Where do I start with Naruto anyway? I know the broad strokes of the series through casual research, but every time I try to peek my head in to see what’s going on with it, something will inevitably kick it back out again. I usually refer to that something with the blanket term ‘NINJA NONSENSE.’ See, the lubricant that makes the Naruto world turn is NINJA NONSENSE: things that you (as an implied newcomer) need to do a lot of technical research on to understand in a way that doesn’t seem like it’s just arbitrary and has no set rules. I liken it to going in cold to a series like Game of Thrones, as most of that can be can be summed up with “BOOBIES!” “LEMONCAKES!“ “DRAGON NONSENSE!” by the uninitiated. I can see both sides of the issue. But be forewarned, you will be seeing the term NINJA NONSENSE appear often in this review because I’m a sad clown and I think it’s funny. Apologies in advance to the Naruto fan base.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is an adaptation of the latest arcs of the Naruto Shippuden anime. War is brewing among the Hidden Ninja Villages after a failed assassination attempt on one of the village leaders by Sasuke Uchiha, the series’ resident anti-hero pretty-boy fan-art magnet. As a result, a death warrant has been issued for Sasuke in order to maintain the peace between the villages, but this doesn’t sit right with Naruto, our titular hero and Sasuke’s former best friend, who Sasuke betrayed way back at the start of the series some 9 years ago in real world time. Anyway, Naruto and his friends set out to save Sasuke’s life before he’s hunted down and killed by every other ninja on the planet. However, Sasuke, being the conniving jerk he is, has plans of his own and isn’t going to let a pesky little thing like a death warrant get him down. Meanwhile, series Big Bad Madara Uchiha is not-so-subtly plotting to take over the world, or destroy the world, or do… something… with giant monsters—NINJA NONSENSE! Let’s just get to the review.

What I Liked

(The Cinematography of) Story Mode

If there’s one thing CyberConnect2 knows how to do well with their games, it’s out-anime anime. On a purely aesthetic level, NS:UNS3 is beautiful–more beautiful than a licensed tie-in Naruto game has any right to be. CybeConnect2 has a proven track record of innovative in-game cutscene cinematography, going back as far as the .hack tetralogy on the PlayStation 2, and as recently as Asura’s Wrath. Now this is what comes to mind when I think of anime, stuff that pushes the creative and stylistic boundaries of animation, stuff that most Western studios are either too timid, too cheap, or too unimaginative to try and pull off, not crap like Mugen Souls.

Anyway. The story mode does an admirable job of condensing and conveying the important details and NINJA NONSENSE of the otherwise plodding narrative of Naruto into a palatable format. Unlike the Dragon Ball Z Budokai games, for example, time and care is taken to craft of cohesive narrative that flows just as well as it does in the anime, only without all the annoying filler and with the added benefit of actually controlling the ninja battles. It’s better than actually sitting down and watching an episode of Naruto itself.

The Soundtrack

Another thing CyberConnect2 has going for it is its sound team. I could not remember a single piece of music from any of the 10-ish episodes of Naruto I’ve watched start-to-finish, but UNS3 has some very atmospheric and creative music to it, which, again probably has no right being in a licensed Naruto tie-in video game. Yet here it is.

The Combat System

This is actually a mixed bag, hence why it’s at the bottom of the “Like” list. The combat system is easy to get in to and has a lot of mechanical depth to it with features like consumable items and attack/defense supporting characters ala Marvel vs. Capcom, but the game seems to invite button spamming. Literally. Hit triangle twice, then mash X until NINJA NONSENSE happens and your opponent goes flying to the other side of the map riding a fireball the jumbo jet-sized frog you just summoned spat up. There’s lots of room to experiment with different character combinations to find which are best suited to you. UNS3 comes with a vast array of characters to tinker with–you just need to unlock all of them first.

What I Didn’t Like

Giant Hard Drive Installation

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is one of those games that demands it install itself on your console’s hard drive before you can even play the thing. Normally I’m okay with that, but UNS3’s install is GIGANTIC. It took about 15 minutes to work its way through—I timed it. Over that time, you are given a handy crash course in the plot of the Naruto franchise up until the start of the game, so at least there’s something semi-productive going on while the game takes a giant bite out of your HDD.

Over Half the Roster is Locked Down

If you run out and buy Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 on your way to your friend’s house intending it to be a cool fighting game for a get together, be prepared to get punched in the dick by everyone in attendance. I discovered, to my horror, that more than half of the game’s stupefyingly large roster (over 80 characters, enough to put Tekken Tag Tournament 2’s roster to shame by a country mile) is locked down at the outset. You need to clear the story mode if you want access to pretty much any character who isn’t Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kikashi, or any of their immediate friends. Granted, that’s still like 20 characters, but the point remains. Hell, not even the Akatsuki are playable straight of the gate. Worse yet, characters even have alternate costumes which are only unlocked by slogging through the story mode. I get that CyberConnect2 put a damn lot of effort into UNS3’s story mode, but the people who play these types of games usually aren’t interested in half-baked recaps of what they’ve already read or watched, so to make them go through a 20-hour or more single player campaign just to get access to all 80-some characters is doing your hardest-core fan base a real disservice.

