Carcassonne - a German board game about a French city that you play on your phone.

The German and the French don’t like each other very much; which is why I didn’t expect much from Carcassonne. I mean, a game made by a German about a French city? it is not very encouraging from the get-go. However, it seemed similar to one of my favorite board games, Settlers of Catan, so I made a blind purchase, and I’m really happy to say it’s a great game. Jawohl!

NCAA Football 2011-The Review we've all been waiting for-Part 1

First, I want to apologize for my absence, I got NCAA Football 2011 and have been so caught up in it that I haven't written a review in a while. Not to mention my supply of games to play has temporarily run dry. In any case, I feel I have now played enough NCAA Football 2011 to give it a review that will cover all the intricacies that you have come to expect me to notice in an NCAA Football game.

Cover Art for PS3 version - courtesy of pastapadre.com

In case you didn't know, I love college football. And to only a slightly lesser degree do I love the NCAA Football video game series. I have played enough of this series that I know of more long-standing issues in the game series than EA probably does. Of course they don't have the time between game releases to take care of all of these issues, so its understandable that they would still have lots of problems. But, for your benefit I will discuss things I like first, then dislikes, and things that I cannot pass judgement on.

A lot of the things I like about it are things that were either in previous editions that they had inexplicably removed before, or new additions that really add to the game on the whole. A lot of the things are little things that really shouldn't have taken this long to add to the game but are a welcome change just the same. For instance, they have finally added Squib Kicks as a Special Teams option. In previous versions during a kick off right before the end of the half, Brad Nessler would say "I think he'll probably squib this. Don't want to see the returner create lighting before half," or something along those lines, and then you would immediately kick as deep as you could regardless of whether or not you wanted to. So I am glad to see they have decided to include things that they have been suggesting we do for years. Another great thing I like is that they are finally including partial tackles and sacks, which again has been a long time coming. They even added some custom entrances for your team. For ND they slap the sign or for Clemson they touch Howard's Rock. Even if they only use 5 or 6 players instead of a whole team when entering the stadium.

See, without partial sacks these guys wouldn't get the credit they deserve. Jimmy got sacked twice in one play. They only give out half sacks in the NCAA, and he got sacked by 4 people at once. That's 2 sacks in one play. - Photo from the Associated Press

It is nice to see that EA Sports is finally taking steps to get back to their old slogan of "If its in the game, its in the game." Now if only we could get them to include all the penalties in the actual game, all the stadiums people play in, like the Meadowlands for the ND-Navy game, or Yankee Stadium for the ND-Army game. Its not like these things would take to much effort to include.

Some other changes I like that they did include are formation subs, the ability to change recruiting difficulty, and when you recruit a junior college recruit, it will tell you what year they will be upon entering your school.

The problem is that these things, while nice, do make up for the myriad of other flaws that still exist in the series. Most of the flaws are graphical or general programming problems, but then there are the other gameplay issues as well.

First, we shall discuss the graphical issues. On the whole the game looks a lot better than its predecessors, but it also has more bugs graphically than last year's game. For instance, sometimes, when you make a sack a little sign will pop up that says "USER SACK," just like it did last year, but then it won't go away...unlike last year. This makes it impossible to read your score, which can be important when deciding to go for two, or kick a field goal or some such thing. Also on occasion, your quarterback, or linemen won't line up properly after a hurry-up and then they will miss the snap or leave you open for a sack. Also, I have only encountered this problem when playing as ND at Home, but whenever you use ND's home uniform, your players names no longer appear underneath them when you have them selected or prior to the snap. This can be problematic if you have difficulty finding the little blue ring under your player when you switch to them. Whether these are graphical or general programming errors, they are annoying and just plain sloppy.

One smaller problem I have is with the fans at the games. There are only two ethnicities, black and white. And if you just go off of what you see in the pre-game video, every school is at least 50% black, if not more. While I am sure that EA is not being racist, they are being lazy. Why are there no Hispanics or Asians at the football games. I know a couple of Asians who are some of the most passionate fans you will ever see at an ND game. Why can't they be included in the crowd? And even more importantly, why can't they be players, too?

