I'm rather surprised at the amount of comments my Brütal Disappointment blog got, and I'm extremely surprised that most of them were in accordance with what I said. I honestly thought I was going to get demolished because of the harsh tone, but it turns out that didn't happen at all. Of course, thank you for your comments. Most of them were quite interesting.

Not long after I finished Brütal Legend, I started up another game, this one on the PlayStation 3. I hadn't played a game on that console since finishing InFamous way back in June. This time around, I played another PS3 exclusive called Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I had no interest whatsoever in this game not too long ago, but after hearing my friends, both online and offline, give it praise and all the fantastic reviews it got, I decided to give it a try. Turns out the game is absolutely fantastic and it literally blew me away with its gorgeous graphics and breathtaking action cutscenes. Now, I haven't played the first installment in the series but I've heard that, even though it was quite good, there were some issues with the shooting mechanics and the amount of bullets an enemy could absorb before dying. Those issues aren't present in Uncharted 2, as mowing down enemies feels very satisfying instead of frustrating. The parkour is a big part of this game as well, as the mechanic feels just right and never really gets frustrating.

But the best parts of Uncharted 2 are its "Oh shit!" moments. There are a good amount of these moments, and many come to mind here. I won't spoil anything for you guys, but I will say that the game starts off with a huge bang and ends pretty much in the same jaw-dropping fashion. The story and voice acting are another great aspect of the game. I found myself chuckling often, especially at the dialog delivered by Nathan Drake, voiced to perfection by Nolan North. Uncharted 2 is another game that came out of nowhere and has become a huge favorite of mine for 2009. In fact, it has become a very, very strong contender for Game of the Year for me. This proves that Sony still have some good exclusives on their side, along with InFamous, Demon's Souls and Ratchet & Clank, amongst others. If you haven't checked it out already, please do so. You won't regret it.

Another game I've started playing is WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010. What attracted me to this year's game is the fact that you can create your own storylines, and also the ability to download created superstars, finishers, entrances, storylines and move sets, which has been a long time coming for the series. Although I am highly impressed with the storyline creator and the download service the game provides. I am less than impressed with the outdated graphics engine and the annoying glitches still present here. It boggles the mind to see how ugly some of the superstars, the Divas and the crowd look in today's high-standard consoles. Also, there is still some major problems with clipping and frame rate here, which hinder the overall experience. The gameplay itself, when you're wrestling an opponent, is downright boring. Hell, I'm actually forcing myself to go through the Road to WrestleMania stories just to see how they pan out. If this was a Vince McMahon simulator, where you'd control the WWE, create storylines, manage superstars and shows, as well as merchandise, it would be one hell of a game. Sadly, the wrestling in World Wrestling Entertainment is the problem here... as it is on the real-life shows as well.

DJ Hero and Forza Motorsport 3 are coming next week, and I'll be getting both of them. I honestly can't wait to try both of them out. I'll keep you updated on my impressions.

Have a great week and thank you for reading.

 Last night, I finished Brütal Legend, a game I got last Tuesday. After witnessing all of the tremendous amount of hype surrounding Tim Schafer's heavy metal epic, I was anxious to play through the campaign as superstar roadie Eddie Riggs. Sadly, after an hour or so into the main storyline, my anxiety turned into frustration and disappointment.

As I mentioned, the game starts off with a bang. In fact, if you've played the demo, you know exactly how the game starts off. The first couple of missions after that are pretty cool, as you'll go around fighting off General Lionwhyte's army, all the while recruiting headbangers and others to join your own army, known as Ironheade. The story moves along at a brisk and steady pace until you get to fight Lionwhyte himself. Shortly after that, it slows down to a crawl while you partake in strung-out real-time strategy battles against the Drowned Doom and, finally, Doviculus' army. Although the story is quite good, I felt it was sacrificed along the way for the game's shady gameplay, which seems quite uncharacteristic of Tim Schafer.

