Games of the Year
2010 was a year of many great games like Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, Civilization 5, StarCraft 2, Grand Turismo 5, and Call of Duty Black Ops to name a few. With a pretty darn good year in video games how could I possibly pick a game of the year? The simple answer is I couldn’t. When I sat down to think about the year in review 2 titles came to my head Mass Effect 2 and Grand Turismo 5. Both games brought me many hours of joy and in the case of GT5 continue to do so.
But before I dive into why I choose GT5 and Mass Effect 2 I wanted to take this time to try and understand how we come to the conclusion on criteria is used for game of the year. What makes a game worthy? is it the most polished, most complete package? is it the game that we had the most fun with, is it the game that left us with the most awe dropping moments?
For me I sit down and thought of 2010 and instantly thought of Mass Effect 2′s opening scene where the Normandy is attacked and my living rumbled by noise of a battle of two ships. I was blown away and knew I was in for a very good ride. I sat down after worked and played for about 5 hours. I couldn’t put the game down but knew I had too. Bioware did a great job in allowing the decisions I made in Mass Effect to be carried forwarded and ultimately help shape some of Mass Effect 2. This was an evolution in the gaming industry in 2010 for myself and I sincerely hope Bioware takes this a step further in Mass Effect 3. I’m going to get into some spoilers here so stop reading the rest of this paragraph if you haven’t played Mass Effect 2. The plot generally involves the Illusive Man bank rolling Commander Sheppard’s operation. Sheppard travel’s around the universe recruiting individuals than goes out to ensure he has their loyalty by doing specific missions for those characters. They ultimately find the collector base and Sheppard needs to decide to destroy or preserved the Collector base. I sat there for almost a half an hour weighting the pro’s and con’s of each decision before ultimately coming to the conclusion that the Collectors need to be destroyed. Mass Effect 2 had me on the edge of my seat for most of the game but for when I was bored out of my mind mineral hunting.
After 6 years of development, a delayed launch and finally a very low profile launch of Sony’s biggest title of the year Gran Turismo 5 failed to live up to a lot of peoples expectations of perfection. This game is far from perfect, from it’s horrible UI, unlocking of damage, and confusing online lobby system when you get down and dirty and look past these faults this is a simulation racing game at it’s finest. Buying, racing and tuning car’s has been a blast. I just enjoy it, no gimmickie rewinds or anything, just pure racing if you screw up it’s your fault. The game has been out over a month and we’ve already seen 3 huge patches to the game. To me this means continued support as we wait 12 year’s (I’m only joking) for the next Grand Turismo game.
For these reasons I listed above I must co-name Mass Effect 2 and Grand Turismo 5 my games of the year.
Dj Hero 2 Review
wiki wiki wiki what! Scratch that, hold up, the batteries in my turn table died. That’s right I’m here to review DJ Hero 2. As you may remember just under a year ago Dj Hero was launched and I reviewed it here and I loved it because of the music. Nothing has changed this time around. The music is kick ass and there is already downloadable content on the market place. There is no secret that the DJ Hero franchise is my music genre game choice.
The track list in DJ Hero 2 is awesome and aims to attract and branch out to reach a different type of audience. Sure, Lady Gaga, Pitbull, Rhianna and Janet Jackson are stars but they’re not my thing. The first game featured a ton of Jay Z and Eminem and they don’t have many tracks in this game, however, my favorite tracks so far have been Eminems “Not Afraid” and Lil Wayne feat. Static Major “Lollipop.”
When I first played Guitar Hero 2 it was all about the music and that’s evident here in Dj Hero 2 as there is no world tour and story modes. Empire mode is where you begin DJ’ing house parties and you can make it all the way to an international sensation. The issue with this approach is that I never felt like I was progressing my career at all. Another problem is that all the characters are pre-defined and sometimes you get replaced a real life DJ. I can use my Avatar in the game but why they did not go the extra mile to incorporate that piece of functionality into the single player is beyond me. Along the way you have to battle fictional dj’s as well as David Guetta and Tiesto, but it never felt like it was a real challenge against these real life stars.
Once you’re done unlocking all 83 songs for quick play mode set up some play lists, rack up the high scores, and challenge your friends to beat it. Alsok from the main menu you can enable party mode which will randomly play songs so you can sit back and enjoy the remixes. The only downside to this mode is all the song selection is randomized.
One of the main complaints of the original DJ hero was that as the DJ you had no control of the mash ups. In each mash up there are freestyle sections where you can control the crossfading, scratching and trigger samples as you like. The best implemenation of this is crossfading where you can choose to play either track A or track B or mash up the two tracks how you like it. This is one of the best parts of the game for me, I wish I had more control of the mash ups. trigger samples are hard to keep in tempo with the song and scratching is fun but doesn’t sound as good as the recorded scratches.
