andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

Capcom’s new action-packed beat-em up title Spyborgs continues such successes as Final Fight in the two-player co-op brawler genre.

Players will take control of one of three cyborg heroes – Bouncer (the heavy hitter), Stinger (the balanced fighter) and Clandestine or “Clan” (the quick, agile-fragile one).  Together or solo they can traverse the four-chapter saga and pound on robots and other enemies.

Looks interesting… with “look” being the operative word in that sentence.  Spyborgs‘ real surprise is the graphics, which are way above the bar set by previous Wii titles.

So if you’re looking for some good old bionic death-dealing cyb0rg chainsaw nuclear cross-dressing megadeath action, check out Spyborgs on the Wii, being released September 29th!

Cheers.

Franchise Games We’d Like to See – Firefly

I’ll be 100% honest with you.  I’m totally watching Firefly right now, as I write this article.  Such a rich universe, interesting characters and amazing balance between action and comedy, the short-lived cult hit TV series Firefly and it’s cinematic companion Serenity completely blew me away when I first encountered them.  It never occurred to me whether or not they would make a good video game until just now, as I sat down to write my latest blog.  In that spirit, here is the first in (hopefully) a series of articles I like to call “Franchise Games We’d Like to See”.

**disclaimer – I realize that one of these articles may be posted after an announcement of an actual game coming out in the future.  In that case, I don’t care. READ MORE »

Guitar Hero: Decades is the second release from Activision for the distribution of portable guitar rocking goodness on the Nintendo DS. I wouldn’t really call this a sequel, but rather, an expansion to Guitar Hero: On Tour as some small aspects were improved, but really, it’s the exact same as On Tour with a new set list. The guitar grip that comes with Decades is the same as On Tour, the plectrum stylus is similar (longer touching point on the Decades one but doesn’t fit into grip container as well) and the layout is very similar to On Tour. All these aside, I felt Decades had a much stronger ‘story’ to it than any other past Guitar Hero title (aside from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith). Another extra added to Decades is the ability to play wirelessly with someone that has On Tour, allowing them to try the new songs as well as you to play the old songs.

For those that haven’t had a chance to check out the Guitar Hero: On Tour review on andPOP.com, the game plays the same as Activision’s past title, plug in the custom guitar grip into the GBA slot of your DS (with an expander if you’re using an older DS), strap it to your hand and play the keys using this grip while you strum and fiddle with the whammy bar on the touch screen and yell into the microphone to activate star power. Now, in On Tour, this sounded good on paper, but in practice, it never really worked out. The grip never felt right, the four buttons were too close together and didn’t line up with my fingers, the grip would constantly fall out of the DS (making you restart the entire system) and strumming isn’t always as precise as I would like. All these issues are still present in Decades as it seems they didn’t change their controls and peripherals at all.

The graphics are exactly the same as Guitar Hero: On Tour, decent for a DS, but not worth paying attention to.

Now onto the sound, the backbone of any music game. This game sounds fantastic, decent through the speakers, and amazing through a nice set of headphones. The set list is broken down into decades (hence the name) starting with the modern music set down to the groovy 70’s each set takes influential tracks (all original, no covers) from those sets of 10 years. My favourite part of this game is that because the game takes songs from different years, it ensures a variety of music types for all music fans.

Decades still has the same career mode feel (although with more of a story and character development than On Tour) and the ever fun duel mode but other than that, the only real addition was the dull rhythm/bass career mode option. Unlockables give players something to strive for, new venues, costumes, and guitars keep completionists busy but in the end this is still just a track pack. If you were a fan of the last Guitar Hero for the DS (which only came out less than half a year ago) go check Decades out, if you couldn’t handle the strain and pain of the first one, this is more of the same. Great set list for the most part as well.

