A Gamer's Gaming Blog

GGB review: Half-life 2

2010-05-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

A hastily erected barricade to prevent combine troops from getting in,
said barricade became useless when I remembered which side the door opens.

Half life 2 is a Valve corporation development, winner of over 40 game of the year awards (But those things are a dime a dozen.)

In the game, Mr.Freeman, the main character, has awakened from a stasis he was put into at the end of the first game (Which I have yet to play.) Humanity has be conquered by the Combine, an alien race that has since transformed it into a most dystopian society, the game starts in city 17, but you sometimes leave the city to travel in places such as Ravenholm (Shudder.) The physics in the game are....awesome to say the least, with you eventually getting what is perhaps one of the most fun weapons in the history of gaming, the gravity gun, that allows even more fun with physics. One problem I encountered was a graphical glitch in a section of water hazard (You are in one of the forts with the chopper shooting at you) where a part of the map would not load until you actually stepped into it. The graphics are awesome, so are the physics, the controls aren't a nightmare, and it is just plain fun. The AI can be a bit suicidal on occasion, not bothering to hide when your machine-gun toting mudskipper starts firing.

Gameplay: 5 stars
Graphics: 4 stars
AI: 4 stars
Music 4 stars
Overall: 4.25 stars

Evil genius: GGB review

2009-11-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

My evil base, MWHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!

Evil genius is a simulation game that has you enter a humorus cliche world of super villany, with james bond 60s-style music, the game allows you to choose from 3 super villians, a standard short pudgy billionare, a female wicked billianore, and a kung-fu master. You start the game with just workers, but as you capture more innocents you gain more types of minions, you can commit acts of infamy to further your dark agenda, and recruit henchmen to be your backbone.

Gameplay: 4 stars
Graphics: 4 stars
Music: 4 stars
Innovation: 4 stars
overall:4 stars

Laser Sqaud Nemesis: A GGB review

2009-10-07T06:15:00.000-07:00

Some hunters flee from a Spawn attack

In the back, the single greatest message board of all time.

Today GGB brings you a review of the game Laser Sqaud Nemesis, A pretty nice game, but online multiplayer costs you extra, but the real strrrrrrrrrrrrrrrengh of this game is hotseat, there are four, sadly extremly cliche races:

Greys: Little grey men, they have shields to help their soft frail body from being ripped to fleshy little parts, the problem is that their shields drai their ammo, but one special unit can activate a forcefield to protect other grays,but still can have that shield quickly drained by a mass attack(Read: Spawn or marines, or Missle tanks).

Spawm: Insectoids, very, very fast, they also have a queen that can lay eggs to make more, in other words: ZERG SWARM!!!! They don't really have any ranged units though, so they mostly need to get up close and personal, which is hard when you're being shot/blown up/ sniped/ being attacked by other spawn.

Marines: Humans. They have medics so they can heal their troops, which is important after being swamped by Spawn, they also have snipers which can really do a good job at long range attacks far from the dangers of hungry, hungry, spawn. Grenadiers also have a bouncy ball of death attack that can blow a hole through a wall, or a machina, or a Spawn queen.

Machina; Robots, nothing really special besides having the ultimate in long-range death, their missle tanks, when working together, can kill the other team from across the map.

Battles are done in turns that last 10 seconds, so 6 rounds are bassically one in-game minute.

Scores:

Gameplay: 3 stars
Graphics: 3 stars
Races: 1 star
Multiplayer" 1 stars
Overall:2 stars

2009-09-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

Today GGB brings you a review of Restaurant Tycoon, A fairly fun game
that is worth a try.

The game, obviously, has you start out with one restaurant and you can expand, but you just might have them cannibalize each others profits. You can theme your restaurants, which is nice but doesn't have much actual difference besides different upgrades and artworks, your chef can specialize in 1 kind of food out of three, Italian,American, and French. There is a variety of food to put on your menu but sometimes customers can be annoying, "NOT ENOUGH LIGHT", "MY FOOD IS COLD" WELL GUESS WHAT MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE GRATEFUL I FEED YOU AT ALL YOU BIG GROUP OF WHINERS! The music...is like the kind you hear in elavtors.

Scores:

Gameplay: 3 stars
Graphics: 3 stars
AI: 2 stars
Music 2 stars
Overall: 2.5 stars

Project Snowblind ; GGB review

2009-09-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Shooting Chinese traitor soldiers.

