It’s that time of week again! The 3DS is again a hit, with a bunch of the guys playing Street Fighter, and the rest of us have been playing a wide range of games. It’s been a bit of a “return to childhood” week, with a few editors jumping back into their favourite retro and childhood games. I just noticed too, we don’t ever really play the Wii…What happened, Nintendo? Maybe the Wii has taken a back seat to the 3DS? Share your opinions, and let us know what you’re playing too!
Editor-in-chief: MasterAbbott
I am AKUMA and I WILL TEACH YOU THE MEANING OF PAIN !!!
This week has been all about Street Fighter IV 3D for me. It’s possibly the best 3DS title out at the moment. Capcom have done an amazing job at porting the console version of the game to this little pocket rocket of a handheld device. There are so many options such as Street Pass battles with the use of Figurine Trophies that you can pick up within the game, code redemption or even swapping with mates, player medals (achievements) and many, many more. Did I mention that my inbox has 232 unread emails in just 2 days because Street Fighter IV is so DAMN addictive and didn’t allow me to get any work done? (look here is the proof)
There are two modes in the game. Dynamic view (which I highly recommend everyone try out) in the game does take a lot of getting used to and will disorientate you a little, making it hard to perfectly time your attacks. But don’t worry, the standard normal view is also included so you can dish out the pain with your favourite character just like the good ol’ times. I do have to say that Akuma’s Ultras (Wrath of the Raging Demon or Demon Armageddon) have been watered down just a little bit! having playing some online multiplayer against some of the crew Travis, Ben and Dustin; I’ve decided that its best not to even use his Ultras as they won’t do anywhere near as much damage compared the MASSIVE amounts that Cammy, Ibuki and even ROSE can do.
I also managed to play a little more Sacred Odyssey on the iPhone and some more Samurai Warriors Chronicles on the 3DS which is great fun as well. I was very lucky to get my hands on the new Sony Xperia Gaming Phone which looks amazing. Running the latest Android 2.3, everything on the Xperia flies. The flip up controls with the touch panel analogue buttons have been designed very well (designed by the same dude that designed the PS3 controllers) and it’s very comfortable to play on. Even the FPS that I played (Modern Combat 2, Black Pegasus and NOVA 2) were great fun to control. If you’re thinking about getting an Android phone, then look no further: the Sony Xperia is all you need to get the job done with a great blend of work and play features.
Now if you’d please excuse me, I have to PAIN to dish out on Street Fighter IV : Die one thousand deaths !!!
Senior Editor: Travis Bruno
On a couple day vacation at the moment so I won’t be playing much games this next weekend, but this past week I ended up playing a large amount of Dynasty Warriors 7. I haven’t ventured into the story mode yet but I’ve been enjoying the conquest mode with Sun Shang Xiang. The upgrade to the graphics is certainly nice and I think it is easier than ever to kill thousands of enemies without any trouble…especially when you equip a lance with an extended reach seal, practically killing enemies on the other side of the map at that point.
Other than that I dusted off that thick layer of dust that had collected up over my Kinect and danced along to Dance Central and Dance Masters as the type of songs that are in the two are very different from one another. Dance Central has mostly pop and hip hop music while Dance Masters has mostly club music and Para Para moves. My PlayStation 3 ended up just collecting dust this week but my PSP ended up getting a ton of use as I’m on my second playthrough of The 3rd Birthday, now with some of the added cheats that are given to you once you finish the story mode once. There is certainly a large amount of re-playability but I don’t know if it will be as interesting to play on the third time through. That and it is really hard to see Aya Brea as a weaker character than she usually is.
As you’ll read with everyone else, we’ve all been fighting with one another on Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition through the internet access. I’ve grown quite used to Ibuki over these fights and I’d have to say that she is my main fighter. Though I wish that my 3DS would pick up more people from StreetPass, only found one person since I bought the 3DS.
Senior Editor: Jed Bradshaw
As usual, the week was just too short to get everything played that I wanted to play. Nevertheless, I did spend some quality time with my consoles this week. First off, I reviewed Red Faction: Battlegrounds. This dull car combat game could have had a lot going for it, especially if they would have added some actual mission objectives to the “single player.” Alas, it wasn’t to be, and the game felt more like it was just a regular car combat game before some exec walked in, saw it and said, “Hey! What a perfect little throw away title to promote Red Faction: Armageddon! I must haz it!”
Other than that, I also reviewed Rush ‘N Attack: Ex-Patriot (link here.) Like its name, the game’s story was absolutely ridiculous. The game play was fairly fun though, as long you can overlook some super sluggish animations.
Finally, this week, I received Alan Wake in the mail. I have only played the first half of chapter one, but it is a great game so far. As I was sitting there, enjoying the game as the sun went down, I came across the very first enemy in the game. As is standard for Alan Wake, the enemy was shrouded in darkness. The spooky music reached a crescendo. Suddenly, he swung his axe. At that exact moment, the damn wind slammed my door shut. Needless to say, near unspeakable things almost happened in my pants.
