Elite Review: Star Wars the Force Unleashed (Wii)

When I got this game, I'll admit, I didn't do my research I would usually do for a game. I got it for three reasons: 1) It's Star Wars. 2) I saw some of the motion sensing capabilities and thought they were promising. and 3) My friend told me to get it. So I shelled out the 60 bucks without playing a demo, really reading too many reviews or watching videos. Let this serve as a warning for all Elite Wheelers...

Now this game isn't Jekyll and Hyde for NES terrible or anything, but it is nowhere near a good game. It is a good story, however, so let's have some background. The story takes place after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and before Episode IV: A New Hope. Darth Vader finds a force sensitive child on one of his missions to purge the Jedi and sensing his potential takes him on as a secret apprentice. You, of course, are that secret apprentice and go around doing missions for Vader. The storyline evolves into Vader wanting to overthrow the Emperor with you at his side by inciting a rebellion, which obviously will come as a wtf moment if you've seen the movies. I won't spoil the rest of the story but you can read up on it somewhere on the internet.

The first gripe I noticed with the game was the camera. It is slow to center, meaning there are a lot of times where I'm standing there waiting for the camera turn so I can see if there's anyone in front of me. This results in me getting hit by a god damn Stormtrooper before the camera centers. I mean, fuck, I'm Darth Vader's apprentice, I should be able to kill these guys with zero effort. Which I can, if I could fucking see them. If they had added a camera centering button this game would have been 10x better. There is a lock on feature where you target one enemy, but this is useless 95% of the time as there are usually multiple people you're fighting and when you are going one on one you'd rather not have the lock on on so you could be more mobile.

Another thing this game got wrong is the linearity. The game is just mission after mission, usually you fighting through hordes of Stormtroopers or other footsoldiers then getting to the end of the level and killing a Jedi or someone else. There is literally nothing to this game other than fighting, the environments make the levels straightforward, and you can't go back to a level. It's quite frustrating and tedious.

I actually finished playing this game last night. And by finished I don't mean beat, I mean just finished. I got to the last level, on the Death Star, which ramps up the difficulty 1000%. It was late, I was tired, and I didn't really care, so I turned off my Wii. The only thing eating at me was how the story ended. So I just went online and read it. That's right. I was only playing the game for the story. When I was playing the latter levels I felt as if I was just pushing through the gameplay to get to the cutscenes. Now like I said I liked the story, and this is probably the best part of the game, but I'm not spending 60 bucks on a movie.

The one other thing that made this experience kind of enjoyable was the number of ways to kill someone. Lightsaber combos, force push, force grip, force choke, force lightning, throwing one Stormtrooper at another, tossing your lightsaber at a guy's chest, all amazing. There are certain points in the game where you need to kill a set number of baddies to pass on through the level. One of these is on a mission to Cloud City. I had one more guy to kill, and it being on Cloud City I liked force grabbing guys and throwing them off the side so they could plummet to their deaths. So I took this last monster, grabbed him, and whipped him as far as I could. He went off into the distance like an Albert Pujols homerun and turned into a speck and disappeared. I sat there for a few moments and waited for me to be able to pass this part of the level, but it told me I had to kill the last bad guy. I thought maybe I bugged the game but about 30 seconds later he died and it let me pass. Yes, I threw a guy so hard with the force it took him like a minute to land. This was the best moment of the game for me.

Multiplayer? Also not fun. Won't waste my time here. No online capability.

In the end however, a very disappointing adventure. Laborious, tedious, cumbersome, call it what you will, but I suppose it's my fault for not doing my research.

5.5/10

Ghostbusters game

Latest video for the upcoming Ghostbusters game. Some game play is featured as well as one of the in game cinematics and it looks very cool.

http://www.thegameheroes.com/

Back off man, I'm a scientist!

Game Log: BioShock, New SMB, and NHL Arcade

So I realized this weekend that I really need to stop forming any sort of opinion on a game after playing through less than 1% of it. That might actually be a good lesson for life in general.

I'm talking about BioShock. I had noted in various sections of this blog that I was pretty meh on the game. Well, I'm glad I stuck with it as I really started to enjoy it this weekend after a few sessions.

My main hump was the controls. I was coming off Dead Space which used third person shooter controls. Before that was Gears of War and Gears of War 2 so the aiming/shooting controls felt strange. I eventually got the hang of them and am now killing bad guys at a high school level.

