James Noir's Hollywood Crimes

I got my Nintendo 3DS at the beginning of the year, along with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is my favorite game of all time and, I'll admit, the only reason I traded in my DSi for the 3DS was to play Ocarina again. While I love Ocarina, it's also a huge commitment. It takes dedication, and then there are all the little side quests you can do. Then once you've completed the game you get to play the "Master Quest" version. Needless to say, I got my sword and shield at the beginning of the game and.... That's as far as I got. I wasn't prepared to dive into a game that I knew would consume my life for the next several weeks. So I began my own real life quest to find a decent 3DS game that I could pick up, play for an hour or so, and then tuck away without going into withdrawal. That game was James Noir's Hollywood Crimes.

You are a contestant in an early 1960s game show in which you compete to solve puzzles. The first week your competitor plays the game and sees how many points he can score by solving puzzles of varying difficulty. The harder the puzzles, the more points you can earn. You get to play during the second week to try to top his score, or at least garner enough points to move onto the next round. Oh, and there's a serial killer on the loose killing former contestants and you're helping the FBI solve puzzles left at the crime scenes. Everyone involved with the show is a suspect. Heck, you're even a suspect even though you're trying to help catch the murderer. Who is the killer, and will you beat your competitor to claim the top prize? Or will you die trying?

Okay, the drama here isn't exactly riveting, but more like when a sitcom tries for a heartfelt episode when the family pet dies or something. There are two reasons to play this game: the puzzles and the graphics. If you're a fan of the Professor Layton series for the DS, this may be up your alley. Granted, the Professor Layton puzzles can be a bit more difficult and offer more variety, the Hollywood puzzles can be enjoyable, if not predictable after a while. Oh gee, another puzzle where I have to slide puzzle pieces around to move one particular piece into a highlighted spot? The fun never ends! But seriously, the puzzles aren't half-bad - just don't expect a huge variety.

This is only the second 3DS game I've played, but I must say that I was very happy with the graphics. Real actors are used in the video game so it plays out almost like a movie. When they talk, their mouths move, but their words (if you can call them words) don't match the audio. It's as if you were watching a dubbed foreign film. The style is definitely 1960s from the clothes, the hairstyles, and even the opening credits of the fake game show. The 3D effects aren't as impressive as, say, Ocarina, but they were decent enough.

Although James Noir's Hollywood Crimes is worth a go-around and I've enjoyed playing it, it's not a keeper. Besides the puzzles being repetitive, there are also loads of typos throughout the game and the game itself is pretty short (you could probably knock it out in five to six hours). Sure, you could play it again to solve all the puzzles you passed up during the first run-through, but after that you're going to want to trade it in (at Slackers, of course) for something different.

Review - Dead Island

What originally turned me onto this game was one of the best trailers that I have ever seen. It depicts a reverse time scene of a man and his wife trying to save their daughter from the infected in the hallways of the hotel where you start. Even better, is that in the beginning of the game, you can find this couple, dead on the floor, holding hands. Which is nice, in that it adds a touching moment to an otherwise brutally violent and kind-of silly game. What worried me about it was the fact that it was a CGI trailer and I worried that the game wouldn't really look that good.

Not only did it meet my expectations, it surpassed all of them. Dead Island is a game that somehow manages to blend the feel of an RPG, the hack and slash of an adventure game, the loot grabbing of a dungeon crawler, and the feel of a George Romero film. All of this is wrapped in an idyllic setting that lulls you into a false sense of security before throwing hordes of infected at you. As you wander the lush beaches and beautiful jungles you must always be on the lookout for an infected lying in wait. Even amongst the turmoil of the infection and slaughter, you will find yourself pausing just to stare at the beautiful scenery.

Unfortunately for Dead Island, this beauty is both a blessing and a curse. It is plagued with laggy visuals, horrendous texture pop-ins, and numerous graphical glitches. Whenever you exit a loading screens, you will have to deal with texture pop in that can take up to a minute to take full effect. Even after this time, you'll come across alleys with stuttering floors, or zombies that rapidly switch colors. Unfortunately, this mars the otherwise beautiful game and can really break your immersion and bring you out of the gameplay.

