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Need for Speed Carbon (PC) Review

(Weeeee! I'm flying in my Porsche!)

After the success of Need for Speed Most Wanted, EA and Black Box figured they had a formula they could go with for 2006 and the PS3 launch. Need for Speed Carbon is an NFS game that gets a lot of things right, but still comes up a bit short of reaching the top 5 finish it wants.

Yeah, because it's Black Box, it requires a story to follow for some reason. Unfortunately for NFS Carbon, they went with a story that's a little too confusing to follow, even if it seems rather simple. The simple part is after the events of Most Wanted, you return to Palmont City and are the most hated guy ever because of some shady event that took place. So you clean up your reputation by racing in Palmont and taking control of territories to fix your reputation. The complicated parts actually involve trying to piece together what happened, as there is something about red bags being switched, you somehow being allowed to escape. Look Black Box, stop trying to put in complex story ideas in a racing game.

Well, NFS Carbon is open world, because it's black box, and while Palmont City, a city that never sees daytime in Carbon, is rather modest in scale, the free roam is rendered useless. Yes, you can use the free roam to launch events, and they're not too far apart, but when the game includes an option to launch events directly from a world map in the menu, it almost seems pointless. It's made even more pointless when you realize that pursuits do not happen as often as you would like if you're racing. Palmont City must not be as active at night because the traffic just isn't there, but there's cross traffic in the races, which looks funny because it crosses barriers you can't cross. I want to go there in the race! As far as the driving model goes, this is where a lot of Carbon's problems show up. For a good chunk of the game, it really feels like there's no sense of speed in the game. Kind of ironic considering it's a Need for Speed game. You really don't start experiencing a sense of speed until you unlock the tier 3 cars, but given the game's screwed up unlock system, it will be a while before you start getting those cars, or the parts to create a sense of speed.There's also the issue of hovercar physics, and this is mostly seen from jumps because you will be airborne for about a whole 20 seconds.

In all honesty, Carbon's not offering a whole lot of innovative things to the table. Aside from the usual game modes, canyon duels are a new feature that aren't quite as fun. These often result in races that have you the most concerned because you can end them by falling off the track. Yes, the first time around, you will probably fall off the track a few times before you get used to the hovercar physics. The wingman system is a welcome addition in that it does work well, but the game doesn't give you enough variety among the wingmen. In fact, two of them offer the same rewards and benifits, but perform a different action. I'd prefer to race without them because they just won't shut up for half the race, and they're just plain annoying. YEAH, YOU'RE LEADING THE PACK, ON YOUR LEFT, THAT'S HOW IT'S DONE, WHAT ARE THEY RACING, GO KARTS?!?! You'll hear the same thing over and over until you're sick of it.

Palmont City never sees daytime in this game, which may be an excuse to hide an average looking game. The way paint looks on these cars comes off as looking unrealistic to the point where it looks like a toy car. Aside from that though, Carbon does at times look above average, but it's still nothing to write home about. Especially when the damage model is nothing but scratched paint and broken windshields. The audio at least tries to do something interesting where if you drive muscle, you get hard rock, exotics get you hip hop, and tuners get you electronic music. Unfortunately... this is all rendered pointless when you actually race, because you just get the game's original music which consists of maybe two songs. It gets annoying after a while, and you just want it to stop. For an NFS game, I barely noticed the engine sounds over the loud blaring music and incessant chattering of the wingman.

Carbon isn't a total loss though, as despite its flaws, can still be fun. It's just the game doesn't deliver anything new to the table. It didn't quite live up to Most Wanted, but it's certainly better than Pro Street and Undercover. My one complaint about the PC version is no support for widescreen. I mean, really. Porsche Unleashed, for one reason or another since that game came out in 2000, supports widescreen resolutions. Carbon was a 2006 game and there's no widescreen for THAT? That's too minor of a quibble to prevent me from enjoying this.

Need for Speed Undercover (PC) Review

(2008 was not a good year for Need for Speed... it gave us this abomination.)

I've given Need for Speed Pro Street a lot of crap since I first played it. Most fans of the series have gone so far to declare it the worst in the series. Pro Street's issues stem from the fact that EA wanted to try and cash in on the racing simulation craze of Gran Turismo and Forza, while at the same time trying to go back to what Need for Speed was in the first place. Despite Pro Street failing in a ton of aspects from its selection of cars, to a horrendously unrealistic simulation model, I will give EA credit for trying. However, I recently unearthed a Need for Speed game that almost nobody wants to remember. Is it possible that Need for Speed Undercover is actually worse than Pro Street?

