Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Title: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Platform Played On: PS3
Release Date: November 1, 2011
Date Played: July 2012
Time Played: 7.5 Hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5


Opinion:
The first Uncharted game re-defined the action adventure genre. It set the new bar in gaming. The second game made us fall in love with the characters and play with our jaws on the floor due to the unprecedented summer blockbuster omgwtfbbq movie action. This third game uses all of those qualities to tell yet another excellent adventure story involving Nathan Drake.

Drake's Deception goes back to the legends of Sir Francis Drake, whose trail we followed in the first game. This time we are trying to uncover the secrets of the Arabian Peninsula, which according to legend is hiding Ubar, also known as Atlantis of the Sands, a long lost city of knowledge and prosperity, a heaven on Earth.

As Naughty Dog (the developer) has done so well in the past they once again took fact and fiction and seamlessly intertwined the two together, thereby creating a perfect mesh of storytelling that allows for an easy and most of the time involuntary suspension of disbelief. They accomplish this by having the setting take place in familiar and well known places, such as Cartagena, France and Syria. They reference real people, and instead of showing made up facts or trying to change well known facts they explore lesser known nooks and cranies of these places and people, grasping on to uncertainties in history and filling in those gaps with adventurous tales. Everyone knows about Drake's circumnavigation of the Earth; however, minute details of the voyage are unkown. This gives Naughty Dog a great opportunity to put a spin on it and develop a great Indiana Jones'y story.

Uncharted 3 has everything you would expect it to have if you have played the previous games. Great graphics, brawling, shooting, puzzle solving, and of course extremely interesting story. I enjoyed Uncharted 2, but did find the story of the first game to be more interesting. Its basically about pirate treasure, what can be more exciting that that? Ill tell you what... freaking Atlantis! And in my book Atlantis of the Sands is just as good. So I am a huge fan of the plot in Drake's Deception (Uncharted 3).

Nathan is as funny and nimble as ever, all of our favorite characters make a return and we get to explore a little bit of the origins of where Nathan came from and why he wears that ring around his neck. The ring that made its appearance in the first game.

I had two major issues with the first 2 games, first issue was the mysticism. Both games were excellent up until the very end, until the boogey monsters out of children's books would come out. It broke all sense of emersion for me; nevertheless the games were so excellent that it was easy to overlook. The second issue were the boss fights. If Uncharted is to have boss fights they need to be equivalent to that scene in Indiana Jones where he pulls a gun on a knife wielding bad ass. Not fighting a crazy drug or magic or whatever induced mutant Hulk of destruction that takes a million billion rockets to kill. I am happy to report that both of those are completely non-existent in Uncharted 3. There is no magic or mysticism, everything that happens is easily (or somewhat easily) explained, and there is no silly Hulk fight at the end.

My Finishing Stats

I did however have a few problems with Uncharted 3. It seems like it has way more locations than the previous games, all of which are excellently crafted and very interesting. That isn't the problem, the problem is that I felt like they could have dived deeper into the lore behind these places. The chateau in France, probably my favorite place in the whole game. Why is it the way it is? Who lived there? What happened to it? Where exactly is it? Or the train station under London, what was that train? Where does it go? How old is it? What was its purpose? Why was it abandoned? Or the order that the bitch is part of? Thats just a few of many many things that I wish the developers would have expanded on. It is these things that make Uncharted interesting to me, and not the shooting or brawling, there is way too much brawling in Uncharted 3. Yes I get it, you put in a new context sensitive melee system that you are extremely proud of,  but don't beat it to death (pun intended). There are many other instances where I wish I would have gotten more answers. Drake's real name? What exactly was concealed in the jar in the water? We got to see what was in the statue in the first game and what was the blue stuff in the second... why leave a huge gaping hole this time? What did the guy use to pull off his "magic tricks". And so on and so forth... the list goes on.

Under normal circumstances I would have probably been alright with so many unanswered questions; however knowing that there wont be another Uncharted game anytime soon, or possibly ever really makes me wish it was a more rich experience that focused on story, details and answering questions about character backgrounds. Granted a lot was answered, but if you are diving into it, then dive all the way, tell me everything, especially if you know you wont have another opportunity to. Instead you chose to give me more of the boring parts (shooting and brawling).

