Gamer Blood

We had a dinner for the Phil N Robd crew tonight. Phil brought over his wii because he wanted my mom to get a shot at trying it out until She gets hers in the next week. It got me thinking as to how I myself had gotten into gaming.

It runs in the family. Its hard to believe but my parents were both gamers. They were gamers from the atari 2600 on. We went see my older cousin who was station in Ft. Campbell and we brought the Atari 2600 with us.

My dad, mom, cousin and his wife stayed up all night long to play bowling on the 2600. I mean the game could hardly be called bowling. It consisted of a ball, well it was supposed to be a ball. Ataris was never good at spherical objects.

My dad won every single game he played. Except for one. He said his hand got to hurting so bad he left my cousin's wife win.

Growing up I had most of the video game consoles. Intellivision, Atari 2600, talking intellivision. I remember the game crash of 84, when all the games were super cheap, and we bought a ton of games at that point.

My dad always got it. I guess that made my parents different. They knew why games were my passion, because they enjoyed them too. Before my dad passes away in 2000 he bought a playstation. I had moved in with my wife and took mine with me. He bought a bowling game. And he would play it all the time, and me and the wife at the time would play it with him.

The morning he died I came home to find he had been playing Solitare on his computer in my old bedroom. He had been playing it an hour before the doctor said he would have passed. The sad thing is that he was losing that hand. I think he would say that was what killed him, loosing at Solitare, not the heart attack.

My dad was a gamer, up until the end. And after tonight, I think my mom will be to. She played wii for the first time. We started out in a game of bowling. And her first game she kicked my ass, and Phil's ass.

She was laughing and smiling. Having a great time. And on the show tonight I was given a hard time. Afterwards she played a game of Tennis on the wii, she was not to hot at that. But she enjoyed the boxing game. And I watched her enjoy it.

Then she played two more games of bowling. And at this point she had kcked everyones ass that was there. Me, Phil, Jesse, Brian and Josiah twice.

She says she can not wait to get her wii this week. And I think my dad is smiling right now. I think its cool that bowling video games run in our families. And its good to see my mom playing games again.

She watched us do our show and she was proud that she kicked our asses. And I took the loss a little on the chin, everyone ribbed me about it. I wish dad had been there for the wii. He would have liked it too.

But I know where I come from. Gamerblood.

Robert

Rob'd doesn't know shit (he he)

Back a week ago, I went to Gamestop to pick up some new games and to get rid of Tomb Raider: Anniversary. I came back with Dead Rising and Pocketbike Racer for the 360. Rob was worried about me picking up the Wii Zapper. I didn't. I just waited a week. Here are some of my impressions of the Zapper.

The Wii Zapper was $24.99 at Gamestop and it came with Link's Crossbow Training in the box. You put the Wiimote, horizontally, in the Zapper. The nun chuck accessory is placed vertically in the Zapper. The cord connecting the Wiimote and the chuck can be hidden in a slope between the two. The trigger is up front and it takes the place of the B button. I place my left hand near the trigger and it feels pretty good. It does feel a little tight in between the trigger handle and the slope toward the nun chuck. I place my right hand around the nun chuck and my thumb can control the joystick while my index finger controls the C and Z buttons. The overall feel of this new accessory is very good.

The game that comes with it is Link's Crossbow Training. You take activity in 27 different shooting tests with shooting targets and shooting fruit. You earn points from each shot you take as well as shooting other targets like pots and scarecrows. Accuracy is key as you will earn multipliers for consecutive hits. Points are lost by shooting X covered targets as well as innocents. Each of the 9 levels has three different events. The three events are target shooting, defender, and ranger. To pass, you must accumulate 2,000 points to earn a bronze medal. A silver medal is earned after getting 4,000 point and the gold is for getting 6,000. The target shooting is very fun to do because you really do not have to move. The defender is pretty good because you are standing still and by moving the gun reticle to the far left and right, you will curve over to that side. The bad portion of the stages are the ranger missions where you have a certain time to shoot as many objects as possible. The joystick allows you to move back and forth but turning is very difficult. There are times when enemies will be just to your side and it is difficult to turn to their side. Overall, though, this is a great game to play with.

