GYG Blog

Okay gamers, so we’ve been a little busy here at GYG and the reviews have fallen behind…but no more!  We will be back to posting weekly video game reviews here on the site and in the mean time we’re posting a bunch that we’ve done for Level Up Radio on Sirius Radio.  So here goes!

I don’t get it.  Why do game developers continue to make games based on hit TV shows, expecting great results?  I’m a fan of this show; I’ve enjoyed getting to know the characters over the last few years, and I believe them when they say that crab fishing is one of the world’s deadliest jobs.  I was curious how that would translate to a video game, and now I have my answer.  Not well.

I have to be honest though; I only gave Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm about 30 minutes of my time, outside of the incredibly long tutorial level (but hey, I got 60 achievement points from it!).  I’d love one of our customers with much more patience than me to give it an honest review, because I just don’t think I gave it enough time.  But, I had better things to do, like watching paint dry.

The game’s tutorial lesson is comprehensive and lays out the game very well.  But, once I was on my own, I found myself forgetting everything that I learned.  I will give the game credit though; it really puts the player in the seat of being a ship’s captain, because you will find that you have to manage every part of the game.  First, I had to hire a crew.  I made the mistake of giving a greenhorn a chance, only to have him complain about how cold it was then hurt himself seriously enough that I had to fly the coast guard in for an evacuation, leaving my crew down a member.

Graphically, the game is so-so.  I had to turn off the “seasick cam” because I didn’t want to be the sorry sack who puked from a video game.  Seriously, the boat’s rocking back and forth was enough to do me in.  The game has great audio, although you’ll get tired of hearing the seagulls constantly fussing on your boat.

This game is definitely a simulation game, because you’ll get your hands in every aspect of the game.  I think if I had given it more time, I probably would have enjoyed it more.  I just didn’t have the heart to do it, especially with reviews to do on Don King’s gaming turd and Alone in the Dark.

I’ll give the game 2.5 Captain Sig’s out of 5 for now, with a possible upgrade coming when I give it more time.

I used to be a big fan of boxing.  I’ll never forget the night that Tyson lost to Buster Douglas in an incredible battle.  But, I slowly lost my appreciation for the sport as it seemed to get more and more corrupt, and I solely place the sport’s demise at the feet of one Mr. Don King.  And now, Don has managed to get his tentacles wrapped around the video game consoles as well.

I have to admit that this game was going to have a hard time living up to its predecessor, Fight Night Round 3.  The Fight Night game was excellent with incredible graphics and realism, but I always found the “story” mode to be lacking.  Luckily, the game overcomes that with its play.

Don King Presents: Prize Fighter manages to accomplish exactly the opposite of what Fight Night did.  The story in Prize Fighter is compelling, and I found myself actually being interested in the documentary-focused campaign mode.  I thought the little injuries were a nice touch as well; one fight I had to fight primarily with my left hand because of two broken fingers suffered on my right during training.

But, the true focus of any sports game has to be the game play, and this is where this game suffers greatly.  To keep this review from running even longer than it already has, I’ll limit my complaints to two chief areas: player graphics and hit detection.  The graphics of the boxers are very poor (and don’t even get me started on the ring girls!) and even look like a last-gen title, which is inexcusable at this point in the game.  And the hit detection is atrocious; I can’t tell you how many knockdowns I had thanks to punches to the shoulder, or somehow managing to hit my opponent in the ear with my forearm.  In fact, several times my entire arm seemed to pass through my opponent, only to have my gloves and wrist appear behind him.

As I mentioned before, this game has a great storyline.  Sadly, the game play just doesn’t back it up.  Don King once said “It ain’t about if he knocks a guy out. It’s about how he knocks a guy out. It’s the style, the improvisation.”  Clearly he wasn’t concerned with the style of the game that he graciously lent his name to.

The best I can give this game is 1.5 shoulder knockdowns out of 5.

Grid is my kind of racing game. Available on the 360 and Playstation 3, Grid is brought to us courtesy of Codemasters, the same developer that released the wildly under appreciated rally game, Dirt. It is important to note this, because the games share quite a few similarities. The “tree” course mode will lead you through the Grid career mode, and the driving mechanics / physics are very similar.

Grid has some of the best visuals I have seen on the 360. The cars take on visible damage, and too many bumps along the way will disable your car completely. There is quite a bit of variety to the courses, and one of my personal favorites is the destruction derby segment of the game.

Grid is lacking in the number of cars available, especially following the likes of Forza, Gran Turismo V Prologue, etc. However, I enjoyed Grid because it suits my driving style much better than the other games. That is to say, it doesn’t punish you for a little bumping every now and then.

There’s not much to Grid’s story mode, but that seems to be par for the course in racing games. You will create a racing company, earn sponsorships, and eventually hire a team of drivers to help you on your course for the championship. I do enjoy the achievements being displayed (and your progress towards each) during the loading screen; it gives me something to look at while waiting to race.