Fortunately for Dead Island, these graphics glitches don't really impact the mechanics of gameplay in any way. They frequently look beautiful, and when they look bad, usually you can get over it. I say usually because several times in the course of my game, the textures would not pop-in at all and I would have to quit and reload in order to make them work. Other than that, all of the graphical glitches are not game breaking at all, just immersion breaking.

Primarily a melee based game, you are able to target specific limbs and cripple them either through breaking or cutting, allowing you to limit your enemies combat abilities. To cut, you use a bladed weapon, and to break, you use a blunt weapon. Every time you perform these crippling moves, you earn extra experience than you would if you had just cut its head off. The best part of this system are the animations that accompany these moves. When an arm is broken, it just hangs limply down, flopping around uselessly whenever they try and use it. Break a leg and the zombie will collapse to the ground. If you don't do this, you will find yourself overwhelmed very easily, maybe a little bit much so. The reason for this, is the fact that the enemies level with you, so no matter what, the zombie you are fighting is going to be plus or minus two levels from you, making every fight the same.

In addition to the melee combat, guns are available later on in the campaign. The guns are broken down into three categories: rifles, pistols, and shotguns. When you finally do acquire one of the guns, you will find that ammo is exceedingly rare, and really the only way to acquire any amount of it is to buy it, make it, or scavenge it off of the dead humans. The downside is, these guns are ridiculously underpowered, sometimes taking as many as five shotgun shells to the chest to kill one zombie, where a single machete blow will do the job.

Normally this combat system works fairly well, but after a while, the combat becomes slightly repetitive and stale, broken up only slightly by either a firefight with some uninfected humans, by throwing weapons, or by using your "rage" ability. This ability is unique to each of the four characters and allows you to enter a super human-esque killing spree for several seconds after you "rage" meter fills up. For example, the character I played as was a throwing specialist, so when his meter filled up, I pulled out a handful of throwing knives and went to town. Another character pulls out a pistol and guns down everything in front of her, and a third uses something reminiscent of a beserker from Borderlands, forgoing weapons and using his fists to beat down his enemies.

These powers are unlocked through a skill tree, which is basically the same as any skill tree you've ever used. There are three separate columns, with each either benefitting your combat skills, rage skills, or survival skills. Combat usually increases damage, rage increases the duration and damage of your rage, and survival increases heath, rare loot chance, and luck. These trees allow you to slightly customize the way you play, allowing you to either DPS, tank, or maybe be more of a ranged character. No matter what, it's up to you.

One of the most important things in a Diablo type game is the loot, and here it is as plentiful as I've seen in any game, save Borderlands of course. The weapons are color-coded by rarity, with white being the most common, and orange the most rare. Usually, the more rare items are received as quest rewards or found in containers that are scattered around the world. Once you have these items, you can bring them to workbenches and customize them to the way you play with various weapon modifications that range from fire, electricity, and poison. With these modifications come millions of possible ways to customize your load out, and you obtain these mods either as quest rewards or in prespecified locations in the game world. Each requires certain bits of items, from batteries to duct tape, in order to build them.

The quests really can be broken down into either fetch quests or kill quests. Hey, ________ (insert player name here), I need you to go _______ (location) and get/kill/talk to _________ (item/zombie/NPC). But even with that dynamic, I find myself falling into the one more quest mentality, spending hours playing when I had originally planned to spend only minutes. I just wish that there was a little more variety in the mission type.

Add a shoddy driving mechanic, where it is nearly impossible to steer anything at top speed, and a okay voice acting cast and you get what seems to be a terrible game on paper. But it's not. I love this game. For all of its fault, I love it. I love the repetitive quests and combat, I love the bad driving, and I love the voice acting. I dumped hours upon hours into it, and I don't regret a single second. It's a good game on the brink of being great, but graphics glitches and repetitive game play mar this game irreparably. I love it, but that doesn't disguise the fact that it is flawed.

The Amazing Spider-Man Review - The Web Won't Let You Go

How do we review a game that has already been hailed as a stunning success by one and all?

To return to a recognized classic is always a risky business!

Angry Birds. Super Mario. Grand Theft Auto. Now add one more game to the list of classics: The Amazing Spider-Man. The wait is finally over. The eagerly anticipated, enthusiastically awaited game has finally hit the marquee. Gameloft's The Amazing Spider-Man has been released and is ready to sweep you off your feet!

The Amazing Spider-Man is undoubtedly one of the best movie based mobile games to have been released in the last few years. It has a story to tell, a mission to accomplish and a task to fulfill. The game is set as an epilogue to the movie, The Amazing Spider Man, which released in theatres across the globe with excellent critical and commercial success. The game is going to repeat history as it has everything it needs to rule the charts.

If you've seen the movie, you'll love it even more. And, if you haven't seen the movie, it will make you watch it! It is a third-person action adventure that keeps you glued. The game is designed to serve only one purpose, which it to entertain the players. And it passes the test with flying colors.

The game features excellent graphics. They are flawless, and it's a pleasure watching Spider-Man swing between buildings and rooftops. Watching spidey doing his things, the somersault and acrobatic moves perfectly, is a treat to the eyes.

The game is Peter Parker's quest to defeat the evil and save the city. However, for some this might be a negative thing. The game gives out the plot of the movie. Once you've played the game, you are well aware of the storyline. The game covers every aspect of the movie, from Peter Parker's childhood to the lab experiment that resulted in Dr. Alistair Smythe going bad. It definitely spoils the movie for those who aren't familiar; however, some would find it the best thing about the game as it creates that strong connection between the two.

The gameplay is exciting with different missions involving evil scientists and the lizard. The game is Spider-Man's quest to get the antidote and stop the evil scientists from destroying Manhattan. You also get to play the real hero by saving the damsel in distress from the evil goons.

The controls are simple, but stylish. Spider-Man is in form this time, hitting aerial moves and swinging like you've never seen him swing before. The developers deserve an extra star for this thing alone. It takes the game to a new level, altogether. Initially, all you can do is punch and kick, but when you move in the game, you get power and get the ability to hit combos. Eventually, it's all about hammering the bad guys with your combo tricks. This thing is so fun, we kept on doing it tirelessly.

If you've always fantasized about hitting the bad guys in the head and thrashing them, then this game is tailor made for you. The takedowns are very enjoyable, and you see a new move every time. Once you're accustomed with the controls, you'll have more fun playing and kicking the baddie where it hurts the most.

There's so much to write about this game, but not without some drawbacks. No doubt, the story is excellent with unmatchable game play and execution. However, one drawback that really stands like a sore thumb is the missing voices of the real star cast. The one-liners are witty, but they don't leave the desired impact due to poor voiceover artists. How we wish they had paid a little more attention to this department.

Another big problem that we faced was the lag. However, this might have more to do with the device and not the game (We played it on an iPhone). I usually have the patience of a saint, but one thing that totally brought me to the edge is the game's irritating habit of restarting the whole mission when you can't catch the escaping villain. This thing is so bad, it looks like a bug.

The best thing about the game is that it doesn't bore you. There's always something new. Once you finish the task, which takes six hours, the game doesn't end. You get in the normal zone, saving people and hopping around.

Over all, The Amazing Spider-Man is undoubtedly one of the best movie based games to have released in the last few years. It has its drawbacks, but the positives seem to overshadow the negatives in this one. Give it a try, because it's totally worth it!

Games That Redefined the Survival Horror Genre

There are not a whole lot of quality horror games out there since, developers and publishers feel that, the market for horror games is pretty limited, as compared to other genres. But the fact remains, that even though the fan following is pretty limited. It is loyal. Over the years, we have seen a lot of horror games come and go, but there were some, that have been able to leave their mark on our psyche. And not only that, these games have truly established themselves as milestones in the gaming industry.

Resident Evil

The franchise is one of the oldest games in the survival horror genre and was the first of its kind to attract gamers. The whole concept was fresh, original and gave the players a chance to explore a somewhat post-apocalyptic scenario, which had been overrun by the living dead. The whole idea behind the series was to give the player a chilling experience in a world with few allies and formidable enemies. The franchise has gone through a lot of facelifts, since its inception in the 90's, but hasn't lost its charm nonetheless.

The developers of the game, 'Capcom' have recently made it clear, that they want to revive the game, and make it more action-oriented than survival horror. The reason behind this statement seems to be the same, as discussed in the beginning of the article. But whatever the reasons, one thing is for sure, and that is the franchise, in my opinion is not going to lose its luster anytime soon. And gamers all over the world are still eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series from the developers, which is already under production.

Silent Hill

The Silent Hill series, truly gave the survival horror genre a new innovative approach. And unlike Resident Evil, the Silent Hill franchise actually tapped into the gamers psyche, and introduced them to a world of true horror. Developed by 'Konami', the first title in the series came out in the year 1999 for the PlayStation, and established itself as a tough competitor. Silent Hill was not your typical run-of-the-mill horror game, the game's amazing use of narrative, character progression and the-never-seen-before monsters were enough to give anyone, sleepless nights. Even today, the game has massive fan following, and the latest game in the series titled 'Silent Hill Downpour' has a rating of 7.5 on a leading online gaming magazine, which is pretty good according to game rating standards.

Alan Wake

This game is truly a gem and to be really frank, is one of the only games of its kind. 'Remedy' has nailed the coffin with this title and everyone who has played this game, including me, will undoubtedly be vouching for it, "As a potential game of the year". Alan Wake is basically a psychological thriller, and every aspect of the game is topnotch. Although, this particular game took a whole lot of time to be released. The title was worth the wait.

The stunning visuals, amazing storyline, character progression and the chilling atmosphere is enough to engross the player and will actually make them feel, as if they are in 'Bright Falls' (The place where the story takes place). Alan Wake is all about exploration, and fighting dark forces, which seem to have overtaken the otherwise sleepy town. The game was originally meant to be released only for the Xbox 360. But, was later rolled out for the PC as well, which is pretty neat, as PC gamers would have otherwise missed out on one of the most epic games in the survival horror genre.

Although, there are a whole lot of other games that have redefined this genre of gameplay. I believe that these three games deserve to be here, not only because they are amazing, but because they had something new to offer... Something fresh, inspiring and creative, which I am sure, will offer inspiration to a whole new breed of game designers and developers in the near future.

Amulet of Time: Shadow of La Rochelle Review

Amulet of Time: Shadow of la Rochelle is a hidden object and adventure game coming from Big Fish Games. From the name itself, you can already sense on what this game has in store for you. You get to travel back in time. And since I get to see a colon on the title, it seems that this game will probably pave the way for numerous sequels to come in case it becomes successful. But will this game become successful? Well, let us see through the rest of this review.

The story of the game takes place in 16th century France, during the time of King Henry II's reign. Well mostly, because originally, you are from the present time, but the ghost of Diane de Poitiers appeared in front of you and transported you back in time. If you do not know who Diane de Poitiers is, she is actually the most favorite mistress of King Henry II. The task that was then set for you is for you to find the real cause of her death and find the conspirators to her murder before you get to go back to the present time.

Even though the story of Amulet of Time: Shadow of la Rochelle is based on historical accounts, I suggest you do not learn history from the game since most of the storyline is inaccurate. Well, that is quite understandable really, because in order to successfully sell a game, the story should have more drama and should grip you to play as long as possible. Amulet of Time: Shadow of la Rochelle does this very well. And I should say that this is one of the best hidden object game stories I have experienced this week.

In terms of game play, I must say that overall, the game is very beautiful. The overall graphics is very nice. I especially loved the beautifully illustrated journal that keeps track of your progress through the game. The sounds are subtle and not annoying like most games and the puzzles range from pretty easy to moderately challenging. Amulet of Time: Shadow of la Rochelle is mostly hidden object scenes though, so there is few adventure gaming involved. Anyway, this does not make the game less addictive, as I enjoyed every moment of playing while the story unfolds.

