Resistance 2 (PS3):

Yawning Through The Fight

Resistance 2 is nothing more than a great game with great online multiplayer. The problem arises when in game, on either solo or multiplayer, you begin to realize that there's something missing. Nothing is absent that makes the actual gameplay non-functional or non-satifiying, and I'm sure that die-hard Resistance fans will find that this sequal does everything Fall of Man did, only better. No, the problem with this game is not within the gameplay, rather, in it's standing amoungst other titles within the first person shooter genere. If you take the solo campain, for instance, at face value, you will find that essentially all you are doing is gunning shit down untill you reach the end of each level. If you play multiplayer you find yourself either gunning down Chimera cooperativily with other players, or gunning each other down in deathmatch or some other varient competivive type gameplay. But there's nothing to be found in either multiplayer mode that lends itself to addictive gameplay unless just shooting oppenents is something that you find addictive. Alongside other games like Call of Duty: WAW, or even the striped down leveling system of Quantum of Solace, Resistance 2 just dosen't stack up to the competition.
So unless you are a hardcore fan of the Resistance series, save your money. There are plenty of titles out there this season that do what Resistance 2 does in a more enjoyable way.

Winners and Loosers of the 7th Generation of gaming

The winners of the 7th generation of video game consoles will undoubtedly go down in history as the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox 360.  Having previously owned an xbox 360 ( ehem...four of them...) and owning a PS3 and a Wii now, I can tell you how I honestly feel about each system.

The Wii is awesome.  Sadly, it's also an overpriced gamecube with a modified processor and bluetooth wireless capabilities.  There are a few awesome Wii titles out there, and the rest are absolute (and this is a fact) garbage.  The Wii actually sells more consoles than it does games.  From a purely economic standpoint, the Wii is the winner.

The Xbox 360 is awesome, and Microsoft has refined Xbox Live to the point that it's THE online service for multiplayer gaming.  Sadly, the 360 hardware itself is more problematic than any other video game console in history.  What's worse is that Microsoft knew about a 68% failure rate for it's consoles in November of 2005, and while that number is said to have gone down I don't know a single person who hasn't had their 360 die on them for one reason or another.  EVEN WORSE is that Microsoft initially denied any knowledge of console defects, until some of the customers they had dicked over took them to court.  We may never know what the failure rate of the current line of 360's in America is but it's safe to say that Microsoft did as much as it could to prevent people from knowing that they were buying a defective product.  Microsoft wins because it's online service is outstanding.

The PlayStation 3 is a hugely under-rated piece of hardware.  More powerful than the Wii or the 360, the PS3 high price tag led to it's downfall in the 7th generation console wars.  People simply said, "I'm not paying 600 dollars for a fucking video game system".  Understandable logic, except that the PS3 is like the Ferrari of video game consoles.  It's an extremely powerful computer, that just so happens to also be a powerful Blu-Ray/game console system.  Unfortunately, what Sony exec's didn't take into consideration is that all Americans wanted was a console to play games on.  The PS3 is the most expensive contestant in the 7th generation of video games, but one could argue that unlike the the Wii or the 360, when you buy a PS3, you're actually getting what you paid for.  

So why does Microsoft piss me off?  Because of this shit...

The downloadable content for GTA IV and Fallout 3 looks awesome.  Except if you own a PS3, because for no good Goddamn reason, downloadable content for these games are going to be Games for Windows and Xbox 360 exclusive.   And apparently although Bethesda has been hush-hush about the details, it would appear that Microsoft paid them big money to make Fallout 3 downloadable content Microsoft exclusive.

Listen, when Bethesda makes Fallout 4, if they want to release it only for the 360 or the 720, then thats fine.  But it's something else altogether to produce Fallout 3 for both the 360 and the PS3, and then not release the downloadable content for both systems.  That's fucked up.  That's alienating an entire group of gamers for absolutely no other reason other than filling your coffers with more money.  And so I wrote an email to Todd Howard at Bethesda, and here it is.

To Mr. Howard,

I've been a loyal fan and consumer of Bethesda Software for several years, ever since I first played TES: Morrowind.  In 2004, when I first learned about Oblivion being on the Xbox 360, I saved every penny I could towards the future purchase of the console.  In fact, as I've told many people, the sole reason I got an xbox 360 was because of Oblivion.

In late October of this year, my Xbox 360 RRODed for the fourth time in two years.  Microsoft's refusal to fix the system, coupled with Fallout 3's upcoming release (which I had on pre-order) left me with with few choices.  So what I ended up doing, was trading in my Xbox 360 towards the purchase of a PS3.  Like oblivion, Fallout 3 was the only reason I went to drastic measures and bought a PS3.