Beautiful graphics and fun gameplay make Grid a must for racing fans. You won’t find the realism and upgrade options of other games, but that’s usually not what I’m looking for. I like to have fun and crash my way towards first place. Overall I’d give Grid 4.5 spinouts (and there will be a lot of them) out of 5.

Let me start by making a statement: Hi, my name is Matt, and I’m a huge fan of the Bourne franchise. There, I said it, and I’m not ashamed. I have absolutely loved each movie in this action franchise, and was thrilled to see a trilogy with the 3rd installment being the best of the bunch. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to the release of “The Bourne Conspiracy,” and I’m pleased to say that I was not disappointed.

Once you get over the fact that Jason Bourne is not Matt Damon, but rather some standard action hero, the game progresses quickly. Rumor has it that Mr. Damon was not willing to lend his likeness to the game due to the amount of violence in it, and if that’s indeed the case, I applaud him for it. Luckily, from a gamer’s point of view, not having Matt Damon in the game doesn’t detract from it much.

I was curious to see how they would play out the events of “Conspiracy” in a video game (what, with all of the memories and what not), but the developers did an excellent job. The game plays out exactly along the lines of the first movie, but with missions added in to help fill in some of the blanks in Bourne’s memory. The graphics are good (but not great) and the sound is excellent. The gameplay is a mix of hand-to-hand combat, shoot ‘em up, and driving through the street of Paris (sadly only one mission in the game involved driving though). It’s a fairly standard fighting game, but has a cool “takedown” component that allows you to severely hurt or finish off the baddies in one move.

The boss battles can be a challenge as you progress through the game. Mostly you’ll find yourself holding down the A button to block, trying to time your X & Y attacks to land. The final battle took me a good 10 times to finally get through on normal “Agent” difficulty, which probably doesn’t say much about me.

I enjoyed the game immensely, but it is a bit on the short side. Overall I’d give it 4 bad-ass shovel takedowns out of 5.

Welcome back gamers… Uncle Grant’s here for you this week with another big release, Atari’s “Alone In The Dark” available this week on all the major platforms. So turn off the lights and find your security blanket… it’s go time.

Alone In The Dark is the newest edition in a long-storied franchise that goes back 16 years now. The newest edition puts you back in the shoes of Edward Carnby, the hero from the very first PC game, which — let’s face it — nobody remembers. I’m still trying to forget all the fashions I was rocking in 1992, much less the games I was playing. Just realize it was a different time then, and nobody thought it was weird to wear spandex shorts under denim overalls with one strap hanging off.

Now Edward’s got some serious problems, in that the city is being overrun by some creepy horror that nobody can really explain. Take some of the events of Silent Hill, multiply it by 11, and drop them smack in the middle of New York. And of course he’s the only one that can kick ass and take names, so he’s off to go wreak hell on the hellions.

Now I want you to know the reviews for this thing are all over the place — some critics are giving it a 3 or lower, others an 8 or higher, and mostly that’s to do with how invested you are in the storyline. If you’re invested in Edward’s journey through this horrifying backdrop, then you’re probably going to be able to overlook some quirky gameplay decisions and some sketchy voice acting. Or, you’re not, so you won’t.

In my opinion, Alone is a very playable game. It’s not going to win any originality awards, but with the next Resident Evil not expected until 2009, what else are you going to do to get your horror fix? It’s got some genuine scares, and some very cool weapon combos and effects. Rent it first, see what’s what, and then decide if you want to buy.

GYG will be hosting Wii sports nights at Maloney’s Shea and Tempe locations on Tuesdays and Thursdays! Here are the locations:

• Tuesday nights: Maloney’s Tempe: 955 East University, Tempe, AZ, 7PM-10PM
• Thursday nights: Maloney’s Shea: 8608 East Shea Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ, 8PM-11PM

Come join us for a great night of Wii gaming fun! Also, make sure to come participate and enter yourself in the tournaments scheduled for early July for the opportunity to win fabulous prizes!

In Battle of the Bands available on the Nintendo Wii, you have the ability to select from a few genres of music: rock, marching, latin, country, and hip hop. After choosing your genre you play your first song against a different genre. This is interesting because you and your opponent are playing the same song but in different genres of music. Based on how many attacks you or your opponent launch your song changes between the two genres. You have to hit a certain number of correct notes to be able to launch an attack on your opponent. You do not choose the song you play unless you are in “vs.” mode. To do this you don’t have to have someone there playing with you, instead you can choose “vs.” mode and make the console player 2. You also have to contend with “face-offs” which require you to block your opponents notes because their notes will turn into attacks. To block these you must press the “B” button as they come at you.

Overall I thought this game was really fun. It has a pretty good song list with: Feel Good Inc, Blitzkrieg Bop, and Coming Undone being my favorites to play. It is an interesting change of pace having the song you are used to hearing as a rock song being played as a hip hop song although The Ramones do not sound particularly pleasing as a country group but Feel Good Inc kicked some serious trash as a marching tune!

This game is not for everyone and it can get a bit annoying having to block attacks when really you just want to play a song, but it is definitely worth a rental. It won’t replace Rock Band but it is a fun little distraction.