Smash Bros is still superior to Street Fighter.

Why are these games better? Simple.

Let’s compare Street Fighter IV with DOA4. In both cases we will assume that I am facing somebody of equal skill, however in DOA4 I am using a bottom tier character, Hitomi, versus a top tier character, Ryu. In SFIV (I’m going solely by what I can find on google for tier lists here) I’ll be Vega and my opponent Sagat. In SFIV it is highly predictable that I will lose the majority of the matches, whereas in DOA4 my chances are much higher. Why? DOA4’s mechanics are far superior. Now, let’s change it around a bit, same characters, but I’ll be playing against somebody who is inferior to me in terms of skill. In DOA4 I will win every match, in SFIV I cannot say, there is still a chance I will lose. DOA4’s counter mechanics balance the game near perfectly, there are no retarded supers that somebody can get lucky and land on you. Oh, but there is no luck in a fighting game, if you get hit by a super that’s your fault. Not so, luck is a factor, the more random elements in a game, the less fair and balanced it is. DOA4 and VF, and to an extent, Smash Bros have virtually no random elements (under the right circumstances, aka no items/crazy stages). Aside from that there’s the issue of the enviroment, having 3D environments naturally opens a whole new field of depth that adds to the experience.

None of this matters though, does it? Decent games like DOA and VF will never be at your big PRO game events because you’re all to intent on hurling laser balls out your dicks at each other.

Finally, still on this matter, I am going to touch on the matter of “fair play.” There is perhaps a rather infamous article on the internet written by some peon or other (sirgroin perhaps?) that touches on the matter of “cheap”ness in fighting games. It doesn’t matter, as long as you win, that’s it. They state that this is merely an excuse that losers use. I beg to differ, “it doesn’t matter how you win as long as you win” is the sort of argument used by those who care solely about winning and not the game or sport itself. Just because there are cheap things you can abuse to win, it doesn’t mean you should use them, this is yet another reason DOA4 is superior. You want to play Ryu and spam ninpo or headrockets? Be my guest, you might beat me once, you might even beat me twice, but by the third time I will counter your attacks methodically and without fail, can I say the same for SFIV? Nope. “Cheapness” is not merely an excuse by losers, it is a valid complaint. There is such a thing as sportsmanship, if I were to challenge you to a sword fight and then shot you with a gun, by your logic that would be fine, yes? I won, it doesn’t matter if I used an underhanded method. That’s the flaw of this argument, it robs your victory of any meaning if you do not achieve it properly. Call me old-fashioned, but when I win, I want it to be clear that I was the superior one, let there be no doubt or excuses you can use, which is exactly why I won’t resort to spamming or being a moron.

Anyway, back to my original topic, “old school” gamers and PC gamers usually tend to be one and the same. I’ll say it now, I find them to be the most insufferable of all gamers. I recall some time ago, there was an internet radio show I used to listen to, during which they (near exclusive WoW players) were complaining about console games, this was..oh, perhaps late 2008? Anyway, I sent in the following e-mail.

Isn’t it a tad hypocritical to claim that 360 gamers aren’t “gamers” just because they exclusively play 360?

Now I’m no expert on your personal lives obviously but I get the impression you only play PC games, the most inferior gaming system currently. So how is it different from playing 360s exclusively?

Of course, it depends on how you judge a gaming system, but in my eyes, a gaming system is only as good as the games that’re on it. Can you name 5 good exclusive PC games coming out this year or next? Heck, I only use my PC for playing Team Fortress 2 or pre-05 games. Devs just don’t bring anything worthwhile out nowadays that justifies me spending £500 every few years to upgrade my PC.

I apologise if this came across a bit rude but it seemed amazingly arrogant the way you seem to look down on console gamers.

Oh, and FPS games are fine on the 360. It’s 2D fighting games that suck on the 360 pad.

Their response? Laughter and insults. They misconstrued my words and instead of countering with an argument, they merely insulted me, yes indeed that is most mature and proves my point of how sad PC gamers tend to be. Quite.

For starters, is there anything wrong in that e-mail? Did I lie? No, I used facts and all my claims were stated truths:

PC being inferior gaming platform: Correct. Look at release dates, the number of exclusives, the hardware faults, the porting issues, and the utter butchery that is MW2. Also of note is that I said CURRENTLY. Until perhaps 2005, PC was a superior platform, it had the internet, it had MMOs, it had the graphics, it had the mods, it had the level of customization that people wanted. Nowadays? You can huff and puff about how great Crysis looks, but you know what? I’m fine with PS3 and 360 graphics, if you’re honestly using that as a reason nowadays, you’re grasping for straws. PS3 and 360 games now almost always have online support, consoles themselves are rapidly catching up to the PC in online gaming, the only thing that has kept them behind is by and large the community. MMOs? Consoles get those now. Mods? Some console games can be modded, but mods have never really bothered me that much, I can live without them, they rarely have been needed for me to enjoy a game (never, in fact) What advantages do you have then? Slightly better graphics? Mouse control?

FPS games being fine on consoles. They are. Did I say they are SUPERIOR on consoles? No, I said they are fine, they are fine. FPS games are perfectly playable on a console. So you have mouse control which is better for FPS and RTS. Keyboards are arguably better for MMOs. That’s great, but consoles are still superior for almost every other type of game.

Exclusives. Could they name exclusives? Could they name one? I’ll tell you what they named, Diablo III and Starcraft II. Oh my. It’s almost 2010 and there’s no sign of either game. I’ll let alone the fact that I asked for GOOD games, and not Blizzard-shit. So no, they couldn’t name a single good PC exclusive game that came out in 2008 or 2009. I am sure they could have at least found a couple, if they had the wit to back up their claims.

