Aliens VS Predator

Aliens VS Predator.




Hi, my name is Cody and this is my review for Aliens VS Predator. I played it using the Onlive service, over the ear headphone for the best sound and a xbox 360 controler.



Marine Gameplay: At first the way I was moving felt strange and slightly foriengh to me, RB to hit, LT to fire secondary shot, Y to heal. Even the way you control the motion of your player just felt a little off. After about an hour of playing it all become second nature and felt correct. But as most people know the first hour of a game should tell you most of how it is. Once I warmed up to the strange feel of the game I found myself really knocking the aliens back and fighting them without mercy. Every minute that passed I found myself enjoying the game more and more. I played the Marine chapters for a couple of hours and wasn't even close to being bored with it but I still have to play as the Aliens and the Predator. I called it quits and stepped into the Alien mode.



Alien Gameplay: For some reason the alien controls seem easer to use than the Marines was. I do feel like it take a few to many hits to kill your standard human but it is a lot of fun to climb along the top of a ceiling, drop down behind a human and bite his skull open. Something oddly satisfying about that. Sometime while running along the top of a ceiling I do find myself getting confused or disorientated. It just bends my mind going from right way up to upside down then back to right side up again within four seconds. Yikes. Another annoying thing that I noticed was when you are hunting down the Marines, they repeat the same lines over and over again. "Don't let your guard down, marines" I had that sentence said while I was hunting a small group of them at least thirty times in about ten minutes. After nearly 2 hours of playing as Number 6, the alien, I am calling it quits and trying out the Predator. (for some reason I feel like there is more of a story with the Alien than the humans. At least I can say the pet alien has a name.)



Predator Gameplay: I cant choose whether I think the Predator game play is the best or if it's the Marines, but either way, the Predator game play is bad ass. I love the way it handles. Jumping long distances and killing off tons of aliens and humans is just great. The hits are about the same as the aliens, I wish they could hit harder but it is still just light enough to make the game fun and challenging. The light hits keep you from being a fool and playing the game as a run and gun, so you are forced to play it as a hunter in the Predator life style. Kill only when you need to and collect the trophy's as you go. I loved the way the controls were set, it didn't confuse me or make it awkward for me at all. I felt like when they were making the game they put most of the focus on the Predators mechanics, and for good reason.



Sound design and music: I love the idea that the radar makes the same sound as it did in the second movie, but I think they could have changed this a little bit to make it cool and not the most annoying thing in the game. A simple adjustment to make the radar emit noise (Blips and beeps) only when you are near a alien would have made it nice and just like the movie, but no. The annoying beeping never stops, never. Other than that, the sound in this game is fantastic! I found myself on the edge of my seat while playing as the Marine, the sounds the aliens make, the sounds of the guns, even the next to silent ambiance in the game really dug deep in my mood and really set things right in the game.



Gameplay: The layout is very linear and can force you right into the traps in the game but, I still tried to find other paths to elevators and exits only to be forced out the correct way. Regardless, the path they lay out for me to walk on has me tense and unready for what they throw at me. At one point I got confused and started walking around a building till I got a glimpse of a blood splatter from a predator, it had me on edge, knowing there was also Predators lurking in the world.



Environment: This game really brought the same great feel that the movies brought. I really found myself at awe while looking at the world and textures. The way the building at the hive goes from dark and metallic to cold, wet and slimy in just a few steps really made a impact on me. In most games that kind of thing gets lost to the player and just makes them feel like they entered a new area, but for this one; I found myself interested at the fact that behind the slime and organic growth on the walls is the same metal plating as the rest of the buildings. The swamps were fun to be in and the over whelming fear that there might be a Predator on my back drives me to keep pushing out of the area. The Alien's game play area in the start felt like a testing area. It all felt the way it should have.



The things I liked most about the game was the way it made you feel. The sounds and view you get in the game really just set in with me.



The things I didn't like about the game was the annoying constant radar sound in my ears and the strange vertigo I got while playing as the Alien. I also would have liked to have known who the Marine was a little bit more.



Bottom line is: Aliens VS Predator is a very fun game and well worth the dirt cheap price you can get it for nowa days. I got the game for $5 on a onlive $5 Friday, I know you can get the game for the same basic price from like gamestop for xbox 360/ps3 and I suggest that if you are a fan of the Aliens films, you go find a copy next time your out and about or buy it Onlive and challenge me to a online VS match.

SAW: the video game review

Yo Cody here. Dropping a review on the SAW the video game.

Okay first off I wanted to hate this game. I rented this game due to it being around Halloween, and because I heard the puzzles did make it worth it. Now with that aside I will move on.