Story Mode Difficulty Spikes Rapidly

I’ll tell you, folks, Madara Uchiha is not one to piss around. Take some time to get used to the fighting mechanics of the game—particularly with Naruto as a character—before plunging head-long into the story mode, because if you’re like me and dive in relatively uninitiated, you will be annihilated, usually by the aforementioned masked jerk and his own brand of dark NINJA NONSENSE.

Naruto Neophyte Unfriendly

Giant install screen homework assignment notwithstanding, UNS3 is not the most accessible game for people coming fresh to the Naruto franchise. Even someone like me, with passing knowledge of the plot, had a hard time trying to dig my way past the mounds of NINJA NONSENSE it kept throwing up to bar my way. To prove my point, I sat Roland down in front of it and played through the first few segments of the story mode with him. “Who are these people?”, “what’s going on?”, “how are they able to do that?”, “what did he just say?”, and “there are no rules to this world, are there?” were constantly uttered over the 30-some minute demonstration. And, as you might almost be expecting by now, my answers were some variation of “NINJA NONSENSE.” I’m such a great friend, aren’t I?

Terrible Lip Synching

I almost wanted to put this in the “What I Liked” section just because it’s so damn hilarious. This game has some beautiful cinematography and animation, but the character lip synching in cutscenes is worse than what you’d expect from the stereotypical terrible “GOJIRA!”-type 1960’s import Japanese film dubs. What lands it in the “Dislike” column is the fact that it matches neither the English OR Japanese audio tracks. You’ve got to reach a special level of “don’t give a crap” to fail in two languages simultaneously.

Loading Screens

If it’s a CyberConnect2 game, you can bet there’s an abundance of long loading screens. The chronic inability to maintain gameplay momentum shot Asura’s Wrath’s kneecaps out from under it, and sad to say the same fate befalls NS:UNS3. And that’s after that giant mandatory hard drive installation. Ridiculous. Going from one section of a town in free roam mode to an adjacent section of a town should not involve a 30 second-long loading screen.

Quick-Time Events

Dear Sony Santa Monica Studios, thank you for giving every single modern video game developer the idea for quick-time events. Burn in hell. (Also, God of War: Ascension looks brilliant, and I can’t wait to play it). So yeah, there’s quick-time events–in a fighting game. I know the argument is “they’re trying to involve you in the cinematics,” but my involvement is usually just “oooooh—CRAP!” and hoping I press the right button before the bad thing happens. It’s just a vestigial annoyance game developers need to either grow out or get better at disguising, and sadly, CyberConnect2 doesn’t look like it’s ready to do either any time soon.

Final Word

NINJA NONSENSE! Oh, you knew it was coming.

Overall, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is a similar story to Asura’s Wrath, design-wise. It’s overflowing with a wild hyper-creative energy and manages to look far better than it actually plays. It’s by no means a bad game, just an uneven one. CyberConnect2 has gone 2-for-2 with me now on games that I love to see in action, yet I don’t want to actually play for an extended period of time. It’s a visually stunning game that features an occasional moment or two of gameplay brilliance—the prologue fight against the Nine Tails demon fox is going to stick in my mind for a while—but is marred by an underdeveloped mechanical side that’s just not up to speed with its storytelling capabilities.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 was reviewed with a copy provided by Namco Bandai.

The post Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Review appeared first on Trendy Gamers | Video Games Reviews, News, Sales, Deals, Previews.

What I Liked

It Gets Off To A Great Start

The God of War games are known for their quick, epic introductions and Ascension is no exception. No sooner do you break free from the Furies’ chains, in a very Kratos way, do you quickly get involved in a long, encompassing boss fight while trying to escape the Prison of the Damned. It may not be as heart pounding as a certain fight seen in God of War 3, but I found Ascension’s opening to be one of the best in recent memory.

The Combat

I was slightly disappointed at first because everything seemed to be different–in a bad way. I’ll get into what I didn’t like about the combat below, but what I enjoyed gets the spotlight here:

First off, you pretty much just have the blades this time around. Sure, you can pick up a few other weapons along the way, but your blades take centre stage. However, there are a few different ways to play. You’re given the ability to swap between different God-themed power-ups for your blades, such as Ares or Hades.

At the outset, it doesn’t work very well because your magic attack is locked. However, once the game gets going in the latter stages of the 7-hour campaign (on normal, collecting everything), and the blade powers get levelled up to their maximum potential, my personal favorite was easily Hades and all his soul effects. Overall, I’d say that Ascension‘s combat wasn’t nearly what I was expecting, but it’s still enjoyable by the time the credits roll.

Oh, and the sound the blades make is awesome.

The Graphics

If The Last of Us wants to take home best PS3 visuals this year, or maybe even the dark horse, Beyond: Two Souls, they need to step their game up. From the character models, to the animations, to the colors, to the detail, the blood splatter on Kratos, and the scope of the environments, this is an amazing looking game and shows that Sony Santa Monica really knows how to push the PS3.

The Multiplayer

I was very skeptical when I saw multiplayer for the first time, and when I got into the beta prior to launch, I wasn’t exactly a big fan. Thankfully, after putting some time into the final product, online play really helped improve my thoughts of Ascension as a whole package.

You are able to choose from variants of Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, or even a difficult gauntlet of enemies, as well as select your own warrior. Gameplay works very similar to the main game, with combos and magic attacks key, with traps thrown into the so-so levels.