Without a doubt Uncharted 3 is a must play (all 3 of them are). The series is among the finest games ever made. Its true, all 3 games have their own issues; however in a grand scheme of things these issues are but a grain of sand on a beach. There are a thousand more things that make these games great than the few nit picky things that they could improve on. Uncharted's genre falls into everyone's "like" category, and even for those that dont want to figure out how a PS3 controller works Uncharted makes a great "sit down and watch someone else" experience. It is an interactive movie. It is one of my favorite series out there, and I will continue to keep my fingers crossed that Naughty Dog will decide to make Uncharted 4, and 5 and 6 and 7...... sometime in the future. Perhaps for the PS4?


PS - I feel that Uncharted 3 will have a lot more substance and meaning if you have played the previous 2 games. So I strongly suggest playing them in order. Drake's Fortune, Among Thiefs and then Drake's Deception. At the very least play 2 before playing 3.

Kingdom Rush HD

Title: Kingdom Rush HD
Platform Played On: iPad
Release Date: December 19, 2011
Date Played: Spring 2012
Time Played: 6 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
Tower defense genre is perhaps the best adapted genre on the touch screen devices. By it's nature it works really well. However because of this the market has been flooded with tower defense games one after another to the point where I dont even want to hear about them. Kingdom Rush HD though is one worth making an exception for.

Firstly Kingdom Rush is an absolute eyegasm to look at. The art looks hand drawn, rich in color and very detailed. The animations are smooth and characters both good and evil are plentiful. Bottom line, the game looks great!

The mechanics are exactly what you would expect from a tower defense game. You have 4 basic tower types, each upgradable in variety of ways, including branching and specialization. Which does add multiple layers of strategy. Where Kingdom Rush separates itself from others is the addition of skill trees and heroes. As you make your way through the campaign you earn stars, which you can spend to upgrade the different towers and unlock heroes. You never have enough points to get everything, so everyone's game is a bit different based on what they chose to upgrade. Personally I opted out of using heroes and instead spent the extra points on upgrading the towers.

Kingdom Rush does suffer from one very frustrating thing though, and that is it's difficulty. This game is soooo freaking hard after the first 5 levels or so. It becomes almost impossible to get 3 stars on missions without using a precise strategy. This throws everything that is great about the game (customizing your own strategy via the skill trees and tower upgrades), because in order to succeed you need to use the one and only strategy. Needless to say this makes the fun meter drop significantly.

For the most part Kingdom Rush is a great looking and playing tower defense game. Probably the best I have played on the iPad. It is a shame that the developers could not do a better job at balancing the difficulty. Perhaps in a future update? Nonetheless Kingdom Rush is a fun game and a must check out for anyone that finds tower defense games fun.
 

Cardinal Quest

Title: Cardinal Quest
Platform Played On: iPad
Release Date: June 8, 2012
Date Played: June/July 2012
Time Played: 2 hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
Roguelike.... it is one of the oldest video game genres. It is the precursor to a lot of modern RGSs such as Diablo and Torchlight.

Lets first establish what a roguelike is. In a typical roguelike you make your way through randomly generated floors of a dungeon, making your way as deep as you can. Once you die you are dead, it is perma-death. Seeing as each floor is randomly generated you never know what you will encounter, which makes each playthrough unique. You never know what items you will get or creatures you will run into. The first game to utilize these mechanics was named "Rogue," hence the name "Rogue-Like."

You start Cardinal Quest by picking a class (Fighter, Thief, Wizard). From that point forth it is you exploring the floors looting treasures, fighting creatures and looking for the way down, to find more loot and kill more creatures. The deeper you go the more powerful you get by discovering new spells, potions and items. Seeing how this is a roguelike, everything is randomly generated each time and therefore the experience is unique to each playthrough.

Cardinal Quest does a good job inventory management. Anytime you pick up a piece of armor that is better than what you are wearing it gets auto equipped, same thing goes for the weapons. This lets you enjoy the exploration aspects without the need to sift through menus comparing weapons and armor. You are still going to equip what is best, why waste time comparing stats?

Cardinal Quest has a very cool pixelated art style. The animations are smooth and the graphics overall are very charming. It gives a sense of playing an old school RPG from the early 90's with all of the benefits of the modern video game conventions on a device in the palm of your hand.

