Peggle: Or how I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Unicorn

Hey loyal readers and people I am trying to guilt into reading this blog more! I am on a little vacation right now, and as such I haven't had as much writing time as I would like. But that's ok, because I know other people who like to write as well. So today's post comes courtesy of The Conquistador from El Salvador, hence forth referred to as Eto! Enjoy it immensely, for I have commanded it be so!

-Grizz

It’s easy to dismiss a game like Peggle. At points, it feel like a game that you don’t really play as much as observe, and the game is full of characters that look like a cross between Spongebob Squarepants and a Walt Disney acid trip.

Where is your god now? - photo from kombo.com

The basic premise of the game is extremely simple. Every level is filled with a number of colored Pegs, ranging from blue (the most abundant and boring; really, they do nothing except get in the way), green (they unlock your character’s special ability), red (rumor is they have no soul) and purple (they make drank). Your objective is to shoot balls out of a cannon from the top of the screen and destroy all the red pegs in the level in order to advance. Alongside the bottom of the screen, there is a “ball-catcher” (think, big bucket) that moves back and forth across the level, if your ball ends up landing inside the hole, you get an extra ball. The game mechanics seem simplistic and shallow, but they’re surprisingly enjoyable and will give you hours of fun if you can get past the seemingly shallow shell (much like Lady GaGa).

As I mentioned earlier, the artistic designers decided to get high and create a number of characters that are somewhere between Nintendo-cute and demonically possessed.

Artist rendition of what Rex from a Toy Story / Exorcist crossover would look like - photo from giantbomb.com

Each character has a different special ability that is unlocked when your ball hits a green peg. For example, the pedophile dragon shown above makes your next two balls to catch on fire and burn every peg they touch; another extends the ball catcher so that it’s easier to get extra balls. This adds some very good variety and strategy to a game that is, for the most part, about pointing your cannon and letting gravity do its work.

After all the orange pegs are cleared, the ball catcher disappears, and a row of five holes with different bonus levels show up. At the same time, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy starts blasting through your speakers. Finally, when your ball lands inside one of the holes, rainbows and stars shoot out of it, and you move on to the next level.

Seriously, these are sick, sick people making this game. - photo from 1up.com

However, it’s hard to recommend playing this game. It’s not because it’s a bad game, but because playing Peggle is like having an M&M filled with crack / cocaine and then being denied a second hit. This game is hypnotizing addictive, and makes you make up words. If you look past the graphics (or on the other hand, have that crack M&M and focus solely on the graphics) you’ll find an extremely simple but extremely addicting casual puzzle game. You can take the game’s graphical presentation seriously, or as a big joke. If you’re in the first group, you’ll probably hate this game. However, if you take the game for what it is and either ignore or find bulgy-eyed unicorns funny, you will waste your life away playing this game. Now if you excuse me, I have to go back and help my magic rabbit destroy some ginger pegs.

Hi! I’m here to end you! - photo from kombo.com

-Eto

Happy 4th of July - Nothing says America like massive gun battles in Team Fortress 2!

Happy 4th of July everyone! And for those of you who are from other countries, congratulations on your country's independence as well. Unless you are from one of the those countries that was doing the oppressing, in which case thanks for giving people their independence, whether voluntarily or not. That being said, the following review is our first post by a new writer. I hope you enjoy it.

-Grizz

Team Fortress 2 for the PC- A Review

(photo courtesy of Valve via teamfortress2.com)

Team Fortress 2 isn't your ordinary First Person Shooter. A game that looks like “The Incredibles” and handles like “Rambo”, the game takes a different approach to multiplayer shoot'em ups.

Released by Valve Corporation in 2007 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, the game was included in “The Orange Box” which included “Half Life 2” and “Portal” as well as TF2. Having played Valve games like Half Life or games based on the Half Life 2 engine like Couterstrike since grade school, I had high expectations for TF2 and figured that after countless hours of CS Source I figured I could come in guns-a-blazing to another online shooter. After the first two matches I quickly realized that there was a lot more to this game then just aiming and shooting.

