Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction -- Full Tilt Boogie.

I'm roughly eighty percent through my initial playthrough of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. The saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same, and that couldn't be more true with Ratchet & Clank Future. As we find ourselves fully entrenched in the current generation with the Xbox 360 and its Xbox Live, and the Wii and its waggle, to the PlayStation 3 with its Home and all-encompassing media everything box, it's nice to just play something traditional. Ratchet & Clank Future offers the same traditional gameplay as the series offered on the PlayStation 2. Everything is there. The same fun action platforming. The same amazing variety of wacky weaponry to level up. The same skill point system, a precursor to achievements. The same great graphics, sound design, and voice work. The same absolutely solid control. The same charmingly funny storytelling and well realized characters. They did add some PlayStation 3 functionality to the mix however with gadgets like the Robowings and Geo-Laser and the hacking minigame, as well as a few moments in the game proper. They've made use of the Sixaxis controller's tilt capabilities. And to my great surprise, the controller handles it very well. The Sixaxis has proven itself very responsive. And Insomniac Games have come up with some genuinely fun and creative situations to make use of the Sixaxis. The hacking minigame has you tilting the controller to move the circuit board you're trying to bypass so you can move a charged ball around that allows you to bridge the gaps in the circuits so you can allow the current through the board to the goal. The Robowings allow you to fly around the levels by titling the controller to dive and gain altitude and turn left and right. And the Geo-Laser has you tilting the controller again to guide a laser as to cut through rock. I'm quite impressed by how fun these segments are and how well they control. The final opinion should be following shortly.

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction -- Initial Impression.

I feel like some platform action so next up for me is Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. Ratchet & Clank Future is the latest title in the Ratchet & Clank series that began on the PlayStation 2 and saw four entries on that platform. Number five in the series hit the PlayStation Portable and will soon be ported over to the PlayStation 2. And that brings us to number six and the series' first entry for the PlayStation 3. Along with the Jak and Daxter series and the Sly Cooper series Ratchet & Clank were mainly responsible in allowing Sony to essentially out-Nintendo Nintendo last generation. Ratchet & Clank originally released five years ago. Six titles in five years, that's pretty hot and heavy. And the demand for them has barely waned. And that's because the series offers fun run and gun platforming action with action RPG lite leveling of weapons thrown in. And it's all wrapped up in great comic storytelling with well-written characters and great voice acting. I'm not expecting anything different this time around. In fact it appears Insomniac Games didn't set out to reinvent the wheel. They've reportedly gone back to the more simplified platform intensive action over the later entries' combat intensive action. From the time I've spent with the title, which amounts to the first couple of planets, I can tell that everything seems to be in place and the game is offering essentially more of the same. Which is just what I wanted. The classic Ratchet & Clank formula, only now on the PlayStation 3. And what's immediately apparent from playing the game is that it's just gorgeous. More of the same, only better looking. But will it last? Did they change anything? Will this be the one that tires me on the series? Will the Sixaxis control segments prove valid or are they destined for gimmickry? Can they keep the humor going this many entries into the series? We'll soon see...

Nights: Journey of Dreams -- Final Opinion.

I've completed Nights: Journey of Dreams with both characters and have gone back and earned the real 'Sweet Snow' ending. For me Nights: Journey of Dreams was a success. A worthy follow-up to Nights Into Dreams. The core gameplay is intact. It's also been streamlined and expanded upon at the same time. The main game, which constitutes the chase mission of each seven dreams, is where the game is a streamlined version of Nights Into Dreams. It's streamlined as even though you're essentially trying for the fastest possible time as in the first game but this time you're chasing enemies called Goodies who hold the key to the Nights Capture. You need the key to free Nights from the Nights Capture. Each dream's chase section has three courses through the level. You'll repeat each lap until you catch the Goodies and get the key. All the while trying to pick up blue chips to add to your score and the timer as well as trying to fly through the hoops scattered through the courses. The hoops add to your Nights Dash meter. The dash offers a burst of speed needed to gain on the Goodies. Once you've cleared all three courses for the chase mission you face off against the boss. Each dream has five missions. The first is always the chase mission, the last is always fighting the boss again, only made harder. There is what's called a link mission in each dream. In these you need to follow a non-player character as it flies through the dreams on new course leaving hoops behind. You need to link the hoops into a chain by not missing any and getting to the next one in time. You need to chain enough together to meet the goal. The other two missions per dream are all different. They're almost minigame level events. Like trying to catch gems as they erupt out of a volcano or trying to destroy mines in the water or trying to build the biggest bubble of water. It's in all these extra missions where they've really expanded on the Nights Into Dreams core gameplay. The gameplay really does feel like Nights Into Dreams in the main missions while offering a lot more than the original ever did. If you look at the parts of the whole individually you can start to pick apart the graphics and some might be annoyed by the story and the children's take on everything and the like. But the game as a whole is more than the sum of its parts for me. I enjoyed Nights: Into Dreams in much the same way. You didn't play the game for the graphics and the story, you played it for the music and the gameplay. I enjoyed Nights: Journey of Dreams in the same way. Especially the music and the gameplay. It's solid fun, and provides real challenge for those looking to earn the best possible score for each mission. And it's filled from beginning to end with great music. I'm giving Nights: Journey of Dreams an 8.

