Playstation 3 Games

NBA Live 09: PlayStation 3

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Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2009: PlayStation 3

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Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2009: PlayStation 3

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Grand Theft Auto IV: PlayStation 3

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a girlfriend. I just want to wreak havoc.

Graphics: The graphics are great. Nice gritty feel to the city. Textures are decent for such a huge game. Very minimal pop-in as well.

Music: Grand Theft Auto is well known for its diverse sound track and this game is no different. Several radio stations will keep you happy. However, I would always turn the radio off because you could never hear any dialogue when you were in the car.

Fun: So is the game fun? If you can take pleasure in doing the same thing over and over again, both in story mode and just in messing around, then you might find it fun. I wanted to like this game, but it was just to shallow. I actually did finish the story and could not bring myself to kill those 200 flying rats. What was the point? A shiny helicopter? Big deal.

Multiplayer: Decent. Never played it a whole lot as there are much better multiplayer games out there.

Bottom Line: I can't even recommend a rent for this game. The nine bucks it cost nowadays could be put to better use. Unless you have something like gamefly. Then by all means, be my guest. I tried to talk two of my friends out of buying it (one has a PS3 and the other a 360) and they both bought it...And they both are now regretting it. They said the exact same things I did. Boring and repetitive.

Silent Hill: Homecoming: PlayStation 3

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that it takes to bring down these enemies. Each creature has its own weaknesses and strength and these are reflected in the combat as not only are you required to dodge attacks but also to come up with specific strategies to deal with the creatures. (some may require fast attack melee weapons, some may require stronger attacks and some may only be weak against firearms.) The environments are as creepy and disturbing as any other game in the series but at times lacks real horror. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of encounters that left me jumping in the back of my seat, but I never really felt unprepared for a fight. The camera work keeps the grainy feel of the other games while also texturing the environment much further than other games. (you can actually make out buildings in the distance, unlike the previous titles.) The score is of course amazing and helps with the overall horror and despair of both Shepards Glenn and Silent Hill itself. The NPC's are well done and the voice acting is superb. (think the opposite of the original Resident Evil for PS1.) Overall I would have to say this is a strong entry into the survival horror library for the 360 and is worth picking up even if you have already preordered RE5 and Dead Space. Silent Hill: Homecoming brings a familiar yet refreshing feel to the 360 library and brings back the type of survival horror that we used to all know and love.

Silent Hill: Homecoming: PlayStation 3

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that it takes to bring down these enemies. Each creature has its own weaknesses and strength and these are reflected in the combat as not only are you required to dodge attacks but also to come up with specific strategies to deal with the creatures. (some may require fast attack melee weapons, some may require stronger attacks and some may only be weak against firearms.) The environments are as creepy and disturbing as any other game in the series but at times lacks real horror. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of encounters that left me jumping in the back of my seat, but I never really felt unprepared for a fight. The camera work keeps the grainy feel of the other games while also texturing the environment much further than other games. (you can actually make out buildings in the distance, unlike the previous titles.) The score is of course amazing and helps with the overall horror and despair of both Shepards Glenn and Silent Hill itself. The NPC's are well done and the voice acting is superb. (think the opposite of the original Resident Evil for PS1.) Overall I would have to say this is a strong entry into the survival horror library for the 360 and is worth picking up even if you have already preordered RE5 and Dead Space. Silent Hill: Homecoming brings a familiar yet refreshing feel to the 360 library and brings back the type of survival horror that we used to all know and love.

Silent Hill: Homecoming: PlayStation 3

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Glen. Turns out there's even worse news as the town is now empty, filled with creatures and blanketed with a thick fog. His mother is catatonic and his father has gone missing so Alex tries to find his brother and unlocks some secrets involving everyone's favorite spook town of Silent Hill.

While the story is indeed interesting, some might gripe that it's not as layered in terms of what actually happened. Previous games have always had a sense of ambiguity or at least a feeling like certain things weren't quite explained, either through laziness or preferring to let gamers decide. Here, the story is as direct as they come. Oh, and for those of you wondering: this is more like 2 and 4 were with a stand-alone story with the occasional bit of dialogue or journals hinting at previous characters so don't expect the guy from the first game or James to make a strange cameo.