Here’s a tip, do not bandy words with the mouth of Plant if you lack the mental fortitude to even at least keep from foaming and frothing at my claims.

Finally, it amused me how this article utilises yet another of the classic moves. Take a game commonly regarded as hard, and say it isn’t, just to try and sound impressive. In this case, Ninja Gaiden. Well I have news for you buddy mcbroski. I’ve played Ninja Gaiden Black, II and the original NES NG (and yes, completed on PotMN.) You know which version is harder? The new ones. There is a difference between hard games and stupid games. Do you understand the concept behind creating a game in the 80s and early 90s? Most games were arcade games. You know when you go to the fair or theme park and try your hand at those games, but they seem impossible? It’s the same concept. They are designed to be extremely irritating and tricky, to keep you from advancing. It’s more a test of your wallet than your skill.

Don’t take my word for it, I don’t exactly care if you think you’re right. Have fun crying about how games suck and how ____ is cheap in Street Fighter. I’ll be over there playing Crackdown.

Final point? Seriously. Difficulty makes a game. No, IGN, interaction and the ability to have fun is what makes a game. People do not play something with the intent of pissing themselves off, they play it because they wish to interact and enjoy themselves, difficulty is merely an extension of this.

They’d rather sit there whining about consoles when they could just buy a game and have fun? ..Okay.

I shall return, not unlooked for, on the 27th.

Yet keep an eye out for me anyway, especially at unexpected times.

Addicted to ***** NSFW. And funny video from Japan

digitalempire — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:31:22 +0000

Anybody got any tissues? A funny commercial from Japan The new LFA Project NATAL The LHC Update on D

AskMen.com's Top Ten Hardest Video Games of All Time

Henry 'Tiger' Oliver — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:44:29 +0000

by – “Tiger” Oliver

AskMen.com has put together their list of the “Top 10: Hardest Video Games of All Time”, which brings together classics like Battletoads (NES) as well as lesser-known titles such as Demon’s Souls (PS3) and (the original Super Mario Bros. 2) Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (Famicom, Wii Virtual Console & SNES on Super Mario All Stars).

Here’s the link to their Top 10: Hardest Video Games of All Time

Also, check out their other Top 10 Video Game Lists.

Mortal Kombat

lineout — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:00:49 +0000

As much as I think Mortal Kombat was/is a pretty shitty fighting game, it deserves our attention. For those of us in the Capcom or SNK school of fighting games Mortal Kombat always seemed pretty stripped down. Every character had identical regular moves and were only differentiated by their specials and fatalities. Out of 7 total characters, two of them even looked identical. I’ll get to the fatalities in a bit, but mostly Mortal Kombat made for a pretty shallow fighting game compared to its competition. And, I guess, what’s even more striking about Mortal Kombat is that the franchise stayed this way for some time but maintained a level of popularity that is more or less completely incongruent with most other Acclaim/Midway titles. I don’t know many gamers who would consider the Midway logo as much more than a seal of mediocrity. Sort of like the Nintendo Seal of Quality today (burn).

So many choices! Decidedly less stereotypes, though! Progress?

The original Mortal Kombat for SNES was a big deal, though. I remember crowding around the TV the first time a friend rented this game. I would have been in grade 4 or 5. There were so many rumors about the game floating around in our tiny, misinformed heads:

“I hear this game is SUPER GORY“.

“Yeah, but Nintendo are a bunch of pussies and made the blood look like sweat! Pussies!”

“I hear on Sega you can see Sonya’s boobies!”

“Oh yeah? I heard that in the arcade version you can do sex with her!”

“Cool!!!” (awkward boners abound)

“I heard that there’s a code to make it even more bloody!”

“Chris’ brother heard from a magazine that if your parents split up they’ll each buy you this game to prove that they love you!”

“No way!”

I actually wrote a completely different review before thinking about the ways that Mortal Kombat has been influential. Just think about your life with Video Games at the age of 10. If you were a console kid like I was, you probably had your Ninja Turtles, Double Dragon, Mario, Ninja Gaiden, Tetris… I dunno. Ducktails? For many of us Mortal Kombat was the first Hyperviolent game we ever played. Everything before this was cartoony. Even though the greyish-brown bio-chunks that flew out of fighters in the Super Nintendo version didn’t look like blood, our imagination certainly filled in the gaps just fine. But here were people, digitally rendered and motion captured, being impaled by spikes, set on fire, having their spinal cords ripped out. And it was happening in our living room. Even if you were from a family with a computer, Wolfenstein came out the same year as Mortal Kombat. Doom came out in 1993. Sure, some PC games had covered serious subjects like rape and brutal violence before, but few games were as accessible to enterprising kids as this holy trinity of gore.

Certainly, by today’s standards, Mortal Kombat is pretty tame. After playing games like Soldier of Fortune where each body part has a number of articulation points for having limbs sawn off, it almost seems as cartoony as those older games. Fallout 3 had hilarious limbular explosions in HD slow-motion! But Mortal Kombat was likely one of the first games that you or someone you know wasn’t allowed to play. It was a precursor to the congressman-based fervor of Grand Theft Auto. It played a leading role in the eventual development of the ESRB. Sure, a lot of parents ignore ESRB ratings even today, but they cried out for a rating system in the first place largely thanks to kids bringing Mortal Kombat home.

It’s other “legacy” is the more dubious one of ridiculous announcers. Fatality, Babality, Finish Him, Toasty… they all lead to the Headshot, Multikill, Double Kill, Running Riot, Killamanjaro, and Unstoppables of today. I could actually do without these though, so thanks Mortal Kombat.

