A Topic Worth Writing In For

After subscribing to Game Informer for a few years now there hasn't been a topic I felt strong enough to voice my opinion on until now. Sadly it's not an article or a game feature, but someone instigating a debate on the Wii, it's hardcore games and the whiney SOB's that claim they are hardcore gamers. Hey! I'm a whiney SOB claiming to be a hardcore gamer, so I had to jump on my soapbox and write in. Here's how it went down.

Dear GI:

Hardcore Negligence

In the reader art section of issue 195, there was a picture of Jack from the under appreciated MadWorld. I'm one of the few who bought the game - it makes me wonder about gamers who cry on internet forums about Nintendo failing its hardcore audience on the Wii. I'm starting to think the opposite is true: the hardcore audience has failed Nintendo. Why didn't you buy MadWorld, House of the Dead, Okami and No more Heros? All of those titles should have sold more copies. If you call yourself hardcore, why aren't you buying the games made for you?

Patrick Borrelli
Via Email

Hardcore Wii owners, Patrick is calling you out. What do you have to say in your defense? Have hardcore gamers let Nintendo down? Drop us a line and share your thoughts.

My Response:

Growing up with video games and owning consoles from Sony, Sega, and Nintendo had me in a bit of a quarrel as to what system to buy this generation. I ended up going with the Nintendo Wii back when it was still almost impossible to get one and the games were very much lacking. But it's innovated idea on gameplay and having a new Zelda game to boot had me wanting one. But after 2 years of owning one, I as a hardcore gamer who also likes "casual" games, was missing many of the hardcore games that were released for the PS3 and the 360. So I went out and bought a PS3 a few months ago. I now don't have the feeling of missing out on good hardcore games because they won't come to the Wii for one reason or another. That way I can still play games like Zelda and Mario Kart, but still not miss out on games like Resident Evil 5 and Prototype. In issue 196, Patrick brought up a few good games for hardcore gamers that came out for the Wii and asked why people weren't buying them. But just because you are a hardcore gamer doesn't mean that we all like the same type of hardcore games. I did, however, pick up Okami, but went with the ps2 version instead. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy my Wii and pick up a new game for it when it appeals to me, but overall Nintendo seems to have targeted the Wii more towards the "casual" gamer. For me being a multi-console gamer is the only way to go.

Will I show up in a future issue of Game Informer? Only one way to find out. In the mean time I would like to continue this discussion here. Tell me your thoughts on Patrick's and my responses to this issue. What are your feelings on the Wii/Hardcore Gamer relationship? I love a good debate.

EDIT: I have added a poll listing hardcore games for the 3 major consoles with the appearance of the ps2 and the gamecube because the games where just to good to leave off and some are expecting sequels in the future. Also if I left out your favorite hardcore game I'm sorry. I have also only listed the latest in a series, not what I think is the best. I had to end the list somewhere. But since this is a poll about Nintendo leaving hardcore gamers out with their current console I thought that current games on current consoles should be looked at. Please take the poll seriously. I want to see hardcore gamers opinions on what good hardcore games are out there and what systems have the best hardcore games. This study will help with the discussion. Please feel free to choose more than one option since being a hardcore gamer means you play more than just 1 or 2 games.

The Survival Horror Horror

This is not so much of a review, but more of a look at a specific genre of games and how it's evolving. I'm sure by the title you already guessed I'm talking about the Survival Horror Genre. Alone in the Dark and Sweet Home are among the first survival horror games, but the term was coined with the first Resident Evil. Resident Evil: Director's Cut for the Playstation was my first survival horror game and the standard I hold all the rest to.

So after completing Resident Evil 5 for the second time, I've been looking for new survival horror games to fix my itch. This is where the inspiration for this blog is coming from. I did some searches on the top survival horror games out there looking for more to play. Resident Evil always made the list. After being one of the most recognized survival horror game, with over 20 games and 4 movies, how could it not be. However, with most of the lists Resident Evil 4 was the Resident Evil game pf choice or placed higher then others. For me Resident Evil 4 was one of my least favorites, not to say that I have played all of the titles. But out of the main series, I feel it is lacking, while everyone gives their praises. This is where I feel the definition of survival horror is being turned upside-down.

The definition of survival horror can be easily broken down to a game where you try to survive in a really horrific, unreal situation. So yes Resident Evil 4 can technically be considered. But it's also about the build up to fear, the puzzles over the shoot 'em up style, conserving your ammo, and juggling your items. This is opposed to a shooter style like the game F.E.A.R., which is a horror type of game, but not a survival type at all. I believe Resident Evil 4 started moving towards a shooter style and away from the survival horror theme.