I've learned that Bethesda has made a deal with Microsoft, and that there will be no Fallout downloadable content for the ps3, while 360 owners will get what sound like three sweet missions.  How could  you do this to the fans?  If you go ahead and release a game for both consoles, why would you alienate all the people who bought the game for PS3, and cock-block us from getting any downloadable content?

I'm not naive; the chances of this email swaying your opinion are none. I'm not going to boycott your products. But I had to let you know that I feel you made a wrong decision.  When I eventually find the money to buy another 360, I will buy it just for the downloadable content.  You're a rich man now so why should you care?  As 3Dog at GNR Radio might say, "Nice going scumbag."

Thanks for nothing,

    Jeremy Onorato 

Rachet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Review (PS3)

I realize that this game is now over a year old, but after playing The Quest for Booty, I had to check out Tools of Destruction.  I must say, I've never liked platform games, but this game fucking rocks.  Not only is the single player mode massive, there's all kinds of unlockable content like skins and cheats which you can get by completing certain perimeters and collecting special items.  To put it short, this game is fucking epic.  It's a MUST have for anyone with a PS3, and it's easily one of the best titles for the system.  You wouldn't think a cartoonish platform could hold a candle to monster games like Resistance 1 & 2, Drakes's Fortune, Fallout 3 or any of the other great titles for the PlayStation 3, but the truth is that this game is right up there with those hits.  I would go as far to say that this might be one of the greatest video games of all time, for any console, of any era of video game history.  The quality delivered over countless hours of fun and engaging game play is unlike any game I've ever played in my life.  It's that good.

Ratchet and Clank Future: The Quest for Booty

I have always hated platformers for the simple reason that my hand eye coordination sucks fossilized Brontosauraus scrotum.  There exists a  fine line between challenging and frustrating gameplay when it comes to platform games.  Fortunatley developer Insomniac seems to have struck an even balance with the Ratchet and Clank sereies.  

So I guess it was my longing to get over my fear of the genre that prompted me to play this most recent title within the series, the first of which I played several eons ago (2002) on my brother's Ps2.  At that time I found the series to be as awesome as a mouthful of bursted genital warts (translation= I fucking hated it), but this time around was a totally different experience; I found myself blown away by quality of the gameplay, which had me fully engaged into the wee hours of the morning.  The only sour note is that the game is rather short and I finished it within just a few sittings.  Still,  I found Quest for Booty to be a fantastic and addictive adventure from start to finish, and I highly recommend that if you haven't played it yet, you give it a go. 

These are some of the pics I took from this years VGXPO in Philly.  It was a nightmare trying to get in if you didnt pre-register online, largely due to the fact that the setup looked like it had been set up by a group of five year olds.  The lines themselves were not a problem so much as the fact that they were everywhere, and many of them led to just groups of people standing idly around.  No, I'm not kidding.  We started out in a line going into the building, a line we were directed into and told this was the line for people looking to buy a ticket inside.  This would have been fine, except there was ZERO supervision being conducted to make sure that the lines themselves worked, and halfway through the wait you could see people just walking up to the doors and walking in, completely negating the line.  They would also close the doors after a certain number of people had gotten in, for what reason I'll never know, but the direct result was that with all the line cutting going on, we managed to stay in one spot before about a half an hour before I figured out that the only way in was just to walk towards the door as soon as it opened and just walk through groups of other people.  Finally when we got inside, we were told that there were two lines; one for cash and one for credit, and that the credit line was faster.  Well that would have been awesome if they had bothered to set up a system to seperate the two lines, because halfway through the building the lines converges into one.  There was a girl ONE GIRL, telling people to form into two lines.........it was madness.  Finally we said fuck it, and just started walking in between people, and when we got to the end of the credit line, there was one guy, directing ONE PERSON AT A TIME up an escalator to the upper level.  And the line for cash?  That line, which stretched to the back of the building and easily had three hundred people in it, ended in a group of people, most of them staff mixed with patrons, standing in a corner and chatting.  

When we actuallygot up the elevator, we had to wait in line to buy our tickets online AND THEN GET INTO ANOTHER LINE THAT WAITED FOR AN EMAIL FROM THE TICKETS WE HAD JUST BOUGHT SO THAT THEY COULD GIVE US TICKETS.  It was insane.  I remember less about the XPO than I do about the bullshit it took to get into the damn thing.  There was just no order at all.  It was a trainwreck.  Next year I'll be preordering and getting there early, SO I CAN WAIT IN LINES THAT DON'T LEAD TO ANYTHING.