Another Reason Why Game Reviews are Bullshit

As a life-long Science Fiction fan and lover of all monsters/creatures of this genre I usually get all kinds of excited when a great movie is closing on release. Its also no secret that I'm an avid video game junky so when we get a combination of pure Sci-Fi on a video game I always have an instant joyasm. Not for a long time have I played a Sci-Fi game and the last one I can recall off the top of my head is the critically acclaimed Dead Space, which is technically a Sci-Fi / Horror mutant. While playing this game I was in pure heaven....best of all my favorite genres.

Roughly around the time of late 2007 I read about a game that was being created that would be an EPIC level of awesome shit packed into one neat little package, and this game was titled "Colonial Marines." Taking place in the universe of James Cameron's masterpiece movies, this rumor was enough to make every Aliens/ Alien Vs. Predator fanboy do cartwheels in excitement. Well, I guess it wasn't enough for the developers to fully pledge their allegiance and Colonial Marines was put on the backburner for a bit. Rumors are still floating that this game is still going to be released.

This is not a total fail because this meant that they had something else in mind --- a new Alien Vs. Predator game. This is fantastic news!!! This will be on all the major machines...PC, Xbox 360, and the PS3 consoles. After what seemed to be an eternity (ie. One year) this game is finally coming home next week on February 16. But, there is much doubt because of one awfully bad review that was published in a magazine I shall not name. Thankfully, other reviews are finally starting to sprinkle out that are much better and proving that one review to be a fluke.

Here are a couple quotes from the questionable review:

“The human marine section (he is speaking of the campaign here) is set up like a survival horror FPS. There are a few good scares within these corridors, but after getting locked inside a room and having to fight off a horde of Xenomorphs for the 100th time, the repetition drowns the experience. It doesn't help that your flashlight is as useful at lighting up dark corners as a laser pointer.”

~~~I'm not sure what he was expecting, and I'd like him to find a game that doesn't have this.

“Curiously, Rebellion's 1999 PC release Aliens Vs. Predator, was well received, but this update captures none of that game's unique spark. Instead we have a title trying to live off the fumes of two dormant franchises.”

~~Again, based on this statement I doubt he ever played the original PC games because the developers stated that they are using the EXACT style of gameplay with a few tweaks and improvements here and there.

“The Aliens campaign plays like a combination of the other two. Like the Predator campaign, it has stealth focus, and like the Marine campaign, it sucks.”

~~~Ok, sooo he's complaining about the Stealth gameplay??? Has he ever seen the Predator movies?? Umm....the Alien's primary attacks in the movie are based on stealth and surprise attacks. This is what builds the suspense and elicits the scares in the movies. Its only natural that the game makers would want to emulate this in a game that is attempting to have the same atmospheric tension.

I'm also going to include the game trailer and hopefully it'll entice enough and get you peeps salivating in anticipation.

10 Best Video Game Soundtracks

I have had a lot of downtime lately while searching for a job. To occupy myself I have been playing lots of video games and working out. While sitting in my room last night I started to think about the awesome music that has graced our presence in the games that we play. More often than not we don't even focus on the music or realize how great it is until after the fact. Many games have soundtracks that set the mood and atmosphere that is responsible for the greatness of the stories that are told.

Unfortunately many of the composers of these extraordinary soundtracks go unnoticed because they aren't "Pop" music that gets played on the public radio stations. Well thanks to AOL Radio and other sites that broadcast music online there is a way to listen to many of these incredible scores without having to actually purchase them. Of course, I hope that after listening to some of these songs that you'll be interested in supporting these composers by purchasing the soundtrack or their specific releases.

To help people with suggestions, I will provide a top 10 list of MY favorite soundtracks to search for and give a listen to. After the list I will also provide some other notable soundtracks that are great as well, just not on my favorites' list.

10. SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS

Orchestrated by Kow Otani, music was only used during the battles with each colossus and during the cut scenes. The rest of the game contained no music while the protagonist traveled the land searching for the next colossus. In 2005, Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded the soundtrack as soundtrack of the year.

9. SILENT HILL 2

The amazingly eery music for this soundtrack was composed by Akira Yamaoka. He is well known for his contributions for many of the Silent Hill soundtracks as he is the sound director and producer of the soundtracks for the entire game series.

8. CASTLEVANIA: LAMENT OF INNOCENCE

Michiru Yamane has become famous for her music in many of the Castlevania games, but according to ratings on AOL Radio, Lament of Innocence is the best in the series. This soundtrack has an eclectic mix of styles that range from dance beats to classical music, and is perfect for the spooky atmosphere of this Castlevania game.

7. HALO 2

The actual score was composed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatore, but volume 1 of the soundtrack contains all new music written and performed by popular rock bands such as Breaking Benjamin and Incubus.

6. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE WIND WAKER

Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi, and Koji Kondo collaborated for this soundtrack. They used pan flutes and uilleann pipes in many of the songs throughout the score, and several of the songs are used again in Super Smash Brothers' Brawl. Several of the songs in the soundtrack are also influenced from past Zelda music and the fuse together quite nicely.

