I’m sure we have all had moments where there is nothing you can do, but sit where you are, waiting.  It might be waiting for the movie to start, or your car to get an oil change, or in my recent case: on the airplane for 6-8 hour stints.  After a while, your options become limited.  You might be able to read a book or watch a movie, but these are usually only good for a couple hours, then you are left hunting for something else to keep your brain occupied.  For me, and I’m sure the same is likely true for you if you are bothering to read this, I often turn to my trusty candy apple red Nintendo DS Lite.  Granted, some games are better suited for long game play than others, and in this writing, I would like to focus on some games for the DS hand held that I found especially helpful on my recent trip to Europe and Africa (thus the long flights).

What makes a captivating game?  In my opinion; variety, ease of play, and lots of levels.  In a nutshell, this is what makes Peggle so popular.  It has seen light on many platforms, including PC, Flash, Xbox 360 Arcade and more recently DS.  I sunk grotesquely long hours into this game, which included both the popular Peggle as well as the Peggle Nights sequel.  For those that don’t know, Peggle is very much like the Price is Right mini-game of Plink-o.  You have a ball which you can aim and shoot, in order to get rid of all the red pegs.  Sounds simple enough, except for the fact you are limited to the amount of balls you have, as well as the shots and angles you can take.  With metric tons of different maps to play, as well as unique power ups and challenges, this game is great for long trips.  Also, you can pick it up and set it down at any time with the turn based nature of it, which is very handy when the stewardess wants to hand you another drink.

Looking to take over the world instead?  I would highly suggest trying out Civilization Revolution for the DS.  Civilization has been wildy popular in the RTS space over the years, and the recent port to the DS keeps the game pure enough to make for many many hours of game play in any sceniaro you setup.  The rules are simple.  Pick out a famous ruler, such as Cleopatria or Napolean, then race to the finish in one of four ways:  conquer everyone else, get into space first, have the most culture, or be the richest.  Throughout the game you will need to make choices that will ultimately mould your fate in the game.  Weither you go to war, or setup all your towns to only research technology, everything you do will change the game, thus making it a different game every time.  This makes for excellent replayibility.  I easily could spend an hour or two after I picked a fameous ruler to sceniaro completion.  Highly recommend as a great time sink.

And who doesn’t love dealing drugs and cops chasing you?  Anyone familiar with the Grand Theft Auto series may recall the original top down GTA for the PC.  It was fun, but sometimes it languished and you would just end up trying to piss off the cops and see how long you could stay alive.  I have throughly enjoyed this iteration of GTA for the DS, named GTA Chinatown Wars.  It brings back some of the old first generation GTA, but with better graphics, an interesting storyline, comical dialogue, and great gameplay.  You start off as a punk kid, just like all the other GTAs, and start to make your fortune by working for your uncle in Chinatown, doing runs and dealing drugs.  Over time you end up working for multiple bosses and owing safehouses all over the city.  The gameplay is solid for such a small platform, with even the driving being pretty decent.  In my experience, all driving games for the DS have fallen short.  The PDA functionality works great to make the game flow.  Obviously, a sandbox game such as this leads to tons of time sunk into playing through the story, or just running around the town dealing drugs for profit.  I’d recommend it for long trips, but usually works good for small stints as well, but you may have a hard time remembering what your current objective was.

So there you have it.  Three excellent games that make long hours on a trip pass oh so much better.  Another recommendation I’d have is invest in a USB to DS charger cable.  With this cable I was able to leave my laptop in standby mode, but still charge the DS off the USB port, thus making for almost endless gameplay on the flights.  Awesome!

Happy travels!

- Ben Mazhary-Clark

He’s baaaack.  That’s right, that brash little brain sucking alien from the planet Furon has made his return.  Crypto’s his name and stealing DNA is his game.  The fun part comes from how he does it.

SO, back story.  Way back in the day when every xbox was black and the hard drive was internal there was this funny little game that got released.  Destroy All Humans was the title, and the cover art looked like something out of a 50′s era B movie.  I picked it up on a lark and POOF, i was introduced to the amazing world of sandbox games.  A big map with LOTS of things to see and nothing but loose ideas of objectives that will help you move along and have some fun.  Talk about an eye opener.  Played enough of that game to sufficiently piss my wife off.  Fast forward 5 years and now we have the latest installment of the series on the 360 (i believe there was another title released solely to PlayStation… but who cares?).