Graphics: 3.5/5
Gameplay: 3.0/5
Sound: 4.0/5
Replay Value: 3.0/5

I never liked Call of Duty. There, I said it, every Call of Duty game I had ever played was boring, frustrating and annoying to control, every Call of Duty until Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out. That game is by far my all time favourite first person shooter title, my all time favourite war game! So when I was given Call of Duty: World at War to review for the Xbox 360 (which I didn’t pick up earlier because I had so many other games to get through first), I was a little nervous. Add on top that this one was made by Treyarch instead of Modern Warfare’s Infinity Ward and my tension grew. While my first Call of Duty (Modern Warfare) review was one of the longest I had written, I will be saving time and sanity (hey, there’s a lot of games to get through this holiday season!) and not repeating everything that was similar between the two, if your curious, feel free to check out my review for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Yes, it’s true, Call of Duty has gone back to World War II, back to their original roots after a hiatus in present times but with their travel back in time, they seemed to take everything that made Modern Warfare great and bring it with them. This version of WWII battle takes you across two campaigns, one as an American soldier captured and tortured by the Japanese (with an intense near death intro into the game), and the other as a Russian defending his home country against the Nazis. While The scale of battle is grand and this was indeed a war of the worlds, I found it revitalizing to play a war game that doesn’t focus solely on the German invasion, not enough games take Japan as an enemy during WWII.

The graphics in World at War are fantastic, as you begin the game you’re soldier buddies rescue you, give you a gun and as you step out of the tent you’re immersed in what I can only imagine what war would feel like, loud, overwhelming, and confusing. Burst of small explosions everywhere, people falling over blood spurts everywhere and fire on EVERYTHING. The model animations are smooth and pretty realistic as was Modern Warfare’s but utilizing the scenery and not having all the high tech gadgets (such as night vision), World at War uses their detail to put tones of enemy soldiers hiding everywhere, in grass, in trees, playing dead, the possibility of hordes of enemies coming from anywhere is endless… and frightening. I think the biggest graphical improvement comes from the new flamethrower, which just looks beautiful (although with no ammo and a single tap to kill any enemy in campaign mode, it seems a little too useful compared to other flamethrower equipped games). Another point to mention is the scale, while modern Warfare had maybe one or two tanks and a helicopter going at the same time in campaign mode, early on in this one, there is a battle between tanks, I think I counted maybe 6 tanks on the screen at the same time as all the friends and enemies.

Sound is fantastic, sound has been fantastic in Modern Warfare and is just as good now; I don’t think there was even a way to improve the audio quality except for the increase in hearing opposing team voices during close combat. As well, the controls have remained exactly the same.

Now, my biggest gripe with World War II games are the weapons, don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect laser cannons in a WWII game (although that would be a cool concept), I just don’t like the slowness and inaccuracies of this time’s weaponry, all the guns look the same, they all feel the same and they all in the end… do the same thing. That being said, there were a few improvements I particularly was fond of this time through. You have a bayonet on some of your rifles, I’m not sure if this is stronger or has a longer reach than your knife, but it is pretty gruesome to see an enemy run at you only to get the sharp end of your gun in their chest. Secondly is the introduction of the flame thrower, which, the first time you pick it up in campaign mode, must use it to torch a barricade with badass music playing temporarily in the background making you feel very… badass. The final update that I felt was well warranted were the special grenades, smoke screen, mustard gas (similar to stun grenade in Modern Warfare) and the flare which can light up areas and temporarily blind players. I don’t think I’ve seen these types of options in any other WWII game in the past.

So now that the game explanation is out of the way, time to discuss what I thought of the campaign mode. First off, CO-OP!!! For those that know me or have been reading these reviews long enough, you know I adore any type of co-operative game play! Sitting down with a friend or three to fight against each other is great and all, but sitting down with friends to unite against a common enemy always has a warm spot in my heart and I think by far, the inclusion of 2 player split-screen co-op and 4 player online co-op are the biggest improvements between Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War.

