Unleaded Logic Dot Com

REZ was one of those games I really wished I would of picked up back when it was released on the Dreamcast and the PS2 a couple of years ago. After all, the start of my music career began with being a DJ and as I forged my craft with many different dance genre’s, REZ would of fit in feeling the rhythm of dance music even more.

The game name itself was inspired by a famous Underworld track called REZ and borrows the same audiovisual format that Underworld used in its music videos and kicks it up a notch.

Story wise the game doesn’t provide you with much. Your a hacker that dives into a renegade computer system and using the power of synthesis and synchronization you fight your way through layer and layer of system information. As you progress through a stage layer, so does the music; either adding in an additional music melody or another drum pattern. Destroying enemies and shooting at them also provides another element of music and all these things combined allow you to experience the full effect of the music.

The added visual HD boost and Dolby 5.1 Surround sound vastly improve upon the original game and when the game is turned up you can really feel yourself getting entranced by the beats and visuals. Game play is easy to pick up and even those who can’t keep a rhythm to save their lives will be able to play the game without a problem. In fact, it may even teach you how to keep rhythm. My first time through I was able to get to the Stage 3 end boss and almost defeated it, getting about 40 achievement points in the process.

REZ comes with several game modes including the regular, Score Attack, Direct Assault, Lost and Trance Mission mode. You can even select the Boss Rush mode and fight it out with all the main AI’s in one sitting. My only gripe about this game is that its music is really starting to show its age with some of its tracks, though sometimes you have to expect that in dance music; older tracks just don’t sound as fresh as they use to. If you can appreciate how long ago the tracks were released though, you’ll be alright.

Do you like vibration? (Ummm…hehe) REZ gives you the option to turn all your other 360 controllers into a trance vibrators (A extra accessory included in the original version of REZ) While it really didn’t add any to the experience to me, it really freaked out my cats.

So is REZ deserving of its legendary status? To me it definitely is because of my music background and the easy but fun and addictive game play. I can see how some people might not enjoy this game, folks who don’t appreciate electronic music will be turned off almost instantly. For those of you who are curious enough to try it out, the free trial really does an awesome job of demonstrating what REZ is. If your not enthused by the end of the demo then you’ll know you won’t need to spend the MS points.

REZ in my opinion gets a well deserved 4.5 out of 5 stars.

With all the news of Street Fighter 4, I’ve been hungry for a fighting game. After all, I do have a mighty fine arcade joystick made for such things and its started to collect a decent amount of dust.

The last game I really truly enjoyed that featured a great one on one fighting system was Dead or Alive 4, but having pretty much played the hell out of it; I really wasn’t up for revisiting it. Checking my renewed Gamefly account, I pulled up some fighting games and found some hope in a title that managed to sneak past me: Virtua Fighter 5.

I honestly can’t tell you the last time I’ve played a Virtua Fighter game, I want to say it was either the first or second one I played at an arcade and I couldn’t remember how the fighting system in the game was for the lift of me. Getting the game finally in the mail, I didn’t come off too impressed.

Graphically I can say that the game is under par with Dead or Alive 4, DOA seems to have a lot better animations (You can thank the booby system for that.) and the overall flow of the graphics and environments seems to one up VF5 on every level. The fighting system itself is nothing ground breaking, the CPU seems to be able to block almost everything you can throw at it, yet you can be destroyed in seconds by something you should be able to block easily, cheap AI= Not very fun. It least with DOA4 you had the feeling that you could really counter each others move’s back and forth and get some kind of struggle between each other, VF5 doesn’t really present that.

The music is decent for a fighting game, but the commentary in this game is just god awful….thank god it can be turned off.

The end result of playing the game for about three hours, was that I really didn’t feel like coming back to it, I wasn’t impressed at all with anything this game offered me. Even thought this 360 version features online mutliplayer, I still think DOA4 is far more fun online.

If your really interested in checking this game out, then please go for a rental first, but only if your rental account allows you to switch games out quickly. I sent this back the day after I received it, hoping that the next game in my que would perk my interest more.