Here's a question for you, how many racing games have you played that had some kind of a story? Need for Speed had been doing this sort of thing since the days of Underground, and it's here that it becomes painfully obvious this is the most pretentious of the collection. You play as an agent who goes undercover in an attempt to bust a group of international car thieves. I'm not making this up, you play a racing game where the story involves you busting smugglers. How does one tell a story like this in a racing game? Through a bunch of poorly acted cutscenes that felt like rejects from the era of Sega-CD FMV games. They really don't add much to the progression of the story though, because one scene will tell you to close in on a guy so you can get information, and after that race, a scene will say they have the info they need. So as you can plainly see, there is no real progression of the storyline, but at the same time, there is no real story in the game.

So, given the storyline, how does this particular Need for Speed game play? Well, it takes its cues from previous Need for Speed games that felt racing in a sandbox was a great idea. Unfortunately, you will find that the whole open world aspect of this game only takes effect when you're trying to outrun cops, because you can't start events from the open world unless the game gives you a prompt for a certain event. Story related events only pop up from time to time, which basically forces you to grind races to not only make money for better cars and upgrades, but to progress the storyline. It's like I'm playing Spectral Force 3, but as a racing game. The car selection is certainly better than Pro Street, but my question is where are all the fancy exotics that made Need for Speed what it was? This selection is okay if you are like Pro Street and taking a simulation route, but this is an action racing game, so I demand exotics.

The driving model isn't any great either, sporting some very glitchy physics that might cause other players to do crazy things like shoot fifty feet into the air after crashing into a wall. The other issue I have in race is because you're in an open world racing game, you'd naturally assume there was a lot of traffic, but no, there's hardly any traffic unless you're doing highway battles. As for the AI itself, it's a total joke because it has a habit of turning into walls for absolutely no reason. You'll be driving along the route in a race, and an AI driver will be ahead of you only for him to just turn right and hit a wall. One would assume this game would be somewhat challenging, but it has no challenge at all. This is such an easy game you'll have no problems breezing through it.

The racing modes are pretty typical with point-to-point sprints, circuit races, and checkpoint racing, but its unique outrun and highway battle modes are broken in so many ways. In outrun, the idea is to get ahead of the AI and stay ahead for 90 seconds. The problem this game mode has is how stupidly easy it is. All you have to do is pass the AI, and perform a 180, and you'll still be ahead, even if he passes you. Highway battles are simply annoying because of the random traffic. It's nice to see a lot of traffic in an open world, but it feels like the game will just randomly throw a bus in front of you when it feels like it. When you're being chased by cops, you cannot restart the event, you must see it through until you escape the cops. The police model is lifted from Most Wanted, but these cops are a bit more easy going, and it's more than likely you will never get busted. Chances are, even if you're going 200 mph, they will be going 200 mph in Jeeps. The only way to stop them is with pursuit breakers, but they're so hard to come by that it may take you upwards of two minutes of trying to evade cops just to find them. Despite that, this is one of the easiest Need for Speed games I've ever played.

Even if Pro Street didn't look all that great, Undercover somehow manages to look worse than Pro Street. Sure, the in-game cars look beautiful, but traffic is rendered with such lack of detail and simplicity, it's like I've gone back to Underground. Undercover is the only Need for Speed game to actually look like it fits in with today's games because it abuses the whole "Brown and bloom" visual motif seen in a lot of action games. Because when I think of Need for Speed, I think of Gears of War. Undercover's soundtrack is relatively weak, not because it uses music that isn't popular, but it's just bland and doesn't get you in the mood to race. The one thing I noticed is that certain songs tend to get played more than others, meaning that if you find a song you like, it may not get played for a while and you'll have to listen to the bad music often.

