Guitar Hero Aerosmith Wii review

Posted : 3 days, 14 hours ago on 24 August 2008 07:29 (A review of Guitar Hero Aerosmith Wii)

This is more like a Guitar Hero add-on than a new game since nothing has changed from Guitar Hero III except the song list. It's always good to have a new set of songs to rock with but it's not worth the full price. Grab it used or at a discount bin and rock on some more!

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Perfect update to Wii Golf

Posted : 3 days, 14 hours ago on 24 August 2008 07:23 (A review of We Love Golf!)

This game has all the upsides of the intuitive Nintendo game and none of the downsides. The controls are *almost* exactly like the Golf game in Wii Sports. The game adds a level of sophistication and feedback to the controls that was not present in the Nintendo version. It also adds a full range of golf clubs. The rest is great as well - more players, more holes and gold courses to play, more game modes. Not to forget - online play. This game is a great experience and anyone who loves the Nintendo Golf game *must* pick this one up too.

Edit: The more I play, the more I love. I've played five courses so far and they are as varied to play as they are in appearance. Some of the courses look absolutely stunning and I find myself just looking around the hole before jumping in to play. The courses also get progressively more challenging which will only make me come back to improve my score. There are so many holes that I *just* missed making a birdie. This doesn't mean that the play mechanics are any harder, it's still as easy to play the game, you just need to get more accurate and have to think about strategy a little more. Capcom have done a really good job with this game. Well worth the money spent on it.

Another Edit: It turns out there are eight courses in all and winning them in normal mode unlocks the 'Pro' mode with the same courses, with the tee and flag positions being more challenging. I can't wait to go back and play some of the courses again to improve my scores. My two favourite courses are the Japanese Garden course and the Jungle course - both look spectacular. The rest of the courses also look very pretty and apart from a couple of courses, the rest could never be possible in real life and that just adds to the charm of this game.

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Almost perfect

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 14 July 2008 06:16 (A review of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock)

I haven't played any guitar hero game before this one and I went in expecting a lot. I wasn't disappointed by the game - to a point. The gameplay is easy to pick up and it is consistently fun. Ultimately, the game lives and dies by the music selection. For me, at least, this is where it falls short of perfection. I like most of the songs available but not all of them. Obviously, your mileage may vary. Despite that, it is lots of fun to play and unique in my game collection (till I grab Rock Band).

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Finally, a killer PS3 racing game

Posted : 1 month, 3 weeks ago on 7 July 2008 12:28 (A review of DiRT)

I've tried a few racing games before this one but came away unsatisfied for one reason or the other. This is *the* racing game for the PS3 I've been waiting for. The events have amazing variety, both in discipline as well as circuits. The game looks gorgeous on my HD television. The learning curve is not too steep and you get better and buy better cars that further improve your performance as you go along. I'm only 20% of the way through after about three and a quarter hours of racing. This game should keep me occupied for a couple of weeks.

A couple of minor quibbles. Some of the events are just boring, especially when trying to drive a massive truck or a buggy through a long dusty desert track. Racing the trucks through the desert is especially painful, since they're massive, slow and tend to tip over. The best events are with the more conventional cars, especially the 4WD cars that handle amazingly well. The second thing I don't like is the loading time, maybe I've been spoiled by the super quick loading times of games on the Wii.

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Grand Theft Auto IV review

Posted : 1 month, 3 weeks ago on 1 July 2008 04:29 (A review of Grand Theft Auto IV)

I've done about 10% of the game and it's proven to be fun so far. I haven't played any of the GTA games before this one. It's not exactly an FPS, it's not exactly an RPG and it's not exactly a racing game either. It's not aimless meandering either, though you can do that if you want to. The missions so far have been varied which keeps things interesting. The missions will probably get tougher from here on.

The scale of the whole game and Liberty City is impressive. I still haven't been across the bridge yet (it's blocked by the police) and have already logged in ten hours of in game time. The attention to detail is extremely impressive too. All the characters have distinct personalities and it seems like so do the random people on the street. There's a bunch of radio stations in the car and the programming on all of them is keeping with the theme of the game and it's setting. Like I said, the detail is impressive.

