Hey what is up everybody at PN and XBL Radio, it is Mr B4 here to give you the latest about what is going on in the gaming community. I do not have any nintendo news for you this week, what I do have is a written review for a game that I played recently. The game is called Hellboy: The Science of Evil, and it is available for the PS3, 360, and PSP. I will be reviewing the Xbox 360 version of the game.
Without further adieu, let us get right into the review:
With the release of the new Hellboy movie only days away, what better way to cash in on the movie franchise than to release a game that is loosely based on the movie in someway shape or form. Hellboy: The Science of Evil is a beat-em-up game that is tied in with the movie release. To be honest with you, this is a title that should have never been released, and I will tell you why.
Story (D-): This is by far the biggest dissapointment of this game. I am honestly going to tell all of you right now that I could not figure out what the story was in this game whatsoever. You basically move from one random location to another without being told why you are doing so. You go from being in a graveyard, to a forest, to somewhere in Japan, to a rainy abandoned town, to a desert, then to a castle. There are certain characters you meet along the way who will explain to you the reason as to why everything is going on, but honestly, it gets confusing and uninteresting very quickly. I would have just preferred the story from the movie, that way at least there would be some from of structure to it.
Sound(C-): There is nothing special in the game as far as sounds are concerned. When Hellboy beats down enemies, all you hear is a basic whooshing sound, which is kind of strange considering the size of his hand, you would think it make a more thunderous sound, but this is not the case. It is kind of cool to hear the sound of an entire wall crumbling when Hellboy beats it down with his fists. Enemies have no sounds other than grunts, which makes it easier for you to beat down on them, but really also gives them a lack of personality.
The voice acting is pretty good for the most part, with Ron Perlman’s sarcastic sense of humor being the highlight of most of the voice acting in the cutscenes. Other people that you encounter, such as the witch, and a few skeleton people, do an okay job of voice acting, but do not do enough to counteract the one liners from Ron Perlman.
The music is pretty bad as well, with literally the same background music repeating itself over and over again from level to level. When you first hear it, it does sound pretty cool, menacing, and scary, but after awhile you will grow tired of it. Different background music for each of the different levels would have been nice, but sadly they are non-existent.
Graphics(B-): Graphics are actually the high point of this game. Character models for the most part look next-gen, with Hellboy once again being the highlight of the graphics department. He looks very menacing, has piercing red eyes, and much detail has gone into the overall look of his body as far as muscles go. Environments are nothing special, there are a few nice lighting effects here and there, but much more could have been done to make the environments more inviting, such as more parts of the environment being available to destroy. As it stands, the environments look like they were taken from games on the original xbox.
Gameplay/Controls(C-): The game is a beat-em up, which basically comes down to mashing buttons to defeat your enemies, primarily in this case the X-button will end up being your button of choice. You can do other combos by mixing the X and Y buttons together, but they are not really neccesary or fun to do. There are also finishers that you can perform on both small and large enemies by grappling them with the RT button and by pressing the B button, but the only time that you will need to use them in order to progress through the game is during some boss fights, that is it.
Boss fights themselves are boring and unintersting, and really require no other strategy to them other than mashing on the X button until the enemy is stunned, then do a finishing move, then the fight ends. Even though the fighting is dull and repetitive, it is quite easy to understand. You can also use your gun by pressing the LB button to shoot at your enemies, and the RB button to select different types of ammo that you will find throughout the game. The different types of ammo include a spread shot, a power shot, a grenade shot, a flame shot, a crystal shot, etc. You really do not need to use your guns that much throughout the game, other than to shoot an object to open it, to break through a wall, etc.
You can also use Hellboy’s fists to break through walls, open up certain areas, light torches to burn down obstacles, but that is about it. All of these actions can be performed by locking onto something with the RT button, then pressing the X button to perform the action. These action promps do not occur that often throughout the game, leaving you wondering why they were put there in the first place.
The biggest dissapointment in the gameplay department is the camera positioned on Hellboy. The camera places Hellboy in a fixed perspective point of view, making it hard for you to see where enemies are coming from, judge distances between certain gaps where you have to jump, where an enemy is during a boss fight, etc. The fact that you cannot adjust the view at all is very dissapointing and frustrating. By simply allowing players to adjust the view, alot more parts of this game could have been easier to complete.