DJ Hero allowed players to sync up a microphone and give shouts over the music, this has been taken a step further in DJ Hero 2 and allows players to sing along to the songs. Since the songs are mashed up this can make singing along to your favorite song very impossible since the lyrics to another song could pop up at any moment. I personally would have been happy with this portion of the game not being included.
The two-player battles have also seen a face lift. Now player 1 will perform a section of a song and then player 2 will have to perform the same section of the song and try to out perform the other DJ. A winner will be decided at each checkpoint and when a player reaches a certain number of checkpoints won there is a winner. This mode can be played locally or on Xbox Live/PSN against other players.
Also, from the main menu you can view your Rep, check how you are progressing on your Achievements/Trophies, compare your your scores on the leaderboards and you read the Hero Feed which provides all sorts of statistics from how many mixes you played to how many hours you’ve played.
Overall this DJ Hero 2 is a good improvement over the original game and it’s kept me entertained for hours and hopefully through DLC it will continue to provide many more hours of entertainment.
read moreTiger Woods PGA Tour 11 Review
2010 – 2011 has been an interesting year for the worlds number 1 ranked golfer Tiger Woods. Off course behavior cost him numerous sponsors and millions of dollars but Electronic Arts stuck by the man who has transformed golf to what is today and release this years annual edition of the franchise. You’ll notice right off the bat that Rory McIlroy is also on the cover. Is this a ploy to get positive attention to the game to also feature one of the upcoming European players or is it strictly to promote the Ryder Cup which is the best golf team event on the planet. Enough talk about that and let’s get back to regularly scheduled review.
Another year means minor visual upgrades to the game. It looks great but how far can you go to improve graphics in 12 months. There are a issues with the voice acting in this game. First of all, can we please get rid of Kelly Tilghman. Her voice is annoying and she isn’t funny at all. Further more, there have have many issues triggering the audio cues. By that I mean, how can the game tell me I’ve hit an awesome shot so close to the pin when in fact the ball is 20 yards from the pin and in the rough? Honestly it’s ultra annoying. EA we all know you have ultra huge QA department and these little annoying bugs should get squashed.
One of the big additions to Tiger Woods PGA tour 11 was adding the Ryder Cup which is in my honest opinion one of the best golf tournaments to watch. Sure we all love the masters but there is just something about the Ryder Cup. USA Vs Europe Team play sounds great? It sure does however there are some issues with the implementation of the concept. First of all, not all the players in the roster of PGA tour are not eligible to play in the Ryder Cup and thus should not be allowed to play. Sure I’m getting pretty technical here but I am golfer and a huge golf fan and I don’t think it’s too hard to follow the rules of the Ryder Cup. Also I found the fourball matches took far to long to play. I often found my self getting quite sleepy playing this portion of the Ryder Cup.
There has always been a fine line between enjoying Tiger Woods and getting your balls handed to you playing on the Ultra tough Tour Mode. This year the team over at EA has introduced True-Aim. This allows you to get up close and and see the hole and course from the golfers perspective. True-Aim removes the old accuracy circle we were use to in Tiger Tiger Woods games and forces you to aim your shot entirely from an over-the-shoulder camera. This is how Tiger and the rest of the PGA, LPGA, and European tour players play. This adds an interesting challenge on it’s own and I struggled with it at the very beginning. So after you pull the analog stick, the only indicator you get that your shot is good is by the noise the crowd makes and the commentators have to say.
The focus system is another effective tool at increasing the difficulty of your round without getting frustrating. The focus meter sits on the lower left of the screen where it normally does. You use it to add power to your swing, spin to your ball and finally to use to putt preview. Using the focus meter uses up it’s availability pretty quickly and generally I’ve found it adds a bit of a tactical element to the game. When do you use it? when do you not use it? those are the tough questions to answer during a round of golf. How do you gain focus back? simple, hit quality golf shots on each hole. No longer can you simply rely on putt preview for 18 holes you actually need to think and implement a bit of strategy into your round of golf.
Online modes haven’t really changed since the inception of the Tiger Woods franchise on next gen consoles. You still have your typical gamernet challenges, weekly, daily and play with the pro tournaments that we’ve all come to play hours of. The only real addition to the online mode is team play where you can join 23 other plays and play on Team USA or Team Europe. I’m really hoping for some improvements.