Graphics: Survival horror games in general have never really been about wow-inducing graphics (though they help) but rather creating a certain emotion in the player, that of fear, adrenaline and paranoia. Homecoming certainly looks more impressive than before with detailed environments, well-done character animations and great use of lighting. Keep in mind though, this game is dark and you will frequently have an entirely black screen save for your character and a dim instance of light from your flashlight. With grain, real-time overworld changes and enemy designs, this might not have the amazing look of other games but what it does it does well.

Sound/Music: Anyone who's ever been a fan of Silent Hill knows how vitally important composer Akira Yamaoka's score is and here it definately excels. From the eerie atonal ambiance to beautiful serene moments (if you can believe it) as well as his near-trademark of having rock songs sung by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, people will be more than happy with this. Ditto with the sound design which has strange noises, creature noises but no creature...at least right away and disturbing sounds, it's all there. The voice acting has always been fairly inconsistent for the games since there's always one or two characters that really work while others are iffy. Alex for example has a great VA performance while the youngster doing Josh is a bit too, idk, snotty?

Gameplay: One of the frequent gripes about the past games was having fixed camera angles which made it frustrating to run from enemy encounters since you'd find yourself running right back into them when the camera angle changed. Now the game takes on more of a Resident Evil 4-style camera where it's behind you and it's more free-range. This helps not only with navigation and the aiming of your gun but gives a bigger immersion factor in the environments. The big plus of course is the aiming with specific targeting which helps bring down monsters quicker instead of just chestshots galore.

Speaking of changes, the other notable and obvious one is the combat system. Instead of just smacking enemies but having to be close in order to even hit them, now we have the Combat Stance where holding L2 readies Alex's melee weapon/gun and is ready for action with X being quick attack, Square being strong attack which can be held for bigger damage or pressing R2 to fire your gun. Also added (and practically required really) is using your Circle to dodge. See an enemy about to smack you, just press Circle and you can dodge the move and be able to get a Counter attack or build up a combo and there can even be finisher moves for some monsters. The problem with this is that sometimes I wanted to dodge one way but didn't and got smacked anyway or sudden moves that knocked some of your health off without room to dodge and some enemies are a little cheap and actually smack you just as you get up. It isn't overly frustrating but you might find yourself yelling "let me up already!".

That takes care of the changes, how about the rest? Well it's quite easy to get back in the game so to speak since the game's interface is very familiar with sound effects, text, puzzles and the items collected have the same feel as in previous games. Also, changing your items is a bit more quicker since L1 controls your Health/Items like your first-aid kits as well as puzzle items while R2 controls your weapons which makes it easier to switch from knife to the favorite Steel Pipe more quickly than before. Pressing Triangle will bring up the Map which will have markings written into it based on your room discoveries. Saw a door you can't enter cause "the lock is broken?" The door will be scribbled onto, holes located will be marked and save points and rooms that connect via a hole you duck under or openings you cut/busted your way through will also be marked which helps a huge deal when you're looking around.

So some enemy encounters are a bit too frustrating (those damn nurses will basically cut endlessly until you dodge and Smogs are annoying runts) and save points and health drinks are a bit less frequent but pay no attention to negative reviews and give the game a shot. It might not de-throne Silent Hill 2 but the fact that the game is as enjoyable as it is makes up for it.

Silent Hill: Homecoming: PlayStation 3

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Glen. Turns out there's even worse news as the town is now empty, filled with creatures and blanketed with a thick fog. His mother is catatonic and his father has gone missing so Alex tries to find his brother and unlocks some secrets involving everyone's favorite spook town of Silent Hill.



While the story is indeed interesting, some might gripe that it's not as layered in terms of what actually happened. Previous games have always had a sense of ambiguity or at least a feeling like certain things weren't quite explained, either through laziness or preferring to let gamers decide. Here, the story is as direct as they come. Oh, and for those of you wondering: this is more like 2 and 4 were with a stand-alone story with the occasional bit of dialogue or journals hinting at previous characters so don't expect the guy from the first game or James to make a strange cameo.



Graphics: Survival horror games in general have never really been about wow-inducing graphics (though they help) but rather creating a certain emotion in the player, that of fear, adrenaline and paranoia. Homecoming certainly looks more impressive than before with detailed environments, well-done character animations and great use of lighting. Keep in mind though, this game is dark and you will frequently have an entirely black screen save for your character and a dim instance of light from your flashlight. With grain, real-time overworld changes and enemy designs, this might not have the amazing look of other games but what it does it does well.



