Saturday, January 22

Enough Plumbers is a flash game made by Glen Forrester and Arthur Lee. It is hosted on various websites for free. If you want to play Enough Plumbers, Click Here.

Enough Plumbers is essentially a puzzle game in the Mario world. It uses many similar sounds and even has a character very similar to Mario and somewhat similar to goombas. What makes this puzzle game unique is that instead of gaining points for every coin gathered, you instead gain new plumbers that appear instantly on screen.

The presentation of the game is actually pretty darn good. You are literally playing on a tv screen, much like the old Marios games and have the sound option in the top left and the channel (level) in the top right. Also when you die or switch between menus the screen goes to static and then returns.

For many of the beginning puzzles most of your clones just move where you do and they are not necessarily difficult. The game eases into the difficult stages where you must have multiple clones on separate levels trying to do two things at once, sometimes even moving in different directions.

With this game it won’t get old fast, but it will eventually get to the point that it will be so frustrating you just have to take a break or go to a walkthrough (yes… there are walkthroughs for flash games). But even after being frustrated you will still come back fore because the game just has a certain charm and is fun.

Play Rating
-         Must Play
 

Friday, January 7

I am writing this right after “finishing” a multiplayer session of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for the PC. And this is actually being written because of that multiplayer session.

I was playing a game of conquest and I joined it at the start of the round, pretty sure tickets were set to 500, if that doesn’t mean anything to you then oh well it isn’t that important. I was playing as an Engineer and kicking some butt, trust me I was definitely the top player. And the game was reaching the end. We were losing and only had about 50 or so tickets until the end of the game. I was sitting at roughly 60 to 70 kills and about 30 to 40 deaths with about 7000 score prior to post game awards. Well right when I running to one of the three points on the map my screen blinked black and then blinked again and was sitting and the main menu…

Imagine this but with more sad feelings... and different info in the box.
I was apparently kicked to make room for another player, a VIP. Now I just want to point out that when a round finishes the best player is given the VIP award, which gives you an extra 200 points that goes toward your player level. That isn’t the only reason being kicked made me sad, but also the fact that the game lasted maybe a good 40 minutes and it was possibly the best game I had and definitely one of the most fun; and it was cut short to make room for someone else. Not only that but to make room for someone that would only be playing for maybe a total of 5 to 10 minutes before that match finished.

Anyway all I can really say is that it made me sad. And actually this outcome made me sadder that another one. Normally when my screen blinks when playing Bad Company 2 it usually means my game decided to crash back to the desktop. But alas what happened made me sadder than that because had I went back to the desktop I would have known it was just some random fault then kicked me from the game. 

The left one is the true BSOD to me.
Now that I am finished ranting about how that made me sad I want to get more onto the bigger picture. What has, and I am sure something has, made you sad whilst playing games? 360 go all RROD on you while you were playing? PC got a BSOD while you were doing anything? PS3 get the YLOD while you using it?

Really Microsoft? Why are your failures such common knowledge? Two different systems both with failure acronyms... shame on you... or... congrats?
Not sure if there are anymore acronyms I can use without making any up (and yes YLOD does exist)… But what I want to know is has anything happened to you while your were playing games or going to play a game that has made you sad. For example someone turning off the console while you away even though you paused it during one of the hardest boss battles ever? Or your really late game save files got corrupted or deleted?

Because I can definitely remember those awesome moments from my gaming past, but who cares about those?


Sunday, December 12

Red Faction: Guerrilla was a game developed by Volition Inc. and Published by THQ in 2009. It is a 3rd person shooter/destruction simulator that follows the story of Alec Mason during is first time on Mars.

Red Faction: Guerrilla was played using the PC version.

- Story -

Once starting the game you are thrown through a cut scene and into the shoes of Alec Mason, who has arrived on Mars to do make money doing some honest labor, or mining. Unfortunately for Alec Mason the game doesn’t want that and following some events you end up joining the Red Faction, which is an underground movement that wants to free Mars from the EDF, or Earth Defense Force. The EDF had liberated Mars earlier from another faction giving peace to all the inhabitants, but over time they started making restrictions and strived for power even if that meant suffering for the miners and colonists.  It is now up to Alec Mason and the rest of the Red Faction to reclaim Mars and rid themselves of the EDF.

This is Alec Mason, master of explosions
As a member of underground faction the game proceeds through small guerrilla actions. These can be anything from destroying a convoy to rescuing a hostage or even to taking/defending an outpost. These guerrilla actions eventually lead to the ability to take part of Red Faction actions. Which will lead to the Red Faction liberating the sector, out of 6 sectors. The problem with this progression system is that there are a limited number of guerrilla actions and can unfortunately become repetitive and boring.

What the game lacks in originality of story is makes up for elsewhere. In the end the story comes less down to character progression or revealing the EDFs secret plot and more about you just destroying everything in your path to remove them from Mars. Interesting, not really, but good enough that is doesn’t get too boring.

