Scott Pilgrim The Game First Impressions

Well, I didn't go to school today because I'm feeling sick but even so I figured it would be kinda messed up to skip another post so, this is just gonna be a short post about my first impressions on the Scott Pilgrim Video Game. Ok, so first of all, yes I got the Xbox 360 version but that's just because like all of my friends own a 360 and I only know like one person with a PS3 so 4 player co-op is gonna be easier since I don't have to buy any controllers. Anyway, since I just got the game a few hours ago and it's a weekday, and all of my friends are at school, I obviously haven't played the co-op yet, but I did play a bit of single player as Scott, since apparently I think there is a code for two people to pick the same character I think I might try playing as Stephen Stills, but if I'm wrong and there is no code I might as well not since my friend already called him. Ok, now down to the game, well first of all as a beat em' up on the 360 the controls feel awesome, I never really play beat em' ups on the PS3 but honestly I'm sure the controls feel just fine for those of you who got the PS3 version, I mean the game WAS originally intended for the PSN only if I'm not mistaken. This game basically plays like River City Ransom if you ever played that game before, and I seriously like using all sorts of objects to help you out in the game, it was so freakin satisfying to have a tire and a box do extra damage to a whole group of enemies at the same time while I was already beating the crap out of them, it was like my attacks were doing triple damage because I was volleying the objects at super close range. The game also REALLY has that 8-bit feel to it, like everything about it is retro, oh and I almost forgot, the soundtrack is AMAZING just totally freakin amazing, I can't really put it into words but trust me if you play the game you'd probably agree with me. So in conclusion, (sorry about the post being kinda short but I seriously think I need to lay down) so far from what I've played of the game it's awesome and totally worth the $10 (or 800 Microsoft points) I spent on it and I'm sure playing with three of my friends this weekend will make it even more worthwhile.

Bayonetta Short Review

EDIT:
Ok two things, one you actually do get swords later on in the game and stuff... and two you can PAUSE CUTSCENES so it gets an extra thumbs up from me just for that.

Well, I kept telling myself I'd get this game for free from Lockerz, but they kept raising prices, doing redemptions while I was at school, doing redemptions without telling me, and then, and here's the best one, taking most video games off the redemption prize list, so I quit Lockerz and saw this game on sale at Gamestop for $30 and got it. I gotta say, so far I actually kinda like it... I thought it was pretty cool that in the begining all of the staff members for the opening credits were on tombstones, but it was just hilarious when Hideki Kamiya's gravestone gets pissed on by one of the main characters... oh Kamiya... what a good sport. Anyway, if you didn't know, Hideki Kamiya is the director of many Capcom games we all remember (most of which were from good old Clover Studios), such titles would include Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and Resident Evil 2. Now you can see why people consider this game Devil May Cry's spiritual successor, and yeah in my opinion, it's good old Devil May Cry action, but this time your playing as a girl and there are no swords... but to be honest I constantly forget about the no swords thing. Oh, before I forget, this game probably could have been published by Capcom and developed by Clover Studios... if Capcom didn't close Clover Studios... so it's published by SEGA and developed by Platinum Games, which is basically a lot of the major people from Clover Studios forming their own gaming company, so essentially it'd be the same game even in an alternate universe where Clover was still there, but in that alternate universe those lucky bastards have the name "Capcom" on the game and not "SEGA". Anyway enough of my fanboyishnes... the game itself plays pretty much like the better Devil May Cry games (when I say this I mean that 1 and 3 in my opinion were better then 2 and 4, but it's only my opinion, and I'm definatly not saying I dislike 4) except there is fanservice left and right, it's the super actiony kind that sometimes kinda makes you laugh, but sometimes it gets a litte to over the top, but so far where I am in the game it still doesn't have as much fanservice as the Rosario Vampire anime. The story is kind of that "the main character doesn't know about her past at all so you start off knowing less about the entire world of this game then she does" thing, and that kind of annoys me, but I'm hoping it'll eventually unfold and I won't be kept in the dark the whole game. The PS3 version of this game supposedly had a lot of glitches and really long loading times or something but I don't really know much about that since I have the 360 version. So in short, this game may be a bit on the fanservicey side, but if you like Devil May Cry and you have an Xbox 360 then this is one of those games you should probably check out.

