Community Games Round-Up: Second Go Around + An Interview With Trino Team!

So, it’s been about a month and a half. Initial response to the Community Games Round-Up wasn’t anything to write home about, and then Ryan Rigney over at Blend Games got involved. Here is a link to my N4G article, and here is a link to Rigney’s. You can look at the temperatures of those two submissions, mine ending at 20 degrees, and Ryan’s ending at 249. So needless to say, thank you Ryan, I really do appreciate it.

So here we are, at the beginning of another round up. Which games will be deserving of your dollars this time? And which ones will go the way of Rocket Fart? A harrowing question indeed. These are done in no particular order, well scratch that, they’re done in alphabetical order for ease of tracking. I hope you enjoy this edition of: The Community Games Round-Up!

What Now?

Well, I am officially saddened, for Batman: Arkham Asylum is being pushed back until September (at the soonest), so I must find another game worthy of my time. I’d had June set aside as my Batman and Boom Blox month for a while, and now that has all been pushed out the window. Except for the Boom Blox of course. I know that I do not have many regular readers, but if anyone happens to stop by and could help me with a conundrum, I would appreciate it.

My conundrum of course being, what do I get?  It really only between three games, and each of them has its personal merits. At the top of the list is a game I’ve been following for quite some time because it reminds me of an open world super hero game, which is a genre I’ve enjoyed in both Spiderman 2 and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. I’m of course talking about Prototype.

 

 

Yeah, pretty cool I guess. I mean, I have opposable thumbs, but whatever.

Jumping around the city, causing all kinds of mayhem and destruction is something that can always hold my attention for longer than it should. This is a completely single player experience, which means that it’ll have to stay interesting throughout, and even after it’s finished if it’s to get a buy from me. Of course, I still play Spiderman 2 every now and then. With Alex Mercer’s (the protagonist) myriad of powers, and an ever evolving landscape, I don’t see this game getting boring for a long while. Add and interesting story and varied enemies, and this may replace Spiderman 2 as my go to open world game.

Second on my list would have to be Ghostbuster: The Videogame. I’m not someones who’s been holding my breath for a Ghostbusters game worth playing. I liked the movies, and I’ve had my doubts that a game could live up to them. After watching multiple videos and reading many previews, this could most definitely be a game worth playing. Ghostbusters has humor and a nostalgic flavor that Prototype has no chance of capturing. So that is, of course, what Ghostbusters has going for it. Plus, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Stay forever puffed marshmallow man. Forever puffed.

The last game has the key benefit of being one I’ve actually played. Red Faction: Guerrila released it’s demo, and I have to say that I’m a fan. The gun play is solid, and while I didn’t run into any truy outstanding weapons, I liked the destructible environments. The hammer was awesome to be sure, and I even found some vehicles to drive around in. I think it may be relegated to a rent though, just because (aside from the almost entirely destructible environments) there’s not much new here. I am interested to see what the mission structure is like though.

So, populace, what do you have to say? Prototype, Ghostbuster, or Red Faction. All opinions are appreciated, though not necessarily taken into account.

PiCT A BiT O Art: A Review

This is a small game on a small platform, so I’m going to make this review to fit that style. 2 weeks ago I bought my Nintendo DSi, only to realize I’d purchased it just a little too late to write a topical review. Suffice it to say that I’m quite enjoying it, and I haven’t found an instance where I’m upset the GBA slot is gone. I bought GTA: Chinatown Wars as well, and instead of writing a full review for that, I’ll just say that it’s a Buy from me. Once again, no full review due to lack of topicalness.

One game I’d always wanted for the DS was Clubhouse Games, because of the sheer amount of games that comes in the package. When I went to the DSi store, I found 5 card games there for 5 dollars. Of course due to a promotion, I’d been given $10 free, so I didn’t have to pay jack. I would also say buy it, as long as you don’t have Clubhouse Games already. Anyways, so far in this review I have done nothing but digress. I tell you all of the above so that I can tell you that I was left with $5 and a decision.

Do I buy a game I know I’ll enjoy (Dr. Mario), or do I take a chance on a newcomer? There was WarioWare: Snapped, and there was also a game that intrigued me by the name of Art Style: PiCTO BiTS. I already had a copy of WarioWare: Touched in my DSi at the time, so I opted for the newest newcomer, PiCTO BiTS.

Match Three, Win A Goomba (A.K.A. The Review)

I would highly recommend watching the included tutorial videos in the game, because I will no doubt be unable to properly describe the game. Let me attempt though. Each level begins the same, with a blank top screen, and 45 colored blocks on the bottom. Now, I don’t have the technology to take screenshots off of a DS, so you’re all just going to have to with what I could find on google, which was a single screenshot pictured below.