The Orange Box: Portal -- All In One.

The Orange Box is being billed as the greatest value ever put to disc. While it's not quite that, it's a great deal. Five games in one as they say. They are Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. I'm not going to play through The Orange Box all at once. One game at a time with numerous other games in between each one is the plan. I never played Half-Life, which is what kept me from Half-Life 2, which kept me from Half-life: Episode 1 and so on. I intended to play the Dreamcast version of Half-Life but a couple months before the release of the game SEGA officially killed the Dreamcast. Valve's reaction was to not release the finished Dreamcast version of the game with the logic being their future potential sales were pulled out from under them so why even bother. The PC crowd has always clamored away saying Half-Life 2 is the greatest first person shooter ever. That's always been in the back of my head. I still never intended to buy The Orange Box. I really had no interest in Team Fortress 2, the now officially Valve produced online team versus game that started out as a modification for Half-Life. It was Portal that actually caught my eye and made me buy The Orange Box. It took me just one minute over three hours to complete the main game of Portal. The game mixes puzzles and first person action. The gimmick here is a gun that creates a portal. Portals you'll need to use in order to solve the puzzles and advance the game. Portal's portals actually offer up something new. And for that it's worth it alone. The game has just the right mix of challenge in both the action and the puzzles. And it takes both to get through the game. The action is good, the puzzles great, but the real stars of Portal are the humor and the writing. While it's essentially one joke carried over three hours, it's so very well done, and really funny. And it does culminate in one of the best boss battles I've experienced and one of the best end credit songs in history. The song is so very They Might Be Giants. I really enjoyed Portal for what it is, and as short as it is. Portal doesn't overstay its welcome. The game's length is augmented by some advanced challenges and some achievements to chase if you feel the need for more. Portal is awesome. I'm giving Portal a 9.

Nights: Journey of Dreams -- Halfway.

The credits have rolled on Will's story in Nights: Journey of Dreams. I still have Helen's story to play through. In Will's story I've managed to collect all the Dream Drops and have earned A ranks for all levels except the final one. Which I'll do before starting Helen's story tomorrow. Being halfway through the game I can comment on things like the graphics and music. The graphics are great from an art design standpoint. From a hardware perspective on the other hand the graphics are not going to impress X360 or PS3 owners in any way. The music though, now that should impress all around. The music is wonderful. A lot of people are having fits that there are voices in the game. Nights: Journey of Dreams is more story intensive than Nights into Dreams and it features full vocals for every character. I personally don't have any issues with any voices in the game. It doesn't bother me that Nights is voiced by a British chick. They've also made a huge deal over the seemingly for kids nature of the storytelling. It's entirely golly gee and innocent in a Disney-esque sort of way. If the final level of Nights: Journey of Dreams doesn't bring a smile to your face more than once then you probably have no soul. Nights hasn't been ruined in any way by the inclusion of said voices or story. There is room for this level of storytelling in games. Not everything need be epic or blood-splattered. 

