Grim Fandango Remastered Review

Dia de los Muertos

Dave's Review:

Grim Fandango Remastered is one of those games I always read about back in the day, I wasn't really big into PC gaming when Grim was first released so I have no prior knowledge going in to this. I have always thought the art style was excellent, Even with the updated look this game has one of the best art Styles rarely seen in games. For this review I asked my buddy Rob, to write his perspective since he was a big fan of this game when it was first released. You can read his thoughts further below, but for now on to my impressions of the game.

Grim Fandango is an adventure game, and one of the first to get away from having a pointer to interact with the world instead Mani's head rotates to the objects he is interacting with, which at first I had a hard time getting my barrings, but with time became more natural. First thing to point out that this is not like the Adventure games we see today. If you are familliar with The TellTale games series, they are much more straight forward and a lot less cryptic with what you need to do. If you have never played this game before like me you will find yourself lost at times. However I didn't find myself frustrated at all, in fact the game made me feel smart once I guess what needed to be done giving the player a sense of accomplishment. 

The game is set in the 8th underworld, and plays out over the course of  4 chapters, represented by years. My personal favorites would be year 2, and 3. The game has an excellent "film noir" style that I personally think more games should have. The voice acting is top notch especially for the time the game was made. Remember the how bad the voice acting was in the Resident Evil games? Both came out around the same time. 

The game can take you anywhere from 6-25 hours to play through depending on if you are new to the game or if you are a seasoned pro. I actually felt compelled to go back and see how long it would take me once I figured out all the puzzles. Like most adventure games once you have beat the game you won't find much more reason to go back and play it. Yet I felt attatched to these characters and found myself playing the game over right after beating it. 

Grim Fandango may have been one of those games I missed when it was first released but I couldn't be more happy that Double Fine made this Remastered version. This is now one of my all time favorite games and I strongly recommend you go and spend the $15 to pick it up. Also the game is cross-buy and cross-save. I played the game on the PlayStation 4, and the Vita, both performed similar, but the PS4 version looked better with the Remastered visuals. 

GET IT NOW!! 

Rob's Review:

This is the Lucas Arts Classic that you have all been waiting for, also one of the favourite games of my teen years!

You are Mani, a Reaper who is stuck in the land of the dead due to a debt that is owed to the higher powers as a travel agent.  Your lot in the after life is to work off the debts by selling the newly deceased travel packages in order to smooth their 4 year journey.  At least this is where it starts out......

Double Fine has done a great job on this game, updating some of the models and graphics but not so much that it becomes unrecognizable from the classic we know and love.

One of the things that I immediately noticed was the addition of the camera relative controls as opposed to the tank style controls.  This made the game easier to move around (although in the options menu you can switch to tank style.....there's even a trophy for it!).

The only drawback that I can think of is the same with any kind of adventure game (think Monkey Island, Kings Quest, Space Quest) is that the replay value is limited...but at $15 you really can't go wrong.

Whether you're new to the game or a long time fan there is only one conclusion that can really be drawn from this....If you're a fan of wit, old style adventure games, and believe Robert Frost can scare pigeons you owe it to yourself to get ready for a humerus adventure and play this game!

BUY IT!!!!!!!!!

PS: if you're a fan of these games a Day of the Tentacle has been announced by the guys at Double Fine!

How to Survive Storm Warning Edition demo

Gameplay of How to Survive

How to survive surprised me! I wasn't expecting all that much from the game. Played as a top down action RPG game. As the game starts off you get to select from a cast of 3 characters each with their own advantages. I was expecting a game to play more like Dead Nation a top down run and gun shooter. In actuality the game is more closer to another Zombie game Dying light, where instead of using guns and other heavy artillery you have to find items from the environment to fend off the zombie hoards that come at you. 

Visually the game looks good for a digital indie game. I also appreciate the combat system, very similar to Dying Light, or the Dead Island games, you can find weapons to pick up, as you attack enemies your weapon will start to degrade, and will do less damage. I also love that you can upgrade your weapons to do more damage. Another amazing feature of the game is that it forces you to sleep, and eat to keep your character alive putting a strong focus on stat management makes the game feel unique from the normal Zombie games available on the market. 

Other Notable features of the game include, 3 different playable characters, 7 different Islands to explore, An ever changing day and night cycle that will change the gameplay. The ability to play online or offline co-op. The options to play a full story mode or a challenge mode.

Developed by EKO Software, the game is currently available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. I had a blast playing the demo and strongly recommend checking this game out. If you are looking for something a little different from the usual Zombie games this is definitely a good choice. The game certainly has some flaws but nothing that really got me to the point of just giving up. 

The demo isn't very long but it does provide you with just enough play time to give you a proper sense of what the full game would be like. I played the demo on the PS4.
 Check out the free demo now and you will be pleasantly surprised. 

Recommend it!

Game of Thrones Episode 2 Lost Lords Review

Part 1 of Lost Lords 

The Game of Thrones Episode 2 Lost Lords is pretty lack luster compared to the first episode, Is it bad? No not at all it still has some excellent moments but in terms of progressing the story Lost Lords doesn't do to much. Even the action in this episode feels a little tacked on just to make things "exciting". 