Today GGB brings you a review of Project Snowblind, a very fun game. The game begins with the clichie plot of a evil general who seizes control in a dark future with China in civil war, the Main charecter gets injured, and his life is saved by cybernetic enhacnments. Graphics are pretty nice, and the gaemplay is like a standard FPS, with the addition of hacking into computers, as well as using special powers like slowing down time, Matrix style! No friendly soldier will be nameless, as the game gives you the name of every friendly solider you come across. You may overhear them shouting stuff such as "My wife specifically told me not to get shot!" and "Keep moving!" The atmosphere is pretty dark at times, as you fight through the dark night against all who oppose you.

Scores:

Graphics: 4 stars
Gameplay: 4 stars
Level design: 3 stars
AI: 3 stars
Overall: 3.5 stars

Zombie shooter: GGB review

2009-09-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

Today GGB brings you a review of a fun, but sadly quite short, blast-them-untill-they-stop-moving-then-blast-them-again game! Zombie shooter, a game where you shoot zombies! VERY subtle title there!

Screen shot: Cornered by zombies, but nowhere near as bad as later levels. PARENTAL WARNING: Green blood is a optinal mode, the default is red blood, this can be changed in the options screen.

The game is made by Sigma team, makers of alien shooter, gameplay diffrence between the games? You blast zombies instead of aliens, You have one control and one only, make that two, make that three, click to shoot, F for flashlight, and arrows keys to run like mad from zombie hoards. The game has only 10 levels though, 9 weapons, and around 8 diffrent kinds of enemeys, and 1 boss fight! The game can be finished in one dedicated sitting, and no real replay value.

As you can see in the photo, later levels have MASSIVE hoards of foes, but they arn't that hard to down, except for the final boss fight. The game has NO PLOT WHATSOEVER! The game is a fun weekend romp, but then you reliase: "I just bought a game that is not only short, but has no replay value!" Of course then again, you can get it on amazon for only 5 bucks. The game has a killer soundtrack though.

Lets see the scores:

Gameplay: 2 stars
Graphics: 3 stars
Length: 2 stars
Music: 5 stars

Overall: 3 stars!

DDO: GGB review

2009-09-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

Today GGB brings you a review of a truly fantastic game: Dungeons and Dragons online- now its free! At least partially. The game obviously, is a MMORPG with dungeons and dragons 3.5 rules, the community is sometimes infested with spammers and trolls, which provoke the other players into insulting them, so curse words are exchanged often in the chat. The game keeps itself afloat by ~~allowing users to buy points to earn certain premium content~~ Giving F2P accounts around only 50% of the game, and giving those who earn points plenty of advantages, but it has a Runescape-like VIP that gives you most of the stuff in the store for free, for a monthly fee of course. The graphics are good. But whenever you enter a different zone the dark curse of lag will afflict you for a minute for so. The gameplay uses Diablo style combat, left-click to hurt things, but hit buttons to zap things. Most dungeons allow to to go it solo, but you earn more rewards for higher difficulty modes! The modes are Solo, Normal, Hard, and Elite. The DM narrator is a work of art.

Let us see the scores!

Graphics: 4 stars
Gameplay: 4 stars
Content: 3 stars
Dungeon Design: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars!

Rise of Nations: a GGB Review

2009-09-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

Today GGB reviews Rise of Nations, a game whose development was led by
Brian Reynolds of Civ II and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, working with BIG HUGE GAMES (yes that's the name of the company) and published by that titan of a company Microsoft.

Red Hoplites do battle with blue Hoplites. The game has a variety of units, but most are just upgrades of previous soldiers. That is, until you get to the gunpowder age and beyond.

The game employs the concept of territory as you can see in the minimap of the image. Any hostile units in your territory suffer attrition damage, which can quickly kill them unless they employ units such as supply wagons to prevent attrition damage. The tech tree is very simple as there are five kinds of technology: Age, Military, Civic, Commerce, and Science, there are 8 of each, therefore 8 ages. Once all are researched there are four final technologies you can research, each with devastating effects, from producing units instantly to having all timed victories automatic. With 18 nations, each with special units, and special powers, the fun never ends! The "conquer the world" campaign is risk-styled but with battles being played out like any other game. This 2004 RTS is a must-have!

Scores:
Gameplay: 4 stars
Graphics: 3 stars
Diffuculty: 3 stars
Campagin: 3 stars
Overall: 4 stars!