Though I found there were balancing issues that could see you getting combo-juggled without a chance to retaliate before dying, I had hours of fun trying to take down all the enemies with my upgraded Spartan.

What I Didn’t Like

The Way The Story is Told

The story itself is pretty weak, not really offering any interesting information about Kratos that we didn’t already know, but the way the story is told is probably the worst part. I won’t spoil much, though I will say that Ascension starts out with Kratos in chains at the Prison of the Damned, some stuff happens, then you go back three weeks in time to a point that doesn’t seem necessary.

This flashback/flashforward mechanic is then used a couple more times through the game and it really hurts the overall flow. It’s especially bad when the story does start to get a little compelling, only to rip you through time yet again, with the exact same power-ups on your weapons.

When it comes to the finale of Ascension, instead of giving you a crazy ending that sets up the events perfectly for the next God of War, the ending just feels rushed and unsatisfying.

The Changes

Rather than a natural evolution of the franchise, Ascension feels like they were testing the waters for God of War IV to see what they could change to the formula. The differences that stuck out to me, and were negatives, are the new Rage meter, the loss of Rage of the Gods, the changing of the menus, somewhat different controls, axing of true save points, and picking up weapons.

It was nice to see some changes to God of War, but none of them really panned out for me and I hope Sony Santa Monica goes back to what works next time around.

Comparison

It Just Doesn’t Live Up To The Other God of War Games

Thanks to the lacklustre story telling, combat which doesn’t become second nature until later in the game, and the little changes, Ascension’s single player just doesn’t match up to any other game in the series. It’s not to a point where the game is bad, far from it, but I’m starting to re-think my personal ranking of having Chains of Olympus as my least favorite.

Final Word

While God of War: Ascension’s single player was a disappointment, it’s still better than most third-person action titles on the market. Despite my negatives, fans of the series should check this out, just maybe don’t come in with high expectations. And if you were worried about the addition of multiplayer, don’t be. It’s really fun and is something I wouldn’t mind seeing expanded in future games.

God of War: Ascension was reviewed with a copy provided by Sony.

The post God of War: Ascension Review appeared first on Trendy Gamers | Video Games Reviews, News, Sales, Deals, Previews.

The post LEGO City: Undercover Review appeared first on Trendy Gamers | Video Games Reviews, News, Sales, Deals, Previews.

Coming off the events of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Full Frontal Assault picks up a few months later with Captain Qwark, the series’ enduring moral weather-vane sci-fi hero pastiche, pouting after being turfed from office as Galactic President. Things change quite abruptly, as a new villain appears on the scene with a personal vendetta against the captain, leading Ratchet and Clank to help Qwark save the galaxy from this new (or rather old) menace.

Full Frontal Assault incorporates the ‘tower defence’ gameplay mechanic into the Ratchet & Clank series to create a hybrid platformer/strategy game where you need to divide your time between running around the map defeating enemies and clearing objectives, while maintaining a base of operations and keeping it properly defended from enemy attacks. It’s a mechanism that, taken on its own, works quite well, but when combined with the platforming elements of Ratchet & Clank tends to strain itself a little much. Does it ultimately ruin the game? Well, let’s see.

What I Liked

Tower Defense Strategy

Tower defense games usually aren’t my cup of tea. A lot of the time they feel like watered-down strategy games and I don’t quite get the compulsion developers have these days to try and shoehorn them into otherwise non-strategy games. Take for instance the tower defense minigame in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, the weakest and most needlessly tacked-on aspect of the game, in my opinion. A lot of UbiSoft’s other genre-busting minigames in the Assassin’s Creed series worked very well (see Roland’s thoughts on ACIII’s naval battle minigame, which—lo and behold—has become a game in and of itself: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag). However, the tower defense (quite literally defending towers) just didn’t fit right with the rest of the game and I ultimately wound up ignoring it every time a ‘base under attack’ warning flashed up on the minimap.

Insomniac, meanwhile, based the entire game of Full Frontal Assault around the tower defense mechanic, and as an element all to itself, it works very well. It’s more of a standard Ratchet & Clank platformer with a tower defense mechanism moulded around it. The tower defense elements themselves are well constructed, as is the platforming elements, it’s only where the two merge that problems arise, but we’ll cover that in detail later on.

Interesting Arsenal

Ratchet & Clank was particularly famous back in the early 2000’s (when the series was just getting started) for those quirky live action commercials featuring a group of idiot teenagers trying out all the bizarre weaponry from the game in the ‘real world’ Jackass style. Suffice to say, there’s an array of equally interesting weapons to choose from in Full Frontal Assault. You get access to goodies like the Pyro Blaster (a splash-damage flamethrower), or the Cryoshot (good for freezing enemies with ranged attacks, letting you toast them without being pummelled), the Dopplebanger (a robotic double of Ratchet you can set up within a set range to act as an impromptu turret) and the Warmonger (the combination rocket launcher/Tommy gun Ratchet’s wielding on the game’s cover), among others.

As the game goes on and you encounter more and newer enemies, you will ultimately need to put your arsenal to full use to get through stages. Certain enemies have certain weaknesses that only certain weapons can exploit.