I know what you’re thinking.  Who’s Crypto and why do i care?  Crypto is a 3 foot alien sent from the Furon empire to collect human DNA by extracting their brain stems.  No, i’m not kidding.  But wait, it gets better.  Crypto also happens to be a smart ass, cynical bastard that is voiced by a fairly good Jack Nicholson imitator.  He says some flat out funny stuff fairly regularly.  And as if that wasn’t enough, then there’s the weapons.  The Black Hole gun, the Venus Human Trap gun, and last but far from least… the anal probe gun.  You heard me right.  This bad boy fires self guided… let’s call them missiles… that hone in on the rectum of it’s victim.  The victim then runs around spewing… uuuuhhh “stuff”… from their butts.  Shoot them enough and they die.  Seriously people, i can’t make this stuff up.

Once a person dies their brains pop out the top of their heads and are magically drawn to Crypto.  You collect the samples and you’re on your way.  Of course, three foot tall aliens probing people to death is BOUND to garner some attention.  Kill enough people the police show up.  Offer a little resistance and S.W.AT. joins the party.  You make them work too hard  then soldiers and tanks show up.  What now?  You’ve got the full force of the Army bearing down upon you.  Luckily Crypto can do more than just shoot a gun.  He’s got some psychic abilities.  Psychokinesis is one of the more useful abilities.  Picking up cars with your MIND… yeah that’s just fun.  Then there’s cortex scan, basically you can read minds.  Not much use in a fight, but useful for gathering information and the occasional laugh.  Then there’s my favorite, the body snatch.  Run up to someone, hit the right button and suddenly you’re a leggy blonde or a hot red-head on skates (oh, or a tubby balding guy but i get to be that EVERY day… yay).  Perfect for hiding from the fuzz.  Heck, you can even hide AS the fuzz.  But beware, the game is smart.  If you snatch a body in front of the police they are smart enough to know it’s still you.  In fact, snatch a body anywhere and all the people around you will freak out just a little.  Apparently a little green guy with a gun isn’t very scary, but if he absorbs someone else’s body that’s an issue.  Boundaries people!!

All right, so what’s the point of the game.  Here in lies the true beauty of the game.  I’m not sure there is one.  There are no political undertones, no subtle comments about the state of society.  Just a racaus romp through various interesting locales causing mayhem and destruction whenever possible.  Throw in some hysterical dialogue and a story line you can follow and you’ve got a great play through of a fun game.  Is this game going to revolutionize a genre?  No.  Is it going to entertain you for 12 or so hours?  Only if you have a sense of humor and know what you’re getting in to.

Want to suck brains for a living?  Buy this bad boy, or trade for it on Goozex!

- David Hayes

Have you ever really wanted to conquer the world, but just didn’t have the time?  Well now there’s an answer.  Civilization: Revolution (Civ Rev) from the mind of Sid Meier has everything you need to dominate the world all wrapped up in a tidy little box.  You’ll use everything from irrigation to Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (also known as nukes) to build one little city in to an empire.

Civ Rev is Sid Meier’s first foray in to the console market.  He’s been putting out Real Time Strategy (RTS) or turn based strategy games for your PC since 1991, but now with the help of 2K Games he’s made the leap to an XBox360, PS3, or Nintendo DS near you.  There are now 4 different Civilizations games and the idea behind all of them is to become the ruler of the world.  In Civ Rev you can do that in one of four ways.  You can dominate the world militarily, become the envy of the world by advancing in culture, bankrupt the world by becoming so wealthy you can do as you wish, or use technology to advance your empire beyond earthly limits.

To begin every round you must select your leader.  You have many leaders to choose ranging from Gandhi to Caesar, Napoleon to Abraham Lincoln.  Every leader has it’s strength and weaknesses, so it helps to know what kind of victory you’re looking to accomplish before you start.  One important note here, any given round can last many hours.  You’ll start at the stone age and depending on how good you are (or aren’t) you could finish in the Space Age.  I’ve seen this last four hours routinely.  There are ways to shorten that, there’s even a lightning round setting, but don’t go in to this game thinking your round will go quickly.  More than likely it won’t.  The good news it that the game let’s you save at almost any time and it gives you 10 saves to use so you can go back and forth at will.