Sound/Music: Anyone who's ever been a fan of Silent Hill knows how vitally important composer Akira Yamaoka's score is and here it definately excels. From the eerie atonal ambiance to beautiful serene moments (if you can believe it) as well as his near-trademark of having rock songs sung by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, people will be more than happy with this. Ditto with the sound design which has strange noises, creature noises but no creature...at least right away and disturbing sounds, it's all there. The voice acting has always been fairly inconsistent for the games since there's always one or two characters that really work while others are iffy. Alex for example has a great VA performance while the youngster doing Josh is a bit too, idk, snotty?



Gameplay: One of the frequent gripes about the past games was having fixed camera angles which made it frustrating to run from enemy encounters since you'd find yourself running right back into them when the camera angle changed. Now the game takes on more of a Resident Evil 4-style camera where it's behind you and it's more free-range. This helps not only with navigation and the aiming of your gun but gives a bigger immersion factor in the environments. The big plus of course is the aiming with specific targeting which helps bring down monsters quicker instead of just chestshots galore.



Speaking of changes, the other notable and obvious one is the combat system. Instead of just smacking enemies but having to be close in order to even hit them, now we have the Combat Stance where holding L2 readies Alex's melee weapon/gun and is ready for action with X being quick attack, Square being strong attack which can be held for bigger damage or pressing R2 to fire your gun. Also added (and practically required really) is using your Circle to dodge. See an enemy about to smack you, just press Circle and you can dodge the move and be able to get a Counter attack or build up a combo and there can even be finisher moves for some monsters. The problem with this is that sometimes I wanted to dodge one way but didn't and got smacked anyway or sudden moves that knocked some of your health off without room to dodge and some enemies are a little cheap and actually smack you just as you get up. It isn't overly frustrating but you might find yourself yelling "let me up already!".



That takes care of the changes, how about the rest? Well it's quite easy to get back in the game so to speak since the game's interface is very familiar with sound effects, text, puzzles and the items collected have the same feel as in previous games. Also, changing your items is a bit more quicker since L1 controls your Health/Items like your first-aid kits as well as puzzle items while R2 controls your weapons which makes it easier to switch from knife to the favorite Steel Pipe more quickly than before. Pressing Triangle will bring up the Map which will have markings written into it based on your room discoveries. Saw a door you can't enter cause "the lock is broken?" The door will be scribbled onto, holes located will be marked and save points and rooms that connect via a hole you duck under or openings you cut/busted your way through will also be marked which helps a huge deal when you're looking around.



So some enemy encounters are a bit too frustrating (those damn nurses will basically cut endlessly until you dodge and Smogs are annoying runts) and save points and health drinks are a bit less frequent but pay no attention to negative reviews and give the game a shot. It might not de-throne Silent Hill 2 but the fact that the game is as enjoyable as it is makes up for it.

BAJA: PlayStation 3

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your race and your ride. while baja is far from perfect if there is a baja 2 it will be great. this is the yang to motorstorms yin.it is more realistic play it to see what i mean.

Pure: PlayStation 3

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your race and your ride. while baja is far from perfect if there is a baja 2 it will be great. this is the yang to motorstorms yin.it is more realistic play it to see what i mean.

BUZZ Quiz TV with Buzz Buzzers: PlayStation 3

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your race and your ride. while baja is far from perfect if there is a baja 2 it will be great. this is the yang to motorstorms yin.it is more realistic play it to see what i mean.

BUZZ Quiz TV with Buzz Buzzers: PlayStation 3

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your race and your ride. while baja is far from perfect if there is a baja 2 it will be great. this is the yang to motorstorms yin.it is more realistic play it to see what i mean.

Madden NFL 09: PlayStation 3

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game certainly solidifies that EA's agreement with ESPN was an anti-competitive move.

*No on-field referees or chain gang on the sidelines. Two staples of football once again ommitted from the game. Sure they added unnecessary security guards and even more players and non-player personell on the sidelines, but the most important staples of the game are not there, even though they were there in versions prior to the current gen systems.

*Instant Replay challenges of sideline catches are still ridiculous. Every year whenever I challenge a sideline catch and a receiver has one foot clearly out, the call goes against me.