Overall I think Cardinal Quest is the best roguelike I have ever played. It creates a great balance between management and adventuring. The difficulty seems to be not as frustrating as other roguelikes and it is all presented with great looking visuals. Roguelikes never end and are always unique experiences, and therefore are a good genre to have in everyone's library. I definitelly recommend Cardinal Quest to all dungeon crawler lovers.

Mortal Kombat : Komplete Edition

Title: Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: April 19, 2011 
Date Played: July 2012
Time Played: 40+ Hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5




Opinion:
As far as I am concerned, the last good Mortal Kombat came came out 17 years ago under the name Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Since that time we have seen Midway (developer) take 6 attempts to revitalize interest in the franchise. It took 17 years and acquisition of Midway by Warner Brothers for the Mortal Kombat Franchise to finally make a comeback.

Mortal Kombat 4 attempted to make the move to 3d, it had polygonal characters and stages. It played and looked terrible, it is most likely the worst game in the franchise. After MK4 Midway released a couple of adventure games set in the MK universe, but none of them were particularly memorable, and some were outright terrible (MK: Special Forces). But it was not until 2002 that Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was released on the Play Station 2, Xbox and GameCube. From this point forth, Midway dropped the numbering on the games, but Deadly Alliance is number five. It was followed by MK: Deception (2004) and MK: Armageddon (2006). Which are sixth and seventh installments of Mortal Kombat.

The problem with all of the PS2 titles (Deadly Alliance, Deception and Armageddon) is that they were making the game too complicated. Instead of focusing on individual characters now you had needless stage weapons and crazy amount of fighting styles, switching between which slowed down the action and overwhelmed the player. On top of learning the character you had to pick and specialize in a particular fighting style, which was just too much. Perhaps good on paper these mechanics did not make the games fun. In addition to over-complication Midway was adding new characters left and right, Bo Rai Cho, an obnoxious fat guy, Frost, female Sub-Zero and many others. While new characters are cool, most people want to fight as series' classics, against  other classic fighters. And addition of so many characters all the time made each one matter less and less. While the actual fighting was alright, the engine was not great and the presentation and the art style chosen for the characters left a lot to be desired.

Armageddon was a complete travesty. While offering every single character ever released in Mortal Kombat,  unforgivable shortcuts were made, the Fatalities were replaced with a silly combo that is the same with every fighter. A lot of the characters shared moves and stances. By the time Armageddon was released the engine was more than 4 years old and with Xbox 360 around the corner it looked kind of terrible. In my opinion instead of releasing 3 games Midway should have trimmed the crap and released one game combining the best features of these 3 games.

Fast forward a few years, and we get Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008). This game is considered to be number eight in the franchise and is the first to be made utilizing Unreal Engine 3 on the next generation Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. While it played and looked better than any MK game since MK3 it was lacking a few things. Because of the partnership with DC Comics the Fatalities were either removed or dumbed down. The character selection was very limited, and most importantly to someone like me it was not appealing at all to play as the comic book super heroes. Between those things and the poor choice of character art styles I had no desire to play it, and so I didnt.

This brings us to 2011, Midway is acquired (in 2009) by Warner Brothers, and the shocking announcement that the Mortal Kombat franchise was getting a reboot had me giddy in anticipation. With my fingers crossed I was hoping for a miracle. And let me tell you, it was a miracle!

The reboot, simply known as Mortal Kombat threw away all of the crap that Mortal Kombat game picked up over the years. No more side-stepping, no more stupid fighting styles, no more mostly new characters and no more crappy art style. Mortal Kombat is the perfect compilation of all of our favorite fighters with all of their signature moves fighting in familiar to everyone locations.

For all intents and purposes this Mortal Kombat is a modern day recreation of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 plus much more awesomeness. It features all of the coolest characters, each with unique fatalities, moves, stances, as well as finishing poses. All of the characters feel unique and look gorgeous in 1080p and are a pleasure to fighting with.

Some new mechanics make an appearance in Mortal Kombat, most notably the "X-Ray". It is a bar you fill up by being hit or doing combos, when executed it unleashes a devastating attack (blockable) fracturing your enemy's bones and potentially turning the tide of battle.  Whats awesome is that each character's execution of the X-ray attack is unique, and while gruesome it is awesome to watch.