Gender roles, you guys.

So yeah, it’s a shitty fighting game, but it might very well have changed the landscape of gaming as we know it. That’s pretty neat. And with the demise of Midway and the sale of the Mortal Kombat IP to Warner Brothers, I’m not sure we’ll see a return of the shock-value tuned, mediocre experience that so defined the series. Who knows, someone make even take the initiative to turn it into something worth playing again.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 DLC Coming

Daniel Allison — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:28:31 +0000

Tecmo announced that there will be DLC for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 via Twitter. The DLC will simply be a costume pack that contains 4 different costumes and is priced at $9.

Edição nº 25 - Seja O Ninja Gaiden

marvoxbrasil — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:33:45 +0000

Editorial Caro internauta, É com muita satisfação que trazemos até você a análise de uma saga que fe

news from games

xollothnews — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:36:10 +0000

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 -review

GameWorld – Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3)

Η ιδέα των παιχνιδιών με νίντζα μπορεί να ακούγεται λίγο ξεπερασμένη, αλλά η δύναμη και η εκρηκτικότητα του Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, φαίνονται αστείρευτες. Το sequel της ομώνυμης σειράς έφτασε στο Playstation 3 και διαθέτει ένα πολύ γρήγορο gameplay, έτοιμο να σας καταπλήξει καθ’ όλη τη διάρκειά του. Αυτή τη φορά, η προγραμματιστική ομάδα Team Ninja, δούλεψε χωρίς τον Tomonobu Itagaki, ο οποίος ηγούνταν όλα αυτά τα χρόνια της προγραμματιστικής ομάδας και της σειράς Ninja Gaiden την οποία και δημιούργησε. Ο Itagaki είχε αποχωρήσει από την εταιρεία στα τέλη του 2008, μετά την δημιουργία του Ninja Gaiden 2 για το Xbox 360, όμως απ’ ότι φαίνεται η αποχώρησή του δεν ήταν τόσο αισθητή όσο κάποιοι θα περίμεναν.[next]

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πρώτα patches για Football Manager 2010 και Pro Evolution Soccer 2010

GameWorld – Τα πρώτα patches για Football Manager 2010 και Pro Evolution Soccer 2010

Ούτε συνεννοημένες να ήτανε η Konami και η Sports Interactive, αφού αμφότερες κυκλοφόρησαν το πρώτο patch για το Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 και το Football Manager 2010 αντίστοιχα. Κατεβάστε τα και δείτε τι διορθώθουν. Football Manager 2010: Patch 10.1 Το πρώτο patch για το Football Manager 2010 βγήκε στο Internet ταυτόχρονα με την ημερομηνία κυκλοφορίας του. Κατεβάζοντάς το θα διορθώσετε αρκετά προβλήματα που αφορούν την απεικόνιση αγώνα, ενώ υπάρχουν updates και για το περιβάλλον, το μεταγραφικό σύστημα, καθώς και ένα μικρό πρόβλημα που υπήρχε στο ελληνικό πρωτάθλημα, στην επιλογή παικτών από τις ομάδες νέων.[next]

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Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

Άλλη μια ματιά στα… κάλλη του Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep | Game 2.0 blog

θεωρώ ότι το επερχόμενο Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep είναι το πιο όμορφο παιχνίδι του PSP μέχρι τώρα. Αν εσείς ακόμα δεν έχετε πειστεί, καλό είναι να δείτε το παρακάτω trailer και σίγουρα θα αλλάξετε γνώμη.[next]

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Nέο παιχνίδι από τους δημιουργούς του Shadow Complex

Nέο παιχνίδι από τους δημιουργούς του Shadow Complex | Game 2.0 blog

Η Chair, δημιουργός του πολύ καλού Shadow Complex, γνωστοποίησε ότι ήδη έχει αρχίσει να σχεδιάζει το επόμενο παιχνίδι της. Παρόλο που η εταιρεία δεν αποκάλυψε περισσότερα, δήλωσε πως δεν αποκλείεται ο νέος τίτλος να κάνει την εμφάνισή του και σε άλλες πλατφόρμες εκτός από το Xbox 360.[next]

διαφημιστικά της Sony για το Champions League

Τα διαφημιστικά της Sony για το Champions League | Game 2.0 blog

Παρακάτω μπορείτε να δείτε τα φετινά διαφημιστικά της Sony για το Champions League. Σε αυτά βλέπουμε απλούς, συνηθισμένους και… πορωμένους με το ποδόσφαιρο ανθρώπους να παίρνουν μέρος σε αγώνες.[next]

13 Νοεμβρίου το Championship Manager 2010 για Mac

Στις 13 Νοεμβρίου το Championship Manager 2010 για Mac | Game 2.0 blog

H Beautiful Game Studios ανακοίνωσε ότι το Championship Manager 2010 θα κυκλοφορήσει στις 13 Νοεμβρίου για Mac. Υπεύθυνη για την εν λόγω έκδοση είναι η Virtual Programming, που έχει εμπειρία από την μεταφορά τίτλων στους υπολογιστές της Apple.[next]

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[Arrivage] Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

-ctk- — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:23:49 +0000

Reçu avant-hier. C’est arrivé plus vite que prévu, tant mieux
Je ne vais pas écrire toutes mes impressions maintenant… ce sera pour plus tard, mais en tous cas, le jeu est excellent ! Vraiment, j’accroche ! Et le mode mission en co-op, c’est le genre de mode que j’aime bien et qui va me tenir un bon moment

