RSS Feed and Whatnots

Just added an RSS feed to the site for anyone that is interested in subscribing to The Game Critic.

Also, some upcoming reviews: Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Age of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties, and Super Mario Galaxy.

Times@$t

Okay, so maybe it's not as bad as the title gives off, but it was still one of the most frustrating game experiences I've had.

Timeshift has excellent gameplay mechanics but lacks the luster of a well-made game. The graphics are sub-par and the gameplay lacks the proper flow that games require.

The time control gameplay mechanics are an excellent step in the right direction for possible future game technology and features, but Timeshift just didn't take them far enough to make a very enthralling experience. Many of the game moments really required a previous playthrough of the game in order to progress through the game knowing what you are doing. At one point in a mission you have to use timed explosives to destroy a metal door that is blocking the path for a train to move forward. You take out all the guards guarding the conveniently placed explosive device and head back to the door with the intention of destroying it. You place the explosive, and turn around to move away from the blast. Two seconds later you die. How were you supposed to anticipate the need for a time stop/slow to get far enough away from the explosive without someone next to you telling you that will happen? Good game Sierra. This same formula of events happened all too often within Timeshift.

The singleplayer campaign was also lacking considerably. From the somewhat sad storyline that didn't capture me enough, to the incredibly short gamespan. A game beaten in one sitting!? And not even an obsurdly long sitting, like some 10-12 hour gameplay binges that gamers have? One night after a full 8-hour day, game beaten, and yet, still a good nights sleep to be had. Could it be that my experience had something to do with it? Sure, but I'm certain that other gamers had the same experience. I'm not the cream of the crop, but I'm not terrible. The storyline even left me wondering who my character was within the game, and right when I was about to find out, they excluded that information from the game. Normally I would be angry and far too determined to discover the identity of my alter-ego, but this game didn't capture my emotion like many others, and left me with no desire to find out who I was.

The multiplayer is decent. It seems to have a nice control over the time aspect, but the multiplayer itself is lacking. With revolutionary multiplayer experiences such as Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 out around the same time, Timeshift didn't stand a chance. Is this Timeshift's fault? Probably not, but keeping up with the competition is all part of the game.

Timeshift gets a 6.4/10.

Blizzard's Next-Gen MMO

After a perusal of the Blizzard jobs page, I noticed a few new openings for a "Top Secret" project.

Blizzard is apparently working on a secret Next-Gen MMO game for future development and are hiring for the positions on the project.

To see what I am referring to, head to their job opportunity website at...
http://www.blizzard.com/jobopp/

Movie Test

Metroid Prime 3: The Review!

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

The metroid series has always fascinated me. Super Metroid was my absolute favorite video game on the SNES system so I decided to check out the Metroid Prime series.

One thing that immediately caught my attention was the control scheme. Wii is a tricky system to adequately manipulate control systems to better suit the game at hand. The Metroid Prime series has worked well with the Wii-mote. The first Metroid Prime game controls seemed somewhat irksome and had an awkward touch to them. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has mastered the first person controls for the Wii system. The controls respond quicker and are much more accurate than its predecessors.

The story to Corruption was fantastic. The interaction with the NPC’s in the game lead to a enthralling and unique gaming experience. Samus always serves as an calm and collected female main character for all of these games.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption gets a 9.1/10.

Although the controls were much improved from the previous Prime games, they still seemed to bother me. The viewport from Samus’s helmet bothered me at times because I felt as though I couldn’t see enough of the surrounding area to effectively battle. For a Wii game, however, the graphics were fantastic and immersive. The controls were the best they could be for a Wii-mote and nun-chaku, and the story was my favorite so far of any Metroid game. Wii owners… This is a title to purchase.