» 2009 » October

So I finally gave in, purchased and downloaded Fat Princess off PSN because I’ve been eyeing on this game since it was released. I was excited now that I finally got the game but was it worth it? I have mixed reactions about this game. Definitely not as good as I expected though!

So immediately after downloading and installing Fat Princess, which is basically an action strategy game where there are two sides (red and blue). You can customize your character with different looks and more are unlocked as you progress in the game. The objectives are capturing the princess (capture the flag), death match. There is also a soccer x death match for online as well, this mode is pretty straight forward based on the name. You have 5 classes to choose from – warrior, ranger, healer, dark magician who can drain enemy health and the worker. The workers are necessary, in order to gather wood and minerals to upgrade the different classes’ buildings in order to unlock their upgraded classes. They also responsible for building castle doors and catapults which can launch a group of people to the enemy castle.

I wanted to get a hang of the game first being playing online so I jumped into the single player game and played its rather short storyline which consists of 7 chapters. It was enjoyable most of the time, specially the death matches. There was one chapter that I thought was frustrating, at least playing with the AIs, the ones which you have to rescue your princess.

I guess for now AIs are still dumb and cannot act/play like humans. Most of the time I was alone inside enemy castle trying to rescue the princess even though you are allowed to have up to 3 AIs to help you on your side. And most of the time I got killed right on the spot because either the enemy AIs just swamped me or they cake-fed the princess so much I was basically not moving at all, and then swamped by the enemies!

In terms of graphics, its not Killzone 2 graphics obviously, it is pleasing to the eyes, cartoonish with vibrant colors. I think the blood and gory part is one of the major plus for this game. Whenever there is a battle you know there will be blood and body parts every where which is insanely fun to watch as you chop your way to your enemies!

Without going into every single detail of the game, I’m sure this game is worth the $16 (+tax) I paid. I think its a pretty good casual game where you want to jump in when you have 30 minutes to spare. Its not perfectly for sure and hopefully we will see some expansions/add-ons in the near future, free download would be nice!

Check out Gametrailers.com’s review:

Plenty of auction sites exist for people who want to sell off their old things that still have some market value but never has there been a site so noble as to offer to buy people’s no longer needed electronic gadgets. That would be gazelle.com. Unlike auctions sites, they’re paying consumers for sending them their gadgets that were probably replaced by newer models. The purpose is environmentally friendly because there is an incentive for people to not throw their old electronics into the trash but instead let these be reused and still stay in circulation for as long as possible.

It’s a wonderful idea but certainly not the ultimate solution yet. It will buy companies and governments enough time to figure out how to properly deal with the ever increasing amount of special wastes such as electronics. The proper disposal of these things are not yet shouldered by most companies as the technologies that could recycle or at least make components less hazardous are still very costly and impractical. We are not really mindful of the speed of our technological advances and their consequences. Where else would all the waste go? They’ll be buried in landfills. The goal of gazelle.com is to make usable old electronic gadgets stay in circulation for as long as these can while everyone else figures out a better way to deal with the ballooning garbage problem.

Space on earth would not be enough to hold all our garbage in the next centuries. It’s a waste of our resources to keep converting material that won’t even be of any value to nature itself. Untreated wastes are indeed very wasteful of our resources because there are still things of value that could be extracted such as more service life or other valuable substances that could be reused or recycled. The problem is that the process of doing so is quite labor intensive as is the case in computer parts. Millions of tons of electronic garbage are shipped to developing countries that are willing to accept these as surplus second hand items but will eventually end up in these countries’ landfills as their facilities are unable to cope with the proper treatment of such wastes. So far the prices offered by gazelle.com are reasonable and would make the resale of these items in distant developing countries unfeasible. Remember, should you choose to circulate your old stuff instead, you would have contributed to lessening the garbage problem.

I was really impressed, again, by yet another game – Dragon Age: Origins. I thought this might be the game for me while I eagerly wait for Final Fantasy 13’s release. But sadly after watching this trailer, which I’m guessing its played on a console, lead me down.