As much crap as I gave Pro Street, I respect EA for trying to do what they did, simply because they had their hearts set in the right place with it. This game feels so heartless, I have to wonder who thought this is what Need for Speed fans wanted. Its selection of exotics is boring, it just isn't as much fun as other entries, and more importantly, IT'S TOO DAMN EASY.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (PC) review

(This game is guilty of being too much fun)

I'm a huge fan of the Need for Speed series, but even I knew when it was starting to go bad. After Porsche Unleashed, it seems the series had nowhere else to go but down. While NFS Underground wasn't horrible, it was nothing more than a push for the latest in reflective surfaces. The series made its comeback with the popular Need for Speed Shift, a simulation that still has the best in-car view to date. Although Shift was a great simulation, people wanted a Need for Speed with a classic arcade-style feel. Criterion Games, makers of Burnout Paradise, developed Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, a game that is more fun than it should be.

One of the biggest problems that a lot of recent Need for Speed games had was they tried to implement a storyline into it. A storyline in a racing game is generally not a good idea, because it comes off as being pretentious, and the equivalent of Redline the official video game of the movie. Hot Pursuit does not contain a story, but structures its career mode in a standard racing game flair.

Hot Pursuit will not force you to play only one side, or force you to play one side through the course of your career. You're free to play both racer and cop events to your heart's content. As you progress further into the game, you unlock cars, more events and level up. It's pretty basic, but it feels better than going through a silly storyline, or a sandbox style game that can often break the flow of gameplay. Events are instead selected on a map screen, and give you plenty of detail about the events themselves.

The interface may be easy to navigate, but is the game any fun? It's so much fun, I would actually call it racing game of the year. As a racer you will either compete with one person in a manufacturer duel, have a standard race, a time trial, or a pursuit. The fun of this game is the pursuit races where you're trying to outrun cops. As you're racing you will notice a ton of side roads, and while some of them are marked on your mini map as shortcuts, there are a ton of unmarked side roads that will actually take the race take longer and keep you from getting first place. At first the AI is a total pushover and won't take shortcuts, but as you get further into it, the AI starts to show its true colors and take shortcuts and use nitrous at the right times so you don't get to first place. Although you need gold medals to unlock more events, progress on increasing your levels and unlocking cars is done by earning bounty. This actually discourages restarting races every time you screw up, because you can always return to events. All your unlocks will carry over to multiplayer, so you won't feel dumb playing singleplayer for nothing.

Hot Pursuit's unique feature is autolog. What is this autolog I speak of? It is one of the best ways of dealing with leaderboards. Usually with leaderboards, you'd find yourself on rock bottom, and have trouble finding your friends. With autolog, it keeps track of what your friendslist is doing so you can find out how you compare with them. It's a great option, but wasn't necessary, because they had me at the gameplay.

Hot Pursuit, when you get it to run in high resolution, is glorious. Seriously, the crashes are beautiful, the cars are nicely rendered, but it's the tracks that are stealing the show in this game. They're full of life, make the experience exciting, but also distract you from the race because of their beauty. It's funny how most games with traffic do not render the traffic well, but this game renders traffic with as much attention to detail as anything in the background. EA's music selection for this game is one of their better selections of music. There wasn't a single track I heard that I ended up disliking to the point of turning the music off completely. It does feel a bit silly when the cops are chasing you and you get this overly dramatic music though. Seriously, it's like being chased by cops is a life or death situation.

Hot Pursuit is a fine example of taking Need for Speed in the right direction. Ever since that fancy logo that makes no sense to me, these games have just been getting better and better. I hope this trend continues.

Battle Garegga Review

(You will see this title screen a lot.)

If there is one genre that doesn't get a lot of love anymore, it's the shoot-em-up or shmup as we like to call it. They're some of the toughest games out there, and can really frustrate you to no end. Battle Garegga is one of those games, except it takes the difficulty and frustration up to 11. It's so relentless, I love it.

Battle Garage is a vertical-scrolling shmup, sort of like Raiden, but with a few more options and unforgiving gameplay. You have a choice of four planes, each behave differently, but it goes beyond that. There are variants to the planes themselves, such as a smaller hitbox or more speed. There are four hidden characters from previous Raizing titles that are unlocked through a code. While most shmups give you big, colorful bullets to dodge, Garegga conveniently camoflauges its bullets by making them more realistic. Your eyes will adjust, but during the first few playthroughs you'll die a lot. Once you get past this, you run into what this game has become famous for, and that is the ranking system.