Nights: Journey of Dreams -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is Nights: Journey of Dreams on the Wii, the very long-awaited sequel to the Saturn game Nights into Dreams. It's been eleven years since the original game and in the mean time Nights fans have had to endure lots of interviews with various Sonic Team members saying how a Nights sequel was always on their minds and how much the fans are clamoring for another game and how they never really did anything about it until now. Until the Wii with its motion sensing controls would be a perfect fit for the concept of flight that makes up the original Nights into Dreams. And of course, the rather timely departure of Nights into Dreams producer Yuji Naka. Naka gave up Sonic and Nights and his other creations and left SEGA to form Prope, a new studio with as of yet no announced titles. This strikes me as the real reason we're finally seeing a Nights sequel, the Naka roadblock is out of the way. The original Nights into Dreams was unfortunately advertised as the Saturn's answer to Super Mario 64. That caused a lot of people to purchase the game expecting some platforming action and Nights of course isn't a platform game. In fact it's closest to an arcade racing game where beating your best time and score is the goal. Only instead of racing around the track you're flying around a dream world. The original Nights was a critical darling and extremely hit or miss with gamers. It's one of those you either get it or you don't kind of titles. The original game also was designed for and launched with the Saturn's 3D controller and it made a rather large impact on the game. Controlling like a dream with it, and not so well without it. Most people would play the game without it. Nights: Journey of Dreams offers just about every Wii control scenario in existence so hopefully one of them will feel just right. And hopefully the music will live up to the original game's music which is easily one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever composed. Of course there is only one way to find out if dreams come true... and I'd like them to in this case.

Assassin's Creed -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Assassin's Creed and in the process unlocked every possible achievement. I have to say I really enjoyed Assassin's Creed. Although it does have a true fault. And that lies in its repetitive gameplay missions. For each of the nine story assassinations you'll do the exact same things numerous times over. You're looking at climbing six to twelve high points like towers to get a grip on your surroundings per assassination. You'll need to pick the pockets of a couple of people to further your investigation per assassination. You'll need to extract some information from someone by force per assassination. You'll need to deal with a couple of informants per assassination. And you'll need to save six to twelve innocents from harassing guards per assassination. And then of course the main story assassination takes place and you're back to the guild for the next assignment. In between all of that you have the extra activities such as collecting flags and searching out and killing the Templars. That's what you get to do, and you'll be doing it a lot. Everything else with the game is very well done. The world itself is arguably one of the most impressive and fully realized worlds from a level design perspective. The cities are amazingly and intricately designed. You'll believe them real. And you'll enjoy climbing and scouring every last back alley and rooftop. The graphics are great. It's a very pretty world. All the characters, main and non-player characters alike, have a great level of detail and animation. The sound design is equally impressive. Great music from Jesper Kyd and very good voice acting all around. Not a bad voice in the bunch. The combat is easily some of the best I've ever seen. It's just brutal, impressive, satisfying, and fun. The story of Assassin's Creed is also very well handled. I really liked the story. But I'll admit it's not for everyone. It's a whole lot of arguing of from a certain point of view. And in the end, should you reach it and unlock the secret achievement Visions of the Future, the game presents you with a myriad of very cryptic hints toward what's coming in the next two chapters of the proposed trilogy. They're going heavy with the whole DaVinci Code enigma thing.  It's not for everybody in that most people won't even understand it should they even be bothered to find it. And yes, you have to find it. And they'll be annoyed to find riddles and hints that are all over the place with no sense of closure. I was particularly impressed with the conversations had with the victims during the assassination missions. I found those to be a great story device. And I'm also impressed with the sense of history in the game. I've already covered how the controls work great in the previous entry. I really liked the game and look forward to the next installment. The repetitious nature of the gameplay being the only flaw and worth the deduction of a full point, I'm giving Assassin's Creed a 9.

Assassin's Creed -- The Controls and Combat.

I have spent a lot of time with Assassin's Creed but I'm only a third of the way through the game's story. I've been enjoying myself just collecting flags, knocking out achievements, and fully completing the free missions and full investigations before moving on to the actual assassinations. In that amount of time I've come to the conclusion that any talk of confusing or otherwise bad controls is full on rubbish. The game controls great with hardly any learning curve at all. Altair is an extremely agile character. He climbs and leaps like a monkey without any issues. The easy controls result some of the most fun combat I've ever experienced in a game. Once you've gotten hold of Altair's ability to combo kill and counter kill you'll be witness to some of the most visually stunning and viscerally satisfying combat that almost reaches the level of being balletic. And once you've gotten it down fully you'll be able to take on a hundred guards and come out the other side untouched. Altair is true video game badass. We know the controls work great and that the combat is great fun, but what of the other issues? I'll save those for next time...

