Nerd Rating

Tag: PS3

  • 2012 Fall/ Winter Video Game Preview Part 1

     

     

     

    • Borderlands 2- Sept. 18 (360, PS3, PC)

    Time for more cell-shaded, weapon upgrading madness on the planet of Pandora. New characters, weapons and equipment mods are just the beginning to this sequel of the best-selling shooter. Three new classes (Gunzerker, Ninja and Commando) will be introduced and every weapon will be brand new for the sequel. While the single player was fun in the first game the real insanity was in the two or four player co-op mode which one can only guess will be even crazier this go round. Not to mention the insane collector’s editions for the game.

     

    • Street Fighter: 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition- Sept. 18 (360, PS3)

    Capcom is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Street Fighter with a $150 collection that includes: Street Fight X Tekken, Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike Online Edition, a Street Fighter Blu-Ray documentary, Street Fighter 2, 4 and Super Street Fighter 4 anime movies, every episode of the Street Fighter anime series, an 11 disc soundtrack set, 64-page hardcover book, replica Ryu belt and an eight inch Ryu statue. Tired of reading yet? Say what you will of all the collector’s editions these days it seems Capcom gets it with this release.

     

    • Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse- Sept. 25 (360, PS3)

    Maybe getting lost in how awesome the South Park game slated for next year is looking is the fact that the Griffins have a game coming out this fall. Whether it is written by manatees or not remains to be seen but we do know that the game is being written by the team that does the show and that Activision is not shying away from an M rating. A sequel to the season eight episode “Road to the Multiverse”, the game sees Stewie and Brian making their way through alternate realities as Stewie’s evil brother Bertram tries to kill them.

     

    • World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria- Sept. 25 (PC)

    Blizzard is unleashing the pandas on us!! Have you ever wanted to play as Po from Kung-Fu Panda in Azeroth? Well now’s your chance mofos! And you know Blizzard has to keep their gravy train rolling so you will be able to buy the game in three editions (standard, deluxe and collector’s). How much do you want to panda around?

     

    • Resident Evil 6- Oct. 2 (360,PS3)

    Set to have three branching storylines with three past Resident Evil characters, Resident Evil 6 is certainly the most ambitious of the series but I hope that it turns out better than the soul sucking that was Resident Evil 5. Chris Redfield, Sherry Birkin and Leon Kennedy take over main character duties with a large interconnecting story that will span the globe.

     

    • Dishonored- Oct. 9 (360, PS3, PC)

    Bethesda continues on their roll with this steampunk/stealth game that looks like Bioshock had a baby with Half-Life 2 in Victorian London. Completely in first person players take control of a former bodyguard who goes on a mission of revenge for being framed for a murder. Players also have the option to play the game without killing anyone ala Splinter Cell. But with the kill animations looking as sweet as they do that will not be an option for me.

     

    • Fable: The Journey- Oct. 9 (360)

    After absolutely loving Fable 2 and being more than disappointed with Fable 3 (and we won’t even get into Fable Heroes) it seems like the ambitious series started by Peter Molyneux was on shaky legs. Enter Fable: The Journey and their less than stellar showing at E3 over a year ago and that seems to have put everything on life support. Heck, Fable: The Journey is being touted as the reason Molyneux left Lionhead Studios….the studio he created. But the game is still barreling towards an October release date with all Kinect controls set in the land of Albion and one can only guess if it will be a Kinect revolution or Kinect Star Wars 2.

     

    • XCOM: Enemy Unknown- Oct. 9 (360, PS3, PC)

    Don’t worry fans of the original XCOM from the looks of gameplay videos the guys over at Firaxis are doing a good job of keeping the originals heavy strategy roots while also giving today’s gamer a bit more of a shooter vibe from this reinvention of the 1994 game. Squad mates have certain abilities like mind control and stealth ability to enhance the strategy battlefield experience.

     

    • 007 Legends- Oct. 16 (360, PS3, PC)

    Activision is back back in the 007 game after their solid remake of Goldeneye. This time they are taking on a variety of different Bond films which get their own expansive mission essentially linking all the movies together. To date the movies that have been announced are: Moonraker, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, License to Kill, Die Another Day and the newest Bond film Skyfall which will be released as free DLC when the movie launches in November. The game even has Richard Kiel and Michael Lonsdale back in their roles of Jaws and Hugo Drax respectively. As a huge Bond fanatic (beyond a fan) this is one of my most looked forward to games this fall.