*Sideline animations - Yes there is a two feet in animation when you throw to a receiver near the sideline but if a WR's route takes him towards the sideline and you throw towards that receiver his animation more often than not will take him out of bounds and result in an incompletion. Unacceptable.

*Clock stopping on defensive penalties within 2 minutes of the half or 5 minutes at the end of game. I drove to my opponents 20 yard line with 20 seconds left, got an encroachment call on the defense, accepted the penalty and figuring the clock was stopped, I took my time selecting the next play, only to have the clock run out as I broke the huddle. Unless there is some new NFL rule regarding clock stoppage, this is a severe oversight.

*Stable playing surface. Where did EA get the playing surface model from? The old Veterans stadium? When viewing replays from the game, you can clearly see players feet sink below the playing surface on a dry gameday.

*NFL ice-capades. This is definitely still in the game, even with today's precision controllers. If you jump just a little with a DE pre-snap without encroaching, good luck getting him back even close to his original starting point. This is frustrating to say the least.

This so far might sound like petty griping but here is the thing, this Madden franchise has been around for 20 years now, it is the #1 selling football game and the only game on the market. These little details should have been long since addressed, yet they continue to resurface with every version of Madden.

EA is great at repackaging Madden every year with a new gimmick to make it look fresh. Anyone remember QB vision a few years ago? This year Madden IQ is the latest and greatest invention. What this IQ system does is evaluate your skill level and adjust the AI sliders accordingly to tailor the game for your set skill level. However this system completely replaces all the specific AI sliders that were available to players to adjust freely. There are some very general sliders that can still be adjusted but nothing like in years past.

I would be all for this IQ system if there was a way to turn it off and adjust multiple sliders to the specific way a player wants the game to run. Look, anyone who has played Madden for any extended amount of time knows exactly where they stand as far as skills in the game they don't need the game to tell them where they stand. Other human players will be sure to remind you of that.

What is the most irritating of this new system is you cannot adjust any sliders for an overcompensated AI. In the past I was able to tune down the AI QB accuracy and AI WR catching, especially when the AI's second string QB would complete 20 straight passes on me. The ability to adjust the sliders allowed for a more realistic simulation of the game.

Not anymore, unless you dumb down the generic sliders all the way, be prepared for the opposing AI QB to march down the field with Joe Montanaesque accuracy against every nickel and dime coverage you have in the playbook.

Now for the good:

The graphics are a nice improvement from last year. The stadium models are clean and the lighting effects are top notch. Though I think the player models seem a little more "stiff" from last year and it really often looks and feels like the players are running in mud compared to last year.

The branch animations have improved fairly well. Last year this feature was very impressive and this years crop of new animations improves on it. Well done!

The commentary is vastly improved. Gone is the radio announcer who I felt sounded like he was yelling into a tin can. And in his place is a new broadcast crew featuring Chris Collinsworth. As much as I despise Collinsworth on TV, he does an excellent job as color commentator in this years Madden.

The players models are properly proportioned for each postion.

There really is not a lot of good to report over last years version and that is unfortunately how little EA has went to inmprove the overall game experience. Madden 05 was the last year that EA truly innovated their game and brought a deeper experience to it's faithful fans. Is it any coincidence that was one the last years the 2K sports NFL game was around to push the EA team?

Next year, EA is going to have to show me something good in order for me to dole out any more money, paying for the same repackaged game. I've learned my lesson, 20 something years later....

Madden NFL 09: PlayStation 3

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play-by-play guy: incredibly canned dialogue, and Collinsworth's droll voice also gets old way too fast. You'd expect more after 20 years, but apparently this is one area that EA Sports just doesn't care to improve.....and it's real possible to do, too: just check out the hockey game series, for one example of how good this can be, and how much it can add to the gaming experience.
3- There still is the very frustrating CPU-will-catch-up-with-you-no-matter-how-well-you-are-playing thing. Example: I'm leading the Panthers 27-9 (with the Bears) late in the fourth quarter- I've played a sound game on both sides of the ball, and deserve to coast home with an easy win. But NO: the CPU suddenly is unstoppable, goes down the field like it's a practice field and score, AND THEN: they recover not one, but TWO successive on-sides kicks, and I only wind-up winning by the skin of my teeth, 27-22, stopping them on my 7 yard line as time runs out. Was this enjoyable because it was exciting? Big-time NO, because it was so unrealistic (I was in an on-sides kickoff set both times, and they STILL get both kicks....yeah, RIGHT!!!!). I'd rather save the nail-biters for a game where both teams DESERVE to be in a nail-biter.This aspect of Madden has always been frustrating- but '09 seems the worst yet.
There's more, but that's enough for now.
Don't get me wrong, this is still the best football game out there, but it should be better, particularly for $60 bucks.