Senior Editor: Dustin Spencer
It has been a busy week for gaming this week as I finally had some time to give my 3DS a full run through. After finishing up on Rayman 3D (review link here), I started in on Super Monkey Ball 3D. Pretty decent title so far, though a few of the modes could be a bit more polished. I also got stomped on in SSFIV3D by MasterAbbott a bit but I finally learned how to actually play with a new character, Rose. Other than that, Mafia II has been a great way of killing some time on the console front along with a bit of Dragon Quest thrown in. I still need to complete the originals in the DQ series and have now made that my goal for the year. Maybe by next week I can finally say at least one of those is out of the way.
Editor: Ben Webb
What have I been playing this week? Hmm…
Been playing a fair bit of 3DS along with some of the other editors on the site. As you may be aware; I wrote up a review for the 3DS title Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D earlier this week. I’ve also got a review of the 3DS Ghost Recon game coming up soon, which is pretty cool. Fortunately for me, my device is more than a thing to review games on as I also use it for leisure. So far I’ve had reasonable success in collecting new Miis to the device and using them to collect puzzle pieces and advance in the StreetPass Quest. Unfortunately I’m stuck on a yellow monster with a shield and have yet to run into any yellow Miis. I have lots of black and lots of blue Miis though.
Late last week, a few of us editors all got together and smashed it up on Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition; which was quite fun. As far as I can tell, I’m probably the best editor, considering that I have defeated both Dustin and Phil in streaks. I still have to rematch Travis though, as he did pretty well against me the first time we got together and duked it out. I’ll still probably win though.
Also, taking advantage of EA and Biowares sequel celebration deal thing, I got myself a copy of the PC version of Mass Effect 2. This time I’m running as FemShep and I’m going to be as ignorant as I possibly can to the galaxy, just to see what happens. Heh Heh Heh. Also, on the PC front, I’ve been playing some more QuakeLive. I think my skill is starting to become apparent in the community as more and more people are sending me friend requests. Remind me to record a gameplay video later.
OH! The Streets of Rage Remake is really, really, rreeeeaaaalllllyyyyyy awesome too. I’ve actually been joining the .ogg files of the soundtrack together so that I can listen to its epic soundtrack outside of the game. 70-something songs…. Ugh. Still awesome. I like how the game kept the feel of the original while also being revamped for PC play, as well as having its own art assets and music. I’ve seen AAA sequels a lot less true to their original source than this fan remake is. I believe that this remake stands toe-to-toe to the original, that’s how great it is.
Editor: Kyle Moore
This week I’ve been reliving some classics from my childhood, well, so to speak. The first half of my week has dedicated to Yoshi’s Island DS. Although it came out a while ago, I only recently borrowed it from a friend and was blown away but the revisions to one of my old favourites from my SNES days. I really enjoyed the ability to change the rider of Yoshi and the new abilities each new character brought to the game. Not to mention, I was really surprised when all the levels were different to the older version of the game, but in hindsight it makes sense to just use the same premise and update the game, hopefully for the better…which in my opinion is exactly what happened!
Second half of my week I have spent almost completely engrossed by Pokemon White! I haven’t played a Pokemon game in some time, except for a few minutes on a borrowed DS playing Pokemon pearl. Before that my last Pokexperince was with the Gold version of the game. Needless to say, I was a bit shocked when I noticed how far the graphics have come. The game play is awesome, I am seriously addicted, which is weird because I don’t like any of the new Pokemon at all and struggle to find the ones who are the least annoying to include in my party. Still, it’s a great game and I have had fun this week playing both games.
Editor: Michael Irving
Unfortunately, life has been getting in the way of my gaming lately, but this week I finally finished Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee after buying the Oddboxx on Steam more than a month ago. I remembered the first two games on the original Playstation, but missed the Xbox ones, so this is an awesome way to get reacquainted with the incredible characters of Oddworld. I love the challenging puzzle gameplay, and the unique art style, but most of all, the developers have created one of gaming’s most fascinating worlds and filled it with well-drawn characters.
An HD remake of the first game has been confirmed for the Playstation Network, and there have been rumours of a new game for a while now. I really hope they come to fruition – the Oddworld saga needs to run its own course, rather than fade into the folds of time unfinished.
Editor: Kelly Teng
As with everyone else, my life has been getting in the way of my gaming (shocking!), but it’s when life kicks us down that we pull out the games from our childhood and remember a simpler time. The fondest memory I have is of Tombi! (or Tomba!) on the Playstation One, so I pulled that out and had a bit of a go playing it again…and by a bit of a go, I mean I spent 5 hours playing it. It truly is the old games that are the most fun and time absolutely flies when I play Tombi. Who could forget the evil pigs and the pink hair that is everywhere in Tombi? I genuinely hope that Sony brings this game to PSN because if they do, I think I’ve just found a reason to buy a PS3.