J’ai fini le mode histoire, mais maintenant il faut monter la difficulté, et il me reste les missions et les challenges… y’a de quoi faire dans ce jeu, croyez-moi !

news from games

xollothnews — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:58:08 +0000

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3) | byteme

η σειρά Ninja Gaiden, ειδικά στη νέα της εκδοχή που πρωτοεμφανίστηκε στο Xbox, είναι η ενσάρκωση όλων των (υγρών) ονείρων ενός geek που σέβεται τον εαυτό του. Νίντζα (πολλοί νίντζα), δαίμονες, τεράστιοι δράκοι, λυκάνθρωποι, «προικισμένα» θηλυκά με μια ιδιαίτερη αγάπη στα δερμάτινα ρούχα, αρματωμένα ερπετά και τόνοι αίματος και ακρωτηριασμών, όλα βρίσκουν το δρόμο τους στα παιχνίδια που σχεδίασε ο mega-otaku Itagaki για το Xbox και αργότερα για το Xbox 360.[next]

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Extra Lives επί πληρωμή στο App Store

Extra Lives επί πληρωμή στο App Store | byteme

Ένα παιχνίδι που έχει τρελαθεί στις πωλήσεις στο App Store, είναι το Parachute Panic. Σε αυτό, ο παίκτης κερδίζει έξτρα ζωές φτάνοντας τους 50, 150, 300, 500 και 1000 πόντους. Αλλά για όσους είναι μαθημένοι στα εύκολα, η FDG Entertainment πρόσθεσε την δυνατότητα να μπορούν να αγοράσουν από το App Store, πέντε έξτρα ζωές για 99 αμερικάνικα σεντ – 66 λεπτά του ευρώ.[next]

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Κάρτα γραφικών ΑΤΙ και στο νέο Xbox;

Κάρτα γραφικών ΑΤΙ και στο νέο Xbox; | Game 2.0 blog

Σύμφωνα με το Fudzilla, το νέο Xbox θα έχει κι αυτό κάρτα γραφικών ΑΤΙ, αφού η Microsoft είναι ευχαριστημένη με το ανάλογο hardware του Xbox 360. Επιπλέον, η Microsoft λέγεται πως επιθυμεί και συμβατότητα με τα παλιά παιχνίδια.[next]

30λεπτο βίντεο του Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition για PC

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Ένα 30λεπτο walkthrough του αναμενόμενου Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition για PC έκανε την εμφάνισή του πριν από λίγες μέρες. Όπως μπορείτε να δείτε στο βίντεο παρακάτω, το παιχνίδι τρέχει πάρα πολύ καλά και φαίνεται εκπληκτικό.[next]

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Στις 4 Νοεμβρίου το Shattered Horizon

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Ο νέος τίτλος της Futuremark, ονόματι Shattered Horizon, θα είναι διαθέσιμος στο Steam από τις 4 Νοεμβρίου. Πρόκειται για ένα FPS που επικεντρώνεται σε online μονομαχίες στο διάστημα, υποστηρίζει μονάχα το DirectX 10 και διαθέτει σχετικά υψηλές απαιτήσεις.[next]

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Το μέλλον της σειράς Boom Blox

Το μέλλον της σειράς Boom Blox – Gameover.gr

Πολλά ερωτηματικά αφήνει η ανακοίνωση της ΕΑ σχετικά με το μέλλον της γνωστής σειράς Boom Blox, με την είδηση να παρουσιάζει μια σημαντική ιδιαιτερότητα. Καταρχάς, η εταιρία βρίσκεται σε αναζήτηση νέων συνεργατών, οι οποίοι θα πρέπει να φέρουν φρέσκες ιδέες, ώστε το τελικό προϊόν για τη συνέχεια της σειράς να είναι ακόμα πιο ενδιαφέρον.[next]

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Πλησιάζει η αποκάλυψη του L.A. Noire

Πλησιάζει η αποκάλυψη του L.A. Noire – Gameover.gr

Όπως ανακοίνωσε η Rockstar, έχει ξεκινήσει τις auditions ώστε να εντοπίσει τους ηθοποιούς που θα δανείσουν τις φωνές τους στους ψηφιακούς χαρακτήρες του L.A. Noir. Η Team Bondi -πρόκειται για την ομάδα ανάπτυξης- δηλώνει πως δεν βιάζεται ιδιαίτερα και πως θα δαπανήσει όσο χρόνο χρειαστεί ώστε να καταφέρει να κάνει πράξη το όραμά της.[next]

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Μείωση τιμής για τα Fable II Pub Games

Μείωση τιμής για τα Fable II Pub Games – Gameover.gr

H Microsoft γνωστοποίησε πως το νέο “Xbox Live Deal of the Week” αφορά τα Fable II Pub Games. Η εν λόγω συλλογή από mini games -που συνδέεται με το πλήρες παιχνίδι Fable II για Xbox 360- κοστίζει κανονικά 800 MS Points, αλλά οι Gold συνδρομητές του Xbox Live θα έχουν την ευκαιρία να την αγοράσουν στην τιμή των 400 MS Points.[next]

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Το Shadow of Memories έρχεται στο PSP

Το Shadow of Memories έρχεται στο PSP – Gameover.gr

Η Konami ανακοίνωσε πως βρίσκεται υπό ανάπτυξη μία έκδοση του Shadow of Memories (Shadow of Destiny στην Αμερική) για το PSP. Το Shadow of Memories πρόκειται για ένα παιχνίδι περιπέτειας, που κυκλοφόρησε αρχικά το 2001 για τα PS2, Xbox και Pc[next]

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Σεπτέμβριο του 2010 το GT5;

