Resurrection #2890572

Okay, I'm back again. Took a little longer than I expected, but right after MAG finished up, they started another, slightly less awesome, event in PSU and I had to hit that. Expect a writeup on all that within the week. That, and I've been working more as of late, trying to set aside some money to downpay on a car.

Catchup reviews might be a bit truncated, since there's a lot to catch up on, but I'll do what I can.

College Hoops NCAA 2K7
Achievements: 49 (30 offline for 650gs, 19 online for 350gs)

Another basketball game. I think the only points I got were for spelling out "WIENERS" as my online play availability. 20 points for WIENERS. Good show.

Conflict: Denied Ops
Achievements: 44 (29 offline for 715gs, 15 online for 285gs)

The poor man's Army Of Two. AI was retarded and spent a good ten minutes running into easily avoided obstacles in a fairly open area while driving a vehicle. Dick. Got right up to the extraction point in the first level and died. Bugger that.

Crash Of The Titans
Achievements: 47 (all offline, 1000gs)

I'd never actually played a Crash Bandicoot game before this. I'm serious. I may have played a demo at some point back on the Playstation, but that's it. I actually kind of liked the whole on-rails platformer deal they have going on.

Achievement spread is fairly easy if a little grindy, but the grind never really got to me. I like that they state what you have to go back and do at the level clear screen to get whatever you may have missed, too. Looking forward to picking this up again and slamming the rest of it sometime.

Dark Messiah Of Might & Magic: Elements
Achievements: 49 (32 offline for 610gs, 17 online for 390gs)

I could have sworn I already reviewed this. Fun enough, but I could definitely stand to scream at the item placement for a while. I played 4/5 of the way through the first lengthy chapter, where stuff actually starts happening, thinking I'd gotten the key I needed to finish the level, and struggled through a bunch of drab, poorly-light-sourced hallways to get back to the door I needed to open.

OH HEY, YOU ONLY PICKED UP AND MOVED THE BODY NEXT TO THE KEY YOU NEEDED AND DID ALL THAT WANDERING FOR NOTHING.

Easy enough game to blow through, I guess, but I got really pissed and sent it back after that. Also, why does this game have online competitive multiplayer? I am confused.

Kung Fu Panda
Achievements: 39 (all offline, 1000gs)

Typical kids' game, in that it's relatively easy and all the achievements are mostly progress and scavenger hunt related. Fun enough, though, and the combat was pretty solid. My only reservation is that the little multiplayer minigames were all kind of stupid and not online in any fashion, and the Jack Black impersonator grates on one's nerves very quickly. Especially if you're not that much of a Jack Black fan.



Don't think I've been ignoring XBLA Wednesdays, either.

Bionic Commando Rearmed
Achievements 12 (all offline, 200gs)

Oh man, Bionic Commando was the bee's tits when I was a kid. Swing like Tarzan at will and kill Hitler? SIGN ME UP. I would've played this if it was just a port, honestly, but the graphic overhaul is kind of nice.

Controls took a little re-getting-used-to, and the directional control kind of SUCKS SO BAD, since it's not great with the stick and the d-pad on the 360 controller is trash. Still, meeeeeeeemories conned me into buying it the second it dropped, and it's totally worth it once you get the hang of things. Not a pun, that. I swear.

Braid
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200gs)

Everyone's mooning about this being this great, moving game that's so deep and a huge puzzle and blah blah blah. I dunno, I only played the demo, and it was a neat little platformer. I might pony up the cash eventually, if only to see what the big deal is. I mean, come on, NPR even interviewed the guy who made it. Something's got to be up.

Castle Crashers
Achievements: 12 (8 offline for 195gs, 4 online for 55gs)

I don't know why it took The Behemoth so long to crank this out, but it was so worth the wait. These guys can do no wrong, which you already know if you've played (and gotten raped by) Alien Hominid.

This time around, there's more of a classic beat 'em up thing going on, with some RPG elements thrown in to boost your characters and give you stuff to collect as you go on. Also, very tweaked in favor of the multiplayer experience, but that's not a bad thing at all in this case.

Sure, you can do a lot playing on your own, but that's a) boring and b) really hard. Get some friends. If you don't have some, make some. Then get this game.

Galaga Legions
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200 gs)

This shit is crazy! It's like Galaga meets R-Type. Now you have these little pods you can deploy to help you out and shoot in different directions, which is pretty much key if you don't want to get obliterated. The nice thing is, the game tells you where enemies are likely to appear, so you can strategize in the brief second it gives you before they start popping up.

Things get crazy pretty fast, and you'll be throwing your satellites everywhere, but it's actually really fun. Recommended buy.


Coming soon: a Phantasy Star Online/Universe omnispective, and I wax poetic on the merits and further merits of Soul Calibur IV. "I'm gonna beat you naked, hee hee!" Oh, and a review of Fable II Pub Games, since I just realized I never got around to playing that demo.