Sonic Unleashed (2008) Review

March 30, 2022March 29, 2022 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Well it’s been a while since we talked about Sonic, in fact its been over a year since we reviewed Sonic 06 so I feel it is time to hop back into the series and I’m sure that this time we will have a much better experience ………….right?

Sonic unleashed was developed by Sonic Team and released in 2008 for the PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360, It was the final main series title released for the PS2 and the first to get a Wii release. I played the PS3 version of the game so my opinion is based on that version.

Dr Eggman is back trying to destroy the planet this time by waking an evil entity known as Dark Gaia, he manages to trap Sonic in his super form using a power ray which strips away the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Eggman uses the power to then wake Dark Gaia who breaks the earth into seven pieces and also manages to put a curse on Sonic turning him into a Werehog. Sonic is blasted into space but luckily is rescued by a new friend called chip who helps guide Sonic across the globe while he tries to break his curse and return the earth and the Chaos Emeralds back to their original forms.

So whats weird with this one is that we went back to a single character campaign where we only play as Sonic, however due to the whole Werehog situation we do technically have two main variants of gameplay.

In the regular Sonic stages we run at high speeds across various continents while blasting robots and avoiding obstacles, whats new here is a super speed mechanic. Your rings do not only represent your life but also allow Sonic to run at hyper speed and completely annihilate anything that gets in his path, while in hyper speed you also attract rings towards you so its easier to collect tons of rings this way compared to the regular running mechanic.

At night you can play the Werehog stages these are much slower and focus more on combat, here you fight Dark Gaia’s minions and collect loads of experience points, when battles become too tough you can can use some of your collected energy to give your Werehog form some extra power in order to help tackle these trickier situations.

In between stages you will be exploring various hub worlds which each represent different countries, the hub worlds are not great and don’t really offer much apart from shops to buy food and souvenirs as well as hiding the occasional Sun/Moon coins and offering some extra side content.

I did manage to finish all of possession missions which involves players committing to small battle arenas and surviving onslaughts of bad guys. The other side missions are time/ring/no damage trials these are fine enough but a big issue I have with the game is that they keep repeating the same stages for these challenges for example in the time trials the game will ask you to finish the stage in 3 minutes then the challenge will be to do the same level in 2 minutes. I understand you don’t have to commit to these missions but I still think that some more creativity and implementing some of the optional stages would have worked a lot better.

The main levels work pretty well, I had very little issue due to gameplay problems and overall I found both types pretty satisfying, I really enjoyed the high speed action of the Sonic stages but also appreciated the more brawl based stages with the Werehog, I did find the final stage a little too long but I did die a lot and ended up clocking in at around 90 minutes.

The game for a PS3 title is very visually appealing I love the dark colours and glowing enemies at night and during the day time stages the details of the backgrounds are really quite impressive especially considering that even with the high speed action there is little to no issue rendering background details. I also really like that the game takes place in different countries not only because it represents various cultures but also makes each level feel very unique and special in their own ways. I do wish the hub worlds were a little bigger and hid more secrets for us to find, they are very small areas that are linear and quite limited in what they offer but I can appreciate that they were not the main focus of the game and this probably doesn’t bother many other players.

The soundtrack is really good! The main vocal track Endless Possibilities is great and singer Jared Reddick knocks it out of the park, various stages carry that rocking vibe we are used too with these games now but also there is a certain amount of diversity to represent the country you are currently playing in making sure to show appreciation for the various cultures explored throughout the adventure.

Sonic Unleashed is a massive improvement to the atrocity that was Sonic 06 the gameplay here while not perfect at least doesn’t feel broken and is enjoyable, if the game has any sins its biggest is how mediocre and somewhat forgettable it is. I loved the music and the day time stages but nothing else really stood out to me as being what I consider a great Sonic experience, visually those Werehog stages are stunning and while they are decent levels they can be a little long and dont really hold their satisfaction from a gameplay perspective. Personally I think they should have had the ability to turn into the Werehog implemented into all stages and allowed players to Switch between both forms quickly and freely.

The cultural representation of the hub worlds is obviously really important and I feel Sonic Team did an ok job but again these are quite empty and could have had a lot more secrets to find as well as offer better and more creative side content and missions.

As a final note I will say that this game was acceptable, in certain areas it works extremely well but struggled with everything else so what we were left with was a small amount of great content surrounded with a lot of uninspired and in someways lazy game design so I think a 6/10 is a very fair score and I can only hope that next time when we take a look at Sonic Colours we finally get back to the flawless gameplay I know this series can pull off.

