Microsoft has announced that all original Xboxes and Xbox games will no longer work on Xbox Live starting April 15th.
No more Phantom Dust online... EVER.
I'm really upset about this, and I believe this is a terrible decision on Microsoft's part. I'm going to have all these games that I simply won't be able to play anymore. Are they going to refund my money? No, of course not.
This is ridiculous.
http://kotaku.com/5464855/we-shall-mourn-the-following-xbox-live-originals
Friday, February 5, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
Ah yes, I figured it was time for another review after rambling on about my laptop problems.
Like last time, I'm going back to the original Xbox with another one of my favorite games for the system. Since the Xbox was a relitively short lived system, and after a few years, hype for the 360 was growing, there were lots of great games that came out late in the Xbox's cycle that were overlooked, and along with Phantom Dust, Stubbs the Zombie was one of them.
This game, created by a company composed of several members of the original Halo team, and it used the Halo engine, was a unique type of zombie game where instead of fighting off waves of the undead, you actually played as a zombie.
The game takes place in the 1950's in a new 'way of the future' type setting, so there's funny robots and flying cars, but all in 50's design.
The game starts out where this city was built on top of where you, Edward Stubblefield, was burried. You are greeted by a funny cutscene followed by a simple tutorial. The game isn't really that complicated, so it's very easy to just pick up and have fun.
Stubbs can walk around (which turns to running after you gain some speed), jump, and attack. Later in the game he gets some special attacks such as throwing some guts (grenade), a fart attack that stuns enemies, a bowling ball head grenade, and, probably the coolest, a detachable hand (which I'll get into later).
The core gameplay consists mainly of running around the levels and either killing the enemies (mainly police and scientists, and later the army), or eating their brains. Eating an enemies brains recharges your special powers, and turns the enemy into a member of your undead force. There are some simple squad controls like 'attack' or 'follow', but they aren't too important since they'll usually want to kill the people, making your army bigger.
You also have some vehicles at your disposal, such as jeeps, tanks, and the 'sodomobile' which shoots globs of dirt at people.
Later in the game, the gameplay gets a little more varied once you get the detachable hand special power. This power lets you throw your hand, which you then control. It can climb on walls and ceilings, giving it some stealth cababilities. Once you get in range of an enemy, you can attach yourself to it's head and control it. If you're stuck somewhere, you can take control of a soldier and blast his friends in the back before they know what's going on. Besides being fun, this ads a huge aspect to the game, and greaty varies the gameplay.
The game also has a co-op mode, where there's simply 2 Stubbs running around. As with any co-op experience, this only ads to the fun.
Throughout the game, there are many funny one-liners, cutscenes, characters, weapons, and is over all pretty hilarious. I won't spoil the story by going into too much detail, but it's very funny.
The graphics are pretty good. It's an updated version of the Halo engine, but it looks more like Halo 2 in quality.
The game is not very long, but that just ads to the replay value since it's not a huge investment to start playing it. There are several different difficulties, but the main difference between them is the amount of enemies you fight, making the hardest difficulty more fun, since your zombie hoard can be much larger.
The gameplay can get a little repetitive, especially if completed in one sitting, but it's not a huge issue.
This game can be found online for fairly cheap, and is also on the Xbox Originals on the Xbox 360, so everyone should be able to check it out, and it's definately worth the money, especially when played with a friend.
It is a shame that this game came out so late in the Xbox's life (mid October 2005, and the 360 came out in November 2005), because it is a unique game that just never got the attention it deserved.
Like last time, I'm going back to the original Xbox with another one of my favorite games for the system. Since the Xbox was a relitively short lived system, and after a few years, hype for the 360 was growing, there were lots of great games that came out late in the Xbox's cycle that were overlooked, and along with Phantom Dust, Stubbs the Zombie was one of them.
This game, created by a company composed of several members of the original Halo team, and it used the Halo engine, was a unique type of zombie game where instead of fighting off waves of the undead, you actually played as a zombie.
