Risk Legacy * * * * *

This game is a must get for anyone who likes Risk.It has the battle mechanics of Risk, but is so much more. The choices you make in each game affect the game each time you play it in the future. And the game has sealed packets with new rules and effects that you get to open after completing a requirement that also forever affect the game (The instruction manual even has blank portions that say "place rule set d here" and so on). For example, once someone places 30 or more troops in a single turn, you open a sealed section of the case that has a mystery. it can be cards, troops, upgrades to your facton, a city you perminantly stick on the board, you dont know till it happens! My fav packet is hidden under the plastic organization tray that you dont usually move, it says "do not open ever". There are also bunker and desolation cards you play that once they are played you place a sticker from the card on the map and destroy the card. This choice system only lasts for the first 15 games, then you have a world map for Risk that is not like any other. A map that you created the history in. I havent started mine yet, but am dying to. I think the game will work best with the same group of people for the first 15 rounds. If you get this game I want to be a part of your first 15 games. . . and if you want to be a part of mine i only have one spot open and im looking for someone with a felxable schedule that will take it serious (and have fun).

MICRO WARS!!!

I was going through some of my old toys and came across a game my friends Josh Jarvis, David Anderson and I came up with when we were about  12. It uses army style micro machines and was really fun (or so I remember). I figure Id mail myself the originals in certified mail, and now that they are back (just in case anyone decides to make a profit on this I can prove it was our idea) I will post  them for everyone’s FREE enjoyment.  Now the attraction to this game for me as a 12 year old was that it was cheap  and easy to understand. We came up with this long before we learned of  games like “War Hammer” , Mage knights,   “Pirates” or any of the others I have come to enjoy over the years. So  I am extremely proud of my 12 year old self. That said, my 28 year old self recognizes a flaw  or two that I will cover at the end of the  instructions.  Now without further ado, I bring you . . . “Micro Wars”
Each player will need:  2 six sided dice, a 12 inch ruler,  1 “Micro Machine” base, “Micro Machine” troops and vehicles as desired . To set up, establish a landscape and (mountains, water, hills ect) using your imagination, or landscapes you create.

Object:

The object of the game is to take out the other players bases by disabling all the missiles. If you run out of time for this the player who controls the most undisputed land wins.

Bases: Base missiles can fire 2 ruler lengths and have 30 hit points. You may build up to 4 outposts within 72 inches (6 ruler lengths)  of your base in land you control. Outposts function as  hospitals and help hold your territory You may also re locate a helicopter pad to an outpost at the time it is built. You may forfeit one turn to build one outpost.  One out of three missiles you control can be hauled by a land vehicle within 84 inches (7 ruler lengths) of your base and dropped/picked up at any time if it is not destroyed.

 Battles: Defender rolls first (not sure how this matters, but to 12 year olds it did). You may attack at a 2  attackers to 1 defender ratio and roll 1 dice per unit. Each successful hit does 2 damage Ties go to the defender.  (28 year old note: it seems like for each one the attacker rolls they  need to  take 1 damage for a backfire)

Units:

Tanks- move 18 inches measured from the front of the tank. They may fire 24 inches measured from the tip of the barrel. Their hit points are 10. Tanks may not cross water unless Amphibious (determined by how the tank looks). Amphibious  Tanks only fire 12 inches on water.

Hover Crafts- move 18 Inches measured from the front of the unit. They fire 12 Inches measured from the front of the unit and have 10 health.

Boats -  move 12 inches measured from the front of the vehicle. They may fire 12 inches measured from the front of the vehicle and have 10 hit points.

Medics- move according to their class type and may heal everything in a 12 inch radios 4 points if the unit being healed forfeits its turn. Medics may not heal Medics, helicopters, or Jets.

Troops- may move 6 inches and may only attack vehicles if there are at least 6 together. They attack 6 inches away unless attacking a helicopter pad, only in this situation may they attack 12 inches away to destroy the helicopter pad with 3 hit points.  Troops primary function is controlling land. They have 5 hit points. Troops may choose to give up one turn to “dig in”. Dug in troops roll 2 defensive dice.  Once a troop moves it is no longer “dug in”.

Helicopters-move 36 inches measured from the center of the blades and fire 12 inches  measured from the nose. They have 20 health. You must have one helicopter pad for each helicopter in play. Helicopters may heal 4 points at a helicopter pad for each turn it sits there without moving or attacking. Helicopters may only fire upon land and sea units.

Jets-move 24  inches measured from the front of the vehicle. And fire 24 inches measured from the front of the vehicle. They have 12 health.  Jets may land at base to heal 4 points each turn it does not move or attack.  

