Motorstorm: Pacific Rift - Review

When the PS3 first launched a few years back, Motorstorm was a title that really showed the potential of the PS3 hardware. Although the game was drop dead gorgeous, to me it really just played like a tech demo and wasn't much of a game at all.

How things have changed with Pacific Rift! This game was released in November of 2008 and somehow got lost amongst some of the AAA titles that hit during that month. I blame developers and publishers for releasing everything during November, makes it very hard for the end consumer. Enough with my little rant.

Motorstorm Pacific Rift fixed all of the issues with the original game. You have double the tracks(16 unique) more cars, even better graphics, you will be pressed to find a better off road racer period. The races in Pacific Rift are spread accross some of the most beatiful rendered environments you have ever seen in a racer or in any game.

The original Motorstorm was also a hard game with many frustrating races to be found. This has also been addressed in Pacific Rift with a feeling of "yes, I can still win this race eventhough I have crashed twice" to it.

Overall I had a great time with Pacific Rift and highly recomend it.

Gameplay = 8.5
Visuals = 9
Sound = 8
Game Now Score = 8.5/10

Assassins Creed 2 - New Hero

Char name: Ezio Auditore de Firenze
(click on image for larger view)

The Godfather II - Review

After a short delay in it's release date Godfather II is taking over stores today. Godfather II follows events from the great film of the same name, released in 1974. It tells of a mob war amongst several families and is played out in 3 locations. New York City, Florida and Cuba.

Based on the source material, Godfather 2 has an interesting story to tell but whether or not you will stick around to hear it is another thing.

What Godfather 2 has to offer is a very satisfying sense of control of your entire mob family and introduces a very cool way to interact with the world called "Don's View". You as the Don of the family can bring up a map of the current city and target rival family business and made men. So this game is one part action shooter and one part crime strategy. Combined together you have a fairly satisfying experience, but the game isn't without its problems.

A few issues I had with the game revolved around the game world and how you interacted with it or lack off interaction in this case. The fact that I could not jump over a barrel or even up onto a gutter kinda take you out of the experience. I have no idea why these limitations are in the game besides the fact that they would need to animate that movement. This simple issue really bothered me whilst playing the game.

If you are into micro managing units, in this case mob members then you might find Godfather II entertaining, however after 3 to 4 hours of the same type of mission structure, it tends to get old fast. Godfather II had me super excited to begin with but the more I played it the more I started to really dislike it and find it hard to recommend.

Gameplay = 6.5
Visuals = 7
Sound = 7
Game Now Score = 6.8/10

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai - Review

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is the creation from Ska Studio's James Silva. It is a 2D side scrolling beat em up with loads of flair. The Dishwasher was the winner of Microsoft's initial Dream-Build-Play game development contest in 2007. Silva received $10,000 and an Xbox Live Arcade publishing contract.

Over 2 years in the making, The Dishwasher finally hit XBLA last week. Let me start by suggesting that you play this game on the 'easy' difficulty to start with. The game will beat your ass on 'normal' and above. Once you finish the story on 'easy' you get to keep all your cool weapons and items for consecutive playthroughs on the harder difficulties.

You play as an under appreciated dishwasher fighting through waves of various enemy's until the final boss battle at the end of each level. Your not going to play The Dishwasher for its story but more for its brutally fun gameplay. You are equipped with 2 weapons to start with but have the ability to unlock some great additions to your arsenal such as a chainsaw and automatic riffle and shotgun. You can only equip 2 of these weapons at once but can swap between them pretty much on the fly.

The visual design in The Dishwasher is fantastic, with edgy, highly stylised graphics that make the whole world feel just perfect. Sound design also deserves much credit from its simple but cool 'guitar solo's' to the excellent song selections during some of the boss battles.

Besides the story mode, you have other cool modes to explore. Dish Challenge involves you surviving waves of enemy attacks while attempting to score combos for points. There is also Arcade mode which are single screen areas that change the criteria and weapon layout at the start of each level.

A lot of credit needs to be given to James Silva for creating a game that gamers will love to play. It is also a testament to the power of XNA and will hopefully inspire other develpers to stop making crap and rushing games to market. At only 800 Microsoft space bucks, do yourself a favour and the independent gaming at large, pick this one up you will not regret it.

Gameplay = 8.4
Visuals = 8
Sound = 7.5
Game Now Score = 7.9/10

Review Round Up

Wanted - Weapons of Fate: This game reminded me of Dark Sector and 50 Cent Blood on the Sand. Only thing is, the new fiddy game is more entertaining. Frustrating action sequences, gritty cut scenes and generic gameplay all lead to a pretty ordinary release. 4.6/10

Wheelman: This game is really trying to be GTA but falling way way short. You may think this game is pretty cool 30 minutes in but just keep playing it and you will be tempted to through your controller out the window. Total disappointment in my opinion, give it a miss. 5.0/10

Call Of Duty World At War: Major improvement from Trearch's attempt and failure in Call of Duty 3. This game actually uses the majority of the assets from Modern Warfare and is a good game in its own right. I for one am sick of the WW2 shooters so found it a little hard to play through, but I finished it and its pretty good. Nazi Zombie mode is the highlight here also props go out to the multiplayer component of the game. 7.7/10

Afro Samurai: The game's artistic design is fantastic and the in game music is brilliant. Too bad the game does it's utmost to make sure you hate it. Frustrating camera, boss fights and having to backpedal quite a bit, bring this game down. It's a shame. 6.2/10