Outside of the standard ladder in which you fight in the tournament in attempt to make your way to Shao Khan there is a "Story Mode". It covers the events from the first to third games in the series (basically the only time period anyone cares about), and it is very well executed campaign. It seamlessly goes from scenes to combat and it allows you to play as most of the characters in the game doing several battles as each.

Mortal Kombat games are always jam packed with modes and unlockables, and this game is no exception. In addition to the Krypt with several hundreds of unlockables you can play through the Challenge Tower, which presents you with various conditions that need to be met in order to move on. Some of these are extremely creative, while others are just crazy, like for example fighting the match with no head or arms (they literally fall off), and you only have your feet to do the bruising.

A year later, in 2012 Mortal Kombat (2011) was re-released as Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition. It is the same game plus all of the DLC released in the year since it's launch. This is definitely the definitive version to get.

Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition is the best Mortal Kombat I have ever played, and is the most I have ever been into a fighting game since UMK3 in 1995. Warner Brothers did exactly what they needed to do with the franchise. They went back to the roots and while weeding out all of the fluff Mortal Kombat gathered over the years they managed to focus on what made the series great, while at the same time adding cool new mechanics. The art direction is once again appealing (first time since UMK3) and the fighting is once again fun. On top of making an excellent fighting game they managed to create the best campaign mode anyone has ever seen in a fighting game.

As far as I am concerned Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition is the best fighting game ever made. It is a must play for everyone. Thank you Ed Boon for finally turning the franchise around! I can not wait for the sequel.
 

Mileena X-Ray

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Title: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Platform Played On: Sega Genesis
Release Date: October 1995
Date Played: 1995 - 1998
Time Played: 40+ Hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
Mortal Kombat 3 kind of sucked. And it sucked for one reason only, there were no ninja characters. Something Midway quickly remedied with the release of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Which went on to be one of the best games in the franchise.

I came into Mortal Kombat at an interesting time. I never played the first or second games and MK3 managed to bypass my Sega Genesis. It was this game, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 that ha me blow into the cartridge and jam it into the Genesis.

This interesting timing ensured that I would get spoiled with the Mortal Kombat franchise it placed Mortal Kombat into a special place in my heart. This game was the first game to make fighting games fun for me, and it wasnt the fatalities, heck I couldnt pull them off 99% of the time. It was the the visceral combat that truly felt like the characters were fighting to the death each utilizing awesome gadgets to get the upper hand  on top of the realistic looking sprite based graphics and fluidity of animations.

Mortal Kombat (not just UMK3) has always been jam packed with secrets, with so many characters each having unique moves and gadgets you never knew what you are going to be up against next. The fatalities were a cool addition too, they put the final dot on the match, not only did you win, but you FREAKING WON!

The MK ninjas are some of my favorite characters, there was a fad for ninjas during my childhood and these ninjas looked awesome, for whatever reason Midway (developer) decided to get rid of them for MK3. What were they thinking? I have no idea! But that alone made MK3 worse than its 2 predecessors. Luckaly they came to their senses and included all of the ninjas in the Ultimate edition of the game. I imagine my fondness for the franchise would be in a completely different place if it was MK3 and not UMK3 that I played first.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 features a giant roster of characters, it seems like Midway set a goal to double the number of characters with each game, because MK2 doubled the number of characters from MK1 and UMK3 doubled what MK2 had. What is impressive is that they managed to keep majority of the characters interesting and unique. While there are characters I prefer over others, I wouldnt mind playing as any of them, something I cant necessarily say for other fighting franchises.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 held its title as the "difinitive MK experience" for nearly 16 years, until it was finally outclassed by the 2011 reboot for Xbox 360 and PS3 named simply "Mortal Kombat". If you are unable to play the new reboot, UMK3 is THE version to get! Between the great character selection, great sprite graphics and animations UMK3 will keep one entertained for a very long time. It definitelly stood the test of time, and while it is still fun the graphics are not nearly as sophisticated as the modern gamers are used to, but just imagine how insane they looked back in the day.

Mortal Kombat 2

Title: Mortal Kombat 2
Platform Played On: Sega Genesis
Release Date: December 4, 1994
Date Played: 1995-1998
Time Played: 5 hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 3/5



Opinion:
By the time I got a hold of Mortal Kombat 2 I was already hooked on the franchise. And not from MK1, but from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

I got a hold of MK2 around the same time as MK1 and since I already owned UMK3 they were more of a retrospective experience for me.

