Nerd Rating

Tag: Playstation

  • New Game Releases. Week Of September 16, 2012

    All Hail The Beginning Of Holiday Gaming!!

    Borderlands 2 (360, PS3) $59.99-normal/ $99.99- deluxe/ good luck finding a loot chest

    Gearbox’s followup to their 2009 game (which is free to all PS Plus subscribers this month), Borderlands 2 ups the ante on almost every single facet of the original. More character classes, a deeper story, 87 bazillion guns (no really, that’s how many Gearbox is toungue in cheek saying), online four player co-op and two player split screen which, if you played the first game, is the BEST way to play. A season pass for all DLC is also avaliable for 2400 MS Points or $29.99 on PSN. Ummm go now and get it.

    Little Big Planet Vita (PS Vita) $39.99

    Wait? Wasn’t this game not supposed to be released until September 25th? You are correct but Sony gave the go ahead this past Saturday to begin selling the game early. And yes I have a copy in my Vita right now and a review will be coming soon. I can say that from what I have played that if you love LBP and do not own a Vita this is a system seller. Tarsier has taken over for Media Molecule and have integrated all the Vita features well.  Now Sackboy can fit in your pocket and go anywhere. Phrasing, I know.

    Torchlight 2 (PC Digital Download) $20

    All the dungeon crawling and looting of Diablo III at a third of the price. Add in multiplayer co-op and the ability to still mod this game to your hearts content and you are looking at an easy buy for dungeon looters.

    Jet Grind Radio (XBLA, PSN)  800 MS Points/$9.99 PSN

    After you are done blowing off cel-shaded heads in Borderlands 2 go ahead and download the HD re-release of the Dreamcast classic rollerblading game. Not as many guns as Borderlands but you will have a great time blading away from cops and tagging your turf with graffiti. Oh Dreamcast, the one system Sega did right and it died a premature death.

    Happy gaming!!!

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  • Review: Mass Effect 3: Leviathan

    Does Commander Shepard’s New Mission Deliver?

    Leviathan is an interesting piece of DLC. If you are like me then you finished Mass Effect 3 months ago and have the ending to your Commander Shepard story firmly entrenched in your head. Now whether you liked the ending or not is up for grabs considering all the fan outcry when the game released but you have an ending nevertheless. So now Bioware has given us this add on mission which, while it would appear to not have a huge impact on a game finished for months on end, does manage to give some vital information into the Reaper’s history. Even if it is a little slow getting there.

    The mission starts as every piece of Mass Effect DLC does, by checking your email. There you receive a message asking Commander Shepard to go speak to a Dr. Bryson on the Citadel about the possibility of a creature powerful enough to kill a Reaper. After you arrive at the doctor’s lab he is killed by his assistant who seems to be under control by some outside force and now it is up to you to piece together the doctor’s research and find the being called Leviathan. And this is where the mission slows to a halt.

    The great office search is on.

    Yeah that title sums up a good portion of the mission. I love Mass Effect. Every one of them but this part of the DLC just seemed stuck into the game to give the content more of a playtime. You will run around Dr. Bryson’s office and bedroom a lot. And the searching isn’t even skillful. Just run around and click on everything you see and go to the galaxy map and get told where to go. Now if it had just been a one time trip before getting back to the action then it could be more forgivable but you will do this multiple times. Search the doctor’s things, head out for a bit of space flight, scanning planets, a bit of shooting and then head back to Bryson’s. I am not meaning this to sound as harsh as it does but this is over half the mission.

    Once you have located the whereabouts of Leviathan is where, to me anyway, this began feeling more like Mass Effect. Taking the drop ship down to the water based planet you are hit with a pulse of energy that crashes you and your team on a rig surrounded by nothing but ocean and what looks like thousands of years worth of decimated ships. As Reaper forces drop down the battle gets hot and heavy and you get to really get back into the combat. It had been a few months since I played Mass Effect 3 so by the time this section of the DLC came I was just getting used to the controls again. But like an old pro I was popping off biotics and melees no problem.

    Mech Effect 3

    After you get through the first waves of husks, brutes and banshees, Cortez tells you that there is a mech suit that you can use to dive down into the ocean to check out what your probe has found. You must first charge the battery pack while more enemies assault your position then you get to take your new mechanical friend out for a walk. There is a short burst of combat inside the mech but once you are in the ocean it is strictly exploration. While the mech section doesn’t last long it is a fun change of course and the underwater walk around has a slight (very slight, but still cool) Bioshock feel to it.

    Without getting too spoiler happy, once you find Leviathan is where the real meat of the story is. You find out the beginnings of the Reapers and why they look as they do. Leviathan reveals a good deal of important back story that should be known by all Mass Effect fans and adds more depth to the universe that you have been trying to save since 2007.

    While a good chunk of the DLC left me a bit numb mentally, the end battle and subsequent revelations about the Reapers history makes this a must download for Mass Effect lovers.

    Nerd Rating- 7.5/10

     

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  • Tomb Raider Gameplay Shows Off Beautiful Environments, Indestructible Deer.

