Reviews

Should You Buy ‘Fuse?’

Featured Fuse Review

Fuse is the first multi-platform (PS3, Xbox 360) game from Insomniac Games, the long time PlayStation exclusive developer. Known previously for their more lighthearted Ratchet & Clank franchise and post-WWII sci-fi Resistance trilogy, Fuse is another take on the shooter genre. Previously titled Overstrike, Fuse tells the story of four agents known as Overstrike 9 and their mission is to stop Raven, an evil corporation, from gaining an alien substance called Fuse.

Like previous Insomniac Games, Fuse incorporates fantastical weapons, features local and split-screen online/campaign co-op, and humor that will bring you back for more. But chances are that the reviews you’ve read for Fuse paint a more bland and forgetful experience. While some have complained about yet another shooter, others have collectively predicted that the sky is falling and that Insomniac Games has lost their touch. Is Fuse truly a lackluster experience or is this a misunderstood game that’s worthy of your purchase? I’m here to tell you that it’s most definitely the latter and here is why.

Should You Buy ‘God of War: Ascension?’ – Single Player

God of War Ascension Review Featured
So you might be wondering to yourself, why are we just now giving a God of War: Ascension a review. To better answer that, I’ll first give you a bit of a back story. Most websites tend to receive titles for review weeks before the game’s release date so they can spend proper time with the title and comply with any given embargoes out there. While our site wasn’t in line to get a review unit way in advance, we were still going to receive a unit for review a week prior to the game’s release. Long story short, due to a shipping mishap, we were not able to get our unit for review till 10 days after the game’s release. By then of course, every major and minor site had shared their take on the game. Soon, the game’s first week and second week sales, which are highly important and often based on the surrounding reviews, were to be announced as well. At this point, I had an important decision to make. Do I release our review and just follow the pack or hold off and find a more meaningful time to share our God of War: Ascension review?

As you can tell, I opted for the latter scenario. Despite a large part of a game’s sales taking place during the first month, a great many of gamers tend to not be able to play a given title till months down the line. Be it bad timing with their lives or the holdouts who want to get in on the action at a better price and that’s who I want to talk with. This means that while the hype for God of War: Ascension might be done by now, there are still thousands of holdouts who have not purchased and played the game. With the summer gaming lull soon to kick into full affect (minus The Last of Us), it’s time to answer the question. Should you buy God of War: Ascension for its single player campaign?

Should You Buy the Sony RX100?

Sony RX100 Rocks

Let’s get one thing out of the way; if you’re looking for the most in depth Sony RX100 review, then the following isn’t probably going to fit the bill for you. There are lots of review sites who will break down this and other cameras ISO by ISO and compare them against 10 other models. While that is a wonderful and perfectly acceptable way to approach things, chances are, that’s not how you shop for most things. Comparison is good and understanding a devices feature are smart but the reality of it is, most don’t utilize their cameras full potential. This is especially true when it comes to point-and-shoot cameras which are often just left on automatic. With our review, we set out with that criteria in mind. How good of a camera is the RX100 when all we want it to be able to pull the camera out and start capturing.

I’ve long been the family and friends memory keeper by being the person who’s always has had the camera with him, be it a party, movie night, or vacation. It’s just too bad that not all my photos are worth posting on Facebook, let alone printing them out and/or creating a booklet from like you can from iPhoto or Shutterfly. This problem will continue to manifest itself with the advent of Retina displays on all of our devices and eventual transition to 4k televisions. With the right camera at your side though, not only will your pictures turn out great for your personal viewing pleasure, but you can also be sure that their quality meets the upcoming technological changes that are either around the corner or have already happened. I’m here to tell you that the Sony RX100 is the best point-and-shoot camera I’ve ever used. After the jump, our RX100 review breaks down the super-camera’s photo/video capabilities and its retro design.