Transports-Each player assigns up 3 units to be a transport units at the start of the game if they desire. You may only have one transport that is a Jet  or helicopter, one that is a Boat, and one that is a Hover Craft  or Tank or amphibious Vehicle.  All transports move 48 inches measured according to unit type. Transport units may no longer attach or be attacked and helicopter transports no longer require a helicopter pad. Transportation units may carry 1 tank and as many troops as desired. They also function as medics.

Thoughts from 28 year old me. . .

I haven’t play tested this game since I was 12. So here are some variants I added above that may or may not make it more balanced. When we played this game I think we figured the more cash you had to spend on “Micro Machines”, and the better packs you found, the better advantage you had. I know now just what good friends we were to be able to allow this to slide and still enjoy the game without tearing each others throats out. The units need a point value to even out the battle field. Without play testing  I do not wish to submit values at this time. This same theory went into bases. It was curtail to find the toy that had a lot of missiles/ helicopter pads ect. . . I already added the modification to correct this in the “bases” section. I also had reference to Healing rules and refer to transports as medics in my original rules, but wasn’t sure how they worked. So I created the “medic” unit because I recall “Micro Machines” made medical units and I am sure we used them.  All I had for healing rules is that any unit but troops can give up its turn to heal 4 points. Oh yeah, and “Micro Machines” aren’t sold in stores anymore (bummer). But on the bright side, the rules can be applied to about anything! you wanna make cardboard cut outs of bases, units ect... BOOM! you got a game! Or go to ebay. . .

I hope you enjoy the game. And please let me know what you think! If David or Josh read this please let me know if I forgot anything. . .

skylanders spyro's adventure * * * * *

I wasnt sure if I was going to try this one or not. It was clearly designed for kids. On the other hand, growing up in the nineties, I gained a certain affinity for contrived plastic gimmicks designed to be collected by compulsive children. The likes of Monster in My Pocket, Mighty Max, Zoids, Mini Boglins and for the younger 90s crowd, pokemon to name a few. I finally let my inner child win out and am delighted that I did. The game is fun and witty. In this game you are a "portal master". This means that you can place the trapped skylanders (your figures) from our world into the game world to save said game world. This can be done at any time in the game. And swapping out figures is a seamless breeze.

Thats a good thing for many reasons, the first is that specific areas of a given level have "elemental bonuses" if you use a figure of the element. There are also doors that can only be opened by specific "elements" so you change figures often. Each figure stores its own stats as you level up and collect items. This is good because the figures can be used across platforms. So if you want to battle or play co op with a friend on the PC, PS#, Wii, 3DS or 360 you just need to take your figure and it has everything you have done to it and anything you do on your friends console comes home with you. Each character levels up to level 10 with 2 skill trees to pick from. There are 30 figs to collect. The game comes with 3 and you dont need to purchase any more to complete the story. I decided to find my favs and get one from each "element".

The figures themselves are very detailed. In fact I noticed last night that my assassin figures eyes and blades glow in the dark (just like in the game). The story is kid friendly with lots of adult humor moments. This is a game you will enjoy by your self, and your kids will enjoy playing with you.

RAGE * * **

There is something to be said about a hard game. It is fun and gives a good challenge. If a game is too simple there is no sense of accomplishment. Rage is not a hard game. It is IMPOSIBLE... I have uttered the worst words I know as I play that D** sniper level (at the start of the game) time after time after time... So finally I decide to lower the difficulty and give it a go. IT MADE NO CHANGE! ok, so perhaps this is the one game Im not good at sniping, lets give something else a try, lets earn some cash running an errand in a dune buggy on a time limit. After several bad attempts, and a few flawless (no crashing using my boost as often as I can between refills) attempts and a lot more bad words with no success, I decide to try A card Mini game in the local pub. Lets just say it gives the advantage to the player who takes the 2nd turn and you always go first. Just blasting through the story seems to be the only way to go here without wanting to throw your controller through the screen. That being said, I snuck up on a baddy used a pistol scope I purchased at a local weapons outlet store and put the cross hairs square on his head. Did I get a head shot? NO!!! Time and time again with perfect aim and unawares baddys It seems to randomly decide if I deserve a head shot! so far it graced me with ONE. . . . Sure the game looks pretty, but it can be upsetting. Yet for some reason I find myself drawn back...for now. I say, get Borderlands instead. If you already have it, play it again unless you have an anger fetish.
Ok, so how does it play. Well... It is a mesh of fallout and Doom. It has towns to visit with people to talk to and shops, mini games, side quests etc... like any self respecting RPG will have. But it is a fast paced shooter with not as many areas to explore. Getting from mission to mission is in a vast wilderness in a dune buggy that you can upgrade to your liking via shops (only with racing credits, not regular cash). But once you are in the mission area it is more like going down passageways and shooting baddies with secret areas to discover peppered in (what do you expect from the people who bring you Doom and Wolfenstine). There is no skill tree for you or your items. Your weapons upgrade via purchases at shops and you can also purchase alternate ammo for fun effects. You can also build trinkets and bots to assist you once you find the proper parts and buy the instructions.