    Tomb Raider is quickly heading towards it’s March 2013 release and this past week at PAX Square Enix showed off about 14 minutes of gameplay from very early in the game. There were no human antagonists but rather a look at how Lara would control and how she will have to hunt and scavenge for food and supplies to survive.

    Tomb Raider is one of my most anticiapted games for next year and looks incredible even in a not near finished build. Now if we could hunt a deer without it taking like 12 arrows to take down.


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  • Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes Opening Video And Gameplay

    Now don’t let the title fool you too much. This just released video from PAX 2012 is indeed the first opening video from MGS: Ground Zeroes but you won’t really see any gameplay until after the nine minute mark of this eleven minute video. What you will get in a visually stunning assault on the eyes that shows off the Fox Engine’s power with weather effects and clothing. Hideo Kojima announced today that he is personally overseeing and working on this Metal Gear and that while the Fox Engine can run on next gen, Ground Zeroes will release on PS3 and Xbox 360.

    Check out the video below and enjoy the subtitles and creepy Japanese music.

    http://youtu.be/pKrkf7BEb-4

  • Dead Island: Riptide Confirms Our Worst Fears. Zombies Can Swim.

     

    Deep Silver has released the first images from their follow up to 2011’s Dead Island.

    Called Dead Island: Riptide the game sees the four survivors from the first game caught in a monsoon that wrecks their rescue vessel and strands them back on the island they thought was in their rearviews. Now if that sounds like a bit of a cop out for a sequel the developers are the first to tell you that this is not a sequel to Dead Island. It is a full game but it is more of a massive full game add on to Dead Island.

    That’s not to say that you will just be able to run around the island you knew. The monsoon has completely change the layout and environment of the land. This gives you a chance to play in the new weather system in the game’s engine. Weather will adversely affect what you are doing with flood areas and boat missions complete with swimming zombies. If zombies really can swim there is nothing we can do!!

    Also there will be a bit of tower defense action going on with defense missions where players will have to build fencing areas, place turrets and set traps for oncoming zombie hordes. Check out the new images below.

    Dead Island: Riptide will release sometime in 2013 and has already been announced to have a $50 price tag.

  • Star Wars 1313 Developers Want To Take You To Hell

    One of the games that really blew me away at E3 this year was Star Wars 1313. It is at least trying something new for a Star Wars game. Focusing on the life of a bounty hunter in a M-rated Star Wars universe, you descend to the lower levels of the capital city of Coruscant and blast your way through your fair share of scum and villainy.

    This web documentary gives the developers a chance to show off some of the amazing E3 game footage as well as concept art while they explain what they are attempting to accomplish with this risky entry into the Star Wars universe. Take a look and see what you think.

  • Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 Care Package Doesn’t Care About Your Wallet

    Not to be outdone by Borderlands 2’s Loot Chest, Activision has announced the Care Package for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The chest comes equipped with all the bells and whistles that will let everyone know in the parking lot of Gamestop that you love Call of Duty more than anyone. A steelbook edition of the game, excluisive DLC maps, 360 avatars, PS3 themes are what to expect with any type of collector’s edition of a game but the real draw of this has to be the remote-controlled MQ-27 Dragonfire Drone because….well it flies. Yeah.

    The Care Package will set you back $180 so get to saving.

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  • Mass Effect 3 Leviathan DLC Gets A Trailer

    Mass Effect’s latest single player DLC is about to hit on August 28 and has Commander Shepard searching for a mysterious being known as Leviathan that may be strong enough to destroy a Reaper. The trailer look gives us a glimpse of what looks like some underwater mech action.

    Being a Mass Effect nut I am looking forward to diving back into the universe but I am wondering how fans who were critical of the game or it’s ending(s) will feel about playing what can only be called a prequel to a known ending.

    Mass Effect 3 Leviathan DLC releases on August 28 on PSN for $10 and Xbox LIVE for 800 MS Points.

  • Playstation 4 May Run At 4K Resolution

     

    Sony wants your Playstation 4 (or Orbis, who knows) to look very, very clear. Rumors are circulating that Sony’s next iteration of the Playstation will come ready to support the high resolution televisions. Right now the only way that will happen is if you are worth more than most Sony executives since their own brand of 4K television will be releasing this fall in an 80 inch version for a cool $30,000.

    But this is always how Sony operates. They are known for future proofing their systems. The PS2 coming equipped with a DVD drive and the PS3 with a Blu-Ray player were huge reasons why those platforms became a mainstay in homes worldwide so this is just another smart move by Sony to ensure the PS4 has a long shelf life.

    I will be taking donations for a new 4K TV soon. Hello Kickstarter.

  • WWE 13 Roster Reveal Video

    THQ may be on hard times right now but one thing we can still be assured of is that we will see the release of WWE 13 this October and they are swinging for the fences with the largest roster in the game’s history. Over 80 wrestlers including a slew of Attitude Era superstars will be appeating in this year’s version. Here is the full roster on one handy video. Enjoy !

    Video from IGN.