O Rly? Ya Rly. No Wai! More Reviews 2 (Nintendo Power)

Now that the good games have been mentioned, we can talk about bad games. Yay bad games! Thank you for giving us something to point and laugh hysterically at. One game that had good hopes, but failed, is Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. Spider-Man 2 was a GREAT game. Seriously, it was awesome. But then 3 came out and it sucked...then there were really bad spinoffs. So, now: Web of Shadows. Web of Shadows has sloppy controls, and Wiimote waggling that is in WAY TOO MANY GAMES (look at this Nintendo!!!). It got a 6.5. Next up, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels. Many people probably looked at the Wiimote and yelled to no one, "OMGZ, I COULD TOTALLY BE LUKE CAUSE THIS IS JUS LIKE A LIGHTSABER! COOOOOOOL!" and then started swinging it around going "KSSHHH, VOOOSH" and looking like a complete moron. Hey moron! Here's the game for you! The game has sloppy controls (yay for more wiimote waggling) and highly monotonous gameplay. It loosely follows the movies story-wise, but that's it. It got a 4.0.

O Rly? Ya Rly. No Wai! More Reviews (Nintendo Power)

At E3, the head of Nintendo said that they wanted to move focus away from hardcore gamers, and shift focus to casual gamers. Sigh.... This is evidenced by the fact that one of the biggest things this month is Animal Crossing: City Folk. Animal Crossing is a game that is real life...but with animals. It sounds/looks ridiculously boring to me, but people seem to love the game (fine, I admit it, I'm ridiculously biased.) Also, you can never win, it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.... People like it because it is (apparently) simple fun, cute, and addictive. The game got a 8.0 (how, I don't know). Now, the other main game this month, is Sonic Unleashed. Unless you've been living under a rock millions of miles away, someplace that no one's heard of, you know who Sonic is. A long time ago, Nintendo created Mario, and Sega wanted a mascot better than Mario, and created Sonic. The old Sonic games were all about speed, and that was basically it. Soon though, Sonic games became about puzzles and platforming, and became glitchy and not so good. Most people hated these, especially original Sonic fans, although I liked them. This new game, Sonic Unleashed, brings back the super-fast Sonic, but also brings the new, combat/platforming-oriented Werehog. The game looks amazing, and hopefully will bring back Sonic. It got a 8.0...should be at least 8.5.... or Animal Crossing's score should be lowered...bleh.

Back to the Reviews 2! (EGM)

Arguably the best recent games for the PS3 and XBOX 360 are Little Big Planet for the PS3, and Gears Of War 2 for the XBOX 360. Incidentally, they are also complete opposites. Little Big Planet is a simple, yet very fun, charming platformer that is basically just great fun. The controls are simple, and the characters are cute. The game lets you play levels with others or by yourself, plus you can make your own levels and publish them on the server, and play other people's levels. I own the game and think it's and awesome PS3 exclusive, albeit it gets old after awhile. It got an A+,A, and A, and is the Game of the Month. Next, Gears Of War 2. Anyone who owns a XBOX 360 has heard of it. Any XBOX owner in my class, of which I'm sure there are many, either owns the game or knows about it. Being the COMPLETE opposite of LBP, it's interesting. It is a gritty, bloody, third-person shooter. I've never played the game myself, but apparently the campaign is much improved from the first, and same with multiplayer. From what I've heard it's an awesome game, exclusive to the XBOX 360. It got an A+, A, and A, and is the Game of the Month. At this point observant readers would notice I've said they are both the Game of the Month, and if that is you, congratulate yourself on your observancy and drink a pop. It was indeed a tie for Game of the Month between these two games. Well, that's it for now. Maybe I'll talk about some bad game next week.