Three Different Characters

The three playable characters add a degree of variety to the game, but not that much. It pretty much comes down to rock-paper-scissors, as each one has somewhat understated strengths and weaknesses that really don’t effect the gameplay too dramatically— to its detriment, I’d argue. Ratchet is the fragile speedster, the fastest and most agile of the trio. He’s adept at both lightning fast melee combat and quick running and gunning. The downside is, he’s the most vulnerable of the trio—enemy attacks do a lot of damage to him, so he’s not exactly the character to pick if you want to go in guns blazing. For that tactic, I’d recommend Captain Qwark. The lovable, cowardly traitor is a middle of road character, possessing most of the speed of Ratchet with most of the endurance of Clank and moderately powerful attacks as well. Clank, meanwhile, is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Ratchet, a lumbering tank in his power armour, Clank hits hard and can take way more hits than either Ratchet or Qwark can. The drawback is, he’s slow and awkward and can’t jump for crap. So there’s your options; pick your poison.

Good Platformer Elements

The platformer elements of the game are very well done. Ratchet & Clank as a series has damn-near perfected the art of the 3D PlayStation platformer in the absence of former kings Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter (seriously Naughty Dog, The Last of Us looks amazing, but would you just make another J&D already please?). After all, you don’t get to thirteen games in your series unless you’re doing something right—or in Final Fantasy’s case, coasting on fanboy goodwill and waning brand recognition—and Insomniac clearly knows how to make nice platformers.

Great Stages

There is a wide variety of wonderfully designed levels for you to explore and conquer in Full Frontal Assault. I’m talking vast, open stages you can honestly get lost in some times if you’re not careful. They’re all gorgeous to look at and fun to roam through. It’s almost a shame that the tower defense mechanics call your attention away from the intricacies of the stage every now and then, but we’ll get to why that is soon enough.

Lots of Challenges

Each stage has challenges like time attack modes and they like for you to clear after you complete them the first time. While clearing challenges will help you unlock more of the game’s vast arsenal, doing so ranges from hard to damn near impossible—at least on your own. My advice on this one is only attempt them if you’re either really good at these types of games, or if you can find a friend to help you.

Great Voice Acting

Up till now, I’ve seen more of Ratchet & Clank that I’ve played. But what always struck me about the series was its phenomenal voice acting, and Full Frontal Assault keeps the streak alive. The voice cast keeps bringing new life to what should by now be rather tried characters. I mean, twelve games over ten years? Who do these guys think they are, Armored Core? The script gets a little lame at times, but the actors know what to do with it and even save quite a few otherwise groan-worthy moments with their charm and humour. Plus the villain is voiced by Invader Zim himself, Richard Stephen Horvitz, and shares a lot of Zim-like qualities. So that fact alone should be an interest-piquer.

What I Didn’t Like

Gets A Bit Repetitive

Sure, the stages change and the new weapons/abilities/features you unlock liven things up a bit, but overall, you’re still just doing the exact same things over and over again. It doesn’t sap the fun out of the game like, say, Rainbow Moon or Risen 2, because at least Full Frontal Assault knows how to keep things interesting, but you will notice the repetition from time to time, that part is rather inescapable.

Too Much Micromanaging for a 3rd Person Platformer

God, Q-Force needs to hire some middle managers–then again, I get why no one wants to work for Captain Qwark, so it’s no wonder he fills damn near every role in his army from general down to janitor. This point leads into my “Single Player Unfriendly” heading a few points down, but I’ll just say that if you’re soloing Full Frontal Assault, you’ll find yourself running all over the map doing everything yourself—gathering resources, defeating enemies, and maintaining your base. If I actually had to physically do half the stuff Ratchet, Clank, and Qwark have to do to keep things in order on the battlefield, I’d have dropped dead of a stroke already.

You Can’t Change Characters on the Fly

This is the only real mechanical flaw with Full Frontal Assault, though it stems from it being largely a co-op/competitive game. Given how you’ve got three separate (relatively) unique characters to choose from, it’s only natural that you would want to sample the whole pallet from time to time. Unfortunately, there’s no on-the-fly character changer, or even a post-mission character change option. To switch between Ratchet, Clank, and Qwark, you need to actually quit to the main menu, then reload the game with your new selected character. Your progress in each stage is saved as you go, but it’s still very annoying to have to log out just to try out a new character if you’re playing solo rather than having a simple swap-out mechanic built into the game.

Stages Play the Same for All Three Characters

There’s no real immediate benefit to choosing one character over the other two. True, Ratchet, Clank, and Qwark each have their own unique arsenals and strengths/weaknesses, but there’s little difference between how the stages all play out depending on which character you’re controlling. You’re still completing the exact same objectives in more or less the exact same manner. The only real difference is whether you’re playing as the brute (Clank), the speedster (Ratchet), or the normal (Qwark). You can still access the same areas, and take on the same enemies and there is virtually zero variety to be had, and, ultimately little to no replayability to found in it either.