This move greatly saddens me. Especially since Resident Evil is one of my favorite games and others like it. Something about scaring the shit out of me intrigues me, though sometimes I find them to scary to play. An amusing thought I'm sure for someone who claims to love the games so much. Playing through Resident Evil 5 has made me miss the old style even more. Sure the graphics are fantastic and I take full advantage of the HD capabilities. But where were all the puzzles? Sure there are a few. The puzzle where you have to turn the mirrors to make the ancient elevators work wasn't bad, but it also seemed very Tomb Raideresque. Where are the password puzzles? Where are the puzzles where you have to have the right color combination of fuses to unlock something? Where are the objects that you have to find in order to move on or gain a new items? No broken shotgun to replace the real one so you can do a bait and switch just like in Indiana Jones? And all the key cards are obtained by killing a mini boss type of enemy instead of finding it hidden among a pile of papers or such like things? This just goes to show you that the games are heading more brawn then brains. The puzzles brought so much more to the game then we must kill everything in the way to survive. It gave more dimensions to the games and more game time since some of those puzzles can be pretty tricky.

I do have to give RE5 props though for the co-op campaign. Very few games have this, especially online. And they do it very well. Co-op campaign is lacking from a lot of games these days. Most multiplayer games are again strategic shoot up the other team before they get you. The only other game that I can think of that has co-op campaign that I've played was Obscure: The Aftermath for Wii, which is another survival horror title. It didn't have online play, which is too bad, but it didn't do half bad. It wasn't the best game I've ever played, but it was a lot of fun to play with a friend. It also kept the puzzles and I must add overly cheesy lines like a lot of survival horror games have, including the first Resident Evil. However playing with the AI when you don't have a friend can be difficult like with any AI character.

I know everything needs to evolve otherwise we would become bored of having the same kind of game over and over again. But that is what the different genres are for. Hell that's even what the different series of Resident Evil is for. From the main series to the survivor series to the chronicle series and so on. But bring back all the puzzles and the thrills instead of the kills. Though I do have to say that there are some freaky parts in RE5. I'm glad the lickers made a couple quite freaky and challenging appearances.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Beta PS3

So I got my hands on an Uncharted 2: Among Theives Closed Beta Code. Now I don't know much about Uncharted seeing how I didn't play the first one, so storyline is lost on me. What I can report on is the gameplay. In the beta you can play multiplayer online with others who are in the beta. I luckily hooked up with someone I knew and was pleasently surprised that the mic worked on the beta. The gameplay mostly consisted of strategicly hiding behind boxes, couches and such and shooting hoards of soliders. You can also melee and kick and bunch the crap out of them. I noticed that if you decide to do hand to hand combat they go down faster then if you were to shoot the hell out of them. However if they have you in a strangle hold you are helpless to get out. Another player has to shoot them for the enemy to loosen their grip on your neck.

The health system is fairly simple. What is nice is that the color of the whole world around you fades until it goes into black and white. It's easier to tell when you are dying then keeping your eye on some sort of health bar. The color slowly becomes vibrant again as you stay out of the line of fire. If you get to badly hurt you will become paralized hoping that the other players can revive you before you completely die. So running out in the middle of the hoard is not a good idea. The player who will try to save your life will most likely die as well.

There are other actions. Once you clear out a hoard a red icon will appear. You have to find out where it is and set off an action. Usually moving an object so you can climb on it to gain access to another area. The Beta consisted of 3 or 4 areas, one with a mini boss, which your characters will comment on how you should kill him before he gets you, but really he was a piece of cake. The beta ends with another boss-like enemy jumping over a wall carrying a machine gun.

It was pretty fun, but something I will buy when the full version comes out. I'm still on the fence about it.

Resident Evil 5 PS3 Review

Resident Evil is one of those games that helped start the survival horror revolution. It also helped revive the popularity of zombies and giving them a new twist on a real world situation that could cause a person to become a zombie. I'm not saying that we have the bio technology to actually pull it off, but it's not far from the truth with bio terrorism. This storyline to these games helped the games' popularity. The puzzles and cheap frights also made it a game you loved to play. Who can forget the Licker dashing by the window just as you turn a corner in RE2?

But recent RE games have drifted a bit from it's predecessors. In RE4 they decided to take the gameplay into a different direction along with the storyline. Sure Umbrella has been taken down, but bio weapons still live on, all thanks to Umbrella. The game changed more into a 3rd person shooter then a survival horror with hoards of zombie like people charging at you. They have become faster and smarter as well. The debate is out on whether these are zombies or not. Sure you could use the definition of a zombie as one who has lost all their personality and only has one basic function rather then that of a reannimated corpse, but what fun is that?