Next I’m going to have to sadden your hearts a little, The story here is a little weak, don’t get me wrong, it is historical and intense, but the game just feels too scripted. The worst instance of this scripting comes near the beginning of the game, your sergeant is standing beside a closed door debriefing his troops, you hear a yell from behind the door so I automatically point my shotgun to the door, it swings open and an enemy lunges towards the sergeant. Before he can get to your commanding officer, I release 3 shots at point blank into the enemy who doesn’t even seem to notice me, kills the sarge then gets blasted by the other NPCs. He (the enemy) was supposed to get the drop on us surprise and kill the sarge but even if you’re expecting it, the script must play through. Another issue I had with the campaign was that you were the last survivor after being tortured and interrogated by the Japanese, you are half dead and just saw your friends murdered in front of you. You’re rescued by this infiltration platoon, and then they get you to do all the dirty work, like send a truck down a hill to blow up, planting explosives and oh I don’t know, taking out an entire tank platoon on your own. You just went through hell, why can’t these fresh soldiers do anything themselves? Finally my last issue with campaign mode is the problem of invisible walls. In Modern Warfare any door that was open was fair game to walk inside, however, in World at War your surrounded by invisible walls. See an open hut beside you with a fully rendered interior and windows? Nope, can’t go in and snipe because there’s an invisible wall blocking your entrance. Want to crawl under a dock and sneak up on the enemies? Nope, invisible wall there too (however, your enemies can do just that to flank your platoon). The game is plagued with more invisible walls than a Mime’s arsenal!

Another point that I’m still debating a pro or con is the introduction to the Russian private you control for half your missions. If you’ve seen the movie Enemy at the Gates, you might recognize the entire introduction to sniping as it is exactly like the introduction in that film, while I’m a little disappointed at the lack of originality… I really liked the beginning of that movie and thought it was amazing and totally badass to be able to play that scene using Call of Duty controls. All in all however, Call of Duty: World at War is an intense, gritty past war title, if you’re a fan of band of brothers or saving private Ryan as well as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, this is the title for you. If however, you only enjoyed the gameplay of Modern Warfare and already own that title, you might be disappointed by the lack of upgrades from the two.

All this being said, the game is still a blast to play online. For the most part, World at War’s online layout is set up exactly like Modern Warfare with a few tweaks. The more you play, the more experience points you get giving you access to more weapons, modes of play and challenges, perfect for those addicted to games as it is! Some new aspects include a fourth perk (specific for mounted weapons and such), new perks (like gas masks). The introduction of these new weapons grenades and perks make this feel more like an expansion to Modern Warfare than anything else, but my favourite new addition is the pack of dogs you get after a 7 kill streak over the attack helicopter from Modern Warfare. They have also manipulated the types of gameplay and what is unlocked when (you must be level 4 before you can create a custom setup for example) and as well, new maps and challenges. My favourite mode of play is only unlockable after you beat the campaign mode however, so for spoilers sake, I won’t divulge too much information about it, lets just say it involves zombies.

All in All Call of Duty: World at War seems like a small stumble back instead of a leap forward as the next Call of Duty title, in my opinion, I enjoyed Modern Warfare a little more than World at War but only because World at War’s weapons annoy me. That being said, I felt that World at War was a lot darker, a lot grittier, and a lot more intense (there’s A LOT more blood and profanity in this one). The main frustration I had while playing through this game though were that every time I died, it was due to enemy grenades, which happened often, while my own grenades did very little damage to the opposition. Final verdict, if you have Modern Warfare stick with it, if you’re a fan of WWII games, pick this one up, and if you’re in both camps, why not pick this one up anyways, it’s always fun to shoot Nazis!

