Saints Row -- Initial Impression.

The first thing that instantly comes to mind when initially playing Saints Row is in how close it is to the Grand Theft Auto 3 formula. It's going to be impossible not to compare them. Both titles are sandbox style games dealing with crime and gangs within a modern urban area. Both titles are jam-packed with extra things to do beyond the story missions and free roaming gameplay. Both titles are sending up modern culture with their satirical voice. Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 3 obviously came first. Volition's Saints Row is making the case that GTA3 didn't do everything as well as it could have as far as mechanics and gameplay are concerned. It's way too early for me to have a solid feel either way as to whether Volition is on the right track or not in the changes they've made to the GTA3 mechanics. Volition's other big selling point was the first to take the GTA3 formula online. That's all very well and good except for the fact that it doesn't work for me, and a few others. A certain amount of users are unable to have anyone connect to their games or join any other games. They can't create gangs or invite anyone to them. Volition at least seems aware of it at this point. No word on if there are enough users being screwed by this hang-up to warrant a patch via Xbox Live. Hopefully they'll get this fixed as the engine seems decent enough to offer at least some mindless fun online. And there are more than a few achievements available only for those who can get online. I don't want to be screwed out of those as well as not actually being able to play online. As it stands now, the game gives the impression of a Grand Theft Auto 3 clone. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Did they change enough to make this one worth playing? Are they offering up anything new? We'll have to wait and play through the game to see what the answers are...

Dead Rising -- Final Opinion.

I believe I have earned all the achievements I'm going to be able to get in Dead Rising. I have earned forty-eight of fifty achievements. Falling short on 5-day Survivor and 7-day Survivor. The later of which takes ten hours plus of real time without the ability to save. As for Dead Rising itself, my opinion of the game has come a long way. At first I didn't like the game at all. The game's structure felt like it was fighting against me. It's natural for me to want to complete everything when playing a game. To save everyone or what have you in any particular game. You can't do that in Dead Rising and at first that's incredibly frustrating. Once you've adapted to how the game is designed, things get much better. The leveling and save system help to make the adapting easy enough. Letting go of the need to initially save everyone until you've been through the game a few times and have leveled up and are prepared enough to save everyone is a must. The game's structure combined with the achievements offer up an incredible amount of replay value. The game's graphics are decidedly next generation. The graphic ability of the system and the use of motion capture combined for some very impressive real time cutscenes that allowed for some great subtleties in the characters. Not that the story is the greatest thing ever of course. It was better than it probably had any right to be giving the genre and the fact that it is Capcom after all. The reasoning behind the zombies was both clever and funny in continuing Romero's take on consumerism seen in Dawn of the Dead. More than a bit of the old Capcom cheese pops into the story here and there. It's hard to take any potential political commentary seriously when the people offering said commentary have also included things along the line of erotica photo bonuses in the game. The music is a mixed bag. The mall music would fit into any mall you've ever been in and is actually quite subtle. The various tracks used for the psychopath battles and the convicts range from innocuous to downright annoying. The voice acting is good and gets the job done rather well. There are some issues in how certain zombies are able to grab you from a little bit too far away, or from facing the wrong direction and turning with amazing speed. The game's AI could have been a bit better. It makes escorting some of the survivors a real hassle.All in all the game is great. It offers up a serious amount of gameplay with a lot of replay value. Good graphics, sound, and story. A decent level of challenge in the main game and higher than average challenge if you want some of those achievements. I'm giving Dead Rising for the X360 a 9. Bring on the sequel and add in some online co-op.

Dead Rising -- Chewing Through the Soft Pink Underbelly for Achievements.

So I'm still playing Dead Rising trying to knock out some more achievements. But now it's getting to that point. The point where you can see the end. You can see that full one-thousand Gamerpoints, and you want them bad enough you can taste it.  I'm six away from earning all fifty achievements. When you first start playing the game and you look over the achievements you think some of them are near impossible. But as you play the game and climb that hill, you start to think well maybe I can get that one. So you give it a try and you get it. Then some of those near impossible ones don't seem so impossible anymore. You give those a try and you get them. Next thing you know, there's the summit. The top of the hill. You're so close. Then it becomes nothing is going to stop you now. You're going to reach the top or die trying. I've earned what I feel are probably the harder ones to earn like Transmissionary and Saint. I still have to get Frank the Pimp, Tour Guide, Indoorsman, Outdoorsman, 5-day Survivor, and 7-day Survivor. I don't think the survivor ones will be that tough, they just take the dedication of playing the game for ten straight real world hours without being able to save. The indoor and outdoor ones are simple, again they just take the time of standing inside or outside for twenty-four in-game hours. Tour Guide will unlock when I complete Frank the Pimp. Frank the Pimp will be the toughest of the ones I have left. That one will take some planning. I think there is really only one way to pull that one off. The achievement system is truly brilliant for adding replay value to games. The depth they've added to Dead Rising has kept the game in the system this long. I've played the game's 72-hour mode five or six times over. I've played the Overtime mode twice. And I still have the infinity mode to play. I didn't expect this much out of Dead Rising. I thought it would be the standard action game and spend three to seven days in play and be done. I have roughly a week to wrap things up before Saints Row arrives where I'll be busy shooting Magus and Riddel in their virtual backs...

