Originally Published: November 24, 2010, on ClassicGameRoom.com
As a part of CGR Undertow, I reviewed Family Feud, the 2010 Edition, for the Nintendo Wii.
Tag Archive: ubisoft
Originally Published: November 9, 2010, on ClassicGameRoom.com
As a part of CGR Undertow, I reviewed the original Red Steel for the Nintendo Wii from Ubisoft.
Originally Published: July 7, 2010, on Lundberg.me, Examiner.com, Original-Gamer.com, PlayerAffinity.com, and ESPNNewYork.com
I know that E3 was three weeks ago, but with the craziness of the World Cup, NBA Free Agency, and the approaching MLB All-Star break, to say we’ve been a little busy here at ESPN would be an understatement. But in our spare time, my expert cameraman/editor Jared Bodden and I, have been toiling away trying to finish these videos to show you some of the great games we saw at E3 and bring you some exclusive interviews with the people behind those games.
One of the most difficult things in this process has been whittling down what we felt were the most worthwhile games to look at, so we broke it down into four videos. The first video is a compilation featuring online and DLC games with the following three videos being a summary of the rest of the best from each day. For the games that we had to cut for the sake of time, I apologize tremendously. I also wish we could have given every game we did feature their own special video.
On that note, without further ado, below is the culmination of my three days at the L.A. Convention Center for E3 2010. I hope you all enjoy.
The first video was my online/DLC game special that features looks at the new Deadliest Warrior game from Spike Games that comes out next Tuesday, DCU Online from Sony Online Entertainment, QuickHit.com and their brand new NFL license, and Blacklight: Tango Down from Ignition Entertainment.
Our first day at E3 was a special day overall and had us see some spectacular looking games for consoles. Our video of Day 1 features Tron and Epic Mickey from Disney Entertainment, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow from Konami, and Test Drive Unlimited 2 from Atari.
On the second day of E3, console games and their peripherals were well represented once more as we looked at Vanquish from SEGA, Shaun White Skateboarding and Ghost Recon: Future Solider from Ubisoft, WWE All-Stars from THQ, and the new Wii Exercise Bike from Big Ben Interactive.
On the last day of E3, we had a chance to look at some of the most hyped games for consoles and some sweet accessories when we looked at Call of Duty: Black Ops and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions from Activision and some sweet products from Nyko and iGUGU.
Videos by Jared Bodden
-Ray Carsillo
Originally Published: June 17, 2010, on Examiner.com and PlayerAffinity.com
I had a chance to look around the Ubisoft, Sega, Sony, and THQ booths on the second official day of E3.
Originally Published: June 15th, 2010, on PlayerAffinity.com and Examiner.com
I give my rundown and unique perspective on the Xbox 360 and Ubisoft pressers, and the Activision concert showing off DJ Hero 2, Tony Hawk Shred, and Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Originally Published: May 20, 2010, on Lundberg.me, Examiner.com, ESPNNewYork.com, and PlayerAffinity.com
Note: This review was done with the Xbox 360 version. The Xbox 360, PS3, and PC versions are very different from the Wii, PSP, and DS versions.
The Prince of Persia series of the last generation of consoles was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed series to come out during its era and so it was no surprise that Ubisoft would want to somehow continue it on the current generation of consoles. The problem was that there was really no room to continue the story after it was so perfectly tied together with its final chapter. The solution? An interquel! Thus, we have the Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands.
Naturally, the only place to expand on the trilogy would be in the seven year gap between the first chapter in the trilogy, The Sands of Time, and the second chapter, The Warrior Within, since the third chapter, The Two Thrones, took place immediately after Warrior Within and left no room for expansion (unless they wanted to go more in-depth about the Prince and Kaileena’s relationship on that boat of theirs& probably not a lot of gameplay there, but it might’ve provided for some interesting mini-games). In order to leave more room for later expansion and maybe the return of the Warrior Within’s nemesis, the Dahaka, Forgotten Sands takes place immediately after Sands of Time.
Now that we’ve banged out the timeline continuity, let’s get into the actual story. Our young hero, still not nearly as jaded as we would find him to be in Warrior Within, is sent by his father immediately after the events of Sands of Time to meet his brother, Malik, in the hopes that some of his leadership skills would rub off on our young prince. Upon arriving in his brother’s kingdom, the Prince finds Malik’s capital under siege and immediately puts to use his infamous agility as he begins to scour the city for his brother.
Once he catches up to Malik, the Prince finds that Malik is so desperate to win the battle, knowing that his forces have been nearly wiped out, that in a last ditch effort before retreat, Malik reveals to the Prince an ancient seal he has inherited. This seal supposedly will unlock the gates to a mystical sand army that the once great King Solomon had control over. Malik figures if he could control the army, he could turn the tide of war. It wouldn’t be much of a game though if Malik’s plan came to fruition.