Most games, the difficulty goes up based on how far you get, but here, it goes beyond that. For everytime you fire a shot, your rank increases. For each item you collect, you raise the rank. For every bullet you seal, the rank goes up. A normal instinct in shmups is to just hold the fire button down and never let go, but Garegga is not going to let you do that. Basically, the higher your rank, the more unplayable the game becomes as bullets fly faster, rate of fire increases, enemies point blank, and you're dead. The only way to reduce this rank is to commit suicide strategically so you can keep the rank down, and keep your game playable. It happens in the background, so the only way to keep it down is by trial and error.

Garegga is a visually impressive game. While 2D won't do a whole lot these days, it still holds because of the industrial theme presented in the game. All the stages themselves are excellent, and once again, the giant bosses do a great job striking fear into your hearts. The one thing I continue to mention about this game to people that I absolutely love is the soundtrack. It keeps that industrial feel, and is one of the best soundtracks featured in a shmup. At least in my opinion. The boss themes still can't be beat for me.

I would say play this game now, but it's a scary venture for first timers. From its relentless difficulty, to wonderful atmosphere, Battle Garegga is one of the best shmups around. I've made it my mission to do a one credit run, and I keep dying and dying. This game will no doubt, be the end of me.

(Yes, this was a short review, but I'd be repeating myself 50 times on an aspect if I wanted to go on longer.)

Front Mission Evolved (PC) Review

(It's de-evolution gone mad!)

Front Mission is quite the series for Square. It's been around since the days of Super Famicom, and while it may not have as many games as Final Fantasy, is a welcome turn-based strategy experience. When it comes to taking the game out of this genre, and trying to make it more action oriented, it almost never works, because Gun Hazard has so far been the only non-TBS Front Mission game that was any good. Front Mission Evolved is one of those games that goes away from the TBS system, resulting in a horrific, broken, and dull experience.

FME's plot is rather cliche-ridden, and stupid at the same time, but your main character isn't the whiny, anti-war type you would expect Japan to throw at you. You are Dylan Ramsey, a test pilot at Diable Avionics is testing out a new prototype walking tank, known as a Wanzer. When New York is hit by a terror attack, they destroy the same building your father is in. The U.C.S. military decides that after seeing your civillian butt perform beyond expectations, to let you join the ranks of the U.C.S. and seek vengeance on the people responsible for your father's death. It doesn't help that even if Dylan Ramsey isn't the androgynous whiny femboy type, he's just flat out dull. Everybody around him can basically be described as dull, and even one of your enemy pilots is the typical "look at my boobs, I'm evil" type. Oh, and by the way, in the cutscenes, that same villainous cleavage character, is constantly leaning inside her Wanzer so you can see her cleavage. CLASSY MOVE DOUBLE HELIX...

Oh well, at least the gameplay should make up for this travesty, right? It doesn't. If I had to sum this game's combat, it's a tad bit faster than Front Mission Alternative, which is saying a lot because I still have nightmares about that game. FME plays like a typical third person shooter, but adds its own twists to it. Your Wanzer can take damage in certain places and as it loses parts, performance becomes crippled for the Wanzer. You'll find movement a lot more difficult than before, and if there are no repair kits nearby, the game literally turns into Front Mission Alternative pace. These parts do not have auto-regen health, but the main body does, making the gameplay absolutely inconsistent, but also brings up another problem with the game's universe. FRONT MISSION GAMES DO NOT HAVE NANOMACHINES. Chances are with the guns, you'll burn through ammo quick, but thankfully you never have to worry about the low ammo, since ammo packs are nearby, and melee attacks are once again, the most powerful thing in the game next to missiles. The hardest part is dealing with clunky controls that almost never work in your favor. Each of your weapons corresponds to a button, meaning that if you're used to right clicking for precision aiming, you'll end up using your right arm. This can get very confusing, especially when you're trying to dodge and stack lock-ons as your fingers will literally be turned into pretzels. If you use a gamepad, it's easier to dodge and stack lock-ons, but you trade precision and turning speed, which is bad for multiplayer. And what would a third person shooter be without some type of a bullet time mechanic? E.D.G.E. is basically that, a bullet-time gimmick that I rarely ever used unless I was in a boss fight so I could melee them to no end. I'm not going to say anything about the on-foot third person sequences other than boring and generic.