     

    • Doom 3: BFG Edition- Oct. 16 (360, PS3, PC)

    Hard to believe it has been eight years since Doom 3 blazed onto the PC with some of the best graphics ever seen in a shooter. And actually when you go back and look at the original Xbox version it can still pass for a first gen 360 title. Not too shabby for a game almost a decade old. Now the classic shooter is getting an HD upgrade and being packaged as the BFG edition. Only 40 bucks will get you Doom 3, the Resurrection of Evil DLC, a new single player campaign called The Lost mission as well as the original Doom and Doom 2 with achievement points and trophy support. It just may be the best video game deal of the holiday season.

     

    • Medal of Honor: Warfighter- Oct. 23 (360, PS3, PC)

    In the battle to overtake Call of Duty, EA has put a lot of focus on their Battlefield franchise and even though their reboot of Medal of Honor sold well it seems like the original war shooter franchise is kind of the red headed step child of the house that Madden built. This year brings a sequel titled Medal of Honor: Warfighter which is based on actual missions written by real Tier One operatives. With all the early attention that Battlefield received way before it’s release last year, it seems the new Medal of Honor is almost here with no fanfare. The franchise may have to settle for second fiddle….or third.

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  • Review: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD

    When Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater released on the Playstation in August of 1999 I don’t think anyone, even publisher Activision, knew just how immensely popular the game would be. I remember staying up late nights with friends trying to find all the SKATE letters and attempting to find the hidden video cassettes in every level.

     

    But like with any game that finds huge success there would be sequels. And in the case of Tony Hawk boy would there be plenty of them. THPS 2 and 3 were still very good skateboarding games but soon after we were under the deluge of Bam Margera cameos and skateboard peripherals. Ten sequels in ten years will tend to thin out creativity (you listening Call of Duty?).

     

    Now almost two years after the last Tony Hawk release Activision has decided that old is the new new and gotten developer Robomodo to remake Tony Hawk into a powerhouse again. What has come of that is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD which takes the best levels of Tony Hawk 1 and 2 as well as a healthy bulk of the original soundtrack and given them an HD facelift.

     

    Let’s get this out of the way early. This game is freaking fun. No more loading tunnels for open worlds or trying to do a kickflip on a fake skateboard that won’t read your tricks. This is straight up Tony Hawk like you remember from way back (13 years….wow) and it controls just as good as you remember. Tricks and grabs are assigned to the button layout as well as the grind and jump. Spin is attained by control stick or the left and right triggers. Sound familiar? Manuals are back as well and can make for some sick combos.

     

    If you are reading this and thinking to yourself, “Nothing sounds different”, well for the most part you are right. And that is what is so refreshing about this game. The first time you bust through the glass into the Warehouse stage it’s like a warm feeling of better days when you were young and it was only plastic cars.

     

    Stages are unlocked the old fashioned way, by earning it. Collecting SKATE letters, hidden DVD’s, doing certain stage specific tricks and trying to get the progressively higher scores will have you skating on. And with this being a “best of” game from THPS 1 and 2 you will gladly keep grinding away to unlock the next stage so you can relive more memories. I already mentioned Warehouse as one of the levels and in addition you get: Mall, Hangar, School 2, Venice Beach, Marseille and Downhill Jam.

     

    The new in the game is mostly good with modes like Big Head which has the players head inflating slowly and the only way to keep it from exploding is to keep up your combo total. It’s also good to see online leaderboards added to the title because what’s better than comparing your high scores to you friends? Why comparing it to the entire world. You will find out quickly that no matter how good you think you are there is always a 14 year old in Seattle way better. That to me is a challenge.

     

    The only place I would say that trips the game up is the roster of skaters. Gone are the days of Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek and Rune Glifberg. Now we gets the likes of Andrew Reynolds (huh), Chris Cole (again, huh) and Riley Hawk, Tony’s son (dang we’re old). But you can still play as the Hawkman and also use your avatar on 360 so even my only gripe about the game is a minor one.

     

    Graphically, the team at Robomodo have done a great job sprucing up this 13 year old title. While it is not going to challenge Crysis in a graphics contest it is leaps and bounds about the original PS1 classic. It really is the perfect blend of playing a new game while remaining familiar.

     

    Finally the soundtrack is a big winner. While it doesn’t boast all the tracks from the first two games you get a great collection that includes: Powerman 5000, Goldfinger, and a host of new tracks. I dare you to not start singing Bring the Noise when it comes up on any level. Remember music? Yeah, I do too.

     

    So should you download Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD? Only if you want a game with smooth controls, awesome soundtrack and that good feeling you get when you remember back to better times….and better games.

     

    NERD RATING- 8/10