Texas Hold 'em -- All In.

The much promised Texas Hold 'em finally makes it's long awaited debut on Xbox Live Arcade. For forty-eight hours players can download the title for free. After that it becomes eight-hundred Microsoft Points, or ten dollars. The story behind that is when Microsoft originally announced the title they announced that it would be free. How they were originally going to cover the cost of the game was to use in-game advertising from some Las Vegas casinos. So you'd be sitting there playing the game and somewhere on screen there would be something to the effect of "Come stay at Caesar's Palace for $89 a night breakfast included" or some such thing. Apparently Microsoft went through some legal hell with whichever casino it was supposed to be and a deal couldn't be reached. So they abandoned the idea of giving the game away for free. But they remembered that they announced the game as free. So they came up with this little free for forty-eight hours plan. It's the best of both worlds. They get to say that they kept their promise and released the game for free and they get to eventually cover the cost and profit from selling the game at ten dollars a pop. Future players will likely never even know of it once being free. Keldroc, Magus, Riddel and I all downloaded and played the game last night.  Much like Uno, Texas Hold 'em is an ideal game for Xbox Live Arcade. It offers up the same sort of highly functional graphic style. The simple and clean interface keeps things fast and easy to use. It's right to the point without and unnecessary crap tacked on. It keeps things flowing. And Poker is Poker, with Texas Hold 'em being one of the best variants on the classic game. The game does have one advantage over Uno in that it properly allows for eight player games. The game offers offline and online play. Both public and private tables. The designers have smartly tied your bankroll to your Gamercard. Meaning you're able to see any given person's bankroll. You're able to see if they are wealthy or in serious debt. In public online games the tables have minimum bankroll requirements. This enables serious players to play with other serious players and avoid the people more likely to go all in on a pair of twos. So if you go below the minimum bankroll for a particular table, you're kicked from that table and have to go down to the free play tables and earn your way back up by building your bankroll back from there. The free tables ensure that there is always a game there for people who aren't always that serious about the game. It's a very smart design decision. The offline game offers up the standard modes and a very cool scenario mode. Where you'll play through classic and famous situations. And of course there are the two-hundred Gamerpoints and achievements to unlock. The game offers a good mix of achievements between the casual and dedicated Poker types. All in all, Texas Hold 'em is another very well made and welcome card game to Xbox Live Arcade. I'm impressed with the title and I've giving it a 9. It should be said that I lost the $100 buy in for the table last night, but I made it last the night. Riddel came away from the table with like $1,300. Although she did have to buy back in a few times. So she's probably closer to $600 up. Magus was the first one to have to buy back in after being taken out by Riddel, but you know, he's just learning...

Dead Rising -- Overtime.

I have finished the overtime mode and have completed all that Dead Rising has to offer as far as story is concerned. It's actually a surprisingly well done story that isn't taking itself entirely seriously. It walks a nice line between some silly Japanese perspective commentary and full on camp. The reasoning behind the zombies is a somewhat timely take on terrorism. Terrorism is the new black. The game's sort of random bosses, the psychopaths, are exceedingly well done and are entirely campy and fun. As characters that is. As bosses, they're sort of standard stuff. Nothing too special about how they play out. The setup for the sequel is handled great. I like the "time bomb" aspect. I do have a complaint about the final two bosses. They don't exactly feel tacked on, as they just feel out of place. The gameplay changes up for the final two bosses. The engine wasn't really made for the kind of battle the final boss is supposed to be. It becomes an annoyance of collision detection and cheapness. The final boss isn't exactly original either. He's ripped from a couple of games in action and concept, Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil 4 to be exact. On the whole though, the story is better than I would have hoped for given it is Capcom and zombies after all. Next time should be the final opinion on Dead Rising. After I spend some time with infinity mode and I attempt to gather those last achievements I feel are possible.

Dead Rising -- Rising from the Grave.