Graphics: 4.5 / 5.0
Gameplay 4.5 / 5.0
Sound 5.0 / 5.0
Replay value 5.0 / 5.0

What can be said about Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom that couldn’t be said about any other past Spongebob game? This title, recently released under THQ’s new casual gaming label Play THQ, is more of a Nicktoons game in general than a flat out Spongebobber. With 10 characters to choose from, two from Spongebob Squarepants, two from Danny Phantom, two from Tak’s world, Jimmy Neutron, and Invader Zim, each world takes one good guy and one bad guy and teams them up in bizzaro cartoon fashion. And it’s not like Spongebob and Plankton team up, oh no, you get all sorts of wacky combinations like Spongebob and Beautiful, or Dib and Traloc. If these names don’t mean much to you, perhaps this isn’t the game you should be playing this holiday season.

The story begins with Spongebob and Squidworth walking down the street, orange goo falls on Bikini Bottom and lands on Squidworth, turning him into a zombie. Before you can say holy tahitos, Jimmy Neutron comes out of nowhere grabs Spongebob and takes him into a portal leading to Jimmy’s secret lab where all heroes and villains from Nickleodon are already waiting and apparently know each other. You are then given a special Mawgu gadget specific to each character (bubble blower for spongebob, Plunger of Doom for Zim, etc) and sent to go stop this orange goo invasion, known as the globs of doom.

The game plays easily as a button mashing romp down familiar paths, walk a bit, beat up orange things, break boxes, repeat. Simple for the little kids and mind-numbingly repetitive for the older folks playing along. You do have the option of changing between characters if your health gets low however (in single player mode). I was surprised with the control layout for this game though, and mostly in a good way. With most games that are available both on Wii and other systems, the developers think it to be a good idea to toss in some random wiimote actions to make it worth buying on the Wii instead of another system, looking through the manual and playing the game it turns out you don’t need to point, shake or swoop the wiimote or nunchuck to play this game as its all controlled by buttons. While some fans might think this to be a lazy cop-out, I found it refreshing to not be frustrated by pointless movement that breaks up the flow of a game… that is until I came across the special moves known as gadget combos. In these gadget combos you must move your wiimote in the shape and direction shown on the screen whether it be a simple up and down or an upside down four shape, before the time runs out. And if you are playing in two player mode, two different shapes must be achieved. I would be fine with this if it wasn’t for the fact that the game could not pick up a simple up down movement let alone anything else, and most times I try to do a combo it takes four or five attempts. Now, I’m a 24 year old university graduate, and if it frustrated me, how is it going to be handled by the kids that this game was developed for? (I hope they can’t get it on their first try for the sake of my ego).

Now, we all know how hard it is to improve the graphics if they’re attached to simple drawn cartoons, however, with the technology we have today, one would hope that the ability to replicate cartoon animation in a playable game was an option. That being said, the cutscenes look great, 3D smooth animations of familiar characters are well done and feel like improvements for some (such as Spongebob) and what they should be for others (such as Tak and Jimmy Neutron). The gameplay graphics are nice for a gamecube or PS2 game, but otherwise I feel the graphics engine could use a revamp, after all, this game is new for 2009 (so says the sticker on the box), not a rehash of 2002. Soundwise the game is what we could all expect, voices used in the shows (they’re on contract after all), music used from the shows, and sound effects common to all cartoons around the globe. It would have been nice to have more one-liners to avoid repetition, but the amount given is more than I expected in the first place, so I’m happy with it, it’s just extra annoying when your at a part that kills you if you jump into the water and at that part, one character makes a specific quip. So if you die 4 times, you hear the same comment 4 times… Otherwise, sounds pretty good for a game that falls flat on other aspects.

In terms of lasting appeal, you can go one player and switch characters or have a second player jump in or out at their discretion. As well, players can collect coins (red, blue or gold) to save up and upgrade their weapons, strength, speeds, life and so on. While this doesn’t physically make anything look cooler, it will help players in future levels. A final aspect to keep the game going are hidden trophies strewn throughout the cartoon worlds that allow players to go back and find them to get that 100% completion feeling in the pit of their prepubescent tummies.