PS3 vs 360

Ok, a lot of people have strong opinions on this and Ill say off the bat for all those PC guys we all know PC can do better if you have the right system. But that requires a bit more money and maintenance than throwing down cash once (or so you hope) on a counsel and running with it. I own both systems and enjoy each for their own special abilities.

Reliability (TIE)
People say that the 360 (prior to the slim) break more frequently. Well I am on my 2nd unit on both systems. So in my experience they are equal. As far as the slims go (for both systems). The 360 has a 1% fail rate and the ps3 has a 5% fail rate. Both are low numbers that I dont think you need to worry about.

Gimmicks (PS3)
This is the Kinect vs PlayStation Move. Here I find the Move to be more accurate and enjoyable with a better variety of games. now I am talking GAMES here. For workout games the kinects full body tracking tracks your pushups and so on better, but they have really catered to kids and teen girls (I feel). Where as the move has "hard core" games and the fore mentioned kid stuff.

On line capability (360)
The 360 is where you want to go here if you are an avid online gamer. You need to pay for the subscription, but it shows that your money is not going to waste with a more user friendly system (easier to set up matches and find friends) that doesn’t crash on you or take forever to load updates.

Extras (PS3)
Here ps3 is the clear winner with the best 3d Blu-ray player with the best dvd up converter on the market so far.

Visuals and sound (???)
The ps3 has the capability of the best visuals and performance as it is on Blu-ray, but only if the programmers take advantage of it. Most will simply create one port for a game on both systems. So the ps3 exclusive titles are the only place this will really shine. That being said, the PS3 is more difficult to program for (so I hear). For example, Dead Island was more glitchy on the ps3 than the 360 because the programmers were more comfortable with the 360. So a game may come on one Blu-ray disk on ps3 rather than say, 3 dvds on the 360. But dont assume that makes it better.

Controller (360)
seriously Sony.... two analog sticks at the bottom of the controller next to each other. did you think wed never need to use any of the other buttons. Perhaps its just because I owned my 360 for 2 years longer than my ps3, but I just cant seem to make the adjustment well at all.

Exclusive titles (???)
What do you like to play. It seems that out the gate PS3 had more RPGs and Racers and 360 had more shooters. both have sort of expanded a bit, but I think 360 still makes a better shooter and ps3 makes a better racer.

Kid friendly (here comes a curve ball)
I say get a Wii if you want kid games. Kinect is to complicated for my younger kiddos to navigate menus. Mostly because when the kids are playing there is way too much motion going on and confusing the poor thing. Like my 2 year old is running around the room, or my 4 yr old up and down with excitement while her 5 yr old sister trys ever so hard to control the menus. It also has problems finding small people in some games. ps move controllers are too expensive for kiddos to get all sticky and you cringe to see them throw them down. Wii has a great stock of good games for kids, and the less expensive (and sometimes free with the purchase of select games) controllers come with a super padded gel case!

Well there you have it. I guess you can see why I have both. I also own a Wii. but thats just for my Zelda and classic gaming fix. The only people who need a Wii need it for nostalgia playing, or for younger kids.

Boarderlands * * * * *

This s another MUST GET for the 360 owners out there. As the cover suggests, this game will blow your mind! The gameplay is a first person shooter with a skill tree and leveling up. It meshes an RPG and a First Person Shooter flawlessly! Picture Fallout 3 without all the conversations.

Its gunplay plays like Halo 3 with an open world, missions and a loot system added. The loot system generates BILLIONS of guns shields gernade mods and characer mods. This is where the RPG aspect comes into play. Killing enemys gives you experince and causes randomly generated loot to drop. The loot can be used as in any RPG, but instead of changing your armor you decide what shield you want. there are fast regeneration shields, shields that regenerate health, shields that send out electric/acid/fire bursts once depleeted. Gernade mods give your gernade that extra kick in the pants, you have sticky gernades, bouncing gernades, electric gernades, acid gernades, gernades that pop up and spread out, gernades that explode on contact, gernades that steal health for you, gernades that do two of the mentioned abilitys and many many more! There are vehicles, but I find them best used for travel. You can attack a machinegun or rocket launcher to them, but it is far more effective to plow your enemys down. Vehicles also double as an effective spawn point if you die and the vehicle survives.

It plays well as a single or multiplayer game. If you go multiplayer you get harder badguys and better/more loot. you can also challange your friend to a duel by smacing them to see who has the best loot and skill upgrades. You will be supprised how diferent two of the same character can be!

There are 4 characters to pick from and aside from a basic color scheeme the appearance is not customizable. But that just adds to the fast paced nature of this game. You have the "assasin", the "tank", the "mage" and the well... soldier I guess.

