I took the week off for Thanksgiving (aka, I’ve been working on final papers, ugh!) but now I have updated the Upcoming Releases page for the games coming out this upcoming week, plus updated some of the “other upcoming games.” This week is definitely a weak one with games like Rogue Warrior, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the game based on the movie Avatar. Everyone’s too busy playing the games they bought on Black Friday anyway, right? I won’t have an update Monday or Tuesday this week due to said papers (it’s bad enough that I’m putting off work by doing this) but I WILL do another Indie Game Wednesday, so keep an eye out!
Archive for November, 2009
Today’s review title is one of the longest just because of the amount of consoles it is available for. Gunstar Heroes is a classic side scroller run and gun shooter along the lines of Contra. It was Treasure’s first game and the company was formed by former Konami employees that worked on Contra so it all makes sense. If you enjoy classic shooters like that especially playing 2 player co-op you owe it to yourself to get this game, but which version?
Avatar Rockets is the latest Xbox Live Indie Game to use Avatars, even if you can barely tell. In the end it was used to get it’s game more recognized which was a smart thing to do. The game is extremely fun and simple to play, but may not be for everyone.
While many of you may not have heard of the game being reviewed this week, you have most definitely heard of the developers. Harmonix are the creators of Guitar Hero and now work on the successful Rock Band franchise, but their start in video games was a little known (at least as far as sales are concerned) PS2 game called Frequency.
Growing up in the late 80s/early 90s you will be familiar with these strange things known as “arcades” and “arcade games.” While sadly this is pretty much dead here in the US, at least many of them still live on in various forms on today’s consoles. Back then you couldn’t go to an arcade, bowling alley, pizza place, comic book store, etc without seeing the TMNT arcade game, and with good reason. Is it still fun and worth the money today?
Many people are familiar with the iPhone and iPod Touch and the much talks about “apps” and the marketing campaign of how there is “an app for that.” There are a lot that are useful, and a lot that aren’t. This has carried over slightly to the Blackberry Storm and even a bit to the DSi. People are using their phones and game systems for more than just games more and more now and that can be a good thing… but only when it makes sense. I have seen Flash light apps on the Storm and iPhone and it makes sense since it is something that you carry with you all the time. But your Xbox 360???
Sony likes to hype that “It Does Everything” (I’m not going to get into why that saying bugs me) and one of the reasons is because you can go online and rent movies from their video store. I will say this about the service: If you do in fact choose to do so, plan ahead as it takes a LONG time to download the movie, especially if you rent in HD, and you can’t start watching until it gets to a certain point. I did this on Halloween and watched Stan Helsing, a horror movie parody in the vein of all the horrible and overplayed “____ Movie” movies. Did we make a mistake?
I have updated the Upcoming Releases page for this week. This week sees the release of the new Buzz on PS3, Phantasy Star 0 on DS, a new Harvest Moon on Wii, a new Dragonball game on Xbox 360 and PS3… oh yeah and a little game called Modern Warfare 2. Click here to check the page out to see all the releases for this week as well as some other major ones coming soon. BTW, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Epic is running triple XP all week in Gears 2 
I have updated the V Pilot review. The episode is now available to watch in its entirety within the review embedded thanks to Hulu.com. If you would like to watch the episode click here to read my review.
PS3 Review: NetFlix disc
Nov 9
The NetFlix Instant player has been available for over a year now on Xbox 360 and has been integrated into Windows Media Center since May. It is well known that NetFlix wants to be on as many devices as possible, and who can blame them. The latest available is the Playstation 3 which unfortunately has to be a disc put into the system due to the agreement with Microsoft. How does it stack up to the others?