The game stays true to Front Mission's customization by giving you various options to tinker with, but it's almost too restrictive in the early moments. A Wanzer cannot weigh more than the power it generates, and a lot of the set ups you want to try out are going to be out of the question at the start. This strict customization becomes a serious issue in the multiplayer aspects, which I'm surprised has at least 10 people playing at the end of the day. The multiplayer simply doesn't work in your favor, because of how horribly unbalanced it is. In a game like CoD4: Modern Warfare, even if you were level 1, you still had a chance against a guy at level 50 and the best weapons unlocked. In FME you do not have this balance. If you are level 1, and your opponent is level 70, you can't win. You might as well just not dive into the multiplayer experience as a result of this because you'll never level up fast enough. You might as well be DEAD. If you can manage to get a balanced game going, it doesn't help the slow pace of combat. It takes at least a minute before you run into somebody and the lag says your hits don't register. Yeah, thanks matchmaking, you've ruined everything for me.

In terms of visuals, this game simply can't deliver on that aspect either. At no point, does this game look pretty. Textures look like they're early Xbox 360, player models look like lifeless dolls, and the environments are empty with almost nothing going on. The Wanzers may look okay, but if you're only going to get one aspect right, why bother? The voice acting isn't all that great either, especially since boob-baddie talks like a typical seductress in any type of media. The music was so bland, generic, and uninteresting that I literally turned it off to try and further my appreciation of the sound effects. At least this is something the game gets partially right, but I just don't feel the sound is powerful enough to make me think I'm in a war.

This game is so painful to even think of. Front Mission is one of my favorite turn-based strategy games, and I thought after Alternative, Square would get its crap together to make a better Front Mission that was not turn-based. I had my hopes I would have fun with this one, but I'd much rather play the cheap, unfair Armored Core Last Raven than this. If you need a fix for giant robots, do not play Front Mission Evolved, it's money better spent elsewhere.

Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days Review

(Even this box cover lacks the personality of Dead Men!)

I'm one of the odd people out on the original Kane and Lynch Dead Men. It was a flawed game, almost as flawed as Kane's character, but it was written so well compared to so much of what had come out by then. So, when I heard sequel, I was excited to play it. After playing through the game, only one question remains... WHAT THE #@!?

Lynch is spending time in Shanghai and needs Kane's help to close an arms deal. Yep, they arrived in Shanghai before the 40th day occurs, and it of course, goes to hell because our anti-heroes have to go through mob territory. The story is presented in shaky-cam Youtube quality video. There's artifacting, shaky-cam, censorship pixels, contrast bleed. It's the game's main selling point, but it really gets in the way and it seems to be trying to cover up what is essentially a horribly dumbed down version of Dead Men. The only thing Dog Days does right is tell its story better. Even then, the characters have somehow become uninteresting. Where's Lynch's schizo-attacks? 

The game itself is so basic, it barely resembles the first one. In fact, it literally feels like Gears of War with a paint job. In Dead Men, one of the most memorable scenes was the bank heist. From its set up, to the conclusion, it was one of the most exciting set pieces. Unfortunately, there's nothing like that here. You're literally just running through one corridor after another, shooting down Chinese mob, or cops. Why did this have to happen? There's nothing interesting about running down murky alleyways. It's been done before. There are a few open areas, sure, but they're almost all the same thing. The gunplay is worse, because once you get a shotgun, that's it. You've pretty much mastered this game, because it's the most effective weapon. It has a cover system that once again, is almost entirely unreliable. The original suffered from a lot of unsuitable cover spots, and they return in this game. Some are intentional, like in the restaurant scene, but in some places, the ones that should work, almost don't work at times. Yep, this is pretty basic stuff. The fragile alliance mode returns again, but it's only got a few maps to play, meaning you'll sit there for a few play-throughs and call it a day.

In spite of all this, the game doesn't even look that great. The whole presentation of youtube quality video seems to be covering up an average looking game. Yes, Kane and Lynch do look good, but that's about it. The youtube quality is meant to distract you from how bland parts of this game look, and yes, the whole presentation is a distraction. Nothing big about the voice acting, it does work well. There's apparently music in this game, but my question is where is it? If there was music, I obviously didn't remember it anywhere in this game. So, if anybody knows about the music, please tell me!