Age of mytholagy: the Titans

2009-09-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

Today GGB brings you an innovative 2002 Microsoft and ensemble studios (Yes, the guys who made Halo Wars and Age of Empires) Age of mythology and its expansion, the Titans! An Alantantian Titan assists its fellow reds in a battle against the blues.

The game is quite innovative, however you should note that it only has 5 (only 4 in the original) ages (This is no Empire Earth) but has a wide variety of vicious units to use in your conquest of all who oppose you, the original has 3 factions, the Norse, the Egyptians, And the Greece, each with 3 major gods to choose from, as well as minor gods to choose from every time you advance an age, which can make game play quite different, especially in terms of units you get, as each minor god grants you 1 special power ( Stuff like raining down Meteorites or turning your opponents into pigs) and 1 myth unit ( think Minotaurs, Medusa, scorpion men, and Valkyries)
In the expansion they add the 5th age, the Titan age, as well as the Alantantians (From Alantis) as a new faction, who worship the Titans (the ancestors of the Greek gods). The game has 4 resocures besides population, the first 3 are the most obvius, Gold, Lumber, and Food, the fourth one,Favor is the more complex and innovative one, Favor is used to buy some upgrades and also build myth units, and each faction earns Favor in a special way, The Greeks earn it by worshipping at their temples, Norse earn it by fighting, Egyptians earn it by building monuments, and Alantis earns it by building town centers.

The Titans also add a special new Final unit, the Titans, Super-powered monsters that can easily wipe out other units, the only differance each faction's Titans have are that each looks diffrent, The Greeks Titan looks like Cerebus, for example, but the norse's Titan looks like a big,fat, Frost Giant. GGB highly Reccomends this game!

Let's see the scores!

Gameplay: 4 stars!
AI: 3 Stars
Graphics: 4 stars
Innvoation: 4 stars

Overall: 4 stars!

River Rock prt 3

2009-09-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

We continue our series on the mission River Rock, and farsight, our trusty female sharpshooter and minefield spotter, has detected a rather powerful mine that could result in a gory and messy explosion.

After disabling the mine with a well-placed shot and Robin unlocking the control panel to the gate and some skilled switch- using on farsight's part, the gate opens to lead us to the final boss fight.

However the final boss fight won't let us in the front door as it is too well-locked to bypass so we must attack him from behind, however he has personal on the roof that open fire on the squad, they are not too skilled at staying alive though.

This here is evidence of why raiders need tougher standards for hiring.

This man obviously has no standards when it comes to office decency (Speaking of which, the raider's cubicles were filthy.)

I wonder how he got to get promoted to boss.

I need the what? I didn't read the mission briefing enough did I....

To be continued

FCC exmaining a semi-universal rating system

2009-08-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

Imagine, instead of having R for movies and M for video games, having just one rating for 18+ movies, music, video games etc. That is what the FCC is examining. The senior vice president for communications and industry affairs of the Entertainment Software association rich Taylor says "The ESA appreciates the FCC and its important role,However, the ESRB rating system is considered by parents, family advocates, the Federal Trade Commission, and elected officials as the gold standard in providing caregivers with the information they need to make the right choices for their families. Universal ratings will, in the end, only serve to confuse consumers, violate the Constitution's first amendment, and are a solution in search of a problem."Also the FCC has been asked to look into technologies that would allow parents to block children's access to inappropriate content across a variety of media. Currently, TVs are equipped with special technology that allow parents to prohibit access to TV programs of a certain rating, but many shows are still accessible through the Internet or cell phones.

Fallout tactics: River rock prt 2

2009-08-29T11:08:00.001-07:00

GGB brings you part 2 of the interplay game fallout tactics mission: River Rock!

Die Raider! And yes, I DID hit you.

A trio of raiders dare to keep my group of well-armed warriors from seizing control of this building!

Prepare to die, fiendish looters and exploiters of a post-apocalyptic land!

The reasoning behind that attack on those raiders was so I could get a sniping position on Bo the Raider, and eliminate him from afar.

We have discovered a holding pen for Brahmin! The cows of a Post-apocalyptic world!

Not good.

NEXT TIME: The minefield and more!

Atari and Gametap partnership.

2009-08-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

http://gametapblog.com/announcement-gametap-atari-expand-partnership/

Gametap and Atari have reached an agreement, hot on the heels of last months partnership with Ubisoft, allowing Gametap subscribers to Atari's library of games.

