• 30Nov 07

  Let's Boycott Gamespot!

  CNET fired Jeff Gerstmann because of his scathing Kane and Lynch review. Jeff isn't the best reviewer, but the game well deserved the criticism, and there's no way we should stand for advertising money being able to influence the decisions of an editorial team. I'm not using Gamespot anymore and neither should you.

  My blog will now only be at http://moggraider.1up.com . Later guys.

  • Posted Nov 30, 2007 4:20 pm PT
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• 26Nov 07

  Damn You, Microsoft!

  I am furious. I got Mass Effect in the mail today, after triumphantly beating Fire Emblem for the Wii. I was so eager to play Mass Effect, I rushed through my schoolwork to get to the sci-fi goodness. After my note-taking was out of the way, I ripped the plastic sealing off my copy of Mass Effect and put it in my console, marveling at the intro screen. I was in the middle of creating my Shepard's face when BAM!
  
  I got a blue screen! On the 360! It wasn't the traditional PC Blue Screen, with fatal error exceptions and whatnot, but it was definitely a screen of a blue color, segmented into squares. After that, I couldn't get past the character select screen despite multiple tries, if I could get the console into the game at all.
  
  I officially hate Microsoft now. I had to call for a coffin and that took about half an hour. The tech on the other side was not Indian, but rather Portuguese, it seemed. When I asked him where he was from, he claimed Pennsylvania. Hah!
  
  I guess I have to play Crysis and Mario instead. Grr.
  • Posted Nov 26, 2007 7:11 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 21Nov 07

  Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 - Wii WWII Game of the Year!

  I played and beat the new MoH game in two nights on my Wii. The game was a blast, and I'm naming it Wii WWII Shooter of the Year (like my categories?). Here's why.
  
  Heroes 2 is everything games like Red Steel could and should be. The wiimote was implemented excellently in this game, making the gun play more streamlined and fun than it ever manages to be on most console games. When you take hold of a machine gun emplacement, you have to hold out your nunchuk and remote out in front of you - just as if you were grasping the handles of an MG. When you come across a Panzerschreck, you lift the "bazooka" (in the form of the remote), over your shoulder, and only then can you fire. Most importantly, the more conventional use of guns in battles is always responsive and fun. This and other uses of the remote made the whole experience a blast, even if it was far too short a singleplayer campaign.
  
  Heroes 2 does have a few drawbacks aside from its brief length. The game is back to the traditional MoH structure of you versus the world. While that means you kill a much larger share of the Germans than anyone else, even more than all the other WWII games, it's also pretty unrealistic, and it felt like a regression back to MoH Frontline, or some other last-gen game. The weak graphics don't help. Also, the relatively brief amount of time you DO have squadmates, it's only so they can take their sweet time to maybe kill one or two of the enemies before issuing to you a variant of the ever-present FPS line: "You go on ahead; I'll secure this area." You'll hear it every mission. Aside from that, the AI is nothing special. And of course, we have a few of the clichés from shooters in genre and MoH games in particular, such as a stream of enemies being triggered when you come across an MG, or infinite enemies spawning until you push forward on a chokepoint.
  
  Despite the above problems, I'm still recommending MoH Heroes 2 for at least a rental. That's not a weak recommendation; it's a suggestion that you definitely play this game, even if you only rent it. I didn't bother with the multiplayer, but from all accounts, it's enjoyable, allowing for a maximum of 32 players on a server.
  
  This game finally shows me some of the best possibilities for FPS games on the Wii, and I certainly found it more enjoyable than the recent MoH Airborne. Metroid Prime 3 also did some great things for the genre earlier this fall, but we finally have here a third party taking some initiative and putting a decent amount of effort into a title, and that's laudable. The only thing holding the game back is the craptacular graphics, which must at least partly be due to the fact that the game was also released on the PSP.
  • Posted Nov 21, 2007 1:09 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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