The "Mage" is a female character that phases out of the regular plane of existance and moves faster for a limited time. When she leaves and comes back into enemys vision she causes an electric field that causes prolonged damage to all enemys arround her. This is the player I have goten the farthest with and depending on the skills you persue you will find that you have diferent abilitys. The way I have gone I catch on fire whenever I kill an enemy so anyone arround me takes fire damage. She specalizes in elemental wepons that cause reidual damage such as electris, fire, acis, and explocive damage.

The Assasin is a sniper character who has a ravin that goes out to attack for him and gathers loot/health for you. Im only a level 10 so Im not too sure where he goes when he gets stronger.

The Tank goes into a rampage mode where he does lots of damage, gegenerates health and takes less damage. I havent seen him in action, but I know he specalizes in rocket launchers and gernades.

The soldier is another character that I have yet to play, but he sets up a shielded turret that protects him while attacking for him or with him. he specalizes in rifles and shotguns

Visualy this game is gold. Honestly when I first heard about this game using cell shading I was a bit put off, but the graphics are outstanding!

Closing coments: GET THIS GAME NOW!!

Dragon Age Origins *

Wow! What a crapfest! I wet myself in anticipation for this game for 3 straight months. The reviews were all good, the gameplay looked fantastic so I scrimped and saved for it and all I can say is DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY! If you like games with a LOT of talking This is your game. But if you like playing your vidiogames this is not for you. Im 3 hours into it and 15 of those minutes have been easy battles, with 1/2 hour or so wandering arround looking for my quests as the quest marker will not appear unless you are on the map that the quest is on. So if you don know what map you are suposed to be on you are screwed. Also note that I use the term "quest" lightly. Most of these "Quests" have been talking to people. Now dont get me wrong, the conversations give you a ton of choices as to what to say (well 4 things to say and 2 paths to take depending on what you say) and what you say affects the story, but just go get yourself a pick your own adventure book instead of this game.

There is not even an open world. You travel from city to city with random enemy battles rarly thrown inbetween citys. That makes a large portion of the game looking at loading screens. And if thats not enought loading screens the auto save feature kicks in between groups of badguys. So you only get badguys an rare occasions, just to have the action broken up again for a saving screen. Than being said, the combat and abilitys are fantastic for the brief moment you get to use them.

To add insult to injury there is word that they will be charging us in the future for a download to enable multiplayer mode in a game designed for and advertised to be for 4 players. Also the game had additional content avalable for purchase one day BEFORE the game came out. I dont know about you, but if the content is avalable at launch it should be avalable on the disk. Added content is intended to add to the game after you have had a chance to play the existing content. But it has turned into a way gor greedy mony grubbing game desighners like EA and Lion Head to squeese every penny you have by selling you content that would normally come packaged with the game.

CLOSING REMARKS:

Audio is average

Graphics are a bit below average with steller cut sceenes

Game Play is fantastic when you get to it but its mostly non existant

This is a game to avoid at all costs. A good replacement game is probably Skyrim

Fable II game add-ons * *

Both can be summed up with two simple words, OVER PRICED. They sell at this time for 800 microsoft points each. That translates into a $10.00 price tag. So heres what you get...

Knothole Island

First I have to point out, this game expansion came out ONE MONTH after the launch of the game. This leads me to believe that it was ready for launch but the greedy Lionhead studio people need to get every penny they can squeeze out of us by selling it as an add-on instead. Further evedence of this being a launch ready feature is that they advertised changind seasons, a feature that appeared NOWHERE in the game but oddly enough is in this expansion.
So what isthe expansion all about? Its an island that is having problems with the weather. Your gopal as the adventuror is to set right the ballance in nature by "solving" 4 easy short temples full of so called "puzzles". I beat the whole thing in one sitting. Dont get me wrong, it does come with sone new weapons and armor so you can look like a regal knight or a rocker with a guitar ax. And it gives you some new potions to better controll your characters appearance by altering height and weight.

SEE THE FUTURE

The 2nd expansion is a lot like the first in the aspect that the "puzzles" are all too easy and the overall game is way too short. It also came out a short 4 months after the original game launch. The story here is to fight the curse off of 3 cursed items. Unlike Knothole Island however, this has a little replay value. One of the curses you fight brings you to an arena that is better than the one featured in the original game that you can come back and try to top your last score. The upsides for this expansion for me again are the new character customization oprions. You can get a royal outfit complete with a crown. A pompus french panzy complete with powderes wig, white face and mole, and my fav, the crow, evil clown and other face paint! You also get 4 villan costumes and 3 new dog breeds.

....

Well, there you have it. Are they worth the $10.00 price tag? Ill have to let you be the judge of that. But if you dont care about character customization Id suggest you save your cash.