Game play is virtually the same as in episode 1, characters are very responsive, and the quick time events don't feel to intrusive when they happen. It helps to provide a sense of urgency. The acting in Lost Lords is still excellent provided the weakness of the story in this episode. The sound and music feel just like watching the show at times. Visually I still enjoy the look, but I feel like more could be done on modern consoles and PC. 

Like my review for the first episode I won't spoil the story for you. But I have posted my Game play for it, if you want to just take a peek, or sit through and enjoy the choices I made. I will say that some of my favorite parts in this episode is watching my characters die by failing to hit the right buttons for the quick time events. This did lead to some laugh out loud moments for sure, but if you are trying to play this game seriously and flawlessly you may be a little underwhelmed.

Lost lords part 2

I will also like to point out that I am not a die-hard Game of Thrones fan, I have seen a total of 5 episodes in the series. One thing I will commend Telltale games on is they make this very easy for people like me to get into the game and just enjoy the story with out feeling overwhelmed by not following the Show. 

Game of Thrones Episode 2 Lost Lords, is something I would recommend if you are a big Game of Thrones fan, or if you are like myself a fan of of Telltale games. I am actually looking forward to episode 3, hopefully we get something a little more exciting. Definitely play Lost Lords if you have already played through Iron from Ice. 

It's OKAY

6/10 

My History with Videogames

I am a gamer. I love all things related to my past time, movies, books, toys, posters, and yes videogames.

I still remember the first time I played a Videogame it was Basketball for the Intellivision, although not the most impressive game by today's standards it was enough to get me hooked for life.

The very first consol I owned was the Nintendo Entertainment System. I got it for Christmas, what seems like forever ago. I still remember the amount of joy that little grey box gave me. I had two games my pack in copy of Super Mario/Duck Hunt, and I got Galaga. These are still some amazing games even today. I was blown away by the visuals. I couldn't imagine gaming getting any better than this. With time, my NES game collection grew and is to this day my all time favorite gaming system.

One reason why I'm still gaming now is because of the evolution of gaming. By the end of the 16-bit consol wars, I was starting to feel disconnected with gaming. I wasn't finding as much joy and excitement as I once did. I didn't get the same sense of wonder I used to. Maybe I was sick of Platforming, sick of racing, sick of fighting...This was all about to change with the upcoming Sony PlayStation.

The Sony PlayStation (PSX) was one amazing system, for me it is second only to the NES for all time greatest gaming consoles. With the introduction of the PlayStation we saw a change happening.  A move to 3D, and at the forefront of the movement is the PlayStation. The very first time I got to try it out was at my grandparents. They would take me to a local game shop that would rent gaming systems. I rented the PSX and two games Resident Evil, and Twisted Metal 2. After popping both games in for a bit I was shocked by what I was playing. Visually these games were like the finest works of art, and wet my appetite for more. It wasn't until weeks before my birthday I picked up my own PlayStation. I rented one game. A game that solidified my love for gaming and cemented Sony as a heavy hitter. The game I'm referring to is... Final Fantasy VII. 

To be continued.

Why I'm excited for Battlefield Hardline

Let me start off by saying Battlefield 4 left a very bad taste in my mouth. It was the game I chose to pick up on the launch of the PlayStation 4. Needless to say the game launched as a broken mess. Some will say that Battlefield 4 is much better off now, but for me it was too little to late. I had issues playing both single player and online multiplayer, to the point I was almost ready to give up on the series. 

When Battlefield Hardline was announced, I was very skeptical of the quality, but was intrigued by the premise. I was happy to see the game shy away from the military shooter tropes. Introducing the game as a cops and robbers premise sparked some interest. Come E3 2014 we found out we could try the beta for Hardline. What I played definitely wasn't bad, but also wasn't great either, many people were simply calling the game Battlefield 4 DLC. The game looked like BF4 with just a re-skin and some different vehicles. 

As you can see from this video above the game looks good, but something wasn't doing it for me. The game was in beta form so I was a little more forgiving of glitches. Clearly I wasn't the only one to think the game needed more time. After the E3 beta things went quiet, we didn't hear to much about Hardline. The Game was pushed back from it's original release date to allow more time for improving the game. 

On February 3rd A new beta became available for everyone to play. I was downloading it the first chance I got. I was curious to see the amount of progress that has been made in the time since the E3 beta. All I can say is wow! it's crazy what a few extra months of polishing can do. This beta feels much better. The game has a purpose, and Cops and Robbers is at the heart of everything. The controls feel tighter more responsive in this beta, a few more maps to try out, as well as the addition of new game modes. Visually the game looks great. This is what I wanted from a new Battlefield game, some diversity!