Assassin's Creed -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is the Xbox 360 version of Assassin's Creed. Assassin's Creed is supposed to be a little bit Splinter Cell, a little bit sandbox, and a little bit Prince of Persia. It's also the subject of the now infamous E3 demonstration by producer Jade Raymond. The one where the great looking and much hyped game took a serious hit when she played it live in front of the entire gaming world and her playthrough was a little beyond glitchy. So the game has had a fervor around it ever since. One going so far removed from cache problems of the demo Xbox 360 unit to it being an early build and other legitimate concerns all the way to people only wanting the game to succeed or fail because of Jade Raymond's rather pretty face. The controls and supposedly repetitive gameplay are other major topics for discussion. As are the game's not so hidden signs that things aren't what they may seem with the story. I don't have the answers to any of that as of yet. From my play time so far, which amounts to the rather cool extended tutorial and just messing around the first real mission, I can say that it seems I might have found something rather cool. There are some good signs. The initial vibe is a good one. But will it last?

Link's Crossbow Training -- Final Opinion.

The Wii Zapper does in fact add an important aspect to the gameplay of Link's Crossbow Training, and that's stability. For me anyway, it does stabilize the Wii Remote. I played the game with and without the Wii Zapper and found that I had more stable and precise control with the Wii Zapper. The Wii Zapper is also rather easy to connect to the Wii Remote and nunchuck which is a big plus. It would make you not want to play a game if the connection process were a pain in the ass. The Wii Zapper comes bundled with the great Link's Crossbow Training. A game that's just old school simple fun to play. I thoroughly enjoyed getting platinum medals for all of the levels. I'm giving Link's Crossbow Training an 8.5 and the Wii Zapper itself an 8. Now where the hell are Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley, and Wild Gunman Nintendo?

Link's Crossbow Training -- A Real Game.

Link's Crossbow Training has three modes. Practice allows you to practice any of the game's twenty-seven individual challenges. You create a profile and your scores are recorded for each challenge. The other mode is multiplayer where you can compete on said challenges. The main mode of the game is called score attack. That's where you go through three challenges at a time spread over nine levels. Your scores on each challenge are carried over towards a goal of earning a medal for that level. Medals unlock new stages in both score attack and practice modes. You can earn medals for bronze, silver, gold, and platinum, at 20k, 40k, 60k, and 80k respectively. Accuracy is the key in chaining hits together to increase your score multiplier. Miss and the multiplier is reset to zero. The game uses the trigger mapped to the B button of the Wii Remote with the Z button on the nunchuck providing zoom. The stick on the nunchuck is used to move Link around certain stages. You can hold the trigger on the Wii Zapper to charge up a shot that will act more as an explosive. That's it as far as mechanics go. It really is a simple game. But that works in its favor. As the game allows you to concentrate on good old-fashioned target shooting like the early days of arcades and console gaming. I was expecting a simple little throwaway tech demo along the lines of Wii Sports but instead have found a genuinely fun little game. I've earned platinum medals through the five of the nine levels. All the standard variants of stationary and moving target shooting are present as well as skeet shooting. A few of the stages allow you to move through the stages controlling Link. And others still scroll you through the level as in Link's canoe from Twilight Princess. Others still have you locked in a central point and you can turn 360 degrees to defend yourself from incoming attackers. It's not a large game, but it's well varied given the theme, and it'll will provide real fun. I'm impressed with the game. The final opinion will cover the Wii Zapper's worth itself. Does it add anything to the mix?

Link's Crossbow Training -- Initial Impression.

So I'm moving on to the Wii and Link's Crossbow Training as my next game. Link's Crossbow Training comes with the Wii Zapper. The Wii Zapper being a piece of molded plastic that attaches to the Wii Remote and nunchuck to essentially form the standard light gun of old. The obvious question here is if the Wii Zapper actually improves the performance of the Wii Remote by providing more stability and therefore better control. I can say that the Wii Zapper is rather easy to attach to the Wii Remote and nunchuck. And the Wii Zapper provides a compartment hidden under a sliding clasp that hides the wiring for the nunchuck. You're able to wrap the cord around two hooks and then hide it all away. It's a very cool little system actually. The Wii Remote itself is held snugly in place. It's not going to come loose even under the wildest of movement. The Wii Zapper is made from a nice solid plastic that feels very durable. It also has a nice weight to it with the Wii Remote and nunchuck in place. The trigger seems solid and so far has been responsive. It doesn't have the snap to it I was expecting. That nice resistance. As for Link's Crossbow Training, is there something to the game or is it merely a distraction made to sell a peripheral? That'll have to wait until next time. I hope the Wii Zapper proves itself worthy especially that the Wii is going to see a flood of light gun type games over the next few months. I already have Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Ghost Squad and SEGA is bringing House of the Dead 2 & 3 Returns and hopefully some Virtua Cop down the line. It's like it's 1986 again and light gun games are common. It would seem what's old is new again as far as the Wii is concerned. And of course the whole quick and easy thing...