Rating: 2.5 out 5.

First off, I have to give everyone who was waiting for me to review this game an apology! I realized that I said a review was on its way because I just finished it, but that was hardly the case. The game gives you the option to play through the game yet again with all your character stats and weapons and since I skipped out on a majority of the side quests, I thought it would be smart to get the full effect of the game rather than just its main missions and plot lines.

It is your mission. As Commander Shepard of the SS Normandy, you will take your elite recon squad across a galaxy in turmoil, in a desperate race to stop the return of an enemy without mercy. To stop this enemy, you must act without remorse, without hesitation, and outside the limits of the law. Your only imperative is to preserve the safety of civilized life in the galaxy – at any cost. You must become the tip of the spear of humanity, for you alone know the full extent of what is at stake if you should fail.

Fans of the Knights of the Old Republic games will recognize the play structure of the game right away with the Paragon and Renegade Morality system replacing the light side and the dark side of the Force. The game also borrows KOTOR’S dialog system and kicks it up a notch with extremely well detailed facial features and seamless delivery of the dialog and interactivity between characters. One thing that may put fans off from the Knights games is that the combat is all in real time. Think of all the different powers you had access to in KOTOR and put in the Gears of War cover and combat system and you have a pretty good picture of what the system is like. It does take a little bit of getting use to because you have to play the action scenes with RPG elements in mind. This means that you just can’t go rushing up to an enemy and expect to kick his ass because he has far more hits points and combat stats then you do.

Graphically the game seems to delivery pretty well, though the frame rate seems to have a definite slow down when a large chunk of enemies appears and when you enter larger areas. I’m not sure if this has to do with poor planning by Bioware or if my Xbox 360 DVD drive is to blame; it did seem to be spinning quite hard. The sound effects and soundtrack delivery very well in the game, giving you the complete feeling of space travel as well as action during combat scenes. The music never really seems out of place in any area which is good thing, as it helps pull you in to the overall experience.

The main storyline will have you travel the galaxy in order to hunt down your arch nemesis before he can get a hold of an ancient piece of technology that will bring all galactic civilizations down. The story stays interesting and allows you to interact with both your crew mates, enemies as well as other things. The main story can be completed in about 10 hours and as I mentioned before you can play the game through with the same stats a second time to complete the main story again, as well as doing side missions.

Side missions add about another 15-20 hours of game play depending on how quick you are able to piece things together. They range from doing simply deeds for people, boarding renegade ships, investigating distress beacons and stopping a nuclear bomb from completely destroying a planet. They keep things interesting and allow you to learn more about your character as well as your crew mates. They do add a lot to the game play and I recommend when you pick up the game you try all the side quests the first time around, it just makes the main plot that much more interesting.

At the end of a long two weeks, I was able to finish all most everything Mass Effect had for me content wise in about 28 hours total. Not bad at all, especially considering that cold winter days and nights have arrived for me here in Chicago. If you’re an RPG fan, you really owe it to yourself to check this game out and enjoy all it has to offer. I usually don’t go through a second play though on RPG’s, in fact I haven’t since Chrono Trigger; this one made me want to play through the second time.

All this makes Mass Effect a majorly recommended pickup, to buy or to rent.

Take Hitman, Prince of Persia and 50 percent of the gameplay from Crackdown; toss it in a blender and out pops one of the most cinematic and dashing game of this year.

Assassin’s Creed has been through a pretty up and down ride over its development cycle. The game started with a boat load of hype from its first presentation on PS3 at E3 and over the next few years the game was presented the hype seemed to die down and the excitement turned to worry. Like any game when it is overhyped, if it fails to bring something completely new to the table, it’s automatically deemed a failure. While Creed doesn’t bring anything completely new to the gaming world, it mixes 3 of some of the best action and stealth titles released in the past year or two.

