Blogcritics Author: Matthew Valdez

PS3 Review: Conflict - Denied Ops

Matthew Valdez — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:53:37 EDT

The world is in trouble, so grab a partner and save it.
Third world countries want to acquire weapons capable of mowing down cities. It is your duty to aid your partner and disrupt the operations of the rival countries. You are our country's last hope for a peaceful world.As you walk home, eager to tear the wrappings off the case and pop the Blu-ray disk into the DVD-eating drive, you pump yourself...

PC Game Review: Fury

Matthew Valdez — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:57:52 EST

If you're not into PvP, TURN BACK NOW!
Fury takes an aspect of most MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) to a whole new level. Most MMORPG have an element of PvP (Player vs. Player) combat, but Fury is all about PvP. The whole premise of the game is to kill the other players.Much like other MMORPGs, there is no point of the story for Fury. Much because the only mode...

PSP Review: Monster Hunter Freedom 2

Matthew Valdez — Sat, 6 Oct 2007 13:43:07 EDT

A dazzling game filled with giant dragons. What's better?
Monster Hunter, a series that's all about killing monsters and crafting equipment for you character, arrives with its second installment on the Playstation Portable. At first, the game might overwhelm you with its massive areas, huge weapon trees, and the unique fighting controls. About half the stuff in Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is new in...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

PS2 Review: Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s

Matthew Valdez — Thu, 9 Aug 2007 02:02:29 EDT

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s leaves nothing behind from the formula that was last used in Guitar Hero II. In fact, it doesn’t add anything either. Instead of jamming to songs that are popular today, Rock the 80s lets you jam on oldies such as "Turning Japanese" from The Vapors. Rock the 80s has an impressive song list from the 80s. Sadly, besides from the 30 tracks from the main game, there are no extra tracks. That really cuts down on the replayability of Rock the 80s forcing you only to play the original 30 tracks. What does keep you playing the game is the fantastic multi-player. The co-op, which was introduced in Guitar Hero II, allows two players to take on separate roles (lead guitar and bass, melody or rhythm). This feature is the greatest addition to the series, allowing you and your friends to rock out together. In this mode, you also get rated on six stars (1-5 and a gold star for 100%). Pro-Face Off is another exhilarating mode in Rock the 80s. This mode pits you head to head against your friend to see who can make the most points. The difficulty is set to both of you, (easy, medium, hard, expert), to make it fair game. Single-player is entertaining while it lasts. That said, the game can be beaten in less than three hours on the hardest difficulty if you’ve played the other games in the series. Each of the 30 songs is spread across six levels and six themes. The themes range from “Opening Licks” to “Furious Fretwork" - familiar territory to most Guitar Hero players by now. The extras in Rock the 80s are shameful. You can only buy guitars, guitar skins, and one extra character (Grim), from the shop. Each of the characters is outfitted in nice 80s attire. For instance, Grim has 3-D glasses and huge clock chain. With the lack of extra songs, you really feel like this was just a game to fill in the gap between Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III. Although, if you are a fan of the 80s and absolutely LOVE the Guitar Hero series, this is obviously a good buy. Hitting the NotesRockin' 80's SoundtrackGreat MultiplayerMissing the Notes No extrasNothing new from Guitar Hero II Small cast of charactersFeels like its a game to fill in the gap between the GH2 and GH3.Steep price ($50)Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB for Lyrics.

Matthew Valdez is currently a student whose hobbies are writing, graphic design and web design. He joined Blogcritics voluntarily to help the community and get better at writing.

First Impressions: Heavenly Sword

Matthew Valdez — Wed, 1 Aug 2007 00:11:51 EDT

Heavenly Sword promises to be the first epic exclusive game for the PS3. With huge battles and bone breaking attacks galore. An engaging story packed with emotion is also promised. Is this all too good to be true? Taking a peek at the trailers, one might think from the combat that is shown, that Heavenly Sword is a God of War clone. Heavenly Sword looks like a more cinematic God of War filled with even more intense action sequences. Even the action sequences bear a resemblance when it requires you to fulfill a button pressing mini-game. Can Heavenly Sword supply us with something new and original?With the release of demo on July 27th, you can get your hands soaked with blood with fierce battles. You are graced with Nariko, the heroine of Heavenly Sword. You start the demo with an intense ride on some ropes, requiring you to jump between ropes as well as run across them. This cinematic sequence is a mini-game of button pressing, similar to God of Wars action sequences with bosses. This camera follows behind Nariko during this sequence as she flips across the ropes and then performs a deadly attack on the enemies below.In Heavenly Sword, there are three combat stances; Ranged (Hold L1), power (Hold R1), and Agile (Default). With ranged, Nariko wields the Heavenly Sword Kratos-style, flinging them around on chains hitting all nearby enemies. This stance is nice to get the advantage on enemies running your way by dealing a good amount of damage. Switching to the power stance forms the Heavenly Sword into a giant sword. Swinging the sword around is a slow task, but it can push back enemies that are pounding on Nariko. When you push back your enemies, you switch back to your default stance where Nariko wields the Heavenly Sword dual-blade style. In this stance, she is quite agile and quick in the attacks, and she can kill off the enemies quickly, especially after the powerful attacks from the power stance. Certainly, the combat has familiarities of God of War, but the different stances make Heavenly Sword stand out.My first impression on Heavenly Sword is hopeful. With the demo being so short (only two minutes long), you can't tell what Heavenly Sword has in store. But the demo does succeed in making you want to go out and buy the game to play some more. Not to mention, the game looks absolutely gorgeous. My verdict is, despite the slight familiarities to God of War, Heavenly Sword is a unique, original experience.