Back to the Reviews! (EGM)

Great month for gamers this year. Seriouosly, really great. The end of this year overall is great. With games like Little Big Planet, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Resistance 2, and Mirror's Edge how could it not be great? So, Mirror's Edge. Parkour and awesomeness. The game is all in 1st perspective, and is basically about running. Run, run faster, RUN! That's about it, but it's an amazing game. It got an A-, B+, and B. Next, Fallout 3. Haven't played it yet, but from what I've heard, it's an amazing game. It's an action-rpg (kind of) and is very, very similar to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. But with guns. It also is a very long game, at least 40 hours for the average player. It got an A, B+, and A+. Look for a continuation of reviews soon…

Blu-Ray Goes from Christmas Casualty to Christmas Savior? (kotaku.com)

Do to the current state of the economy, people thought that the Blu-Ray would start dying, but now people are starting to buy Blu-Ray players faster. Also, the PS3 helps it as well, due to the fact that it plays games, stores music, goes online, and acts as a Blu-Ray player. The Digital Entertainment Group, a assortment of studios and other Blu-Ray backers, forecast that by the end of the year, 10.5 million households have Blu-Ray players — with 8 million of them being the PlayStation 3. PS3 executives also expect 4-5 million more PS3s to sell by March, which is also saying they expect 4-5 million more Blu-Ray players to sell by March. Personally, I own a Wii and PS3, and I find it nice to have a Blu-Ray player. Overall though, right now it's more of an option to watch Blu-Rays than DVDs, as opposed to later when Blu-Rays will be the only choice, so most people will either get a PS3 or Blu-Ray player soon.

LBP (Little Big Planet) Moderation Remains Inscrutable, Unaccountable (kotaku.com)

Little Big Planet...great game for the PS3. Fun, simple, creative...and way too heavy on moderation. Personally, I had 5 of my levels (the game lets you create levels) moderated and taken off the server, and was never told why. It angered me, but I found a hole in the system, and reposted them. Apparently, one of the best user-created levels up on the server just got deleted, again, for no reason. This level was amazing, had over 20,000 plays and 4,000 hearts (a system like favoriting). Now though, thanks to the moderation, no one can play it. This of course, angered the level's creator greatly, and he said: "I invested a huge amount of time making The Azure Palace to not only be original, but to shift the gameplay of this wonderful game you guys made. Besides similarities to underwater stages in general, there is nothing directly taken from any game/movie/etc. If there so happened to be one, the terms of moderation are by far extremely irrational. The user is given no chance to change certain aspects of his creation to conform to said rules above. WE'RE NOT EVEN GIVEN A FREAKING REASON AS TO WHY IT HAPPENED!!!" He sent this to Media Molecule (the creator of the game), but as of now, no response. So, all in all, bad moderators, and no reason.

The New DSi (Kotaku.com)

First, we had the Gameboy. Then the Game Boy Color, followed by the Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance SP, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, and now: the Nintendo DSi. I can sum up what I read about it in four words: I am highly disappointed. The DSi sounds better at first with new (yet in my opinion, unnecessary) features like a .3 mp (mega pixel) camera, the screens will be 17% bigger, at 3.25 inches each, an SD memory card slot, and finally a DSi shop for (sigh....) DSiWare. Okay, not let me go through all of the new features I just stated (in order): Highly unnecessary, okay that's fine, no one cares, gah..... Now, the worst feature has yet to be said. The new DSi will not have a GBA slot, so you can't play GBA games at all.... That was lost for these new features. Highly disappointing. The new DSi will arrive some time in 2009 at approximately $180.

Blah Blah Blah Reviews 5 (EGM or Electronic Gaming Monthly)

(Blah Blah). More reviews and stuff, except in EGM now and the review scores are A+ through F- instead of 1-10. First, Battlefield: Bad Company. A typical FPS (First Person Shooter) developed by the Generic-FPS-o-matic...or DICE, nothing really unique. This game got a B. Next, Civilization Revolution. Civilization Revolution is a fairly complicated strategy game that is a PC port, that went to the PS3 and XBOX 360. Some negatives are that games can end quickly, the voices are really annoying, but it is still a pretty fun strategy game that has lots of depth and detail. This game got a B+, A-, and another A-. Lastly, Haze. The terrible game of the month, Haze, starts off bad, right with the box art. It's another generic FPS, but worse that has bad visuals, no unique weapons, bad controls, and a bad A.I. The game got a D+.