Overall, I say that the game is definitely a must buy. However, you should always check it out through the free trial run first and draw your own conclusions if it is also an enjoyable experience for you.

The Top 5 Basketball Video Games of All Time

5. NBA Live 04

Live 04 was a great addition to the NBA Live series. The dribbling in this game is just a blast, you have complete control over the crossover moves and spin moves easily with the freestyle control scheme. This was also the first in the series to introduce the dynasty mode. The dynasty mode was great to it had cut scenes and even kept track of all your records. One more thing that was pretty cool is that it was one of the first games to feature Lebron James.

4. NBA 2K5

NBA 2K5 was a great game and it was released for only 20 bucks, a definite steal. The game had a nice ESPN presentation and the gameplay was really solid. The isomotion controls were ahead of their time. The game allowed for you to import your players from college hoops 2K5into the association mode. But the real gem of this game is the 24/7 mode which was one of the closest things we had to a basketball simulation that was like a RPG mixed together. This game was a classic.

3. College Hoops 2K8

Out of all the college basketball games I've never played a game as deep as College Hoops 2k8. It featured an intricate legacy mode which allowed players to recruit players from high school, junior colleges, and even international players. The game even allowed you to import whole draft classes to that years iteration of NBA 2k. The gameplay was fluid in typical 2K fashion. College Hoops 2K8 has a realism that has yet to be repeated by another college game as this was the last version. Hopefully 2K could get the license back and bless us with College Hoops 2k13.

2. NBA Street Vol 2

Easily the best streetball video game of all time. This game is nothing but fun straight smash mouth basketball. Gamebreakers make a return but this game also allowed for players to pocket their gamebreakers for the craziest basketball cut scenes with gamebreaker 2's.

1. NBA 2K12

Not only is this the newest basketball game out it is also the greatest. 2k sports delivered the goods on this one as they improved on the already stellar gameplay. They also pulled out a new and improved my player mode with press conferences and endorsements. The defense is stifling the computer is no pushover on hall of fame anymore. This game will most definitely be a iteration remembered for years. That is until 2K13 raises the bar again.

Dragon's Dogma Review

We begin our story with a petty fisher. Your typical nobody main character whose village is attacked by a murderous dragon. Naturally, you attempt to kill the massive beast yourself with your rusty sword. How noble. The dragon takes notice of your courage and gruesomely rips out your heart and eats it. Yet you wake up later, breathing and moving. As you leave your village a mysterious man falls from some sort of wormhole and you're informed he is a Pawn - someone who lacks emotion and dwells in the Rift, a place that connects Pawns to various Arisen. Pawns have no true free will of their own and follow the Arisen, the one chosen by a dragon. Why does the dragon choose people? So they can seek out the dragon at a later time for mysterious reasons.

The story is a pretty big, jumbly, tangly mess of a plot and is most definitely not the main focus of the game. While interesting at times, the small bit of plot in the game isn't strong and often leaves you with plenty of questions. The ending does well to wrap up a lot of the major concerns, which is nice, but you're still left wondering about a lot of the smaller elements throughout your playthrough. In fact, a lot of plot points are easily missed in random side quests. Just know that if you want the whole story, it's safer to do every single quest you can.

Pawns are easily one of the two selling points of this game, the other being the combat. Not far into the story, you'll create your first pawn. This pawn will follow you around forever, so it's crucial to make sure it's something you can stand looking at, which is made extremely easy with the amount of detail you're able to put into creating characters. Choose a class for your pawn that compliments yours and go to town.

The best thing about pawns is the "rental" sort of system they've got going on. You have the ability to enter the Rift and find various pawns created by other players. You can hire up to two pawns [not including your main pawn] to travel with you. The cool thing about this is that you'll always have a unique party since all pawns are different in a lot of ways. Depending on where the owners of these pawns are in their own games, the pawns you hire could have a ton of knowledge you don't have on certain quests. When this happens, the pawns will take the reins and show you how something is done. Whether it's showing you the location of something or telling you how to take down a huge foe depends on the quest at hand. When you're done with a pawn - and we're assuming it didn't die - you can send it back with gifts and a message for its owner.