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Guacamelee (2014) Review

April 15, 2021 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Guacamelee is a game that I avoided for a very long time as the advertisements never really appealed to me but now I feel a little silly that I left it for so long.

Guacamelee was developed and published by Drinkbox Studios, its a metroidvania style game based in Mexixo and was released in 2014 for the PS3, PC, PS4,PS VITA XBOX 360, XBOX ONE and the Wii U, the game was later released in 2018 for the Nintendo Switch which is the version I played.

A young Mexican named Juan is about to propose to his childhood love interest the El Presidente’s daughter, however she is unfortunately kidnapped by a Charro Skeleton named Carlos who kills Juan sending him down to the underworld, he is given a luchador mask which gives him the powers of a Mexican warrior and he is brought back to the land of the living to rescue and reunite with his true love.

As a metroidvania style game, players are immediately able to explore the majority of the large in game map and areas. In the game you can find Chozo statues which grant Juan new abilities such as wall jumping, smashing through specialist blocks, flying across large spaces and a temporary increase in strength.

Later on the ability to swap between the world of the living and the world of the dead as well turn into a chicken will allow you to platform further and explore tight areas.

There is also an in game store which allows players to purchase new costumes which each have unique advantages, you can also change characters to other in game NPC’s for new and unique ways to play. New abilities can also be bought along with health and power upgrades.

I also think it is important to make it clear that up to four players can play simultaneously in the campaign.

The visuals of the game are very impressive for what can only be considered an indie game. Im not saying that independent developers cant make beautiful visuals because in many cases indie do this better than triple A titles but there is something about Guacamelee’s style that really drew me in. The game is very well animated and during gameplay enemies look and appear in a modern cartoon style. Don’t get me wrong this not as good in visual style as a game like Cuphead but it is still very impressive.

I am lost for words on just how amazing this soundtrack is, it was composed by Rom Di Prisco and Peter Chapman, it uses a mixture of mariachi band music and remixed dance music for a beautiful collaboration which is absolutely perfect in every sense, I love every track in this game and have downloaded the official soundtrack to my phone and honestly its not often that an indie game can encourage me to do that.

Guacamelee is a massive surprise to me because I didn’t think I would like it because original trailers for the game failed to pull me in. Now I wish I did play this back in 2014 because it really is an almost perfect game, it has an decent plot, great visuals, excellent and challenging gameplay and an insanely good soundtrack. Unfortunately it does fall short of full marks for me because there are two things that really bother me about it.

The first is the side quests, there are not many in the game and they all feel a little bit pointless as they are mainly only in one or two areas of the game.

The other issue really takes away from metroidvania style this was going for because the game tells the player where they need to go for the main quest, there is no part of this game that makes you feel lost or confused which may sound like a good thing but is the polar opposite of what can considered a metroidvania style game, this feels a lot more like a 2d platformer with some secret passages and upgrades to find.

But I think if you only focus on the main quest then this is a phenomenal game its just for me I have to look at everything and its these tiny little setbacks which are going to leave Guacamelee at a 9.8/10

With that go and download this game if you haven’t played it, it really is fantastic and I am looking forward to eventually covering the sequel.

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Spongebob’s Truth or Square (2009) Video Game Review

August 21, 2020August 15, 2020 ragglefragglereviews3 Comments

Spongebob’s Truth or Square is a 2009 action plat-former which shares its name with a TV special that came out previously. The game was released for various video game systems Including the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, PSP and the Nintendo DS. The DS version was more uniquely made to fit the systems capabilities however minus a few extra stages the PSP version is almost identical to its home-system counterparts.

It’s the Krusty Krabs eleventy seventh Anniversary and Spongebob has lost the Krabby Patty Secret Formula. Plankton offers to use a machine to explore Spongebob’s memories and with a little help from his friends who help him remember his past can Spongebob figure out that happened to the formula?

The In-game hub world takes place during a party at Spongebob’s Pineapple house. I enjoyed this area as it was very interactive allowing players to trigger small animations and upgrade the homes furniture. You are also able to purchase in game character outfits and health upgrades.

The main gameplay is a 3D platformer where the goal is complete a main mission in each stage to find an object from Spongebob’s past. After finishing a stage you can return to find missions allowing you to discover more items.

Discovering sleeping Patricks within each level is not required but can still be done, these are actually fairly challenging to find and can add more game play to what can be considered a very short game.

There are various power-ups in the game that you can find for temporary advances in combat. For me the best powerup was the water propeller which gave Spongebob the ability to shoot water from his body. Sandy, Patrick and Squidward are also available as power-ups to help Spongebob defeat the attacking robots, these were all fine enough but they were not anything special or really that memorable.