Its not because its got bad graphics or anything. Its the way you fight your battles, which leads to how enjoyable the game play is. I was really, I mean really, annoyed by the fact that you have to pause the game, we are talking about in the middle of battles, in order to assign orders to your party members without getting hit, unless you can micro-manage in real time then that’s a no issue for you. I don’t see how I can enjoy this game when I have to pause every few seconds. I am only speaking for myself because obviously based on some of the comments, some people do not seem to be bothered by this pause-effect. This might not be exactly the same but think of it this way, do you like to watch a movie that pauses every 10 seconds? All of a sudden in the middle of a great battle, the movie pauses, no music, animation just freezes. Will you enjoy that?

So to me this game is really meant to be played on a PC, then again my PC isn’t probably powerful enough to handle this so that means a no-go for me unfortunately. Guess I have to get Modern Warfare 2, which is a completely different game genre while I wait for Final Fantasy 13 to come out.

I was so so so close to getting Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. Mainly because I wanted something other than Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for a change. Also, the trailers so far were quite promising as well and it did look realistic, compare to the COD series.

I’m glad I always troll around Gametrailers.com and read their take on this game before I slap myself for wasting $70 bucks on this disappointing game. You can see the negative points of this game clearly outweights the goods. For one, why does the console multiplayer only support 4 on 4? What were the developers thinking?

If you are looking for a shoot them up, this isn’t for you. Do give it a shot (I’m sure you can refund it) if and only if you are into realistic war-simulator. Sadly I guess the sequel did not live up to the original Operation Flashpoint and it just won’t even stand close to the soon-to-be-released Modern Warfare 2.

I really love the idea of using Lego pieces and some AVR programming to turn your everyday boring-and-stationary pumpkins into a machine capable of scaring the kids away, of course you might just want to use it on the bad ones. Spare the good kids and let them have their candies!

I personally think it could be more convincing if the body was “dropped” or lowered just a little bit more so to that the wheels aren’t as exposed which I think might make it even more convincing. The circular eyes could also be replaced with better carved and more evil looking eyes with steam coming out of the sockets as well. And finally it would be PERFECT if it was remote controlled so you can freak the kids at will.

Source: evilmadscientist.com

I still haven’t bought Fat Princess because I’ve been way too busy to buy new games. Well the real reason is probably because its not a first-day-buy for me. I know its fun, hella fun, but it just isn’t enough to convince me to get it right away. Anyway enough of that. Fairytale Fights might just be good enough to convince me to get this.

Fairytale Fights, you can partially guess, its about fairytale. There ARE fairytale characters in there, but with a twist. Fairytale Fights, not only does it involve violent action, but we are talking about ULTRA violent and bloody action where your fairytale character are literally chop the enemies into pieces. End result? Blood everywhere on the ground, what makes this even funnier is you can “skate” on the blood! Now that is funny!

This also feels like a party game, like the Wii kind. Which is a bonus because PS3 and Xbox are both missing some good party games. I’m also putting my bets on this being a downloadable instead of a full $60 game.

Fairytale Fights will be released on October 27, 2009.

Video Games | Fairytale Fights | Preview

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I only have one childhood super hero and that’s Batman. Just got to love the dark theme, his cape, vehicles and gadgets. Oh almost forgot, the bat cave and his infinite wealth. Gizmodo just made my day by posting this youtube video of a “$1 million 700hp Batmobile, built over a 1973 Lincoln Continental chassis“.

While I agree on the fact that most people would not spend a million on this beast, a sexy one. I WOULD buy it after investing that one million dollars though after a few years. Unfortunately the video only shows a glimpse of what’s inside but I am quite convinced it is stuffed with tons of gadgets, stuff that you probably don’t need in a car.

Being a car freak, I would be more interested in the performance of this Batmobile replica though. Does it come with those hooks that get shot out to aid in cornering at very high speed? If it does well, pedestrians beware!