Fable II * * * * *

WOW!! I really cant do this game justice. If you havent played Fable 1 on the xbox you NEED to! But this one will be 100x amped up if the pre release info is up to snuff. It is scheduled for launch in a regular and limited edition on 10/21/08 and is a MUST GET! The limited edition comes with all the usual crap (a figure a making of DVD some playing cards) and some extra content. Im excited to see what the extra content may be but all they are saying is that it will require an xbox live account.



First an overview of fable 1 in BOLD for all those who have never played it.
.....
Fable features a character-customization system based on the concept that everything the main character does affects him to a certain extent, measurable through counters accessible through the game's menu, or more generally through his overall appearance, which will change depending on the player's choices. Eating too much causes the character to gain weight. Appeasing his wife will cause her to buy him presents, whereas abusing her leads to divorce. Drinking too much alcohol can cause him to become sick and vomit. The character will also obtain expressions throughout the game which can affect his personality.

Every article of clothing the character acquires will change his in-game appearance. He can be further customized through a variety of haircuts, facial hair, and tattoo cards that allow for a range of body modification options. The clothing, hairstyle, and tattoos the character wears will affect the way he is seen by the non-player characters.

The character's statistics also affect his outward appearance. High levels of Strength cause larger muscles, high levels of Skill increase height, and knowing high-level Will powers (magic spells) causes arcane tattoos to appear on the body and begin to glow.

The hero has a positive or negative alignment. Their actions will award either good points, which produce a positive alignment, or evil points, which produce a negative alignment. For example, killing monsters or saving villagers will result in achieving good points, whereas killing an innocent person, breaking laws, or abusing a spouse will accumulate evil points. The apparel of the character also affects his alignment; dark clothing earns evil points and bright clothing earns good points. The alignment affects not only the responses of the non-player characters but also the appearance of the character. A hero with an abundance of positive alignment will soon find a halo surrounding his head, butterflies swarming around him and his hair will turn blonde. An evil character will sprout horns, emit a red haze from around his legs, draw flies, and have glowing red eyes, in addition to balding.

Over the course of the game, the character ages physically. However, contrary to popular belief, the age of the character has nothing to do with how long the game has been played; rather, how many times the player has accessed experience upgrades in the Guild. Whether he is good or evil, his hair will start to turn white as he grows older. The apparent age of the character is related to the core skills he acquires; using magic often will cause the character to age faster.
......

Fable II will take place in Albion, 500 years after Fable's setting, in a colonial era resembling the time of highwaymen or the Enlightenment; guns are still primitive, and large castles and cities have developed in the place of towns. Unlike the original, the player may choose to be either male or female and you have a pet dog that changes with you. A Co-op option will also be avalable! New aspects of the character alignment system include corruption, purity, kindness, and cruelty which will enhance or degrade a character's features. The player can be good but unpopular socially, or be evil yet charming, etc.



The family aspect of the Fable series will also be built upon. Now you can have children who will take after good ol daddy or mommy! The sex aspect, relatively unimportant in the first game, has also been built upon significantly. Players will be able to choose to have protected or unprotected sex (and by extension choose whether or not to have a child). Female player characters will become pregnant, and they will undergo the relevant physical changes. And dont worry, sex will still fade to black as in Fable 1.


Since the game will take place over a hero's lifetime, many things will change; Molyneux gave an example of a trade camp that the player could either help or destroy. Trading in such camps would increase their profit, resulting in a small town growing around them, while stealing from the camp or massacring the camp will result in the abandonment of the area.



Additionally, every accessible property (properties that can be entered by the player) in the world is ownable, and possessions often unlocks further quests. The houses will be furnishable with furniture etc available to buy. In addition titles will be awarded for buying property; if one were to buy every building and piece of land in a town they may become the mayor of that town, greater possessions leads to higher titles such as king, and eventually emperor of the entire land of Albion.

OFFICAL INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND HERE

Sweet new Arcade /Lan Room

A verry good friend of mine opened an arcade recently. It is at the Valley Fair Mall on the west side next to Red Robbin. It does not have access through the mall, it has a seprate entrance so that it can maintain later hours! So anyone looking for a fun activity this summer give it a visit. At 6 tokens a dollar you cant go wrong! CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICAL WEB PAGE

Mario Kart WII * * *

Another must get for the WII Like Smash bros this game offers a variaty of controlls, however my fave is using the remote like a steering wheel. Not sure why you want to go any other way. Why get a WII and use a standard controller by choice when the great WII controlls are avalable! Everyone whos played a videogame has played or knows of the Mario Kart games so Ill just cover the changes. First you get to choose from a Bike or a Kart! The bike gets a slight boost of speed while doing wheelies by pulling up on your remote. This makes it impossable to turn till you push back down. The advantage of the karts is that you can ram the bikes off the road. Another new feature is the online game play. And because Ive only played mariokart 64 those are the only diffrences I know of other than some new wepons that rock! It has 24 characters and 32 tracks.