So you’ve chosen a game type and a leader, now you’re ready to start the game.  The world opens up, and there in front of you is the entirety of your empire.  Five or six people scurrying around looking for a good place to settle down and call home.  This is a VERY important decision in the life of your civilization.  You want to look for plenty of food, plenty of resources, and a defend-able position… just to name a few factors.  Often the game puts you in a good starting square, but it’s worth looking around to see your options.  Don’t look for too long though, there are four competing civilizations that will be growing with every turn regardless of whether yours is or not.   Find your spot, settle in and get to work.

Pretty quickly after creating your settlement you’ll get your first set of warriors.  Shortly there after you’ll start researching technologies.  Eventually you can create armies, build structures, and in a short time create a sprawling city filled with activity.  Branch out and send settlers to other areas of the map.  Eventually the other civilizations will start encroaching on your space, or you on theirs.  Battles will be fought, like it or not.  Cities will flourish or fall.  You will leave an indelible mark on this virtual world, or you will fall to the wayside and fail.  It’s all in your hands.

One of the other nice things about this title is that no matter what, the game doesn’t take itself too seriously.  Sure, the rise and fall of an entire civilization is totally up to you, but that doesn’t mean it has to be dramatic.  The game is presented with a sense of humor.  Even when you’re being threatened by hostile enemies, the language is such that you can just chuckle it off.  A lot of other RTS games present your challenges with a sort of dire, do or die, mentality.  Civ Rev on the other hand just puts the information out there in a semi-comical, even cartoony manner for you to digest and respond to.

Multiplayer leaves a bit to be desired in Civ Rev.  Playing head to head can be fun and challenging.  But add a third party and things get awkward fast.  Particularly if you have a group of two or three buddies you wanna spend a few hours playing with.  The three of you will start a round, but the first person to loose is just out of luck.  They have to sit and wait, potentially HOURS, while the other two finish the fight.  I’m sure there is a time and place for that kind of gaming, but in my world it’s fairly rare.

So who should invest in this game and why?  People like me, that’s who.  Someone who is new to the RTS world and wants a full experience without the melodrama that can accompany taking over the world.  It’s a great gateway game to a whole new type of game that a lot of console gamers have yet to try.  2k Games has already released several downloadable content packs at the time of this publishing and is doing a good job of keeping the game relevant.  If you’re looking for something new and different that still offers a challenge then this game is definitely worth a look-see.  And for those on the fence, XBoxLive offers a demo version free for download on the marketplace.  Try before you buy.

Buy it now or Trade for it on Goozex

- David Hayes

Ladies and gentleman, after years and years of continually advancing technology and game development you’d think we were getting to the end of our potential as humans.  Then, every once in a blue moon, along comes something that either creates or redefines a genre.  Well, here it is.  Don’t believe me?  Ok, let’s talk about the zombie survival horror games.  What can we expect?

1. Zombies… generally speaking they’re slow, gross, less than intelligent, and insatiably hungry for braaaiiinns (yet they never seem to attack each other for this delicacy)
2. Horror… every new room or level gets creepier.   The game developers go out of their way to provide ever increasing surprises which invariably leads to the ultimate boss fight, which of course is the mother of all horrors and has more teeth than a school of great white sharks.
3. Survival… run run just as fast as you can.  Usually in this genre you are provided all sorts of fun new types of weaponry.  It’s you against a never ending onslaught of nasty ghouls highlighted with gory kills.

These 3 simple ingredients have been the recipe for many games from about as far back as gamers can remember.  What iteration of Resident Evil are we on now, 27642?  The zombie game has stayed the same, minus a few tweaks, for decades.  Then along comes Left4Dead, which i immediately dismissed as yet another clone.  Who cares, been there done that… zombie ate the shirt.  Then, pretty much on a dare, i figured I’d waste a few hours finding out how much i was bored with it and move on.

At first glance you know immediately the Left4Dead is a zombie game.  There’s a cinematic opening that causes instant pucker factor, and if you’re not a fan of zombies in generally will make you second guess whether or not you really want to play this game.  Assuming you decide to continue you are faced with a choice of four characters you can play as.  You hit the start button and are immediately hit with another twist you probably didn’t expect.  You’re playing a movie.  That’s right… this game isn’t split up in to levels of a campaign, it’s four different movies that you play though.  Each movie has scenes, which are basically checkpoints. Character is selected, movie is loaded, game starts.  This is where the similarities both begin and end.

