Two quick game reviews

I've been going for easy achievements still, and that means quick game reviews!

Terminator: Salvation

This game tried very hard to be like Gears of War. It's play style is very similar, but it just doesn't come close. It's not a terrible game, but it's not a good game either. You'll tear through it in a day, easily getting all the achievements, and then you'll be done with it and never think about it again. You can play this game co-op, if you want, but it's not really necessary. Of course, if you have a friend who wants to get some achievements too, go at it.

As for the story, this game is actually a prequel to the latest Terminator movie (which I still haven't seen, shame on me). The premise is pretty basic. While out on a mission, John Connor gets a distress call from a group of resistance fighters trapped behind enemy lines. He decides to go after them, even though the rest of his group thinks it's a suicide mission. That's about it.

The game is pretty simple, but it's short and does have a few cool vehicle levels. Rent it, or get it used if it's really cheap.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

A lot of people have decried this as one of the worst games on the 360, but I actually enjoyed it. I'll admit, it was very poorly designed, but I still had fun with it. Maybe it's my soft spot for all things Marvel.

This game loosely follows the movie of the same name. Aside from just dealing with the Silver Surfer, Dr. Doom, and the US Army, though, you'll also go up against classic FF villains the Skrulls, Red Ghost, and Terrax. And no, just like in the movie you never really see Galactus.

You run through each level switching between members of the FF on the fly (or you can have up to four player co-op), beating up enemies and solving simple puzzles while you collect points to power up your heroes. Each character has a unique set of super powers. The problem is that you'll spend a good 90% or more of the game as Thing. There's just no point in being anyone else. He's the strongest, and even on the highest difficulty he just tears through the enemies as long as you keep him powered up. Not only will you spend most of your time as Thing, you'll also keep doing the same move over and over. His ground pound move sends out a shockwave that affects all enemies around you, and is really strong. It even affects flying enemies! So even though you have a good variety of moves in the game, you'll spend the whole time using just one.

There are a few times when the game forces you to be the other characters. Each one has their own solo level. Human Torch actually has three, but they're all flying levels, usually chasing after the Silver Surfer. Mr. Fantastic has to stretch his way through a space station hallway filled with lasers, and the Invisible Woman goes on a sort of stealth mission through a military base. Oh, and Thing has a very short solo mission where he has to plow through a room full of enemies (replaying this mission over and over is a good way to power everybody up, by the way).

So yes, this game is hugely flawed in its design, but it still plays well. I had a fun enough time with it that I didn't even gripe too much that the difficulty achievements don't stack. Yes, you will have to play this through twice to K it. The game is pretty short though, and if you get all the collectibles on your first play though, you can just blast through the second one, only stopping on Thing's solo mission to power up.

If you find this game cheap somewhere and you're a big Marvel fan, pick it up. It'll be a good couple of days' playing time. Or just rent it if you want more easy achievements.

Bret Michaels update

I've read some conflicting reports on how Bret Michaels is doing lately. Most of what I've seen says that he's stabilized, but still in intensive care and under close supervision, and that he's expected to recover eventually. A few other things I've read are more negative, stating that he's not doing well and that we should all be praying for him.

Of course, I want to go with the former, but either way I'll still be including Bret in my prayers, and I hope all of you out there will as well.

New Ozzy!

The King of Heavy Metal himself, Ozzy Osbourne, finally has a new album coming out. June 14th will see the release of Scream, Ozzy's tenth solo studio album. And might I add it took long enough! It's been three years since Black Rain, Ozzy's last album.

Unfortunately, longtime Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde will not be featured on this album. But there's a bright side. Taking Zakk's place is power metal legend Gus G, formerly of such greats as Dream Evil and Firewind!

I'm really looking forward to hearing this album. I actually caught a bit of the first single, Let Me Hear You Scream, on the radio. I heard just enough to make me say, "Holy crap, was that new Ozzy?!", so I definitely need to hear more. I really hope this means that OzzFest will be a touring show again this year, and not a one night event like '08.

UPDATE: I tracked the new song down online. Go listen to it here, it's awesome!

Bret Michaels hospitalized

Bret Michaels, singer for Poison, is in the hospital after an brain hemorrhage. According to what I've seen on Google, he's in stable condition, which is good, but not out of the woods yet.

I'm a big fan of Poison. I see them in concert at least once a year. Bret was actually scheduled to play a show with his solo band tonight at the Belterra Casino in Indiana, which is about half an hour away from me. I would have bought a ticket if I didn't already have plans tonight. If it's rescheduled I'll definitely have to try and go.

Prayers go out to Bret and his family. After recently losing Peter Steele, we don't need to have any more rock stars dying on us. Get well soon, Bret, and bring Poison back to Cincinnati this summer!