As I have already stated in my Mortal Kombat 1 post MK1 didnt tickle me fancy since it was a much simpler and worse looking version. MK2 however was a lot closer to what UMK3 had to offer. The characters looked great (portraits and actual fighter sprites), the animations were smoother and the selection was better than MK1. The character selection was nearly doubled from the first game with crappies like Kano gone and awsums such as Noob Saibot, Smoke and Repile added. (Reptile was a secret character in the first game but he is selectable from  the get-go in MK2). Mortal Kombat 2 without a doubt was a worthy sequel. It looked great, it played great; however, it was missing one thing, truckloads of characters and stages. All the extra stuff UMK3 had.

While MK2 was more fun than MK1, neither came even close to touching UMK3. Still though, if UMK3 is not available Mortal Kombat 2 will fill the urge since it does feature a collection of characters that will satisfy 90% of the players. However if UMK3 is a choice, there is basically no reason to go back to MK2. Better yet if the 2011's Mortal Kombat (or it's GOTY verison Mortal Kombat: Komplete Collection) is available then that is the version that should be played. It is by far the best MK to date.
 

Mortal Kombat

Title: Mortal Kombat
Platform Played On: Sega Genesis
Release Date: August 1992
Date Played: 1995-1998
Time Played: 5 hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 3/5




Opinion:
I was 10, and a proud owner of the Sega Genesis.

I actually didnt get introduced to MK 1 until after playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, so getting a hold of MK 1 was a bit of a downer to say the least. Instead of 26 characters I had a choice of 7, most of which were not very desirable, and looked terrible. The masks on Sub Zero and Scorpion looked like low budget underwear on their heads compared to the sharp looking half robot half ninja looking ones I was used to, and the overall graphical fidelity was just not there. Granted I was comparing a brand new game to a 3 year old dinosaur, which is not fair at all. But the bottom line for me was that I could either play MK1 or UMK3, and there was absolutely no reason to go back to MK1 if you had the much better UMK3.

I appreciated MK1 for starting it all, but basically the minute UMK3 hit the shelf it's two prequels automatically became museum pieces. There was absolutely no reason to play the first two games, Ultimate had all of the features of the first two plus more, much more.

Without this game, there would not be UMK3, nor there would be 8 sequels (excluding side stories), and one of the most memorable franchises in video game history wouldnt exist. So there is no argument about the importance of this game, it just so happens that you had to have been there and played it when it came out. Story (although cool) is not what gravitates people towards Mortal Kombat, it is the fighting and craziness of it, and it's sequels went above and beyond on both of those. The mere fact that you cant really buy MK 1 by itself anymore and that it only comes as part of a bundle tells me that although it is important to history, it is no longer relevant. If you want some Mortal Kombat action, look no further than the 2011's release of Mortal Kombat reboot on PS3 and Xbox. It is an exellent MK, arguably the best in the series (it was also rereleased as Mortal Kombat  Komplete Edition in 2012.) 2011's Mortal Kombat is to the entire series as UMK3 was to 1 and 2. It is one and only stop for all of your MK cravings.

Bottom line is, even back in 1995 Mortal Kombat 1 was obsolete in the shadow of its sequels. I thought it was cool, but didnt really play it, since there was something much better readily available (UMK3).

Dead Rising

Title: Dead Rising
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: August 8, 2006
Date Played: June 2012
Time Played: 30 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5




Opinion:
Dead Rising played a huge part in transitioning me from an exclusively PC gamer to a Console enthusiast. It was E3 2006, Zombies were the next big thing and Dead Rising was making gaming headlines with it's sandbox gameplay and the ability to go anywhere and use anything as a weapon. Zombies numbered in hundreds, and textures (graphics in general) were as good, if not better than blockbuster PC titles of that year.

Prior to seeing  trailers and interviews for Dead Rising I didn't really care about the Xbox. But finding out that it was going to be an Xbox 360 exclusive changed my mind rather rapidly. It looked amazing and unique, and the gameplay style seemed to be right up my alley. I had to get it one way or another.