Xbox 360 Wireless N Networking Adapter and Game Room Short Review

Ok so the other day I realized that my super high tech game console built by freakin MICROSOFT doesn't have built in wi-fi, and even my little handheld bulky original (but still awesome) DS has built in wi-fi. So, this is a problem when I can't get a wired connection while at my mom's house, which is every other week, so I had to get the Xbox 360 Wireless N Networking Adapter (yes, I did just copy and paste that from Gamestop.com), but I actually bought it on Amazon. Since I already owed my dad a ton of money for the Xbox, and we scored the Network Adapter for pretty cheap (at least cheaper than retail price, which is $99.99) my dad just gave it to me as sort of a gift so I don't know the exact price, sorry... I think it was around $70 or maybe $60, I really don't know. Anyway, like pretty much everything in packaging like the adapter it took alot of effort and really big scissors, and after getting cut by plastic like 6 times and ruining the packaging of ever being able to be reassembled again, I was able to get the adapter out. It also came with a bunch of instructions and a disk to install the drivers for the adapter on your computer... but I just put the adapter on my Xbox and configured the network (put the password and whatnot) and it just worked without needing any of the instructions or having to even turn on my computer so I don't know what those things are for. And since I got access to Xbox Live again I decided to download Game Room, a new... uhh... game... thing... sort of... that basically let's you download (buy) arcade games and put them in your own virtual arcade for you and your friends to play. It already has a wide variety of arcade, Intellivision, and Atari games even though it just recently launched, games run for about $3, which is a stretch for some of these crappy games, but I would gladly pay $3 for games like Temptest and Combat, two games my friend has in his arcade that I seriously want to download for myself. There are also tons of decorations and stuff to put in each room of your 3 story arcade (each story with several rooms) but alot of them require you to like level up or something but I have no idea HOW you level up so I am just pretty much stuck with the beginner rooms and beginner decorations. Anyway, I think that Game Room has plenty of possibilities and hopefully we will be seeing alot more great titles in the future.

Rise of a Ninja Vs Ultimate Ninja Storm

Ok before I start this post, I would like to say I do not like my 360 more than my PS3 or my PS3 more than my 360, I think they are both great systems and they both have their share of problems. I mean, just because I have to pay for Xbox Live doesn't mean I don't think Xbox Live is awesome, and just because my PS3 takes sometimes (literally) hours to find a match when playing online doesn't mean I still don't play my PS3 online. So, please do not think I am a fanboy for either side, just because I think one of these games is way better then the other one doesn't mean I like that system more, ok now that I said that I hope to get alot less hate mail.

Alright, this post is going to sort of be my opinion on which game is better, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (for the PS3) or Naruto: Rise of a Ninja (for the Xbox 360). First of all, Storm does have some really fancy graphics, but in my opinion I really don't like them, they look to... real... well... a better way to explain it would be like this, when Naruto's jaw moves around like he is in a mix of the Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure and an old Godzilla movie, I sort of get a little creeped out. I would like next generation anime game graphics to look like Dragon Ball Raging Blast since those kind of graphics actually look like the anime, on Storm they just kind of look like they tried waaaaay to hard and totally went overboard with it. The graphics in Rise of a Ninja aren't exactly amazing, they just seem like the standard for a next generation anime game, so it doesn't really knock the game down a peg, but the graphics aren't so beautiful that you would buy the game to just look at it. In my opinion I think the Storm development team just took the free roaming story mode from Rise of a Ninja and then tweaked it to make it less "free", a bit less fun, forced you to do side missions in order to continue the story, then added their own fighting system. Oh, and let's talk about the fighting, you see, in regular Ultimate Ninja games, the fighting is the highlight of the game, but in Storm all you do is press the attack button over and over again and you will win every fight, and then once your friends learn this, the whole fight is pretty much decided by whoever hits the other person first. I practically proved this when my friend gave his 3 or 4 year old brother the controller and he beat me with a perfect 10 times in a row even though he had no idea how to play. In Rise of a Ninja the fighting system isn't really something to brag about, it's better than Storm's and it is pretty fun with friends but there is always something wrong with the substitution jutsu whenever I am playing, I know I pressed the button at the right second but sometimes it just doesn't want to let me do substitution. Oh and the difficulty curve of Rise of a Ninja, jeez, I remember one of the very first enemies in the game being able to practically get a perfect on me, then when I use a jutsu on him he blocks the whole damn thing (in Rise of a Ninja, a Jutsu will only do damage if you do a series of quick time events, and if your enemy presses the button before you, then he dodges), and I'm not talking about a boss or something, this was a straight up common enemy I ran into on either my first or second mission after becoming a Genin. Ok, so let's say some nice things about Storm, well, first of all they did a great job testing for glitches, I didn't find a single one, but in Rise of a Ninja... ugh... I run into glitches all the time, several of which freeze my game. Also, in Storm, to perform a jutsu you have to actually hit your enemy, which kind of makes sense, but in Rise of a Ninja you do the opposite of charging at your opponent and waiting until he has a second of weakness, you see in Rise of a Ninja you run into a corner press the button combination and hope your opponent doesn't hit you with a kunai. Anyway, overall, I say go with Rise of a Ninja since adventuring around Konoha doesn't get boring until hours of gameplay, but in Storm it gets pretty boring quickly, let's hope that Storm 2 is going to be better than the first, because so far it looks pretty badass.

