Thursday, January 17, 2008

Uncharted course

Ok so i been through this game and yeh i'm sold, its gorgeous :). Which game am i referring to, well this lil ps3 game called Uncharted: Drake's fortune, the game is fun no doubt. Must admit when i saw first previews of it i was very skeptical and thought it was a bit off in areas. But these guys shut me up when i played the demo. I was so convinced i bought the game and haven't regretted it since.
The game takes the approach of a hollywood blockbuster film like indiana jones meets national treasure or something where it has ur standard action hero lead a love interest and an old father like figure friend. All movie cliche's aside though the game is fun. It takes elements of game mechanics from other games that worked like gears of war type cover system, and tomb raider-esque adventure and puzzle solving don't worry nothin brain numbing the pacing is great in this game. All the while playing it i felt like i was apart of this great popcorn hollywood blockbuster feature film.
You play as Nathan Drake an explorer and treasure hunter on the path to finding the mythical El DORADO and on your journey you have your friend Sullivan and team up with a reporter named Elena. All three are thrown into an epic adventure as they journey through the game to its epic climax. As mentioned before the game takes the gears of war lead in the duck and cover system and allows you to shield youself behind crates, walls...anything that can basically give shelter from the hail of gunfire coming your way. The enemies are relentless, and come at you from all sides you have to be constantly alert as they will do their best to come around from behind or the sides to flank you. They are smart but not THAT smart. They tend to do stupid things at times like when u throw a grenade they'll stand there and go "Holy crap!!" and just look at the grenade till it inevitably explodes...which i guess is more attuned to comedy. The aiming takes awhile to get used to but works ok, it would help if they had a bit of an aiming assist but after playing it a bit i was picking of head shots like nothing so i take it back. Just play it...you'll get the hang of it...I mean we are gamers right ;). The melee system is fun to pull off, when u rush a bad guy the camera zooms in and u go off into this melee sequence where ur button presses HAVE to be precise, takes some time to get it right but once u got the timing it helps when u run out of ammo in a gun fight.
The graphics in the game are beautiful some of the best i've seen so far on the ps3, trust mi, the water effects were amazing!. The in game cinemas are top notch and the voice acting further ads to good production value and you really get a feel for the personality of the characters. The music is also a great compliment it comes in and excites u right on cue and dies out just as well when the action is over and the sounds effects are meaty...bones crunching, gunfire, explosions all sound nice!! There are couple unlockables and behind the game footage that you can unlock as well as a gallery standard unlockable stuff. It also has four difficulty levels easy, normal, hard and crushing i've finished it on all of em and had a blast "crushing" being the most difficult one made me have to really strategize and man did i get pissed at times trust me!! But all in all good fun and no hard core gamer would want to go through any game and not try the hardest difficulty level once :)
My only issues come in terms of some of the platforming as in navigating and stuff but it was minor like it handled the jumps for you like he just lept to the next ledge like a magnet to steel you know. like there was no real indicator that yeh i could miss this(even though you could) but like i said minor...that and the fact that it was over too quick...but i think thats because i couldn't put it down and it was just damn good. Time flies when your having fun they say. What would have been cool was if they had like an online battle area using the game mechanics, i'd have loved to see how that would have played out. Anyway its a great game and a good addition to your Playstation 3 library and a good game to show off the systems potential. A must have in my case, which is why i guess i have it! :D thats it for now take it easy gamers.

Gash out :)

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Call to arms

HOLY FREAKIN CRAP!!! yeh that was ma reaction after going through the heart pounding, adrenaline pushing, mind blowing, eye popping game that is Call of Duty 4. Man this is at the top of my list in terms of next gen shooters for me. Yeh yeh yeh i know i'm gonna hear it from pc people that controllers suck for shooters...but read my lips....I don't give a crap...i don't mind it! plus its all i have now so there :P

Anyway as for the game its just awesome the story takes you through the roles of two military operatives the british SAS agent known as "Soap" and this marine dude called Jackson from the US. You play one side then the next until they both come to a joint operation towards the end and it all ends with a nice cinematic bang! The missions are varied and the stages are beautiful. You'll be storming a Tanker ship on one mission, raiding a television station in the next, to freeing an informant on another, the pace is nice and when the action starts its relentless and you really get the feeling that this is how hectic real war would be. Controls are nice and its considerate of them to have an aim assist for us non mouse and keyboard players. Its nicely balanced to still give you freedom and help in a pinch without feeling like a necessary crutch.

The voice acting, music and graphics help to totally immerse players in the environments and story, all are top notch... you can see that the guys at infinityward take pride in what they do, which is refreshing for us gamers to get games of such polish... being that many publishers see fit to put out mediocre crap at times just for a quick buck(booooooo). The main single player campaign isn't that long bout 10-12 hours at max. But fear not that's not where Call of Duty's strength lies.. but rather its in the multiplayer...and trust me...it is robust, multitude of options make this infinitely re playable. What's worst is while you play online you aquire points and unlock new character classes as well as ways to tweak these options to your playing style....which is super sweet.