There are games that already utilize the Wii Zapper. Medal of Honor 2: Heroes, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, and Ghost Squad are the games and many are soon to follow. For lack of a better word, the Wii Zapper is one of the reasons that I believe that the Wii will be a force to be messed with, especially with FPS. And for $24.99, you cannot pass this up. Get it, for Christ's sake.

Don't forget to watch the Phil'N Rob-D video podcast on Sunday's at 4:30 EST on operator11.com.

Old People Love the Wii

So I am sitting at home watching Gilmore Girls with my mom. You know it sounds so gay when you say it like that, but trust me it gets worse. And a commercial pops for the old TV. Its a commercial for what has to be the dumbest game idea ever.

Dancing with the Stars. ( I told you it got worse) My mom says, oh that looks like fun. I looked at her strangely. "Well too bad, its on the wii, and we don't have a wii. Amazon would not sale me one for $79." (The night before Amazon.com had them for sale for the price of $79 for a special promotion.)

She was disappointed. She then asked how much it cost to buy one at full price. I told her it was 249.99. She started to act like she really wanted one. So we left and ventured to Kmart and also to get a paper for the Friday ads. (I forgot to get a paper this morning)

Well Kmart had them first thing in the morning. I knew there was little hope for finding one, but we were in the area. And sure enough they had nothing. The worse part was I could not even find a newspaper with the Black Friday Ads, everywhere I went there was nary a paper found. SIGH!!

We came home wiiless. I started hitting all the major websites for the wii Nothing unless you wanted to pay for outrageous bundles. I went to Cheapassgamer.com to see if they knew any off the wall website selling wiis.

They had an ad for amazon.com. They were going to be selling Wii at 3 AM (EST) for the regular 249.99. I thought this would be my one and only chance to get one if mom wanted one.

So I set my alarm for 15 til. Got up and went to the website. I waited, and waited. Constantly clicking the refresh button on the browser. Finally it popped up. about 7minutes late. And I bought it for her. (Okay she paid for it)

So yes folks, in a few days I will have all three of the next gen consoles at my disposal. SMG here I come baby. It-s-a-me Super Robio.

My mom is excited. This is the first game system she has ever wanted to purchase. She said it is something she feels like she can play. So I told her that she can review games for the show.

Game Reviews for the Elderly. :)

Look forward to her review of Wii Sports Episode 9 of Phil-n-Rob'd Games.

(Update: As of 3:30 AM the wii on Amazon is sold out. Mine is on the way)

My biggest Phil-N Rob'd EVER

When this Sunday comes up, I want you all to watch. This Sunday, watch my portion of the Phil-N Rob'd portion of the show and beware that your jaw WILL DROP. I will talk about a game that I have been Rob'd THREE TIMES. I tried to play this game on 3 different occassions, on 3 different consoles, and was pissed 3 times. I even bought 2 different strategy guides for the game. That may not be that bad of a thing, but this game is one of the "greatest" games EVER MADE. This game is in the top ten on gamerankings.com for the greatest game EVER. I am so pissed and I need to hold onto this until Sunday. So Sunday, get ready for hell people. Until then,

Phil

Super Mario Galaxy: First Impressions

I hate to admit it. I bought 3 games last week. Uncharted, WWE SMackdown and Assassins Creed. If I had a wii one of those autrocities would have never happened (I am looking at you WWE S vs R) Because I no doubt would have bought SMG.

This game is amazing. More of a game then I thought. Each level is broken up into planet toids. Some planets are unlocked only when you go after certain stars (Just like Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine before it). I was mistaken the levels are actual long and varied. I was never bored, and after gathering 10 stars in my allotted game time, I never felt like I was repeating anything to get the stars.

Old enemies made a comeback. Bullet bill was pissing me off at every corner. Moles were throwing wrenches, goombas were waiting to be smashed. Power ups were back, even thought bee mario looked a little light in the lofers.

I wish I had a wii now. I want this game. No if they would just ditch that horrible Steve Irwin Mode I would have loved them game even more (Mario rides a Manta-ray) The controls were horrible with it, having to tilt the Wiimote left or right and keep with in the floating river in the sky.

I can not wait to try this game again.