There are various giant robots to defeat in the game, these boss fights can be a challenge for younger gamer’s but once you get patterns down they should be defeated with ease.

I played the Nintendo Wii version of the game which was developed by Heavy Iron Studios who also did Battle for Bikini Bottom. The music here is almost entirely recycled from Battle for Bikini Bottom. As it was in that game the music is a ton of fun and suits each area naturally well.

Spongebob’s Truth or Square is not a remarkable game by any means, I will be honest in saying that it is very basic and nothing really stands out. Its a very short game and personally I thought it was extremely easy which made it a little bit boring. I can only really recommend this as a very cheap game and a good choice for very young gamers who have little experience with video games.

4.7/10

My Favourite Spongebob episodes – Pizza Delivery

In this season 1 classic, Squidward and Spongebob are sent to deliver the first ever Krabby Patty Pizza to a hungry customer.

Of course this wouldn’t be a very memorable episode if nothing went wrong in this case it was a losing control of the delivery boat and running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere forcing Spongebob and Squidward to deliver on foot while fighting the urge to eat the cheesy treat.

A much more caring side to Squidward is shown in various scenes where he tries to help Spongebob instead of just focusing on himself. The final scene is very touching and in my opinion really shows the character in a much more positive and sympathetic light than he has been shown in other appearances.

Overall a great episode that packed with laughs and its fair share of emotion.

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Spongebob Squarepants: Plankon’s Robotic Revenge (2013) Review

August 7, 2020July 30, 2020 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Spongebob Squarepants: Plankton’s Robotic Revenge is a 2013 third person shooter based in the Spongebob universe. It was developed by behaviour interactive and was published by Activison for the PS3,Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS.

I played through the Wii U version but after further research I realised that all versions are practically the same with small gameplay and graphical changes.

A military ship accidentally drops live batteries into the ocean causing them to land outside of the Chum Bucket where they are collected by Plankton. Plankton uses these batteries to power a robot army in order to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula and take over Bikini Bottom.

So before I rip into this game I want to say that to have multiplayer co-operative play is a really great idea for a kids game and I love that Mr Krabs and Squidward are both playable as they are often not playable in the Spongebob games.

The game is a third person shooter, players are able to collect gears by killing robots and then they use those gears to purchase new weapons and upgrades. This may sound fun but it’s not very well designed I found that if you fully upgrade the standard pickle blaster you can take out most enemies with a few shots and because the game gives you auto aim and auto fire as a standard this makes the journey to completion very easy.

It doesnt help that you fight ths same handful of enemies throughout the 15 levels in the game, there is no variety between worlds and apart from the final world of Bikini Bottom the game looks boring and uninspired.

Even the three boss battles in the game feel very similar again there is no variety and the game is very repetetive, the only saving grace is that its so short, I beat the entire game in less than 3 hours and with no side content there was nothing else to it, I was happy that the game ended because of how boring it was but I’m still annoyed with home much I got ripped off in paying for it, the game should be a £9.99 e-shop title at most, it literally gives the player the bare minimum amount of effort needed for a game.

The soundtracks very good I can at least say that, it mostly uses music either from or inspired by the TV series and of course due to that the soundtrack fits perfectly into the game and I cant really complain about it.

For the first video game of Spongebob month I can’t believe the bad luck I had in picking this one, I feel that if more effort was put into the game a third person Spongebob shooter could be really fun, they could have implemented more antagonists from the show as boss fights and if they had given each world unique robots then it wouldn’t have been so boring. But for what this is regardless of its music It’s just a very bad and lazy game that should not have been released, it makes the developers, publishers and Nickelodeon all look bad for releasing such a scam a of a game that it serves as nothing more than a cash grab, there is nothing special about this and I cannot recommend it to anyone 2/10

My Favourite Spongebob episodes – Idiot Box

At the end of every review I’m going to write a very short review on my favourite episodes of the show.

Idiot Box was part of the third season of the show, in the episode Spongebob and Patrick are using a TV box to play imagination games, Squidward doesn’t believe this as the sounds coming from the box are so realistic that he is convinced that Spongebob and Patrick are playing a trick on him.

This is by far one of funniest episodes of the TV series, you really start to understand Squidward as a selfish and grumpy character here with him failing to understand to concept of an imagination and mocking those who do. The ending to episode has me laughing hysterically every time I see it, its very well directed seeing Squidward alone on the box losing his mind trying to find a sound recorder only to have one of the funniest final moments in the shows history, Idiot Box is a great episode and one of my personal favourites.

