As many of you know, I have been on a journey to redefine myself. This journey started a year and a half ago when I visited my doctor and weighed in nearly 300 pounds. While I liked the XL in my gamertag, going to XXL just wasn’t something I was looking forward to. That, and let’s face it, being heavy can be a real drag and a blow to your overall self-esteem. So with the help of a wellness program, I have been slowly dropping the pounds.

One activity that really helped me drop a lot of it (and fast, mind you) was Zumba. Zumba is a Latin dance aerobics program that is sweeping the world. Currently there are over 108 countries that do Zumba and there really isn’t any magic to the program; it’s just a heck of a lot of fun. My wife had been bugging me for a long time to give it a try, so on a whim I walked into my first class last May. I was the only guy (of course) and I did a decent job in keeping up with the gals as they danced and sweat their fannies off. The hour was over quicker than I expected and in those final moments I learned something about Zumba and why it was so popular. Instead of getting crap about being the only guy in class, I was cheered and received a ton of support. It was a great boost to my ego and so I started coming to class regularly. Each time, I met amazing and supportive people and I noticed my waistline shrinking. This wasn’t just some fun excuse to go to the gym, the program really works.

I travel for a living, and as such I have the opportunity to take classes from instructors all over the country. Each time, I have experienced the same thing: uplifting and supportive people who are seriously interested in helping me achieve my goals. To my surprise, this September my regular instructor suggested that I think about getting licensed to teach. I laughed at first, but soon realized how such a milestone would be beneficial to me. So with encouragement from my friends, I was licensed to teach in early December and should have my own class this Spring.

So when I learned Kinect had a Zumba Fitness title as part of its launch blitz, I was more than a bit curious. I grabbed a cheap copy off eBay and put it in my 360 to see what it was about. The thing I think we need to keep in mind with this title is it’s not technically a game. Oh sure, it works on a gaming system and there are achievements and such, but don’t expect that you and your buds are just gonna do a couple of Latin dance moves and be done. This is a full workout and you should be prepared for one. Dress comfortably and wear decent shoes (I tried one session in my socks and that’s not good on your knees, my friends).
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Howdy pardners!  I must admit that when I first heard about one of my favorite games was going to add zombies to it, I shook my head. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some zombies, but the latest influx of zombies has become a bit tiresome.  It’s as if to say that writers have become lazy and that by adding zombies to a game it will magically become better. I think we have all discovered that this isn’t necessarily true, and zombies in the Old West?  C’mon man…  But then again, this is Rockstar, masters at the art of creating interesting sandboxes that I want to play in. And any reason to go back to the Old West world they created for Red Dead Redemption, I was in. What I found is that Rockstar had not only successfully added zombies to a game, but they created a surreal Halloweentown environment that is sure to please fans of that genre.

The game starts off near the end.  Our good friend John Marston is home with his wife and son when Uncle shows up acting strange. He chases them around the home and bites John’s wife and son. In a matter of minutes the two turn into strange creatures and start going after Marston. So what’s a cowboy supposed to do? Well hog tie them up and go searching for a cure, that’s what. You don your steed and make for the nearest town, only to find it’s been overrun with flesh eating monsters as well. This is gonna be a long day, I reckon. 