Single Player Unfriendly

If you’ve been keeping up with my reviews since I joined the site (and really, why?), then you probably know you need to drag me into multiplayer modes kicking and screaming. So it’s no surprise then I would gripe about what is arguably the game’s core feature, but remember, I’m doing this for your benefit. I’m here to help. So with that said, if you’re looking for a purely single player experience in line with previous Ratchet & Clank games, Full Frontal Assault might try your patience a bit because its set up to be a co-op game at its core. You need at least two players to realistically make any headway in some stages, especially if you want to clear some of the speed run challenge times. Soloing some of these stages means you’re taking on a workload meant for multiple players by yourself. Let me be clear though, this is NOT an objective flaw in the game, this is simply what I personally disliked about it. Full Frontal Assault is a rather well done co-op hybrid, it’s just not my personal cup of Japanophile tears. (Okay, I’ll knock it off, I swear).

Final Word

If you’re looking for a single player experience comparable to previous Ratchet & Clanks, you might come away a little disappointed, but if you’re looking for a nice co-op title, then Full Frontal Assault might be right up your alley. It’s resting in the center of a three-way venn diagram here. I don’t mean to repeat myself, but it’s a strong platformer, a strong tower defence game, and a strong co-op game, but in order to get the most out of it, you need be right in the middle of that nexus where the circles overlap to get the ideal gameplay experience, otherwise the three parts just unbalance and pull each other to pieces. The single player platforming is excellent, but the tower defence micromanaging drags it down, and vice-versa, the tower defence engine is strong, but the limitations of the platformer prevent you from getting the most out of the game. Unless, of course, you have someone to help you out.

Then, my friends, you’re golden.

Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault was reviewed with a copy provided by Sony.

The post Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault Review appeared first on Trendy Gamers | Video Games Reviews, News, Sales, Deals, Previews.

What I Liked

There’s So Much To Do

Putting an exact number on just how many hours you’ll get out of MLB 13 would be nearly impossible as there is just so much content. To give you an idea of what to expect, the opening tab of options in the main menu presents you with the following options:

• Play Now
• The Show Live
• Road to the Show
• Franchise
• Season
• The Postseason
• Leagues
• Diamond Dynasty
• Home Run Derby
• Challenge of the Week
• Rivalry
• Batting Practice
• Pitching Practice

As much as that is, there’s still three more sections in the home screen where you can read all the announcements from MLB.com, tweak multiple aspects of the game (including difficulty), view leaderboards, and more. While I won’t have time to go in-depth about every single aspect of MLB 13: The Show in this review, the majority of options are worthwhile and can have you losing yourself in them.

Season/Postseason

One of the modes I spent a good chunk of time on was Season as I could take the Toronto Blue Jays through a full 162 game schedule, making deals to improve the team and benching players who had the dreaded snowflake next to their name.

I will say that on my first attempt in Season, multiple players underperformed and we started losing quite badly, forcing me to trade away some key pitchers. Once I acquired some players, tweaked the batting order and defensive alignment, then played a few games myself, we seemed back on track.

Unfortunately, even with all my hard work, we finished eight games under .500 and missed the playoffs. Though it was disappointing to see my hours of preparation ultimately amount to nothing, I generally had fun the whole way through and immediately started up a new season right after. Before getting too deep in that season though, I checked out Postseason mode to give myself a taste of what I could expect if I made the team good enough.

Postseason starts out exactly how you’d expect it, as you choose whichever team(s) you’d like to enter the playoffs and then enter into the Wild Card or Divisional Series. Being able to skip all the mundanity of the regular season and just getting right to the excitement of the World Series playoffs was awesome and it had me playing very close attention to my pitcher’s effectiveness, bullpen match-ups, batting line up, and defense.

The Home Run Derby

Interestingly, this is the mode I found myself coming back to the most, generally because it offered up some quick competition. Provided you choose an online Home Run Derby, you’ll quickly find yourself up against up to 7 other players, just trying to crank out as many home runs as you can.

While I heartily believe that my lack of victories is due to people cheating and not playing fair, I still spent hours trying to hit the most dingers.

The Physics and Detail

I really have to commend MLB 13: The Show for its physics. The way the ball moves for each pitch, especially the knuckleball, is done perfectly, with the baseball moving realistically once it is hit off the bat.

Although I’ve found that players faces aren’t perfectly mapped on, something I hope to be improved on the PS4, I could tell who everyone was based off the stance. Whether it was the laid back approach of R. A.Dickey or Jose Bautista’s raised bat, I never had to look at someone’s face or jersey to know who they were.

What I Didn’t Like

There’s Too Much To Do

MLB 13: The Show does prove that too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. While I found that they generally did a good job of explaining how everything works in each and every mode, it took me a long time to learn everything. Then, online modes Diamond Dynasty and Leagues are very hit and miss, with a lot going on and are very overwhelming for first time users.

Redeeming some of the saturation is definitely Road to the Show, where you can create your own player, bringing them up to the Major League Baseball ranks through hard work and determination.

It’s Still Baseball

Out of all the sports that have been turned into video games, baseball isn’t exactly the most exciting. There are breaks in the action quite often, pitching and batting can become boring after a while, and prolonged periods of playtime do have the chance of wearing on you.

The PS Vita Difference

This isn’t much of a surprise due to the system’s limitations, but the PlayStation Vita version just doesn’t compare to its console counterpart. Sure, using the touch screen to select where your pitches land is a welcome addition, but the load times, very noticeable reduced graphics, and axing of Leagues, Diamond Dynasty, and more just makes this a lesser option to the PlayStation 3.