As soon as the seal is inserted, it snaps in two as sand begins pouring out into the treasure room of Malik’s palace. The Prince, once again played by Yuri Lowenthal, quips that it always seems to be sand as only he and Malik are saved from the gruesome fate of being turned into sand statues by the remaining magic in the two halves of the seal. The Prince must now find a way to re-imprison the sand army that is running havoc around Malik’s city while discovering the secrets of King Solomon’s ancient city.
If you are a fan of the Prince of Persia trilogy from the last generation of consoles, then you will absolutely love Forgotten Sands. The Prince flows just as smoothly as ever as he uses his infamous agility to still hop along walls, columns, and flagpoles with as much as grace as in any previous game in the trilogy. There have also been new fighting mechanics added to the game as the Prince now uses not only his entire body and environment as a weapon with his typical jump kicks and acrobatic swinging sword somersaults, but several new powers that he acquires over the course of the game.
There is still the classic rewinding of time introduced way back in Sands of Time, but now there is also the ability to control the elements of wind, water, fire, and earth as the Prince’s new medallion made out of his half of the seal allows him an entire new power set. This new power set also allows for brand new puzzles for the Prince to traverse. Abilities like being able to freeze and unfreeze water has the Prince bouncing back and forth between frozen water ropes and trying to perfectly time when to turn waterfalls into walls and back. Also, being able to reverse time for not only the Prince, but also structures in the environment, creates a whole new challenge in terms of “looking before you leap”.
These new powers also help in the pumped up fights that the modern consoles can handle. There are times now where you are facing entire rooms full of twenty or thirty sand soldiers now, instead of only five or six like in most points in the original trilogy, so being able to call up stone armor or create a whirlwind around the Prince can really help even the odds.
The game also shines in terms of graphics on modern consoles. Never has a Prince of Persia game (even compared to the one that came out in December of 2008) looked so good. From facial expressions to Malik’s collapsing palace, Forgotten Sands is a visual gem. When you throw in a fantastic score and great voice acting from all those involved, including Yuri Lowenthal returning as the voice of the Prince, and this game’s peripherals are top-notch.
Of course, no game is perfect though. Even with all the great gameplay elements of the original trilogy successfully being ported over to this new chapter along with some tremendous additions in terms of puzzle solving, the game still has a couple of faults. Some irritating mid-jump glitches can make the already frustrating traps even more difficult to traverse.
More frustration comes through with the fact that even though the new systems can support more enemies, many of them are just as simple minded as ever and fall like bowling pins as they are knocked over by the agility of a well-trained Prince. The lack of enemy A.I. helps contribute to the fact that the story mode should only be about a 10-hour romp for most experienced players.
Another weak point of the game is that there isn’t much to keep you playing this beyond the short story mode. There isn’t even a hard mode. There is a second mode called “Enemy Tides” that you can unlock after beating the story mode where you try to defeat eight waves of enemies as quickly as possible, but you’ll be so experienced with your powers by the time you finish the game that you should blow through it on your first try with little difficulty. There are some collectibles and the hopes of powering up your Prince more to maybe bring you back for a second playthrough, but this is unlikely.
After having several intense playing sessions with Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands I have to say that if you are a fan of the series, then this is a must pick up. If this is your first foray into this series, I would recommend a rental first, but this is still a game that most every action/adventure gamer should enjoy.
Ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.
Graphics: 10.0: From the smallest grain of sand on the ground to Malik’s collapsing palace, and with spectacular faces and models for all the characters, Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands is one of the best looking games out there now.
Audio: 10.0: Spot-on SFX, a fantastic score that perfectly sets the mood, and superb voice acting from all those involved, including the return of Yuri Lowenthal as the Prince, and the game is a treat for your ears.
Plot/Plot Development: 9.0: I admit that I was a little hesitant with the fact that the newest Prince of Persia game was going to be an interquel, but the folks at Ubisoft did a really good job tying it into the first game. The only problem I have with it is that I would have liked to have seen a tease of the Dahaka at some point since he is such a major force in the Prince’s life later on.
Gameplay: 8.0: The gameplay is very good and the action is as always tremendous in a Prince game. Unfortunately, poor enemy A.I., some glitches, and only 10 hours of gameplay knocks this down a little.
Replay Value: 4.0: This is where the game really falls flat. The “Enemy Tides” survival mode was a nice idea, and I’m sure there will be a little DLC later on, but no hard mode and a minimal of collectibles in the story mode will keep you from playing this after getting through the story.
Overall (not an average): 8.0: A fantastic game to play through the story once, but unless you are an established fan of the Prince of Persia series you should rent this before full out buying it. Still though, this is at least a must experience for every action/adventure fan out there.
-Ray Carsillo
Originally Published: April 15, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com) and ESPNVideoGames.com
It’s getting close to summer and everyone wants to look their best. One of the recent big fads in gaming has been Nintendo’s releases of fitness games to help you burn calories and shed pounds and to continue lasting the vein of last summer’s sensation, Wii Fit. The best part of most of these games is they have proven that if you keep up the regimen dictated by the games, you will actually get into better shape and lose weight.