Super Smash Bros Brawl * * *

Great Game, one of the WIIs must gets! If youve played any smashbros you know what this is all about. This time they added an online feature to take your battle global, a custome level designer, and a massive powered up attack that is character spacific for the first person to destroy a floating orb that appears at random during the match. And let us not forget the side scrolling story mode they added. The graphics and level design both get a 10! It has about 40 characters and about 40 levels! The controlls are not anything standard for the WII. They are just like any other videogame with no shaking tilting or anything like that. They do however give you the options of using the classic controller, gamecube controller, the remote on its side or the remote and numchuck.

For those who never played the originals heres the deal. The game uses a battle system unlike that of typical fighting games. The player can choose from a large selection of characters, controlling them as they fight on various stages, each attempting to knock their opponents off the screen. Instead of using health bars like most fighting games, percentage displays are employed. These displays begin on 0%, but increase as the characters take damage, up to 999%. As a character's percentage increases, the character flies farther back when hit. When a character is knocked beyond a stage's boundary and disappears from the screen, the character loses either a life or a point depending on the mode of play.

Rock Band * * * * *

WOW! this game is soooo fun. For those of you living under a rock, the object of this game is to simulate the performance of rock music. In this game you must play instruments in time with musical "notes" as they scroll towards them on the screen. Rock Band expands on the Guitar Hero series, in that it offers gameplay for drums and vocals, in addition to lead and bass guitars. Another dif from Guitar Hero is that the song selection is newer and greater, granted they still have some "but rock" but unlike guitar hero 1 & 2 that are 99% all "but rock" rock band has bands like Weezer, Foo Fighters, All American Rejects and 3 new songs a week to downloaad.

DRUMS are great! the drums are the main reson I wanted this game. they are a little more challenging than the guitar, but fun to master. They are adjustable for all sizes to play and you can easily set them up an a table if you wanted (not sure why you would) They are verry well made and react well (light taps will do). The only complaint I have on them is that your ankle gets tired if you dont do the foot pedal a particular way.

GUITAR/BASS is like guitar Hero with the following improvements. First, it looks so real! great attention to detail. The buttons are better positioned for easy use. There are 5 effects you can choose from when your rock meeter is used. And durring solos you can move to the base of the neck where there are smaller buttons that you can push without struming giving you the effect of pounding out a killer solo.

Singing is like any other Karioke game, but you can make it so your voice comes through or the origanal vocal track. Plus you can sing while you play guitar or drums

Did you say CUSTOMIZEABLE ROCKER!!!! you can build your rocker from scratch, you even get to decide if it has a rocker, punk, goth, or metal personality. you can purchase better threads and insturments, you can design tatoos and clothing logos from a huge list of templates, Its great!

This game is definatly funner in a groupe. Visually Guitar hero cant hold a candle to this game. It feels and looks so real, especally when the croud starts singing along with you. I give it a solid 10, a must get!

Super Mario Galaxy * * *

One thing id like to point out before I start, if you look at the game cover, find all the letters with little sparkle markes on them. The letters with she said sparkle are the U,R,M,R,G,A, & Y ("u r mr gay").

Final review time! The game stays consistantly easy with one or two levels that are an a little harder making this game fun to pick up when you just want to mess arround. There is only one star I cant get. it is in a level where you have to pick up 100 coins and get back to the star. the challenge comes in when the floor spaces you step on dissapear. I guess they had to put the combined difficulty that is lacking in the rest of the game on this level. Im not sure this level is even passable.

-3rd REVIEW
Ok, its still pretty easy, but its geting pretty fun. not all the levels are just disconnected plannets, there are some open flat areas with disconnected planets! I still want to see it get harder, but if theres enough levels that it still has a long time to get hard Ill love the game. However, if its short that will be no good. as for the visuals, a perfect 10. definatly the best Ive seen on the Wii to date! and I love the clasic enimys and sounds that are resurected. ill keep you posted while i play more if my opinion grows or shrinks.

-2nd REVIEW-
Ive only had 1/2 hour to play, but Ive allready beat 3 levels. So far its too easy. And I dont know wahat to think of runing arround on a bunch of litthe planets. it sorta takes away the go anywhere aspect out of the game for me. so far Im nutral hanging a little on the dislike side of the scale.

-ORIGINAL REVIEW-
Nintendo is trying something new with Mario. People are comparing it to Mario 64. I enjoyed Mario 64, but we all know what can happen when they try something new with Mario we get things like super mario sunshine (shudder). I did get a chance to play a demo of this and it didnt sway me one way or another. The controlls didnt seem to intuitive and the level I played was rather small and easy. Graphics were good for the WII, probably a 10/10. Im curious to see all the Mario suits, sounds like they are gringing back the mario 3 feel as far as suits go where you actually wear an animal suit. Im definatly gonna rent it before I buy it caust I got burnt by Mario Sunshine. Ill update the post after I play it.