The Latest Wii Update Brings Innovative Good Cheer.

Last Monday the Nintendo Wii got its latest update in the form of Photo Channel 1.1 and Wii Gifting. I doubt too many people will give a second thought to the updated Photo Channel but Wii Gifting is a real smart bit of innovation. Wii Gifting allows you to send Virtual Console titles to anyone on your friend's list. And it's even relatively painless in execution considering Nintendo's online stumbling and friend code hell. It's actually a very cool and fun feature that the other two companies need to adopt a variation of for their respective platforms. Only now I'll actually have to start remembering birthdays and the like for the people I game online with. Already Christmas gifts have gone out and have been received. Good one Nintendo, you get points for this one. And profit, really smart from a business sense, isn't it? Great way to get the people who are already buying Virtual Console titles to buy even more.

Silent Hill: Origins -- Completion.

I've finished my first playthrough of Silent Hill: Origins. My exact play time was six hours and thirteen minutes and twenty-four seconds. I killed zero enemies by firearms, five by melee weapon, and one-hundred twenty-two by my fists. I found three-hundred forty-seven items. The game features an achievement like system called accolades. I earned the following accolades: savior, stalker, collector, explorer, and brawler. Savior is for just completing the game. Stalker is for having the flashlight off for most of the game. Collector is for the items I found. Explorer is for the distance I traveled, twenty-six kilometers by the way. And brawler for fighting with my fists for most of the game. In my subsequent playthroughs I'll need to earn the accolades for fighting with melee weapons and fighting with firearms as well as seeing a couple different endings. So what did I think of Silent Hill: Origins and what of the other questions in the previous entry? Let's answer them shall we? Firstly, yes, survival horror can work on a handheld system. The game loads up with a screen saying that Silent Hill: Origins should be played with the lights off and with headphones on. Of course survival horror isn't going to work if you're attempting to play it on the morning train to work or something along those lines. Heed the advice of the game and play in the dark with the headphones on and the volume turned up. The PSP's screen size makes you concentrate on the game more so than you would playing it on a television. The nature of the music and sound effects within headphones actually creates a very cool sense of it being in your head. The music and sound work wonderfully and with you playing in total darkness concentrating on the PSP screen survival horror has no problems getting the job done on a portable system. Graphically the game is impressive as it registers just under Silent Hill 2 in terms of graphics. The game is very clean as far as graphics go. Aesthetically the game is still very dark and dirty and rusty and ugly, just as it should be. Travis animates well as do the numerous and surprisingly creepy enemies.  As far as gameplay goes it's very much Silent Hill. Still using the classic tank like controls for the character. Melee combat is a brutal dance of timing. Getting out of the way of their attacks so you can close in and finish them off. New to the mix are items that you can pick up and throw at enemies. Items like televisions or typewriters. Heavy objects to bash their heads in with from a distance. And you'll need to make use of the distance factor this time around as a few of the enemies are quite tough to deal with. The combat is handled well given that it fully replicates the console style on a handheld. The story of Silent Hill: Origins is good. It's not great. It's good. It's a small story. You get Travis' story for the most part and then a little bit of Silent Hill. What's in the Silent Hill part doesn't mess anything up which is great. But the problem is that it also plays it a tad too safe. Nothing comes off as shocking or surprising. It more comes off as well, yeah, of course. Climax delivered a pretty good and valid game overall. I still don't know if the game needed to be made. But they didn't do any damage and they did create a game that has some Silent Hill feel to it and that's worth playing through. My only complaint with the game is in the voice acting for Lisa Garland. She couldn't decide if she was a hick country girl or not. A bit in and out. The voice work for Travis, his mother and father, Dr. Kaufman, and Dahlia Gillespie faired better. I do still have a couple playthroughs left in Silent Hill: Origins but I can say I enjoyed it and I'm going to be giving it an 8. It's better than Silent Hill: The Room, but lacks the impact of the rest of the series. But it's always good to get back home to Silent Hill every now and again, isn't it?