Replay Value (D-) : Other than completing the maing quest, which only consists of six levels, there is not much else to do. You can play through the game again either alone or online with a friend to complete certain tasks in order to gain achievements, such as kill a certain amounts of enemies with a certain weapon, find artifacts, etc., but that is about it. Some unlockable costumes or new weapons might have given gamers a reason to play through the game one more time, but sadly they are nowhere to be found, a major dissapointment.
Overall (D): While the nostalgia of playing as Hellboy and smashing your way through enemies and obstacles can be fun for about an hour or so, the fun wears off pretty quickly. With bad camera angles, unintersting boss fights, decent dialogue, repetitive gameplay, and a disjointed story, this is a game that you should definitely pass on. The only reason I gave it a D instead of an F is because you do receive a free movie ticket to see the new Hellboy movie when you buy the game.
Give it a rent if you are looking for an easy way to gain achievement points, otherwise, just do not bother playing it at all.
What is up everybody at PN and XBL Radio, it is Mr B4 here bringing you the latest as to what is going on in the Nintendo gaming community. I just came across some news recently that I thought you Nintendo gamers might be interested in. What news you might ask?, read on to find out.
The latest issue of Nintendo Power magazine has revealed that Castlevania Judgement and Mega Man 9 have been confirmed for both the Wii console and WiiWare download service. Lets take a minute or two to look at the details that have been revealed so far for these games. I am going to tell you honestly that it is not much, but at the very least it is something. Here is some info about these games:
CastleVania Judgement
Castlevania Judgement is going to be a 3D style fighter featuring famous characters from the Castlevania series. So far, I have found out that Alucard, Simon Belmount, Maria Renard, and Dracula have been confirmed as playable characters for the game. It was also confirmed that there will be interactive environments (IE Mortal Kombat Armageddon) for you to fight in, as well as bosses from the series that will drop in from time to time during battles to add some variety and extra difficulty to the game, and also the ability to use subweapons and hearts. No release date or price have been given as of yet, but expect an announcement on that sometime soon.
Mega Man 9 (Wiiware)
Capcom has also made an announcement that they will be bringing Mega Man 9 to the Wii’s WiiWare game downloading service. Here are the details that I have on the game so far. It is being developed by Inti Creates, which is the team who worked on the first three Mega Man X titles. It will stick to the 8-bit graphics of the original Mega Man series that came out on the NES. It was also said that the game controls like Mega Men 3-6 by the Mega Man Network(not sure if that is good or bad, but still confimed nonetheless). Other than that, the only other details that I could find about this game were the names of the bosses that you will be fighting.
Here are the names of the bosses:
* Magma Man
* Galaxy Man
* Jewel Man
* Concrete Man
* Hornet Man
* Plug Man
* Tornado Man
* Splash Woman
No release date or price has been given as of yet for this Wiiware game, but expect it to fall somewhere between 800 ($5.00) and 1000($10.00) Wii points.
Here are some of my quick thoughts about these games. It is nice to see Mega Man 9 stick to its original roots that made the game great back in the NES days, with the same graphics, gameplay, and types of boss fights that we have all grown to know and love over the years. Castlevania Judgement on the other hand, is a little bit of a risky idea, especially since previous fighting titles that have come out for the Wii have seen lackluster reviews by most gaming sites (IE Mortal Kombat Armageddon, Soulcalibur Legends). I would have like to have seen a Castlevania game that sticks to the formula that made its other titles successful in the past, but I am guessing that only time will tell on this one.
The choice as to whether or not you should buy, rent, or ignore these games, I will leave up to you.
Until next time gamers, this is B4 signing off.
Take Care,
Mr B4
Link to Story:http://www.mywiinews.com/we-called-it-mega-man-and-castlevania-to-hit-wii/
Guess what folks, the DRM issue has just been fixed. You can now go to Xbox.com and transfer your license to your new Xbox 360. For more info head over to majornelson.com for all the info you need. I’ll be doing this to my new elite as soon as I get home.
This is, INFECTEDPB503, here with a first hand report of how well this works! And guess what…
It’s another BULL S*IT move by Microsoft!
As I been told numerous times, by everyone, I am a 360 fanboy (shh.. its is the better system so…). And when this was announced I hailed it as the end to the only other complaint on the 360. As the “Red Rings” as been fixed DRM was the only other issue that Sony Fanboys had as ammo against the 360.