Listening To – TRON: Uprising Soundtrack

Tron_Uprising_Score_1

Welcome to The Grid, a digital utopia filled with infinite possibilities. A digital world designed for games, but it became so much more. However, due to his thirst for power, Clu, a powerful program based off of the creator, betrayed his creator and all other programs in this utopia. The only program who had the power to stop Clu, named Tron, was defeated by Clu and left for dead. With no one to stop him, Clu seized control of The Grid and has become a malevolent dictator. However, one program, named Beck, has the ability to surpass his own programming and take over the role of Tron, to try and overthrow Clu’s Empire.

The TRON: Uprising soundtrack is scored by Mr. Joseph Trapanese, who also arranged the music of Daft Punk for TRON: Legacy. To portray the digital and somewhat foreign atmosphere of The Grid, Trapanese uses extremely interesting digital and electronic sounds along side an orchestral sound. His mix of the acoustic orchestral instruments and the electronic sounds makes an extremely interesting sound that sounds like a foreign electro-orchestral type instrument, which is extremely successful in portraying the digital word of Tron. After the jump, we load deeper into the TRON: Uprising soundtrack.

PS Mobile App of the Week – Lemmings

Lemmings

This week we will begin bringing you guys a new feature called PlayStaion Mobile App of the Week. It’s pretty self explanatory, we look over some games we think are cool on PlayStation Mobile and then pick what we think is the best one and tell you guys a little about it. We will do this weekly for you guys, every Saturday.

This week’s app of the week is created by d3t Ltd, it’s called Lemmings. Now I know the name sounds weird but trust me when I say this game is a little gem. The objective of Lemmings is to get your little creatures called “Lemmings”, hence the name, from one point in the level to another without getting them killed. As you can see from the screenshots below you keep them alive by giving them powerups that you can see at the bottom of the screens. As you get into the game you notice that it becomes very tactical. You have to be very careful with which powerups you give and when you give them so that you don’t end up with a group of dead Lemmings on your hands.

Listening To – Skylanders Giants Soundtrack

Skylanders Giants SoundtrackSkylanders Giants is a game where you physically place action figures into a platform to transport them into the colorful world in your television screen. While a unique and neat concept that warrants a review, let’s forgo that and take an in-depth look at the game’s soundtrack. I believe the soundtrack to a game can be an important part of the experience and its success. We’ve come a long way from the monophonic 8-bit synthesized sounds to using full blown orchestras all in order to help make games that much more exciting.

Skylanders Giants’ soundtrack is composed by Mr. Lorne Balfe, whose mastery of music composition was seen in another big title, Assassin’s Creed 3. Now that we’ve seen Mr. Balfe’s compositions in a very serious game setting, how will his music be on a completely different game with a different drive and a different audience? Our Skylanders Giants soundtrack review, after the jump.

Listening To – Assassin’s Creed III Soundtrack

Assassin's Creed III SoundtrackMusic is the unsung hero of the gaming industry today. Without a great soundtrack to a game, said game can be extremely lackluster and silly no matter how good the story line, gameplay, and presentation are. Technology has allowed for the integration of music in video games in such a big way, that we have gone from the monophonic sounds of a game like Space Invaders (with 2 alternating tones going the speed of the alien’s movements, kind of like Jaws) to something like the Assassin’s Creed III soundtrack with a full orchestra and more creating some really amazing music that would be very hard to hear otherwise.

Lorne Balfe, the award-winning composer and mastermind behind the Assassin’s Creed III soundtrack, decided to make some very interesting sounds by integrating what sounds like and may very well be Native American instruments, which really is an incredible choice given the setting in the game. While listening to the soundtrack, you can sometimes hear what sounds like an Anasazi Flute, joining the orchestra in a very organic way, creating some very interesting sound textures and chords that really add so much more to the already amazing sound of a full orchestra. The heavily percussive writing also makes the experience of listening to the soundtrack more interesting and really puts a vision of a Native American tribe in your head with an instrument that sounds like a Charango (which is a native american string instrument that resembles a very small guitar) and even sometimes there are, what I think, hints of the Apache fiddle which add an interesting color to the string section any time they have a pronounced part in the score. Another out-of-the-ordinary instrument that Mr. Balfe has decided to use is the integration of electronic sounds and samples. Unlike the samples we think of today (bits and pieces of other tunes used as a background theme for other tunes).