Silent Hill: Origins -- Initial Impression.

It's on to the PlayStation Portable with Silent Hill: Origins as my next game. There are a few questions that need to be answered with this one. Chief among them, did the game need to be made? Should Konami not have allowed United Kingdom based Climax to develop the game? How did Climax do in place of Team Silent? Can a survival horror game even work on a handheld system? Did they mess up the story of the original Silent Hill with their meddling in prequel territory? Are they going to forever change how you see key characters in the original game, and for better or worse? How is the combat? How are the puzzles? Does it feel like Silent Hill? Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of more than a few of these. I do know the answers to some of them already based on my play time thus far which puts me just through Alchemilla Hospital, but those will have to wait until next time.

The Simpsons Game -- Final Opinion.

Twenty-six hours and a one-hundred percent completion rating later and I have completed The Simpsons Game, well almost. There is one achievement I still need to earn. And that's earning a perfect score on the final boss battle. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed The Simpsons Game. The graphics are wonderful. Bright and colorful and exactly like the series. They really nailed the visuals. The sound and music are also absolutely perfect. The voices are entirely provided by the cast from the show and in the couple of instances of celebrity cameos, the actual people provide the voices. The music is a great mix of versions of the Simpsons theme arranged to fit the situation, original music, music meant to sound like music from older video games, and a couple of really well placed licensed tracks. The game has solid controls. The camera can be problematic. But nothing beyond the standard 3D action game variety. It'll annoy you every once in a while but remains out of your way for the most part. The real stars of the game are the humor and the really smart writing. The game is equal amounts smart and funny. And it doesn't blow it's wad, essentially. It's funny and smart all throughout the game in a nonstop blitz of both. From the high concept final couple of boss battles, to the wide range of social commentary, to the nostalgia of arcade and eight and sixteen bit generation video games, all the way down to the fart jokes, it's really well done. And while I haven't played everything this year, it would take a miracle for The Simpsons Game to be upset as having the best writing in any game this year. I will say that The Simpsons Game is easily the funniest video game ever made. I've never laughed out loud from a video game as much as I have for The Simpsons Game. Other video games might have a great comic voice, but nothing kept the jokes coming as fast and as furious as I found them to be in The Simpsons Game. I'm giving The Simpsons Game for the Xbox 360 a 9. Finally we have a really good Simpsons game.

The Simpsons Game -- Springfield.

I have played through roughly fifty percent of The Simpsons game and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. The Simpsons Game employs a sandbox version of Springfield as a hub level. You're able to freely explore a rather cool version of Springfield that's been rearranged to suit the game. You're able to visit most of the regular locations of the series like the Kwik-e-Mart, Comic Book Guy's shop, Springfield Elementary School, First Church of Springfield and others. It's great just walking around the town itself as it is filled with a rather impressive amount of characters from the show. Each one voiced by the voice actors from the television show. Within the hub level large waypoint beams extend to the sky to point you in the direction of your next mission. The missions take place in more restricted and more traditionally linear platforming levels. Around the hub of Springfield there are icons to be collected for each of the four playable Simpsons characters. Duff bottle caps for Homer, twenty-five percent off sales tags for Marge, Malibu Stacy Doll logos for Lisa, and Krusty icons for Bart. There are seventy-five of each to be collected. Very much like the hidden packages in Grand Theft Auto. Only this time each character's moves come into play in collecting them. In The Simpsons Game you're playing as paired characters and you can switch between them on the fly. You can go to a bus stop to switch out characters, and also warp to any other bus stop around Springfield. Bart is able to don his Bartman costume and is able to glide with his cape as well as ride updrafts for lift. He later gets a grappling hook. Homer is able to morph into a giant ball version of himself and bounce and rocket around. He later gets the ability to float for a limited time in ball form from helium tanks scattered around town. Marge is able to influence people and gather a mob following that will clean up or build at specific points around town. She's also able to send Maggie into crawl spaces. Lisa is able to use the hand of Buddha to manipulate certain items strewn around town. She later gets the ability to flick enemies away with said hand. There is more of a puzzle element to collecting the icons for each of the characters around Springfield. You have to figure out how to get wherever the icon may be by using not only their abilities but the right combination of characters and their abilities to get you there. I'm really enjoying the collection aspect because of the more puzzle and figuring it all out approach to Springfield.