Rob

Mass Effect: First Impressions

Well I want to get this out of the way. This game is very entertaining and the story has me interested. But this game was rushed. Plan and simply.

There is lag issues in a single player game. The frame rate struggles to stay constant. Textures load in slowly. The combat plays like a hybrid 3-person shooter/rpg and does neither convincingly.

But as bad as I am knocking the game I sat here and played it from 10:30 on. For 3 hours I played this game non stop. So it has something going for it. I just think they could have waited 6 months and put this game out and had a real great game on their hands. Instead it feels like it is a game that needs more polish. Maybe a patch will arrive, but will it be to late because people will have already finished and moved on.

Maybe in that time they could have put in a tutorial system, I still am not sure how to use my special abilities. Still making the character was fun. I went female, unusual for me in a game. Maybe its the hot lesbian scene in the game was the deciding factor.

But my character has a history, and even a time line about your life in the menu screen, including year of birth and how you came to join the alliance.

The graphics are nothing to ealy write home about in my opinion. Bioshock, Halo 3 and Uncharted on PS3 looked more amazing.

I will play it and give my further input this weekend on the show.

Rob

Phil-N-Rob'd Games Episode 7.5

Last weeks show was a complete disaster so we did a do over. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we did making it.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary (360) Review

There are times when you are looking through your movies and wonder why the hell you would want a remake of The Poseidon Adventure. Then there are times when your glad that they did (Halloween). Now that gaming is getting older, some of the games from the past are coming back, updated. One of them is Tomb Raider Anniversary. It is available for the PS2, the 360, and the Wii. TR:A is a remake from 1996. The story is simple. A nuclear bomb is set off in New Mexico in the 1940's and a winged monster is unleashed. Fifty years later, Lara Croft is told about the Atlantean Scion, an artifact that has been underwater for hundred of years. She was informed of this by Jacqueline Natla, a CEO of a large company. Thus, the beginning of a long-standing series begins. Here is what I thought of the game:

Graphics – Now, knowing this is the first time that I completed an X box 360 game, this grade may be a little higher than it should be. This game is gorgeous. The first time that I watched Lara move, it was beautiful. Lara is beautiful, but the real draw was the locations. The deep jungles of the Lost Valley seemed almost to be alive. Egypt looked just Egypt looks (even though I have never been to Egypt). When you splash and swim through the water just is breath taking. The design that the developers put into this game is just great. All of the human characters looked nice...except for Natla. Natla is the character that hires you in the beginning and this woman looks like Karen Carpenter after fasting (what...too soon). The enemies weren't really that mind-blowing good either. They just looked completely average. There really was not that many varieties as well. I only remember the wolves being available everywhere. Just a little bit of problem, but overall great.

Grade: A-

Controls – This is where I had a problem with the game. You have your basic jump, shoot, and what not. The slow motion controls was a great help. Just get the animals in a rage and they charge. By pressing the B button at a specific time and jumping around, you engage in slow motion. When the crosshairs turn red, push the RT button and you killed the animal with a head shot. Very good when you want to conserve ammo. I had some problems with jumps, targeting multiple enemies, and especially with wall jumps. There were times when I would jump over to a pole and I would not grab it. There were times when I saw my hands go through the pole. I was not happy at all with that. Targeting multiple enemies was not fun. On the great shaft, I had to shoot 2 bat demons and shoot a target on the wall. The crosshairs wanted to stay on the target while the bat demons were shooting balls of energy on me. You needed to move the right stick left or right to move between targets and it took too much time. And when you moved the right stick to the new target, you could actually lose your place on the floor and could fall off the side of a cliff. That was very irritating. The wall jumps were about as irritating as I have gotten with a game in several months. There were several puzzles that needed Lara to jump off the wall at the top of a wall swing and I could not do it. I was trying to get to what I thought was a artifact in Egypt and I tried to wall jump for about 3 hours and I did not even get it once. The only way that I was able to go up the Great Shaft was through a glitch that jammed me into a wall in the corner and I was able to jump to the next grapple ring. I was trying to get all the artifacts and I finally gave up on it. In general, the controls made this beautiful game a pain in the ass.