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Outlast (2013) Review

March 3, 2019 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Outlast is a Survival Horror game, it was created and published by Red Barrels and was released on PC in 2013 before being released onto other systems shortly after.

You play the game as Miles Upshur a journalist who makes the foolish mistake to investigate the psychiatric hospital Mount Massive Asylum. Once inside of the Asylum Miles discovers that the inmates have all escaped and Miles is trapped inside of the Asylum leaving him no choice but to try and find a way out while avoiding death.

During his investigation Miles needs to travel throughout the asylum, trying to find an exit.

Documents can be collected in the game, they provide information about the games characters and the Murk-off Corporation who are important to the plot of the game, however these documents do not need to be collected or read to enjoy the games experience.

The most difficult part of the game is not trying to hide from the variously dangerous inmates that try to end your life, its the fact that the game is extremely dark in areas and the player needs to use night vision on their camera in order to navigate through the darkness however they have limited battery power and will need to find batteries to keep the power going. This is made extremely difficult in the later game as the batteries appear less frequently and enemies appear more often give the player less time to look for them properly.

The visuals in Outlast are exceptionally good and an excellent blend of the outstanding graphics, horrifying visuals and the eerie sounds that you hear in the darkness help to make Outlast a scary game but I wouldn’t say its as scary as some other games that I have played.

Outlast is an ok game, it is far from amazing and in my opinion could be skipped unless you really want to play it, It has fantastic visuals and good sound effects but the the game is very short and has a mediocre soundtrack and story and I didn’t find the characters very interesting however I did have fun with the game I just wish there was more too it and perhaps that it was a little bit longer. 6/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Outlast

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Bayonetta (2009) Review

February 18, 2018 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Bayonetta

The original Bayonetta was released in 2009 as a spiritual successor to the Devil May Cry series, it was very well recieved back when it first came out and Bayonetta has since become one of the greatest original characters of all time.

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The plot of Bayonetta is insane and honestly it was a little hard for me to follow, however with some internet research after finishing the game I did get a better understanding.

Most of this coming from the Bayonetta wikia and I’m not ashamed to be reading it to help me try to explain the plot as it really is quite complicated.

so first off all let me quickly explain the two eyes, you have the left eye which watches over the moon, the darkness and the inferno and you have the right eye which watches over the sun, the light and the paradiso

In Europe around 500 years ago there was two clans one was the Umbra Witches and the other was the Lumen Sages, both clans didnt like eachother but they stayed out of each others way out of respect of each clans laws, one day an Umbra Witch called Rosa had intercourse with a Lumen Sage named Balder and they conceived a child due to this Balder was forced to leave his clan and Rosa was imprisoned while the baby was raised by the remaining Umbra Witches, the child now known as Cereza has grown up and has made friends with another Umbra Witch called Jeanne , Jeanne wants to be the Umbran Heiress but in order to prove herself she must defeat another Umbra Witch in combat, Jeanne chooses Cereza but is told no as she is of non pure blood but without much convincing she is allowed to fight her anyway, Cereza wins the fight and scares the other Umbra Witches that she is going to awaken the left eye so Jeanne is forced to put Cereza into an eternal sleep by stabbing her in the heart and burying her alive in a coffin at the bottom of a lake, once all of this was done peace remained amongst the clans until one day Balder manipulates the Lumen Sages to trust him and kill all of the Umbra Witches, Balder succeeds but both Jeanne and Cereza survive, 500 years later we are introduced to Cereza again although now she has been resurrected with no memories of her past and is going by the name Bayonetta.

I think I have covered all of the important bits without spoiling all of the things revealed throughout the game but if you want a better understanding this is the link I used.

http://bayonetta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Story_of_Bayonetta

The game play is hack and slash but don’t think this means you can just run into the game button mashing your way to victory because bayonetta is very difficult, even on Normal it kicked my ass, bayonetta has a lot of moves available for players to use as well as a massive arsenal of weapons to back her up, what makes Bayonetta stand out compared to most other video game characters is her guns which she can fire from both her hands and feet and with plenty of opportunities to try different weapons it makes the game play very satisfying, Bayonetta also has some great finishing moves including some torture attacks which deal massive amounts of damage to enemies in many grizzly and creative ways also creating monsters with her hair to devour enemies is awesome too, some stand out moments of game play for me are when Bayonetta uses magic to run on water and the Witch time ability which slows down time temporarily which helps to kill tricky foes.