I have completed the seventy-two hour mode of Dead Rising earning the "A" ending. I unlocked some new costume items and a new menu option called overtime mode. What a wonderfully bleak ending. During the process of completing the seventy-two hour mode, which constitutes the main game, I managed to unlock roughly half of the game's fifty achievements. I'll be playing through the overtime mode and probably once more through the seventy-two hour mode to get the rest of the achievements that I believe are obtainable. I'm not sure on a couple of them. As for the game proper, how did that turn out? It turned out pretty well in the end. After a serious adjustment on my part. I had to forget trying to do it all. There is just no way. I'm the kind of gamer who goes the extra mile in trying to get everything done in certain games. If there is a big checklist of things to be done I'm going to systematically set about checking off said list. Dead Rising's timing and game flow doesn't allow for that. It keeps you moving, forcing you to have to pick and choose what you can get done in between what has to be done. At first this was jarring and grating to me. It was actively pissing me off.  After a fair amount of effort in letting it go, the game settles into something far more fun. The game isn't designed to be played once. You're not supposed to be able to complete everything. It's designed to be played through multiple times and to that end the game allows you to start over with your accumulated status. Get to level fifteen and then start over and you'll restart the game at level fifteen with all the moves you've learned and the extra inventory spaces and the like. Some of the achievements carry over. So they can be earned by accumulated totals over multiple games. Others will require you to get a certain total within a single game. The achievements are clearly listed in that regard. We'll see how many I'll be able to unlock...

Dead Rising -- Stillborn?

I have spent hours with Dead Rising and I'm still on the first night. I do not know what to make of this game. It has moments of great fun and moments of infuriating stupidity. It's great fun to dispatch zombies in a myriad of creative ways. The story seems cool so far. Good voice acting brings it home. I'm interested to see how it goes. The game controls well enough. I want to like it a lot, but there are some serious issues going on here that make me want to scream. I seriously have to wonder what was going on in the minds of the designers when they decided on some of these very questionable design choices. Why the bloody hell do the convicts respawn? What is the logic in that? How the hell am I supposed to escort the extraordinarily retarded NPCs through the park when the convicts are always there? Why is there no record or log of the scoop information when the text is hard to read and pops up and off the screen in a flash? Why do I have to constantly have to fight through the elevator again and again? The respawn issue is crippling the game for me. Maybe it's because I'm pissed off, but I can't think of another design choice as stupid as this. Right now I'm questioning if I'll even be able to make it through this game.

Dead Rising -- Initial Impression.

I've spent numerous hours messing around with the demo which hit Xbox Live Marketplace last Friday. I have been eagerly awaiting Dead Rising for months. The game starts out with a very cool playable intro and it sets the mood perfectly. The game proper starts and it becomes like a speed bump. What the hell is going on here? It's going to take some adjusting to how the game is going to have to be played. It's not going to be so free form as the demo. Nor is it going to be as easy. The demo starts you at level ten. The game starts you at level one. The difference is actually pretty major. There is going to be some good fun here, it's just going to be a different kind of fun. Leveling up and restarting with your carried over stats and the like. Hopefully along the way we'll see lots of the chaotic and creative zombie slaughtering fun that was presented in the demo and the time to enjoy it.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga -- Final Opinion.

It took me a little over twenty-four hours to complete Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. In a previous entry I was dreading about the last boss battle given the trend in inflating the boss battles in the game up to that point. Well, the final boss sequence and battles took me two and a half hours. I do not like what they did to the boss battles in the game. Artificially extending the battles to the point of tedium. I do like the graphics. They're very well done in that traditional Nintendo Mario style. Everything is colorful and well animated. The sound effects are all crisp and clear and classic. The Charles Martinet voice work is well represented here, so however you feel about him, this game will only reinforce your opinion. The puzzles are of the mild variety. Nothing ever taxes the brain. The controls are responsive and there is very little touch involved. Which for me is always a plus. I'm actually very surprised. I think it speaks volumes that this game was designed for the GBA and was bumped up to the NDS late in the development. The humor level here is hard to convey. I didn't find it laugh out loud funny like Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. It's trying to be, but it just doesn't succeed. It's not not funny, it's just closer to cute or charming for trying. The story about invading alien mushrooms and time travel is well written and shows more than a few knowing nods to a variety of famous movies and science fiction. I liked the game, and there isn't any thing truly wrong with it outside of the extended boss battles, but it doesn't exactly leave me wanting more. It leaves me feeling like I need to take a break from Mario's ventures into RPGs for a while. Luckily there aren't any I need to play and there don't seem to be any on the horizon. I'm giving Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga a 7.5.

Xbox Live -- The Darker Side.