Grade: D+

Sound – This was another good part of the game, but not memorable. All of the animals sounded good. You could actually hear them in another room and it sounded like an echo. All of the background noises were good. The waterfall sounded like a waterfall, and the Egyptian winds sounded good. The voice acting was good, as well. The problem with it was that it was not memorable. I completed the game yesterday, and I can't remember anything from it. After spending a lot of time on it, you hope to remember SOMETHING. In general, a typically average game sounds.

Grade: C

Challenge – Now this is the part where, if the controls would have been good, it would have been great. The puzzles in this game were great. From the large gear room in Peru to the Trial of Damocles (the swords falling from the ceiling was scary the first time I played). There are so many puzzles in this game that took time to figure out, it was well worth it. A couple of memorable puzzles was Locating King Midas' Artifact and the Anubis and Horus puzzles. King Midas' Artifact room consisted of towers that would rise up with a switch but would all start to lower when you would touch them. This kind of challenge was really good. The Anubis and Horus puzzle involved water levels and shooting scarabs. The only thing that ruined the fun had to be the control. Having to climb up a statue and to fall all the way to your death because the controller was not responsive was very frustrating. Another thing that you will be used to is Lara's dead body. Because YOU WILL DIE CONSTANTLY IN THIS GAME. Anytime that you miss a step, Lara will die. Anytime you meet a dart wall, Lara will die. I believed that I died at least 60 times. Some of the deaths is based on when I landed, and some are because of the damn controls. The boss battles were pretty good as well. You had to figure out the weakness of each boss and extort the weakness. The T-Rex was real easy if you got the T-Rex to ram the barriers. The Thiocan's Centaurs were easy when you figured out that the shields were the answer. In general, the challenge was good, except with the controller issues.

Grade: B+

Extras – The Rewards section of TR:A is a great collection of extras. The Special section contains a letter to the fans of Tomb Raider while the Style Units (available after completing the game) allows you to run through a demo of the different environments. The typical cinematics are there. The art gallery gives you a side-by-side look of the remake and the original. There are character bios of the main characters. The outfits section allows you to view different outfits for Lara. You can spin the character, but you cannot zoom and that kind of sucks. There are short stories about all the relics that you find throughout your journey. There are tracks of the music throughout the game. The obligatory credits are there. There is also something really cool called Commentaries. You can play through the game and when you come up to a floating crystal, you touch it and members of the development team will talk to you about the thoughts and design of the level. A really cool thing. The last one is the cheats. You can unlock the good ones AFTER you complete the game and complete the time trials. Didn't like that, but that was nothing really bad. Overall, the rewards are some of the best you can get and I really enjoyed it.

Grade: A

Achievements – When I complete a 360 game, I will give you a review of the achievements. Some of the achievements are pretty easy. Getting good shows in the 4 area are nothing more than pressing the correct buttons during the cut-scenes. Getting all the relics in the 4 areas, are just that. Getting the 3 guns are achievements. Defeating the bosses without dying is mostly easy. Now, those are easy. The time trials are brutally difficult to achieve. You need to know where everything is and hope and pray that you don't have to jump off of walls. The ones that made me laugh was completing the 4 areas without dying. Like I said before, YOU WILL DIE CONSTANTLY. These are pretty difficult and don't really need much attention (hardcore gamers only). The secret achievements are:

-Complete all the tasks in the Croft Manor. (Easy)
-Complete the Peru gear puzzle without dying. (Difficult)
-Complete the Hephaestus room in Greece without being struck by lightning. (Pretty Easy)
-Collect the seals of Anubis, Horus, Isis, and Osiris without dying. (Not going to happen)
-Complete the central shaft in the Lost Island without dying. (Ha ha ha)
Expect to get a little under half of the 1000 points total.

Overall, Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a great game to play if you want to relive some of the good ol' days. The graphics are top notch (except for some characters), the control is not that great, the sound is typical, not memorable, and the challenge is good (except when jumping off of walls is involved). The extras are what really shine for the game. Maybe if they allowed the original to be on there it would have been perfect (wink, wink). Expect to get about half of the achievement points allowed. That is about it.

Overall grade: B

Listen and watch the Phil-N Rob'd video podcast on Operator 11 Sundays at 4:30 EST.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune First Impressions

Every once in a while a game comes out that make me forget to eat my lunch. To make me forget to check my email, a game that makes time fly by so fast that other obligations are almost forgotten.