So as you can see by the video above you goto Xbox.com and click a couple links. This transfers all liscences to your primary Xbox 360, of your choosing. The issue arrises in the next step…
You have to goto this 360 and RE-DOWNLOAD EVERYTHING! Sure this is no issue for someone who just bought a 360, who would not need to use this tool, but for someone, like me, who has had their 360 SINCE LAUNCH this is going to take FOREVER to do.
When I did the transfer I had 1200+ game licenses and 180+ video licenses. Sure I am not going to re-download everything (some items are not needed or available anymore) but I have over 50gbs of DLC on my HD at the moment includeing: 60+ arcade games and over 50 hours of TV Shows. To re-download all this would be insane (given we can only do six at a time).
Not to mention the bandwidth this would take. What if you are one that has a “cap” on how much content your can download a month? Yet again this is just Microsoft trying to “calm the roar” of gamers everywhere that are having DRM issues and while this may fix this issue this should not be considered the “final fix” or people/gamers will just stop downloading items from MS.
Hey there all you sports fans. Kemanswar has been doing some stock car racing this past week with NASCAR ’09 for the Xbox 360. This year’s cover athlete is Jeff Gordon, driver of the number 24 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. At the start of the game he provides the tutorial to help get you started. Any time Gordon is explaining anything to you it is via cut scene; you can skip it or listen to him talk. If you are a fan of NASCAR you already know the basics but let’s break it down anyway.
If you run through the career mode you start out in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, this is where all you rookies will get some experience. You can sign contracts for teams and sponsors, as you progress and meet objectives i.e.: place in the top 25 for 3 races, etc… This gives you Reputation Points, the more of them you have, the more options you have for sponsors and teams. As you complete sponsor objectives and team objectives you also get Performance Points. Use these to upgrade your stats in four categories: Engine, Chassis, Aerodynamics, and Durability; and in the four track types: Speedway, Super Speedway, Short Track, Road Course. Leveling up comes in heavy when you play online (more here later). After some time in the Truck Series, you can move up to the Nationwide Series, think of this as big engines with training wheels. A faster car, better aerodynamics, better stability, makes competition a little bit harder than the trucks. Same rules apply though work your way through the season and build up your reputation and make your way to the Sprint Cup Series.
Sprint Cup Series: fast cars all turning left over and over! This is where the big boys race for the win, or make a smoking wreck in turn four! All your big names and big sponsors are here where big engines cut loose for you to take to the front.
If you were to remove the NASCAR licenses it would still be a decent racer, it has control modes that make it easy for novice users to keep up with the hardcore simulation fans. Speaking of whom, will love to go in and tweak their set up, much like Forza 2. This detail into handling, aerodynamics, tire pressure, etc makes it a worthy simulation (I’m not going to lie; I just looked at the options, as I know nothing about cars).
There is also a race now feature, as in all EA Sports games, and of course the obligatory country EA Trax. One of my favorite features is the option to create your own paint scheme, which for once EA stepped up and is giving you more. You can also upload your very own custom paint job from your computer. Love to edit in Photoshop? Than go to the EA website and download the templates you need to create what ever your mind can come up with. We could talk about the dangers of what some gamers will “paint” on their cars, but that’s been beat to death.
Overall I really enjoy NASCAR ’09, it’s a fun race game that helps you learn how to adjust your cars and build up a reputation. If you are a fan of NASCAR than you will probably enjoy the ’09 outing, heck if you like racers check it out! It’s more about how you control your car and how you tweak your settings that make this a keeper. If on the other hand, you are not a fan of either, but your interest has been sparked, rent it and find out what you think.
Please leave comment here or submit feedback to xblradio@platformnation.com
Hey what is up everybody at Xblradio and Platform Nation, it is Mr B4 here giving you the latest news as to what is going on in the gaming community. I know I have not posted an article in awhile, and I apologize for that. What will be happening now is I will be bringing you an article every week from now on, one week having a news story, the other being my thoughts on a game I just recently played.
Enough of the apologzies, let us get right into the article, which today will be my thoughts on The Incredible Hulk for the Xbox 360.
