The Pxl Lab is a blog dedicated to writing about the great games, software, and the stuff you can do with them.
Posts tagged game
Need for Speed: Undercover on the Wii
1
This game was just the step up from NFS: Carbon that the public was looking for. If you are sitting at your computer and asking, “Why is the public looking for something similar to Carbon?” then you obviously are not part of the public trend that is the Need For Speed series.
From high speed pursuit to high speed racing, NFS: Undercover is the high speed thrill ride it should be. The one advance from NFS: Prostreet is the return of Free Roam. If you are asking what free roam is, you probably should go play one of these games. Free Roam is one of the greatest racing game inventions since the taco car from Top Gear Overdrive for the N64.
The basic idea of Free Roam is you get into a really fast car. That car is unable to be destroyed. You are now unleashed on a city. Sounds fun, right? Prostreet lacked this very intuitive feature from Carbon which has been upgraded in Undercover. The main upgrade is the three cities connected by highway. Although the cities are small, the tri-city of Undercover gives a feel of a realistic city.
The graphics of Undercover aren’t bad, but aren’t the greatest either. The main problem isn’t how good the cars look, its the physics behind those cars. If your car hits something, that something goes flying, and you do nothing. However, there are certain things that, if you hit them, you stop instantly and they do nothing. I suppose there can be some serious drawbacks to playing the Wii version of the game as opposed to the 360 or PS3 versions.
Overall, I would rate Undercover quite highly, with a good ending and reasonable plot line to keep me entertained for the 10-some-odd hours it took me to complete the game.
Final Fantasy Crisis Core – The Gem Among Common Stones
13 years ago
Final Fantasy Crisis Core is a PSP game that shines out around the others. The PSP is notorious for short games that don’t seem to stand up to the PS2 as they were supposed to do. Crisis Core is an exception to that rule.
The basic storyline of Crisis Core is to show where the characters Zack, Cloud, Sephiroth, and some others, originated from. Many characters recognized even by gamers who don’t enjoy RPG’s include Cloud and Yuffie as they were both featured in popular Final Fantasy franchises and even games not related directly to the Final Fantasy line.
Crisis Core is the story of Soldier Class 2 Zach, who eventually grows to Soldier Class 1. A Class 1 Soldier deserts the Soldier company and many follow him, including Zach’s mentor, Angeal. Zach is pulled into the conflict quickly, as Soldier’s ranks are diminishing and you are put in control of the character.
The battle style of the game is different from traditional Final Fantasy games. You are put into the action. Though you still choose what attack to do, you are pressured to make that attack quickly as action is the method of choice for fighting. You fight using a sword and have magical proporties as well as an ability to use special sword techinques. This fighting style is much more silimar to the Kingdom Hearts style of battle. The woman who says “Activating Combat Mode” at the beginning of every battle is very annoying though.
The game is lacking one major element; however, this element has been lacking in nearly every Final Fantasy game: Multiplayer. This game would pull off multiplayer more effectivly than others due to its action battle style. One nice feature that continues to reappear in RPG games is the option to start over with continued stats. The game is also very long, taking me about 16 hours to complete, a very long running time for a PSP game.
Bottom line, this is an excellent game, if you have a PSP I highly recommend checking it out.
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Bob’s Game – 15,000 Hours of Work for a DS Game
93 years ago
Bob’s game is a new game to come out for the Nintendo DS sometime in the next year hopefully. Robert Pellini has spent 15,000 hours on his game, all done on his home computer with C++. He plans to find a publisher and send the game through to stores near you sometime in 2009 if a publisher can be found.
The basic concept behind the game is “Who Is Yuu?” Yuu is your character. You control the sprite and do different puzzles and other interactions around a fairly large city.
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Robert explains the game on his site, quoted below:
Hello.
My name is Bob, age 25.This is my game for Nintendo DS, a 20-hour-long retail-size,
retail-quality adventure title by a single human being-
the largest game ever made by one person.“bob’s game” is a simple 2D adventure game, with focus on
story, puzzles, item collection, and communication instead
of repetitive battles with palette-swapped enemies.Many characters (over 200 completely unique characters!)
have deep personalities that evolve, and many things
depend on the in-game time, day and weather.