-- Story Score = 6 / 10

- Visuals -

Red Faction pulls of the ability to look great and bad at the same time. Textures and what not look great. Each character is animated very well and looks very good. Also the buildings and environments look quite good. However, the game is bland. Each area, beyond a color change, looks almost identical. Even though each area is very similar they do still look very good, and again the animations look great. 

The world may be bland, but the explosions definitely liven up the place
Beyond just the simple textures are the effects. This goes from explosions to muzzle flashes. And the effects do not disappoint. From the muzzle flashes to the different back pack’s effects in multiplayer, it all just looks fantastic. When a vehicle explodes it looks just like it should and when you fire a gun it looks like it almost feels like in a way.

Red Faction is a game of outstanding visuals that should not disappoint anyone, unless you cannot stand similar locations.

-- Visual Score = 9 / 10

- Game Play -

Red Faction shines when it comes to the game play. Everything from the gunplay to the destruction is just great, with possibly the only bad part partially being vehicle driving.

Oh yes, you get one and they are an absolute blast
Red Faction’s gunplay is much like a standard current generation 3rd person shooter, except that there is little emphasis on using cover, even though it is possible. What makes this game different, and the game encourages, is destroying any and all buildings. You can do this with the use of a sledgehammer, mining explosives, rocket launchers, walker vehicles, and just about everything else. And when most games say buildings can be destroyed it usually just means parts of it, but with Red Faction it means ALL of it. Every wall, floor, and ceiling can crumble according to whatever you want to happen. However the one iffy thing about the destruction is the ability for buildings to keep standing up even though the majority of their supports are gone. This isn’t game breaking, but is odd.

Tuesday, November 16

In the news and in our (United States) government recently a claim to ban violent video games from minors has been raised. From what I can tell the group actually wants to ban games with “extreme” violence, because obviously we should start banning things based on subjective views.

But this got me thinking on alternate ways of trying to get violent games away from minors without banning violent games from our country and without banning them based on subjective views.

The reason we shouldn’t ban games on subjectivity is because whether or not a game has “extreme” violence is determined by each individual and unfortunately you can’t include ALL PEOPLE into one category… Unlike what some people think not everyone is going to agree that chopping off someone’s hand is “extreme”. And that is why you can’t ban things based on subjective views… well you can, but shhhhhhhh.

Not a game I would ban
On the other hand banning all violent video games would ban a lot of games people are completely fine with. For example Mario, Sonic, and Poke’mon would all be banned. Because if you ban violent video games then you would have to ban ALL games with violence no matter what level of violence you think they have.

But there has to be a way to get violent video games away from minors. Well, what about a rating change? Everything rated “T” or less moves up one in the rating scale. That means “E” is now “E10+” and “E10+” is now “T” and “T” is now “M”. Obviously it doesn’t change “M” because minors shouldn’t be able to get them anyway. This would still allow games like Mario, Sonic, and Poke’mon to be accessable by minors (as they should), but games like Infamous, Final Fantasy 13, and Uncharted would be rated “M” and kept away from minors.

Seriously, all you do in this game is kill
And to be honest the big reason many games are rated “T” is because the lack of blood or what people would consider “extreme” violence. How Infamous didn’t get rated “M” amazes me though… It seriously gives you the choice to become the most psychotic murdering guy in the entire city (oh and all you do in the game is kill). I am pretty sure most people would be fine with that game being rated “M”.

Thursday, October 28

 The Second Season of Stargate SG-1 begins immediately after Season 1, it is technically part two of the season one finale. The story again follows Jack O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping), Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), and Teal’c (Christopher Judge) and all of their doings while in the team SG-1.

The team is back for some more crazy adventures
The second season consists of 22 episodes that run roughly 40 minutes. Season two is essentially season one part two, literally if you consider the first episode. It continues what season one did with traveling to various planets with the plan to meet new species/cultures, bring back new technology, and still trying to find some people they lost earlier on. However the emphasis in season two is more geared towards trying to create alliances to fight the Goa'uld rather then just going to new worlds with the hopes of learning cultures.

An awesome episode... with sweet music and transitions
What season two does do somewhat differently then season one is that is involves more fighting. There are more conflicts with the Goa'uld, especially since season two introduces even more Goa'ulds. Also there is more time spent on earth covering the SGC’s (Stargate Command) conflict with other earth-based groups.

While many of the episodes in season two are quite interesting, there are a couple of them that will leave you questioning why you just spent 40 minutes watching something so useless. However, these kinds of episodes are very few and far between. Only 2 episodes stick out in my mind. So for the majority of season 2 the episodes are actually very interesting and fun to watch.

Yeah, this episode is terrible...
Season two of SG-1 has the exact same reasons to be watched as season one did. These reasons being the “new” worlds and interesting earth history, great actors, and the production values. If anything season two improves on season one by improving some of the production values, some very nice special effects are added in season two.

Much like season 1, missing Season 2 would later be partially/extremely detrimental. You could definitely pick up what you missed, but it would be quite confusing. Season 2 introduces some things that will have a large impact on the entirety of Stargate SG-1.

Watch Rating
-         Must See