The electronic samples in the score are just synthesized articulations and timbres that are otherwise impossible to include, since no other real instrument can recreate these sounds. As a musician, as soon as I heard the electronics being used, I , due to preconceived notions, began to dislike the entire soundtrack. “Why not get a real musician to make these sounds instead of using electronics?” I thought. However, I immediately felt ashamed of myself for thinking these negative thoughts, because the electronic sounds are used in such a way that is really organic. The electronic sounds are a part of the ensemble, not just someone hitting a single button to add sounds while editing in post. The addition of electronics in this soundtrack are not only extremely beneficial to the soundtrack in order to portray an image of our new assassin running around in 1776, but it also portrays an image of the other side of the story as well, the story that takes in present time. Symbolically as well, the addition of electronics really shows the integration of Native American instruments and modern instruments, past meets present, just like how the game’s storyline seamlessly delves back and forth from 1776 to the present day.

Should You Buy ‘Sorcery?’

I’ll be honest; I wasn’t super excited to play Sorcery on the PlayStation Move. I guess the trailers and the demo on PSN didn’t really sell me on the game’s premise and potential compared to other PS Move games. Color me surprised then when I actually sank my teeth into the full game. What I found was a fun action game with a fairly interesting story that was greatly enhanced by its responsive motion controls. What would’ve been just another action game turned into an immersive (yet physically tiring) experience that’s unique to the PlayStation Move.

Sorcery casts players as Finn (voiced by Uncharted’s Nolan North), a young magician’s apprentice that gets embroiled in a one-man fight to protect not only his world, but the world of his friend Erline as well. The Nightmare Queen has sent her massive armies to take over the land, destroying everyingthing and everyone in their path. Finn and his feline companion Erline must travel through the different locations to discover new and more powerful magics to defeat the Nightmare Queen in one final battle.

After the jump, our full Sorcery review.

Sony Bloggie Live vs. Bloggie Touch Review (video)

Last year, we put together a video that pitted the Sony Bloggie Touch against the now defunct Flip UltraHD that became quite popular. In our video overview of the two devices, we offered our viewers the traditional spec by spec comparison as you would expect. However, what proved truly valuable was our side by side comparison of video footage from the two devices where we shot simultaneously and played the video next to each other. With Sony introducing the Bloggie Live at this years CES, we thought that once again, it would be a good time to revisit our review and put together a similar video. With no other big name competitor in the market, we instead decided to pit the Bloggie Live against last years champion and our battled test Bloggie Touch. Has a years worth of technological enhancements helped the Bloggie Live or does the Bloggie Touch still reign supreme? Find out in our video below and expect a full product review at a later date.

Should You Buy ‘Journey?’

Videogames at their worst are trivial and unfulfilling distractions, used purely for entertainment, and tossed aside seconds after completion, never to be looked at again. However, at their very best, videogames can be genuinely inspiring works of art, things that elicit discussion and awe whenever mentioned while still remaining fun to play. These are games after all. And while a lot of talk has floated around lately about how much of a game Journey really is, there is no doubt in my mind that Journey represents the very best that videogames have to offer, simultaneously innovating and inspiring during the memorable, albeit short, trip through its excellently-crafted world.

It’s not an exaggeration when I say that Journey is unlike any other game I’ve ever played. Everything in the game feels deliberate. The developers at thatgamecompany have really crafted one of the tightest game experiences ever, where no second feels wasted or unnecessary. Journey doesn’t have any dialogue or any traditional exposition, nor does it have any sort of combat or real conflict. The heart of Journey lies in exploration and movement.