(Photo courtesy of Valve Corporation via steampowered.com) (Photo courtesy of IGN)

The game itself revolves around working as a team (so thats where they got the name from!!) to complete an objective, ranging from standard capture the flag, to capture the point, to the more random fan maps that create their own goals. The difference that makes this game unique is that players choose unique classes instead of simply choosing specific weapons. Nine classes in total, each class has a unique set of weapons and abilities which gives it both advantages and disadvantages in the battlefield, a lesson that is quickly learned when beginning to fight other classes. The nine different characters are divided into subsets of “Offensive” “Defensive” and “Support” roles, and in order to have a balanced team the combination of these categories are of the utmost importance. A team composed of Scouts (a quick lighweight class with powerful weapons but a small health bar) might seem like a great idea at first, but after an enemy builds a machine sentry, or a Heavy unloads a few hundred rounds of Gatling gun ammo into your team you quickly learn that having a Sniper or a Spy might be a good idea (although some teams seem to learn this lesson the painful way). As a whole, the class base system adds a second element of skill to the game other than regular aim. While being accurate certainly helps, knowing when and how to use the abilities of your class to bypass obstacles or take down enemies can prove significantly more useful.

This video gives a quick run though of each of the classes.

So you might be thinking “Alright, so the game's got classes, I had that back in 2002 with Battlefield 1942, whats the big deal?” Aha! I'm glad you asked. At the launch of the game this question was one that many asked, and its an understandable one. What many players didn't expect was the wave of updates that was about to dramatically change the simplicity of the game. One day I sat down at the computer to log on for a couple of matches after school, and as I run out into the battlefield I'm mowed down by a gun I don't recognize. Thinking it might be a potential hacker, or a player with a different gun skin, I run out and a different player once again mows me down with a weapon I hadn't seen before. Rushing to the all-knowing internet, I quickly realized what was going on: NEW CONTENT!

Just one of the few weapon and map updates that Valve has released since the game's release.

Photos courtesy of Valve Via teamfortress2.com

Achievements, guns, new maps and new objectives are all what have separated this game from previous class based shooters. As a result of these updates, classes had not only new specific abilities, but also different weapons that flipped what I previously thought about certain classes on its head. New weapons mean new gameplay, new strategies, and more fun. After all, who doesn't want updated guns that suck blood or guns that make other players run in slow mode? You want achievements? It's got'em. You want new scenery? Check out those shiny new maps. You want access to tools that let you make your own maps, or contests to create new weapons that will be put in the game? Its your lucky day! You wanna pay for it? Too bad! That’s right folks, for three easy payments of $0 and one really hard payment of absolutely nothing, this new content and more could be yours. (I would like to take this time to apologize for console owners I may have made cry with frustration at the fact that none of this really applies to them). With new content coming out fairly consistently, and new class updates being planned in the future, the game is constantly changing and as a result, presents new challenges and scenarios for you to play in, and that....is frickin sweet.

The only negative aspect of the game I've noticed so far doesn't lie within the game itself, but rather in dealing with other players. As many of you already know after playing online games, sometimes people are unhelpful or downright bad at working as a team. Someone who's convinced that they're the end all be all of FPS strategy and teamwork might try yelling orders for an entire match, only to see that no one listens. Trash-talking, lack of common sense or refusal to cooperate all make a team based game a lot harder to player. In short, if you're not looking to deal with other people when playing your online multiplayer game....you might wanna pick a game without “team” in the title.

Some are better at pissing off teammates than others...

So to summarize, Team Fortress 2 for the PC is a game that has a solid foundation improved upon by the continuous stream of free updates Valve releases. Its fun, its challenging, and most importantly you get to shoot people with a plethora of different weapons. On a scale from “1” to “Buy it” I would rate it as “Should already own it”. Get it, play it, ….play it some more.

-Spence

Star Wars Games – Will We Ever Be Satisfied?