Τον Σεπτέμβριο του 2010 το GT5; – Gameover.gr

Σύμφωνα με τη γνωστή αλυσίδα καταστημάτων της Αγγλίας “Game”, το Gran Turismo 5 για το PS3 δεν θα κυκλοφορήσει στα μέρη μας νωρίτερα από τον Σεπτέμβριο του 2010. Από την άλλη, βέβαια, το Play.com αναφέρει πως το παιχνίδι θα διατεθεί στις 5 Μαρτίου του επόμενου έτους, κάτι το οποίο θα μας χαροποιούσε ιδιαίτερα αν έβγαινε πραγματικότητα[next]

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Xbox 360 vs PS3 Head-to-Head Face Off: Ninja Gaiden 2 vs Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Mister Slimm — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:17:44 +0000

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update to the full list.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Batman: Arkham Asylum - Crítica

Diogo Ribeiro — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:01:20 +0000

No Cavaleiro Mais Negro Estamos em arredores de 1994, penso eu, e um amigo meu decide que preciso de

Batman: Arkham Asylum - Review

Diogo Ribeiro — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:35:08 +0000

In Darkest Knight We’re somewhere around 1994, I think, and a friend of mine decides that I absolute

The Game Finishing Blitzkrieg

pixelrocca — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:34:22 +0000

In like, what, 2 weeks, I have finished something near 13 games. Granted (!), many of those games were fighters and the usual mix of them can take anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple hours at most to finish. Still, I would say I’m pretty impressed of all the progress I’ve done in trying to kill my backlog as of late. My perseverance to trim down the towering collection I once had is honestly more than just admirable at this point — it’s sickening.

You can own hundreds of games, but it might take you years to even unravel the shrinkwrap to a game you used to be curious to play and impatiently bought instead. But with time, your tastes can radically change. In my case, I’ve grown to mildly hate RPGs, lacking the patience or consecutive hours necessary to pour into these 45+ hour quests. It’s just not for me anymore. And with it, comes all the weeaboo/wapanese flavour I used to clamour so much for. Nowadays, I’m turning my back to dev houses like NIS America in a revolution more leaned on Western gaming (or at least anything not cookie-cutter and Japanese).

I still love tons of japanese action and adventure games (titles like Bayonetta, for example) but if its going to be even 20 hours long, you can count me out.

Oh yeah, right! Just so you don’t think I’m a big liar or anything concerning my gametime, here’s the list of games I remember finishing off the top of my head:

Virtua Fighter 5: Online (360), Linger in Shadows (PSN), Samurai Shodown (PS2), Samurai Shodown II (PS2), Samurai Shodown III (PS2), Samurai Shodown IV (PS2), Samurai Shodown V (PS2), Samurai Shodown VI (Tenkaichi) (PS2), Saturday Night Slammasters (SNES) & Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3).

For the moment, I’ve settled with FFTA2: Grimoire of the Rift between bus rides and subway strolls back and forth to work and seeing the garufurendo (wow, weeabooisms) and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 the few hours minutes(!) I’m actually home.

And every now and then, I totally lose it and give in to Bayonetta and play that First Climax demo one. more. time.

Ninja Gaiden II! and other things

Nika — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:47:28 +0000

Okay, so I probably so I probably should be writing a practice essay or something. I have everything ready to go and everything. Yet, I can’t stop thinking about this game that I recently finished. Ninja Gaiden II, obviously. For anyone not remotely connected to the gaming scene, Ninja Gaiden II is the sequel to Ninja Gaiden (who would have thought?) that takes the difficulty, gore and titties present in the first game and tries to multiply it by a lot. (Yes, I did use a NGII image for the gore one, thanks for noticing. I just couldn’t find a NGI gore image easily) And I guess it kinda does do that. I’ll get to that later. As usual, I’m going to start talking about it like a review, but I’ll probably get sidetracked and end up talking about how tasty Philly cinny toast is. Anyway.

Essentially, in this game, you play Ryu Hayabusa, inconsistent Super Ninja who may or may not be gay. Why? Well, in the two universes he is in, Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, he comes in contact with many hot pixellated chicks with gigantic titties who he pretty much shows no interest in, at least three of which, I’m sure, would pretty much throw themselves at Ryu if he wouldn’t make such quick getaways. Also, in Dead or Alive 2, Ryu seems a bit more than concerned for his missing-but-then-found-but-amnesiac best friend, Hayate. Either way, in this game, Ryu embarks on an adventure even senseless as in the last game, and for the majority of the time, I had no clue what I was doing or what bearing it had on the story at all. It was more like the game was dropping me places where I had to fight things, and then picked me up again once everything was totally dead.

Okay, I make it sound bad, but if you’re playing this game for the story, go back, right now. You don’t play Team Ninja games for their stories. You just don’t. Even moreso for this game, because to me, the entire thing made no fucking sense. It was like when I tell people stories, and then, after I’ve finished telling them it and they look all confused, I start in with a, “oh shit, I forgot to tell you, they were actually brothers” or something completely plot changing. So yeah, let’s not talk about the story. It sucks and makes no sense. Shitty story aside, however, the game is very pretty. No, really. It’s really fucking beautiful. Which isn’t really a surprise, considering that this is a Team Ninja game. But still, very pretty. Ryu goes around the world, and we get to see all kinds of famous areas lovingly rendered, before they get blood splattered all over them. (Sometimes there are hilarious layering issues where a blood splatter is located too far on the wall, and looking at it from the right angle makes it look like the blood is pretty much splattered in mid air.) And yes, there is lots of blood. In the last game, the blood looked like powder, and disappered a few seconds after the enemy died. This time, the blood stays, staining the poor landscape. And along with blood, you’ll come across the odd severed limb or limbless body, too. Still, there is quite a bit of blood. Perhaps too much. Sometimes it seems like the limbs are coming off without you doing anything, but I just remind myself that that’s because Ryu is a super awesome super ninja and can do cool shit like that.