Career mode hasn’t seen a drastic change either you still have 48 skill challenges that pit you against some crazy shots, rounds of golf done by by the tour pros. The PGA season is firmly intact and the race to the Fedex cup is on. You’ll now notice you no longer earn cash but Experience Points (XP) based on your actions on the course. Make a birdie? It will yield you 25 XP points. There are 7 levels in all to get and you’ll need 100,000 XP points to get. XP can be really hard to earn in the early stages of the game but later on when you have your character maxed out XP comes by a lot easier. You can assign this XP points to your character growth or to buy new shinny clubs. Not happy with a decision you made? no problem you can reallocate those XP points if needed.
Another year means another annual edition of Tiger Woods, is it this year’s addition worth $69.99? Personally, I don’t think so but as you can tell I’m a sucker for golf games and keep buying them. I really wish I could avoid purchasing it. For those who are hardcore into their golf the new additions of True-Aim, Ryder Cup, and XP system are welcome changes that make the game a bit more challenging. I’ve yet to shot lower than a 61. If your like me and you love golf be sure to pick this up as I can’t wait to the play the pros tournament when the Ryder Cup does actually come around.
read moreTehflakes.ca Game of the Year
It’s that time of year, time to discuss my favourite game of the year along with honourable mentions and biggest disappointment. But before I get into that, I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about how I came to decision and what criteria I used.
So to me game of the year represents the overall best complete package that a game has to offer. This includes everything from the menus, the graphics, the sound, the story, the multiplayer, the connection I have to the characters within the game, and I guess the best way to say it is how engrossed I am into the game. I must eat, breathe and think about the game and lastly what replay value does it offer. Things that shouldn’t be considered when tabulating your game of the year is number of copies sold, marketing budget and whether it is a console exclusive title. It shouldn’t matter that the game is on 1 platform or several. It’s all about the best game of 2009.
There truly was only one logical choice for Tehflakes.ca game of the year that is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. You can check out my review here. Nathan Drake is the new James Bond and Laura Croft of the video game space. The plot twists alone will have you on the edge of your seat. Uncharted 2 doesn’t do a lot new but it does what it does better than anything out there right now. You can beat it on normal in about 10 hours and don’t worry you can replay the game and be sure to go and hunt for all the treasures. Had enough of the single player? Why not check out the co-operative levels or the new multiplayer. I know what you’re thinking great a new multiplayer but the team at Naughty Dog did a fantastic job with it. In the span of 2 days I played this game for almost 15 hours and if I didn’t have to work I would have probably played more. I still continue to hop on to get some multiplayer action when I can
Well it’s time for some honourable mentions that were under consideration for Game of the Year:
- Batman Arkham Asylum
- Assassins Creed 2
- New Super Mario Brothers
Well I am certainly going to get some heat for this but Forza Motorsport 3 was probably my biggest let down of the year. Don’t get me wrong it was a good game but the difference between Forza and Forza 2 was huge, that made think we would see Forza 3 turn out to be an epic game but it wasn’t. It felt more like Forza 2.5 with a good physics system. The track selection was boring, the menu system was awful, and just in general I found it boring. I really had a hard time staying focused and wanting to play it, it was a very different feeling compared to Forza 2.
Art done by Todd Lawson -Visit Todd’s site at www.toddlawson.com
read moreDj Hero Renegade Edition Review – Xbox 360
Activision has yet again brought us a new “Hero” series game, this time venturing away from the guitar, drums, and microphone to bring us DJ Hero. Yes another metal and plastic instrument for are already overcrowded living rooms. There are two versions of the game the regular edition and the Renegade Edition featuring Jay-Z and Eminem.
There are only 2 differences on the hardware that I’ve found so far one being the knobs on the Renegade edition are metal compared to plastic on the regular edition. Secondly the turntable is black and gold compared to black and silver. My only real complaint regarding the turn table is the cross fading mechanism. It is has 3 positions left, center and right. When sliding from right to center or vice versa there isn’t enough of a click to ensure that it is centered. I’ve often lost note streaks because of it. FreeStyleGames even thought of the lefties, you can detach the mixer and place it on the right.
One of the biggest complaints I have had with games Rock Band and Guitar Hero are the tracks. Being in my twenties the music in those games just didn’t appeal to me because I didn’t know 90 percent of the artists. This is one of the single most important reasons I love DJ Hero the set list is fantastic. You have music from Eminem, Jay-Z, N.E.R.D, 2-Pac And 50 Cent mixed by the likes of DJ AM, DJ Grandmaster Flash and DJ Jazzy Jeff. This game is loaded with star power.
