As much as the previous week produced an abundance of incredible video games, the last was a shower of mediocrity. In the midst of the so-so there does lay a few diamonds in the rough. Dust off your Playstation 2, as Sony did release a couple of worthy plays for their second gen system.
The Wii held their corner of the market strong with a couple of interesting titles. The first of which, Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked, features a cruise ship that crashed near a tropical island and you have to survive and meet up with other stranded people. Konami graduated the game well and chose the perfect system to do it. The game focuses on the Wii’s interactive control system with lots of fun activities, spear fishing, starting fires, and building shelter.
The other notable Wii-only game, you may recognize from the other games Natsume released in the series of the same name. Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, is a farming simulator that requires you to grow crops and regenerate the land in order to revive the great tree and bring the goddess back. The sim was well received by critics and is definitely a good show of what the saga is capable of.
Ubisoft has got to be one of my favorite publishers. With their wide array of games on every platform, they sure do aim to please. Their newest, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (XBOX 360, PS3, PC), Double Time (Wii), is a tactical team-based, first person shooter with all the bells and whistles. The game drops you right smack in the middle of one of World War II’s largest airborne operations by the 101st Airborne Division. Hooah! As with most of these style games the controls and AI can be shoddy at times. All the gruesome detail and intricate battle scenes will be sure to take your mind off of your teammate that just seems to run right into the line of fire.
Silent Hill has spent many years scaring and simultaneously making us solve sadistic puzzles. Konami keeps the horror flowing with the latest installment, Silent Hill: Homecoming. Our friendly, neighborhood Alex finds himself back in the dilapidated town in search of his brother this time. The new combat engine appears to leave something to be desired. However, the graphics are top notch and with gore so real that you will feel the splatter.
An oldie but goodie, Pipe Mania, made its resurgence on the PS2, DS, and PC. First introduced almost 20 years ago, when it was a hot time for the puzzle games, with Tetris and all. it is now back in full force with lots of new content and a revamped multiplayer feature. Let the flooz flow.
Warriors Orochi 2 is the best thing to happen to the Dynasty Warriors saga since its release. I was beginning to fear they would just keep releasing the same game over and over again. While Orochi 2 does have the same button-mashing goodness we have all come to enjoy from the franchise, there are many new team based gaming aspects. After Orochi was taken out in the first game, there was a time of peace, but those can never last long and now it’s time to battle the former leaders of his army, as well as a few others.
I remember when Sonic first came out. It was groundbreaking, at the time. One of the greatest selling console games, now available as an RPG on the DS. Normally I would say this is probably a bad thing, but BioWare was the one to team up with Sega on this venture. Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood contains loads of the original content, the green zone, coin collecting, and introduced them in the experience based format.
City Interactive threw a few of games onto the market. SAS Secure Tomorrow is a first person shooter much like the one described above, tactical and team-based if you play online. You play a member of the British Special Forces that is put into action when a terrorist leader is broken out of a maximum-security prison. It is your job to bring him back in, with or without help. The second is another FPS, based in another WWII setting. Sniper: Art of Victory places you behind the scope of the deadly and disciplined Marine sharpshooter. Crawl through the brush, infiltrate Nazi encampments, and aid alliance forces in stealth combat. Neither of the games stands out from the crowd, but do have their entertaining factors. The third is a bare bones simulator that puts you in the seat of a CEO at a cosmetics company, Beauty Factory. That’s right – now you too can have the chance to make lipstick and eyeliner! I could not find a good review for this game and believe I did try. If you’re really bored I guess you could give these a try.
The Free-to-Play MMORPG space shooter for PC, Space Cowboys was shut down in North America back in 2007. The game took on some new funding, a new name, Ace Online, and a handful of updates. You can choose between several different ships with loads of feature choices to fight in an intergalactic war. Throughout the game, you can make many upgrades and modifications to your “gear”. While the graphics will not make you drool, the gameplay is fairly stable and entertaining. Not to mention you cannot beat the price, just download and fight.