The basic premise of the game is this. There is something weird going on in the town of Willamette, the road is blocked off by the military and you (journalist Frank West), hitch a ride the only way you can, via a helicopter. You get dropped off at the local mall and tell the pilot to come back for you in 72 hours. From that point on, Dead Rising is whatever game you want it to be. You can explore the mall, you can go looting stores for cool things to use as weapons, you can follow the in game "cases", which are sort of main plot threads, each of which can be failed or completed successfully and depending on how you do it will lead to different threads and endings. While doing all or none of the above you run into other survivors, whom you can rescue, kill or simply abandon. Sometimes you run into psychopaths, which are non zombie enemies, usually presented with a cutscene, and also usually pretty messed up in the head. The psychopaths can be incredibly tough and are considered to be the "bosses" of the game.  Dead Rising gives you an unprecedented amount of freedom when it comes to style of gameplay, and the half a dozen or so endings greatly complement that by giving you different outcomes based on your actions.

Like My Pinpin Suit?

It is 2012, it has been nearly 6 years since this game came out. If I was so excited about it, why did I wait so long to play it? Well, I didnt. I tried playing Dead Rising in 2007, and then 2008, and then 2009, then 2010, and after that 2011, and finally in June 2012. Say what? You may say... and to that my friend I will respond with "Dead Rising is a freaking hard game!" This is evident by the fact that it is made in such a way that you are meant to die again and again. Because you see, it has RPG elements. Frank will level up, gain new skills and generally becomes better at things (more health, more weapon slots, becomes faster and stronger), all of this comes with levels (cap is 50, which I reached). Once you die, you get to keep your level and skills. So you are meant to level up a bit, die, restart, level up a bit, die, restart and so on. In general this is not an issue because it is very fun to just run around and kill zombies without worrying about quests, survivors, or story, and that is exactly what I did. I screwed around like that until I got to about level 30, which tripled my health and inventory. It also made me a lot faster and gave me access to better weapons (Mega Man blaster.) And even at that level I ended up dying a few times during the campaign.

Is that it you may ask? Nope... you see back in 2006 we were just beginning to standardize controls, so of course seeing how Dead Rising is from a Japanese developer (Capcom) the controls are super weird. Your right trigger+left stick aims, which is the complete opposite of modern day standard of left trigger + right stick. X accelerated and A brakes, which nowadays A accelerates and B brakes. Is that it? Nope! The health system is based on food items, and starting out with 4 blocks of health at level 1 means that you better make it to somewhere that has some food without being touched or shot at by someone more than 3 times before getting there. But you can just quicksave when you know you are heading into a dangerous situation right? Nope! You can only save in a very few places in the whole game, and if you are at 1 or 2 health and the save point is across the game world, welp you better cross your fingers that you will not run into a psychopath or be mauled by a horde of zombies on the way there. Items break extremely fast if you do not have specific magazines (power ups) to make them last longer, which do take up extra inventory slots. Bottom line is, Dead Rising is a freaking hard game. Fun, very fun, in fact a total blast once you get the hang of it and have some levels under your belt, but still hard. It is this difficulty curve what kept me from playing it extensively all these years. I would find myself putting it in, playing for a few hours and being frustrated with the controls and deaths, and just giving up. What I did differently this time is that I gained a bunch of levels and then headed out to be a detective and solve the mystery of where the zombies came from.

One major problem with Dead Rising is it's AI. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to escort a survivor in this game. They constantly get mauled by zombies and seemigly purposefully run into giant groups of them instead of just running around. It got to the point where I got fed up with them and basically decided that if they cant follow the path I cleared then they deserve their fate. As such I ended up rescuing 14 people out of the possible 50ish. I will say this though, there are very few people in the world that have rescued 50 (there is an achievement for that). Overall though the survivor AI is the only major issue with Dead Rising. The control issues are to be expected from a Japanese game of that era (nothing they could have really done at the time), and the difficulty, saving, health and all that stuff although could be frustrating, it actually complements the game by creating tension the entire time you are playing. You always feel threatened, and that in my opinion is exactly how one should feel when surrounded by 53594 zombies (population of Willamette).