You know what the worst aspect is about this game? It's worse than Army of Two the 40th day. I know I complained a lot about the length, but truth be told, Army of Two 40th Day is actually a more competent effort. Sure, the storyline is absurd, and it's short, but it had more variety to the game. It even had some great moments that stood out, such as the shootout at the zoo, or the highway escape. None of that in Kane and Lynch 2.

This is a horrendous effort that feels unfinished. It works, and does its job, but it's so short at only four hours. FOUR HOURS. I don't know about you, but when I play a game that short, I expect something to master, and give me reason to play through it again. It doesn't have any reason to replay. The only reason to replay this is maybe to see Kane and Lynch running through parts of Shanghai in the nude, all scarred up. If that's your thing... more power to you.

Updates to Shelltoon TV

Hello out there. A few updates to add. For those of you wondering why the site looks lame, I'm in the process of trying to update it to look a bit more professional and have its own sense of identity. I'm not exactly skilled in something like custom CSS, so I have to get tips and hints to make sure I don't break something big that renders Shelltoon TV unreadable.

I've also acquired a nice budget laptop that is capable of running Crysis, but it can't run it on the maximum settings. I tried, and it refused to get past the first loading screen, so now I need to turn the settings down until it CAN run, just so I can see what I'm capable of. I'm surprised the thing didn't explode after trying to run Crysis.

Why hasn't any new Kai-lan related content been posted to this blog? Well, yes, Ni hao Kai-lan is getting me more traffic than I'd ever imagine, but truth be told, I don't have anything new on it to talk about. Right now, it seems like Nickelodeon's priority one is to push Dora to no ends and force everybody to take a backseat because it's the show's 10th birthday. It's a sad day when even SPONGEBOB has to take a backseat to Dora. Also, I received conflicting rumors about the status of Kai-lan, that I'm going to believe it's going down the same path as Yo Gabba Gabba, Wubbzy, and many other shows as in they're going to keep it going, but quietly. Why else would you have trouble finding Kai-lan toys these days? I might go back and review some select episodes should I not have anything to review for the week, because I have a lot to say about the show I haven't said on here.

Why was there a dry spell on video game reviews? Truth be told, I'm having a hard time enjoying a lot of today's games, and I don't know why. Maybe I'm just too old school nostalgia goggles for some games. I still need to write a review for Alan Wake, which would detail why I lost interest in this game. It had a great premise, but it almost seemed to border on boring due to the severely repetitive nature. I'll get on that in due time. If you're looking for a Starcraft II review from me, it will be a while because I have other games I want to review.

So yeah, expect Shelltoon TV to change its look fairly soon.

Transformers War for Cybertron [PC][REVIEW]

 

(A love letter to Transformers fans.)

After Michael Bay's successful failure of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, most of us had given up on the idea of Transformers ever returning to its former glory. This all changed when developer High Moon Studios and publisher Activision delivered Transformers: the War for Cybertron. Instead of being the sandbox game we got based on the movies, High Moon believed it'd be a good idea to take this game in a different direction from the movie games. The only question is, did it pay off, or was it a mistake?

Set some millions of years before the events in the original cartoon series, Megatron builds his army of Decepticons and wages war against the Autobots. Megatron's trump card happens to be a forbidden power known as Dark Energon, which is being guarded by Starscream. Nobody has ever been able to survive contact with Dark Energon, until Megatron absorbs its power. Megatron, now corrupted with power sets out to destroy the Autobots and take over Cybertron. OF COURSE! At the same time, Optimus is leading a revolution against the evil Decepticons to keep Cybertron safe for all sentient beings. Considered to be in canon with the original cartoon, we see that Starscream was not a Decepticon at first, but a neutral party with an important task. We also get to see how Optimus becomes a Prime. At the same time though, it's not without its share of problems. Mostly a case of how do the designs in this game match up with the cartoon designs? The biggest problem I have in the writing is some of the lesser known characters don't get any importance.