It’s the game I wanted to play when I was younger,
a vision I’ve been following since then.
Left 4 Dead Demo Confirmed on PC and Xbox 360
03 years ago
by Pxl_Buzzard
in Gaming
Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve (the greatest gaming company ever), confirmed at Videogamer.com that the demo of Left 4 Dead will be for PC and Xbox 360. Gabe, while unsure of the final content that will be in the demo, assures gamers that both singleplayer and co-op will be in the demo as a taste of what the game will be like. The game itself is due out on November 18th in the US, and November 21, 2008 in Europe.
The Pxl Lab is also planning on reviewing both the PC and Xbox versions of the game, so be sure to check our reviews of the game when it’s released!
Desktop Tower Defense – The Best TD Game on the Web
03 years ago
I discovered this little game while surfing the net today. Desktop Tower Defense is a flash game where you have to protect your desktop from invaders by spending money on attack turrets and building a maze for the invaders to go through. It’s strangely addictive and before you know it you just want to play more and more. I really enjoyed seeing other people’s mazes and how many points they scored with it. You can play the game on Kongregate with achievements, or just play it on the creators’ website, HandDrawnGames.com. Check out the videos below for some awesome in-game action.
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DirectX August 2008 Update Released
03 years ago
Microsoft put out the newest version of DirectX, the newest release since June 2008. DirectX, for those of you who don’t know, is what developers use to help power games on Windows-based computers. DirectX 10.1, which is the latest version on the market, allows things in-game like motion blur, god rays, and other sweet effects. If you are currently having any problems with your games or would just like a little speed boost in-game, upgrading to the latest version of DirectX is always a good way to try and fix it.
DirectX Runtime Download (this download installs any versions of DirectX you may not have)
August 2008 Only Download (just get the latest version)
Bubble Tanks 2 – Message in a Bubble
03 years ago
Bubble Tanks 2, sequel to the excellent Bubble Tanks, is an incredibly creative shooter. As the name implies, you play as a Bubble Tank in a bubble world flying around shooting other bubbles so as to absorb their bubbles to make your own bubble bigger and better. The game has a lot of bubbles, to say the least, as well as many improvements over the original Bubble Tanks, and is easily one of the best Flash-based games this year.
In Bubble Tanks 2, the tutorial has literally not changed at all from the original. This is quite a blessing, actually. Bubble Tanks and Bubble Tanks 2′s tutorials consist of writing on the background of the first couple bubbles. That’s it. Also the core gameplay is virtually unchanged. You still move from bubble to bubble using W-A-S-D and aim and shoot using the mouse. BT2 also adds an entertaining “Arena Mode” in addition to normal mode. In Arena Mode, you can choose to do battle against any of the bubbly foes you have previously encountered, as well as start your bubble off at any stage you unlocked in normal mode. This brings me to my next point. Players of the original Bubble Tanks probably noticed that there are literally no customization options. Now in BT2, as your tank “levels” up, you can choose which specialization you want. You can go as an agile Fighter Tank, a slow powerful Heavy Tank, or a nice balanced Balance Tank. It adds a nice level of customization to the game, in addition to adding a lot to the replay value. There’s also a new Secondary Weapon feature, which affects your overall strategy in the game. If you’re playing as a balance tank, for instance, shields are useful for fighting bigger enemies so you can block their attacks. Though there are also plenty of useless secondary weapons as well, such as mines. No enemy ever ran over any of the mines I ever laid down, ever.
Overall, Bubble Tanks 2 is a huge improvement over the original Bubble Tanks, which is saying alot because Bubble Tanks is one of my all time favorite flash games. The only real problems I have with the game are the lack of balance between the classes, with many profoundly useless classes such as Sniper, as well as absolutely no carried over traits when you upgrade your tank. The customization really ends with which tank you pick. Also, it ocassionally has lag spikes when there are a bunch of enemies on screen. Overall, however, I’d say this game is an excellent way to spend a little time while in the interwebs.
The Worst Game Ever Sold In Stores
23 years ago
Some games were just never meant to be. Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing is one such game. Here is a quote from the game box:
You are able to race your modified Rig on one of 5 different tracks for the ultimate driving rush as you crush the competition and set a new track record!