Dead Rising is a great game! It does suffer a bit from being (at this point) nearly 6 years old. Nevertheless it still looks great, in fact it looks better than a lot of games that come out today, and once you get used to its intricacies (controls and other systems), it can be a great deal of fun. I had an absolute blast with it, and here is an invaluable pro tip to anyone that wants to check it out. First thing you do is go to the parking garage, get in the car and get 53594 zombie kills, this will yield you the Mega Man blaster, which will make the difficulty curve not nearly as steep, especially when fighting the psychopaths. Do not try to beat the game on the first playthrough, you will just get frustrated, instead get some levels first (killing 53594 zombies will get you to level 30ish).

Dead Rising remains a fairly unique game. It can be great in a party athosphere where you run around the mall and for the lack of a better word "dick" around. Or as an engaging thriller game where you try to solve the mystery behind the outbreak. Either way, I would definitelly recommend Dead Rising.

PS - Thing of note, Dead Rising has incredible replayability value. Once you beat the game you unlock Infinity Mode, goal of which is to survive as long as you can, scouring for food and doing your best not to get bitten. The longest time anyone ever survived was a bit over 17 days (34 real life hours.)

Finishing the 72 Hour Mode

Flow

Title: Flow
Platform Played On: iPhone
Release Date: June 7, 2012
Date Played: June 2012
Time Played: 2 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
Ill be honest and say that when I first saw Flow, it looked like a game that someone thew together in an evening to make a quick buck. But seeing as how the app was in the top 10 Free apps in the App store, I had to check it out.

Since we are being honest here, I will say that Flow got me by surprise. The basics of the game are as follows. You have a field of suares (ranging from 6x6 to 9x9 depending on the difficulty). The field is populated with pairs of dots, your goal is to connect all of the pairs while at the same time using up all of the squares on the board. Although I am usually indifferent to games of this type, after solving a few boards, I was absolutely hooked on Flow!

The free version of Flow comes with 150 boards, and a wide range of difficulty. One thing of note is that the iPad and iPhone versions have completely different boards, in essence making them side-quels to each other.

Most of the puzzles are easy, especially the ones on the smaller 6x6 and 7x7 boards. However I did have some tough time with a few 9x9 levels.

Flow is an absolutely perfect bathroom buddy. Each level can last less than 15 seconds, and with such an abundance of levels Flow is extremely modular and easily fits in to any schedule. You can drop 30 seconds on it and still feel like you have accomplished something. Ive yet to play the iPad version but Flow on iPhone is a must have, especially considering that its free. And if you are in love with it, you can purchase extra level packs via in-game purchases. If you dont alreayd have it, go grab it :).

Game Dev Story

Title: Game Dev Story
Platform Played On:
Release Date: October 9, 2010
Date Played: October-November 2010
Time Played: 6 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
As I have mentioned in several posts already, I am a fan of simulation-esque games. Game Dev Story is one of these simultion games. In it you run a video game studio.

Game Dev Story is by no means a simulator. It simply takes the basic ideas of owning a video game studio and throws them together on an extremely basic level, while at the same time creating a very addictive experience.

As with any business, the income loop is essential, and is the center of the game. This basic loop is, make game, sell game, get money to make new game, make new game, sell game... and so on and so forth. That is the entire goal of the game. The game in the actual sense of the word "game" becomes ensuring that a successful product is made, and that the company does not run out of money.

It all starts with picking the genre and console for your game. Then hiring a staff to develop the said game. There is a wide range of employees you can hire, more expensive employees with higher skill levels, specialists that will focus on one of the four main categories or managers to improve the mood and performance of the team. You can name the game and even influence certain aspects of it. And when it is complete you will be graded in four categories. Programming, Scenario, Graphics and Sound. Basically reflecting the basics of real life game critics.

As you develop the game you encounter the cliches of video game development, such as bugs, and crunching. Over time the gaming eras advance and so does your company. Eventually you move in to a bigger and better office, where you can hire more staff and develop even more ambitious games for newer and better consoles.

Game Dev story is full of little puns at the gaming industry. A yearly trade show where your game gets shown to the public is a clear nod to E3, and the consoles that you develop for are clear nods to the actual real life consoles. Game companies such as Intendro with their GameKid and Sonny with their Play Status are just a few of them.

All in all Game Dev Story is a great little simulator. It is in no way serious, which is what makes it great for a quick bathroom buddy on your iPhone. This was one of the first "Story" games. I cant speak to the other ones, but Game Dev Story is a must play.