Instead of being a sandbox game, WFC is a third person shooter that does not feature cover mechanics, but instead treats itself a bit old school third person action. Yes, you have a health bar, and your guns do not have a bajillion bullets, but it has its own share of differences to separate it from other shooters. The game features transforming, because what would a Transformers game be without transforming? Most of the areas in this game are so open, that transforming becomes a necessary skill. It can be used for fast getaways, zooming through corridors, or combat! Unfortunately, the controls through mouse and keyboard become an issue with transformations when you're boosting. The camera swings all over the place and becomes extremely difficult to achieve simple flight because you'll forget which direction you're going. In combat, most of the weapons are pretty basic stuff, assault rifles, shotguns, sub machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and grenade launchers. The game decides not to give you a ton of ammunition, but instead decides to give you just enough. It makes up for this by leaving ammunition boxes behind for you to grab, or weapons to switch to should you run out. It's important to find the right weapons for the right situations, but you have to remember you have a health bar that will drain fast as well. You also have special abilities that you can execute at any given moment. Abilities like cloak, barriers, damage enhancing abilities, but the barrier is probably one of the most pointless I've used. It's a good way to regenerate health or get ammo, but it doesn't cover enough space, and when it does, the only way to hurt enemies is to step through it and get shot to death.

WFC also features a robust multiplayer with plenty of different play lists. It's a bit unfortunate that it almost feels easily unbalanced by team choices. Scientists can heal other players, but they are also the weakest class and most prone to death due to their low health. If the Autobots had too many scientists, it'd be an easy win for a Decepticon team filled with soldiers and leaders. The class specific abilities do not balance things out too well, considering melee attacks are the most method of attack. Any damage enhancing ability will almost turn you into an unstoppable killing machine. There is some customization other than loadouts. You can select a chassis to use, and colors to make it your own. Unfortunately, when it comes to colors the Decepticons can use, they're almost always grayed out and dull.

WFC's designs are incredible at not just trying to stay true to the cartoon, but also taking believable transformations into effect like Michael Bay's Transformers. It's a perfect compromise. Cybertron itself is insanely detailed, and is brought to life through Unreal Engine 3. I wish the PC version could have had its framerate unlocked though, this game really needs it. The music in this game ranges from awesomely epic, intense pieces, to Stan Bush. Yes, Stan Bush, known for The Touch from the original 1986 animated movie, contributed the music for the end credits. Peter Cullen and Frank Welker have returned once again to voice their respective characters. It doesn't eclipse the voice acting for other characters, Johnny Yong Bosch does a fantastic job as Bumblebee.

Thank you Activision, you CAN publish something great after all. War for Cybertron is a fun game with two campaigns, a robust multiplayer and plenty of references to the original Transformers cartoons. If you're looking to get this game though, I suggest getting a console version because the PC crowd in multiplayer is starting to fade away.

Razing Storm [ARCADE][REVIEW]

(SHOOT EVERYTHING!!!!!!)

Bandai Namco, or Bamco as I like to call them, is putting an arcade game called Razing Storm on the PS3 since the existence of PSMove, so I thought why not promote it by reviewing the original arcade game? Razing Storm is an arcade game from the guys who brought you the timeless Time Crisis series of games. Razing Storm is essentially a spin-off of Time Crisis, but is it any fun?

Most of these Time Crisis games involve agents stopping terrorist plots, but things are a little different here. Instead of being an agent, you're a rookie in Bravo Team, and your mission is to escort a weapon across the border to South America, while dealing with rogue soldiers and South American guerrillas. South America seems to have serious problems with that, don't they? Well, turns out Bravo gets separated from the truck, and need to shoot their way through to get back. It's pretty basic action movie grade stuff, but arcade games generally do not have the depth of a console or PC game. 

This is a light-gun game, but it's one of those new age ones that relies on IR instead of light traces. So it's like holding an oversized Wiimote shaped like an SMG. While the trigger and pedal are responsive, the crosshair itself seems to be a bit sluggish to respond to your movements. Given the game puts you on time limits, this would seem like a bad thing, but if you're good enough at this game, the sluggish response is almost nonexistent. Light gun games basically tell you shoot anything that moves, and while Razing Storm is no exception, the fun in this game is that you SHOOT EVERYTHING!! Seriously, you shoot everything in this game, and it adds to your score. Who cares about accuracy? I just want to destroy as much of the environment as possible and rack up 200 hit combos and get a high score! I've never had so much fun with a light gun game since Time Crisis 2. Unfortunately, I will say this game is a tad bit too easy if you've played your share of Time Crisis games. When enemies are going to hit you, you see a target icon that shrinks, and once it's shrunken all the way, release the pedal or get hit. In a nutshell, this game is pretty much Crisis Zone, another spin-off of Time Crisis that had similar gameplay, but it allows for two players instead of one.