All in all, if you’re a Nicktoon fan and have a Wii, pick up this title, if you’re looking for the perfect Christmas gift for a child between the ages of 6- 12 (or higher) that has a Wii, PS2, or DS, this might be the best bet you have going. Or if you enjoy a simple colourful mash-em-up casual title with screechy voices, hey, why not pick up Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom?

Gameplay: 3.5/5
Graphics: 3.0/5
Sound: 2.5/5
Replay Value: 3.0/5

Electronic Arts last week announced the availability of four new games for the Macintosh platform. This is the first time EA has published games for the Macintosh platform.

Available this week from Apple stores and online are Need for Speed Carbon and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Tuesday, August 21) and Battlefield 2142 and Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (Tuesday, August 28).

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Harry’s fifth year at Hogwarts is shaping up to be his most exciting yet. Fearing that Hogwarts’ venerable Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is lying about the return of Voldemort in order to undermine his power, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge appoints a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to keep watch over Dumbledore and the students. But Professor Dolores Umbridge’s ministry-approved course leaves the young wizards woefully unprepared, so Hermione, Ron and Harry form “Dumbledore’s Army” with the goal of preparing themselves and other courageous young wizards for the extraordinary battle that looms against Voldemort™ and his Death Eaters.

Need for Speed Carbon – What starts in the city is settled in the canyons as Need for Speed Carbon immerses you in the world’s most dangerous and adrenaline-filled form of street racing. You and your crew must race in an all-out war for the city, risking everything to take over your rivals’ neighborhoods one block at a time. As the police turn up the heat, the battle ultimately shifts to Carbon Canyon, where territories and reputations can be lost on every perilous curve.

Battlefield 2142 – Earth, 2142. As a new ice age depletes the planet’s resources, two massive multinational coalitions wage a brutal war for the only cause that matters—survival. Armed with a devastating arsenal of futuristic weaponry and gear, including active camouflage, EMP grenades, and sentry guns, plus Battle Walkers and vast airborne bases called Titans, you must coordinate the efforts of your teammates to win the war for Earth’s last fragile pieces of livable land. With extensive improvements to the groundbreaking Battlefield 2™ ranking and upgrade system and the new Titan gameplay mode, Battlefield 2142 brings the franchise’s award-winning online warfare into a harsh and desperate future.

Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars – The year is 2047. A massive nuclear fireball explodes high in the night sky, marking the dramatic beginning of the Third Tiberium War and the long-awaited return of the most groundbreaking Real-Time Strategy franchise of all time. Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars unveils the future of RTS gaming by bringing you back to where it all began: the Tiberium Universe. With the corrupt substance Tiberium blanketing most of the Earth, the infamous Kane is back to lead his Brotherhood of Nod in a massive global assault on the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the few remaining livable Blue Zones left on the planet. Only you can stop him. Featuring state-of-the-art next-generation graphics, an epic story, and truly innovative features such as the ability to transform online battles into a spectator sport, Command & Conquer is about to reinvent RTS gaming … again. Welcome back, Commander.

EA also plans to release 2 more games no later than October, Tiger Woods ‘08 and Madden NFL ‘08.

In a move to garner as much of a market as possible, “Lost” will soon be a video game, Reuters reports today.

The deal between Touchstone Television (which is owned by Disney, which owns ABC, which airs “Lost”) and French-game producer Ubisoft, will see a game based on the show available for consoles, portable game players and PCs.

Its release will tie into the fourth season premiere, next September.

This isn’t the first time “Lost” fans have been given more than their weekly dose of the show. Throughout the season the book, “Bad Twin,” by Gary Troup, was found on the island and read by many of the castaways. The castaways said Troup was a passenger on flight 815 and is presumed dead. The book was put on sale earlier this month.

Also this month, “Lost” creators unleashed the “Lost Experience” where fans could spend the summer searching for clues in commercials of the show and on the web as a way to try and solve some of the island’s mysteries.

It is unknown at this point who, if any, cast members from the show will participate in the new game. Ubisoft also developed games for the “CSI” franchise.