If you have ever been to a Notre Dame game, you know that there are a whole lot more white people in the stands, and there should be Hispanics and Asians as well. Also, notice that the players come down the steps in different orders both times they show the steps - video from youtube.com

Its these little things that I feel get overlooked when you crank out these games year after year without taking the time to improve them between releases.

As far as things I have not yet passed judgment on you will have to wait till part two of the review, where I will discuss the changes to recruiting in dynasties, the changes to online dynasties and new game modes. And let me just give you a teaser by saying that its not all bad, in fact some things are actually really good. There is still a lot to tell about this game.

Sin and Punishment - Ok, that was fun, but what did I just do?

Hey everyone! No this is not my review of NCAA 2011, I am going to be extra thorough with that one, and I just got it today because I was going to my cousin’s wedding the day it came out. The wedding was great so it was totally worth the delay...at least for me anyways.

In any case, because I am so wise and you all try to emulate me, I can only assume that you also watch the same TV networks as me. And if you have been brushing up on your Spongebob trivia, or enjoy the pure comedy that is the Penguins of Madagasgar, then you have probably seen a weird commercial for Sin and Punishment: Star Successor for the Wii. I don't know if it was the intention of the commercial to be just vague and weird enough to make me look up more info about this game, but that is what happened. Turns out the "Star" that this game is the "Successor" of is the first Sin and Punishment game which was only released in Japan.

Photo courtesy of ign.com

This is not good news for those of us who like to know the whole story behind a game. And I think it is completely reasonable to ask for the whole story. If you didn’t read the first couple of the Harry Potter books, you probably never felt it was necessary or even worthwhile to read the later ones. You had no emotional attachment to the characters and had no understanding of why should give a crap about Harry Potter. The same goes for video games.

But the gameplay for Star Successor looked good enough for me to look into it. I just happened to have a gift card and decided this good be a worthwhile investment. And it turns out I am right.

The game is about a guy and girl who are on the run from some baddies called the Nebulox. It is unclear at the start of the game why you are running, but apparently it because the girl is a monster of some sort and you need to protect her from the Nebulox that are also kind of monsters. Oh and you’re a Nebulox, but you want to help the girl instead of capturing or killing her like you are supposed to. You know, its your classic story of boy meets girl, girl is a monster, boy’s former co-workers try to kill both of them.

That bat-thing is...er...was a human...well sorta...anyways he's bad...I think...Look man, I don't know what's going on - photo from ign.com

You might be thinking, “Wait…what?” Exactly! This story makes next to no sense, and I didn’t even tell you about the Lion and Eagle that twist themselves together in order to blast you with fire and lasers, or the giant monster that you defeat, but still manages to spit out its baby which happens to be a hamster with a license to operate cranes and other heavy machinery.

That's the hamster baby and this is what you can expect from the gameplay; constant action

But the good news is that this crazy story is completely secondary to the great game play. If you were anything like me as a kid, you probably played your fair share of arcade shooting games at Chucky Cheese’s or between games of Laser Tag at your local purveyor of laser tag and laser tag related goods. Sin and Punishment is just like those games. Even on its easiest setting the game is tough and you will have to try some parts several times before you will beat it. And the constant flow of enemies never lets you down. You are constantly fighting for your virtual life and you will never be bored with this game.

It is really refreshing to find a game that is just so much fun to play that you don’t even care that you don’t really understand what it going on, or why anything happens the way it does. Nintendo should take a lesson from Sin and Punishment: Star Successor and make more rail shooting games that aren't zombie shooters like House of the Dead. The Wii is made for this kind of gameplay and with a little storyline they just may come up with some truly incredible gaming experiences. Sin and Punishment: Star Successor gets 3/10 for storyline and 9/10 for gameplay so that averages out to 6 evil hamsters out of 10.