Aside from that, I finished the Elite Four battles in Pokemon Black, and am now on my way to finding the Seven Sages and then filling up all 500 Pokemon in my Pokedex. I just have to say, I was blown away by the Elite Four in this game. Firstly, the battles were a little bit challenging, but what stood out even more were the graphics! It was just so cool, and I really did feel like an 8 year old kid with a new toy again.
And since I seem to talk about L.A. Noire consistently, I’ll tell a little anecdote: in one of my tutorials, the person who was supposed to present didn’t show up and I managed to get the entire tutorial group to talk about the game and its implications on the gaming community. I would love to throw that up to share with all of you, but it’s been a hectic week…hopefully when life quietens down a bit, I’ll have time!
Editor: Adam Tabor
What games have I been playing this week? Well, quite a few. I borrowed a PS1 game from a friend called Rival Schools; it’s not too bad a game and one I always wanted to experience. Next up on the list is Crysis 2 on my 360. I rented this game from Gamefly and I haven’t gotten too far into it but I don’t know if I can get into it. Next up is Ridge Racer on the 3DS, which is kind of fun. I’m learning how to play the game and I’m kicking butt, taking names, and asking for them again because I didn’t remember it the first time. Online play would have been nice Namco…just saying.
On my PSP I’m playing Ys I and II Chronicles. The best part of the game is that you attack by running into stuff (I’m not kidding either). I also got owned in a little Marvel Vs Capcom 3 with some friends. Last but not least, if you guys truly know me you’ll know I am a big fan of the Guilty Gear series and when I found out that GOG.com had Guilty Gear X2 #Reload on there for $6 plus getting a free MP3 soundtrack with it, I jumped on it. I love the game, and since the games are DRM free and use Paypal, I jumped on that.
Editor: Chris Cerami
This week I played Fate of the World, a strategy game centered around global climate change (“global warming” as most will know it) which was a pretty cool title. I found it especially interesting because I have a degree in Biology and have done field research in ecology and environmental science so it really hit home. I’ve also been playing the Sly Cooper Collection on my PS3 since my Xbox has red-ringed (I got 4 healthy years out of it) which has been immensely fun. I’m also eagerly anticipating Mortal Kombat, which will be out here in the States on passover (the 19th). I can’t wait to get my hands on it to get my ass handed to me by my more fighting game literate friends. Finally, I recently started playing Final Fantasy X again which is exciting because it’s one of my favorites in the series and I haven’t beaten it in years.
Editor: Darren Resnekov
I got back on Gran Turismo 5. It kinda sucks when you cant find the right car to put in a race which is why I think I haven’t played it for ages. Still going on Crysis 2…it seems to go on forever but in a good way. I’m also playing Halo Reach, although I keep not having enough time to get through a certain section and a checkpoint. Got the DS out and tried to teach my 18 month old Nintendogs but she just wants to pat the dogs and doesn’t understand the rest of it. I’m wanting to get back on Killzone 3 but I want to finish the other first person shooters as I get confused with the controls especially inter-console (if that’s even a phrase). I feel sorry for the Wii cowering behind the other huge black consoles.
Contributor: Michael Marr
Real life commitments have prevented me from playing the ever growing catalogue of games I still need to play. However, I did manage to squeeze in a little time to play a few more missions in Dragon Age 2 early in the week. Those missions however, proved pretty uneventful, and so I switched it off pretty quickly. (Side missions are not all that entertaining…) However the experience left me thirsting to play another western RPG of some kind, preferably Bioware oriented.
Searching through my old stock, I found my old Xbox copy of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It’s been a few years since I’ve had the chance to go through this little number, so I figured, why the hell not? Booting up the game, I found an old half-finished play through of a light side, Jedi Guardian game. Firing it up again was nostalgic. However, it didn’t take long for me to realise that the Xbox360 doesn’t always handle original Xbox games all that well. Every now and then, the frame rate would drop horribly in the middle of combat. With no idea of what I’m doing, I have to pray that my AI allies are able to pick up the slack. Most of the time, they were able to. Still, fighting those sand people on Tatooine is alot harder than I remember it being… Now I remember why I always bring HK-47 along. That droid is damned good in a firefight, and always available with a funny remark when I feel like throwing down the controller.
Statement: I help people resolve their anger issues. By providing them with heavy-duty firearms and watching the ensuing burning and crackling of meatbag flesh… I only wish I had only the means to smell its no doubt sweet scent…
So after a few hours of play, I finally got through those sand people and into the Krayt Dragon’s lair, finding (what I think was) the first star map of 4. I exited the cave only to be quickly slain by that Bounty Hunter, Calo Nord. Seriously, this guy is the like the Rival from Pokemon. He shows up at the worst points with completely unbalanced combat abilities, leaving me and mine to engage in a hit and heal fest. This death and re-loading cycle continued I finally realised why I dropped this playthrough a few years ago. I had pumped all of my level up abilities and feat points into useless skills. Next time, I’m starting fresh.
Anyway, I SHOULD get back to playing DA2…