The Simpsons Game -- Initial Impression.

Up next for me is The Simpsons Game.  The Simpsons have been a long-running license in video games but unfortunately there haven't been that many good games produced. They've appeared on the NES, Genesis, GameBoy, GameBoy Advance, SEGA Master System, SNES, Commodore 64, Amiga, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Gamecube, Xbox, and arcades across a dozen or more titles with only a couple decent games to show for it. The Simpsons Game was released on pretty much every platform currently going but I'll be playing the Xbox 360 version. The Simpsons Game is a 3D action platform title that promises to poke fun at video games themselves. I've played through the first two levels of the game and from that I can tell that The Simpsons Game is going to be extremely funny. They've nailed the humor of the television show perfectly. Hopefully there's a decent game to back it up. We'll soon find out.

Mass Effect -- Final Opinion.

My first playthrough of Mass Effect took an even forty hours to complete. There will be further playthroughs of the game but not immediately. There were roughly eight to twelve months between my light and dark side playthroughs in Knights of the Old Republic and I'll follow the same pattern with Mass Effect. Mass Effect is a great game in spite of serious technical issues. What's wrong with Mass Effect? It follows the tradition of BioWare titles being about as glitchy as they come. From invisible Keepers to reloading saves into rooms you can't exit to glitched achievements among others there's surely going to be something you're going to run into. It's not a question of if, but a question of what, and how many. I was able to escape the room via the game's auto save being separate from my main save but I lost thirty minutes or so. Also on the technical side of things you'll have a horrible frame rate. It just chugs along. You'll also have textures taking a few seconds or more to draw in. And you'll have some annoying shadows that seem alive on the character's faces in cutscenes. You have the option of playing the game with motion blur and grain filters turned on. In fact, these are on by default at the start of the game. They're designed to hide most of the aforementioned issues. But they create their own issues you might not care for. You'll most likely end up turning them off. Everyone I've talked to that has been playing the game ended up turning them off. As I said before Mass Effect is a great game in spite of its technical flaws. How can that be? Because everything else it does it does right, and well enough to make the technical issues worth suffering through. Mass Effect's greatest aspect is all aspects of its story. The story itself, the characterization of the characters, and voice acting come together perfectly to make an otherwise standard science fiction story fascinating. Most impressive about the story is the detective vibe it gave me. Very much in line with games like Phantasy Star 2 and Snatcher. Where there is something dark and sinister just beneath the surface of a universe going about its daily routines and every step through the main story missions brings you closer to discovery. And said story comes to a very satisfying conclusion given it's act one of three. The game also furthers BioWare's standard deal of light and dark paths. Only this time it is a bit more fleshed out. A bit more involved. You can still walk in the light, dark, or middle of the road if you choose, but this time around non-player characters in the game will react based on your chosen history. I went with being a war hero. So for example some characters respected me and some characters resented me. And because of my history I was able to speak from the heart or commiserate with certain characters. In other words I was able to reach and get reactions from certain characters I might not have been able to otherwise. All of this comes into play. Your sex, your history, and your light or dark actions bring about potentially different reactions and prospective dialog paths for you to explore. It provides a more substantial amount of depth compared to Knights of the Old Republic. Also providing more depth is the combat system. The game's real time combat is much improved over Knights of the Old Republic as well. Again you're able to fool with the classes in the game and potential squad combinations to give you a wide variety of possible solutions out of any given situation. Want to run and gun? It's entirely possible. Want to play stop and pop? Want to snipe the guy? Want to use your biotic to throw someone into a wall? Or lift them off the ground where they're defenseless? Want to hack a robotic enemy into attacking its own allies? Are you going to use explosive rounds or freezing? Which upgrades are you going to use on your armor? Which upgrades do you want to use with the pistol? There are a lot of possibilities to be messed with allowing you to find your own style in playing the game.  I really liked Mass Effect. Its great story and characters leave me wanting more. The graphics are all over the place from glitchy to gorgeous. The sound design is great and truly varied. Big operatic film score composition in some spots, experimental and tonal in others, and goofy and fun in still others. Great voice acting all around. Fun combat and a more robust light and dark path system employed. Mass Effect really is worth suffering the technical issues. I really liked it. And I can't wait to find out what happens next. I'm giving Mass Effect a 9.