Final Word

Aside from the initial shock of options to choose from and somewhat unexciting nature of baseball, MLB 13: The Show is a complete baseball experience and is something that any fan of the sport or video game series should check out.

MLB 13: The Show was reviewed with a copy provided by Sony.

The post MLB 13: The Show Review appeared first on Trendy Gamers | Video Games Reviews, News, Sales, Deals, Previews.

The story behind this adventure sees the gang re-uniting after the events of 2005′s Honor Among Thieves, with the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus, a book passed down from Cooper to Cooper, mysteriously disappearing. Thanks to Bentley’s smarts, the gang uses a time machine to meet up with Sly’s ancestors, trying to figure out just what is going on.

What I Liked

It Feels Like A Sly Cooper Game

Even with such a drastic amount of time having passed since the last Sly Cooper, if you’ve played a game in the franchise before, you’ll feel right at home with Thieves in Time. The core objectives, focused around you sneaking your way through a level, pickpocketing guards, and performing master heists, remains unchanged. This familiarity also extends to the stealth/action platforming, where you’ll be fighting enemies and jumping from ledge to ledge quite often in your adventure.

Switching around to play as other characters is also back and offers up some variety. Playing as Bentley usually means that you’ll be blowing up something with your bombs, or hacking a machine, with Murray offering up the usual smashing and crashing. As for Sly’s ancestors, you also get to step into their shoes, and they each have their own strengths and weaknesses, all while staying true to the Sly Cooper series.

There’s Numerous Collectibles

If you’re one of those people who just enjoys searching high and low for trinkets and goodies, this game has them in droves. Whether it’s finding the 30 bottles in a level, bringing treasure back to your base, pickpocketing enemies just to see what they’re carrying, unlocking safes, or finding Sly masks, there’s hours of exploration waiting for you.

What I Didn’t Like

It Doesn’t Feel Next-Gen

As someone who’s played the previous Sly Cooper titles and enjoyed them, I really wanted to see Thieves in Time be as perfect as possible, though sadly, that isn’t the case. With the last adventure, Sly Cooper: Honor Among Thieves, appearing on the PS2, I was expecting a huge leap forward in terms of gameplay and innovation with this PS3 sequel. Now, as I said above, the game stays true to the old Sly Cooper titles, but it also falls prey to sticking too close the Sly formula. I never felt like there were any new surprises or innovations this time around, and honestly, this plays like what I’d have expected from a fourth Sly game on PS2.

Load Times

Not only does the loading screen, which ‘helpfully’ shows you your status in getting all the collectibles, show up way too often, you can also expect load times in the 30 – 45 second range. For a game that doesn’t have a giant world for you to travel through, these load times feel unnecessarily long.

In fact, a common scenario that will happen during Thieves in Time is that you’ll have just completed a job, then the loading screen will pop up for 30 seconds. After getting back to the hideout and immediately hitting X to select your next mission, you must then endure another 30 second loading screen. This becomes so annoying, so quickly, that it had me wishing that there would have been a mandatory install for the game so it ran faster.

The Pacing

To clear each episode, you need to employ the talents of various members of the Sly Cooper gang. This means that you won’t be spending all your time as the title character, but rather switching between Sly, Bentley, Murray, Carmelita, and the ancestors at a very rapid pace. So rapid in fact, that once you get into a groove with Sly (easily the most fun character), you’ll go into something like a weird dancing mini game with Murray, or have to hack a computer with Bentley, or shoot some people using Carmelita.

It’s fun to see how everyone handles differently, but you can never just settle in with one person for a long period of time, due to the game changing up the characters every mission or so. With all this switching, I’d say the amount of time you actually play as Sly himself is around 50% of your entire playthrough, something I felt was too low.

The characters aren’t the only pacing issue with Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, as the episode lengths are very sporadic. Without going too far into the game, you spend an acceptable amount of time with Rioichi Cooper, an obscenely long amount of time with the shooting-heavy episode of Tennesse Cooper, and to follow that up, you barely spend any time with Bob Cooper, who is easily the most fun ancestor of them all.

Though the overall game length is what you’d expect from a Sly Cooper title, certain episodes drag on way too long, while others end way too quickly.

The PS Vita Difference

Wanting to sample the Vita version first, I started it up on my machine and was very underwhelmed. First off, the graphics look really rough around the edges, barely measuring up to those of the PS3, and no matter how high I turned up the brightness, it always seemed to be way too dark. Going even further, I just found that the Vita’s screen wasn’t great at showing off the big areas you can find yourself in, almost giving you a claustrophobic feeling.

While I did enjoy the Cross-Save functionality that allows you to pick up on your PS3 (or vice versa) just by uploading your save to the cloud, I never actually went back to the PS Vita version after playing the far superior PS3 one.

Final Word

At the end of the day, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is a good, but not great game. The stealth-platforming and overall Sly charm are still here, meaning that big fans of the franchise will definitely enjoy it, but the game doesn’t feel like nearly the evolution it should have been going from PS2 to PS3.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time was reviewed with a copy provided by Sony.

The post Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time Review appeared first on Trendy Gamers | Video Games Reviews, News, Sales, Deals, Previews.

What I Liked

The Combat

If you’ve never played a Fire Emblem game before, the core concept is pretty simple: you travel around a grid, using your allied soldiers to kill the opposing soldiers. Awakening is no different from previous entries into the franchise, though it does make a few improvements.

