Friday, April 29, 2011
Playstation network down
It's been day nine, the response on the playstation network website has changed. But it still hasn't been able to work. The good news is that people's information most likely haven't been stolen. I don't know if I can make it. I barely got through last week without PSN. See you all on the other side.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Playstation Network
I am very annoyed with Sony. I get free time to visit the Playstation Network but no, the network decides to shut down. Besides that, you can't even play online. Say good bye to demos, online multiplayer and everything else on the playstation. This is not the first day, it started on the 20th and now it's day four. I'm just informing you all in case you didn't know. But the most silly thing is that you can still use the internet on the PSP and the PS3. What use are websites if you can't get games off of them.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Resistance 3
SPOILERS AHEAD
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Halo:Combat Evolved
I am going to post a review every once and a while now, but I know i haven't posted in quite some time. i will now break this streak with Halo:Combat Evolved.
Most of you probably know this game, and that it is the first in a series of Microsoft/Bungie Sci-Fi action games. but this is the on that started it all.
There is the cover for the PC edition, and it was of course also released on the Original Xbox, which is the version i own. now lets dive into some game-play, Shall we?
The campaign starts off in the year 2552, on board the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) starship The Pillar of Autumn, which has just exited Slip-Stream, something similar to light speed or warp, over a mysterious artifact, a giant man made ring. They had to flee the planet Reach (the setting for Halo:Reach) after a massive Covenant (alien) attack, in which the planet was glassed. following protocol, Cortana, the ships artificial intelligence (AI) makes a jump to a set of coordinates she picked up a while ago during a mission. (Read: Halo: The Fall Of Reach) You are over Halo, and there is a battle aboard your ship. you have to evacuate with Cortana and, after multiple firefights, manage to make it to an escape pod, along with a bunch of Marines. The escape pod fires, and you head towards Halo. You crash land, and the rest of the crew is killed but, thanks to your armor, you survive.
I am not going to go any further in to the Campaign, that is basically the whole first level, Pillar of Autumn. As for the game play, the graphics are relatively good, for the time, and, as the back of the case says, the environments flow smoothly together. They [Bungie] have found a way to near perfectly balance the ecology and technology of the Forerunner Ring. As for the controls, they are quite fluent, but there are around 6 presets for them if you don't like the original. The story line is pretty good, and the plot twists can be quite interesting. for the time the game was fairly revolutionary, so that gets it some extra points.
Now for the multi-player. the Xbox version does not have online multi-player, although the PC version does. i have only played the PC demo, so i am not sure what the full PC online is like, but if it is ANYTHING like the demo, it is pretty good. As for local multi-player on Xbox, i used to play it all the time with my brother, and i think we both found it quite fun. Some of the most memorable maps are places like 'Blood Gulch'(returned in Halo: Wars, and Halo: Reach), 'Battle Creek', and 'Hang 'em High'.
Overall, i give Halo: Combat Evolved 85/100 Sgt. Johnson's
Most of you probably know this game, and that it is the first in a series of Microsoft/Bungie Sci-Fi action games. but this is the on that started it all.
The campaign starts off in the year 2552, on board the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) starship The Pillar of Autumn, which has just exited Slip-Stream, something similar to light speed or warp, over a mysterious artifact, a giant man made ring. They had to flee the planet Reach (the setting for Halo:Reach) after a massive Covenant (alien) attack, in which the planet was glassed. following protocol, Cortana, the ships artificial intelligence (AI) makes a jump to a set of coordinates she picked up a while ago during a mission. (Read: Halo: The Fall Of Reach) You are over Halo, and there is a battle aboard your ship. you have to evacuate with Cortana and, after multiple firefights, manage to make it to an escape pod, along with a bunch of Marines. The escape pod fires, and you head towards Halo. You crash land, and the rest of the crew is killed but, thanks to your armor, you survive.
I am not going to go any further in to the Campaign, that is basically the whole first level, Pillar of Autumn. As for the game play, the graphics are relatively good, for the time, and, as the back of the case says, the environments flow smoothly together. They [Bungie] have found a way to near perfectly balance the ecology and technology of the Forerunner Ring. As for the controls, they are quite fluent, but there are around 6 presets for them if you don't like the original. The story line is pretty good, and the plot twists can be quite interesting. for the time the game was fairly revolutionary, so that gets it some extra points.
Now for the multi-player. the Xbox version does not have online multi-player, although the PC version does. i have only played the PC demo, so i am not sure what the full PC online is like, but if it is ANYTHING like the demo, it is pretty good. As for local multi-player on Xbox, i used to play it all the time with my brother, and i think we both found it quite fun. Some of the most memorable maps are places like 'Blood Gulch'(returned in Halo: Wars, and Halo: Reach), 'Battle Creek', and 'Hang 'em High'.
Overall, i give Halo: Combat Evolved 85/100 Sgt. Johnson's
Monday, April 18, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Stats
Another poll just closed. We might record Little Big Planet. I'm also getting excited/ annoyed by the fact that Pirates of The Caribbean have just gone lego. I mean, Lego Star Wars was great, then the made a bunch of sequels. Next it was Indiana Jones, it was understandable since they're both Lucas arts films. But Pirates of the Caribbean seem too much.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Amazing Minecraft Seeds!