I must admit that my skepticism about the DLC was almost immediately erased. For Rockstar hasn’t just added in extra missions and such for you to accomplish, but they have essentially changed the entire sandbox. The sky has a eerie orange tint to it and the landscape is riddled with undead creatures. Even the birds that fly overhead have been replaced with bats. This alone would be cool, but gameplay and strategy have changed dramatically as well. Ammo in the game becomes a huge concern as the shops you would normally go and purchase these items are all closed (victims of the zombie plague, I suppose). So looting each undead nasty is essential as you might find a bullet or two to help you out. The scarcity of ammunition adds to the tension of each encounter, and in a good way. You’ll need to be a good shot when fighting the zombie hoard, as only a shot to the head will kill these creatures. Multiple shots to the body will only piss them off and slow them down a tad.  Safe-houses are no longer just available for you to purchase, they have to be liberated. Each town you encounter has been overrun by zombies and must be defended.  If you help the few remaining survivors fend off the attack, you get a place to stay; at least for a little while as return attacks can and do happen. 
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It wasn’t too long ago that I was walking through a Best Buy store and I saw this amazing game for the PS2. It had a plastic guitar and kids were jamming to classic riffs. Crowds gathered and people waited through several songs just to have a turn playing this game, which was called Guitar Hero. Of course, that game went on to spawn several sequels, all with additional features that made the experience a richer and deeper one. But there was something magical about that first Guitar Hero – the first time you actualy felt like you were jamming like a rock star. Harmonix, the makers of that genre-defining title are at it again, and this time instead of giving you a plastic guitar and a smokey club to play in, you’re under the lights of a fancy disco, showing off your moves with the latest in gaming technology. Their game is Dance Central and like the first Guitar Hero, it comes packed with a ton of magic that makes you feel like a superstar. 

You can’t start talking about Dance Central without first talking about Kinect. Despite what you might think about Microsoft’s salvo into the world of casual gaming, with strong initial sales reports one can say that this new tech is here to stay. Microsoft’s ad campaign was strong as well, with multiple packed demonstration stations at the mall. The curiosity got the best of me, and I decide that it was time for me to join the casual gaming revolution and grab a Kinect. So, with a stack of Best Buy Reward Zone coupons in hand, I grabbed a Kinect unit (and my Blu-ray copy of Kick Ass) on Black Friday. I was hoping to grab a free copy of Dance Central from Old Navy at midnight, but realized that I don’t wear Old Navy. So instead, I went to Mr. Craig and his List and contacted one of the many brave souls who had gotten this game for free and had no idea what it was. I paid only $30 and I got to sleep in…not too shabby. 
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I’m a big fan of the underdog game system. After all, I’m a Turbo Duo devotee. I love buying or acquiring oddball, obscure consoles that never really had a shot at making it in the market, and over the years, I’ve gotten my hands on a few strange little devices. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to feature a few of these systems, most of which are handhelds. Some you probably know about, others you may not. But all of them will have one thing in common: they were abysmal failures in the gaming market.

We’re going to begin with the Tapwave Zodiac. “The who’s-it what-now?”, you ask? Exactly. This little device barely made a scratch in the dent that the N-Gage made on the gaming industry, it was that unpopular. But you know what? This thing was – or at least it could have been – fantastic.

The Zodiac was a Palm-based, gaming-focused PDA that used SD cards as its storage medium. It also functioned as an MP3 player, an e-Reader, a media viewer, and an electronic organizer complete with calendar, memo pad, and date book. And, surprisingly, it did all of these things pretty darn well.

Mostly…

Unfortunately, while the Zodiac and it’s upgraded Zodiac2 were designed with games in mind, the game libraries left a lot to be desired, which is a shame as it was an impressive machine. The Zodiac had an analog stick, four face buttons, two shoulder buttons, and a touch screen. And this was all back in 2003, a year before the DS nearly two years before the PSP. And, unlike the PSP, this thing was sturdy as hell with a metal casing and attached leather screen protector.
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I have come to find out that there are those who do MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games) and those who do not.  Years ago, I watched several of my friends lose their lives to Everquest, so I tried to avoid it at all costs.  Yet when NCSoft launched its superhero MMO City of Heroes (COH), the comic geek in me just had to jump in.  I played that game for a little over two years straight.  It was one of those games that my wife actually played with me and we ran a large, successful Super Group for our duration of stay in that game. 

You may be wondering, “so Ryker why did you quit?”  There are several reasons. The game became stale and old, money got tight, and – oh yeah – some d-bag almost completely destroyed the Super Group I had worked so hard to create.  The only person to stay with the game was my son, Tiny.  He continued to go back to COH whenever he could.  He learned a lot about social networking and leadership as he made several attempts on his own of creating both successful and failed Super Groups.  Recently, Tiny’s Mom bought a second home in Florida and so off he went to live down there.  It’s been a challenge, but last week my son gave me a copy of the latest expansion for COH, Going Rogue, and he begged me to come back and play with him and his new friends.  So I went to the closet, got out my cape, and went back to the game that I once loved so much.  