Matthew Valdez is currently a student whose hobbies are writing, graphic design and web design. He joined Blogcritics voluntarily to help the community and get better at writing.

Nintendo DS Review: Cookie & Cream

Matthew Valdez — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:50:20 EDT

This Nintendo DS title originated from the Playstation 2, where it was a wacky game. Now, it hops into your pockets, with all the crazy puzzles and boss battles from the original with a touch screen twist. Despite its slow-moving pace, it is still a good game. Unfortunately, Cookie & Cream suffers from non-innovative use of the touch screen. The game basically requires the user to do the same motions over and over with no creative use of the touch screen.Cookie & Cream follows two bunnies through different adventures to find a missing moon. Sadly, the story does not come in during the game besides the opening/ending. You follow the bunnies through numerous islands and adventures. The game has a cute aura about it throughout, with very bright colors animals aplenty. Cookie & Cream is totally linear, no exploring whatsoever. The game gets tricky when you have to use both screens at the same to time solve puzzles. Moving with the D-pad and flipping switches with the touch-screen can become a very frustrating job if you can’t do two things at once. Even jumping to platforms can be tricky because of the perspective you see the top bunny. The game also gives you some incentive to go back and re-play some levels. Since the levels are time based, the faster you go the better. Usually, on your first play through the times are pretty horrible. But, by the end o the game you learn the “tricks” of the game, which helps you and takes away all the challenge. You can use these tricks to achieve fast times in the levels, unlocking bonus mini-games for you to play with. Most of the mini-games originated from the puzzles from the campaign.The story mode never gets all that difficult. It does however get very confusing. No hints ever appear to help you in time of need, which gets frustrating trying to pass a level when you cannot figure out what to do. Some boss battles require you just to move your stylist around randomly hoping to find how to hurt the boss. It gets very annoying having to redo a level because you couldn’t figure out one measly little puzzle.The game does include multiplayer over Wi-Fi and Ad-hoc. Here you can play with up to four people playing mini-games. Sadly, it is extremely difficult to find someone to play with. Nevertheless, it is fun when you do find someone to play with.Cookie & Cream is a fun, if sometimes frustrating game, with a lot of substance. It’s definitely a must-have for Wario Ware fans, but expect the same uncreative puzzles throughout the game.Cookie & Cream is rated E (Everyone) by the ESRB for Comic Mischief.

Matthew Valdez is currently a student whose hobbies are writing, graphic design and web design. He joined Blogcritics voluntarily to help the community and get better at writing.