But man, even the attention to detail with the blood/damage physics is pretty nifty. See, like the other game, Ryu gets access to a variety of weapons in this game, all of which do different kinds of damage. Ryu’s standard Dragon Sword is for slicey dicey fun, and you can see heads and limbs being sliced cleanly off and then the wounds gushing with blood. Meanwhile, other weapons, like the Lunar or the Tonfa have more of a bludgeoning kind of attack, and thus, the enemy limbs get pretty much bashed off, and then you get really big blood splatters made of, not only blood, but bits of bone and flesh and stuff. Similarly, the sound effects that come from the different weapons sounds normal (Mind you, I haven’t actually had the experience of using weapons of any kind in killing people.) and is really quite immersive, especially when the camera angle switches to the best angle while Ryu slices/bashes off somebody’s head. Other general details are nice, too. Rain looks like rain, cherry blossoms look like cherry blossoms, and according to my sister, Ryu, in his tight leather ninja pants (are those even pants?) has a very large package. Oh, and all the chicks have big boobs, but we’ve been over this one before.

I think I mentioned it in passing before, but this game is hard. I’m bad at games, so it’s natural for me to suck at stuff, but it’s been a while since I’ve actually gotten so many game overs in a game that wasn’t a console shooter. And this was on the easiest difficulty. But with that being said, the first game was definitely harder. Part of it is probably because this game is actually balanced in its difficulty. Sure, there are lots of monsters, but there are also lots of save points (which conveniently also heal you) and you do pick up health restoratives/come across a shop relatively frequently. In the last game, I had to make sure that I had seven health potions at the start of each chapter, because I knew that I would end up using them all. It was hard to get health restorers, and unless you farmed, hard to upgrade weapons and afford potions and junk. So, in that respect, this game is definitely a lot easier. And thanks to this new de-limbing system, limb-less enemies are easier to kill. (Though they do start employing suicide tactics, which involve them pouncing on Ryu and exploding in his face.) Either way, the game is still a motherfucking challenge.

Okay, now the bad points. The soundtrack could be better. The last game’s soundtrack was really quite awesome. This one… is too inconsistent. The tracks change too quickly for you to really have time to listen/differentiate/appreciate them, and some of them are quite irritating. Sure, there are a couple that I like, but for a soundtrack with over fifty tracks, you’d think that I’d like more of them. Also, the camera likes to move itself into awkward angles sometimes, which makes fighting irritating. Resetting the camera is only a trigger pull away, so it’s not that big a deal, though. Oh, and I can’t aim for shit with the bow. But that’s more my ineptitude rather than a gameplay flaw. The cutscenes are also stupidly hilarious. But they are skippable, and nobody cares about cutscenes in a game like this. (We’ve also gone beyond the point that gameplay footage and cutscenes are incredibly different in quality.) One other issue is that, well, the action girl that sort of tags along for Ryu’s adventures in this game, Sonia, she’s retarded. At least Rachel in the last game could fight and not get captured most of the time, and did help Ryu out in getting out of that underground place he got himself into near the end of the game. Sonia, meanwhile, even though she has a gigantic gun and many other small guns (Rachel only had a gigantic hammer.) manages to get herself captured in the first scene, gives Ryu minimal help by letting him ride her chopper (helicopter), and manges to get captured a second time near the end, where she is dressed in white slave/harem girl/genie clothes. She’s saved by Ryu and hugs him, and he’s all ”Wtf” for a few seconds before he hugs her back, possibly to save himself from the awkward. And then, she seriously looked like she was gonna cry when, after everything is over, Ryu goes off somewhere. (Okay, so Rachel does that too, but she doesn’t go and hug him, alright?) So, from this, we get two things; Sonia is a dumbass and Ryu is gay.

Now, Ryu the character’s personality is awfully inconsistent. In the Dead or Alive games, he would spout one liners of wisdom, about Ninja-y things like the path of darkness and power and all that weird pretentious ninja crap. Then, when Ninja Gaiden came along, aside from now speaking in English and having an American accent, he hardly ever spoke, didn’t say anything pretentious, and most of the time sounded pretty threatening, even when he was flirting talking to Rachel. Come Ninja Gaiden II, it seems that the translator for Ninja Gaiden was kicked out for not making Ryu pretentious, and now we have Ryu talking in metaphors again. The problem is, he sounds fucking riddiculous in English. Metaphors in Japanese sound all well and good, but the second you translate them into English, they become fucking hilarious. So, in this game, the dialogue is, unintentionally, of course, fucking hilarious. Luckily, still, the moments when Ryu speaks are few and far between, and I quite like him like this, especially because I don’t find his pretentious ninja sayings the least bit attractive. I still liked him a lot more in the first game where he was fuelled by anger, rather than the whole saving the word-knight in shining (or in this case, black) armour that he has going for him in this game.

Either way, Ninja Gaiden II was fun. It helped me recover from my lack of computer and was a good incentive for whenever I rewarded myself with games for doing 5 minutes of revision. During my hunt for pictures in this blog entry, I found out about Ninja Gaiden Sigma II, which will actually let you play as Ayane. This news pretty much blew my mind, and, well, part of me is about ready to buy a PS3 after Japan and another PS3 price drop to get this game. I mean… fuck. You can play as Ayane. A very big titted Ayane, at that. Ayane is more than enough incentive to buy pretty much any game. With that being said, with this game being released, there is even more possiblity of more Ayane figures hitting Japan. Which of course means that I’ll be buying them. (I’m excited!)