Thanks to the un-skippable combat scene during the opening battle, you’re able to get a taste of the graphical power behind this game. Rather than just two tiny barely animated units dealing damage to each other, Awakening rivals that of the GameCube’s Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Each individual fight takes up the entirety of the top screen, giving a sense of realism whenever you send a unit into combat. While I personally switched these off before long (mostly to save time), they do pop up in mandatory fashions later on in the game, offering up some really dramatic moments.

As for the actual gameplay, it’s extremely fluid. Switching between the up to 5 weapons your unit can hold simultaneously is as simple as hitting the X button. The multitude of different advantages and disadvantages for each weapon are also shown in very high detail, giving you the opportunity to plan out your attacks in many different ways.

Extra layers, such as being able to pair up two fighters to increase their stats and relationships, or the ability to have adjacent units attack alongside you, also add miles to the already stellar formula. Honestly, if you have a 3DS and want to have an SRPG with top-notch gameplay, while getting 20-30 hours out of a single playthrough, Fire Emblem: Awakening is the one for you.

The Replayability

As you play through the campaign, you’ll have the opportunity to fight in a near constant stream of enemies across the world map, which can extend the life of your playthrough–but you’ll likely replay this game once you beat it, anyway. The reason I say that is based off of the game’s two difficulties. With Casual, you’re allowed to play through the entire game, without having to worry about losing your character’s permanently. Whereas with Classic, every single move counts and if your fighter dies, they are gone forever.

Since they’re so different, I started to have two save files open separately, with one of each mode. Even though I journeyed further in Casual because I was afraid of losing people, Classic really makes you attack and level up your characters in the best fashion possible, taking advantage of all the various features to keep everyone alive.

Basically with Fire Emblem: Awakening, you get two campaigns with the exact same story, but with two completely different battle experiences, doubling the life of the game.

The Online Functionality

The planned DLC for Fire Emblem: Awakening will help keep it in your 3DS for quite a while, and so will the online play included for free. With it, you can download extra items, maps, and even other parties into your game, allowing you to battle them whenever you like. All of these aspects add up to even more hours you can spend within the game.

What I Didn’t Like

The Story and All the Talking

I had really high hopes for Awakening’s story in the beginning. There was an interesting CG cut scene to open up the first few minutes, but after that, it quickly turns into a boring tale of a man who wakes up with amnesia and joins up with a band of warriors after earning their trust in battle.

Sure, there are a few twists and turns that differentiate it from other stories of a similar nature, but all the talking just kills it. Each chapter will run you approximately 30 – 45 minutes, and you’ll likely spend 5 of those minutes just reading through text. To make matters worse, if you have the sound on, you’ll have to constantly listen to each character saying something like “okay” or “hmm” preceding each of their lines of dialogue. This took me out of the moment every single time, and prompted me to turn the volume down during conversations.

Now, something that could have really saved the game would be a menacing villain, but that isn’t the case here. Without giving too much away, I’ll just say that the villain you encounter early on is just evil for the sake of being evil, and even spouts off terrible jokes like “I could break their ranks as easily as I break wind.” Rather than being menacing, he just comes off as being too comical.

I will say that the story and characters do become more intense and interesting as the game progresses, but it takes a very long time to get to.

Final Word

As many problems as I had with the story, you can skip it, leaving just the gameplay to remain. If I were judging Awakening just based off of that, it would have likely been given a 9.5, matching the heights of something like Super Mario 3D Land. Since I have to evaluate the full package though, the story does hurt the overall experience, but not enough to stop this from being an amazing strategy RPG. Do yourself a favour and buy this immediately.

Fire Emblem: Awakening was reviewed with a copy provided by Nintendo.

The post Fire Emblem: Awakening Review appeared first on Trendy Gamers | Video Games Reviews, News, Sales, Deals, Previews.

After launching this past November, Halo 4 sold a tonne of copies at retail, and now, you can download the game directly to your Xbox 360 hard drive. Joining it will be other Games on Demand such as The Testament of Sherlock Holmes and Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth.

Check out everything associated with the Xbox Live Marketplace Update this week below:

Xbox Live Arcade

• Special Forces Seal Team X (February 6th) - 1200

Games on Demand

• The Testament of Sherlock Holmes – $39.99
• Halo 4 – $59.99
• NASCAR: Inside Line – $59.99
• Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth – $49.99
• Nickelodeon Dance 2 – $39.99

Add-Ons

• Dead Space 3 ‘Bot Personality Pack’ – 400
• Dead Space 3 ‘Tundra Recon Pack’ – 400
• Dead Space 3 ‘Bot Capacity Upgrade’ – 400
• Dead Space 3 ‘Bot Accelerator’ – 400
• Dead Space 3 ‘Marauder Pack’ – 400
• Dead Space 3 ‘Tau Volantis Survival Pack’ – 1200
• Dead Space 3 ‘Sharpshooter Pack’ – 400
• Forza Horizon ‘February Jalopnik Pack’ – 400
• Guardians of Middle-Earth ‘Gloin’ (Feb. 6th) – 160
• Rocksmith ‘Fall Out Boy Song Pack’ – 960
• The Undergarden ‘Ludwig Pack’ – 80

