War of the Worlds: The Game – It’s about damn time

* Ybnem Vuum'c bucd baubma, tuh'd dyga drec caneuicmo. Ihmacc ouin punat, frelr E fyc frah E syta drec. Ahzuo! *

Street fighter IV, please.

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GTA IV, drek.

Starcraft II, feed for pigs.

The newest game that will shake the gaming universe at it core is the 1898 masterpiece War of the Worlds: The Game.

It was like I was saying to my brother; “My brotha’!” I says “The people don’t read anymore all they care about youtube and porn! I tell ya! I wish they come out with a game that will educate the masses!”

Well like a gift from Miyamoto I got my wish because one of my spies on the inside told me that this momentous game was in the works by a new developer called Rickroll’d super tech. Their C.E.O. promised “Not to let us down…” Now – Now; I know what you all are saying: “Not another alien shooter!” and I agree, but that’s the genius of this War of the Worlds: The Game; it’s not a shooter – it’s a simulator. That’s right; you take the role of the radio director who made the epic broadcast in 1938 who fooled the general populous into believing aliens have actually landed on earth. This time though you the power of 21st century technologies like computers and sound machines on your side. I’m not quite sure how that’s possible but I’m sure it will work after the beta. Anyway your goal to whip the world into such a frenzy over aliens that the earth with launch a preemptive strike against the ‘real’ red menace: Mars. White at the same time beat your radio competitors before they make the people forget about your fake invasion. This is a can’t miss game, so relevant in our times. Anywho… This game will be available for every system, ever made including ‘The Phantom’ which should make Phantom Entertainment happy because I’ve haven’t seen 3^rd party (or any)games on that system yet. I’ll keep you all inform with any latest up dates and with any luck this game will come out… never.

By the by, if your not fluent in Al Bhed use this translator to decode my sentence at the beginning.

Downloadable Content – Just when you think you’re done with a game

I’ll be honest with you all; I don’t really download anything extra for my games unless I have to; like new Halo 3 maps for my online multiplayer. After all when I beat a game I don’t need to spend extra money for a few new missions and maybe an extra item or two, plus good content is rare. Well I got to say I’m wrong on this one; the just downloaded (the pack adds 8 new characters to the game: 4 heroes and 4 villains) for Marvel Ultimate Alliance and it’s like playing a whole new game. the Heroes and Villains pack. While my brother took the new heroes (The Incredible Hulk, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Hawkeye) I took the villains (Venom, Magneto, Dr. Doom and Sabretooth - Mwa ha ha!)

While the game was the same; it seemed to adjust itself to the new characters quite well. They even interacted with the set opponents like the normal characters would, impressive. I tell you there something about playing a villain that so enjoyable; using Magneto powers to throw people like rag dolls or slapping foes around with symbiote-powered Venom. Uh, my brother had fun too. As I finished playing M.U.A. for the moment I figured I tried another favorite game, ‘Overlord’ to see if it had any downloads to be had. Sure enough it did, quite a big bit too. No new characters, but much more content that extents the game that I truly liked but thought was too short. Ah life is good, and I don’t mind being wrong on this one if the good content keeps flowing like wine. Although such content is not free (mostly) so many sure your buying something you want; remember all that glitters is not gold.

Wii – The lo down III

Well ladies and gentleman we come to the end of the lo down segment with Nintendo great white hope, the Wii. Yes this little wonder of Japanese engineering is the love and desire of gamers, and the envy of their competitors. As well all know though, if something too good to be true, it probably is. Does this saying apply to the Wii too? Read on, my friends read on.

Strengths: The blind, deaf and dumb all know that the Wii major strength is it complete control system based on wireless motion movements via infrared sensor bar and their controllers Nintendo DS Lite, Nunchuk and Wii Remote (Similar to the PS3 and PSP but without the motion movements). Now what that means is that whatever motion players make, the character on the screen should make the same motion (i.e. throw a ball, shoot a gun, swing a sword, etc). Of course it depends on the game but you know what, it works surprising well. Which leads me to my next point, this simple style of game play is fun as hell. Sure, you look like you’re have a conniption fit, but you won’t care. Nintendo gives you opinions though in the form of a ‘classic’ controller and the Gamecube controller, so if the whole ‘hokey-pokey’ thing doesn’t work out you can plug them in instead (for most Wii games anyway). Then with the Wii comes with the Nintendo band name games, stuff said there. Oh, their online, which is a cross between Xbox live and Playstation network, also comes with Virtual Console which allows players to download classical (Nintendo or otherwise) games and relive the glory days of the 8 bit era. These reasons alone make the Wii a catch but the real deal breaker is that it’s only priced at $250 plus free game (Wii Sports).