Resident Evil 5 is more like 4 then any other, but it brings back a villain that I am most happy with. I'm sure you all have heard who it is by now, but I'll keep it hush hush in this review. The big major change in RE5 that hasn't been done before in any other in this series is that you can choose to play alone with the AI character or with a partner either online or right next to you. I have to say that I love and hate this feature. I hate it when you play alone because AI characters are never really that helpful. Sure they will save your life when you are dying and they somewhat help you take out the bad guys, but in Boss battles it leaves more to be desired. But what can you really expect from an AI player? However, playing with a friend is a lot of fun. You just want to make sure that you have some sort of verbal communication with your partner if you are playing online. The button commands are general commands, but in this game you will need to strategize a bit more then just telling someone to come here.

This new game play has also taken out some of the puzzles you have seen before and is more about shooting the bad guys, just like in RE4. I don't recall seeing any puzzles asking you to enter a key code where you must find the code first, or ones where you have to put objects in a certain place in a machine to activate it. I dearly miss all the puzzles and would trade them in for hoards of zombie like people any day. The game does keep some puzzles though. But these puzzles have become more Tomb Raideresque. My brother loves Tomb Raider games and while playing he made a comment on how close it was. Luckily there was no swimming underwater. I'm not a fan of water levels.

The controls are also different from past versions. For those of us who played the older Resident Evil games, we got used to what have been named as tank controls. There was a lot of complaints about the way you controlled your character. I know when I first started it took some getting used to. And in RE5 I had to get used to controls all over again. What was once the x button for reading info and gathering items is now square. You still hold down a button to aim your gun, but it is now L1 instead of R1. Then you have to press R1 instead of x to shoot. This does leave you with fumbling around with the controls for a bit.

I was pretty happy with the storyline though, which brings back old characters and more back story on Umbrella. There is also a few new Enemies and a new form on the virus. Of course the enemies turn on each other and seem a bit too eager themselves to become monsters. The story does lead itself to some crazy storylines, but what can you expect from a game about a virus that turns people into monsters. I of course don't want to give up to much on the story and ruin the surprise for those who want to be surprised.

With all the changes it is proving hard for me to give this game a rating. It was even hard for me to even decide if I wanted to pick this game up. I am a fan of the older games and have been playing them since Resident Evil: Directors Cut. So ya from the beginning. I loved the style and puzzles in the game. The storyline was one that grabbed my attention, even with the cheesy dialog. I must say that the dialog gets better as the games go on, but the storylines seem to get worse. When I got RE4 I was highly disappointed. The thing I think that grabbed my attention and my decision to get RE5 was the storyline. As I said the return of one of the characters was a good selling point for me. I was also intrigued by being able to play RE with a friend. So I decided to give this game a try. With a friend along I couldn't stop playing this game. It is a lot of fun and I am glad that I did pick it up. However it did still leave me longing for the old games.

So for those reasons I reluctently give this game a rating of 3.5 stars out of 5.

Super Mario Bros 3 Retro Review

Yes it's time for my first Retro Review. Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in 1990 in the U.S. for the Nintendo Entertainment system. Since then it has been released on several other consoles, the latest being on the Virtual Console for the Wii. Even without today's graphics, Super Mario Bros. 3 stands the test of time for one of the greatest platformers of all time. Or at leas that's what I think.

The game is a 1 to 2 player game, where you play as Mario and Luigi (second player being Luigi). There are 8 different worlds, which you view on a map like screen which Mario and Luigi use to travel from one level to the next, that hold many different levels that must be complete. You don't have to complete all the levels to move on. Some paths give you a choice to do one or the other.

Each map has a couple castles or more including the final castle. Defeating a castle, not counting the final castle, will crumble and a block will be unlocked on the map, allowing you to pass by the first few levels again without redoing them in the event that you die. Before entering the final castle of a world you talk to a subject of the King of the world. He tells you that the king has been transformed and you need to return his magic wand. You then enter the castle and travel to the end of the level to reach one of Bowser's children for a mini boss battle. I find them to be quite easy. Jumping on them three times kills them and if you do this fairly quickly you can defeat them without them barely moving. I find the level to get to the mini boss much harder to do then the acutal boss. If you do fail the first time a flying ship will move to another location on the map. This can become problematic if you didn't beat all the levels or if you died and some of the levels became unbeaten. So you may have to beat a few more levels before battling the final boss again. Once you defeat the final boss of the world the king recieves his magic wand and is back to his old self again. You also get a letter from peach which includes an item to help you on your way.