The graphics on Bayonetta are fantastic although they differ from system to system, on PC they are at there best due to the ability to enhance them on higher end computers but on systems they are just as good, I played the new Wii U port that has been brought to the Switch and some of the textures were a little bit blurry but not so much that it’s a huge problem but if graphics are a massive deal to you maybe pass on the Nintendo versions.

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4974828533C1619B

The music is just orgasmic the developers used a mix of vocal and ochestaral tracks which is a great mix when fighting the angels it really suits the atmosphere and the anime style pop songs are a nice addition which suits the non serious nature of the game it’s honestly brilliant

Bayonetta is a difficult yet satisfying action packed adventure which has plenty of gore, comedy and sillynees to fit anyone’s gaming needs, it’s a bit short and even though there is a lot of replay value I wanted more but it’s still a great game which is well worth your time 8.6/10

Thank you for reading this review of Bayonetta

Feel free to leave your views or feedback in the comments

My version came with Bayonetta 2 so after one more game review we will tackle her next adventure

Assassins Creed (2007) PS3/360/PC Review

June 28, 2016 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

The Assassins Creed games have come along way since its debut in 2007, over the past eight years several games have been released which have mostly had a very good reception minus one or two entries but its the original game that doesn’t get quite as much love and today we are going to talk about why that is.

The plot is that a bartender called Desmond Miles has been made a prisoner to a top secret industry called Abstergo, he is being monitored by two scientists who force him to lie down inside of a machine called the Animus, the Animus allows Desmond to relive the memories of his ancestors each game follows the adventures of a different Assassin from Desmond’s past and in this games case that Assassin is Altair.

Altair’s time takes place in the year 1191 during the third crusade, Altair is a member of a group of assassins called the creed, the creed assassinates dictators, templar’s, murders, rapists and genuinely bad people in order to try and keep peace and safety within the land, during a mission to find the apple of Eden Altair breaks the creeds code by killing an innocent person and trying to assassinate a target with brutality over stealth, Altair’s mistakes causes the death of one the other assassins and it appears that they lose the apple of Eden as well, his master is told of the creeds failure and he punishes Altair by stripping him of his rank and by confiscating all of his weapons, he tells Altair that if he wants to restore his status within the creed he will have to assassinate nine templar’s who are notorious for their evil deeds, Altair leaves to find information on all of his targets preparing for their assassinations.

Through out the game you will be swapping between playing as Altair and Desmond Miles, when playing as Desmond you will walk around the Abstergo building in which he is being kept prisoner and here you will slowly learn more about the Animus and why Desmond is so important to the company, playing as Altair is where it’s at though as this is where you get the best game play experience, as Altair it’s your job to take out nine assassination targets, you will need to travel between three major cities Acre, Damascus and Jerusalem, in these cities you will get a chance to experience a lot of the free running aspects of the game, the assassins have been trained to run really fast and are able to climb almost anything, they are essentially like monkeys.

Climbing buildings is not only really cool but its also extremely useful, you may often find your self having to climb buildings if you are being chased by a lot of guards or if you are in need of unlocking a view point, a view point will help you find secret missions that you can complete while you are hunting for your main assassination targets, these missions can be anything from eves dropping, pick pocketing, assassinating archers or templar’s, beating up a prophet to gain information etc.

Even though the object of the game is to be sneaky and to get on with your business without drawing attention to yourself their is bound to be time when you make a small mistake that could cost you your life and in these situations you may decide that instead of running from the guards to hide in a bale of hay or on a rooftop you will instead fight your honor and like any professional Altair is prepared for this situation, through out the game you will be awarded an arsenal of weapons appropriate to the time period, Altair can fight his enemies in a traditional sword fighting style which he can use to successfully kill the guards with sword attacks and combo moves, he can use throwing knives to take out enemies from a distance, he can forget using weapons completely in the case that he’s the mood for a fist fight but by far the best weapon in the entire game is the hidden blade, the hidden blade is a small knife that is hidden underneath Altair sleeve and as he bends his wrist back the blade will erect from its hiding place, this is the best weapon for assassinations and my personal opinion is that you should only ever use it when the guards are not aware of your presence.