The second issue was just me not really getting the "vibe" of the game. There was a moment though when I finally settled into its creepiness. I don't know why it took me so long to absorb the ambiance but eventually I was really enjoying my walks through the corridors as insane people let loose with their weirdo babbling in the distance.

Third, I gots me a shotgun!

Now I'm dreading that flawed ending that starts to seep into the game about 2/3rds through. Until then, I'll just be killin' big daddies and rescuing the little sis's.

The second game I'm enjoying right now is New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. Sarah picked up Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion so I needed something to play while the TV was being monopolized for that century long quest. (Quick review of Elder Scrolls so far: it has quite the character editor).

Anyways, New Super Mario Bros is a return to the basics for Mario. It's a 2D platformer with 3D graphics and feels like a cross between SMB 3 and Super Mario World. Although a little easier than both so far. I've been blasting through that pretty easily. But, I just switched my mission from getting through the game and going back to find all the big coins and alternate routes. So World 8 will have to wait.

If you like Mario games and have a DS, you really should get this one.

Finally, NHL Arcade has full on skill stick support as I learned from various online games that made my goalie look like a fool. Anyway, this just made the game go from "fun distraction" to "potentially one of the more competitive offerings" for parties.

Before I go, I just wanna recommend the DS to anyone who's been kinda thinking about it. It's that good.

Elite Gamer Profile: Dominic

Call me a Nintendo fanboy, I don't care. The Wii is cheap and the DS is great (and hackable). But the PS3 is amazing as well, and having lived with someone who owns it I am pleased again to be living with someone that owns one (starting in September that is). Anyway:

Wii:

Wii Sports
Wii Play
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Wario Ware Smooth Moves
World of Goo

DS:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass
Wario Ware Touched
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
The World Ends With You
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Pokemon Pearl
Final Fantasy III

Elite Review: Burnout Paradise

Here's a confession: I fucking hate realism in video games. My fave sports game of all-time is still NBA Jam TE with the dunk-from-anywhere and always-on-fire cheat codes turned on. I'm crazy about shooters with unlimited ammo.

So there should be no surprise that given the choice between a real car simulator and an arcade racer I'll pick the arcade game every time (sorry, Gran Turismo).

For those not familiar with the Burnout series, it's basically a racing game where destruction of every kind is rewarded: taking out opponents during races gives you more boost (as do things like drifting around corners and taking your car off sweet jumps to do barrel rolls) and if you crash your wreck is rendered in painstakingly detailed slo-mo.

The goals of the game are simple: win events in different categories. You can straight up race, try a burning route (best time), smash as many cars off the road as possible, survive getting smashed or do a stunt run. These events take place in an open world filled with different scenery from mountain roads to congested highways.

I've loved all the games in the Burnout series and this one is probably the best so far. The gameplay is addicting - there are always new rewards waiting after every event you win - and even if you're not racing it's great just tooling around the different roads in the game.

The best part is that the original game is available right now at Future Shop for $20 as a "classic" game, and once you buy it you can download all sorts of free upgrades via XBOX Live, including a motorbike add-on. There's a lot of not free content too, and I've heard Critereon is planning on adding a whole other island to the Burnout Paradise world soon.

So if you're a fan of arcade racing games, you can't get anything better than this. I'd recommend it just so I can have some friends to race against!

What are you playing this weekend?

Every week here at the EWGC, we'll ask the question:

"What are you playing this weekend?"

Usually this will happen on a Friday but since I have tomorrow off (jealous?), this is a pseudo Friday for me.

So... what are you playing this weekend?

I'm gonna try to give BioShock another chance or two. Matt, how long before the game gets engaging?

Also, I'm hoping to finally have some online 3-on-3 with Matt if he's around. Then again it's supposed to be beautiful out so maybe I can play some real sports instead.

Elite Review: Spore

Cpt Log: 62773.2

Here the quicky on Spore. I was excited for such a long time about this game when I first heard about it. I heard about it about a year before release. I got it the day of release. I stocked up on coke and snacks and was ready for however long it would take me to beat this game. I was bored of it within a Week.

Spore is game about creating and evolving life through several different stages beginning with Cell Stage and ending with Space Stage. I guess ending is not the right choice of word because this game will never end. Nevertheless, most will be bored with the game long before any kind of conclusion comes into the picture.I wait a long time for this game to come out and when I finally got my hands on a working copy, I felt awash with disappointment. Let us start from the beginning:

The first stage of the game is the Cell Stage. This is where you decide which planet and what type of organism you wish to create. From here on the game becomes repetitive while you wait, you eat, and you unlock various aspects that will evolve your newly created life form. The goal of this stage is to eventually develop a brain so you can progress to the next stage: Creature Stage.