As most of you may know, the latest Hulk movie has just come to theaters, and what is a new movie release without a new video game release to back it up. And to be honest with you, The Incredible Hulk is not a totally bad game in any aspect, there are just so many problems that it has that other movie to video game adaptations have experienced as well. Without further or do, let us get right into the review.
Story (C-): To be honest with you, I have not seen the movie yet, but here is what I think of the story so far in this game. You are Bruce Banner, and you are trying to find a cure so that you do not have to be the hulk anymore. The Incredible Hulk game plays through an open world environment, which at times can really get you confused about what is going on in the game. So far I know the Enclave (An alien army squad) is trying to destroy new york city, Bruce Banner is trying to find a cure, and the army wants to find you and keep you under quarantine, that is about it.
Instead of having a straight forward mission structure, you are able to jump into any mission that is available at any given time. Now granted, the missions are color coded, but honestly, I kept going to the mission closest to me, so that way I am not spending an half hour trying to find the next mission to continue the story. Cutscenes do not help fill in the gaps either, they are brief, look horrible, and leaving you feeling confused about what to do next in the game.
Sound (B+): This is where the game shines by far. Every sound is accurate to what would happen if you jumped and landed on a building, blew up a building, beat down a car, run through a street in New York City, etc. Helicopters, tanks, and cars all make lively explosions when you destroy them. The Hulks scream sounds really angry, and really translates well to his core character. The music for the most part is lively and fast paced, and will keep you excited no matter which mission you play.
Graphics(C+): For the most part, the graphics are ok, but the game does have a couple of noticeable problems. For example, when you jump off the top of a building, you cannot see most of New York City, except for blocky textures, until you hit the ground. New York City on its own does still look lively as it always does, with colorful billboards, a number of different vehicles in the streets, pedestrians crowding the streets, etc. However, many of the buildings tend to repeat themselves over and over again, which could be remedied by adding a little more variety, other than size, of the buildings that you are looking at.
The hulk himself looks ok, for a launch 360 game. He still looks a little bit too cartoonish, even from a video game aspect. By that I mean that he may look menacing and scary up close, with ripped up jeans, the scary look on his face, the huge muscles, etc. Looking from the behind of him angle, makes him look kind of small, and just like every other citizen. Cutscenes, as I stated earlier, look bad, leaving the only good thing about them being the fact that it does not look like the characters in them are lip-synching their words.
Gameplay/Controls (D+): While being extremely fun at first, The Incredible Hulk falls into a state of repetitiveness that most movie games fall into very quickly. The gameplay falls into a few basic categories, destroy a certain amount of enemies in area, destroy or get rid of certain objects that are of danger to the city, save a friend from being killed, destroy buildings, defeat bosses, and that is about it.
The fighting in this game relies heavily on button mashing. You will be performing alot of X and Y button mashing moves, which gives you limited possibilities about the types of combos that you can do. You can also jump into the air, and slam the ground with the Y button, but it does not really help that much in any situation.
There are four special moves that you have, which can be trigged by selecting them with your d-pad, and then by pressing the Y and B buttons together at the same time. I only unlocked three during my time playing, and they were Healing, Ground Strike, and a Clap. The only real useful one though is the healing move, because it always refills your health to the max whenever you use it. While the other ones are cool, it just takes too much time to perform the actions that you need to perform in order to the execute these moves correctly.
This is partly because Hulk has a fury meter that he uses in order to execute these moves, which requires you to destroy tings in order to fill up the meter, and with the amount of fury that you need in order to execute these moves, ends up taking way too much time to do. I would have also preferred the selecting of these moves to be simplified to pressing up, down, left, or right on the d-pad, which would make them easier to use in the more hectic battles.
The game also tends to run at a slow frame rate, and sometimes freezes up when you are trying to complete objectives. Enemies themselves are not varied, leaving the only variation to the use of different colors to increase difficulty.
Replay Value (C-): While there are a number of missions to complete, there is not much else available that will make you want to come back and play this game again. The are Fury Canisters and Gamma Containers that you can collect to increase the hulks overall health and fury in the game. There are also a few mini-games that you can play that require you to do things like destroy a certain amount of the city in a certain amount of time, run through laps around the city, or destroy a certain amount of objects in a given period of time. From what I have experienced, none of these mini-games have unlocked anything for me, so I thought they were a complete waste of time.