Each world has a different theme which can be a world filled most by water levels or my favorite, a world where everything is big. Mario stays the same size but blocks and enemies have grown about 4 times their normal size. Different themes allow different challenges in each world and help the game from becoming repetitive. Oh course each new world you come to will be more challenging then the last, as with the levels.

Also on the map are very short mini games. A mushroom shaped house leads you to a game which lets you choose from three chests. The chest you choose holds an item that then goes into your menu bar at the bottom as do the items you recieve in Peach's letters. These items can be used before entering a level. You press A and then select what you will want and Mario is transformed. It's very helpful indeed. Another mini game brings up a screen with three sliding parts. You press A three times to stop each of the scrolling parts. If they stop to form a complete item you get extra lives, depending on what the item is. A third mini game appears randomly after you complete a level. This mini game is a game of memory where you pick to cards and they stay up if they match. If you get it wrong twice you lose. But the board keeps whatever you have matched for next time the mini game comes up.

There are also new items that are introduced that it's predecessors did not have. P wings and a cloud are among the few that let you either skip a level or fly throughout the whole level. There are also three hidden flutes in the game that allow you to move to a whole new world. The flutes make it very easy to beat the game in no time, providing you can get past the last world quickly. With just two flutes and by defeating the first map you can get all the way to the last world, which is Bowser's fire like world.

This is a fun and challenging game for all ages which makes it the classic it is. If you have never played this game before and like platformers I highly recommend getting it.

Which is why I give Super Mario Bros. 3 a 4 out of 5 stars.

Game review: Chrono trigger (and remakes)

Okay, to start this review off I would like to state I am the new reviewer. Well anyway chrono trigger has had two remakes after the original launch, now this was a good move for square cause so few gamers have played the first game. Now this game is probably the only game I am going to say is a must play if you like rpgs. Okay so now one of the things that makes the game good is it came out on the snes however its graphics seemed years ahead of the snes's time. Another good thing is unlike most rpgs of this time period the plot is incredibly well written and has about 8 hours of gameplay through the first playthrough(if you play flawlessly and manage to get through without dieing or having to grinding), another interesting thing about this is it has multiple endings, about 6 or so on the original.Now one of th egames other amazing features was multicharacter combos, and because the max party was three characters and there was seven or so possible party members, now this was a really good feature because I was pulled into replaying the game after getting every ending to see every move(I still haven't seen every move yet). One other thing about this game is the fact it includes time travel to different eras, and the actions you do in the past can affect the future. For example in the past you can do a mission to plant a bunch of trees, and if you do in the present there will be a huge forest and a temple featuring the party member you sent to plant the trees.

Now to cover the remakes, the ps1 remake was a full priced game, however its new features were good enough for the full price, however it was also marketed with ff5. Now to cover the new features, there were some anime cutscenes, and they added a music database and a few other neat features. Now the anniversary collection(its ps1 release) was my first entry into crono trigger, and I remember when I rented the anniversary collection all I would do was play crono trigger and ignore ff5.(I never purchased the collection). Now the other remake was the ds one, this is worth the 50$ price, however if you own the previous versions of chrono trigger the new features aren't worth it. They kept the old ps1 features, added a nice new long quest, three dungeons you have to complete to get a new ending that feels in some missing info, they also added a horrid monster raising system which I hate cause it was pointless, and having your creature evolve was random chance, and its more likely for your creature to devolve. Now lets end chrono trigger ds on a good note, the interface is completely customizable and made for the touch screen

Review summary
Original chrono trigger: 5 out of 5, nice graphics, interesting plot, nice gameplay features

anniversay collection chrono trigger: 5 out of 5, nice new anime cutscenes, the two games are worth the 40$ price tag and it was still lesser known during this release.

Chrono trigger ds : 4 out of 5, not enough new features for a 5 out of 5, but I would have to say if you need to buy a chrono trigger game, buy this one.

Now thanks for listening to my first review

Signed charon Aka Ryley

Singstar Series Playstation Review

I was going to do a comparison on all the karaoke games out there to help people decide which one is right for them. As I started writing it I realized just how much information there is out there for these types of games, even though there is 4 main series out there. Plus there were karaoke games that didn’t appeal to me so I wouldn’t try them and be able to give you a full comparison and another one I only played at a friends and didn’t have enough information for me to compare it against the ones that I own. If you haven’t noticed in my past reviews, I like giving a detailed review to give you the best information possible. I do research on my games and play them most, if not all the way through. So under my own code of excellence that I strive for in my reviews, this comparison just wasn’t cutting it. So I decided to do a review on the Singstar series for the Playstation 3. From the choices of songs selections to the actual game play, this is my favorite of all the karaoke games out there.