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

Yearly Installments of Games - The Search for More Money

Anyone who knows me that I am desperately awaiting July 13th because it is the release date of NCAA Football 2011. And before you get to wondering about whether or not I will reviewing that game. I will be. I will be playing it so much that I will find every flaw in that game, including the flaws that they have undoubtedly not fixed this year, because they haven't fixed them in the last 7 years. But I digress. The reason I bring this up is because I have a bone to pick with the producers of these games. No, not just EA, but 2K games, Konami, and whoever made the Backyard sports franchise. My problem is that these games come out with yearly installments that don't include enough new stuff.

EA Sports Collections - The only real difference is that Soccer apparently became more popular than NASCAR - photos courtesy of Amazon.com

From an earnings perspective it makes sense to come out with these games every year. Fans of the sport and fans of the games will buy them every year. But why? These games are never that different from their predecessors. They may throw in some new play mode that most people play once or twice and then never again, like Mascot games, or tug of war in the NCAA Football games past. But, on the whole, these new versions give the player little more than roster updates and the occasional new playbook option.

I for one would love it if a bunch of deacons beat up Sparty in real life - Photo courtesy of ign.com

So there is really very little incentive to get the new versions other than having up to date stats. Isn't that something you could fix with a simple patch update, or some downloadable content? Are the new names and numbers really worth $60?

They must be worth it because games like Madden are some of the top selling game franchises ever. And there is no way Americans are so dumb that they pay $60 for the same thing year after year? Right?....Right? Ok, so we are that dumb and we all know it. But is it really fair of EA and other to take advantage of that stupidity like that? Ok, yeah, its fair of them to do that because we shouldn't be that stupid.

'Nuff said - Photo Courtesy of everythinghealth.net

What I want is for EA, the most predominant sports video game producer, to take up the cause of making one good sports video game per sport. And then for the next two years they just release patches to correct rosters and stats. Then, while we are enjoying their good game for 2-3 years with the patches, they spend that time fixing problems with the previous game and coming up with legitimate improvements in gameplay, so that when they release the next version, calling it Sports Game 2 instead of Sports Game 2012, it is no longer a good game but a great game.

They can even charge us for the patches if they are just concerned with making money off of the roster changes. It wouldn't cost as much as a whole new game. But then again, it wouldn't cost them as much to make the patch as it does to make a whole new game. And then when they come out with the new game, it actually feels worthwhile...because it is worthwhile.

This idea can be carried over to other games too, like Halo. Instead of coming out with a new game, they could come out with new map packs and...oh...you say they already do that? Ok, well how about in a game like Dragon Age Origins, they could come out with new missions and short storylines for you to play...oh they do that too? Wow, you mean successful games release extra content and updates to the game instead of new games, and they are still profitable. Gosh, its almost like its a good idea or something. Well I know they don't do it for Pokemon, maybe they could come out with an MMO version of Pokemon where you create a character who walks around the world catching pokemon and battling other trainers, and when they wanted to add new pokemon, they'd release a patch. But that's a topic for another post.

So will I be buying the next yearly installment? Yes, I will, I just wish I didn't have to.

ModNation Racers – Can anyone other than Nintendo Make a Good Kart Racer?

We’ve all been playing Mario Kart since we were kids. The familiar characters combined with the ability to drop into last in multiplayer just so you can blue shell your friend for stealing your three red shells via Boo (though if that happened it was your fault for not taking out the red shells to get them ready in the first place), make the Mario Kart series some of the best racing games, despite their cartoony nature. Logically, many people have tried to copy its style in the past, and none of them have managed to develop any staying power. However, ModNation Racers for the PS3 and PSP makes a better effort than most have done in the past.

Cover of ModNation Racers for the PS3 - Photo Courtesy of Sony

There are a few things that Mario Kart has always lacked. One of the most prominent of these is the lack of a storyline. One reason that Mario Kart has never had a story is because it would be difficult to explain logically why Mario is engaging a race with Bowser when Peach hasn’t even been kidnapped yet. And not only is she not kidnapped, but in the course of the race Mario will inevitably hit her with various weapons. It just wouldn’t make since. Many other Kart racers developed stories but did nothing in actual gameplay to set them apart from the Mario Kart series, and as such always failed to topple the kart racing giant that is Mario. ModNation Racers takes a shot at creating a story that coincides with the racing as well.