Excite Truck * * * * *

Can I get a WOOT! this game rocks! A MUST GET for all yalls WIIs. This is sooo fun. First lets talk about game play, for nothing els you need it to show your friends how cool the wii controllers are because you steer by turning your "wii mote" on its side and treating it like a steering wheel! This may be old news by now, but to those who have yet to try it, YOU GOTTA TRY IT! And when your in the air you tilt it forward and back to controll your air and landing. If you land well you get a boost of speed making the mastery of jumps necesarry to win the game. You can gain stars by geting good air, doing mid air spins, placing well, raming opponents off the road and more. Stars are then used to unlock cars and levels. This game has soooo much to unlock it is great. I find that if a game has nothing to unlock it looses my intrest faster. I got this game with launch and still enjoy playing it agenst friends. Visually it is pretty standard for the wii. If thats not enough to convince you, each track has its little secrets and shortcuts..... SO GET IT!

Vigilante 8

Heres another oldie, but goodie. Released on June 8, 1998. I dont know why Nintendo dosent do this game for the Wii shop channel. And what happened to this style of game. Id love to see it came back, yeah ps2 had twisted metal black, but it was not as good as the Vigelante series and it came out ages ago in vidiogame standards. A remake for the Xbox 360 was going to be created by Isopod Labs, an independent company formed by the founders of Luxoflux, and was set to be released the summer of 2007 on xbox arcade. What happend to that?! Visually this game gets a 10 for its time. I loved how your car showed physical damage as you get beat up. That was so revolutionary! With its huge selection of cars (not to mention the unlockable cars) each with their own specal wepon, a massive arsenal of common wepons that you can hold 3 at a time (if memory servs correctly, but it may be even more). Pluss you can use each wepon in 3 diffrent ways. For example, you can fire the mortos regularly with the A button, or push up down A, for a homing mortor, or left right A for a powerfull crator forming mortar. The mines laid single, in a mine field or as a tractor beam trap. And for added fun, each level had a secret you can unlock to set traps, get upgrades, and just kick butt alltogether! Then in 1999 Vigilante 8 2nd offence introduced new cars, levels, and car upgrades to allow you to hover, get snow tire upgrades, and more that I cant really remember. So in closing, this game gets a solid 10 for gameplay, visuals and all around greatness!

Alien vs Predator

Heres an oldie, but a goodie! Alien vs Predator (AVP) was released over a decade ago on 10-20-1994 as an Atari Jaguar exclusive. AVP is often considered one of the Jaguars defining titles and it started my First Person shooter journey. This game was ahead of its time in many aspects. It was Visually stunning for its time. The Atari Jaguar may not look like much by todays standards, but you need to consider its compatition was the SNES & Sega Genisis. AVP had 3 stories to play through, the Alien, the Predator, and the Human.

The Alien's objective was to rescue the Alien Queen, who was being held captive on the Predator's spaceship on Sublevel 1. The Alien always starts the game from Sublevel 5. Since the survival of the Alien hive was more important than an individual Alien and also because the Alien could not use medkits as the Predator and Space Marine could, it had to depend on cocooning Space Marines in order to extend the gameplay. You could have up to three cocoons. If an Alien died with surviving cocoons, the last cocooned Space Marine would turn into an Alien. If an Alien died with no cocoons in existence, the game ended. Since the Alien could not use the elevators, it had to use the airducts to advance from Sublevel to Sublevel. Once the Alien Queen is freed, the game ends. The Alien scenario is generally considered to be the easiest of the scenarios, since the character is faster than the Predators and Marines and does not fight the facehuggers or the Alien Queen. The Alien may also roam the air ducts free of other enemies, especially helpful while allowing cocoons to mature. It is the shortest mode, fundamentally a point A to point B challenge. The Alien scenario is the only scenario which the player can have extra lives assuming you can find a human to cocoon. The Alien has 3 wepons, the tail, the claw, and the extending jaw.

The Predator's objective was to get to the Alien's ship and kill the Alien Queen in order to claim her skull. The Predator always started the game from Sublevel 1. The Predator could not use the airducts, instead using the elevators to advance from Sublevel to Sublevel. The Predator could also pick up medkits and keep them in reserve until needing to use them by pressing a special button. The Predator also operated under an 'honour system' whereby it lost points for killing an Alien or Space Marine whilst cloaked but gained points for uncloaked kills. The weapons available to the Predator were dictated in part by their honour points - as such too many dishonourable killings could result in losing or failing to acquire weapons. The wepons avalable are the boe (a Gambit style boe that shocks on contact), a plasma disk, and a sholder cannon. The predator also had many vision enhancements like heat, motion and night vision (usefull when finding pesky face hugger cocoons).