5. METAL GEAR SOLID 3: SNAKE EATER

How can this list be complete without MGS3?? This soundtrack consists of 2 discs and contains music from various artists. Harry Gregson Williams, Norihiko Hibino, Cynthia Harrell, TAPPY, and Starsailor collaborated on this OST for a mixture of orchestral, chorus, and techno beats. This soundtrack is an example of how atmospheric music can make a great game Excellent.

4. KINGDOM HEARTS 2

This one is a crowd pleaser. While the majority of this OST was composed by Yoko Shimomura, the main theme song, "Passion," was performed by Hikaru Utada. The music in the opening and closing of the game was performed by Kaoru Wada and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

3. DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 2

No, I'm not joking. This soundtrack is one of those rare oddities that you don't realize how great it is until well after the fact. This was composed by David Wise and Stephen Hurst, and has been well reviewed with raves for it's "majestic" and "serious" sounds.

2. MODERN WARFARE 2

I know, I know the game isn't even 6 months old. But my reason for this soundtrack being so high on my list -------- HANS ZIMMER. Infinity Ward pulled out all the cards for this game. Hans Zimmer has been making and producing soundtracks for movies forever. He's multi-talented and has won numerous Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and Grammy Awards for his soundtracks. Many of his works are memorable for integrating electronic music with traditional orchestral arrangements.