Yeh i see now why Call of Duty 4 is the shooter to be reckoned with and a top choice for many players out there. All i gotta say is this, any Jamaicans out there who have a copy of this game send me your sign in names on the Playstation Network so i can add you and we can run some matches Online. My add is Negash79...see yah there!

Gash out :)

Friday, January 11, 2008

The Ninja has left the building

Hey wassup gameheads, late as i am i finally got my hands on Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Man this is one game that doesn't let up. This shit is HAAAAARD!!! and that's only on normal mode. Funny thing though is that once you get used to the mechanics certain things that seemed impossible are extremely doable. This credit goes to the fact that the learning curve is good and the fact that Ryu learns some nifty moves along his quest for vengeance.

Gaiden is the story of Ryu Hayabusa whose village is attacked and the ancient sword the dark dragon is taken and his brethen killed, his village basically gets laid to waste. He gets his ass kicked in the process of trying to save some semblance of what was left. Anyway he regains consciousness and sets out on a quest of vengeance(as noted earlier) to return the dark dragon blade and slice six ways from sunday anybody who gets in his way.

Sigma is a port of the X-box version Ninja Gaiden black but with some extra stuff, along with the fact that it looks soooooo much better due to the rich HD quality. Control is smooth and fluid and in no time you'll have Ryu bouncing off walls and slicing guys heads off. The bosses, though intimidating at first have a general pattern and if studied can be countered and beaten. As the game progresses the fights get crazier the enemies get uglier and bosses get unbelievable, that aside though the game is still fun to play. For casual players i don't recommend jumping into Gaiden unless your ready to handle quite a few game over screens. But for hardcore gamers they will welcome the challenge.

I've played it and beat it on normal and hard and now i'm trying very hard and man am i getting whooped but funny enough i still find myself going back to it. That's the strange thing about gaiden if you love a challenge then you'll keep coming back for more and more. I highly recommend this game to all action junkie's out there, now i hear there's a part 2 exclusively to the x-box 360 and i'm wondering how long it'll take to reach PS3....hrmmmm....guess i'm in for a long ass wait eh? (come ooooon what does exclusive reeeeeeaaally mean these days eh?)

Gash out.

Monday, January 7, 2008

My foray into next gen gaming

Ok, so now i have entered the realm of next gen gaming i been huggin on to ma ps2 for the longest while but i could not hold out any longer and took the plunge and got a PS3 and i haven't regretted it yet. Its amazing what it can do...surf the web, download, chat with other users in your network send messages to other players in your network, which is why i need people in Jamaica(if u have a PS3 of course to send me their USer handle on the Playstation network so i can add yah). That way we can run some GAME! :D

It's connectivity is what boggles me i was looking for almost anything i had with a usb to plug into it and most of them worked except my webcam dunno why but i guess sony's pushing their "EYE" peripheral? Anyway i've downloaded demos and stuff and played them some games where impressive some were mediocre and some were basically the same old gen stuff just cleaner graphics. But i'm guessing the era of next gen gaming is still in its incubation stage and still hasn't fully blossomed yet.

I got assassin's creed with my PS3 and i was impressed by the look and the gameplay one thing stuck out like a sore thumb though. The fact that every mission was always the same steps as the previous in terms of: You reach a town find the highest point scan the city get your objectives, which included pickpocketing, rescuing citizens, and even interrogating. Wash rinse and repeat for every mission...now to me it was cool the first couple a times but come on!!!

There are like 9 missions after the about the fourth you start going okaaaaaay ummm gimmie something else...the only thing that compels you to batter through the rest of it is the story which u wanna see through to the end. That and the fact that free running just plain kicks ass when u know what ur'e doing :D. Then again there's the ending which was an anti-climax for me but you'll see what i'm talking about when u play it. Judge for yourself.

The game has merit but the potential to be something great is so apparent and the lack to utilize it just tugs at my hearstrings. I hope more is done when the sequel comes out. I look forward to more next gen gaming and what it will bring...whether it be more of the same or something groundbreaking. Till next session...keep on gaming.

Gash out :)

Wat's it all about?

Ahh ok okaaaay just like to say to anybody out there reading this blog "HI" and welcome to my blog called Game sense, what's it about....well my main target is all you videogame players out there mainly those in Jamaica...which is where i reside....my main aim to build a sorta gaming fraternity where players from across my country can link up and trade stories, tips and tricks on games.

I'd also like to dive into game purchases. How do jamaicans get their games? What's the best way to get games out here? Who's the best link for games out here? What's too much to pay for a game or console? What are at the top of Jamaican gamer's list of games to play? Where are the best videogame arcades on the island? Peripheral ratings and if nobody understands that... i mean gaming accessories, if u need em? are they any good? is the price right? etc etc etc.

Questions like this i hope to point out and discover throughout my whole blogging venture here. So feel free to add your gaming sense where you see fit. Cuz its always more fun to play together :)

Gash out.