The Space Marine's scenario is to reach security level 10, activate the base's self-destruct, and find the escape pod to escape. According to the story, Pvt. Lance Lewis was sent to the brig to be cryogenically stored for "insubordination and striking a superior officer". During Pvt. Lewis' imprisonment, the base was invaded by Aliens and Predators. As Pvt. Lewis, you start the game with no weapons, no motion tracker, and no security clearance. The objective is to find security cards until you reach level 10. Then you must reach the Sublevel 2 and use the self-destruct computer to activate the base's self-destruct and then go to Sublevel 5 and use the escape pod before the self-destruct timer runs out. The Space Marine can use medkits, but unlike the Predator, they cannot be held in reserve and must be used immediately. The Space Marine had four weapons : the Shotgun, Pulse Rifle, Flame Thrower, and the Smartgun. The Space Marine is able to use the airducts and the elevators to advance from Sublevel to Sublevel and was by far my fav campain.

Halo 3 * * *

Ok, Let me premis this by saying i havent played this online and dont know if I ever will. Im just not big on playing complete strangers. Can you cay overrated. I was a little diapointed in this game. It feels like a clone of halo 2. The graphics get an 8 out of 10 for me, the sound is average and as fpr the gameplay, I could swear Ive allready played this. And its WAY too short. I beat it in 4 hours and I sorta get my but handed to me in Halo online, so imagine what a Halo vet can do. Dont get me wrong, there are a couple of really fun levels that you havent done before. Like my fave in the whole game when you take down 2 of those huge spiders like the one you jump onto in Halo 2 and takeout from the inside, but thistime your on the ground and you need figure out how to get in to take it out. They added some new ships, wepons and upgrades. Now as far as vehicles go on top of the new ones if you have seen it in any of the previous halos you can fly or drive it. Some of the more mentionable wepons now avalable are the hammers, and the fact that you can tear the gun off of turrets and carry them with you. this may sound odd, but trust me, they make it work. On top of that you can also carry one "specal item" such as a gravity lift, cloaking, bubble shields and more. Another thing I didnt like is that in Halo 1 you can go anywhere and change up your stratagy, then in Halo 2 you were put on a set corse, well I prefer the open enviornment and Halo 3 keeps the blinders on. I do like the fact that you can unlock new armor for multiplayer so we dont all look the same, and I suppose that can add to the play time if you unlock all the armor in the game.

Overall I gve this an 8.6 out of 10. However, I also think this is a must get to complete the trilogy, not sure Id suggest paying full price for it unless you love the online feature, but get it eventually. If your dyin to play it, rent it till it goes down in price. I beat it once and havent touched it again.

BioShock * * * * *

What can I say about this game other than WOW!! I was not really sure If Id like this game or not. Every time that I went to a game store and asked for a good game with great graics They allways say Gears of war or Bioshock. So I went to look at the boxes and the Bioshock box looked soooooo lame that i never considered it. On the front its got a tunnel driller dude and on the back It showed a puzzle with some other random game shots so Im picturing a lame kids puzzle game. Well finally i went in looking for a creepy horror game and they suggested Bioshock, well this made me curious so I rented it. Its definatly NOT a kids game (Oh the glorious GORE!), and its not too scarry, but it is definatly creepy. When you see a woman yelling into a stroller about how wicked the baby is and you find a gun there, or see someone tugging away at something on his head saying "I tear them off and the just grow back" This game is cool! Visually I give it a solid 10 best Ive seen so far on the 360! The Sound is fantastic, another solid 10 that adds to the "jump factor" when you hear someone coming up behind you or crawling on the walls in surround! The story has great depth that leaves you guessing whos side you shd be on. Games with story as good as this are a great raraty. The way the story unfolds durring gameplay cant be beat. Unlike Halflife where you have long boring story in game where you need to stay put, in this one you listen to audio journals you find allong the way that you can kill baddies and move on while listening!

You find yourself stranded in an underwatter Utopia gone wrong in the year 1960 where the baddies have great AI and are survivors of the utopia who have all gone crazy as a result of genetic experementation so some are mutates while others are victims of a psycho Plastic surgen who says, "I do what Picaso did with the brush with my scalpull"

You get to short circut & hack guard bots and you have a great arsenel of guns along with genetic enhancements that allow you to freeze and smash your foe, shock them (extra fun when a groupe of them are in a puddle), Start them or the enviornment on fire (fire spreads!), use telecenesis to return unwanted gernades and so much more!

In closing, If you find yourself thinking that this game looks lame like I did, download the demo or rent it ASAP. And as allways PLEASE leave comments with your impressions of the game!