1. FINAL FANTASY 7

Yes, I'm a fanboy. This game is the one that started it all for me. I'm ashamed to admit that this is the first Final Fantasy game that I ever played. After playing this game I got hooked and have played every one since. This OST spanned FOUR discs, and was the first in the game series to include a track with digitized vocals. Many Final Fantasy fans consider this soundtrack to be Nobuo Uematsu's greatest musical achievement.

~~~Notable mentions. Here's a small list of other game soundtracks that I find very great, and would definitely make the list if I did a top 20.

Metal Gear Solid 4

Shinobi (PS2)

Chrono Cross

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Little Big Planet

Halo 3: ODST

Final Fantasy 9

Chrono Cross

Exclusive PS3 games that MUST be played in 2010

Sooo this is supposed to be a companion to the 360 post I just made earlier. With 2009 coming to a conclusion, I expect many happy gamers in the next year. Happily, I'm stuck in the crossfire of the 360 and PS3. With this generation of consoles in full swing, only the gamers are winning. With this in mind here is my top 10 of MUST own games for the 2009/2010 calendar year.

1. GOD OF WAR III --- March cannot come fast enough for PS3 owners. Kratos is the ultimate B.A. and this game alone has sold many,many PS3 systems.

2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves --- Any PS3 owner that's worth their salt has played the first game. Just recently unleashed, this game is quickly becoming one of the best selling game in years.

3. God of War Collection -- Both God of War I & II remastered in HD and put on a single Blu Ray disc. Basically answering the prayers of ALL PS2 owners....not only are the games remastered in HD, but they now have trophy support for trophy collecting whores such as myself.

4. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time -- Another universe, another mission with the dynamic duo of this long running, fan favorite series.

5. Massive Action Game (MAG) -- Recruiting people for battle in January, this is basically a Massive Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter. With WARS of over 200 players at once, this game will be the most immersive online shooter EVER to date.

6. Gran Turismo 5 -- Seemingly in development forever, the latest and greatest launch date is for March of 2010. We'll see.

7. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 -- Debatable of whether or not this is actually an Exclusive or just a fancy Remake of the 360 version. If you like/love the Ninja Gaiden series and only own a PS3, this game is a must have.

8. Demon's Souls -- Sneaking into the limelight like a ninja hellbent on killing someone, this game is selling out all over the world and getting great reviews across the board.

9. Final Fantasy XIII --- Exclusive and guaranteed to be absolutely B.A. 'nuff said.

10. Deux Ex III --- Not much is known about this prequel, but I guarantee that if Eidos drops the ball on it there will be riots, rapes, and murders across the planet.

Where here is my list of the 10 Must have games of late 2009 and early 2010 for the PS3. Love it, hate it, whatever.

Exclusive 360 Games that Must be played in 2010.

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What is going on with Hulk???

So we have an interesting crapfest going on with Hulk. We have an upcoming World War Hulks coming soon. Yes, plural for TWO Hulks. I tried to read and keep up with the recent Rulk storyline, but it got a little to darn crazy for my tastes. Here's a little 411 for some of the peeps that are trying to figure out what's been going on in the past couple years with Hulk.
A while back some of the Marvel super heroes got tired of Hulk smashing and breaking things. They also thought it would be a good idea to load him up in a rocket ship and send him on his merry way to a unpopulated planet so he wouldn't get angry and smash stuff. Well, that's boring so the writers imposed fate that his ship got off course and he landed on a savage planet full of gladiators and smoking hot aliens.
Hulk started to have some fun partaking in his favorite hobby--Smashing everything in sight. After much ass-kicking he managed to become king and bag one of the hot alien chicks. Of course, she got pregnant. Somehow the rocket blew up killing the wife and the child...Hulk was not happy. Hulk came back to Earth to talk through his emotions with some of the people responsible for his trip. Well, Hulk isn't a fan of small talk so this really turned into him breaking a LOT of stuff and kicking everyone's teeth in. After the fact, his accomplices, the Warbound informed him that the superheroes actually weren't responsible for the explosion so he wasted time smashing stuff. He then turned back into Bruce Banner and turned himself in.
Shortly, after Hulk started blowing things up and kicking major asses, and killed some people. Turns out this Hulk was red, smart, and could burn stuff. He was cleverly named Rulk.

This is where I left off with the reading. After reading 8 episodes of the Rulk books I got bored of the "who is who, and what is going on?" and gave up. But, here's a breakdown of what I have confirmed, or sort of confirmed, on what is possible going on right now and in the near future with the Hulk-verse:
There is now 2 Hulks
There is 2 Hulk bastard children
There is at least 2 She-Hulks
And there have been too many personality types to mention and describe.

At the very least I'd recommend buying and reading the first World War Hulk TPB because the art and story are amazing.

My Top 5 Batman Stories

Yes. I am a Batman fanboy. He's always been one of my favorite comic characters. I can't really explain why he sticks out so much to me other than he's the world's greatest detective. He's a billionaire, expert martial artist, and a chick magnet. There's the great popcorn TV show from the past, there was the great movies from the 80's that starred Michael Keaton (followed by several crappy movies), and now we have the fantastic reboot of Batman that stars Christian Bale as the Dark Knight.

As of late I've been reading a lot of the latest DC big story arc -- the Blackest Night, which evolves around the new Black Lanterns and how they are going around terrorizing the DC universe. With this, my interest has been re-sparked and I've been re-reading some of the great Batman storylines. Well, here is my current top 5 reads. While they may not be everyone's favorites, they are mine and these are what I've been recommending to others when they ask about what good Batman stories there are.

5. Batman: The Man Who Laughs --> Any respectable Batman fan knows the story and background of his most famous arch nemesis --the Joker. Ed Brubaker re-tells the story of the very first battle between Batman and the Joker. This is Batman's first sample of Joker's crazy games, and well, he's not up to it at first and has to re-think his methods in order to defeat him. Up to this point Batman has only been battling the gangsters, thugs, and murderers. But after this there is no turning back, and this is just the beginning for what is in store for Batman and Gotham City.

4. Batman: A Death in the Family --> Jason Todd (Dick Grayson's replacement for Robin) finds out that his mother is still alive when thought to be dead for many years. Jason runs away from home to find her. The Joker steals a nuclear missile to sell to the highest bidder. In this whole mess Batman runs into both of them and during so the Joker ends up killing Jason Todd. Batman goes after Joker and in a fit of rage/revenge, comes close to killing Joker only to be stopped by ---Superman. While not many people liked Jason Todd as the new Robin this is one of the most significant moments in life of Batman/ Bruce Wayne.

3. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight --> This is one of the DC Elseworlds stories that I have grown to love over the years. It takes place during the Victorian-era Gotham City and pits Bruce/Batman against none other than Jack the Ripper. In this story Jack the Ripper continues his murder spree, but decides to move to Gotham City for fresh blood. In this book, Bruce returns from England and his timing is perfect--his arrival coincides with grisly murders within the city. With Bruce Wayne as the prime subject, time is of the essence as Bruce must not only prove his innocence, but stop the Ripper from killing more people.

2. Batman: The Long Halloween --> This story takes place during Batman's early days in his crime-fighting career. This story emphasizes Batman's ability as a Detective as he struggles to find the true identity of a serial killer--who kills his victims on National Holidays. This story also has Batman battling the mob and is one of the benchmark stories that every Batman fan should own in their collection. Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb are the masterminds behind this story (I call them the dynamic duo because they have such a fantastic history of working together) and create a legendary story that the recent movies pull a lot of inspiration from.

This was so hard for me. It was so hard to decide from 1 & 2 that each day I could pick one over the other. Next week I think I'll post a list of honorable mentions just to emphasize difficult this list was for me to compile.

1. Batman: Hush --> This book was written by Jeph Loeb (see a pattern??) and drawn by the great Jim Lee. This book flipped the Batman universe upside down and spun it around. In this year-long story, Batman begins dating Catwoman, Jason Todd's (Robin) body is found missing from his grave, Two - Face gets plastic surgery to fix his face, and ---oh yeah, fights every villain in the Batman universe. No, I'm not kidding. He starts off going toe to toe with Killer Croc, then moves onto the Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy, and Superman. Yes, I freaking said Superman. And on top of all of this there is a new villain introduced, perhaps the most destructive and dangerous one yet.

Well, there it is, my top 5 Batman stories/books of all time. Let me know what you think and/or if you agree or disagree. Remember, these are just my favorites, and I plan on listing the top noteworthy mentions later this week.

Some New Stuff

AWESOME!!! I'm officially 10 days left at my internship!!! Then graduate. Hopefully I'll be able to find a job real quick like. Here's a quick update on what is going on in the nerdy Star Wars collector's world: