MAG review

MAG- PS3 Review

Presentation:

MAG (or Massive Action Game.  But MAG sounds better) is an online only first person shooter developed by Zipper, the guys known for the SOCOM franchise on the PS2.  The game thrusts you into a real-time global war as one of three factions.  Raven, SVER or Valor.  Each faction operates differently and has it’s own unique load out.  There isn’t much of a story past this due to the online only nature.  Rest assured though, MAG still is worth your cash. 

The war (dubbed the Shadow War) changes with each match the players complete.  Each win is recorded and you are presented with the numbers of who is currently “winning” the Shadow War. 

The matches themselves are what set MAG apart.  Up to 256 players can compete at the same time.  This is the largest number of players possible to play in the same match on the PS3 yet.  And it runs without a problem. 

8/10

 

Graphics:

As one might expect, for such huge battles the graphics are not exactly Uncharted 2: Among Thieves quality.  However, they do their job, and the game does look very good.  Textures are, for the most part, acceptable, and there are no problems such as screen tearing. 

8/10

 

Sound:

MAG has exceptional sound design.  The huge battles are accompanied with bullets zipping across the speaker channels.  Explosions pack a decent exceptional punch.  The Voice acting in the menus is good as well.  Valor’s menu is the most rough around the edges, with it’s gruff drill sergeant, but it still works. 

The only problem that I have is that some of the guns sound underpowered.  It’s a minor complaint, but it’s noticeable after many hours of play. 

8.5/10

 

Gameplay:

MAG plays like every other first person shooter out there in terms of controls.  It most resembles Battlefield in terms of play style.  Team work is a necessity.  As you rank up you unlock skill points that unlock new upgrades and bonuses for your character.  At rank 15 out of 60 you unlock the ability to become a squad leader.  As a squad leader, you control where your squad attacks, give out assignments and carry bonuses into battle.  After enough wins you unlock the ability to become a Platoon Leader and Officer in Charge. 

At rank 60, you are recruited to one of the two other factions, which let’s you switch up your play style. 

9/10

 

Lasting Value

MAG will last you a while if you try to go for every medal.  The only problem is that at the time of this review, there are not that many maps, and only four game modes.  With the promise of add on content, this is a null point. 

9/10

 

Overall:

MAG is another excellent entry into the Playstation 3’s exclusive library.  If you have some spare cash and time for a time sink multiplayer game pick it up. 

8.5/10

Cute girl of the month: February 2010- Alison Brie

Watching Community last night, and seeing Alison Brie as Annie reminded me so much of that ideal "girl next door".  Something about her gets to me.  Maybe it's those eyes?  Or the innocent look she has.  Either way, it works.  

Army of Two: The 40th Day- PS3 Review

Army of Two: the 40^th Day- PS3 review

 

Presentation:

 

A sequel to 2007’s Army of Two was inevitable.  It didn’t sell all that well but EA wants the franchise to become a big selling Gears of War clone.  The first game was very average, and the second follows the same path. 

 

Rios and Salem find themselves in the center of shanghai when shit begins to hit the fan.  Buildings blow up, innocents die and you shoot things.  You shoot a lot of things.  And it’s never clear why the mercs have more soldiers than the US army.  But they do. 

 

Anyways, the game follows the two buds as they shoot things, and… you know what, after two playthroughs, I’m still not sure what the game was about.  I didn’t even know who the bad guy was until the endgame cutscene.

 

However, Army of Two doesn’t care.  It knows it’s story is dumb.  It just wants you and a friend to have fun playing it.  And the game succeeds at that.  I often found myself with a grin on my face after killing Merc with Jason Vorhees mask number 30.  So the game did that well at least.

 

7/10

 

Graphics:

 

AoT:40^th D, looks rather decent.  It’s got the standard color scheme of shooters now a days.  Brown, and light brown.  Character models got an upgrade and overall it looks a lot better than part one. 

 

7.5/10

 

Sound:

 

I have to give credit to the game, it does sound nice.  Gunshots have an oomph, and explosions sound… explosiony.  Nolan North lends his voice again, and as usual he’s great.  The lines can still be awful, but at least North provides a wink and a grin style delivery to them, that makes the games ham fisted dialogue listenable. 

 

8.5/10

 

Gameplay:

 

Army of Two: The 40^th Day’s gameplay is exactly what you would expect.  You take cover.  You pop out of cover.  You shoot bad guy.  However, the Aggro system adds a bit of strategy to the game.  You fire more, you attract the attention of the enemy.  This allows your partner to become invisible and flank enemies.  The problem is, if you are playing single-player, your AI partner is too much of a dipshit to flank them.  It works if you are doing co-op with a friend though. 

 

Guns have upgrades that are actually a lot of fun to collect.  And the wide range of options is nice. 

 

You now also have morality choices in cutscenes.  They don’t change much, but it is nice to have them there. 

You can rescue scattered civilian hostages through out the game as well.  It’s a nice touch, but it can get annoying. 

 

8/10

 

Lasting Value:

 

The campaign is short, 6-8 hours in length.  However, if you and a buddy don’t get bored playing through it, it can last you a while.  The online modes are rather decent.  We have a horde mode knock off called Survivor, that pits four players against 16 rounds of enemies.  The standards are here as well, Deathmatch, TDM, CTF and what not.  It’s not that bad actually.  However, lag can get overbearing and ruin a match.  If you can handle that you might have some fun. 

 

7/10

 

Overall: 

Army of Two: The 40^th Day is a decent mind-numbing co-op affair that will please you if nothing better is available.  Hopefully, for Rios and Salems third outing, all the improvements that were made for the sequel will remain, and a good story can put the game into a higher category.  Give it a rent or purchase it on the cheap. 

7.5/10

Hello 2010!

I'm two months late but what the hey.  Gamma's Review is going to be updated more frequently this year.  I've got some good content planned.  

See ya soon!

InFAMOUS PS3 review

Infamous: PS3 review

The Presentation:

Game designer Sucker Punch is no newcomer when it comes to developing quality games.  On the playstation 2 it brought us the fantastic Sly Cooper series, and for it’s first outing on a next gen system it brings us the fantastic InFAMOUS.  You play as Cole, an average delivery man who, while out delievering a package, is in the center of an explosion that wipes out nearly all of empire city.  While those around you died, you wind up with super powers.

Now the fun begins.  As an electrically charged super hero, your mission is to find out why the explosion happened and how you got these powers.  The game has a very distinct graphic novel  feel, with all the cutscenes playing out as panels from a comic book. 

The meat and potatoes of any free-roam game is the missions.  The main campaign is short on its own, running a good ten or so hours, but the side missions increase that number drastically.  Add in looking for blast shards and you have a good 20+hour game.  Also of note, the side missions never get to repetitive, and neither do your powers.  As you progress you unlock new powers to use against the enemies on the games three distinct islands.  As you defeat enemies, help citizens and complete missions you earn XP.  The XP you earn is used to upgrade your powers and become stronger.

And that brings me to the karma system.  Throughout the game you have choices that allow you to be either good or bad.  Being Good gives you light blue electricity and it alters the way your tale unfolds.  Being bad gives you blood red lightning and changes the way the city reacts to you.

 

9/10

The Graphics:

 

InFamous looks incredible.  The city is expansive, the lightning effects are amazing and the draw distance is phenomenal.  Cole as a character is one of the best models I have seen.  His movements are smooth and the detail in him is excellent.  But a few graphical hiccups drop the grade down a bit.  Pop-in is not prevalent but it is there, and the in-game cut-scenes can look a bit odd.  Glitches occur as well.  I sometimes would find myself falling through the ground to my death.

9/10

The Sound:

Presented with a lossless 7.1 surround mix, Infamous is a treat for the ears.  Bass can get bombastic, and your rear channels will get a workout.  The voice acting is generally excellent with the only knock being some of the pedestrians.  Gun shots sound realistic, and your electric powers have quite the Umph.  And not to mention the amazing musical score for the game.

9.5/10

 

Gameplay:

 

The gameplay for InFAMOUS feels great.  It controls just how it should.  To fire a normal blast of lightning, Hold L1 then tap R1.  Each of your powers is mapped to a different button, and they are fast and simple to use.

9.5/10

Replay Value

For a game of its type, InFAMOUS has excellent re-playability.  There are two very different campaigns depending on how you play, and after the game is over, there are tons of things scattered around the city to find

8/10

Overall:

InFAMOUS is one heck of a game.  One that should not be missed.  It’s a surefire contender for game of the year.  Be sure to pick it up ASAP.

9/10

 

The Terminator: Blu-ray review

The Terminator: Blu-ray Review

 

 

The Movie itself:

 

The Terminator was James Cameron’s big break.  The film was shot on a shoe string six million dollar budget and came to earn way over four times more than that.  The film also gained a place in the pop culture of the world.  The line “I’ll be back” is known world wide as is the character of the Terminator.  But the original is much more than a popcorn film.  It’s also a statement about the ideals of society in the 1980’s and a grim look at technology in our future. 

 

The Terminator takes place in 1984 and follows Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) and Kyle Reese (Michael Behin) as they attempt to outsmart and defeat a mechanical warrior from the future (Arnold Schwarznegger).  Sarah Conner will one day harbor a child, named John, who will lead the resistance in the war against the machines.  Kyle Reese was sent back in time to protect Sarah form the T-800. 

 

The film is a personal favorite of mine.  It has great performances and directing, along with a fantastic story.  It goes to show what a low budget can do with one of the most creative action directors of all time at the helm.

 

5/5

 

Video Quality:

 

The movie has somewhat of a mixed bag for video quality.  Being filmed on such poor quality film, it will never look amazing, but it could certainly look better than how it does here.  There are scratches, dirt and many other things on the film print that could easily be cleaned up with a new restoration.  But it also has some scenes that have such good quality my jaw dropped.  It’s really an average transfer so that’s what the score will be.

 

3/5

 

 

The Audio Quality:

 

Presented in PCM uncompressed 5.1 audio, The Terminator is a revelation.  It has never sounded so robust before.  The speakers really come alive and the bass rumbles with low tones.  Audio is clear and directionality is great.  My only wish is that it had the original Mono track on the disk.

 

4/5

 

 

The goods- digging into the special features:

 

The Blu-ray features a retrospective documentary, an average EPK feature and deleted scenes.

 

All the features are presented in 480i video and are all worth a watch, but the BD is missing tons of features from the previously released DVD.

 

2/5

 

Overall:

 

The film is a classic and belongs on any movie collectors shelf.  The disk is notable with sub par video and good Audio.  The features leave me to assume a double dip will release, but not any time soon.  Pick it up.

 

4/5

Star Trek (2009): Theatrical Review

Star Trek Theatrical Review

 

 

Created in the 1960’s Star Trek is a massive phenomenon.  It spawned 4 spin off series, 10 feature films,  toys, novels and much more.  And in 2009 JJ Abrams has set out to bring Star Trek back with the 11^th feature film.

 

Star Trek takes place at the beginning of the series.  James T. Kirk (Played to perfection by Chris Pine) has entered Star Fleet Academy and with the help of Bones McCoy (Another excellent performance from Karl Urban) lands a spot on the USS enterprise on it’s maiden voyage to respond to a distress call. 

 

Star Trek succeeds in many areas.  The special effects are top notch and the sound design is truly amazing.  The performances are also top notch.  Each actor brings life into his or her character while respecting the original actors.  The story is good, but not the deep quality I’ve come to expect from Star Trek. 

 

In fact that’s really the only problem I have with the film.  It’s just more or less and action film.  But it’s a damn good action film and well worth watching.

 

8/10

-Review By Gamma