Career Mode Trailer - Courtesy of Youtube.com

The short version of the story is that Tag wants to be a racer but he doesn’t have the money to race so his Mother fronts the money and finds a racing coach for Tag. After Tag starts to gain some recognition his car gets destroyed and Tag then has to race for the ModNation equivalent of “The Man,” his Uncle who works for Conservative Motors, a car company that makes really boring cars. After a couple races for Conservative Motors, Tag gets fed up and finds another way to keep racing. And, all the while, Tag slowly develops an arch rival in Espresso, the top racer in ModNation. This makes for a much more complex story than you get from most kart racers, in that the actual racing is the story as opposed to Diddy Kong or Crash Team racing game in which the racing is used as a method of obtaining things for the story. The story for ModNation Racers is just overall more realistic than the typical story of a racing game.

But story should not be the most important part of a racing game. The racing should be. And unfortunately this is a weakness in ModNation Racers. The weapons are somewhat boring in that instead of having a dozen different weapons they have just 4 weapons that get upgraded to greater levels of effectiveness. While this does make collecting weapons worthwhile it also makes first level weapons too weak to really be effective and top tier weapons so effective that getting hit by one of them can drop you from 1^st to 8^th in an instant. There is absolutely no insentive to use a 1^st tier weapon, and once you get a second tier you may as well just wait for the third tier weapon upgrade because its just one more item pod. And during the eternity you have to sit waiting for your car to restart, they have already come out with 6 new games you should probably be playing instead of this.

Some dude about to get wrecked by Hydra missiles - Courtesy of joystiq.com

And then there are the problems with control. Unlike Mario Kart Wii, where the controls are so smooth they could probably convince your sister to sleep with them without even getting her drunk first, ModNation Racers’ controls leave a lot to be desired. It is far too easy to take yourself out of a race for good. And when certain race requirements require you to spin or drift a certain amount in a race, you will often find yourself drifting to much on a turn and losing your directional control, or spin just a little two far while you are in the air, and land facing the wrong direction. The point is that they have you do too much personally and the controls become a little clunky, and in the end take away from the game experience.

However I have not yet spoken about the most unique aspect of ModNation Racers, the customization aspect. ModNation Racers goes to great lengths to give the user vast customizability in cars, characters and even race tracks. You have the ability to create your own race tracks using the same track creator the makers of the game used, or at least that’s what they claim. And though your car doesn’t go any faster based on how you design it, it does give creative players a chance to make their cars their own. Customizing your Mod (character) is a lot of fun too and even enhances the story a bit in that the Tag in the career mode, is whatever Mod you happen to have been using when you entered Career Mode. But if you don’t much care for customization and just wish there were some ready made characters for you to become attached to as your favorite like they have in every other kart racer, then you will be very disappointed with ModNation Racers because they have only one playable character that you didn’t personally create.

Car Customization in ModNation Racers, this person was clearly not very creative. "Oh you made a race car, that's so creative...dick" - Courtesy of nextgn.com

All of these custom creations have one huge downside. Load times for this game are unbearable. Sometimes the load times have been longer than an entire lap on the track you are trying to play. I cannot confirm the customizations to be the cause, but I believe that because of the fact that every local race you play requires the PS3 to render all of your customizations, over and over again. And if you play online, you have to download everyone else’s creations as well. In the end you spend far too much time waiting for a race, and not enough time actually racing.

On the whole a good game, but if you are hoping that someone will have finally given us a kart racing game that will match the omnipresent Mario Kart, then sadly you will be disappointed. ModNation Racers for the PS3 and PSP gets 7.5 clever game references out of 10.

MARIO WINS AGAIN! - Photo courtesy of gamerscityhall.com

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