On another note, I understand that I’m late to the party, but I watched Pulp Fiction a couple of nights ago, and it was fucking awesome. No, really, it was. I was laughing for so much of it and the whole thing was just incredibly entertaining. And although bland, I really liked Vincent. But that’s beyond the point. The point is, it’s a great fucking movie. … Speaking of which, so was Inglorious Bastards. Though I wouldn’t go comparing the two, simply because they had different purposes, set in different times, etcetera, etcetera. But both were good, and people who seriously watch movies should watch them. … No, wait. If you seriously watched movies, then you would have already watched them. Nevermind.

On another note, pizza is ready!

Review: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Gamer K — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:56:50 +0000

Hello guy, girls and ghouls time again for another review. This time we pick up where the last Ninja Gaiden game left off. Ninja Gaiden Sigma if you dont recall was the final incarnation of Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden:Black which was an easier version of the controller breaking hard game of the same name. Does this one continue that tradition?

POSITIVES

Thank your god you can survive! Yep its easier but that doesnt mean you can slack off. If you dont pay attention your dead.
Ryu is not the only a player? Yeah you have more hot babes to play with then pimp of the year.
Bosses hate ninja’s. They can be beat with some slight skill.
Tag Team Ninja’s. Love the Team mission mode. Great online feature and still fun to play offline.
Is it Halloween? Love that each character has different outfits to choose from.

NEGATIVES

Camera Shy. Still a problem but not as bad as its older brother on the 360.
Over so soon? Yeah the game is on the short side but its a hell of a ride
Lesser enemies can kill. Yeah I die more times from rockets or gun fine then the bosses. Weird huh?
Really Weak Bosses. It’s nice to have a boss I can kick their ass but why are the so easy and play the same way?

NIT-PICKING

What the hell? I still dont get the story all I hear is arch-fiend this and that and I get sent to a different location each time. Makes me feel like they were making the story up as they go along in development.
I love hot women in sexy outfits but honestly what women looks like that and works for the CIA wearing a top that seems like it would rip any moment.
Some of the enemies look really out-of-place. They look like rejects from a Final Fantasy game.

CONCLUSION

I really love this game. Im impressed. It’s a game sequel that should be a bench mark for all game sequels. Everything is better in this game. If you like action and ninjas I recommend you get this.

Top de ventas en Japón y el reinado (eterno) de Wii Fit

TheIronMaiden81 — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:49:32 +0000

Ya salieron los datos de ventas de hardware y software de la semana del 28 de septiembre al 4 de octubre…

Una semana muy emocionante en lo que es lanzamientos y donde además podemos ver los primeros días de resutados tras la rebaja de Wii en aquel país.

Nintendo DSi sigue como siempre arriba de la lista, aunque esta vez PSP se queda cerca gracias al lanzamiento de Gran Turismo PSP que ha vendido 134.000 unidades.

PS3 sigue siendo la consola casera que más vendio en esta semana con sus 37.538 unidades, impulsada especialmente por el lanzamiento de Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. .

Por su parte Wii, tras la rebaja, ha aumentado considerablemente sus ventas, aunque menos de lo esperado… más aun si todos le tienen miedo al lanzamiento de uno de sus juegos estrellas: Wii Fit Plus, que ha vendido unos poquitas 340.000 unidades.

La la lista de las consolas más vendidas de la semana:

DSi: 53.293
PSP: 51.215
PS3: 37.538
Wii: 35.392
DS Lite: 10.661
Xbox 360: 4.244
PS2: 2.179

Y la lista de software más vendido:

01. [WII] Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) – 340.000 / Nuevo
02. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryakusha – Blizzard/Fire (Level 5) – 280.000 / Nuevo
03. [NDS] Pokemon Soul Silver (Pokemon) – 267.000 / 2.285.000
04. [PSP] Gran Turismo (SCE) – 134.000 / Nuevo
05. [PSP] Macross Ultimate Frontier (Bandai Namco Games) – 81.000 / Nuevo
06. [NDS] Tomodachi Collection (Nintendo) – 68.000 / 1.288.00
07. [PS3] Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (Tecmo) – 42.000 / Nuevo
08. [WII] Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo) – 27.000 / 1.252.000
09. [PS3] Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce (Koei) – 26.000 / Nuevo
10. [PS3] Tales of Vesperia (Namco) – 26.000 / 292.000

Ni Ryu Hayabusa puede vencer a Nintendo .. no nos quedara de otra que llamarle al Chapulín Colorado.

What to blog...

diyhades — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:53:22 +0000

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really do blogs. I get a fair amount of writer’s block when trying to blog.

However, I looked at the clock a few minutes ago, and thought: I need to blog. [note: as of writing this my clock says 3:57] I’m blogging out of obligation again. I don’t have writer’s block right now, so we’ll see how this goes.

1. Brontosaurus

[typing resumed at 2:49 pm after falling sleep, forgetting about this blog entry then returning]

I remember back when Brontosaurus was still considered a legit dinosaur. You guys remember that? Remember how they told us that there was some sort of mistake putting together the skeleton and the dinosaur we knew and loved as Brontosaurus actually never existed? I remember that. I don’t remember how old I was at the time, but I do remember being pretty traumatized. That little revelation shook my whole world. It was the equivalent of telling me Santa wasn’t real. I was actually never taught that Santa was real to begin with, (I never believed in him either, although I wanted to) but I understand it can be upsetting to tell that to children who believe in Santa.