First the game matches Hitman with setting you up as an assassin, giving you your target and delivering multiple ways to take that target out. For example my first meeting with one of the boss characters could have gone a few ways. I simply could have pulled out my sword; started a one on one battle to the death and attract a crap load of guards. Or I could have waited till he moved to a more secluded area to deal with him. Instead I decided to use my hidden knife to accomplish the deed and while the guards were not paying any particular attention to him, I walked to the side of my target and knifed him the back with one quick blow. Timing can be a blessing if you are smart in this game.

Control wise, Creed takes a few key moves from Prince of Persia and seamlessly brings them over to this brand new universe. While they do take some getting used to at first, in more than half an hour you’ll be seamlessly running, jumping and speeding from roof top to roof top in no time. The combat system takes a nod from Prince of Persia and adds excellent counter moves and offensive attacks, giving a real cinematic approach to battles. Having a duel against almost 6 people at once is tons of fun and once your done looking at your body count you can’t help to give an evil grin with the chaos you caused. Not much of a fighter? Then run for your life and head to the roof tops.

The final layer of this game seems like it was majorly inspired from Crackdown. You’re given a huge open kingdom to explore, you’re tasked with taking out 3 key targets (Out of 9 in total.) and you’re allowed to go after which one you prefer at anytime. As you accomplish goals, you character is upgraded with more abilities and weapons, allowing you for more fun. Much like how you collected key locations in Crackdown with Agency towers, in Creed you will hunt for eagle towers; structures you climb in order to get a bird’s eye view of your surroundings and objectives. The climbing system in the game beats Crackdown hands down and allows you to get a real feeling of accomplishment when you make it the top of your destination. The final nod to Crackdown is the many flags that are placed throughout the kingdom, collect them all and get achievements; just like the orbs in Crackdown.

The big storyline surprise that Ubisoft was hinting at is pretty obvious if you’ve seen any trailers for the game or have been following the development of the game. I can safely say that’s this is explained in the very beginning of the game and that the actual storyline that you follow after it is decently interesting; far more interesting then Crackdown’s.

Sound wise, even on my surround sound system I wasn’t too blown away by it, the sound is passable, but it’s nothing that will knock your socks off like Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4 would. Graphically, the game looks and runs very nice with some minimal popup and the occasional small slow down.

The bottom line is that if you enjoyed any of the three previous games I mentioned then this is definitely worth a pick up. Skip out on the oversized limited edition as there is nothing really worth picking up on it; the regular edition will get you by without a problem. If you didn’t really enjoy those games then it is still a very highly recommended rental that you should check out!

I’m myself I’m glad I bought the game; I just wish it included a Jade Raymond poster. Just kidding!

Smackdown your money someplace else!

Since 2000, I’ve been playing WWE’s famous wrestling video game series: Smackdown VS Raw. I’ve seen the game from its origins on Playstation 1, its arrival on the Playstation 2 and then the series released to the Playstation Portable. I cheered when THQ made the decision the finally make the game multi platform and finally I was able to experience the game in Hi-def goodness last year on the Xbox 360 with the 2007 version of the game.

Like any sequel when it first takes a leap to a new system, you expect the game to have a few issues with it because the developers haven’t quite been able to harness the full power of the system. You typically enjoy the game, but then you realize that it it will most likely take the sequel for you to be truly enjoying a next generation wrestling game. This isn’t the case with Smackdown this year folks, it plays worse in almost every aspect compared to last year’s and I can easily say that out of the past 7 years that I’ve bought a Smackdown game; this is the most of I’ve ever been disappointed with the series.

I’m starting to think that this year’s version was developed by the Great Khali as wrestlers run around like they lost feeling to their legs due to the new button arrangements. I’m not quite sure what THQ was thinking moving the run button from the Y button to a shoulder button, but it results in a lot of stupid mistakes when you try to reverse a strike attack and instead run into your opponents form arm like a jobber who doesn’t know how to bump. Ulitmate control grapples have been slimed down only allowing you two ways to perform them instead of last year’s four, in its place you are now given the chance to “wiggle out” of certain attack and perform a reversal for them.

