Starcraft: the one thing I'd take to a deserted island

There are few games so perfect that after years of playing it you can pick it up and still find it fascinating. Starcraft is one of those games. Love, obsession, passion are things this game has conjured up in the ten years since its release. The Koreans still consider it the best competitive video game around. It tickles me to think that lots of kids in their teens probably haven't even heard of it, or for that matter played it... although I suppose that could be a completely wrong to assume. I remember being a young man back around Senior year of high school (the late nineties) when this game came out. I played it A LOT. Whats more you could play online (Blizzard, the games creator, basically created the online gaming experience) for free against people across the world.

I picked up a copy of the game and the expansion "Brood War" for only $20 this holiday season. I'm now hooked once again, playing through the single player campaign. Although the graphics and such are a bit dated (the plot acting is horrid on re acquaintance, although the voice acting isn't bad) they don't detract at all from the experience. Actually playing it on my 20 inch iMac feels pretty good. I was using a 14-15 inch CRT back in high school. Maybe by the time I've tired once again of Starcraft I'll be ready to move to Starcraft II which is coming out in 2009 (ten years after the first).

Movie Review: Silent Hill

Ok any film buff worth their weight in goobers know that movies which are adaptations of video games almost always fall flat. Seriously 99.9% of the time. Fighting games: Mortal Kombat 1 & 2 and Street Fighter (oh it is soooo bad). Adventure: Tomb Raider. Platformer: Mario Brothers. First person shooter: Doom. Any of these movies I mentioned here are terrible, in both pointlessness and especially in not keeping true to the spirit of the original content. Now the review here is for yet another movie based on a game. This one unlike the aforementioned does not rank high on the lame-o-meter. Silent Hill was a game for the original Playstation. I never actually did get around to playing it. I thought it was a poor mans Resident Evil when I spied it, and I just kinda ignored it. I hear it is an amazing game, at least for the time.

Now Silent Hill has a few things going for it. First off is that the director is the same guy that brought us "Brotherhood of the Wolf". Yes this guy is French. Silent Hill though is in English. Second he plays video games. Third he really liked Silent Hill way back when he played it and hence had always wanted to make it into a movie. Well the movie does not follow the plot 100% from the game. Some characters are modified, deleted and added. The main character is now a woman. Overall though I believe the plot is very close to the game. Please someone correct me if I am wrong.

The plot is interesting, you probably will be wondering what will happen next. It could get boring but the effects and cinematography are top notch. The monsters are also very cool. In keeping with the spirit of the game (according to the director) the camera work does some very unique things. Sweeping shots which float you from one place to another occur a few times and give the movie a voyeuristic feel. I would recommend to any horror movie fan this movie. Most people that see it probably don't even know it is based on a game.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Another game, another 15 hours of my life spent vegging out. Well spent :) I have not played the previous two Metroid Prime games. I have however played the NES, Gameboy (original), SNES titles. They rocked my world as a young man. I have a Wii and was in command of a 100 dollar shopping mall gift certificate. So I bought this game and Burnout Revenge for the 360. So onto the review.

My opinion is that Metroid Prime 3 looks and feels "so-so" in 3D. Somehow being able to move in all directions is awkward. Your visor really sucks up screen real estate, during the full playing time of the game. If Halo or any other FPS did this it would be inexcusable. Oh and you will need to use different visor modes, such as the "scanning" visor to accomplish your goals. The 'Prime' incarnations obviously put a new spin on things by playing down combat in favor of searching out minute details of the environments and recording data. What is this Poketroid? I don't want to record information I want to blow shit up. This really kills the action. Ergghhhh... This actually is my only gripe: MP3 does not flow smoothly. You constantly are switching visors and moving back and forth between areas. I would just like some steady combat. I would like to work through areas and have the story flow in lock step. I don't want to backtrack areas once, twice, even three frickin times! That just screams "padding out the game". It destroys replay value since most people do not like running around the same areas. They want, nay expect new and interesting experiences. This game tries to do many different things but never lets you just get immersed in any one thing. That kills the chance of getting sucked in.