There are many different Singstar title for you to choose from for the PS2 and a growing number for the PS3. The PS2 SingStars are more grouped into music genres with such titles as Singstar Pop, Singstar Rocks and Singstar Country. They also have titles by decades with Singstar '80's and Singstar 90's. The PS3 versions however take a little bit different approach by mixing their genres all into one disc with Singstar and Singstar Vol. 2. They also have released a Singstar ABBA and soon a Singstar Queen. Now if they only had Singstar Evanescence I would be all set.

The game basics is a karaoke game. When you choose a song the official video from the band plays with the actual track from the artist, unlike some karaoke games. The lyrics appear at the bottom and become highlighted over the word to sync with the song. It works just like any karaoke system would work in that matter. Which in practice mode is basically just karaoke with the video playing. It's also a good mode to just watch the music videos. In other modes: sing solo, duet, battle and pass the mic, are where the game part of Singstar comes out. These modes track you pitch as you sing through the song gaining you points as you hit the right ones. Easy gives you the widest area to get the pitch while hard gives you the least. At the end of the song you get rated by the number of points you rack up, giving them such names as hopeful, lead singer and singstar.

The online features of the game aren't bad, but could've been better. The PS2 Singstar doesn't have online options, no surprise there, but the PS3 titles do. If you select the online option it will give you a choice of going to their store, which currently has over 500 songs to download for $1.49 each. Which isn't a bad price for the offical music video that works in the game. If you go to itunes right now you can buy music videos for $1.49 or $1.99. The online store is also a great idea because some of the titles might have one or two songs that you actually want. So this way you can buy only the ones you want once you have bought a PS3 version. Not all the songs that are on the discs can be downloaded, so you might have to actually buy a disc if you can't live without a song.

Most of the songs that come on the disc and that are downloaded are edited to keep it's Teen rating. The song might replace the word with a more appropriate word, but that only happens if the real video is done that way. If the song just simply took out the word then it will be missing int he game as well. However the pitch bar is still present even with the word edited out. So you can still sing your songs uninterupted. But if you don't know the song very well you will have to fill in the pitch bar with whatever you can come up with. Which is another point about this game. Getting the right lyrics don't matter. Just the pitch.

Some songs however aren't edited. For example I Write Sins, Not Tragedies by Panic At The Disco. Normally when you see the video being played or hear the song on the radio, it cuts out the line "God Damn Door", and in the preview of this video on Singstar it does as well. But after downloading and playing the song, it does not. There was no warning when purchasing the actual track, however when going into the store it does give a disclaimer that song are not rated and that "Parental discretion is advised".

Another good thing about the online store is that you can also download songs from a bunch of different lanuages. All you do is set your settings to a different default lanuage and the store shows you all those songs. Trying doing 99 Red Balloons in German. However, depending on your region you have a slightly different songlist. Some songs cannot be bought if you live in the U.S. and some can't be bought in the U.K. I assume it has to do with liscening issues.

The other part of the online feature is creating a profile and uploading videos of yourself singing in the game using the Playstation Eye (a camera that can be bought seperatly for your playstation). This feature is something I never use, but I don't have a Playstation Eye. But for me without this feature, this game wouldn't get a lower score.

Then I was all ready to embarass myself by singing online with a random person to give you guys a complete review and realized that this feature doesn't exsist, which is a shame. I guess Singstar didn't feel the need to add this feature. Maybe because singing in a group is meant to be done when you are together. But this feature has been seen in a number of other karaoke games such as American Idol Encore 2 (multi console) and Lips (Xbox 360 exclusive). Now I don't have Singstar Vol. 2. So that might be an option.

One really good thing about the Singstar games is that if you aren't one of the lucky owners of a backwards compatible (b/c) PS3 you can still play PS2 titles using a disc swap system. Insert your PS3 version of singstar. Once you have gotten to the list of song choices press the select bottom and it will ask you to remove the current disc and put in a new Singstar title. This can be a ps2 version or another ps3 version. The tracks from the disc are now available to sing in the setting of the ps3 version. Although you can't play the songs on the previous disc, the downloaded songs still remain in your catalog. You can also do this if you have a ps2 version in your system (if you are using a ps2 or a b/c ps3), however you can only swap ps2 versions since it doesn't recognize the ps3 disc as a Singstar disc.

I would have to give the series a 4 out of 5 for music selection and using the real tracks and videos.

Jessie (aka Bloodyaftertaste)