Back to the point, I was pretty upset. I thought that Brontosaurus was really cool. The whole ‘Brontosaurus not real’ thing really threw me. Getting over it took… actually I never really got over it so much as ignored the paleontologists and kept on believing in Brontosaurus anyway.

Come to think of it, I was probably under the age of ten at the time, which is probably why I remember feeling upset and protective for a while afterwards when playing with my little Brontosaurus toys.

2. Pluto

The whole deal with Pluto was similar to what happened to Brontosaurus (or, at least they connect somewhere in my head) When Pluto was demoted I remember feeling sad, and for some reason, hurt. I was no where near as upset as I was after the Brontosaurus deal, though.

I still feel little sorry for Pluto. I know it’s not sentient, and if it was it probably wouldn’t care too much about whether the people on a planet millions of miles away categorize it as a planet or a dwarf planet, but I still feel bad. (Not really bad, but I grew up with Pluto being a planet, and Pluto not being a planet messed with my reality a tad)

3. Third thing to blog about

This could be anything really. I had a brief, fleeting idea about what I would write here, but I lost it. I then got very distracted in the process of trying to find it and forgot what I was doing in the first place. I might blog about Facebook games or something, (I do those now) but maybe not. I don’t really think the internet community, (A.k.a you, whoever you are) really give a damn about my Facebook gaming habits. Then again, maybe you do. I however, have no way of knowing. I think though, that I will type about Facebook gaming. You don’t have to read this, but I have to type it, so I might as well pick a topic that’s relevant to me. (as in not writer’s block inducing)

I’m currently playing quite a few Facebook games. I mostly find them to be a waste of time, but for some reason the allure of leveling up is too great for me to stop. A couple of them require you to check up on things in game. (properties, cooking, etc.) I’m currently playing one right now, and had to check on something a couple of seconds ago. That particular game has me hooked because I’m trying to level up enough to beat a friend. My friend does not know I am trying to beat them. My reason for trying to beat this friend at a flash in-browser game is pathetic. (I know you probably don’t care, but I’ll just say it anyway) They’re better than me at many things in real life and on the internet. (Do not try to understand how they can be better than me at things on the internet) I’m trying to beat them at this game for this reason. I want to be better for once. This also applies to three other games I’m playing, one of which is Mafia Wars.

My friend is level 102 in Mafia Wars. I’m level 21. I have a mild inferiority complex about this. The result is that I try to level up like mad every time I’m on Mafia Wars. (which is a lot) I’m also trying to level up like mad in Vampire wars, but that’s a case of trying to beat myself. I’m level 13 in Vampire wars at the moment, and my time playing that game is split between trying to level up, and try to raise my skill ranking. This is the problem with Facebook games for me. (Or any game where you can level up) It’s especially true because Facebook games are so easy to play. It’s not like, say Ninja Gaiden, where you need to learn how to use skills, and then not die, or Halo, which is similar, except I find that playing on Xbox Live is especially brutal because of it. (But, I’m a noob, so what do I know)

I find Halo frustrating. I die a lot. I find Ninja Gaiden to be easy by comparison; (I die a lot, but I’m more used to the game format)

Would you look at that. I’ve gone off topic.

To be fair to my lack of an organized thought process, Halo and Ninja Gaiden are far more interesting than any Facebook games. I never blog about them because I don’t get to play them a lot, due to various Irl responsibilities, and other places on the internet. The internet is the biggest time suck there is, except for tv. Sometimes. Actually, the internet wins by a mile.

I need to end this entry because it’s getting to long, so I will.

…Once I think of an ending. I suppose a good one would be something like the ending of every Late Late Show.

What did we learn on the blog this time Diyhades?

I dunno. You probably learned that I can go on and on about nothing at all, and that my username does not work for the Late late show ending song.

Join us next time for: More of the Same. Also, possible randomness

Team Ninja a procura de desenvolvedores

Gustavo Rodrigues — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:59:25 +0000

É galera ao que tudo indica Ninja Gaiden 3 pode está em desenvolvimento. Mas a noticia a que em questão não é está, e sim de que a Team Ninja está oferecendo vaga de emprego para “programador gráfico para um projeto de última tecnologia”.

No anuncio feito pela empresa, ainda está contido de que ela precisa de pessoal, para um novo projeto que eles estão trabalhando para PS3 e Xbox 360.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 e Tartarugas Ninja no Brasil

Luc X — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:34:07 +0000

E chega oficialmente no Brasil os jogos do titulo, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, exclusivo para PlayStation 3, pelo preço sugerido de R$ 249,90. TMNT: Smash Up! para Wii ao preço sugerido de R$ 189,90 enquanto que dia 2 de outubro aparece a edição de PlayStation, com valor sugerido de R$ 119,90. Além destes também temos um jogo da Disney, Toy Story Mania! o preço sugerido é de R$ 249,90.

O primeiro (ninja gaiden)é uma versão exclusiva para PS3 do clássico de Xbox, trazendomais bônus e uma refinada nos graficos. O segundo (TMNT) é produzido pela mesma equipe de Super Smash Bros. Brawl, fazendo o jogo ser uma copia cuspida do mesmo, em breve uma pequena analise aqui no blog.

E por ultimo Toy Story traz varios minigames para o Wii estrelada pelos personagens da famosa série desenhos animados tridimensionais da Pixar e baseada em uma atração dos parques da Disney. Além disso, o game conta com fases 3D, que podem ser desfrutadas com o uso de um óculos especial que acompanha o jogo.

Até mais!