You can also unlock different outfits, and different colored hulks to use during gameplay. Honestly though, once you have played through this game once, you are not going to want to do it again, just for a little bit of an attack or fury boost that is added to each character.
Overall (C-): While it can be fun for awhile, The Incredible Hulk becomes dull and repetitive very quickly. A sluggish frame rate, useless unlockables, blocky textures, and mindless button mashing gameplay make for up for a very disappointing experience. The cutscenes do not piece together the story very well, which could have been improved on by making he game have a linear story similar to that of the movie in which it is based off of.
A rental at best, but do not waste your $60 dollars on this one.
After our hiatus after GTA IV, Keman returns with his favorite rants!
Topics Include: What games we’ve played the past few months! Demos we’ve played…Grid and Dragonball Z Burst Limit! GTA IV DLC content delayed…if you want to call it that. Bioshock movie and sequels, and how it is not as exclusive as we thought. Jack Thompson has really lost it this time! Star Wars Force Unleashed unleashes another character for Soul Caliber IV! All this and more! Thanks for listening, Please leave us a comment on the show or send us an e-mail at: xblradio@platformnation.com
Hey what is up everybody at Platform Nation and XBL Radio, it is Mr B4 here bringing you the latest news from the Nintendo World of gaming. What I have for you today is a review for the game Deca Sports, which is a game that just recently came out for the Wii. It was developed and published by the people over at Hudson Soft Entertainment. So, no more time for small talk, let us get right to the review.
Just to let you know, since this is a sports game, you would have to assume right off the bat that there is no story , so I will just be giving you a quick synopsis of what this game is all about. There are 10 events that can be played with up to four players, with eight different teams to choose from, each team being unique in size and skill level. There are also four single player modes, and one multiplayer mode to play, but that is about it.
Here is an overview of the modes, events, and teams in the game.
Single player modes: Open Match, Tournament, Deca Challenge, Deca League
Multiplayer mode: Open match
Sporting Events: Badminton (1-2 players), Kart Racing (1-4 players), Curling (1-4 players), Snowboard Cross (1-4 players), Archery (1-4 players), Super cross (1-4 players), Beach Volleyball (1-4 players), Figure Skating (1-4 players), Basketball(1-2 players), and Soccer (1-2 players).
Teams: Team Thunder (Blue), Mad Maidens (Pink), Speed Strikers (Light Blue), Hard Hitters( Yellow), Average Joes (Red), Crusaders (Dark Green), Boost Force (Light Green), and the Purple Knights(Purple).
Review:
Sound (B-): The sounds and music are kind of what you have come to expect from sports games nowadays. Most of the music is upbeat, but some of it is mellowed down where it needs to be (Figure Skating, Curling, etc.). The first problem that I have with the music is that it can be repetitive and loop over for almost every single event. My other problem with the music is the dreadful “Everybody Move your Body” song that plays at the title screen, which could have lowered my grade for this section all by itself, it is just that bad.
As far as sounds in the game go, they are somewhat accurate to their real life counterparts. The crowd cheering, object sounds (dribbling basketball, hitting volleyball, skating on ice, etc.) all sound like they should. The only problem with sound that I had was the sounds of the engines for both the motorcycles and the karts. Each one sounded like you a fly getting caught in a bug zapper. Other than that, the sound is good, but nothing special, it is just there.
Graphics (C+): Now stop me if you have not heard this statement before, the graphics are good, for a Wii game. The participants on each team have a full body (arms, legs, etc.), which makes them look somewhat more realistic, but not entirely lifelike. Expressions on the characters faces are basic, smiles (happy), frowns (sad), and so on, but the characters themselves lack a certain amount of emotion during gameplay. The only things that they do to show emotion is pumping fists when they win, and drooping heads when they lose, that is it. Most of the environments are bland and uninspired, leaving the crowd as the only high point of the game in the graphic department, adding at least a little bit of color and animation to the otherwise bland surroundings that you are playing in.
Gameplay/Controls (C+): Most of the events in the game have simple controls to understand, are responsive for the most part, and are a lot of fun to play. There are however, some aspects of the gameplay portion that could have been improved on to make the experience even better for certain events. A turbo button to make events like soccer and basketball a little more fast paced would have been nice. The ability to move your characters should have been implemented in events like badminton and volleyball, especially when somebody spikes the ball or object to your side of the court, and there is nothing you can do to return it back to the other team, simply because you cannot switch or move your characters at all, which is very disappointing. Other than that, the controls are gimmicky and moderately fun for a Wii game.