It's not hard to see why this game series is extremely popular. The missions varied, the attention to detail is impressive and there very good integration of a storyline with the gameplay. Not my favourite game, but reasonably entertaining and immersive nevertheless.

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Virtua Tennis 3 review

Posted : 2 months ago on 29 June 2008 02:51 (A review of Virtua Tennis 3)

I loved the original Virtua Tennis from six or seven years ago. They've kept the excellent gameplay of the original and suitably improved the graphics and the career mode. The players are more current (I was surprised that Tommy Haas is still in there) and there are more locations to play with. The career mode is the biggest improvement with tons more tournaments and training exercises. I could play this game hours on end (I already did).

Quick update: It took me about 20 hours to become the top ranked player and win the 'King of Players' tournament. Feels a little short but then you can still keep playing matches even if you've reached the number one ranking. The game doesn't 'stop' when you win.

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No frills Blackjack

Posted : 2 months, 3 weeks ago on 7 June 2008 05:54 (A review of V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack)

Works with just the Wii remote and you don't even have to move your hand while playing. It's basic blackjack, so replay value is basically infinite, Blackjack has probably not changed since it was invented. The game adds 'achievements' which are milestones you achieve while playing like winning a number of hands on the trot or getting a certain sum of money in the bank. They don't add to or detract from the game. The only gripe I have is the sluggish dealer, wish there was an option to turn that off.

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Control scheme is genius

Posted : 2 months, 3 weeks ago on 4 June 2008 09:13 (A review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl)

The control scheme for Super Smash Bros is excellent. You use the A key for a normal attack, B key for special attack. The nunchuk direction controller is used to move and it's direction also changes the type of your attack. It takes about 10 minutes to learn and gives you about 6 different moves. Nothing complicated like pressing half a dozen buttons in sequence. The control scheme has the hallmark of genius - simplicity.

The arenas are awesome, they can be sprawling as well as dynamic. The wealth of characters with varied abilities is also impressive. There is a story mode (in addition to the standard tournament mode) that I'm playing through and it seems to be fun as well. Nintendo never ceases to amaze me with the quality of their releases.

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Endless Ocean review

Posted : 2 months, 3 weeks ago on 1 June 2008 09:37 (A review of Endless Ocean)

I was led to believe that the game consists of meandering around the ocean aimlessly. To my surprise, it's actually more fun than that. As you dive, you discover newer fishes and newer areas of the ocean. It's the new areas that interest me the most. So far, I've come across a forest of huge corals, an underwater cave and a hundred foot deep trench. The music is very good and changes with the area you're diving into. I still have to dive at night and it's supposed to look rather different, can't wait to get into that.

There are also small 'missions' you can accept, like being a diving partner for some tourist, helping find fishes for an aquarium, take photos underwater etc. They keep thing varied.

People who want a conventional 'game' should probably keep away from this one. Other people (like me) who want an interesting experience, beautiful visuals and a good background score will like this 'game'.

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Shows the way but doesn't get there

Posted : 2 months, 4 weeks ago on 1 June 2008 10:01 (A review of LostWinds)

Disclaimer: My opinion of the game might be tainted by my natural disinclination for playing RPGs.

The innovative gameplay is the highlight of this Wiiware game. The idea is simple - you control the power of the wind and it moves everything it touches. You move your character around and perform other tasks with the wind. You control the wind by waving the Wii remote around. The learning curve is almost flat, you're up and running within minutes. The game looks good for the most part, the Wii doesn't have mind blowing graphics anyway but the game looks pretty.

The problem is that the game gets tedious within a few hours of playing. I'm 4 or 5 hours in right now and I don't think I'll replay it once I'm done with the story the first time around. It might be because I don't like RPGs that much or maybe the game isn't the best around. Probably a combination of the two.

The only reason I'm even playing this is the innovative gameplay. This makes good use of the Wii's capabilities. I'm sure developers will be looking to re-create and even improve on this game. So it does show the way but doesn't completely deliver. The game does provide good value, since it's a cheap Wiiware download. So I don't mind just playing it once and being done with it.

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