Today, that game is Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on the PS3. Hands down this is the game of the year for the PS3. I have not had this much fun playing a game in such a long time.

The story is entertaining. I actually like the main characters. Eleana and Nathan have a great chemistry, and the interactions with each other are funny. There are times when I LOL'd.

Its like someone took the best parts of Tomb Raider, and added Gears of War and a dash of Lester the Unlikely (a quarter for anyone who remembers that game with out the use of wikipedia)(Quarter void in Rhode Island and all of the planet Earth). When a gun shot misses your head, you flinch. We you jump your arms flail. When a grende lands at your feet, he makes a comment about how he is alot of trouble.

The graphics are great, I really think they are the best this year. For any game, on any system. Some screen tearing aside, and sometimes textures load in slowly. But the jungle is lush and atmopsheric.

Plus this is the first ps3 game to use the medal system for PS3 Home. Basically achievements. 1000 points for doing things in game that unlock extras in game. Finding treasures, to killing people with weapons.

If you have a PS3 and liked the demo (Enemies die faster than in the demo thank goodness) pick this game up, or at least rent it. Naughty Dog has a great game on hands

Rob

My new reason to hate strategy guide haters

Okay, Rob and I did a show several weeks ago when we discussed cheating. He said that strategy guides are cheating. So what I did was try to get through Tomb Raider: Anniversary for the 360 without a strategy guide. Now here comes the truth. A pair of scissors, a phone, the controller, and anything around me has been thrown in a pure rage of irritation. I do not have much time to sit back and look through all of the shit through a goddamn game to be a "PURE PLAYER". Tomb Raider: Anniversary is about to be thrown through the atmoshpere or crushed by my fucking hands. I will now put it like this. ANYBODY WHO THINKS THAT STRATEGY GUIDES ARE CHEATING, YOU KNOW WHAT, IT IS. BUT MOST ANYBODY WHO DOESN'T USE GUIDES FOR THESE SUCH GAMES NEED TO GET A FUCKING LIFE. I HAVE HAD IT WITH ALL THE "SEARCHING".

My new message is this. If I do not have a strategy guide, then I will not play it. Plain and simple.

Hopefully we will have a new Phil-N Rob'd games show this Sunday (internet permitting). So see you then.

Phillip "Fucking irritated"

Assassin's Creed: First Impressions

I picked up my copy of Assassin's Creed this morning. And popped it into the old Xbox 360 this morning.

The intro I think goes on a little long. You learn the hook of the game in the first 5minutes. and again I will not spoil it. But if you heard about Kristen Bell and the part she played in the game, then the Assassin has been let out of the bag.

I heard so much negativity about the controls that had I not been seduced by Jade Raymond's cute little Mole, I may have only rented this game.



But thanks to a flat tire and G4TV, (Don't Ask) I watched a preview of the game and I was hooked. It looked so polished and the game play after it was described did not sound so bad.

And so far it has not disappointed. I mean you guys are lucky you are getting first impressions. If my old ass was not getting gaming arthritis because it drizzling here, you would not get my lovely opinions on this game nor Jade Raymond's mole. (Both of which are hot)

As a fan of Le Parkour youtube videos. I feel like a Parkour champion myself after playing this game. However after I tried it running home with the game I tripped over a bench, and realized that at 250 pounds, I was never going to be the parkour man I want to be.

So I leap from rafter to rafter, scale walls and run across fence post in my heart and let Altair do it in digital form. And the fact that by holding down RT and the A button and steering the L stick and walla... I never have to be the bane of Benches again. Run to a wall, and he climbs it, run to a ledge he leaps it.

I can say I recommend this game for rental. I love the team behind it, and at the end of the day, I easedropped on some of its fault, like repetition. But I have not ran into any of the faults after an hour with the game. Whic is expected because thenI would already be bored. So repetition aside, I enjoy the controls, the scaling walls, the historically Acurate story, the mole.

Episode 6: Worst Show Ever

This so hurts me bad to put up here, no one stayed for the entire epsde the camera was fuzy, and I killed the first have 16 mnutes in. But next week we promise an Actualy show. And I less frazzled Hendersonman.