The game experience remains essentially the same.  You create a custom character, enter a large city, and go fight crime.  Unlike Champions Online, there isn’t a ton of action in the combat itself.  Yes, positioning is important, especially if you use ranged attacks, but you’re not running around your combatants much during an actual battle.  Instead, the game is far more strategic as you utilize specific roles and sequences of attacks and heals to make your experience a victorious one.  You complete quests, level up and gain new powers and abilities.  Like many MMOs, it becomes a grind when random battles and questing to gain levels becomes more important than any storylines.  I think a lot of MMOs struggle with this and the Going Rogue expansion is NCSoft’s attempt at getting people to come back for a unique storyline and new adventures. 

The story in Going Rogue is pretty unique and offers both new and old players a reason to come back.  (more…)

Okay, so you’re thinking, “Why is he talking about that old thing?” And I’ll tell you, I put off buying this for a long time, and now that it’s a “Greatest Hit” it seems more than worth the price of admission. So I finally caved, and I’m happy to report that I don’t regret that move.

One reason I waited so long is the well-publicized redactions this game has, relative to it’s “home” console cousins. There is no career mode, almost no car tweaking, and no infrastructure online play. Add the fact that all tracks are open at the start and you might wonder if the game is even worth trying. I did. But in this case, I can make the argument that they burned the village in order to save it. By which I mean assuming they filled that little UMD to the rim with data, I wouldn’t take anything out of the game to make room for the missing elements. In Gran Turismo PSP you have driving game that, in races, feels just like its grown up counterparts. The physics, the graphics, and the overall feel comes from the same DNA. And it shows.

If they would have had to sacrifice some gameplay quality to fit in a career mode, I’d call the game a failure. Furthermore, in some ways, not having a career mode gives the game greater longevity, in that there’s no game to finish here. Sure, you could make it your goal to collect every car available, but you’re gonna get bored long before that happens. In career mode on the home versions, you could always win little race series and build your car collection faster. But here you have to earn every single dollar you’re going to spend buying cars, and it takes lots of time to earn the cash to buy those pricey race cars. (more…)

Those who have followed my writings know of my love for Diablo-esq beat-em-ups.  (In fact I have been itching for some Sacred 2 action if anyone cares to join in on the fun).  That’s why when Hothead games released DeathSpank a few weeks ago, a Diablo-like game with Monkey Island humor, downloading that bad boy was a no-brainer for me.  The DGR crews hinted at a fantastic review of this game a few weeks ago, but were side-tracked by some tomfoolery known as an anniversary show or something.  Anyhow, after successfully completing this adventure, I felt the game deserved some discussion, so I’m offering up my thoughts for you to enjoy. 

DeathSpank is the brainchild of game designer Ron Gilbert.  Best known for his witty action/adventure series Monkey Island, Gilbert had been working on DeathSpank since 2004.  The game centers around an egotistical hero known simply as “DeathSpank”, a character originally found in Gilbert’s Grumpy Gamer comics.  It was foretold that DeathSpank would be a hero to the downtrodden and that he was to possess an artifact of unimaginable power known simply as “The Artifact”.  However, this artifact has been stolen by the very evil, and also very egotistical, Lord Von Prong.  Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to recapture the artifact from Lord Von Prong, making the universe safe from evil again.  Ok, so there’s way more to the story than just this, but you get the basic picture.  