With the second beta that just was released you can see slight improvements on the visual side. The game looks great! The controls feel tighter, and everything thing seems to happen at a much quicker pace. I'm not just talking about the vehicles when I say that. Your character can run faster, aim faster too. One of my biggest annoyances with Battlefield games is having to travel long distances to get back into the action. This looks to be resolved this time around. Faster cars and movement make a huge difference here, but the other more notable difference is the maps. The maps feel more condensed, but in a good way. One notable change that I enjoyed, is the ability to hang out of a speeding car and take down enemies at an incredible speed. I loved the new game mode they added into this beta  Hotwire is easily my favorite new mode. The biggest thing it does right is make you feel like your on a high-speed car chase. In the video above you will see gameplay for this new mode (skip to 3:20 for gameplay). 

Should you run out and pre-order Battlefield Hardline? I would still say no. I would recommend waiting to see how this one goes. But progress has been made to make me once again a fan of the Battlefield series. This game feels fresh but still manages to retain all the elements of Battlefield that people love. Getting away from the military setting, adding some extra speed, and some new fresh game modes. This is definitely a game to keep an eye on. Check out the demo if you need some proof.

Let me end by saying Battlefield Hardline is not a Battlefield 4 expansion!

Race the Sun Review

game play footage for Race the Sun

Race the Sun has one simple premise but don't let that stop you from checking out this excellent indie game!

In Race the Sun you play as a solar-powered spaceship, with one objective make it as far as possible before the sun sets. This game has an excellent laid back minimalist feel to it. At first I was thinking that I wouldn't like the game, and that it would only be fun for an hour, and I would move on to something else. This has not been the case. I have found myself coming back everyday to try and best my score and rank up on the online leader boards.

The Controls for the game couldn't get any easier, you move your ship with the left stick, and press x to jump, that's it for the control set up, simple right? It also helps that you really feel in control of your ship, every movement feels natural, and the mistakes you make genuinely feel like it's your own fault, and not the games. Visually the game won't push the PS4, or high end PCs but what we have works very well and I found I was never distracted by what was going on, or that I would lose control of my ship. 

Game play is Race the Sun's strongest point. As you play through the game, you will have specific challenges you will need to accomplish in order to level up your ship. Some challenges will be to beat a specific stage with no collisions, or to crash "x" number of times, or to travel a certain distance. I loved the game for doing this, as it gives you the urge to play just one more game. Leveling up your ship will grant you bonuses like the ability to jump more, or give you a shield to protect you from a collision, or my favorite the magnet ability which will pick up all items you are in proximity of. The other great feature of the game is when you finish one round it will already tell you where you rank for the day on the leader boards. I found myself becoming more and more competitive as I got better, and leveled up my ship. The last reason why I am addicted to this game is because every day the levels are procedurally generated, so every day the stages will be slightly different from the last. 

Race the Sun made me a fan of endless runners, I highly recommend this game! It is cross-buy, and cross-save on PlayStation platforms (PS4,PS3,PSVita). I played the game on the Vita and PS4. I also really loved my time with Race the Sun. The game is also available on PC, Mac, and Linux, so pick up a copy and try your best to Race the Sun. 

GET IT!

9/10 

Life is Strange Demo Impressions

Full Demo gameplay

Life is Strange is an episodic adventure game by Dontnod Entertainment.

I wasn't to sure what to expect going into this demo, I haven't seen or heard anything about this game before checking out the demo. What are my thoughts? Consider me impressed.

You play as Maxine Caulfield, a photography student who finds out she has a very unique ability to Stop, and rewind time, at her will. If you are familiar with the film Butterfly effect you kind of get the idea. Now the demo doesn't really give you much to do. When I first loaded the game up I wasn't really impressed with the visuals. I felt that the rain sequence made the characters look like plastic toys. However my opinion changed. The characters and backgrounds have a nice mix of water-color and realistic look to them. 

So similar to most graphic adventure games you can interact with different objects, as well as different people. I want to keep this writing as spoiler free as possible, but if you are interested check out my gameplay of the full demo. The game is episodic and from the look of it, everything you do will have an impact moving forward with the story. Sadly the demo doesn't really show this off, but the game demo does leave you on a pretty big cliff hangar that will entice you to check out the full game, something that I plan on doing and will have a full review for episode one sometime in the future. The game has a very dark mysterious vibe to it. I really liked that the game let's you manipulate time. If you give a wrong answer simply rewind until you can move forward. I also felt at least with the demo that the game reminded me of the film Groundhog day (one of my all time favorite movies) as once you go through the bathroom scene the game makes you feel like it was all a dream. You soon discover that everything is real. 

The game is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, PS3, Xbox One, and 360. The first episode will set you back $4.99. For this write up I played the PS4 version, I found no bugs, or issues. If you enjoy the Telltale games, you will find a lot to enjoy. I feel like this game will actually open up a bit more and let you have a more open-ended choices instead of choose to do "A" or "B" that the Telltale games tend to do. Life is Strange looks to be something special. For now it's wait and see. 

This may not be a game for everyone but I strongly recommend checking out the demo and have a go. Worst case you spend 20 minutes of your time on a demo that didn't click for you. I am very impressed with what I played so far, and can't wait to see where this story goes.