Every Star Wars game aims to make you feel like a Jedi, or at the very least make you feel like you are a part of that universe. Most of them fall drastically short of this mark. We are all holding out hope that The Old Republic MMORPG will be the Star Wars game to end all Star Wars game but until that comes out we still have to make due with the Star Wars Games that are already out there. If you want the best Star Wars strategy game, you should see about getting a copy of Star Wars Rebellion, it probably won’t work for your computer anymore but that was one hell of game. If you want the best Star Wars flight-based shooter, you should probably break out the old Rogue Squadron games for the 64 and GameCube. But if you want to be a Jedi you should probably choose between Knights of the Old Republic for the PC and XBox or Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for any system you are likely to have.

Probably one of the most fun strategy games I have played, Star Wars Rebellion is the most immersing trip into the Star Wars universe ever. Photo Courtesy of Gamershell.com

The Knights of the Old Republic takes place more or less in Star Wars pre-history when Sith and Jedi fought constantly over who would get to date Natalie Portman in the movies. The Jedi won, but the Sith, being the sore losers that they are, cheated and convinced Anakin to become one of them so that they would win anyways. The jokes on them though because Padme died giving birth anyways. Suck it Sith. Of course I just made all that up about KOTOR, the story is about the pre-history of Star Wars, but about a much cooler story, probably because George Lucas had very very little to do with it. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (or as I am going to call it, STFU…sorry, I meant SWTFU, which can only be a combination of STFU and WTF) takes place at an even more important time. SWTFU takes place between Episode 3 and Episode 4. This is a much more pertinent time to the real Star Wars story which is why I have chosen to review SWTFU as the more important Star Wars Jedi game.

Photos courtesy of Gamespy

I probably just lost half of the readers by saying that SWTFU is more important than KOTOR, but hear me out. Everyone can agree that the most important part of the Star Wars universe is the part displayed in the movies and since the events of SWTFU are more important to the storyline of the movies, it therefore must be the more important. So if you still disagree with me on SWTFU then to you I say STFU, WTF makes you the authority. I’m the one with a blog after all.

So now, we move onto the review. The Force Unleashed was received by mixed reviews in the gaming and Star Wars community. Many people criticized its gameplay for being too linear, and others criticized its lack of multiplayer. Some even criticized its cinematic features for being to abrupt as they often appeared rather suddenly in the middle of a fight. And by far the most prominent complaint I have heard is that while you level up your character the bad guys also get tougher. This last complaint is particularly funny to me because if you were playing a game about, lets say, a Knight in Medieval England and as your character got significantly stronger your enemies remained exactly the same, thus making your character roughly invincible later in the game, then these same people would complain that the game got too easy as the game went on.

And there is some truth to the complaints. The game is linear, there is no multiplayer, and the in-game movies do come out of nowhere sometimes. But all of these do not warrant the low ratings the game was given. This problem occurs all too often with games that take place in worlds that game reviewers are extremely familiar with, especially with Star Wars games. The reviewers expect each new Star Wars game to feature everything that the last one did and more. This is just a silly request to begin with. Its like going to a restaurant and saying “Hey, the last time I was here I had a Turkey Sandwich, a bowl of clam chowder and a piece of key lime pie, but this time I think I want a steak with mashed potatoes and a Caesar salad. You know what, why don’t you just put all those together in one sandwich and I’ll have that, for the same price as just the original sandwich.” If every game in a genre included every good thing from every other game in the genre then they would really all just be the same game. No one was happy when Avatar was the exact same story as Dances With Wolves and Pocahontas. Even with all the good things it did graphically it was still the same story and that gets boring, really quickly. So why would you want every Star Wars game to be just like every Star Wars game? And if you just want it to be just like KOTOR, then just buy KOTOR.

