E3 2011: EA Conference

No major reveals, but I did this anyways...

Mass Effect 3
- Releases March 6th, 2012 on 360, PS3, and PC
- Live demo shown, looks amazing

Origin
- EAs new Steam-like service, "Go check it out!"…
- No really, its after EVERY TRAILER

Need for Speed: the Run
- Super stat-tracking
- Out of car gameplay, a.k.a. running from the cops

Star Wars: The Old Republic
- New trailer shown, all pre-rendered footage we've seen…
- No date

SSX
- No more serious look or subtitle
- Comes next January

FIFA 12
- Yup, they still make it.
- EA Sports Football Club connects you through all versions of FIFA regardless of platform.

Madden 12
- Holy Crap!! I cannot believe they're bringing this franchise back!
- Really, they used Inception music for this??
- Enough of the meat-heads please.

The Sims: Social
- Facebook is not a gaming platform, get out of my face.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
- First game from 38 Studios
- Open world fantasy game

OverStrike
- First multi-platform title from Insomniac Games
- Weird off-portioned realistic characters, I'm scared.

Battlefield 3
- New graphics engine is … astonishing
- Beta in September
- Free stat tracking, coughActivisioncough
- Releases October 25, 2011

Green Day: Rock Band Review

Rock Band and Green Day junkies rejoice, because the newest addition to our ever-growing arsenal of songs is here: Green Day: Rock Band, the second band-centric Rock Band game since The Beatles: Rock Band. But, how does this game stack up to the previous Rock Band games?

If you are a Green Day fan, then this is hands-down a must buy. The game comes with 47 songs (all of which are Green Day, suck on that Activision!), three entire albums: 1994's Dookie, 2004's American Idiot, and 2009's 21st Century Breakdown (counting the six tracks already available as DLC), along with eight of their older hits from other albums thrown into the mix; nothing off 39/Smooth or Kerplunk however. However, if you're not a Green Day fan, then I suggest renting the game and at least giving it a shot, you may be surprised at what you find.

Now, I myself am a big fan of Green Day, and I found myself loving every minute of this game. The graphics and animations actually seem to be a step up from Rock Band 2, thanks mostly in part to the band actually being motion-captured (which obviously could not be done with The Beatles) and Harmonix did a wonderful job making it seem like you are at an actual Green Day concert.

Oh, how you've changed... Green Day, not the gameplay.

In terms of game play, I found that the guitar and bass are rather repetitive, but I found myself enjoying the songs so much that I never got sick of playing. Singing is... well, it's singing, if your familiar with the songs then you will, without a doubt, enjoy it; and the three-part harmonies from The Beatles: Rock Band return here. But, if you're not a big Green Day fan, but you love playing drums, then you are in luck, for the drums are the definite strong point of the game. I've listened to Green Day for years, but it never really hit me just how good of a drummer Tre Cool is until I played some of these songs. I don't see myself getting bored of ANY of these songs anytime soon, they give just enough challenge to satisfy your every drumming need. Constantly changing beat, tons of drum rolls, and he even presents possibly the hardest drum solos in Rock Band yet (seriously, they are insane!).

All in all, I would have to say that Green Day: Rock Band is a must buy for Green Day fans, and it is certainly worth a rent for the average Rock Band/Guitar Hero player, maybe you'll even find a new found love for some good old fashion punk rock.

Overall Score: 8.5/10

Green Day: Rock Band is available in both regular $60 version and a $70 PLUS version which includes a voucher to export the songs to Rock Band and Rock Band 2 (eventually Rock Band 3 as well) and includes the 6 21st Century Breakdown DLC tracks. This review was based on the PLUS version for Xbox 360, which is basically just like the regular edition, but PS3 and Wii versions should play the same (minus the visuals on the latter) .

Mass Effect 2 Review

The sequel to what some call the best game on the Xbox 360 is finally here. BioWare's Mass Effect 2 is blowing away critics, and redefining what a sequel really should be. But, what did I think about it?