The premise behind Journey is simple: get your character from point A to point B while occasionally solving simple puzzles. Your character can jump, float, and use the wind to glide across the often vast landscapes; though unlike most games that focus on movement, very little skill is necessary to accomplish your goal. Still, thatgamecompany manages to make the movement feel intensely satisfying, and the details in how your character moves or how the wind sometimes blows in the direction you travel to give you a slight boost of speed help players get lost in the beautifully designed world.

Should You Buy the PlayStation Vita Cradle? (video)

I’m a sucker for docks when it comes to purchasing new gadgets like my iPad or PlayStation Vita. In my mind, there is something very Feng Shui about devices having their own place on my desk and even better when the dock is capable of charging and synchronizing the gadget with a Mac or PC. Enter the PlayStation Vita Cradle from Sony. This simple and sleek dock is designed to give people like me, who hate having cords laying around on their desks, some sanity. Priced appropriately at $19.99, the PlayStation Vita Cradle is a very minimalistic dock with no lights and no buttons. Instead, the metallic brush finished dock opts to display a PlayStation logo on the front with a USB 2.0 and line out on the back.

The dock itself serves a few different purposes, with the most simple one being the capability to watch movies on your PS Vita at just the right angle. In order to get more milage from your dock, you’ll then have to plug in the USB cable and power brick which came with your PS Vita. Once plugged into an outlet, the PlayStation Vita Cradle can then elegantly power your Vita, perfect for having it next to your bed and or in an office setting. Still, my favorite feature is to skip out on the power brick all together and opt for using only the PS Vita’s USB cable. When the PlayStation Vita’s Cradle is plugged into your Mac or PC with a USB cable (which came with your Vita), you can now charge your device and synchronize content back and forth with the Content Manager Assistant program from Sony. Milage from that program will vary but that’s for another article. While on the topic of the dock itself, Sony also took into consideration the weight and size of the Vita and has appropriately weighted down the dock, giving it a solid feel.

Should You Buy ‘Batman: Arkham City?’

Decades of older Batman games forced the titular character in beat-em-up, racing, and arcade-style brawlers, though none of them came close to literally putting players deep into the world of the Dark Knight. The world’s greatest detective and martial artist needed a game that would allow him to use his investgative skills, wits, gadgets, and dangerous fighting styles without having to be shoehorned into tired genre staples.

Thankfully, in 2009, DC had finally broken the curse with Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum; eventually winning countless game-of-the-year awards and achieving retail success in the process. This success allowed Rocksteady to create perhaps one of the greatest superhero games ever made, and definitely the best game of 2012 with Batman: Arkham City.

Should You Buy ‘Warriors Orochi’ on PSP?

Warriors Orochi

MSRP: $19.99

1-Player

The Koei’s Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series have been around since the birth of the Playstation 2 some 11 years ago. Since then, dozens upon dozens of sequels and spin offs have been created to varying levels of quality and success. While some have been lackluster (Strikeforce, DW: vol.1 & 2, the Wii games), others have been excellent.

Warriors Orochi is one of the more entertaining games to come out for the PSP. People who’ve played the D/S Warriors series have always wondered what would happen if these worlds would collide; and Koei delivers by mahshing the two brands together into one meaty package.

Should You Buy ‘Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble?’

There’s nothing manlier than beating up various kenka bancho (translation: fighting delinquents) and becoming known as the strongest fighter in the country. And that’s what Kenka Bancho for the PSP offers its players: a chance to become the strongest street fighter in all of Japan.

Kenka Bancho is a PSP brawler series that’s pretty popular in its native Japan. It’s so popular that there’s even a movie (Kenka Bancho ~ Zenkoku Seiha) released theatrically in Japan and Asia.

Hit the jump to read the full review!

Should You Buy ‘Tekken 6’ on PSP?

MSRP $19.99

1-2 Players

I can honestly say that Tekken 6 is one of the best fighting games for Sony’s portable platform. There’s nothing like bringing your favorite fighting game and playing it on the go. And while it does lack some of the features unlike it’s console counterparts, it still retains the core gameplay that makes Tekken such an enjoyable fighting game experience.

Hit the jump to read the full review.