Nintendo, remember Super Metroid? Fantastic game, remember all those cool weapons and power ups? The constant battle? What about enemies that only are effected by using a particular weapon. Your beam in MP3 just upgrades over the course of the game. There isn't any switching it up. I kinda though that was annoying as having you change up your arsenal to fit different combat situations could have made things more interesting. There was a "corruption" mode where you deal out more damage, while risking an "overload". Really though that didn't pique my interest in the game at all.

I do have some words of praise. The voice acting and cinematic sequences are good, I would say on par with Halo, though the story is not. The graphics are also pretty good relative to other Wii games I have played. The controls are not bad, although I don't feel the Wii remote beats a keyboard and mouse or 360 gamepad for FPS gaming. Maybe some game will eventually prove the Wii controller superior for FPS. Mostly I'm just impressed the controls can pull it off, and be so precise.

I recommend you give MP3 a play this if you enjoyed any of the previous Prime games. If you didn't play any of those games there was probably a reason. You were likely off playing more combat oriented shooters like Halo or Half-life, or tactical shooters like Rainbow Six. If so I suggest you save your time and money and try something else.

God of War, Resident Evil 4, Bioshock

I'm a gamer. Have been since that Christmas when I was 6 or 7 years old and my family received a Nintendo Entertainment System. From then on I went through many games and console hardware. The list of systems I've owned is longer than I would like to admit. So lately I've been on a long kick of Guitar Hero 2. I got this game as a gift, and have played the heck out of it. It has terrific replay value.

For the 4th of July week my employer gave me Wednesday through Friday off. My wife unfortunately only got Wednesday off (the 4th). So I figured I would be having time to kill, so why not pick up some new games? I picked up two games I knew as highly recommended, "God of War" and "Resident Evil 4". Both $20 bucks. Did I tell you I just bought a PS2 like 7-8 months ago? Well there is a goldmine of great games that sell on the cheap and I love it.

So anyway heres my take on these games.

God of War is an excellent beat 'em up style game. It takes games like Final Fight and Streets of Rage pushing them into the 3D era. This could have not worked so great, but the controls and camera angle make sure that you can function in this 3D world. This game also borrows from games like Zelda, where you gain more magic and life force by collecting items hidden throughout the game, and solve many puzzles. The only thing I can view as a 'possible' downside to this game is the short length. I don't really mind it though. I think the game has terrific replay value. The fun is in how fast you can play through, powering up in different ways. The battle system is so open that each time you play you may devise news ways to deal with your enemies. The graphics in this game are very good. I enabled the 480P resolution and have to say for an 'old' PS2 game it runs very smooth and is pretty detailed.

I recently borrowed "God of War 2" from a friend. Everything I said above goes for this game too. "God of War 2" seems to be a little more balanced and polished. So far I am really enjoying it, and I think I'll try to pick up a copy when it drops in price.

The other game I picked up my long weekend was "Resident Evil 4". Now I heard lots praise be lavished upon this game. I wanted to play it for the longest time, but owned neither a Gamecube or PS2. I've always been a big fan of the RE franchise. RE4 ditches the zombies for mind controlled peasants. It also adds a over the shoulder view when aiming with a weapon, making battle feel more like a shooter. Another thing was the environments are completely 3D now. I'm not sure if this was new to RE since I missed a couple games in the chain. So what made this game so good? Well they nailed the main stuff, being the controls, music and look and feel. What really shines though is the interesting story and narrative. I'm not saying that the story is perfect, it has its low points, but the story and narrative make you always feel like you are in the RE world.

So what am I looking forward to playing? I just downloaded the demo for Bioshock on my Xbox 360. This game is going to be amazing. It is a shooter, but blends in great storytelling like in RE4. You always feel immersed in the story, for the 30-40 minutes of you get to play in the demo.