While playing Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting on Xbox Live I noticed a disturbing little trend. Players are given the options of rating the other player at the end of each match. Some of these players are abusing the system in that they're choosing to avoid players who beat them. That wouldn't be so bad if that was all there was to it. But how the current system is set up, being avoided causes your gamer Rep on Xbox Live to take a hit. Not only are you running away, but you're actively damaging the victor's Rep for nothing more than defeating you. To me this is the very picture of being a pussy. I could maybe understand if the matchmaking service for the game was entirely broken and top tier players were being matched up against people in their first game online. But that isn't so. The game's matchmaking seems to be better than most in pairing up opponents of similar levels. I'm sure for some of them, they feel that the players they're blocking are being cheesy. That is to say, they're doing something cheap or underhanded or undignified. Although that last one is rather a stretch given the nature of the average player. The concept of cheese as it is seen by the average player is very silly. Players can't figure out how to defeat a particular attack to the point where they label it as cheap or cheesy. Suddenly only bad players use the move. It's the very worst form of bullying peer pressure and remarkably it can grow and spread and take a foothold within the gaming community. The reality of the situation is that anything in the game that isn't accessed by cheating, or a glitch, or some other means outside of just normal play is perfectly acceptable. It's not the fault of the move, the programmer, the opponent, or your mother's dog that you can't figure out how to defeat said move. It's your fault and your fault alone. You're supposed to learn from your losses. This is how you're supposed to grow and better yourself. It's a sad statement about the current state of humanity when most gamers can't accept defeat and that furthermore it's anything but their own lack of the brains and skill needed to overcome whatever it may be. I didn't lose. You cheated! You were cheap! That was such a cheesy move! These people need to accept reality and more importantly grow up. In this case, it's not the system that's flawed, it's the user. The system is sound. It's just that a good portion of the users have no honor.  And thankfully, there is always the private match.

Mario & Luigi -- Partners in Time -- Make Up Your Mind Nintendo.

I have spent seventeen or so hours with Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and I can say that they have indeed removed the Zelda like overworld structure from the game. You are relegated to traveling from point A to point B within the levels that make up the game.  There isn't anything really wrong with this as the game seems more concentrated in its puzzle design to suit the new level structure. The puzzle element is mild as you use acquired moves from the two sets of brothers to get by whatever obstacles are in your way.  The game allows you to control both sets of brothers independently of each other or you can control the four as a whole. This results in a lot of switching between the pairs to do this action or that action so you can move the other set of brothers forward in the level. The puzzles work well in the game. The combat is slightly hampered by the fact that there are four controllable characters in battle at once. Each character assigned his specific button out of the A, B, X, and Y buttons. There is a strange redundancy to some of the battle commands that is slightly annoying when there are four brothers in play. The hammer attack for instance, you'll select an enemy, and then hit A. That doesn't start the attack. You have to then hit X to actually begin the attack. Then time hitting A correctly so that it'll go to the dual attack stage of the move where you'll hit X again at the correct time to properly finish the move. There is no reason to have that first X stage. I understand their logic, it has to be that you have to hit X so that you're reminded of the dual brother potential aspect of the move, but it just comes off as not needed and annoying. I don't understand why they chose to streamline so much of the game, then artificially inflate the boss battle aspect. The battles go on and on forever. Even the early boss battles are long and arduous events. Unnecessarily so in my opinion. It's not like the challenge of what has to be done is the issue. It's just that you have to do it for far too long. It's coming to the point where I'm actually starting to dread the boss battles. The battles are starting to average in the thirty to forty-five minute range. It fills me with trepidation for the final boss battle if it follows the trend. It'll take forever. It's the attacks of the boss that are supposed to trip you up. Their actions are supposed to be designed to make you stumble in the timing of your responses. That is all in place. So then your failing should bring about the end of the boss battle quickly. On the other hand, once you learn the attacks and are successful in the timing to avoid or counter the boss attacks the battle should end relatively soon. I don't see why once you've demonstrated you have the timing down to defeat the attacks of the boss that you must do it over and over again for thirty some rounds. It just strikes me as unbalanced and sort of counterproductive to the concept behind the battle system.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time -- Initial Impression.

Since I have a week to kill before Dead Rising ships for the Xbox 360 I'm going to try and knock off one more RPG. I have the best odds of successfully completing Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for the Nintendo DS in that time. The first impression I get from the time I've spent with it thus far is that it's all still for laughs just as Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga was entirely comedic. The game has the plumbing duo (are they even plumbers anymore) traveling back in time and meeting up with their toddler selves in order to save the princess. A highly original and experimental concept to be sure. This time around aliens are invading. The game seems to play the combat out as before, except this time there is slightly more complexity in the teaming up of the pairs of brothers. What seems to be missing is the Zelda overworld style gameplay of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. It seemingly has been replaced with actual levels which feature a more streamlined single path structure. I don't know if I like that change. It might not matter if the combat stays classic and the story remains genuinely funny. We'll of course see how it goes.