This year’s story mode got screwed over worse than Bret Hart at Survivor Series as WWE 24/7 has merged both the General Manager and single wrestler story mode into one section. The only problem is you can’t play each mode separately, you have to make a game save for just one and if you try going to the other mode while you have progress in another, it forces you to erase your progress to start that other mode. That’s one big piss off when you’ve been able to do it for the last two years in the previous games. Single player story lines make as much sense as an Ultimate Warrior promo, one week you’ll be getting the crap knocked out of you by Gregory Helms and then the next week you’ll see a cut scene with you shaking his hand. Not more than 25 seconds after that your fighting him again for your monthly storyline. What? The same can be said for your tag team partners, in emails you’ll be singing their praises and then in a hall way cut scene your brushing them off and treating them like their nothing; just like the WWE Wellness Policy.

Storylines also repeat far too often, I can’t tell you how many times I had to defend a championship belt in a ladder match and save my brand from an ECW invasion, with all 5 of their superstars that are featured on the game. I also ran into 5 events where I lost my title belt for no reason what so ever, not in a story line; nothing. It vanished like the cruiserweight title has for the last 4 months.

For as long as this series has been around, all these errors are unacceptable, yes I know they can be patched, but someone should of freaking beta tested this game more! If you have to play this year’s version then you’ll be safe renting it, by the time your done with your rental period you will proudly be taking the thing back to the video store to
Never…..
Evvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrr……
Play it………
AGAIN!

Non fans of the hit CSI TV series need not apply here, as it’s basically a video game adaption of the Las Vegas night shift CSI’s hunting for guilty criminals using the powers of science. Shockingly, even fans of the TV series may want to stay away from this boring game as well. It basically breaks down to a combination of Myst and pixel hunting, as your constantly moving around your curser to find a potential hot spot in the crime scene and use your proper CSI collection kit to collect the evidence.

The graphics are certainly nothing special and some of the cast members don’t even come close to their actual real looks. At times you’ll be wondering if some of the CSI’s have been doing Crystal Meth as their eyes seem to bulge out of their head and there jagged polygons that make up their heads twist the normal perception of what a human should look like.

About the only plus this game has is its easy achievement points, you can easily beat the game in about a day and rack of 1000 gamer points the first way though, but it is almost not worth it due to the amount of boredom you have to endure to get them. Stick with the show.
Save your weekend rental on something else!

Stranglehold: What Dead to Rights 2 should have been.

Seven years ago, third person action games broke into the scene with the likes of Max Payne and Dead to Rights; testing our trigger fingers and testing our tolerance for “bullet time” slow-mo game play that allowed us to put 500 holes through our potential enemies.

Flash forward to the present with Stranglehold and it still feels like we are doing the same thing, only with the obvious graphic enhancements and star power by the likes of Chow Yun-Fat. Much like the other games in years past we can only be somewhat impressed by the one man VS fifty guys with rocket launchers formula and helicopter gunnery mow down scenes.

Stranglehold does feature solid game play and even a decent multiplayer mode. I could not suggest spending sixty dollars on the this game, but it would be a perfect pickup for the weekend to shoot up some stuff, get some decent achievement points and return the game to which it came from in a few days. If your work week sucked, grab this game and take your aggression out on the poor hapless morons who can’t use bullet time.

Acclaimed action director John Woo presents Stranglehold, a stunning 3rd-person action adventure videogame for the PC. A “spiritual sequel” to Woo’s action masterpiece, “Hard Boiled,” Stranglehold redefines the action gaming experience with its acrobatic gunplay, thrilling cinematography, frenetic combat and incredible Massive Destructibility (Massive D). Chow Yun-Fat reprises his signature role as Inspector Tequila, pitting gamers as a take no-prisoners cop waging a personal war with Hong Kong crime lords. Tequila’s loyalties to the force are tested when his ex-wife is kidnapped by the Russian mob in Chicago. Tequila struggles to balance his duty to uphold the law with doing what it takes to save his family.