The visuals of Assassins Creed are absolutely outstanding for a game that came out in 2007, the amount of detail that the game designers put into the game with effects such as shadows, light and clothes blowing in the wind, all of these things were mind blowing at the time and they really help give the game a more realistic feel, even the smaller details are quite impressive, a lot of people praise the game for its use of background characters, when you are walking around the cities the people around you are very intelligent, they will have have conversations together, they will shop at stalls and they will even notice you and may comment on your actions for example if you are running through the street with no reason the peasants will talk to each other about that and will try to figure out why you acting so strangely, another great detail is the use of beggars, drunks and crazy people, you will often find beggars getting up in your face asking you for money and far too often will you get punched by the local drunks and village idiots, these are a great edition to the game although I feel that they could have been implemented better and maybe not of been used as much as they were, I found them to be an issue during a lot of my stealth missions, I would often be following someone and then a drunk would punch me causing me bump into my target making them realize who I am and causing me to fail, also when I was trying to assassinate templar’s and guards sometimes beggars would get in the way of hidden blade causing me to kill them and the problem with this is that not only does it make a wanted murderer but I also lose health because I killed an innocent.

There really isn’t a lot of music in this game or at least there isn’t that many tracks that I thoroughly enjoyed or even remember, I don’t find this to be an issue because I don’t believe that music is even needed in a game like this, it was still fun and the lack of constant musical tracks only helped make the game feel more real and that’s something that I really love about Assassins Creed.

The game controls fairly well, the button combinations are easy to learn although if you play on a PC like I did you may want to change some of the controls to fit your playing style, the only time ever had a problem with the controls was when I was running from guards and trying to climb ladders, I cant tell you the amount of times I told Altair to climb a ladder and he instead ran into a wall causing me to get caught and a lot of the time killed but apart from this small issue the game controls almost perfectly.

The original Assassins Creed was a revolutionary game that would pave the way not only for more games in the series but it went to inspire other game series as well such as the new tomb raider remakes which are fantastic games, although it is revolutionary I don’t think many people would disagree when I say that it has aged a bit and compared to what the series is now its not quite as good as some of it’s sequels but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good game because it is, it’s just not as interesting as some of the other Assassins Creed games but its still legendary and it will always be one of the most revolutionary games in history. 6.9/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Assassins Creed 2007

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Disney Infinity 1.0 (PS3, XBOX 360, WII, WII U) (2013) Review

September 15, 2015 ragglefragglereviews2 Comments

Well I finally caved in and bought Disney Infinity

Disney Infinity is Disney’s answer to the Skylander’s franchise, in a very similar fashion to its competitor Disney Infinity requires the players to purchase toys in order to play the game.

The way this works is that you will need to place the figures you have purchased onto the Disney Infinity base, Once you place the characters onto the base they should then appear in the game (ADD ONE FOR SINGLE PLAYER AND TWO FOR MULTIPLAYER!!), once the characters appear in the game you can then either play around in the toy box or you can play a play set (Campaigns), to access a play set you will also need to add that play set piece to the Disney Infinity base.

If you decide to play in the toy box, you will be in a sandbox style game which allows you to simply build your own Disney Infinity worlds, which you can then play in these worlds with various characters including those who are not part of any play sets.

I’m not a massive fan of the toy box mode but I’m sure that the reason for this is my lack of interest in sandbox style games, the toy box mode has a lot to offer and can be great way to pass time when your bored or have friends over, you can add many different objects and toys to your world and many of these can be interacted with, for example if you add a car you can drive it, if you add a weapon you can use it to destroy enemies and you can even build race tracks.

You can earn new toys and items for your toy box by using the Disney Infinity Vault, You gain these items by using a random selector, you can change the items by selecting shuffle and you can gain an item by selecting spin, this will give you a random item from the list that is shown at the time.

When you add new characters to the Toy box they will be added to the Hall of Heroes, the Hall of Heroes is where you can see your entire collection of figures presented as statues, once they reach level 1 they will gain a bronze statue, but if you level them up even more they can be upgraded to a silver or gold statue.

Any power disks you have will also be added to the hall of heroes once they are added to the Disney Infinity Base, there are two types of power disks, circular power disks which can grant characters new powers and abilities and hexagon shaped power disks which can add new items and themes to the toy box.

When your done messing around in the toy box, you may want to play some of the many campaigns that are available within Disney Infinity 1.0.

The Starter pack comes with three different Campaigns which are based on different Disney properties, the campaigns that come with the game are Monsters University, The Incredible’s and Pirates of the Caribbean, each of these campaigns offer a different game play style.

The Monsters University play set has the player taking control over Sulley, Mike or Randall, the objective is too help Monsters University gain more fear it week tokens than their competitive college Fear Tech, the way you earn these tokens is by scaring over students, vandalizing the Fear Tech campus and by setting up pranks all over both the MU and Fear Tech Campuses.

The Incredible’s play set is full of intense super hero action, you can take control of all the entire Parr family (Mr Incredible, Mrs Incredible, Dash and Violet) and as a small treat you can even play through the entire play set as the films villain Syndrome, I think this is awesome but I would have loved it if Jack-Jack was a playable character or even better would be Frozone.