Lumines Exploit Allows For 3.50 Downgrader

Matthew Valdez — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:42:53 EDT

With the recent findings of the “Illuminati” exploit on the PSP, it was only bound to happen that a 3.50 downgrader would follow. With this, Fanjita shares with the world… the PSP firmware 3.50 Downgrader.Team Noobz, released the “illuminati” exploit on June 23. The exploit allows the use of homebrew and emulators on all version of PSP. The best of it is that it uses any version of the Lumines UMD, except the Japanese version. When Noobz released the “Illuminati” exploit, it was bundled with a “Hello World” Application. This is what Team Noobz has to say when running and installing this exploit. Check that you have an EU or US version of Lumines (ULES00043 or ULUS10002). Currently we don't have a version for the Japanese version, but we're working on it, as soon as we get hold of a Japanese UMD.Extract the contents of the 'MS_ROOT' folder from the ZIP file into the top-level of your memory stick. (HINT: If you wind up with an 'MS_ROOT' folder on the stick, you've done it wrong).Start the game, and as soon as it gets to the 'Press START' screen, press START. If you wait until the demo has started, the exploit may not work.The screen should go blank, and the exploit will start after a few moments. It doesn't do anything except look pretty at this stage - but feel free to enjoy the first homebrew on your v3.10 - v3.50 PSP Three days after the introduction of the “Illuminati” exploit, Fanjita comes and announces the 3.50 downgrader. This allows ALL PSP’s the passage to Dark Alex’s Open Edition Firmware. Fanjita warns us that this is a 3.50 Downgrade, thus you must first upgrade to downgrade. The downgrade comes with HEN (Homebrew Enabler) which automatically detects your motherboard to ensure you have a very safe downgrade. Since the software is early in development, some risks cannot be avoided. Thus, Fanjita had the following warnings. Any downgrader carries some risk of permanently damaging your PSP. We've done everything we can to remove as much danger as possible, but if you choose to use this downgrader, you are accepting all of the risk involved. Nobody else will be held responsible for any damage to your PSP, howsoever caused.Recent Sony official firmwares (3.30 onwards) have included checks that block upgrade from previously-downgraded PSPs with TA-082 or later motherboards. If you use this downgrader on such a PSP, you will lock yourself out of official firmware updates - although you will still be able to use new OE firmwares when they are released. We intend to release a tool to allow a return to official firmwares in the future.This software is provided free of charge, so that you can use legitimate homebrew on your PSP. You are explicitly prohibited from selling it, or using it to pirate commercial games or applications. If you want to play a commercial game, do the decent thing and support the developers by buying it. If you don't, then YOU are contributing to the death of the PSP software industry. Everyone must read the How to. I repeat, must read the How to. You do not want to risk bricking you PSP and having a very expensive paperweight for your office. Enjoy your stay in the Homebrew community!PIRATING IS ILLEGAL. DON'T DO IT! WE WANT TO ENJOY THE HOMEBREW, NOT STEAL FROM COMPANIES. BE GOOD AND PLAY FAIR!Editor's Note: Sony has just released 3.51, so don't upgrade to 3.51 if you plan on using the Lumines exploit to downgrade your PSP.

Matthew Valdez is currently a student whose hobbies are writing, graphic design and web design. He joined Blogcritics voluntarily to help the community and get better at writing.

Nintendo Wii Review: Mario Party 8

Matthew Valdez — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:16:16 EDT

It’s been eight Mario Party’s and there has yet to be any changes. But why change something that works perfectly? Mario Party 8 is a fun-filled board game, that is packed full of entertaining mini-games. They really make good use of the Wii’s controller. In Mario Party 8, you travel to the carnival of MC Ballyhoo and his trusty top hat, Big Top. Once you're past the carnival themed menus, you'll jump into the game world. If you haven’t played any of the other seven Mario Party games, they are played like a board game. Each of the four players roll a die to see how much they move, you collect coins and stars, and you play mini-games. Each player partakes in a mini-game at the end of each round.Unfortunately, Mario Party 8 does not have as many of these games as Mario Party 7. Also, unlike Mario Party 7, you can only have four players, not eight. What saves the game is the clever use of the Wii Remote. Holding it sideways (like a classic gamepad), balancing yourself while you walk a tight rope, lassoing items and even hitting baseballs are some of the things you will be doing. The Wii Remote helps give the mini-games a new feel and truly helps break from the old. Some of the min-games give tribute to past games like Luigi’s Mansion.The mini-games, as in all Mario Party games, are never complicated - switching from one vs. one, to one vs. three, to just a total free for all. Mini-games being too simple is great when you have family over who don’t game much, they will easily enjoy the simple and addicting games. There are six themed boards in Mario Party 8. To name a few, you have: Donkey Kong, Mario Sunshine, Luigi’s Mansion, and a level that looks like the Super Smash Bros. Melee Earthbound level. Some of the levels have unique elements to them. For instance, in Luigi’s Mansion, the board is a mystery level, which you have to go to each room to hunt for the stars. This brings new exciting features to the regular board game atmosphere of Mario Party.With any Mario Party game, the game is based on chance. You can always roll that one number you do not want and land on a bad space. This can bring you from first to last, especially if you lose a star. This game of chance is what makes Mario Party so fun; Knowing, that you can lose your position in a split second. This makes the game more exciting, and not one person can dominate all. Mario Party 8 is a fun-filled game for the family. Its simplicity is perfect for a party or family gathering. Gamers will find some of the games too easy and not fun though. In all, the game is for people who want to have a pick-up-and-play game for when the family is around. Mario Party 8 is rated E (Everyone) by the ESRB for Mild Cartoon Violence.

Matthew Valdez is currently a student whose hobbies are writing, graphic design and web design. He joined Blogcritics voluntarily to help the community and get better at writing.