Call Of Duty 4: Modern Combat and Preordering and The Simpsons Game

Wel i bought Call of Duty 4 on Monday, it seems I was one of the lucky gamers to get to pick this up a day earlier than most. And all I did was go in and preorder it on Monday Morning. A scant few hours before it went on sale.

I have decided that most of my games are going to be reorders. I think it is smart to put down $5 on a game you know you are going to buy. That way you are going to be able to get your copy the earliest it is Available.

I never understood why people hate EB/Gamestop so much. I like most of the employees there. The manager is a dick, I just dont get the same vibe I got with the previous manager Jason. Maybe it was because Jason knew me every single time I walked in the store. My friends said Eb was my Cheers. Everytime I walked in the store they knew me.

Maybe that is why I like my store at the mall the most. As Long as you preorder you get to get your game, unless UPS fails to ship early or what have you.

So i went ahead today and preordered Uncharted Drakes Fortune, this is the PS3 game I am most excited about, and I know I want it. And the demo will be released this week so I can always cancel my preorder. Plus I also Preordered Mass Effect and that my friends is the end to my game buying Budget this year, more than likely. Since you know I dont have a job.

Call of Duty is good. I am not so far impressed with the single player. The graphics are smoth at 60 FPS but there seems to be very little detail. I maybe just getting burnt on FPS (First person Shooters, not frames per second, jeez we need to find a new abrevation of one of those)

But most people dont even bother for the SP mode of this game. So that maybe the reason the developers only made it last 5-6 hours from what I hear. I swill still play through it. Unless early next week I find A rental copy of Assassins Creed.

But the MP is fun, and I like the level up system in the game. The more games you play, the more enemies you kill you rank up and earn abilities. Like Last Stand, where we you are killed you fall to the ground, and pull out your pistol, allowing you to get a few shots off on that fiend that shuffled you from the digital coil.

It really adds a lot of depth to a FPS (again you can only guess which is which) becase you certainly do not get that depth from the maps. I thank all the maps look very similar and I would have liked to have seen a differnt look to them. All the maps in Halo 3 lok unique. These al look very similar. And even one map, if you took out the modern looking tractor, I would be hard presed to tell tha is from a modern time and not just a left over WW2 map.

But it is so much damned fun. I would not have bought it with so many FPS out there al running at 30-60 FPS, but damit my friends in Europe love this game series. I swear, I am not sure how I survived high school with out trying Pot or Heroin because in gamng I suck at avoiding Peer presure.

Anyway if you are on live, have loved ones on live and want to experience something differnt from Halo I recommended this. The graphics are gorgeous, if just a tad of bland textures. If you ar want to try the SP then my gawd man just rent it.

I also rented the SImpsons Game for the crew this weekend. Unfortantely I rented it on PS3. Not that its worse on the PS3, because it is not. I just need achievement Points. I dont want to get to far in this game, because i know i want the achievement points later down the road. So I may wait to buy this game on the cheap in a few months when its in the $20 dump bin. But i will keep it out a little longer so the guys can play it again this weekend, because they are not goig to want to play CoD4.

Also I bought a used game for the PS2 of all things. I re-bought Final Fantasy 12. I have plenty of time to give it unlike the first time I played it, when I was depressed. You know when you find out your sister has given your friend the clap for the second time .. its one of those things.

But I started over from scratch. Since I did not buy the memory card thingy for the PS3, which I could care less I forgot most of the story by this point anyway. So everyone have a great day. And catch us on operator11.com

First thoughts of Tomb Raider: Anniversary (XBox 360)

I just completed the first level of Tomb Raider: Anniversary for the 360 and was completely surprised. TR:A is a remake of the first ever Tomb Raider. Crystal Dynamics took the foundation that Core (original designer) built and redid a classic. When I started to play, I noticed several things that were in the original, including the T-Rex from the lost world. I will give you my full review after I complete it, so hope you guys can wait. But I suggest you get it.

****I also played Prince of Persia Classic for the XBox Live Arcade. It is a remake of the original game first brought out on the Apple computer back in 1989. The game is updated with the Sands of Time graphics. It is brutally difficult and some of the action is more of a hit-and-miss. I hope that you guys will at least give this game a shot.