Weakness: As much as I am a Nintendo elitist I must be truthful in all things game otherwise what’s the point? But anyway to start the Wii motion controls are a tricky thing between points. During one point the controls work fine but on others it’s glitchy and inaccurate. It is these types of games that don’t allow the use of standard controllers so you’re doubly screwed and if you want to keep playing the game got to work around this annoying trait. Another thing, the Wii is not a graphical powerhouse compared to the other systems. Sometimes it depends on the game marker, but if the same game is on all systems it won’t look as good on the Wii. The embedded memory storage is a little on the small side (smallest on the three console actually) but you’ll be fine if you get a Secure Digital memory card. The biggest blow to Wii dominance is it online multiplayer; unlike the others where can go online and then go to town on victims. However for the Wii you need ‘Friend codes’ to play online, it’s very annoying; players will have to scour to find these codes and get descent matches online. They still offer random matches, but to say they’re limited would be an understatement.

Overall: The Wii is the latest, biggest thing in gaming; both non and casual gamers find it unique and user friendly. So in turn gives those potential buyers with a family more a reason to buy it. However this tends to push away the Standard and Hardcore gamers, but this is a mistake. With ‘No More Heroes’, ‘Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles’ and more on the way Nintendo is reaffirming that this is a system for all, and I tend to agreed. If you don’t believe me, call any store, and ask if they have any Wii’s lying around, I dare you. So you all know where I’m leaning towards here; get the Wii as soon as you can. Nintendo got the market and they’re not letting go.

Playstation 3 – The lo down II

Alrighty people, next up in my system check we got the PS3, the ominous obelisk of tech. How will it pan in my judgmental eye, read on a find out.

Strengths: Ok first thing first this is one powerful machine (maybe the most powerful console on the market). Everything looks very real, it’s almost surreal; and of course if you got a HD-TV and surround sound system you’re golden. The next thing they got going for themselves is Blu ray capability. This may not seem like much now, but thanks to both Toshiba for discontinuing the production of HD DVD players and Time Warner for supporting only Blu ray disks (staring in June) for there movies, Blu ray will be the style of player in the future (or at least the majority in the world entertainment market). By buying a PS3 you would be killing two birds with one stone. In my opinion the best feature of this system it the backward compatibilities of the PS3; all you need to do is download the backward compatible data from the ‘PlayStation Network’ (The full online service which is free by the by, take that Xbox live) to your PS3 and play nearly any PS1 & 2 game you have. This blows the crap out of the 360’s backward compatibilities which is still behind even after 2 + years of life (again, take that).

Weakness: Despite having a legendary pedigree, the PS3 has not been popular for one reason and one reason only: pricing. Back when it first hit the stores they are priced at $600 a console ($500 for the ‘cheap’ one). Who has that kind of money just lying around?! Really! Now it would be almost worth it if they had well organized launch titles ready but no; 90% crap all that awaited those unfortunate enough to have bought PS3 during that time. Well I’m glad to say that the state of things improved for Sony and their cursed-mark console; if only slightly. They reduced the console’s price low enough($400 new) to be affordable to more people than just the Prince of Wales. Also the game line up has finally started to pick up steam with titles like: Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The last cross for PS3 to bear is that it’s online (although free) is lacking; a sort of stripped down version of Xbox live. Of course Sony swears up and down that ‘PlayStation Home’ will change all that (and should be ready in a couple of months) hopefully.

Overall: In my opinion the Playstation 3 is the machine of the future; it’s only a matter of time. However presently it’s still the low man on the totem poll; in fact I had to weight my options careful before deciding on buying one myself. In the end I did so three simple reasons:

1. I wouldn’t be a very good Game Pundit if I didn’t have the ability to review all major gaming platforms (Expect for PSP, don’t get me started).

2. The evidence above (plus more all over the web) show that Sony will not let its most profitable cash cow die; the games are coming, the (Playstation) network is improving, and the pricing will be adjusted accordantly (although not low enough to cause the Wii to sweat).

3. The Playstation 1 and 2 libraries as a whole is still playable; it even can play damage disks (some, not all).

So my advice to you all is this console will earn it’s keep in 2010 but you can afford to wait in 2008. Just make sure you keep an eye out for the good deals, you can get these systems cheap with patience and planning.