Gaming Update is ballin', son!
By sparky_buzzsaw 5 Comments
Ladies and gents, boys and girls, and small flurglebeasts from Betelgeuse 3 (don't judge them!), I'm here to give you your weekly dose of all things insanely awesome and awesomely insane. In this weeks profoundly wonderful and wonderfully profound epi-epi-episode (that's the sound of a turn-table, son!), Gaming Update does a little street ballin', a little thuggin', and a little cell phone action.
Goodness, gracious, great (basket)balls of fire...
Yeah, yeah! This week brings us an old favorite - NBA Street Homecourt. Now, GamerGeek360, pay attention here, bucko, because Easy Achievements, Thy Name is NBA Street Homecourt - and for less than ten bucks! I had played the hell out of this game when it was first released, loaned it out to a family member, and never thought about it again until I saw it at a game shop for less than most new XBLA releases. Overwhelmed by the nostalgia of a game lacking the series' annoying announcer Bobbito, I snatched it back up and played it again. Still working my way through it, but holy hell, is it fun. EA Sports BIG produced two of my favorite series of games - this, and the inimitable SSX. I don't normally enjoy basketball in the least, except for the occasional game of Horse or just goofing around, but this game is awesomely over-the-top good fun. Give it a go, and look for a review soon.
EA Sports BIG, I miss ya. Please, at least give me another NBA Street and SSX - especially SSX, because unlike Street, we never had the chance for an SSX on the 360 or PS3. The third had the best gameplay, but SSX Tricky will always have a special place in my heart for its nutty casting choices. Anyone who utilizes the talents of the man-god Oliver Platt is A-OK in my book. I'm still waiting for my Ready to Rumble video game adaptation, by the way.
Cell Phone Mania, I tells ya!
I don't talk much about cell phone games on here, mostly because, well, most of 'em suck on my little cheap phone. But I have a few worth mentioning, and they're well worth the price of admission if you ever get bored, lonely, and desperate for the electronic version of a quickie or some afternoon delight.
First, we've got the classic Scrabble. Now, there's no release version or anything similar that I can see, but Scrabble is always pretty much going to be Scrabble. It's entertaining, the AI comes in three flavors of difficulty, all feeling about right, and most importantly for me, it's easy on the eyes, especially thanks to a zoom feature. If you're a word junkie like me, it's good fun, and the pass and play multiplayer works well.
Next up is Text Twist Turbo. This was a favorite of mine along with Bookworm on the PC, and it translates fairly well to the cell phone. She's not the prettiest gal on the block, but the gameplay remains the same. I'm more of a fan of the classic gameplay as opposed to its "puzzle" mode (which isn't exactly puzzling at all), but it's a solid bit of entertainment. Not sure exactly where the "Turbo" part of the title fits into it.
And last but certainly not least is the fairly amazing Capone Casino 2 3D. First, game developers, there is no longer a need to EVER label anything 3D. It's sort of like adding a movie tagline reading "...in Color!" Of course it's damn well in 3D. Any idiot is going to see that right off the bat. Anyways, even on a cheap looking cell, this is a good looking game. It's not spectacular, and wouldn't even really hold up to a mid-nineties standard, but seriously, comapred to most of the other games I've played on my Alltel phone, this is the Crysis of cell games available to me. The gameplay is rocking, too, with all manner of traditional casino games to play, including machine slots, poker, and blackjack, as well as table versions of various forms of poker, regular old blackjack, and roulette. I'd love to see more of a variety of games in a sequel, including craps and a high-low game, but what's here is definitely plentiful. My only real complaint is that it's very easy to cheat the computer to death once you can play Jokers Wild on the machines. Essentially, the game gives you cheat tokens for various accomplishments in the game, and by using cheat tokens assigned to you when you hit a three of a kind involving a Joker, you can get two cheat tokens for the price of one. In this fashion, you can build up cheats very quickly, and essentially blow through the game pretty fast. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as it opens up the higher stakes games, but it's still something that needs to be addressed.
3rd Street Saints
I've been playing a bit of Saint's Row 2, trying to go back through the game without cheating in order to get some achievements and enjoy the awesomeness. For me, there wasn't a doubt when it came to which open-world game was more fun, Saint's Row 2 or Grand Theft Auto 4. Technically, GTA 4 is a marvel and has some great moments, but overall, they forgot one itsy-bitsy thing... the fun stuff they'd spent developing over years of work. I missed the crazy moments of the Grove Street boys, of modifying cars, of popping into a plane for no reason other than to see how high I could pull it up just for a skydiving session. There weren't any moments like that for me in Grand Theft Auto 4, but Saint's Row 2 had them in spades. It's everything I want in an open-world game and more. It's insane, it's got a hell of a good cast for voice work (more on that in a second), and it's got car customization and garages. Sounds stupid, I know, but I love that sort of thing.
On a semi-related note, I've been watching Lost lately, and I still can't believe that Johnny Gat is voiced by Daniel Dae-Kim. The two characters aren't apples and oranges - they're apples and mountains! It's absolutely insane to me to think they're the same guy.
Question of the Week
What video games have had your favorite voicework? Are there any particular standouts for you, and who voiced them?
Until next week brings you more fond memories of me, your Sparkiest Buzzsaw of them all.