To be fair that picture from Dances With Wolves isn't Lt. Dunbar and his love interest, but the pose was too good to pass up. Photos Courtesy of 20th Century Fox, Disney, and MGM respectively

However, throughout all of these complaints, one compliment has always remained. The story and characters of SWTFU are just incredible. There is not one weak spot in the voice acting or with the storyline. The story follows the life of the secret apprentice of Darth Vader known as Starkiller. At the end of Episode 3 Anakin killed all of the Jedi in the temple, but several Jedi were not in the temple at the time. This is where the story of SWTFU begins. Darth Vader has gone to the Wookie world of Kashyyyk, a world known for lush jungles, hairy citizens, and an abundance of letters that are sometimes vowels, in search of a Jedi that had been banished from the temple. While playing as Darth Vader you begin to get a feel for the controls of the game. While following the path that leads to the Jedi you have the opportunity to hurl Wookies off cliffs, blast them with force blasts, and even use your light saber as a boomerang. When you finally find the Jedi and defeat him in epic combat you discover he has been hiding a son. Vader then takes the boy and trains him in secret as his apprentice, our protagonist Starkiller. I won’t go into the rest of the story but just so you have an idea, the game deals with Darth Vader’s subservience to the Emperor and the formation of the Rebellion, two ideas that are at the very heart of the Star Wars story.

Not my video, but it displays the battle I talked about before. Courtesy of youtube.com

I will however respond to some criticisms which are likely to come up eventually. The gameplay can be a little frustrating at times as you may have difficulty with defeating some of the baddies the first time you play through, and some of the powers have to be used in exactly the right place or in exactly the right way in order to progress through the game. But on the whole, these are very small problems and rarely actually get you killed, and when they do it is probably your fault in the first place.

And if your big complaint is that the game doesn’t have a really wide world for you to explore at your will, then I am sorry, I can’t help you much there. But the game does encourage you to explore the entire world that it does have. In order to change your costume, upgrade your character or upgrade your light saber you have to collect glowing boxes called holocrons which contain the various upgrades. These holocrons are located all over each level and sometimes in very hard to reach places that require you to use all of your various powers to their fullest extent. So while you not have hundreds of dime-a-dozen side quests, you do still have a highly immersive world to explore. Personally the lack of the side quests make this game more like the movies (the good ones that is). Luke only went on a side quest once to go fight Vader in The Empire Strikes Back and that ended with him getting his arm chopped off. Stick to what you are supposed to do and you will always have two arms, that's always been my motto.

No!!!! That's impossible! There's no way I could have avoided this by just freaking listening to Yoda! - Photo courtesy of ugo.com

You may dislike that the in-game movies come out of nowhere and seem to interrupt the gameplay, and again I can’t help you too much. Maybe, you should just stop complaining all the time. All I can say is that the scenes are really beautiful and even though the programmers could have probably made the transitions a little smoother, they are still really engrossing and you will appreciate the way they tell the story.

The only part of the game that I think is just plain bad takes place towards the end of the game. You have to defeat wave after wave of troops, each being more ridiculous than the previous, and if you don't kill things in the right order the next wave will come before you have finished the previous one. The guys you have to fight are just WAY TOO POWERFUL. Even the third time through the game with all my stats maxed out I managed to die several times at this part. That is until I figured out the easiest way to get passed this part. If you play it and want to know my secret, shoot me an email.

So that’s it. It’s not perfect but it is damn good. I give it 8 eviscerated jawas out of 10. It loses 2 points for the problems mentioned above, but they aren’t big enough to really hurt my enjoyment of the game and the story is a far better written Star Wars story than any of Episodes 1-3. Of course they are making a sequel, which I fear will not fit the real storyline as well as this one did, but it is sure to be a fun play. So if you are going to play the new one or just consider yourself a Star Wars fan you need to play Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. And if you are still concerned about the lack of multiplayer and remain unsatisfied with every other Star Wars game, then I again say “STFU, just wait for The Old Republic MMO to be released next year.”

And just to get your hopes up here are trailers for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and The Old Republic. Enjoy these videos courtesy of Gamespy.com!