Xbox 360 Elite Bundle (ODST & Forza 3) First Impressions

Ok to start off, this first impressions post will not include my thoughts on the ODST campaign mode, or anything on the Campain disk since I kind of have no plans to play it anytime soon. Once I get my gold membership I will play alot more of the mythic disk, but for now I will just play forge on it. Oh right, for those of you who have no idea what the mythic disk is, it's basically the multiplayer of Halo 3 with all of the maps (including my favorite, Sand Box). Anyway, since Costco and Sam's Club no longer carry systems besides the freakin DSi, I got mine at Best Buy, and yes I know Gamestop was giving out a $50 gift card for buying this bundle, but thanks to our Best Buy Rewards card, we got a $50 gift card for Best Buy when we bought the bundle, so we would have gotten the gift card either way. Oh, and since I won't be talking much about ODST, let me just try Forza out for like 5 minutes... hold up I'll be right back... Well, my first complaint would be that you can't skip the announcer while he goes on and on and on about how this game is like the most amazingly high tech thing in the world... The loading took quite a while, then I actually race and... meh, it was pretty standard, nothing to make it stick out, then I tried out the rewind feature which seemed pretty cool, but then after I rewind a bit, I accidentally pressed the "B" button and then I was just... somewhere else in the race track so I decided to resume from there, but that resulted in me crashing into a wall, falling into last place, and staying there swirling in a circle for about a full minute... Yup, I'm done with this game. Oh, and if it helps the game at all, then I guess the music was pretty good... and if you like Forza 3 then don't even take my opinion seriously since racing games are not exactly my cup of tea, and the only racing series I like to play is burnout, and that's only because of the exploding and crashing mechanics. Anyway, every Xbox 360 also comes with Hexic HD, a fun little puzzle game that is so addicting it made me forget how long I had been playing it. I almost forgot to mention the Xbox avatars, since I could make mine look tall, skinny, tan, and insomnic just like me, I think the avatars are a thumbs up. I did have some issues making my account, but I heard that was because of Xbox Live and not MY Xbox, so I just made an account online at Xbox.com. Anyway, I am really happy with my bundle, especially since it came with a headset for when I can finally afford a Gold membership, and thanks to the fact that I used to borrow my brother's Xbox, I already had games like Grand Theft Auto IV, Devil May Cry 4, and Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, but I also got Naruto: The Broken Bond at my local Gamestop, however I am saving that for when I beat Rise of a Ninja. Anyway, thanks to this, now I can review Xbox 360 games, original Xbox games, and Xbox Arcade games, so look forward to those reviews in the future.