PC Game Review: Infernal

Matthew Valdez — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:06:46 EDT

What do you get when an ex-angel makes a deal with the devil? You get a repetitive game that sacrifices game play for style. The game also suffered from repetitive crashes when I played it. My specs on my computer blow away the minimum and meet the recommend by a long shot, so that is not the reason for the crashes. In Infernal, you play as Ryan Lennox. He is an ex-angel who worked for Heaven's CIA, the Everlight Corporation. When Ryan gets fired from Everlight for being too "sinful" when doing his job, Everlight goes out to kill him. Why would heavenly Everlight go after an ex-angel? Ryan was their top-dog, so Everlight sees Ryan as a threat, and rightfully so. As a last resort, Ryan teams up with Hell's own CIA; in return Ryan gets infernal powers that allow him to teleport around the level briefly, levitate objects, fire powerful magical bullets, and see invisible power-ups. All this magic is not your only weapon, as you do get the ordinary weapons (pistols and assault rifles), but then you get guns like heavy duty laser beams! With all this power, you need to infiltrate Everlights' facilities to uncover what exactly they are doingThe game play in Infernal is bland and repetitive. Basically, shooting and draining everything that has legs... or moves. As Ryan kills enemies, he walks up to their dead bodies and drains them of their soul. Sweet! Only if it didn't take so long... and you didn't have to have new weapons and ammo. All this fighting is accompanied with a heavy metal track that goes well with the action. Soul draining revitalizes your health while sometimes giving you ammo. A.I. in Infernal is not exciting; you won't even find yourself ducking for cover, but running, gunning, and soul stealing the whole game. In fact, you'll find yourself doing the same thing in each of the four levels in what amounts to a very short game. Everyone in Infernal has a nice glossy look to them. The graphics, I must say, are quite amazing. Infernal also takes advantage of the Aegia PhysX physics card. With this, you get some pretty nice physics in the game, although it has little to no impact on game play at all. Nevertheless, it is a nice little visual touch to have.The biggest downfall of Infernal is that it has no multiplayer. Once you finish the game (I completed in roughly seven hours), there is nothing to call you back. So once you're done, you're done.Overall, Infernal has potential. However, the poor A.I., crashes, and repetitive game play holds Infernal from being a great game. Infernal is rated M (Mature) by the ESRB for Blood, Language, and Violence.

Matthew Valdez is currently a student whose hobbies are writing, graphic design and web design. He joined Blogcritics voluntarily to help the community and get better at writing.

PS2 Review: Odin Sphere

Matthew Valdez — Wed, 6 Jun 2007 00:14:09 EDT

The person that said 2-D games are dead did not see this amazing game. Odin Sphere is a beautiful hand-drawn, old-school style action/RPG mixture that is perfect. When you first play Odin Sphere, the visuals immediately stand out. Gorgeous, not to mention big, sprite characters walk around in an environment of amazing "water color painted" backgrounds. Everything screams hand-drawn goodness. The lush environments and the gorgeous sprites jump out of your HDTV (when using component cables). Odin Sphere is played through the eyes of five different characters. Each character shows up in each other's "book". Each character's story is played one at a time. The different characters belong to different nations who are trying to claim a relic called The Cauldron. Each character's story is separated into scenes and acts as the character Alice, a little girl, reads each story. The game is played as if Alice is reading you a book, which she is, as she is the narrator of the game.Visuals are not the only thing Odin Sphere has going for it. The game play is simple, but complex also. Each level is divided into sub-stages which are circular. Running straight through each stage will ultimately bring you back to the beginning. Each of the sub-stages is connected by a path which you must unlock. Once you clear a stage of enemies or bosses, exits open up leading to different paths that you can take through the level. When you first play Odin Sphere, you might think it is a simple button-masher. When you play more through the game, elements of RPG games appear. Such as leveling up your weapon, alchemy (combination of items to make new ones), and learned abilities. Once an enemy is slain on the battlefield they release phozons. Phozons are absorbed by your weapon, allowing the weapon to upgrade and you to gain magic levels. They also allow you to recharge you magic bar, which in turns let you do spells for area damage. Phozons also allow seeds to grow. Seeds can be brought and found throughout the levels. These seeds can be planted on the level, and they grow by absorbing phozons. The seeds grow into plants which sprout recovery items.Odin Sphere does suffer from radical difficulty changes. Some levels are ridiculously easy and then the next will take you a couple of retries to finally clear them. This is not a huge problem, but it can be quite annoying sometimes. In the end, Odin Sphere is a must have PS2 game for 2007. Beautiful graphics and intense game play is what this game delivers. Odin Sphere is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB for Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes and Use of Alcohol.

Matthew Valdez is currently a student whose hobbies are writing, graphic design and web design. He joined Blogcritics voluntarily to help the community and get better at writing.