Not surprisingly, there are zombies in Left4Dead.  And of course a zombie wouldn’t be a zombie if it weren’t gross and really wanted to eat your brains.  The difference is that these zombies are neither stupid nor slow.  Ok, so they aren’t necessarily MENSA candidates, but they are observant.  Generally they hang around moaning and throwing up, but once they notice you it’s ON.  The more light and or noise you create the more they take notice of you.  And then, just to throw a wrinkle in to it, they seem to know when you’re most vulnerable and will attach en mass and try to wipe you from the face of the earth (more on that later).   The enemy AI is so well tuned that the normal trigger points of a game are gone.  You know what I’m talking about.  When you reach point X enemy Y and Z will come around the corner looking for a fight.  That’s all gone.  If you get half way through a scene and die you’ll be returned to the beginning of the scene.  As you go through it a second time it’s totally different than the first play through.  Different number of enemies, different types, different strategy.  It’s one of the most complex enemy AI systems i recall playing against.  If the game thinks it can get you, it will attack.  Which leads to another difference.  These zombies attack at full speed.  Full speed RUN.

After playing for a bit you start to pick up on the next important difference.  Most zombie games get progressively more difficult, leading to a series of boss fights.  That’s not the way this game works.  There are zombies (the grunts of the L4D world), and then there are five types of “specials”.  Five different types of particularly difficult variants that attack at the most opportune moments to create the biggest impact, both in the story line and your heart rate.  So while there’s no true boss fight in any of the four movies, you’re continually fighting mini (and not so mini) bosses through out the entire movie.  And instead of leading to the ultimate boss fight at the end, you get to go through what’s affectionately referred to as “The Last Stand”.  Wave after wave after wave of zombies of every flavor while you try to defend a small patch of land and a rescue vehicle makes it’s way toward you.   I can tell you, it’s more intense than most boss battles that I’ve dealt with.

Finally, the biggest difference of the all.  Survival.  Most of these types of games pit you and maybe one AI sidekick against a swarm of zombies.  What’s a guy to do but whip out his gravity gun and start slinging blades into the crowd?  Well, this game is totally different.  Firstly, there are no special weapons.  Shotgun, SMG, Hunting (Sniper) Rifle, Assault Rifle… that’s it.  You will always have your trusty pistol(s) with their never ending ammo supply, but the big weapons are limited in their choice as well as ammo supply.  But the true difference, and the one that redefines this genre as well as possibly creating it’s own, is that you are not alone.  It’s you and three others wading through the corpses, trying to find safety.  More importantly, it’s not necessarily three NPC’s.  The truly compelling part of the game is when you have three real life, human, xbox360 connected friends to play with.  Now suddenly it’s not a phony character on the screen being stupid. It’s your brother across the country, or your friend from high school, being stupid.  Now you WANT to see them survive.  Now when they are in trouble you feel compelled to help them,  and not solely because you know you may need help later.  This is the part of the game that truly grabs you and brings you back for more.  You can play it alone (with friendly AI), but then it lacks something.  The true appeal of this game lies in the idea of going up against impossible odds with someone you are at least vaguely familiar with and surviving.

So, how does this game rate?  Left4Dead is a highly compelling and interesting game mostly due to the online cooperative play.  Make no mistake, this game was designed from square one to be played over XBoxLive with three friends.  There is a multiplayer (adversarial) option that is fairly cool and works very well when you have more than three friends online.  But no matter how you do it, this game is meant to be shared.   The graphics are great, though a bit disturbing at times, and the controls are tight.  The action is incredibly intense and high paced.  On the negative side of the ledger, there’s only 4 maps.  Each map can be gotten through in about an hour and a half on the normal difficulty level.   All told that is six hours of gaming, but when you add in the multiplayer, and major differnces in the difficulty levels, you suddenly don’t mind playing the same maps repeatadly.  Don’t get me wrong, i REALLY hope they bring out more maps soon, but the lack of maps hasn’t stopped me from playing the game over and over again.

If this sounds good to you:  Buy it now or Trade for it on Goozex

–David Hayes

Well I signed up for this back in April, and then of course promptly forgot about it.  What did I forget about?  The all new Quake Live Beta program.  Given that it had been so long since I signed up, I thought at first that the mail I got from iD Software on January 21st of this year was just spam.  However, after reading it I realized that after too many months, they were finally selecting people for open public beta testing.