The lack of tracks and features that this sentence (and game) is lacking is only made incredibly worse by running the game on the worst engine ever designed by man. Collision detection and realistic gravity are some of the things that never had the time to make it into the game. Here is a gameplay video, and be warned: It’s hilarious.
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According to Metacritic, a website that collects reviews from multiple sources and adds their collective score together, Big Rigs is the worst rated game of time, scoring an 8 out of 100. The only reason you’ll even want to look into this game is for some of the funniest videos you’ll ever see on Youtube.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 Review – Still No Online?
83 years ago
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is a PSP exclusive MMO style “free roaming” killing game, released in late August of 2007. After almost a year of being on the market, the game is beginning to gain hype in the United States. Known in Japan as Monster Hunter Portable 2G, the series is extremely popular, and had no trouble selling two million copies of the game. The basic gameplay of MHF2 is quest based. You choose a quest from a list according to your skill level, then you are sent on that quest, and cannot return to the village or leave the area of that quest until you have fulfilled certain requirements, such as killing a monster, gathering specific materials, or killing an amount of monsters. You will then be allowed to return to the village to restock and upgrade armor and weapons with materials you obtained on your quests. For those people who enjoy griding to get that special weapon, or full armor set, this is a game for you.
Unfortunately, this game did not take advantage of its greatest potential, online play. Though this protects those newer players who may not have the kind of armor and abilities that other more experienced players may have, this decreased game appeal greatly. Adhoc (system to system) play is possible, allowing players to play quests with nearby friends who also happen to own MHF2, but the lack of online play throughout the world is a real drawback.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 takes advantage of the PSP’s control and graphic capabilities. There are many things you can walk though, or stand inside that you shouldn’t be able to, but the massive size of the game makes these drawbacks acceptable. The controls take some getting used to, and at the beginning you may find things sneaking up on you due to no dual joysticks on the PSP, which reduces your ability to use the camera effectively, but after a few hours, this camera problem will be replaced by habitual scanning of areas. The controls also take a bit getting used to, but after they are mastered, they are actually well done for a PSP game.
Monster Hunter has always lacked a storyline, and Freedom 2 does not cure this problem. There is no storyline at all really. You lead the life of an average hunter, who goes on quests for people in the village you call your home. These quests range from getting herbs for some old lady, or killing a huge dragon for some coward who can’t do the job himself.
The grinding of the game can get old, but the sheer depth of the game is enough to keep fans occupied for hundreds of hours. If you enjoy MMOs this is a good game to play in the car, or if you are just bored and want to kill monsters. If you have a PSP I would recommend picking this game up, you will get plenty of play for your pay.
Screenshots of the game:
iSketch Is Pictionary Online!
53 years ago
iSketch is simple: it’s basically MMOpictionary. After selecting a username, you log on. Unfortunately you cannot save usernames and see highscores as of yet. Every account is technically a guest. At first glance of the server list, they are all the same save the number. However, if you continue to browse, you can join certain rooms dedicated to books, animals, time periods, and various languages. iSketch’s variety of languages is English and French, but also has single rooms for Turkish, Dutch, Spanish, and many more! It also contains chat rooms user created that vary from cybering to casual chat.
The actual iSketch experience is good. The chat rooms are full at 10 users, and everybody takes a turn out of the 10 rounds to draw a word. The first person to guess it correctly wins 10 points ,the 2nd 9, and etc. Usually only about 3 or 4 of the people actually correctly guess the word, because the drawings are user made. No words are allowed in the picture obviously, but you can give hints with a handy hint button, or simply skip the word altogether if you are chosen as the artist. As a drawer, the more correct guesses of your word, the more points you receive. After 10 rounds, the winner will get his name rotating up in the sky with fireworks going off. No awards or ranks yet, just recognition within the channel.
Sometimes there are a lot of immature people that join the channels who spam it up and/or take their draw turn writing vulgar words, and since there is no registered user system, the effect of booting them does nothing. Overall though, iSketch is fun. It is a great way to waste your time on the internet, with no strings attached! A lot of games require multiple visits to maintain your score, or at least are very competitive (WoW, need I say more?). This simple game is very entertaining, at no cost, with no time determined commitment.