During his quest, DeathSpank acquires loot (weapons, armor, cool stuff like that) from enemies he kills, thus making him stronger and more powerful.  Aside from the thirty-three main quests in the game, you have the option of performing seventy-nine additional side missions from characters you meet along the way.  These quests don’t take too long, and most of them can be accomplished along side the main storyline.  All in all, the entire game took around 6-8 hours to complete and cost 1200 Microsoft points ($15 on PS3) to play.  The big question of course, is DeathSpank worth the $15?  Read more and decide for yourself. 
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You know, I think it is safe to say that 2010 will be the first year in the history of gaming where the first half year of releases will eclipse the second half. For the past several years we have been seeing a growing trend of publishers fearing traditional holiday season juggernauts like Halo and Call of Duty and pushing their titles back into spring. This strategy has paid off so well now that publishers are planning their releases with a Q1 release date in mind. What resulted in 2010 was a first half so jam packed with superb new releases that nearly every month felt like a star studded October or November where we are used to seeing this influx of high-quality titles.

With that said, I can see by the end of the year that at least a few of these titles from the first half will be slipping under the radar when it comes to the game of the year awards coming out. So I went out of the way to make my Top 10 Games for the First Half of 2010 list. That is right, not only was there plenty of games I enjoyed this year to make a top 10, I also have several more honorable mentions!

I was initially really into Darksiders, but as I progressed I realized my Zelda-esque dungeon puzzle skills have some serious rust. I kept getting stumped to the point I could not take it anymore at only several hours into the game. Dante’s Inferno is an enjoyable God of War clone, and I had quite a bit of fun with it, probably more so than most because I have yet to have some serious playtime with any of the God of War games.

Green Day Rock Band was more of the same, and I was having a good time with it playing at a friend’s place until their material from 21st Century Breakdown nearly put me to sleep. Army of Two: The 40th Day was a sequel that alleviated a lot of my core gameplay gripes with the original and was a blast to play through with a friend in coop. However, in the process of doing that EA forgot to attach a meaningful story, and blew it big time on no inclusion of a persistent unlock system for online multiplayer, which seemed like a gimme with how much the single player focuses on gun and armor customization.

UFC 2010 has a fully stacked single player arrangement of modes and features some of the best multiplayer out there. At least in local couch based multiplayer that is, where I spent many hours button mashing my controller to hell. It is too bad the online (from my experience on the 360 anyways) is insanely busted, where on the three separate occasions I was only able to complete three online fights of approximately 20 attempts that was filled with countless glitches and hiccups setting up fights. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing just missed the top 10. It is easily the best Mario Kart clone yet, which is a great thing since I do not own the Wii. Any game that features Shenmue’s Ryo Hazuki and his forklift racer gets a stamp of approval from me!

So now, without further ado is my “Top 10 Games For The First Half of 2010”

10) Split/Second

This is unlike any arcade racer before it. I applaud Black Rock Studios for instead of sticking with the safe route and releasing the sequel to the awesome quad racer, Pure, they went the high road and created an all new IP that I could best relate to as a videogame version of the recent film remake, Death Race, albeit a more family friendly version with all kinds of game changing obstacle “powerplays” that could be triggered to take out your opponents and even yourself if you got careless. It laid a solid foundation that I highly hope this time Black Rock capitalizes on with a sequel.

9) Yakuza 3

Initially, I was having trouble taking the plot seriously for the third Yakuza. Was I really running an orphanage? Then as the hours and chapters went by, I found myself caring for those kids and attached to their personalities. Before I knew it, Yakuza’s trademark fighting system grabbed me again, and I was reeled in and convinced that I must defend that orphanage against all its opposition by any means necessary!

8 – Super Street Fighter IV

This game convinced me to finally pick up my first console fight stick since the NES Advantage! As much as a fighting newb as I am, Street Fighter is so easy to pick up (but insane to master!) that I still found myself rolling out Hadokens and Sonic Booms like I was in the arcade nearly 20 years ago. I never had any problems playing online with friends, and the lobby/quarter matches brings back the incredible feeling of “Winner stays” in the arcades last set of glory years.

