Games Cheats and Reviews

Either you’ve played Perfect Dark before, or you haven’t. Most readers who find their way here probably have, and the ones who haven’t, well, you’ll probably need some serious convincing to play a decade-old game that pretty cheerfully ignores the innovations the FPS genre gained from games like, say, Half-Life, and came out on a console that wasn’t exactly known as the cutting edge of graphical holyshit-osity. For that first bunch it’s really easy to say, yeah, with the HD upgrade Perfect Dark on XBLA looks every bit as good as you remember it. Which, if you actually pop in the cart these days, you’ll realize is a hell of a lot better than it actually looked back in the day. Between the replaced textures and multiplayer over Live (in splitscreen, no less) this is a great way to re-enjoy a game you already love. It deserves that love. You should be proud to love it. More so now that it’s been touched up without losing a single bit of its original character.

On the other hand, Perfect Dark is old as hell and likely to alienate anyone who cut their teeth on games that came after. If you’re one of those people…I’m sorry, but I’ll be damned if I can think of a reason to say that this is kind of a major gap in your videogaming experience that you absolutely have to go back and fill in. Unlike some other genres, most first-person shooters are pretty far from timeless. We can’t look back on, say, Tetris, and think, “Man, this would be way the hell better with snappier graphics, more block shapes, and an epic storyline that makes us question the nature of our humanity or whatever.”

Author of gamenewsforgamers writes-

"Before you read this, the answer is yes, I have read the article "Why SONY Fanboys Are The Worst Of The Bunch" and I said "What the hell?, let’s post a reply to this article but this time, it’ll be about 360 fanboys". So this is my reply."

This is the fifth God of War title, the third in the main cannon, and it is clear Sony Santa Monica want to end this story arc with a bang, delivering one hell of an epic action game experience while at the same time honing gameplay that will be hugely familiar to fans of past titles. Of course, this is a PS3 exclusive, a system seller, and as such everything has been taken a lot further from the PS2 and the PSP versions that we enjoyed hugely before. Now, however, you get the feeling that the designers have held nothing back for this final hooray, Kratos’ last stab at those pesky gods.

Mario's weekend job

There is a longstanding stereotype that gamer’s are lazy. For years, many of us have been fighting this unfair label and have largely proven that gamers work just as hard as anyone else. We don’t go around calling avid readers or knitters lazy, so why should we stand by when we are labeled as such. Nevertheless, there is one area in which many of us are lazy, and we have to change it. For some reason, many gamers tend to rely on marketing and media to tell us if an upcoming game will be good, rather than expend the time and effort to do some research on our own.

Really quite boring

According to data from the GfK Chart-Track, reported by Games Industry, Aliens vs. Predators is now the fastest selling game of 2010. Really? Obviously, with Halo Reach and WoW: Cataclysm releasing this year the data will change, but we’ve had Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect both release this year, and AVP has beat them both out. The real reason this shocks me is because AVP is the most boring game I have ever played. The controls were fine, and the graphics were decent, but it bored the hell out of me and most people to whom I have spoken on the subject agree.

Not as cool as it looks

You see, the problem is that we get so enamored by brand recognition and pre-rendered cut scenes, that we do not take the time to look into a game. Last year one of the darlings of the industry, Bethesda, released a horribly done game (author’s opinion) entitled Rogue Warrior. As it was only published by Bethesda, I have often wondered if anyone there actually played the game when it came up from the publisher. Game Informer gave it a 1.5 out of 10. However, when I saw the beautifully rendered cut scene that was used for the commercial, I thought the game was going to be amazing. Nevertheless, I chose to do some research as the game neared release and began to realize that it was going to be bad. To prove it to myself, I rented the game, and it was very bad.

The developers are not going to stop trying to get us to buy their crappy games, so it is on us to pay attention to the industry, do some research, and stop buying in to the hype. Some games are destined to be good. We all knew that Mass Effect 2 would not fail. No game is destined to be good. If we want things to change, we must be willing to kill our darlings. For example, I have been waiting for Heavy Rain for four years. I have anticipated it more than any other game ever. I am very lucky that it has turned out to be good. However, I did my research over the years, followed the insider previews, gameplay trailers, and played the demo. Had those things started looking bad, I would have killed my darling. The more we condone the actions of publishers release bad games with good marketing, the more they are going to do it. The principle is simple, and it is one that can apply to all aspects of our lives: we must think for ourselves so that we are not taken advantage of.

Sharing: It’s Win/Win

PSLS writes:

For those of you who were holding out on picking up Dante’s Inferno, one online retailer has a divine deal that might just get you to take the plunge into Hell.

Lens of Truth writes, "This week the Lens of Truth had the chance to "go to hell" with Dante’s Inferno, via Play N Trade Oviedo! This much anticipated title from Visceral Games has been surrounded by controversy since its unveiling at E3 2009 and has been compared to the God of War franchise on many occasions. So which version of Dante’s Inferno is the definitive version and which one should take a dip in the Lake of Fire? Read on to find out!"

At the AOU arcade show that just kicked off in Japan, Konami is showing off a brand new Metal Gear arcade game called, well, Metal Gear Arcade. Featuring 3D graphics, head tracking, and cabinets that can be networked, Metal Gear Arcade seems like it could be pretty interesting. Certainly a hell of a lot better than the Castlevania arcade game Konami put out last year. Anyway, Japanese site Gigazine posted up some videos from the show, but we’ll be back with some of our own impressions soon.

People all know how important the success of a game must be for any developer. Hell, even developers who have been marginally successful have had to face the axe. The pressure of EA’s top dogs to pull out the winner this year and Activision’s rampage of cutting costs makes 2011 and 2012 look more like the antithesis of 2010.

And "Winning" may well be defined not by the metacritic scores attached to games but by first hand consumer reaction. The demo may actually play a critical role in a year where so many great games are being released into the market.

DualShockers writes: "Seriously though, why the hell do I even care about my gamer score? I really started thinking about this when I started collecting all the items in Brütal Legend. Using the internet and a handy map I had found on Achievement Hunter I set off on my quest. Over the course of a few hours, I managed to clear off nearly half of the collectibles when I realized I wasn’t having any fun. It honestly felt like I was somewhere in another realm of existence turned on a shop-vac and sucked all of the enjoyment out of the game…"

GB writes: "Ok before I start this editorial, I will like to make one point very clear. I am not a PlayStation 3 fan boy or an Xbox 360 hater. In fact I have both gaming consoles and love them. Then why the hell I am claiming that PlayStation 3 will eventually sell more than the Xbox 360? The reason being that I have been following this generation of gaming since it began in 2005. I am no industry analyst but this editorial is basically a representation of what a gamer like me will think. Now let’s get started."