I WANT SAMUEL L JACKSON IN MY DISNEY INFINITY GAME DAMMIT !!!

Your mission is too clear the city of Omnidroid’s, rescue the pedestrians from super villains, help the police capture and arrest many creative villains and trouble makers and finally defeating Syndrome once and for all.

Last but not least the Pirates of the Caribbean play set is an adventure style game filled with swashbuckling action and piracy, you can play as either Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain Barbossa or Davy Jones.

In this Adventure you must find hidden treasures which when combined will create a super weapon which can be used to help defeat the dreaded Kracken, a unique game play style to this particular play set is that it offers the unique ability of customizing and sailing your own ship across the ocean giving the player a sense of freedom for exploration and adventure.

Each of these play sets allow the player to purchase new items in the toy store for example in monster inc you can buy a paint ball gun which you can use to shoot students and in Pirates you can buy new swords for your character and new cannons for your ship.

Graphically Disney Infinity has a very cute and very interesting art style, the majority of the game looks very cartoony and everything is drawn like a toy, for example when you play as a character you will notice that you can see where the arms and legs have been attached to the body, also when you die in the game your character will explode separating its limbs from its body.

I really like that the game looks like a giant toy set because this helps give off the illusion that the figures you buy are toys and not just regular figures, this makes spending your money on Disney Infinity feel more rewarding when compared to similar series such as Skylanders and of course Amiibo.

The Audio is nothing special as its either just the music from the movies or its new tracks that are generally not that memorable or interesting.

Disney Infinity 1.0 is a great game if you like the Disney properties, due to the type of game that Disney Infinity is it’s not worth the money if your not willing to empty your wallet on all the characters and play sets, apart from this it has great controls, adorable graphics and is genuinely very addictive and a lot of fun to play, the only downside is the lack of decent audio tracks and lack of game play for people who don’t want to get into the collection side of things.

7.0/10

Personally I am a collector and I will be releasing collection updates when I upload small reviews of the additional play sets.

My Collection so far 7/29

I hope you enjoyed my review of Disney Infinity 1.0

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Halo: Combat Evolved (XBOX) (2001) Review

August 12, 2015August 12, 2015 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

The Halo series is one of the most beloved video game franchises of all time, the series is often said to be revolutionary and a marvel to modern gaming.

I played the original Halo when it first got released and my 8 year old mind was blown away at how amazing the experience was, but does it still hold up today 14 years later compared to the newer entries of the series?

Halo’s plot is very heavily story driven, so I am going to explain the basic plot with as very little spoilers as possible.

A UNSC Space Craft called the Pillar of Autumn is heading home after the effects of the battle of Reach (A game I will get too some other day).

During the lengthy journey home a very large ring called a Halo is discovered, shortly after the discovery the Pillar of Autumn is attacked by a religious Alien Race known as the Covenent, when the ship is about to be taken over Captain Keyes (Commander of the Pillar of Autumn) orders the games protagonist the Master Chief to protect Cortana who is some very realistic Artificial Intelligence that holds information on the UNSC and the location of many hidden planets including Earth.

The Master Chief and Cortana escape the Pillar of Autumn but unfortunately Captain Keyes gets kidnapped by the Covenant, this changes Master Chiefs escape plan to a search and rescue which sparks the rest of the events in the game.

Halo is a first person shooter which for me is usually when I realise that I wont like the game as I have never really been a huge fan of this game play style.

Don’t get me wrong the game play is fantastic as it controls and feels really good but there really isn’t much that makes the game play feel any different too most other first person shooters with the only major differences being that it takes place in space and you are killing Aliens.

You spend the majority of the game on foot blasting the Covenant with an array of weapons including the famous Pulse Rifle which has been a staple to the series from the very beginning, personally as much as I love this weapon I would say switch for a shotgun as soon as you can because trust me later on you will meet another form of enemy which are very vulnerable to the shotgun bullets, for your secondary weapon I recommend that you find your self a Sniper Rifle so that you can take out most enemies from a distance before getting into a real battle (This is mostly for those play on the higher difficulty settings) the sniper is also in my opinion the best weapon to use on the more powerful and better protected enemies such as Elites and Hunters, you will also be armed with some frag grenades and some plasma grenades (Sticky grenades).

When your not on foot you will either be riding, driving, or shooting from some sort of vehicle, Halo offers a wide range of vehicles that you can use to your advantage, the most common you will see in this game will be Warthogs which are the main transport used for the Marines of the UNSC, another UNSC vehicle is the Tank which I highly recommend if you are lucky enough to find one.