I'm sure most of you have heard it before, but yes, what I bring to you today is an awesome Minecraft seed found by "Redstone Wire" from Minecraft Forums. He tagged it as a "double surface dungeon" seed, which it most certainly is (cool, but at the same time, PRETTY DAMN AGGRAVATING!), but what I found most interesting was this amazing double overhang right near the dungeons. A testament to just how beautiful crappy 8-bit virtual Lego blocks can look... Anyways, I'll post some screenshots below. There are also many squid near the shoreline. The seed for this one is "Quesadila". Enjoy!
The second seed is one that I found, and while it isn't exactly amazing, it does have shit tons of coal in the natural caves (which there are many of!). Downside: Despite having an awesome, expansive lake and many branched trees, as well as underground lakes and rivers and easy to find lava (if you dig down near the shore, that is), many, many monsters will come out of the caves at night, seeing as how most of them open up to the surface. Many more monster than would normally spawn. Despite the gently ascending hills, this isn't exactly the kind of map that a newbie player would want to start out on. Anyways, hope you enjoy my find on this one! The seed for this is "Dungeon".
And now, for those obligatory double-overhang screenshots...
The second seed is one that I found, and while it isn't exactly amazing, it does have shit tons of coal in the natural caves (which there are many of!). Downside: Despite having an awesome, expansive lake and many branched trees, as well as underground lakes and rivers and easy to find lava (if you dig down near the shore, that is), many, many monsters will come out of the caves at night, seeing as how most of them open up to the surface. Many more monster than would normally spawn. Despite the gently ascending hills, this isn't exactly the kind of map that a newbie player would want to start out on. Anyways, hope you enjoy my find on this one! The seed for this is "Dungeon".
And now, for those obligatory double-overhang screenshots...
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Ridge Racer 3D Review
Yes, it's finally here! My Ridge Racer 3D Review! Anyways, here goes...
This is the first Ridge Racer game I've ever played. Yes, that's right, even though I've owned a PS1 and PS2, I've never played a single Ridge Racer game... Sad, isn't it? Anyways, the reason for that was because I hadn't exactly heard nice things about it... But that was probably because I read the Ridge Racer DS review and thought the entire series was bad. Whoopsie. But, upon picking up my 3Ds on March 28th, and seeing as how the launch titles weren't even close to good and I sucked at Street Fighter, I decided I would pick up a game that had received some good scores on a few websites, and so I went with Ridge Racer 3D. I couldn't wait to plop the cart into my 3DS and just have some good times with it, because hey, even if the game sucks, this is a new Nintendo console we're talking about here. Anyways, on to the actual review...
Ridge Racer 3D, despite the name, is far from a new game. Sure, there's probably some new content in here, but from what I hear, only 20% of that stuff is new, so unless you've never played a Ridge Racer game before, I don't really see a point in picking this up, even though the courses that are included are expertly designed and a blast to play on. But, despite this recycled content, Ridge Racer is actually quite a meaty game. The first game mode I played was Grand Prix mode, and after about 2 hours and 9 events later, I noticed I was only 9% or 10% of the way through the game. I was surprised, and I'll put some perspective on this so you know why. There are three Grand Prix modes; Basic, Advanced, and Expert, the latter two having to be unlocked. Each Grand Prix contains approximately 18-20 events. Each event has 4 races that must be won in it. The first two races, you must get in 3rd place or higher, the third, 2nd or higher, and the last, 1st. If you can't meet up with these requirements, then you must retry that race. Each race lasts about 2-6 minutes, depending on which car you use and how bad/good you are, as well as course length. So, let's just say that each course I raced on lasted 5 minutes, so not counting the time it took to shovel through the menus (there are a lot in here, thank God they aren't that convoluted!), that would be (9 events, four races which are five minutes each) 4x5=20, 20x9=180. 180 minutes I spent on this game just racing and I was only 10% complete it! So, suffice to say, getting to the end in this game is a slow grind, and one that isn't particularly helped by the fact that many of the courses are recycled for multiple events and your first races are unbelievably slow due to lack of good cars. Oh, yeah, and it's just WAY too easy in the beginning! Sure, difficulty does ramp up, but that only happens when you're 40% of the way through the game! That's many, many hours of play time! Eesh... Luckily, when things do pick up the pace, the game is as fun as ever, really making you feel powerful and in control of your car when you pull off those massive drifts and powerslide past opponents.
The graphics in this game are just inexcusable. Sure, some effects can be quite nice, such as the reflective water in the large cityscapes or the sparks flying off the cars (which seem to whiz right past your face, a very nice touch), but overall, the car models are unimpressive, the visual effects aren't all that flashy, and even though cars have dynamic reflections, reflecting everything around them, the refresh rate on those things are downright terrible, and the pixels are so chunky it's hard to tell just what exactly the car is reflecting! I think the resolution on the reflections must've been about 100x60 pixels... In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the developers actually took the engine off of the PSP Ridge Racer game, and then plastered it onto the 3Ds version, making it loom possibly even worse in the process because of the necessary porting job! Overall, even though the 3D helps you plan your next turn and helps immerse you much more, this isn't the kind of game that you buy to show off your shiny new 3DS handheld... Get Street Fighter if you wanna do that.