The game takes place in the 1950's in a new 'way of the future' type setting, so there's funny robots and flying cars, but all in 50's design.
The game starts out where this city was built on top of where you, Edward Stubblefield, was burried. You are greeted by a funny cutscene followed by a simple tutorial. The game isn't really that complicated, so it's very easy to just pick up and have fun.
Stubbs can walk around (which turns to running after you gain some speed), jump, and attack. Later in the game he gets some special attacks such as throwing some guts (grenade), a fart attack that stuns enemies, a bowling ball head grenade, and, probably the coolest, a detachable hand (which I'll get into later).
The core gameplay consists mainly of running around the levels and either killing the enemies (mainly police and scientists, and later the army), or eating their brains. Eating an enemies brains recharges your special powers, and turns the enemy into a member of your undead force. There are some simple squad controls like 'attack' or 'follow', but they aren't too important since they'll usually want to kill the people, making your army bigger.
You also have some vehicles at your disposal, such as jeeps, tanks, and the 'sodomobile' which shoots globs of dirt at people.
Later in the game, the gameplay gets a little more varied once you get the detachable hand special power. This power lets you throw your hand, which you then control. It can climb on walls and ceilings, giving it some stealth cababilities. Once you get in range of an enemy, you can attach yourself to it's head and control it. If you're stuck somewhere, you can take control of a soldier and blast his friends in the back before they know what's going on. Besides being fun, this ads a huge aspect to the game, and greaty varies the gameplay.
The game also has a co-op mode, where there's simply 2 Stubbs running around. As with any co-op experience, this only ads to the fun.
Throughout the game, there are many funny one-liners, cutscenes, characters, weapons, and is over all pretty hilarious. I won't spoil the story by going into too much detail, but it's very funny.
The graphics are pretty good. It's an updated version of the Halo engine, but it looks more like Halo 2 in quality.
The game is not very long, but that just ads to the replay value since it's not a huge investment to start playing it. There are several different difficulties, but the main difference between them is the amount of enemies you fight, making the hardest difficulty more fun, since your zombie hoard can be much larger.
The gameplay can get a little repetitive, especially if completed in one sitting, but it's not a huge issue.
This game can be found online for fairly cheap, and is also on the Xbox Originals on the Xbox 360, so everyone should be able to check it out, and it's definately worth the money, especially when played with a friend.
It is a shame that this game came out so late in the Xbox's life (mid October 2005, and the 360 came out in November 2005), because it is a unique game that just never got the attention it deserved.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
sigh...
I may have spoke too soon last post. My computer still works I guess, but it won't always boot on the first try. While booting, I still sometimes have to push down on the GPU to get it to work. In the next couple of days if I have time, I'll take it apart again (I'm probably a pro by now anyway), and I'll put something between the heat sink and GPU to put more pressure down on it. (probably some pennies with thermal paste on them). It does not take much pressure to get the computer to boot, so that should probably do it. If not, I'll just keep pushing down on the GPU when I boot up, that seems to work, but it's in no way a fix.
If anyone has any suggestions of how I can put more pressure down on the GPU when there's no room for anything in the small case, be my guest.
If anyone has any suggestions of how I can put more pressure down on the GPU when there's no room for anything in the small case, be my guest.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Finally!
Guess what I'm doing. .. I'm using my laptop! After over a year of hassle, and a month of complete uselessness, my laptop is back in working order. I own a HP Pavilion in the TX1000 line, which are notorious for having problems.
Apparently, what happens is the soldering on the GPU weakens and the GPU loses contact with the motherboard causing the computer to just have a blank screen when you boot up.
Basically what I had to do was overheat the underside of the motherboard where the GPU was and press it back into place. I'm sure it's not a permanent fix, but when it happens again, I can do the same thing.