Quake Live, for those who aren’t familiar, is essentialy what appears to be a modified Quake 3 embedded into a web browser.  I’m sure the NDA I didn’t fully read mentions that I shouldn’t go into too much detail at this point, but I will give a couple points.

It seemed to work in both browsers I tried it in.  Setup was maybe 15 minutes and then I was playing.  Graphics seemed to be pretty good, a far cry from the flash based browser games I’m sure we are all used to.  The training missing flowed well, as did the online matches.  I also discovered that I’m not better at this version of Quake than I was at Quake 3.  Guess the twitchy factor for FPS’s starts to wane after you get to a certain age.

Overall, it’s looking good, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fast paced, zero storyline FPS.  I’m curious to see how they work free online browser based gaming into a business model.  Ads in games?  It worked for Burnout Paradise, I’d imagine it will work here as well.

Coming to a browser near you around July 31st.

- Ben Mazhary-Clark

The world (er, galaxy) needs saving again, and like always, it’s up to you to save it. Being the space marine that you are, this should be expected. Bioware brought about this great action/adventure/”RPG” to us last holiday season (2007); Mass Effect. This game is the first in a series of three that they originally claimed would all be within this console generation’s life cycle, though this is highly unlikely. I got this game as part of the holiday rush of release games. Though I was excited about it, I hate to admit it sat on my shelf of shame (after only putting 6 hours in initially) for over half of 2008 before I got back into it (I blame Burnout Paradise coming out in Feb 08). Once I was back in the swing I became more excited at the prospect of following the story and the side quests and actually completing the game.

Now personally, I have a hard time getting into full RPGs. Oblivion was a fun concept for me initially, but grinding for hours at a time to get quest elements done started to wear on me, and I never ended up finishing more than a handful of tasks in the main storyline before I was to the point of endlessly wandering the map for other things to do. After a bit of this, I put it away, not to be touched again.

Then came Mass Effect., and I was cautious, as this was an RPG again. However, right off the bat the storyline caught me. Sci-fi is easier for me to slip into, and the story held its own fairly well. Also, the level of detail in the environments and overall graphics presentation was impressive, and cutscenes were a joy to watch. Once I started the game, I did spend a bit longer than I needed to with character generation, going for a red-headed woman with green eyes, and a survivor background. I also picked her as a straight soldier since I wasn’t sure if I wanted to worry about the bio skills (magic).

For the first couple chapters, I played it like a standard third person shooter, though after a bit the game became harder and harder to the point where I realized I would have to start playing with inventory and skills leveling. Mass Effect lets you control as much as you want to with the two members chosen out of your extended squad whenever you go on missions. If you feel the need you can micro-manage the hell out of them, and control every aspect of what gets bumped up when they level. Given that I wanted to enjoy the experience a bit more and not be bothered with every aspect of my squad, I set the game to auto-level them and allow them to use whatever skills they needed to get the job done. Then there were weapons, armor and upgrades to manage. For the longest time I only focused on myself, letting my squad suffer. Only when I realized that they were dying (passing out) too often did I start to focus on upgrading them. Once they were upgraded, the game became rather easy, allowing me to cut through most enemies like butter. This was on normal difficulty. By the last few chapters you certainly need to know how to use the array of weapons and skills as your disposal in order to survive some of the boss battles.

Overall the storyline kept me wanting more. I wanted to know what happened next. However, reading endless Codex entries or the survey info of every single world I looked at didn’t interest me at all. The main quest line was good, and the side quests did help support the main story, but I mostly used them as experience point farms and not to help flesh out the main story. The voice acting and choices for dialog I feel was one of the highlights of the game. This made some parts of the game feel more like an interactive movie. Also the aspect of changing your good or bad karma based on the dialog choices you make adds much more thought to something that could have easily be no-brainer choices.

Weapon, armor and accessory upgrades were not that big of a deal to find. Initially I was spending tons of time buying them and making sure I was all set before leaving the Citadel. I soon realized however that getting better gear was as easy as just playing the game as there was always a multitude of upgrades along any given path. It didn’t even matter if you had too low of a hacker skill to open certain cases, as the items that were found along the way were more than sufficient to keep you upgraded at a higher level than your enemies.