LEGO Batman: The Videogame: PlayStation 3

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could find).

THE BAD:
1) Control. It's painful. It's unforgivable. This same game has been made three times before - why can't they get it right? Walking along narrow pathways can be a chore, and jumps are often missed, causing much frustration.

2) Environment. At times, it's difficult to determine where you can and can't go - until you die, over and over. While the puzzles are generally not difficult, their appearance is often masked, and it can be unclear if there is a puzzle at ALL. Combined with bad point one, this yields an incredible amounnt of frustration.

3) Difficulty. With the exception of the cheapness factor due to the horrible control, the game itself is very easy. One-on-one battles are a joke (you can just hit one button, over and over), and the general rule of the levels is ...just to smash everything. Some more variety here would have been appreciated.

THE UGLY:

1) Size of game. This game is just too small for the PS3/XBox/Wii. It would have been nice to see some challenge modes, or hidden stories, etc. etc.

So, that's that. If you've liked these games before (as have I), you will like this one, but will probably feel a slight tinge of disappointment. If these games have not appealed to you, don't buy this one, unless you really like Batman.

Armored Core: For Answer: PlayStation 3

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times but that is in the later levels where they expect you to be better. Besides doing missions you can also climb the arena ladder to become the No. 1 NEXT pilot which grants you money/NEXT blueprints to make an exact copy of the opponent you defeated. I haven't tried the online matches yet, however, there is 2 player online co-op. To play certain levels in co-op either you or your buddy has to have completed it already. Also, there is at least one level that I know of that you can't play in co-op (I think its because its story related). In conclusion, this is a great game. When I first got it I played for 4 hours straight. Really fun and addicting.

BUZZ Quiz TV with Buzz Buzzers: PlayStation 3

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times but that is in the later levels where they expect you to be better. Besides doing missions you can also climb the arena ladder to become the No. 1 NEXT pilot which grants you money/NEXT blueprints to make an exact copy of the opponent you defeated. I haven't tried the online matches yet, however, there is 2 player online co-op. To play certain levels in co-op either you or your buddy has to have completed it already. Also, there is at least one level that I know of that you can't play in co-op (I think its because its story related). In conclusion, this is a great game. When I first got it I played for 4 hours straight. Really fun and addicting.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: PlayStation 3

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times but that is in the later levels where they expect you to be better. Besides doing missions you can also climb the arena ladder to become the No. 1 NEXT pilot which grants you money/NEXT blueprints to make an exact copy of the opponent you defeated. I haven't tried the online matches yet, however, there is 2 player online co-op. To play certain levels in co-op either you or your buddy has to have completed it already. Also, there is at least one level that I know of that you can't play in co-op (I think its because its story related). In conclusion, this is a great game. When I first got it I played for 4 hours straight. Really fun and addicting.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway: PlayStation 3

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times but that is in the later levels where they expect you to be better. Besides doing missions you can also climb the arena ladder to become the No. 1 NEXT pilot which grants you money/NEXT blueprints to make an exact copy of the opponent you defeated. I haven't tried the online matches yet, however, there is 2 player online co-op. To play certain levels in co-op either you or your buddy has to have completed it already. Also, there is at least one level that I know of that you can't play in co-op (I think its because its story related). In conclusion, this is a great game. When I first got it I played for 4 hours straight. Really fun and addicting.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway: PlayStation 3

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times but that is in the later levels where they expect you to be better. Besides doing missions you can also climb the arena ladder to become the No. 1 NEXT pilot which grants you money/NEXT blueprints to make an exact copy of the opponent you defeated. I haven't tried the online matches yet, however, there is 2 player online co-op. To play certain levels in co-op either you or your buddy has to have completed it already. Also, there is at least one level that I know of that you can't play in co-op (I think its because its story related). In conclusion, this is a great game. When I first got it I played for 4 hours straight. Really fun and addicting.