PS3 Wand (Motion Controller) Vs. Project Natal

Ok, so I am not trying to do a "I am a PS3 fanboy so Wand!" or a "I am a 360 fanboy so Natal", I will be buying both so I don't want people getting the wrong idea, I mean I sort of take the Wand as a peripheral and Natal kind of like a separate console, and I mean that Natal trailer practically made me crap my pants, it was just so awesome, but I am proud to say the following statement that I will definitely stand by all the way "If the Ape Escape PS3 Wand game comes out along with the PS3 Wand, I WILL get it before Natal if they are released around the same time." I am dead serious about that because I am not gonna bitch to Sony about a new Ape Escape game then when it finally comes out push it aside for later because of the shiny new thing from Microsoft, hell no. Also, about the Wand, I know that isn't the official title for it but it's what I like to call it, oh and another thing about it, there is actually already a list of games that are going to be made for it, I copied this list directly off of Wikipedia so I'm not sure if it's 100% accurate:
Ape Escape (working title)
Echochrome 2 (working title)
Eccentric Slider (working title)
Sing and Draw (working title)
Champions of Time (working title)
Motion Party (working title)
Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition
The Shoot (working title)
Tower (working title)
Under Siege

Oh and there is a list of games that will have motion control added in through software updates, again copied from Wikipedia: LittleBigPlanet, Pain, Flower, Hustle Kings, High Velocity Bowling, and EyePet. With no official word on any Natal titles I really hope we get something good for a launch title, like one of those games shown in the trailer. Also, one thing that really interests me when it comes to Natal is fighting games, it showed a fighting game in the trailer and honestly that was my favorite part of the whole video, I never bought fighting games on the 360 because of the crappy d-pad, but Natal could actually change all of that and make me really want to start buying more fighting games for the 360. But like I said before, with the PS3 Wand I get an Ape Escape game with motion controls, I mean I could literally be waving the net and stun club around to catch monkeys, on the long awaited next gen Ape Escape game... I think that if they come out during the holiday season I will try to get both of them for Christmas, and I seriously can't wait for Natal because I see it as sort of the future of gaming, like maybe we won't be getting a next gen system this year since it's way to soon, but we get the next best thing with Natal. And this might not be a very positive thought to end on but... I really hope Natal and the Wand don't... you know... suck...

Importer's Guide: How to play

Ok (ha! were u expecting "Ahh!" weren't you!) so this will be a guide on how to play game's of other regions separated in sections by console, so without further delay, let's get started!

Gameboy Advanced:
The GBA is REGION FREE! so go ahead and buy any region GBA game and it will work.

Nintendo DS:
REGION FREE!

Nintendo DSi:
REGION BLOCKED! Yes, it is true, the all new shiny DSi is region blocked so don't upgrade to it unless you are 100% possitive you won't buy any games of other region.

Sony PS1:
REGION BLOCKED! Ok old systems are ok to be region blocked because I mean come on, how much would it suck for Square Enix America if everyone bought the Japanese version of Final Fantasy 7.

Sony PS2:
REGION BLOCKED! Ahh the best game system I have ever played, but sadly it's region blocked, however if you have a model 70012 slimline you can buy a flip top and swap magic disks to play imports, I think you can do it with a original ps2 but I'm not sur... oh crap I said "Ahh" didn't I?

Sony PS3:
For the most part REGION FREE! WOOT! Yeah, well I have heard rumors of SOME games being REGION BLOCKED but for the most part the PS3 is REGION FREE, thanks Sony, you may have gotten alot of things wrong with the ps3, but this is one of the good things.

Sony PSP:
REGION FREE!

Nintendo Gamecube:
REGION BLOCKED! I want to see a pie chart of how much money Nintendo would REALLY lose compared to the made up number they THINK they will lose... Anyway a nice gamecube freeloader will fix the problem, but remember this important fact: GAMECUBE MEMORY CARDS ARE NOT REGION FREE LIKE PS2 MEMORY CARDS! IF YOU SAVE JAPANESE DATA ON A MEMORY CARD WITH DATA OF ANOTHER REGION ALL OF THE NON JAPANESE DATA WILL BE DELETED!!! THIS WORKS THE SAME WITH SAVING AMERICAN DATA ON YOUR MEMORY CARD WITH JAPANESE DATA!



Nintendo Wii:
REGION BLOCKED! Ok this is the one that pisses me off, installing the Homebrew channel has become so complicated because of Nintendo trying to stop it... just look for instructions on http://www.wiibrew.org/

Xbox 360:
IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE DISK! Which basically means game's like Ghostbusters work on all region consoles (I offer this region free disk to Europe as an apology for not only being delayed but also because No More Heroes was censored in their country).

Those are pretty much all of the systems I know how to play Imports on and from now on I will post mostly every other day (there might be special occasions that I will update daily) so please check every other day for new posts.