Annoyances. There seemed to be a rather long time loading new maps when you traveled between them, often taking place in elevators. When new levels did appear for you there was often texture pop-in, as though they presented the level to you before it was fully rendered. Also, trying to figure out what planet you were trying to get to was often difficult, causing you to have to exit the galaxy map and re-read the journal to figure out where you were going again, then go back to the galaxy map to try and get there. It would have been nice to see a feature in the galaxy map which allowed you to quickly check your journal. Furthermore, the Makko which is really the only way to travel around on worlds you visit is slow and cumbersome. The vehicle just doesn’t have the speed necessary to make planet roving fun. The Makko is one of the reasons I decided to not do all the side quests and metal surveys on all the planets. Lastly, I find no fun in fighting “zombies”. The levels which had mindless, dumb enemies rush at you felt unsatisfying and had me longing to be in the next level. Some areas felt similar to fighting the Flood from Halo.

In closing, I found the game to be the most captivating of any RPG style game I have played. The story held me there and the game play overall was fairly easy to pick up and run with. The settings in the game allowed you to have as much or as little control as you wanted over your squad, their upgrades and their actions. The graphics on a whole beat the pants off anything I had witnessed in other larger world RPGs such as Oblivion. Sound, though I hadn’t touched on it before, really helped set the mood and held true to the theme. I put about 20 or so hours into the first play through of Mass Effect, though it could have easily been done in much less. For $3/hr I feel the $60 price tag of the game was well worth it. The level 42 character I ended up with at the end felt comfortable and familiar, and I knew her limits very well. I am looking forward to doing another quick play through with the character in order to get the achievement for level 50 at least (*cough*achievement whore).

I’d recommend most people who enjoy sudo-RPGs or even shooters with more in-depth story lines to pick it up or trade for it.

-Ben Mazhary-Clark

If you’re reading this then you have enough gaming experience to realize that there are many genres of video game.  Driving, shooting, first person shooters, dreaded platformers.  There’s a different type of game for every player, and indeed every mood.  Before discussing this game we should look a little closer at the genre to make sure we’re all clear on what this game is and what it is not.  Fallout3 is a hardcore, traditional Role Playing Game (RPG).  Many games have been released claiming to be an RPG.  A couple of good examples would be the Fables, Crackdown, or Mass Effect.  All great games i played until my fingers bled, but none a true RPG.  These games are all dumbed down versions of a true RPG, to a point that it was more about the combat systems, fighting, and cool graphics than character improvement and strategy.  Again, nothing against what I have titled the Action RPG genre… but make no mistake,  Fallout3 is a Role Playing Game.  Vast open maps with truely intelligent AI that make you wonder if they looking to harm or help you.  A leveling system that requires you to pick a specialty and live (or die) by those choices.  Endless dialogue trees and consequences for every action.  This game even makes you think about what items you carry!  Carry too many items and you become over-encumbered… every gamers true nightmare.  So all that said, if you aren’t interested in a game that makes you think, just stop reading now.  This is no shooter, no running or gunning, and thank heaven… you can only jump a foot or two at a time.  On to the game…

Fallout3 starts differently than any other game you’ve ever played.  It’s an experience unlike any other.  I’ll refrain from spoiling the wonderful surprise that is the beginning of your life in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland, but suffice it to say it’s memorable.  You spend the first three hours of this game developing the basics of your character.  The developer, Bethesda, does a very good job of making this creation cycle natural and even a little comical.  When you’re done you’re spit out in to a world of hulking brutes that want to tear you to shreds, giant animals desperate to eat your face, and yes… the obligatory zombie that is so jealous of your smooth skin that it is determined to take it from you.  Oh, and did I mention your only weapon will be a small pistol?  Needless to say, you better be ready.  Once you are jettisoned from your safe, comfortable home into the big wide world all bets are off.  There are no rails, there are no mandatory quests.  There is nothing but a big empty map and the feeling of total inadequacy.  You’re free to follow the quest that is presented to you in the very well designed Inventory/Menu system, or you can literally wander the world looking for a fight to pick.

Now the fun begins.   Every enemy conquered, every conversation done well, every lock picked provides you with precious experience points.  Just like any other RPG, when you get enough points you level up.  HERE is where one of the differences between this game and other similar games comes up.  Firstly, the game FORCES you to level.  You can’t put it off until later, you can’t wait until it’s convenient.  Once you’re not in active battle the screen pops up and POOF, you’re leveling.  The second difference is that this game has a leveling limit.  You cannot surpass level 20.  That’s right, you have a limited number of times that you can improve your character.  There is no level 21.  You can’t out think the game, there are no cheats… there’s 20.  Period.  Why is this important?  Because it means you can’t be all things.  Unlike other games, where you can max out every ability, you have to be smart about how you want to play the game.  Do you want to be the stealthy ninja, or do you want to be a mauler that walks about with his trusty missile launcher?  Or maybe you want to be a charismatic charmer.  You can be any of those things, but you can’t be all of those things.  Make your character however you want them to be.  Take them wherever you want to go.  It’s the ultimate open world (sandbox) game.  Surprises are all over the place, rewards in every tunnel (also known as dungeon).