The arcade board is PS3 hardware based, but to tell you the truth, I really find the graphics underwhelming. With PS3 hardware, I figured they could push a better looking game, but it can't even maintain 60 frames per second, opting for 30 instead. This isn't a huge problem really, but it looks more suited for early Xbox 360. Still, the mechanical designs hold their own, even if I feel like I've seen them before. Voice acting isn't anything special, but it's by no means horrible. It's typical Japanese arcade fare with spoken English dialogue. The best part though is hearing the gun controller clicking as you shoot everything in your path. It's so satisfying.

Razing Storm isn't exactly going to be game of the year material, but I seriously enjoy playing this game every chance I get. It's three stages long, and you'll probably have it finished in 20 minutes, but this is typical of an arcade game. There is a fourth stage, but I'm not telling you how to get it. It would ruin the fun. If you manage to find it in your arcade, sit your butt down and play it. If not... get it with the PSMove. You will be satisfied.

Blur [PC][REVIEW]

(A BMW summoning lightning? You serious?)

What happens when you take a racing game, add power-ups, and puke rainbows all over the screen? You get Bizarre Creations' Blur. It's a cross between Project Gotham Racing, Mario Kart, and Geometry Wars. It's also a really fun game when you sink enough time into it.

Blur's concept is real world cars firing energy based power-ups. It's obviously meant to target the Mario Kart audience. The problem with this concept is mostly in that it's impossible to take seriously. If you can't picture it, just imagine a Volkswagen Beetle shooting lightning bolts, and firing what could be considered psychic energy. It's quite silly, isn't it? I guess it's one of those situations where you're not meant to take it seriously. The choice of cars themselves is a little... underwhelming. Sure you have the Camaro, and the Mustang, but everything else is almost like a cheap economy car. On top of this, some cars have multiple variants, and I don't mean just makes. I mean the same truck is available in two different classes, but one is off-road and the other isn't. The tracks themselves are interesting. There are several different routes to take on the track that it's possible you may not have the same race. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean the tracks are all that great. Making tight turns is seemingly difficult and always ends with you crashing into the wall. Even with the drifting, you lose speed and tend to crash anyway. Either way, you're going to crash, and when you crash, you might as well get used to crashing.

The power-ups aren't all that different from Mario Kart. Banana peels are replaced by mines, Koopa shells are shunts, and mushrooms are nitro. There are also shields which protect you, barge which pushes opponents if you're close enough, bolts which shoot straight, repair which explains itself, and shock fields which spawn lightning in front of the leader. These power ups are essential, because without them, it's more likely you're not going to win at all. In the singleplayer, with these power ups, it gets unfair at times. When you lead a race, it's most likely the AI is cheating because it will send an endless barrage of power-ups to make sure you don't win, even if you're so far ahead. You can still win the race more than likely if you know how to counter-attack an incoming shunt. Keep in mind, that's on the normal difficulty. While winning is important, you do not unlock cars on first place victories alone. You have to earn fans and complete rival challenges to unlock cars, modifiers, and other bonuses such as upgrades. The unfortunate thing about unlocking this stuff is it doesn't carry over to the multiplayer, so it almost feels like a waste of time.

The multiplayer is a bit limited in people playing right now. It's slowly picking up, but it makes fatal mistakes on its own. It follows the same aspect of the singleplayer in getting fans to unlock cars, and modifiers, but somebody thought it was a good idea to lock out certain multiplayer modes until you reach a certain rank. That's not a good idea considering you don't unlock the modes until you reach a certain rank, but there's still the lack of people currently playing. Be on the look out for cheaters, as it's all in matchmaking.

Blur can be described as eye rape. The amount of neon colors, and rainbow vomit in this game is astounding. It will hurt your eyes. If you're not staring at neon, you'll notice the game doesn't look all that great either way. The neon is really the only color that stands out. Not even the game's generic techno saves it. What happened to the PGR days where you had a wide variety of songs to play? The sound effects don't give me the feel of impact unfortunately. Especially in the barge and shock fields.

In spite of its flaws, Blur is quite addicting. It's basically a Mario Kart clone, but it doesn't have the Mario license. It's silly in its own way, but that's part of the fun. If only there were more people on multiplayer. Blur's biggest fault may have been due to it having to be released almost the same time as Split Second.