PiCTO BiTS takes inspiration from classic Nintendo games, Bejeweled, and Tetris as well. If I were told to mix these three game-types together, I would not have come up with something nearly as creative. You can fill up a pallet with the various colored bricks, and then place them anywhere on the touch screen. You will do this as different shapes of multicolored multi-layered bricks fall onto the screen. They fall down slowly one row at a time, which makes it easier to lay out your pallet fast enough. The goal? Why, to connect three of course. Or four. Or to make a box. Whatever your heart desires.

My one picture, make of it what you can.

 

PiCTO BiTS is a game that can only truly be done on the DS. Perhaps the Wii could see a similar game, but the DS is the only platform with a precise enough control scheme to make it work. The top screen shows your progress in a rather clever way, in that each block that you manage to clear out becomes a pixel of an 8-Bit Nintendo character ranging from Mario to Ice Climbers. It starts off challenging enough to make you sweat, but you won’t likely get stuck until about 8 or 9 levels in. You will most definitely be tested, and you will love every minute of it.

If you create combos, you’ll receive coins which can be used to buy you out of a sticky situation. If your screen begins to fill up with too many blocks, you can let loose a POW, which will get rid of a significant amount of the troubling pixels. Unfortunately, one of your pallet boxes (8 total) will become unusable. Once you collect 5 coins you can buy it back. Coins you collect can also be used to buy music, or special “Dark” versions of the levels you’ve already played.

Recommendation: Buy It – Really, it’s pretty much free if you purchase it once you buy your DSi, and that’s a hard price to beat. PiCTO BiTS is a truly original game that has an old school flavor that’s hard to resist. If you do end up having to pay for it, $5 is still an acceptable price for a game as addictive as this.

5 Video Games in Real Life

It’s an accepted fact that video games aren’t real. Of course some people would like to tell you that you don’t know the difference between video games and reality (*cough* Jack Thompson of course *cough*). Well, sometimes the line is actually blurred. It would appear that video games have seeped into our reality from time to time, and it’s only a matter of days, months, or years before we have to deal with the emerging video game menace. So why not prepare ahead of time by taking a look at the events that have already happened. Whaddya say?

Resident Evil 4

 

I will start this one out with a little hypothetical. Imagine you live on a residential street in New Orleans, and are enjoying a lovely day in the sun, tending to your plants (in this scenario, you’re a gardener. Deal with it). Somewhere between spreading manure on your beloved daisy’s, and pouring water on your potatoes, you hear a scream of rage from off in the distance. You, intrigued of course, look up from your work to find a man standing a ways away. He’s looking at you, and he looks pissed.

You stand up, confuzzled, and the man screams gibberish at you. The gibberish is Spanish, and after a torrent of unintelligible words are thrown at you (unless you speak Spanish, in which case they’re… telligable…) the man advances, gets close enough, and punches you in the face. You grab your trusty garden rake, and attempt to defend yourself. Unfortunately for your, you’re also 67 in this scenario, so you don’t last long before the man bites your arm, rips a chunk off, and goes about chewing it and swallowing it, all while pinning you to the ground.

Monopoly: Godfather II Edition

I have to hand it EA this time. I believe it was about November that Fallout 3 came out, and it managed to keep me playing from 9 in the morning to 11 at night (almost straight) on a lazy Saturday. No other game between November and about 3 days ago has managed to keep my interest for that long. That’s right, The Godfather II has kept me entertained for 14 hours straight, and I’m as surprised as most of you probably are. And I need to get a life.

The first Godfather game was okay, nothing special in my opinion, but I will say that most of the Wii controls added to the experience. So naturally my expectations were low when I recieved The Godfather II from Gamefly 3 days ago. My low expectations were crushed minutes later, but crushed in a good way.

She Ain’t No Looker

 

I’d like to get this out of the way as soon as possible. If you’re a “graphics whore” unlike myself, then you’ll no doubt find much to hate in Godfather II. When I started the game up, and it got to the title screen, I found some fairly noticable framerate issues. Mainly just that the spinning sign was a little jumpy. This worried me, but when I got into the game, the problem did not present itself. Regardless, the graphics aren’t too impressive either, and yes, I’m gonna say it, this is no Grand Theft Auto 4 in terms of looks, or much else. Where GTA 4 featured a terrifically detailed world, most of The Godfather II’s buildings are copy pasted, and the textures aren’t all that great to look at.

The pop-in is also very noticable, with cars first showing up texturless and white, and then gaining their colors. It kind of reminded me of the way the world would glitch in Assassins Creed, and it actually slightly amused me. The main players in the story are all definitive in their voicework, and the locations all feature varied styles and vehicles. Also, sometimes whil walking on the second or third story of a building, I’d find a crack in the floor that I could see through. Not too weird considering the pop-in though, so I’ll let it slide.