In the second stage you've lost your sea legs and you'll never get them back. You are land bound from this point forward. The key word for this stage is tedious, the goal is to be either social or aggressive to other forms of life to unlock new attributes to evolve your species.....but you can also unlock those rewards for finding bone bits, so the whole process seems.....hmmmm......Tedious. Anyway, the goal in this stage is to gain DNA so you can advance to the next stage: Tribal Stage.

In the third stage, the game begins to mimic most real time strategies but on a simplistic scale. The key word for stage three is Annoying, the goal here is to socialize with the surrounding tribes by either becoming friendly, or the more fun choice, aggressive. That pretty much sums up this chapter as there isn't much to unlock....ie..clothing, buildings, weapons. Once you progress to stage four, most of your previous choices get tossed and you feel as all you've done thus far was for naught.

Let's move on to the Civilization Stage: This is the stage that most gamers will recognize as a typical RTS. Your goal is to either unite the world or conquer it, but conquering isn't much fun since the other cities are incredibly weak in comparison that this stage's key word is effortless. Even on hard. Just design some buildings, vehicles, and the land, conquer the world and move on to stage five: Space Stage.

You've finally reached the point where your creation can navigate the vacuum of space.....what is your reward? Some of the worst missions ever in any game, period. A planet is under siege and on the brink of extinction because of a global outbreak. Your mission is to eliminate a few animals to end the plague and save the world. You are not permitted to invade any other planet....the game has missed on all fronts, why put something fun in at this point? That game is open-ended, but all that means is more repetitiveness of the same tedious goals. The only positives I have for the game is the graphics and sound which were splendid, but with low replay value and a hype machine that was in full force, only to let us down, I can't rate it higher than a two.

All in all, FAIL.

2 Stars

Elite Review: NHL 3 on 3 Arcade

So I went on a demo downloading binge the other night and this was one of the trials I grabbed. It ended up being a semi-addicting experience so I grabbed the full game.

We've had some peeps over the last few nights and I think this game has been a big hit.

As the title implies it's a 3 on 3 (+ goalies) hockey game. Since it's arcade, some realism gets thrown out the window. The first thing you might notice is that the action doesn't stop from the opening "face off" (and by face off I mean everyone skating into each other trying to hit the other guy). There are no penalties (one of the more satisfying things to do is to rock the opponent's goaltender and score while he's flailing around), no icing, offsides, etc.

Hitting an opponent usually leads to them spitting out a powerup such as making your player super fast, huge etc. A personal fave of ours is Tiny Goalie which makes your opponents goalie well... tiny. But there's nothing like seeing that little guy make a stone cold save.

The thing that sets this apart from other arcade sports games however is that EA basically simplified the actual NHL games it puts out. Meaning that the controls and AI are as tight as you'd expect but in a less daunting package.

You have one game mode, Red vs. Blue, and can build your team from a bevy of superstars. They are all classified as "Fast" "All Around" and "Strong" which is similar to "Skinny Guy", "Normal Guy" and "Fat Guy" from the IceHockey NES game.

If you're looking for a good pickup and play party game for the 360 that actually has some depth, hook it up.

New Gamestop store opening in Guelph

For those interested there is a new Gamestop (aka EB Games) store opening in Guelph this Saturday (April 25). It is located in the Walmart plaza at the corner of Woodlawn Rd and Woolwhich St.

I have no idea about sales or anything along those lines but as it is an opening day they may have some deals that are worth the drive.

Greg's Profile/Games

I currently own a 360 and a Wii. Off the top of my head I have the following games for each system;

360
- Halo 3
- Dynasty Warriors 6
- Tom Clancy's End War
- Too Human
- Fable 2
- Gears of War
- Dynasty Warriors Gundam
- NHL 2008
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
- Mass Effect
- Lost Odyssey
- Enchanted Arms
- Dead Rising

Wii
- Wii Sports Pack (the one that comes with the system)
- MarioKart Wii
- Sims

RSS feed/permissions

So I have made this a public blog because a private one doesn't allow RSS feeds. I'm sure no one minds if this is public. I have however turned off search engine crawling and such so it'll remain fairly hidden on the web.

The RSS for this blog is:

http://elitewheelers.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

UPDATE: Here is a feed for just comments:

http://elitewheelers.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default

Also, you are all admins of this blog. Just thought that'd make things easier.

What should I get?