Let's talk about that gameplay aspect for a moment. Brütal Legend implements real-time strategy elements, action elements, sandbox elements, role-playing game elements, racing elements and fighting elements, but never quite succeeds at either one of those. It's good to have ambition, but sometimes it's also good to know your limits. The side missions are a total bore and very repetitive. However, I found myself completing each and every one of them (except for the hunting ones) so I could accumulate enough Fire Tributes to upgrade my stuff. Those upgrades would become useless once the RTS gameplay kicked in, which made the side missions seem like a waste of time in the end.

Thankfully, that's not all Brütal Legend has to offer. The game does a great job in paying its respects to heavy metal, as it features a solid soundtrack with over 100 metal songs, and the metal infused world of Bladehenge, where monuments were erected in tribute to the Gods of Metal. There's also the superb cast of characters, including Jack Black as the main protagonist, a surprisingly fluent Ozzy as the Guardian of Metal, Lemmy Kilmister as the Kill Master, Rob Halford as General Lionwhyte and the marvelous Tim Curry as Doviculus.

In the end, however, I am brutally disappointed in Brütal Legend. For a game designed by a man whom I consider to be one of the greatest of all time, it hits somewhat of a sour note. The world, story and characters are quite awesome, but they are overshadowed by bad and indecisive gameplay. I haven't touched the multiplayer aspect, and I don't think I ever will. I feel like I've played enough of it in the campaign. Oh well, better luck next time, Tim.

Hi folks! It's your friendly neighborhood DBoy here. Here's a little update on what I've been playing lately and what I'm about to play in the upcoming weeks.

First off, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. I must say, I really enjoyed this one a whole lot, even though I kind of had my doubts about it. In fact, since the game has 2 different paths to choose from, either Iron Man's Pro-Registration side or Captain America's Anti-Registration side, I finished it twice. The story, which borrows heavily from the Civil War storyline from the comics, is actually quite good, although I've been told it strays quite a bit from the original story (which I haven't read). Even though you'll spend your time button-mashing through the game, it never gets old, especially with the new Fusions between Superheroes. However, some of the Fusions tend to repeat themselves, but that's to be expected when you have a roster of 24 Heroes to contend with.

M:UA 2 was only an appetizer for what's coming up in the next few weeks. Brütal Legend hits store shelves tomorrow, and I'll be sure to get my hands on that one. I'm also very interested in Uncharted 2, ever since I saw some videos for the game and the great reviews it's been getting. I haven't played the first game though, so I don't know how that'll affect my enjoyment of this one. Then, there's Forza 3, SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony, DJ Hero and Lego Rock Band all coming out before the end of the month or in early November. Oh, and there's that other, lesser-known game coming out in November too... something about a sequel to a game called Modern Warfare... I'm not sure my wallet will withstand my spending spree, so that's why I'm working on Holidays. Worked on Labor Day and, today, for Canadian Thanksgiving. Gotta sacrifice myself for my games!

Last but certainly not least, and if you haven't already, check out EndSights.com and take a look at the redesign and some of the reviews, previews and news we have on there for you. Oh, and we're also selling merchandise now too. Cool, eh?

Catch ya later!

 

Hey guys. Long time no blog. Thought I'd let you know what's been happening with yours truly these past couple of weeks.

I've acquired a couple of games this past month. NHL 10 is, without a doubt, my favorite amongst these. Yes, I enjoy it even more than The Beatles: Rock Band. Surprising? Not quite. After I went through the Story mode and played some online with a couple of friends, the game got really old, really fast. I think the very limited track list (only 45 songs, plus All You Need Is Love that I downloaded) is to blame here. Now, I'm not saying the game is horrible, absolutely not. It's just very... limited for now. However, that's soon to change with the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as DLC in October, Rubber Soul in November, and Abbey Road in December. I guess it's a long-term love affair.

Back to NHL 10. The game is just freaking incredible. The one thing that stands out in this year's edition for me, aside from the subtle gameplay tweeks, board play and GM Mode, is the ambiance. The guys at EA Sports have done an incredible job recreating it. You actually feel like you're taking part in a good ol' hockey game, with fans bouncing out of their seats when the home team scores a goal, people banging on the glass when there's a big hit along the boards, the "oohs" and "aahs" when there's a great save or when a player hits the goal post. That's what makes this game so lifelike and spectacular this year. Once again, kudos to EA for another outstanding job.