Game review - Saw

I've never seen any of the Saw movies. I like my horror movies to be of the supernatural kind, not the gore kind, and Saw is way too over the top for me, but a buddy of mine is a big Saw fan. I borrowed this game from him because it looked like it was pretty decent and it was an easy thousand achievement points.

That's pretty much what this game boils down to. It's decent. The combat system has too many flaws for me to say anything better about it. Here's the deal. You play as Detective Tapp, Danny Glover's character from the first movie (apparently this game is set right after that). You're caught in Jigsaw's game and you have to find your way out. Doing so will require you to kill a number of enemies along the way, and there are all kinds of unique weapons you can use to do this. It's actually really cool in theory, especially since most of the achievements have to do with getting kills with different weapons, but the problem is that the combat just isn't that good. It tends to take too long to swing a weapon, and your enemies will be able to hit you before you can land your blow, thus causing you to stagger back and have to start your swing animation all over again. It was often times easier to go barehanded rather than mess with a weapon, unless you were lucky enough to find a gun.

That problem aside, though, the game was pretty fun. You had to solve a number of tricky puzzles, often with a time limit, and usually to avoid a nasty death. Sometimes they got rather frustrating. For instance, the fuse box puzzles were randomized every time you did one. And in a few spots towards the end of the game, you're expected to do a handful of puzzles in a certain time limit in order to get out of a room before it explodes. Very tense stuff.

Tobin Bell, the actor who plays Jigsaw in the movies, adds a lot of authenticity to the game by also voicing the part here. You'll hear a lot from Jigsaw throughout the course of the game as you attempt to save a number of people from traps and get yourself free as well.

By the end of it, I was definitely ready for it to be over. It's heavy and dark, a little bit depressing, but then I suppose that's what fans of the Saw series would be looking for. Even if you're not a fan of the movies, though, you can still enjoy this game for what it is, a decent action game with some tricky puzzles. And of course, easy achievements.

Some recent deaths

Last week former WCW/WWE wrestler Chris Kanyon was found dead of an apparent suicide. I'm sorry I didn't post about it sooner. I liked Kanyon back in his WCW days, but never saw him in WWE. I particularly remember the old catchphrase he used to use, "Who's better than Kanyon?", to which the crowd would always shout back, "Everybody!" He made a good cocky heel. I was sad to hear his life ended the way it did. Add him to the unfortunately long list of wrestlers who died before their time.

Here's another shocker I actually just found out about, apparently some time last night Peter Steele, singer and bass player for Type O Negative, died from heart failure. I've always liked Type O, and I never got to see them live, so I'm pretty disappointed to hear this.

Both of these guys died in their 40s, way too young. Prayers go out to their families. Sometime today, be sure to listen to some Type O and maybe see if you can find a Kanyon match on Youtube. Rest in peace, guys.

Game review - The Orange Box

I have a confession to make. I've never played Half-Life. Never. Now, I know to some of you that might sound blasphemous, but I'm not much of a PC gamer so it's not that big of a deal to me. The biggest reason I wanted to check out The Orange Box was for Portal, and Portal was the first game from the collection that I played.

This was a very cool game. Great concept, great execution, and incredibly frustrating difficulty at times. The story, while too short, was compelling and humorous. It's the extras that bring the hardcore difficulty. The extra challenge maps, super hard versions of the last six rooms in the story, were hard but doable. It's the medal challenges that will have most people pulling there hair out. The last six rooms each have three medal challenges, one for the least time, the least steps taken, and the least portals used. I'm telling you, even with cheat codes some of these are obscenely hard. But overall, this is a very fun game that is totally worth the time to play through. I only wish it had been longer.

Moving on to Half-Life 2. I actually really enjoyed this game. Like I said earlier, I never played the first game, though I did read the Wiki article on it before playing this. Half-Life 2 turned out to be a fun shooter, but with some pretty nasty difficulty, especially if you're going for all the achievements. All three games, Half-Life 2, HL2: Episode One, and HL2: Episode Two, had some achievements that would have been really difficult if it hadn't been for one thing: cheat codes. Hey, I'm not proud, I don't mind using them. I paid my dues on the NES and SNES back in the day.

Anyway, these are some pretty fun games if you want to take the time to go through all of them, and you can get the achievements pretty easily as well. The story is very cool, also, but I'll warn you that Episode Two ends on a cliffhanger. I have no clue when Episode Three will be out, or if the 360 will even be getting it. I know The Orange Box came out a few years ago, and I haven't heard anything about Episode Three yet.

The only game in the collection that I didn't get to was Team Fortress 2. It looks like a cool online shooter, and I've heard a lot of good things about it, but I don't know anyone else who has the game. I don't usually like playing team games with random people, so I never checked it out. Maybe someday I will, and I'll write a review on it then.

My final verdict: This is a great collection of some really fun games. If you see it cheap somewhere and you're looking for a good shooter or a really unique puzzle game, pick it up.