So since I'm ordering a controller from amazon, I also wanna get a game.

I'm looking for a good one player campaign. Basically I have it down to two: Devil May Cry 4 and Resident Evil 5.

I'll get RE5 if I can get someone to go through the game with. I don't think I can convince Sarah to play with me. Plus my constant yelling of "HEAL ME! NOW!" might put a strain on our relationship.

DMC4 looks good but I've never played any of the DMC games. It looks like a God of War type game (which I enjoyed for the PS2).

Any thoughts/other recommendations?

Cpt. Tony Games

Xbox360 Games:
-Mirrors Edge
-Portal
-Grand theft Auto IV

PC Games :
-Sims 2 (all expansions)
-Spore
-Supreme Commander
-Sim City 4
-Sim City Societies
-Quake
-Star Wars Elite Force (with expansion)

Sale: 360 controllers

I just wanted to inform everyone that amazon has 360 controllers on sale for $34.97 this week.

UPDATE: Sold out :(

Kaitlin's Games

xbox 360

- mass effect
- oblivion GOTY edition
- resident evil 5
- mirrors edge
- fallout 3
- street fighter IV

Tagging posts

Make sure you tag your posts appropriately. You should usually have three tags on each post. Nature of the post (profile, review etc), system the post pertains too and the game(s) mentioned in the post.

To keep this organized, I have created this topic t keep a list of tags we should use (please add to these if you use a new tag.)

Nature of post:

• profile your gamer profile post
• recommend asking for game purchase/rent advice
  
• review a game review
• sales heads up about sales
  
• tradesies looking to trade/sell a game
• help help topic such as this one
  

System tags

• 360
• arcade xbox 360 download service
  
• wii
• wiiware wii download service
  
• ds
• dsiware DS download service
  
• ps3
• ps2
  
• psn playstation download service
  
• pc
  

Elite Review: Dead Space

So I recently finished Dead Space on the 360. It was a really fun game. Keep in mind though that I'm a fan of third person shooters, especially of the survival variety.

I had waited to play this game on an HD TV since the graphics are top notch and I'm glad I did. The controls were tight. The difiiculty was a good balance too. I ran into fights that I needed a few tries to beat. I hate when I can blast through a game without really dying. The mix of enemy classes and weaponry gave the fights a nice strategic bent. Especially in the ammo usage department.

The game reminded me most of Resident Evil 4 in terms of gameplay. There is a store scattered around to upgrade stuff. There are also benches here and there to upgrade equipment and I really liked the upgrade system.

The main difference between this and RE4 was in the fighting. Rather than going for headshots the idea is to shoot off the limbs of your enemies. You can also move while shooting.

The other big difference is having two special abilites at your disposal: Stasis, which slows things (like enemies) down and Kinesis which can pick things up from a distance and hurl them. You'll use both to solve enviromental puzzles and during fights. You can use Kinesis to pick up enemy body parts that have been blown off and shoot them at other enemies to preserve ammo. Honestly though, I rarely did that other than a boss encounter.

Conclusion: Great graphics, tight controls, fun story. Little replay value. I'm always up for trading this one.

Grade: A

Jeremy's Games

Wii
No More Heroes
The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess
Super Mario Galaxy
Wii Sports
Mario Kart
Fire Emblem - Radiant Dawn
Super Paper Mario
Prince of Persia - Rival Swords
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Resident Evil 4
Mario Strikers Charged
Super Smash Bros Brawl
Mario Party 8
Boom Blox

Matt's Games

I wasn't at the conversation, but I'll join up nonetheless.

Here are some of the games I have, off the top of my head (XBOX 360 only):
Burnout Paradise
Gears Of War 1 & 2
Halo 3
Bioshock
Rock Band 1 & 2
GTA IV
Tony Hawk Project 8
Mass Effect

Elite Gamer Profile: Milosz

Xbox 360 Dead Space Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Gears of War 2 Lips Rock Band Rock Band 2 Wii Mario Kart Wii Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition Super Mario Galaxy Mario Party 8 Wii Fit Wii Sports Zack and Wiki DS Brain Age 2 New Super Mario Brothers

Welcome

So after some drunken convos last night, we've decided to start The Elite Wheelers Gaming Club.

It's a private blog to talk about games we're playing, recommend games to each other, give each other dibs on games we're about to trade in or sell etc.

So maybe let's start by introducing ourselves by what system we own and our game lists. I'll create links to these profile posts on the side here.

And remember, we are elite, but not elitists.