Well... I could write a giant review detailing every aspect of the game, the pros, the cons, but you can get all of that in so many places already, I'm just going to leave it at this. Mass Effect 2 is the best game this generation, so far. Not playing this is the equivalent of not having played Super Metroid back in the 16-bit days. That's about the highest compliment I can give to a video game. The scope, the atmosphere, the character interaction; Mass Effect 2 is honestly the current pinnacle of gaming. This will be the benchmark as to how a sequel should be made.

One warning though, to newcomers, play the original Mass Effect first. You'll miss so much of the emotional impact of the game if you don't. Why? Because most of your data, including decisions, dead/living characters, the look of your Shepard, as well as some money and resources will transfer over into Mass Effect 2. This is a game that plays heavily on the emotions of the player, and whether it be subtle or in your face, you'll be doing yourself a huge favor by playing the first entry before the second. Then sit back, enjoy, and prepared to be blown away.

Worth noting:
+ Giant leap ahead from the first game.
+ Extremely cinematic, without losing too much control.
+ Your decisions actually matter.
+ Interesting world, interesting story.
+ Could hold it's own as a shooter.
+ Best cast of characters in recent memory.
- Loading times can feel a bit lengthy.

Overall Score: 9.5/10

Rock Band 2 Review

Rock Band 2 is back and better than ever, as it brings all of its familiar features back, plus a few more, as well as some more user-friendly functionality and more flexible character creation.

Like always with these games, the first thing to talk about is the instruments. Rock Band 2 implements some new gear, although they play like the previous. The drums now contain velocity-sensitive pads and a metal reinforced pedal. The entire drum set though is still designed the same as the first, so if you’re used to playing with the original drum set, then you’re right at home. Same goes for the guitar, which while it sports a new color scheme and firmer buttons, maintains its original design. The improvements made to these instruments aren’t too noticeable, but they are for the better, and all old RB instruments are compatible, so if you just want to pick up the disc only, then you’ll be fine doing so.

Naturally, the first thing you will want to do when you have assembled your instruments and started up the game is to create your own character. The character creator is very similar to the one in RB. You choose from a handful of basic features and can then really set yourself apart via all of the clothing and accessories you acquire throughout the course of the game. Luckily though, Harmonix fixed their problem in the first where you had to create a different character for each instrument. Now, you can create a single character and have him or her play any and all instruments, which allows us all to breathe a nice, big sigh of relief. They also fixed the need to have a band leader always present while doing the world tour mode. Now, there is no band leader and you can play with whomever on any instruments without worry.

At first glance, there isn’t much to do with Rock Band 2 it seems from the menu, as your only real options are Quickplay and Tour, but there is some depth once you explore the various modes and features. In Quickplay, you have your basic choose a few songs and play either by yourself or with friends. Then you have Score Duel and Tug of War for some added excitement and a chance to embarrass and demean your friends.

However, Tour mode is where the meat of the game is housed. The first major feature of the Tour mode is of course the world tour, where you go from city to city and venue to venue playing one to many songs, accumulating fans and money along the way. This tour presentation is what really sets the game apart from Guitar Hero: World Tour and makes it what it is. Instead of simply having a bunch of fliers around and making you play 3-5 songs in a row, you can around from city to city, playing a variety of songs, over and over again, and get new fans and unlock new venues and super marathons and all sorts of things. It’s really fun and rewarding to play through a few cities and then get invited to a special event where you can win a car or jet so you can then travel to new locations to put on shows. Then you have a variety of decisions to make, like should you take the charity show and earn some more fans while sacrificing money, or should you go double or nothing? As your band gets more popular, you can even hire a single person from a group, which will earn you special rewards, like getting more gigs in a certain location, or earning more money or fans. Then of course the overall presentation of the singing and stage performing is, what I would consider, of higher quality and more variety, with the color and camera effects. Unlike Guitar Hero, the tour mode in Rock Band can last a very long time and require lots of dedication if you want to pass some of those crazy-long marathons and it just makes the game more fun with the hundreds of venues you can travel to. (Note: you can play the tour mode solo if you have no one to play with, and then with other people later, so the choice of playing with different people, or online, or just by yourself is nice.)