Your main pawn always has a copy of itself in the Rift for other players to hire it, even while you aren't playing. It's quite possible you can come back to your game with your pawn bearing loads of gifts [If you're in my shoes, it's likely lots of skulls. People love giving me skulls for some reason...] and messages for you. The pawn system kind of gives you that Dark Souls sort of feel. You always have the option of help from another player, but they're never fully there.

Personally, I can't say many games revolutionize something. Dragon's Dogma has indeed revolutionized combat though. More specifically, fighting large enemies. All it took was a combination of a couple different games - Devil May Cry and Shadow of the Colossus. The combat in Dragon's Dogma is fast and fluid. There are toooooooons of skills and abilities to learn from nine different classes [Called vocations in-game] to choose between. Once you hit a certain point in the game, you can switch your classes using Discipline points. Once you've bought a class, you have it forever. This game is very friendly when it comes to finding your niche. You have plenty of time to experiment.

So, you've found the class you like. It's time to go fight something big and scary. There are multiple options when you've found something large that wants to destroy you. You can stay back and ping it with tons of arrows or you can get close and slice it up with some blades. You can even go the route of spells. There are spells in this game that cover large areas. There are spells well suited to taking down large foes. There are lots of spells, okay? But a lot of enemies will require to jump onto them and hold on for dear life just as we did in Shadow of the Colossus. More often than not, you'll find yourself on the back of a large enemy, slicing away at a weak point or just preventing it from flying away with your weight - all the while your pawns down below are exploiting other weaknesses. Sometimes your pawns will even climb up there with you. Dragon's Dogma shows us what boss battles SHOULD be in games these days. There are no Quick Time Events to deal with. The game doesn't hold your hand. There is a huge monster with a few weaknesses. Everything is done beautifully.

The unfortunate thing is getting to those enemies. Some, like cyclopes or chimeras, are fairly common. Other large foes are far and few between, requiring tons of walking to get to them. Dragon's Dogma has no reliable fast travel system. This factor does not bother me, but has a lot of people up in arms. Some are even demanding DLC that gives us mounts or better fast travel. I think the weird fast travel system encourages exploration of the world, which is vast and lively. There are plenty of things to see and do - plenty of things that you'll miss out on with fast travel. The only way to fast travel in this game is using ferrystones and portcrystals - items that are rare as they are expensive. There is one portcrystal in the main hub of the game and another to be found in a far off place. Ferrystones range from 10,000 to 20,000 gold, which can really add up. On New Game+, you can buy more portcrystals for a whopping 200,000 gold. So fast travel can cost you an arm and two legs. You're going to find easy ways to get money by late game though. NG+ hands you all the money in the world, so fast travel isn't an issue later. You just need to earn it.

Dragon's Dogma is a game that rewards us with extremely satisfying combat [if a bit dull after slaying the same enemies in the same places over and over], epic and challenging boss battles that have never been seen done in such a proper manner before, and a dynamic world to interact with. You'll see your fully customized character and pawn with their equipment you chose in cut scenes. You'll interact with each other in combat by holding an enemy down and letting your pawn get some critical blows in [or vice versa]. You'll hire other pawns who could have more knowledge than you, helping you in your quests.

The largest and really unfortunate flaw is the story. As said earlier, it's a mess. You'll likely lose sight of what's going on since you'll spend so much time exploring or just getting these small tidbits here and there. What you will be getting is a satisfying experience with tons of gameplay. This game can easily suck the hours of your life away if you aren't careful.

I want to recommend this game to everyone, but I highly [Read: HIGHLY] recommend you go read more reviews and watch some gameplay. It really is up in there whether people love it or hate it here since it's an odd mix-up of Dark Souls, Devil May Cry, Shadow of the Colossus and maybe even some Skyrim. Play the demo, but don't play it expecting a proper example of the full game.

Dragon's Dogma is easily one of my favorite games of the year and I almost hate to say this, but I've finally found a game that is competing with Dark Souls. I know a ton of people will think I'm crazy for that, but Dragon's Dogma really does offer that much of a unique feeling. Its combat and boss battles are that well done.