Just like any RPG this game starts out TOUGH.  You’ll spend the first few levels picking your fights wisely and using the time tested “RUN LIKE HELL” strategy from time to time.  After several levels up you’ll start to notice that things are getting easier.   The world will start making sense.  You may even have an ally or two.  Eventually you stop worrying about money or health packs, you figure out what you can carry without exceeding the limit on how much weight you can bare, and you find your place in this desolate… often depressing… little world.

Oh yeah, the technical stuff.  Graphics are great, though it does suffer from the occasional pop-in problem.  Once rendered the graphics are down right stunning.  Music is good.  Voice acting is standard.  Storyline is compelling (thus far).  All in all it’s a great game.   I recommend it to anyone that can commit to serious hours of mutant fighting, fire ant slaying, dungeon crawling fun.

So, bottom line time.  Who should or should not buy this game.  The number one factor in that decision is time.  This is not a 12 hour play through.  This isn’t a 24 hour play through.  I have well exceeded the $1/hour mark on this game, logging 100+ hours to date, and have barely scratched the surface of the main story line.  IF you let it, this game will reach out from your television and absorb the very essence of your being.  You will sleep, eat, and poop Fallout.  It will be the end of you.  UNLESS…. you are an adrenaline junky.  What’s commonly referred to as a twitch gamer.  If all you play is FPS, uh… don’t try this game.  Don’t get me wrong, the combat in this game will blow your mind.  But it’s not the high paced run and gun style of a Halo or Gears of War.  This is a thinking mans game punctuated with moments of INTENSE action.  This game will probably win a load of Game of the Year awards, but it’s not for every bullet hose toting zombie shooting hormone pumping gamerhead.

Interested?  Buy it now or Trade for it on Goozex

–David Hayes

[Repost of an older review I did for NESCentral.com]

Posted by Ben Mazhary-Clark on Monday Nov 28th 2005 @ 3:25PM

River City Ransom, one of the best RPG fighting games for the NES and most likely the least heard of. RCR was released around the same time as Double Dragon (both developed and released by Technos) thus stealing the spotlight from this great game.

The storyline is simple: a gang member is holding a girl(friend) and several other students hostage in the local high school and it is up to you to beat through all the gangs on the streets, including several bosses, to free your friends being held.

You can play in single player or cooperative mode to beat down the street gangs. In either mode the game play is of average difficulty, button mashing is encouraged. Even with the button mashing the game still provides lots of fun with its RPG elements. Once you grind a gang member into the concrete with your method of choice a bouncing coin appears where their body was. Pick these up within a few seconds or they disappear. With money in hand you can go to many stores along the way and buy food to boost health and fighting stats, as well as pure upgrades like the Stone Hands book (fast fists), Acro Circus (flips and tricks), Dragon Feet (fast kicking) and many more. These upgrades, along with other forms of stat boosting, are critical in order to finish off some of the bosses.

In game dialogue from the gang members is enjoyable, with sayings like “BARF!!!” and “That guy’s a freak!” you can stay entertained for hours. The background music is interesting enough to captivate your interest and get you into the groove of walking around the city, beating gang members up for their lunch money.

Another wonderful element of the fighting aspect of the gameplay is the weapon selection. Use chains, pipes, wood sticks, brass knuckles, tires, boxes and garbage cans to beat your opponents down. These items can be found around the maps or dropped by gang members when they are stuck.

This game is highly recommended for players that always liked the Double Dragon or other side scrolling fighting games. RCR takes Double Dragon one step further with the RPG elements and the playful dialogue. This is a must have for any classic NES fan.

Buy River City Ransom or Trade for it on Goozex

As a side note, RCR was re-released for Gameboy Advance. Some upgrades were included but overall the gameplay was left intact for the classic fans.

Buy River City Ransom for GBA or Trade for it on Goozex

–Ben Mazhary-Clark

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