The game starts off with you being locked up to a chair. You break the locks on your wrists by pulling up on them(because, you know, your super man) then you take control of the black man they like calling Detective Tap even though it looks nothing like Danny Glover. Now lets be fair, human likeness can be hard. So you move onto attempting to remove the reverse bear trap on your head before it goes off. This is the first of many easy puzzles. Your puzzle is twist the thumb stick 'round and 'round till a button shows up, hit the correct button and you break out, just in the nick of time. okay Um, really? "It's a trap!" achievement unlocked, okay that's a really stupid achievement, it's like getting a achievement for opening a glowing box for items and oh, "Treasure: unlock first container". Okay Imma be frank about this. I hate games that force you into a achievement, like as if you got one for your first time-leap back in braid. God I love braid. The one achievement I did want, never showed up. That part in the first movie where Adam is using a camera to light his way in his pitch black apartment and then is pounced upon. I used the camera to light my way for quite some time and even took pictures of foes. never got a achevment. So upsetting.

So aside from the massive achievement let downs, I'd like to point out how slow the fighting is in the game, I had assumed it would be like most games were you pick up a pipe and swing away at the foe till he dies. Well that works, really well. If you are fast enough to land the first hit, and are good at timing the speed of the foe as he runs at you. I started the game and found the first foe, he breaks through a door and runs at you, you pick up a pipe and wait for him to get close enough. I did this, and then swung at him, only he hit me first, canceling my hit, over and over again. I had to stop trying to him him and run away for a moment then swing well before he got close enough. The time span it takes to swing your weapons is just ridiculous.

For some reason Det. Tap is barefoot and is incapable of removing someones shoes to place over his own. This brings me to my next point, some tasks are just a waste of time, like the balance beams you have to cross, just run across and hold left and you'll make it across 9 out of 10 times. Broken glass is easy to see and is far to easy to side step past. digging through a toilet full of needles for a key is as simple as A button, A button.

In the menu of the game you can look at concept art as well as the E3 footage and other perks but the concept art is always something I look forward to in any game. after looking at the concept art it will then show the 3d model of the art chosen, this shows us how konami can not model a person very well.

The cut scenes in the game attempt to pull off the cinematography from the films, they need to watch the movies more than once before making a game of it. It has none of the saw elements to it other than the environment, the look and feel of the game is really the only thing they managed to do really well, the rest is very blah. I have yet to finish the game and I do look forward to finishing it despite all the horrible issues it has already. Something about the game keeps me entertained enough to have the urge to see the ending(Maybe because the movies always had interesting twists).

The only fun I had in the game was the first big puzzle where you feed the poison to the trash and the antidote to yourself. Also getting a achievement for each weapon drove me to keep playing, as well as the mystery in the game.

I would like to give this game a rating of 2 and a half stars out of 5. Nothing more than a rental. My say is final!

Cody Out~

Video games: Or how I used to play them whenever I wanted.

Yo, Cody here with a short(I hope) look into my life revolving around my gaming habits.

Now I was going to bring this up on the second PodCast with Tim, but on second thought it would be a bad idea, I know that if he cut me off in the middle of this speech, I would Begin to stumble my words and not ending with the right note. This would bring me to a staring contest and sad face between my Fiance and myself.

Ok now, onward! I found myself today at 1:20 pm standing in my living room, staring at my xbox and my stack of video games. Games like "Gears of war 1-2" "Left 4 Dead" "Brutal legend" and "SAW"(SAW was gamefly'd, don't think I'd waste money like that do you?) I thought to myself, "which should I play before going to work? Gears? No, not very fun without Tim or Seb. L4D? Nah, that's more of a Bre and I kinda game. Brutal Legend!? Yes! wait no, Bre got bothered last time I played it without her. Okay this leaves "SAW", No, can't play that without Bre and my mom."

This brings me to my point. It sucks when people enjoy watching you play your video games. Being limited to a few old games and ones you have already beaten just because you have a friend or family member interested as well, it blows.

See but this where it gets worse. Every time I wait for Bre to play L4D, I have a great time, the team work is nearly flawless, we also have the same feelings about players without headsets, bam! Booted from the game. And to top it off, she won't get pissed when I leave her ass to die with the tank just so we can finish the level.

All of the games I named that I wait for her has its own advantage. Brutal Legend, she enjoys the story and way the game flows, she never tells me to turn the music off even though she hates metal. And she points out small things I might of missed and walked right by.

Now SAW, This one has its set of issues. See I have heard lots of good about this game, but its a game based on a set of movies, bad movies at that. But I had to rent it, it's Halloween time and it just felt like a good choice. I will be setting a review in a few days. Back on topic, in this case I'm waiting on Bre, and my mom. My mother barely ever wants to watch me play a game, but this is SAW and she is interested. Bre hasn't said much about wanting to watch it, I asked her in a grumpy mood so the answer was "Meh" at best. I want My Fiance by my side for this game just in case it has a "dark feeling and pop up bad guys: Or How I am to much of a scarredy-cat to play it alone." Again the waiting has its answer, I wait for her this way I can enjoy some games to a further possibility. Waiting on my mom though, that really sucks, she is a very busy woman.

I hate being impatient, but waiting for others to play a game when you have nothing else to do, is just plain boring. I guess GED and 3D are my only choices. Oh, and uploading the Gofio Podcast.

Cody Out!~