Another Hero game means another controller, so half of it is the record platter that contains 3 buttons green, red and blue. The other half is the mixer that includes the cross fader, effects knob , euphoria button (star power) and system control buttons .As the familiar red and blue and as notes come down on the screen you press the button. Scratches involve holding either the green or blue button while moving the platter back or forth, but on harder difficulty you’ll have to follow onscreen arrows that indicate whether to push it forward or pull it back. When you get into the medium, hard and expert settings you add in the cross fader, which you’ll have to push left and right depending on what notes are being played during the song. Think of it this way, when the cross fader is in the middle position music from record 1 and record 2 are being blared through your speakers. Move it to the left and only record 1 is being played, move it to the right and it’s only record 2.
Beginner and easy mode are just like sound, lame and boring. For me this game started to take off once I switched to medium 5 starred all the songs and found my groove. Hard and expert is a challenge and some of the songs really do kick my ass but I’m ok with that since music in this game is incredible. You can hook up a USB microphone and throw shout out’s to your TV, it’s lame but it could be fun at a party. Next time they tried to integrate a co-op mode by having 10 songs that can also be played using a guitar. The guitar and Turntable mode sounds but I really thought it was tacked on instead of being carefully thought out. One small annoyance I have is that you cannot fail a song regardless of how bad you suck, the music will keep playing. This is great if you wanted to just kick it at a party and listen to some great tunes but it’s hard to focus on where you need to improve your skills.
You can go on line, pick a set list and battle other people, I personally didn’t enjoy this mode at all as I could never seem to win a set list.
I hope Activision takes a cue from the fine folks at Harmonix and releases weekly downloadable mash up tracks for us to play. This is only way to prolong the life of this game.
Dj Hero makes a very good debut onto console platforms but FreeStyleGames needs to make a few improvements to the hardware, co-op and potentially a lower price as some people may find the current price tag a little high. At the end of the day this is one of the best music genre games I’ve played.
read moreHalo 3 ODST Review
This is the latest Halo title developed by Bungie Studios and it doesn’t star the famous Master Chief. Halo 3 ODST actually takes place before Halo 3. The UNSC are at war with the Covenant, and during the Convenant discover Earth and launch an assault on New Mombasa which is located in Africa. You play as the Rookie an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) during the drop down to Earth your pod collides with another pod and you then you crash on Earth. Six hours later you wake and go through the basic Halo tutorial level. You now must make your way through the Streets of New Mombasa to find clues in order to piece together what happened to your follow squad members Dutch, Romero, Mickey, and Dare while you were unconscious. So essentially you start as the Rookie and once you find the clue that links you to a squad member you go ahead and play as your squad member and you live through what happened to them. Very interesting concept and Bungie totally pulled it off. The cut scenes tell a very interesting story.
The story ends with your squad members fly out of the city in a captured Phantom and have took an engineer aboard. Eventually Sergeant Johnson arrives and tells the engineer that he intends to ask questions regarding its knowledge of the Covenant.
ODST plays very different from any other Halo game from the way the story is told to the underlying game mechanics. ODST doesn’t feel like a complete game but more like an expansion which allows Bungie to experiment and try new things. There are only a few new weapon variants, 1 new alien race and everything you shoot comes from Halo 3. The health system works a bit different, the more you get shot the more you stamina goes down that leads to your health going down. Low on health? Find a health pack to regain your health. The other big addition is your visor, see the streets of New Mombasa are very dark and in order to find your way you need to turn your visor on. This is a catch 22 as it allows the enemies to find where you are. Marty O’Donnell does a fantastic job with the soundtrack which really does set the mood for each level.
Another new mode in Halo ODST 3 is Firefight which allows you and up to 3 other friends take on waves of Covenant troops. Out of the box it comes with 10 maps and each map has an achievement for amassing 200,000 in points on a map. This should keep things fun and exciting for a period of time before Bungie will need to release new maps to play on. The one negative about the firefight was that as a team you share 4 lives. So if you one douche on your team that is constantly dying, you will get annoyed very quickly.
There is a second disc included with both standard and limited editions that features Halo 3’s Multiplayer. There aren’t any real big updates from Halo 3’s Mutliplayer. The second disk comes with all 21 Halo 3 maps plus 3 new maps which are only available if you buy Halo ODST. The new maps are Hetertic a remake of the Halo 2 Midship map, Citadel and Longshore.
Overall Halo ODST is a solid game and will provide you with a great story and Halo combat we all love. Overall the game’s length is could be compared to as expansion pack. It really is short but packs in a load of fun either single player or co-op. The real winner in the Halo ODST package is firefight, fighting off wave after wave of Covenant with a limited number of lives is a blast with a group of friends. I really wish that ODST came out as a downloadable expansion instead of a full retail release. The retail price of $69.99 Canadian is a bit overpriced but if you a diehard Halo fan and need your fix Halo ODST is for you.
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