The covenant also use vehicles which you can high-jack, the most common Covenant vehicle you will find is the Ghost which is a small hover craft type vehicle which is armed with a fairly powerful laser cannon, you will also see Banshees from time to time these are the same as ghosts but they have the advantage of flight so they can prove to be very useful, Wraiths are another type of vehicle you will come across every now and again, Wraiths are the Covenant’s version of the Tank.

Graphically the game is a bit disappointing, now before anyone comes to murder me please hear me out !!, the graphical design of the game is absolutely mind blowing and for the time not many games could compete with the efforts of game design that Bungie (Game Devs) put into this game, but generally for a game that got released in 2001 everything looks a little bit pix-elated which is not a massive issue but it is quite disappointing when comparing it to other games that got released the same year such as Fusion Frenzy and 007 Agent under fire.

on the other hand the soundtrack is absolutely amazing, at this point I gather that most of you are familiar with the main theme song for Halo, if you are you will be pleased to know that the theme song plays a hell of a lot in this game.

Halo Theme Song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5yVOFokLVY

The rest of the music is still very good, its very orchestral and really is a wonderful experience for players to enjoy, it holds fantastic artistic values and is perfectly conducted to suit the games premise.

Overall Halo: Combat Evolved is a fantastic game that I highly recommend to any fans of First Person Shooters or fans of SCI-FI in general, it’s the beginning of a fantastic story, the game control smoothly and plays at a fun and fluent pace, the only complaint I have is the not so great graphics for a game that came out in 2001, I highly recommend playing the 360 remake Combat Evolved Anniversary because of this.

9.7/10

I hope you enjoyed my review of Halo: Combat Evolved for the Xbox

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Why is the Sims Fun?

August 19, 2014September 22, 2014 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

I’ve always wondered why people love The Sims Video games so much, all you do is control a virtual human through mindless everyday tasks like taking a Dump, reading the newspaper, going to work, taking a shower among other things.

Why is this fun?, what about this game makes it so interesting?, What aspect keeps bringing us back game after game?

Well lets begin by discussing the general lifestyle of the average human being, most people live by a routine of how they do things and in what order, for example when I wake up I will use the toilet, have a shower, brush my teeth, get changed, walk my dog, make breakfast, wash the dishes, go to work, come home from work, use toilet again, watch TV, make Food, Play video games then I go to sleep and repeat everything again the next day. That is my routine and I use that routine almost every single day.

As I stated most people have a routine which they use to help them get through life every single day. But here’s the problem life can be pretty depressing, we may live by a routine but what happens when things don’t go to plan one day and something terrible happens for example maybe you will go bankrupt or you may get fired from your job cutting off any income, meaning you cant pay your bills, water rates or rent. If things like this do happen you may need to change your routine to fit around your newer lifestyle and in some cases you can literally be doomed as you will be constantly in debt causing you to live a stressful and depressing life.

The Sims is literally everything I just said but in a video game, you take control of virtual human and you make them perform everyday tasks like go to work, have a shower etc. So why do we play these games? is it the funny language they speak or the fact that you can give them hilarious names and motivations.

I think its because the Sims isn’t really a game , its more of a life simulator. Have you ever noticed that a lot of people who play the Sims create big mansions and buy loads of really cool sound systems, massive TV’s in every room, Arcade machines, a big swimming pool.

A lot of people have dream lives that they want to live and for the most part The Sims allows people to create a virtual reality allowing the player to create their own family, house and lifestyle and they can choose how they want to live it. the best part is that if anything goes wrong you can just start again something which is extremely rare in real life and that is why I think people get so addicted to The Sims, even if they may not realise that they return to the game just so they can live their virtual lives for just a few more hours each day.

The Sims = A virtual Lifestyle without any of the Bullshit !!

Thanks for reading my Theory to why the Sims is fun
Do you agree with my opinion or do you think i’m just a crazy mumbling madman?
By Padawan

ragglefragglereviews

MOVIES, VIDEO GAMES, FOOD AND BEVERAGE, ANIME and just about everything else

Tag: XBOX 360

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Spongebob Squarepants: Plankon’s Robotic Revenge (2013) Review

Outlast (2013) Review

Bayonetta (2009) Review

Assassins Creed (2007) PS3/360/PC Review

Disney Infinity 1.0 (PS3, XBOX 360, WII, WII U) (2013) Review

Halo: Combat Evolved (XBOX) (2001) Review

Why is the Sims Fun?