Also housed in the Tour mode are Battle of the Bands and Challenges. Battle of the Bands creates a special venue for you to play in just about every day. While touring around, you will see these special icons, and if you go to them you can participate in these battles and try to get a high score. These battles will always have some sort of category or genre associated with them, that range from some standard to some crazy stuff, so keep an eye out.

Ah, your mom. Total hottie. She is one of many employees you can hire to help you out on the road.



The Challenges are a bit different. These come in a variety of difficulty tiers, seven to be exact, and each tier houses another seven or so challenges. These challenges feature a handful of songs and are specific to a certain instrument. For instance, there are challenges tailored around the guitar, drums, vocals, and band. In order to attempt these challenges, at least one member of the band (current people playing) must be using that instrument. For instance, if I am using the guitar and my friend is using the drums, we wouldn’t be able to try the vocals challenge. Someone would have to be using the microphone. And of course, you can attempt these challenges by yourself, except for the band challenges, which require at least two players. I believe how the challenges work is that you have to acquire a certain number of points to clear the challenge or it could simply be that you clear the song without failing; I’m not a hundred percent on that. Either way, while this doesn’t really add anything new to the game, as you will still be playing the same songs, it gives it a little freshness and a new way to approach playing the songs, as it always gives you a good feeling to clear a "challenge."

Some other added features in Rock Band 2 are no-fail mode, and a variety of other Extras which can be unlocked, like speeding up the highway, or the ability to just rock out to no music, or using your MP3 playing to just rock out, best used with the drums. There are also a variety of training lessons to go through if you’re a n00b, and they added solos for all instruments so people wouldn’t be so jealous of the lead guitar.

Overall, Rock Band 2 is a great addition to the new franchise, giving players 80+ new songs to play to, while constantly giving them more via DLC. Harmonix extended the Tour mode a bit, adding in some new features to make it more exciting. The presentation has been tweaked a bit to give the game more flavor, and there are still tons of items to collect to pimp out your character. If you like music games, I think this is the one to own. It may come down to which instruments you prefer, Rock Band or Guitar Hero, but both sets are compatible with each other, so you can choose to get the GH instruments and then pick up the RB disc, or vice versa.

Overall Score: 9/10

Posted in cooperation with GamersPlatform

Ex-Retro Studios employees start up Armature

So, a few months ago, a few guys from Retro Studios, the guys who brought you the fantastic Metroid Prime series, left the developer and went to start their own studio, which they did, now named Armature.

They just announced that they struck a deal with EA, ewww, and that they will be working on a variety of new IP's for all platforms. The terms of the deal are a bit odd, as they will apparently start work on a variety of different games, but then once established, will hand them off to other developers, while then directing the teams. It's weird, and perhaps unfortunate, that they will have to give up some control over the projects, but only time will tell if this turns out to be a winning formula.

I have to admit at first, that when I heard these members of Retro Studios left, I was more than disappointed, as I wasn't sure how it would effect Retro. I still don't know how Retro will be affected and how their future products will turn out, whatever they may be, but I am very excited to see what Armature can do. If you have played any of the Metroid Prime games, then you will know how amazing the environments and elements are in the game, and those were on the under-performing Gamecube and Wii. With the extra hardware boost and graphical capabilities of the PS3 and Xbox 360, it will be very exciting to see what they can come up with.

Keep your eyes and ears open to see what these guys come out with in the future. You can check out their official website at armature.com.

Army-o-Two Review Is Up!

The review for Army of Two is up at classic vfh here. Now while having a army consisting of two people sounds like a horrible idea on paper, it apparently works. If their is one thing I learned from this game it's that if you want to eliminate an "army" of two mercenaries, just put them in a hovercraft and stick random obstacles around them. Bullets to the face do not phase them, yet a simple nudge of their hovercraft into a wall will blow them the hell up.

Review
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UPDATE (3/22/10) VFH Classic is dead, and sadly, this review was unrestorable.