Replay Value (D-): This is quite possibly the biggest disappointment of the game by a large margin. The reason I say that is because once you have played through all of the modes in this game one time, you really have seen all that it has to offer, giving you no reason to play it more than once, other than playing the open match mode with your friends. Even that ends up getting old quickly, since there is only mode to play.
The medals and trophies that you can earn by completing the Deca League and Deca Challenge modes do not really unlock anything in the game, other than higher difficulty settings for the Deca league mode, and that is it.
There is also a lack of an online multiplayer mode that could have helped out the replay value just a bit. Always having to find 2 to 3 other people to play this game with you is not easy, especially if you do not have that many friends.
Overall (C+) : While Deca Sports can be a fun game to play with friends, it is not as fun to play by yourself, since there is no reason or incentive for you to play any of these modes more than once. There are no new outfits, new arenas, or gameplay modes available to unlock, making the trophies and medals that you earn have absolutely no value at all. Controls can be simple and fun, but they are nothing innovative or astounding, and could have been improved on in certain events. The characters look good, but they lack a certain sense of emotion that should be more emphasized for a sports game. Environments are bland and uninspired, sound and music is ok but repetitive, leaving the entire experience feeling more like Wii sports 2, instead of a game all its own.
Even at a $29.99 price tag, I say rent it, because that price does not even help overlook the amount of problems that this game has. It can be fun to play with friends, but if you are looking for an in-depth career mode, look elsewhere, because this game just does not make the cut.
That is all for my review, big thanks go out to Steve and the people over at Hudson for hooking me up with a copy of the game to review, much appreciated.
Hey what is up everybody over at Platform Nation and XBL Radio, Happy Memorial Day! It is Mr B4 here to give you the latest news as to what is going on in the Nintendo World.
What I have for you this week is a trailer for a new game that is coming out for the Wii. The game is called Mad World, it is published by Sega, and is being developed by Platinum Games. There are a couple of reasons why I wanted to show you this trailer, the first being because it is a game that Desz and myself have mentioned on the last two episodes of TQ Cast, and I wanted to show you what we were talking about. The other reason is because there is always a complaint about how no good gruesome or good third-party titles seem to ever come out for the Wii, and this could be a game that might possibly do well in both categories.
Either Way, decide for yourself after you are done watching this trailer.
Hello and greetings everybody, it is X3R0 9 bringing you a review about an arcade game for that Xbox 360 that came out last week. Hopefully this will be one of many reviews of video games that we can give to you from time to time. So without any further adieu, here is my review of Assault Heroes 2 for the Xbox LIVE Arcade.
Let us start off with the basics. The game is Assault Heroes 2, developed and published by Sierra Online. The game is rated T for Teen because of some blood and of course the violence. It has single player play, of course, while it also has local and online co-op play. This is the sequel to the 2006 IGN Game of the Year, Assault Heroes. This is a top-down arcade shooter that is not much different than the first when it comes to game play.
You fight to save the planet in your 4×4 vehicle on land, but you also get to save the planet from space. Yes, you read it right! We are taking this beyond our atmosphere. While you get to fight on land and in space in vehicles, the game also forces you to do some of the fighting on foot. Some of the additions to the game were hijackable vehicles, more powerful weapons, and interactivity with the environment.
Graphically the game looks like it was touched up on compared to the first one. The craziness of the game has been toned down, but enjoyment of destroying things has been ramped up. The only downfall to this game is the repetitiveness of it. It is a very linear game, but the enemies and the scenery changes often which makes up for it.
As far as the length of the game, my brother (Ultimate Kaz) and I completed it in less than 7 hours on the medium difficulty. So don’t expect this to be one of those long arcade games. If you enjoyed the first Assault Heroes, then you will most likely enjoy this game as well. So, go and check out the demo on the Marketplace or just read about the game here.
Until next time, this is X3R0 9 signing off, and I will see you on LIVE!
What games we’ve played the past few months!
Thanks for listening, Please leave us a comment on the show or send us an e-mail at: xblradio@platformnation.com