The music in this game is pretty nice, and there are some standout tracks in here as well. I often found myself choosing my favourite track for a particularly challenging race, and the techno beats help keep your blood pumping. The sound effects are quite nice too, and as you would expect, your car makes a wide variety of noises as it's skidding around corners.
Overall, Ridge Racer 3D is a decent game that does a nice job of entertaining you while you gawk over your brand new 3DS, and while it may not look the best or have the best to offer you, it's still a helluva fun game when the action picks up about halfway through and its a good way of breaking in your new system.
I give Ridge Racer 3D 78/100 3D glasses.
This is the first Ridge Racer game I've ever played. Yes, that's right, even though I've owned a PS1 and PS2, I've never played a single Ridge Racer game... Sad, isn't it? Anyways, the reason for that was because I hadn't exactly heard nice things about it... But that was probably because I read the Ridge Racer DS review and thought the entire series was bad. Whoopsie. But, upon picking up my 3Ds on March 28th, and seeing as how the launch titles weren't even close to good and I sucked at Street Fighter, I decided I would pick up a game that had received some good scores on a few websites, and so I went with Ridge Racer 3D. I couldn't wait to plop the cart into my 3DS and just have some good times with it, because hey, even if the game sucks, this is a new Nintendo console we're talking about here. Anyways, on to the actual review...
Ridge Racer 3D, despite the name, is far from a new game. Sure, there's probably some new content in here, but from what I hear, only 20% of that stuff is new, so unless you've never played a Ridge Racer game before, I don't really see a point in picking this up, even though the courses that are included are expertly designed and a blast to play on. But, despite this recycled content, Ridge Racer is actually quite a meaty game. The first game mode I played was Grand Prix mode, and after about 2 hours and 9 events later, I noticed I was only 9% or 10% of the way through the game. I was surprised, and I'll put some perspective on this so you know why. There are three Grand Prix modes; Basic, Advanced, and Expert, the latter two having to be unlocked. Each Grand Prix contains approximately 18-20 events. Each event has 4 races that must be won in it. The first two races, you must get in 3rd place or higher, the third, 2nd or higher, and the last, 1st. If you can't meet up with these requirements, then you must retry that race. Each race lasts about 2-6 minutes, depending on which car you use and how bad/good you are, as well as course length. So, let's just say that each course I raced on lasted 5 minutes, so not counting the time it took to shovel through the menus (there are a lot in here, thank God they aren't that convoluted!), that would be (9 events, four races which are five minutes each) 4x5=20, 20x9=180. 180 minutes I spent on this game just racing and I was only 10% complete it! So, suffice to say, getting to the end in this game is a slow grind, and one that isn't particularly helped by the fact that many of the courses are recycled for multiple events and your first races are unbelievably slow due to lack of good cars. Oh, yeah, and it's just WAY too easy in the beginning! Sure, difficulty does ramp up, but that only happens when you're 40% of the way through the game! That's many, many hours of play time! Eesh... Luckily, when things do pick up the pace, the game is as fun as ever, really making you feel powerful and in control of your car when you pull off those massive drifts and powerslide past opponents.
The graphics in this game are just inexcusable. Sure, some effects can be quite nice, such as the reflective water in the large cityscapes or the sparks flying off the cars (which seem to whiz right past your face, a very nice touch), but overall, the car models are unimpressive, the visual effects aren't all that flashy, and even though cars have dynamic reflections, reflecting everything around them, the refresh rate on those things are downright terrible, and the pixels are so chunky it's hard to tell just what exactly the car is reflecting! I think the resolution on the reflections must've been about 100x60 pixels... In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the developers actually took the engine off of the PSP Ridge Racer game, and then plastered it onto the 3Ds version, making it loom possibly even worse in the process because of the necessary porting job! Overall, even though the 3D helps you plan your next turn and helps immerse you much more, this isn't the kind of game that you buy to show off your shiny new 3DS handheld... Get Street Fighter if you wanna do that.
The music in this game is pretty nice, and there are some standout tracks in here as well. I often found myself choosing my favourite track for a particularly challenging race, and the techno beats help keep your blood pumping. The sound effects are quite nice too, and as you would expect, your car makes a wide variety of noises as it's skidding around corners.
Overall, Ridge Racer 3D is a decent game that does a nice job of entertaining you while you gawk over your brand new 3DS, and while it may not look the best or have the best to offer you, it's still a helluva fun game when the action picks up about halfway through and its a good way of breaking in your new system.
I give Ridge Racer 3D 78/100 3D glasses.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Minecraft Server
Hey all the fans of (null) review not found can now go to our Minecraft server @ 192.168.1.106:50500. Report griefers to nullportalftw@gmail.com . We will be on there from time to time and it will be up when I can put it up but have fun. I am PortalFTW on Minecraft and I'm sure the others that have Minecraft will post their usernames shortly. Also if you have a pirated version you will not be able to go on the server and any of the blog members that have a pirated account should not post their username.
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