This is the tutorial I followed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctHTF3oNdxI
If you own a HP Pavilion tx 1000 line computer, and you are having this problem, I highly recommend doing this easy fix before you spend hundreds getting it fixed.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Phantom Dust
Alright, I've put it off long enough. It's time for my first game review, and what better game to start off with than my favorite game for the original Xbox?
Phantom Dust was an amazing little game that did not receive the attention it deserved. Created by Yukio Fatatsugi, who created the classic Panzer Dragoon series, this game is like nothing I've ever played.
It's basically a card battle game similar to Magic the Gathering, but it happens in all real time. There are hundreds of different spells to choose from with which to build your 'arsenal'. The spells consist of various attacks, defensive shields, status effects such as poison/slow/etc, environmental effects that effect everyone in the battlefield, and other various things. With all these spells, each belonging to one of five different 'schools' of magic. With the endless possibilities of arsenals mixed with fast paced game play with fully destructible levels, this game is like no other, and is incredibly exciting.
While it's obvious that the main focus of the game is playing against other people online, there is also a story driven single player campaign. Basically, the story is there was this astronaut guy who went into space and when he came back, it was hundreds, if not thousands of years in the future, and all life on Earth was gone. The planet was covered in this dust that gave the astronaut (Edgar) the power to create whatever he wanted. He used it to recreate what he remembered, such as his friends, family, cities, etc, but they were all hollow shells. Needless to say bad things happen, but I won't spoil it in case anybody wants to pick this game up. (I've seen used copies at used game shops for around $10, which is definitely worth it).
This game was amazing, but because of it's niche appeal, it never really caught on, despite being released for only $20.
It has created a cult following, and it is possible to still find people playing online, or at least set up a time to play. Sites such as http://xboxphreaker.com/ have active forums of people trying to find people to play with.
Overall, this game had excellent graphics, excellent game play, and an amazing soundtrack made of classical music. If you can find this game, I could not recommend it more.
I'd easily give this game a 10 / 10 as it is my favorite game for the Xbox, and one of my favorite games of all time.
Phantom Dust was an amazing little game that did not receive the attention it deserved. Created by Yukio Fatatsugi, who created the classic Panzer Dragoon series, this game is like nothing I've ever played.
It's basically a card battle game similar to Magic the Gathering, but it happens in all real time. There are hundreds of different spells to choose from with which to build your 'arsenal'. The spells consist of various attacks, defensive shields, status effects such as poison/slow/etc, environmental effects that effect everyone in the battlefield, and other various things. With all these spells, each belonging to one of five different 'schools' of magic. With the endless possibilities of arsenals mixed with fast paced game play with fully destructible levels, this game is like no other, and is incredibly exciting.
While it's obvious that the main focus of the game is playing against other people online, there is also a story driven single player campaign. Basically, the story is there was this astronaut guy who went into space and when he came back, it was hundreds, if not thousands of years in the future, and all life on Earth was gone. The planet was covered in this dust that gave the astronaut (Edgar) the power to create whatever he wanted. He used it to recreate what he remembered, such as his friends, family, cities, etc, but they were all hollow shells. Needless to say bad things happen, but I won't spoil it in case anybody wants to pick this game up. (I've seen used copies at used game shops for around $10, which is definitely worth it).
This game was amazing, but because of it's niche appeal, it never really caught on, despite being released for only $20.
It has created a cult following, and it is possible to still find people playing online, or at least set up a time to play. Sites such as http://xboxphreaker.com/ have active forums of people trying to find people to play with.
Overall, this game had excellent graphics, excellent game play, and an amazing soundtrack made of classical music. If you can find this game, I could not recommend it more.
I'd easily give this game a 10 / 10 as it is my favorite game for the Xbox, and one of my favorite games of all time.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
let's DO THIS!
Hi, my name is David King, and I have been gaming my entire life. I have always had strong opinions about the games I play, and they usually differ from the mainstream views. I believe pretty much every game has value, and I give every game I play a fair chance. I will be reviewing some of the games that I own, and maybe whoever reads this will find a new favorite since I'm not just going to review the same games everyone else has.
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