3d ultra mini golf adventures review

2009-08-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Today GGB brings a review of the game 3d ultra mini golf adventures.

An example of the disappointing character creator

The game is a fairly nice mini-golf game, but not one GGB would recommended. The graphics are fair, but honestly? They could have been better at detailing the levels, and the levels are rather good, but with only three themes the game can get boring after a while.

The poor wild west theme.

The biggest crime is the character creator, they give you 2 male modules and 2 female modules, a few balls to choose from and maybe 3 different costumes each, could have been much more.

The theme park theme, which isn't too bad.

The power ups, while a interesting gameplay method, are not nearly as useful as one would think, and they rely mostly on your opponents having bad luck.

Now the space theme is where the game gets intresting, as you can see.

Lets see the scores:

Level Design: 2 stars
Gameplay: 2 stars
Customization: 1 star
Difficulty: 3 stars
Overall: 2 stars

Lego Racer Review

2009-08-26T04:45:00.000-07:00

Today GGB brings you a review of the Lego racing game that is obviously called..... Lego Racers!

A racer in the kingdom level, just about the face that accursed hammer.

Developed by High Voltage Software and published by Lego media (obviously) The game has you control a racer on his quest to become a champion racer, it has several modes, including 2-player if you have a additional game pad, the "campaign" is called circuit mode, and has you race in circuits which last 4 maps, winning in 1st or 2nd place unlocks the next 4 maps, and being in 1st place grants you access to their clothing and car pieces in the chareter creator. It has a "skirmish" mode called single race, where you pick a unlocked map, pick your racer, and ride off. Each map has a specif theme, but to have more then 3 circuits they made all the other circuits have the same map, but with slight changes to them. The gameplay is simple enough that just about anyone can play the game, collecting colored brick grants you a power, for example, green bricks can boost your speed, while red bricks create offensive weaponry, and white bricks upgrade these powers to more and more extreme levels. Anyone who is a racing fan and a lego fan should be able to enjoy this game. But remember: the AI cheats, a lot.

Level Design: 3 stars
Gameplay: 4 stars
AI: 2 stars
Graphics: 3 stars
Overall: 3 stars

A unreal tounrnament review

2009-08-25T05:42:00.000-07:00

Today GGB brings you a review of a legendary first-person shooter, famed for its multiplayer. Yes, that game would be.....
Unreal Tournament!

The game was co-developed Epic Games and Digital Extremes, and published by GT Interactive in 1999. The game was hailed by many, and boy did they have good reason to! The graphics may be dated for today, but they still can capture all the high-paced and frenetic action. If you prefer a slow-paced, think-before-you-leap FPS, then you will not last 10 seconds in this game.

Unreal Tournament is designed for those of you who just want to grab your guns, scream a battle cry, and charge into the fray!

The level design is fun. One map I really like is a battle in an underwater fortress in the sea, complete with holes that lead into the water in the ship you jump into, to get to the enemy base (which makes defense easy). And another where one team defends a ship while the other attempts to storm it!

It has all the modes you enjoy, from deathmatch to assult to CTF to domination. The weapons are fun, along with their seconday fire modes.

Now that this review is concluded, lets check the score:

(scores are done on a scale of 1-5)

Graphics: 4 stars
Gameplay: 5 stars
Level Design: 5 stars
Weapons: 4 stars

Overall: 4.5 stars!

Fallout tactics: River rock prt 1

2009-08-24T07:36:00.000-07:00

Today I will show off a game called Fallout Tactics, a tactical roleplaying game, made by:

INTERPLAY!

I will show you the mission known as "River Rock," where I must eliminate a group of raider leaders (mini bosses galore!)

See that dead guy? Next to the live ones? He was one of my guys, before he got killed due to his stupidity.

This is what the loot screen looks like. (Guy on the left is the main character's inventory, right is the corpse of my foe.)

Guy talking is the guy I just shot.

Two guys try to ambush my five guys-- these guys got a death wish?

That green lady in the back is Daisy, one of the mini bosses I mentioned ( she is creepy 0_0).

This is Luke I believe, a man of very few words.
And two of us? There are five of us, not including you or your guards.

I was right! His name is Luke!

Survival of the smartest, indeed.

That's all the loot I get?

To be continued in part 2 of River Rock!