7) Splinter Cell Conviction

I usually despise stealth games. I played through Metal Gear Solid 4 on very easy and practically run and gunned through the entire game. Not so much in Conviction. Even though UbiSoft made the game feel like more of a shooter, and quite a good one at that, I was rewarded with sneaking and stealth kills so much that it motivated me to play through roughly 30% of the game with stealth tactics, and for me that is saying something! Throw in another separate campaign designed specifically for online coop and DLC missions currently out, and you have a Splinter Cell game with some serious legs.

6) Blur

Big ups to Bizzare Creations, the former developers of Project Gotham Racing for proving that kart racer style power-ups can be successfully mixed with racing modern day muscle and exotic cars. Blur’s incredibly deep single player features some of the best use of friends leaderboards I have seen on a disc based game that kept swaying me to play just one more race. Its multiplayer component is loaded with persistent unlocks and far superior matchmaking that gives Blur the longevity edge over its rival Split/Second.
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Perception is a funny thing. Chances are, if I asked you what your perception was of the Wii software library, you’d respond that it’s made up of heaps of party games, waggly gimmickry, thoughtless shovelware, with only a few standout titles, most of which are published by Nintendo themselves. And yes, that would be fair. And hell, walk through the Wii aisle in any game retailer and that is exactly what you’ll see; countless Petz, Cooking, Barbie, and licensed kid’s games peppered with a few tried-and-true Nintendo franchises. But any gamer with a lick of discerning taste knows that one has to dig a little deeper than the local Wal-Mart to find quality game experiences. Hell, you don’t go to the big boxes to search for obscure albums and films, do you?

It is with that logic in mind that I’m going to make what may seem like a bold statement. Ready? The Wii’s library is just as hardcore as the Dreamcast’s.

*GASP!*

But it’s true! The only difference is that the Dreamcast sold a fraction of the units, thus the quality wasn’t obscured by mountains of shovelware by companies trying to make a quick buck off a hot system. No, you won’t find the big-budget, high-definition first-person-shooter kill-a-thons that populate the other systems’ libraries, but you will find a surprisingly healthy selection of niche titles, specifically geared to gamers whose tastes are perfectly in line with those wonderful Dreamcast classics.

Still don’t believe me? Think I’m insane? Let’s take a look, shall we?
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God Bless BioWare; not only do they produce KILLER games, but they are becoming adept at keeping their IPs relavant with timely downloadable content, and good content at that.  So after the early game of the year discussion, I felt the itch to get my Mass Effect 2 groove on and try their DLC.  There are three packs available to you right now.  One is FREE (To Cerberus Network users), one is OK but provides something you will definitely want, and the third is quite simply one of the best DLC adventures I have ever had.  Let’s take a look. 

The first pack that you will want to get is the Firewalker pack.  This pack is FREE to Cerberus Network users and gives you the new Hamerhead fighting vehicle to explore planets with.  One of the omitions from Mass Effect 2 that I truly enjoyed was elimination of the Mako.  I found the Mako missions to be rather clunky and they changed the pace of the game in a way that I didn’t like.  People complained about the controls and how some parts of the map were difficult to reach, even with six wheels.  BioWare told us that they were working on a replacement for the Mako, and here it is. 

The Hammerhead is a hovercraft with one rather large cannon on the front.  It provides fast horizontal and limited vertical movement.  Learning how to navigate with the Hammerhead was pretty intuitive and the first few missions with it flew by rather quickly.  The pack itself gives you five additional vehicle missions and trophy that is viewable in your cabin.  It’s not a ton of content, but it is free and provides those who missed vehicle travel and combat something to play with.  Sadly, I’m not one of those people.  In fact, I LOVED not having to tool around in a vehicle getting from one place to another, it kept my Mass Effect 2 pacing right where I wanted it.  Regardless it seems the Hammerhead is here to stay so you better get used to piloting one.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine vehicle and better than the Mako.  I just wish it had a better indicator when shields were failing.  I found myself in may close firefights with Geth Destroyers only to blow up realizing “hey I musta taken too much damage.”  Here’s a hint…THINK RANGED and you will do fine with the Hammerhead. 
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