Deal of the Week

• Hydrophobia – 160
• Hybrid – 400
• Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition – 400
• Earthworm Jim HD – 400
• Alan Wake’s American Nightmare - 600
• Orcs Must Die! – 600

Sales and Price Drops

• Kinect Central: Mini Ninjas Adventures – 400
• Alien Breed Episodes 1 – 3 – Now 400 each
• Worms 2: Armageddon – Now 400
• Worms: Ultimate Mayhem – Now 800

Indie

• Arcadecraft – 240
• ENGO – 80
• Labyrinth X – 80
• Avatar Maze Game – 80
• On a Roll 3D – 80

The post Full Xbox Live Marketplace Update: February 5th, 2013 – Halo 4 Now on Demand appeared first on Trendy Gamers | Video Games Reviews, News, Sales, Deals, Previews.

This last Xbox Live Marketplace Update for January 2013 gives us a big Call of Duty: Black Ops II DLC pack, a Crysis 3 open beta, and a big EA Publisher Sale.

Xbox Live Arcade (Updates on the 30th)

Skulls of the Shogun – 1200

Open Beta

Crysis 3

Deal of the Week: Street Fighter x Tekken

Mega Man 9 – 640

Mega Man 10 – 640

Street Fighter x Tekken Additional Character Pack – 1200

Street Fighter x Tekken SF/TK Swap Costume Complete Pack – 720

Street Fighter x Tekken SF/TK Alternature Costume Complete Pack – 1080

Street Fighter x Tekken Character Swap Costume Complete Pack – 240

Street Fighter x Tekken Character Alternate Costume Complete Pack – 360

Special Sales

EA Publisher Sale

Kinect Central: Dragon’s Lair – 400

Games on Demand

Cabela’s Hunting Expeditions – $29.99

Call of Duty: Black Ops II – $59.99

Need for Speed: Most Wanted – $59.99

Zone of the Enders HD Collection – $34.99

Add-Ons

Wreckateer ‘Callonburg Level Pack’ – 160

Port Royale 3 ‘Harbour Master’ – 400

Test Drive Unlimited 2 ‘Mandatory 4′ – Free

(27) Pieces of Kinect Party DLC – All Seemed to be 80 each

Rock Band ‘Aerosmith’s Greatest Dimension Pack’ – 800

Sleeping Dogs ‘The Monkey King Pack’ – 160

Street Fighter x Tekken ‘Combo Editor Expansion’ – 80

Street Fighter x Tekken ‘Special Color Palette 4′ – Free

Resident Evil 6 ‘Stage Map Pack B’ – 160

Call of Duty: Black Ops II ‘Revolution’ – 1200

Sleeping Dogs ‘The Movie Masters Pack’ – 160

Xbox Live Indies (All are 80 MSP)

Geriatrix – Zombie City

Pester

Match Frenzy

BitzKrieg

Element

Protect Our Base

The post Full Xbox Live Marketplace Update: January 29th, 2013 – Revolution DLC, Skulls of the Shogun appeared first on Trendy Gamers | Video Games Reviews, News, Sales, Deals, Previews.

EA is now running a Publisher Sale on Xbox Live that sees many games and DLC discounted by quite a bit until February 4th, 2013. Ranging from Battlefield 3 to Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue, check out all of the on sale items below:

*All sale prices are in Microsoft Points, unless otherwise noted

• Battlefield 3 ‘Premium’ – 3200
• Battlefield 3 ‘Ultimate Shortcut Bundle’ – 2000
• Battlefield 3 ‘Vehicle Shortcut Bundle’ – 800
• Battlefield 3 ‘Weapon Kit Shortcut Bundle’ – 1600
• Battlefield 3 ‘Weapons Co-Op Shortcut’ – 200
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted ‘Ultimate Speed Pack’ – 400
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning ‘The Legend of Dead Kel’ – 400
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning ‘Teeth of Naros’ – 400
• Mass Effect 3 ‘From Ashes’ – 560
• NFL Blitz – 600
• SSX – $9.99
• SSX ‘Mt. eddie and Classic Characters Pack’ – 320
• Madden 13 – $39.99
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 – $19.99
• NBA Jam: On Fire Edition – 600
• Fight Night Champion – $9.99
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 ’11 Course Pack’ – 1600
• Dragon Age 2 ‘Mark of the Assassin’ – 560
• Dragon Age 2 ‘Legacy’ – 400
• Dragon Age 2 ‘Exiled Prince’ – 400
• Dragon Age 2 – $9.99
• Dragon Age Origins ‘Witch Hunt’ – 400
• Dragon Age Origins ‘Leliana’s Song’ – 400
• Dragon Age Origins ‘Return to Ostagar’ – 240
• Dragon Age Origins – $9.99
• Dragon Age Origins ‘The Darkspawn Chronicles’ – 240
• Dragon Age Origins ‘The Golems of Amgarrak’ – 240
• Dragon Age Origins ‘Awakening’ – 1200
• Warp – 400
• Shank – 400
• Shank 2 – 400
• Deathspank – 600
• Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue – 600

The post EA Publisher Sale on Xbox Live Runs Until February 4th, 2013 – Includes Over 30 Games & DLC Discounted appeared first on Trendy Gamers | Video Games Reviews, News, Sales, Deals, Previews.