I've also played some Halo 3: ODST. I completed the game on normal difficulty, by myself. I have to say that Bungie did a great job with this game. Once again, it's all about atmosphere. I loved the parts when I was playing as The Rookie, wandering alone in the dark streets of New Mombasa, trying to avoid (as much as possible) enemy platoons. The music blew my mind as well, such an immersive and profound score by Martin O'Donnell. As for when you get to play as other ODST, I didn't find those situations to be all that great. Yeah, they're fun to go through, but there's not a whole lot of meat on the bone here. I would have rather played as The Rookie the entire way through. Nonetheless, it's still a pretty good game and I'm always up for some Firefight or going through the campaign in co-op on Legendary.

Other games I've been playing include Lips, which is a surprisingly good game. The track list is quite good, and the fact that you can import songs directly from your PC or portable music device (ie iPod) into the game is very clever. There is a lot of potential behind this game, and I hope it gets pushed farther in future iterations. I've also completed Saints Row 2 for a second time, but this time around, I was playing co-op with Mr. Tony Smith. It was good fun, until the game started glitching out like crazy on us. It wasn't uncommon that my character would get stuck in vehicles or in a surface. That kind of took away from the enjoyment of the game. Mr. Smith and myself have now partaken in another co-op adventure. This time around, we're trying to go through Gears of War 2 on Insane (him) and Hardcore (me). We'll see where that leads us.

In conclusion, it looks like October is going to be another big month for video games. The ones I'm most definitely getting are DJ Hero, Brutal Legend, Borderlands and Forza 3. My poor wallet will hate me. Which games are you guys picking up next month?

Until next time, thank you for reading and have a safe, happy October.

 

Well, 09.09.09 has come and gone. Yes, I got it. Yes, I played it. Yes, the game itself is absolutely mind-blowing. However, I sit at my desk, writing this rant / blog to you right now instead of playing it. Why is that? Read on.

Wednesday, at lunch, I went to the closest video game store, which is about a 10-15 minute walk from my job to there, to purchase The Beatles: Rock Band.  That's around 20-30 minutes coming and going, which left me about 10-15 minutes to eat. Anyway, I get there, buy the game with a huge smile on my face and happiness in my heart, and then make my way back to work in time for some Subway. At the end of the day, I make my way home, eat some dinner, and get on the X360 to play some Beatles goodness.

After watching the wonderful intro movie, I plug in my Turtle Beach headset into my controller and, after a few minutes calibrating my audio and video, I'm ready to rock. After selecting the Story mode, the game then informs me that no microphone is connected. I find this kind of weird, since I just connected my headset to my controller. So, I unplug everything and plug it back in. Same message. After a few minutes of swearing at the game and my headset, I decide to go and browse Rock Band's forums on their website to see if there is any information on this type of problem.

I come upon a thread about it and, after reading on, my face drops. The joy I felt during the day turned into frustration and anger. It seems that Harmonix has decided to alienate people who used their headsets to sing in previous games by completely abolishing them. Now, only USB microphones, or the Lips wireless microphones, will work. I would love to meet the person who came up with this brilliant idea and slap the living hell out of him or her. Some might say "Well, you know, people who will buy this type of game will already have USB microphones, so why are you complaining?" After reading some of the other post on forums around the web, including this very site, I can tell you that this is not entirely true. A lot of people still use their headsets to sing in music games, including me, and when Harmonix pulls this type of stunt, they forget about us, about those who don't have the money to purchase the entire boxed set of instruments.  That, to me, is unacceptable.

Nonetheless, now I'm going to buy Lips just so I can get those wireless microphones so I can play The Beatles: Rock Band, which means I'll probably have to skip on a title I wanted to get this year because of that. Although I'm tremendously pissed about this entire situation, I still enjoyed my time on the guitar with the game and cannot wait to sing through the story mode. One thing's for sure, this little misstep will affect my final review of The Beatles: Rock Band for sure. Check back soon for that.