Of course, a lot of these exercises depend on the Wii’s Balance Board so it is almost like a gym membership since you’re dropping $90 for the board and Wii Fit and another $40-$50 on any supplemental games.
So, jumping on the fitness and working out at home bandwagons, a couple of recent releases for the Wii are trying their best to help you fit into that itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny yellow polka-dot bikini for the ladies or, for the guys, to look good to pick up that lady in the yellow bikini.
These two games are Ubisoft’s Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout and 2K Sports’ Don King Boxing.
Don King’s Boxing
Now, the Gold’s Gym game is an obvious title for a workout game, but Don King Boxing? In order to appeal to a larger audience, yes. One of the key features of this game is a workout mode that has you jumping rope, hitting a speed bag, shadow boxing, doing squats, or hammering a punching bag and the exercises work, especially the jumping rope. My calves were on fire after that. The problem is that the game awards you “fitness points” as you workout instead of just telling you how many calories you’re burning so you never know how effective your workout is going and what areas you need to work on more.
Another nice feature about the workout mode is that the Wii Balance Board also acts a scale before each workout so you can track your progress each day, but this feature comes standard with Wii Fit so it’s nothing spectacular.
If you can’t just get yourself up to working out, even with video games, the game has an interesting story mode to help you get moving and shedding pounds. The cinematic scenes for the story mode are great because they are live action and the story plays out like a documentary feature as you progress. The only problem with the story itself is it sounds like an adaptation of the first four Rocky movies.
You start off as a kid on the streets. You work your way up boxing in dilapidated gyms when the champion gives you a shot after he cannot find any decent competition. You beat the champion and become best friends with him. Then you beat some difficult heavyweight contenders coming after your belt. Then a behemoth boxer from overseas comes out of nowhere and challenges your friend in an exhibition. The behemoth knocks out your friend so hard that he dies in the ring. You then avenge your friend and retain your title by pummeling the behemoth in the ring for the entire world to see. All played out, of course, to “Eye of the Tiger” by Foreigner.
Add to the lack of originality, the fact that you can’t even customize your boxer and he has to be known as “The Kid” for the entirety of the game is frustrating.
The only real interesting aspect of the story mode was when you got the chance to get into the shoes of Archie Moore, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, and many other legends and replay some of the great matches of all time in order to teach your boxer a cliché lesson like “it ain’t over till it’s over”. Considering though the licensing rights that have already been snatched up by EA for Fight Night Round 4, the real legends you would want to see like Ali, Tyson, or Holyfield for the more casual fan, are nowhere to be seen.
You would hope from a boxing game for Wii that you would have better controls than Wii Sports’ boxing that launched with the system, but the ones in Don King’s Boxing might actually be worse. You never throw the punches you want to throw with your motions. Not that it matters since the A.I. is so sad that you can get away with just flailing your arms wildly and still walk away with a win. The entire story mode only takes a maximum of four hours to complete because of its simplicity. At least you’ll break a sweat if you play it through enough.
Combine the lack of an original story, awful motion controls, lack of boxer choices, and horrible A.I. and this game is easily my worst game of 2009 so far. Don King is a spectacular promoter so I’m sure he’ll find a way to sell a few copies of this, but he once said “You go for the quality of the performance, not the longevity of it.” Well, this has no longevity and the quality is even worse. Another bomb from 2KSports.
Ratings are based on a system of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.
Graphics: 5.0: Visually this game is barely worth your time. There are no real-time effects to the face or body of your adversary as you pummel him. The only saving graces are the live cinematic scenes in-between each bout in story mode.
Audio: 6.5: The audio is barely up to par. Jim Lampley from HBO Boxing does a nice job with the commentary, but his script is ridiculously short and he starts repeating himself by your second or third bout. The music is only great if you are an “Eye of the Tiger” fanatic.
Plot/Plot Development: 5.0: When a game steals its plot from the first four Rocky movies, I can’t even consider giving it a good score. There has to be a different plot out there for boxing fans.
Gameplay: 3.0: The controls never do what you want when you swing and the amount of haphazard punches is mind-boggling.
Replay Value: 6.0: The workout feature does help you break a sweat, but not being able to view how much you should work-out doesn’t help if you’re trying to use this as a workout tool, which is a shame considering Wii Fit has shown that, when properly applied, these games do work as a mild substitute for an actual gym. Add in a lack of boxing options from the lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight divisions, and the limited “legends” roster and even the vs. mode is disgraceful.
Overall (not an average): 2.5: This is one of 2K’s saddest attempts at a license in their, rather extensive, history of badly-licensed drivel. Considering it is out 4-6 months before Fight Night Round 4, 2K could have established a strong position in the boxing genre, however, this game just falls down flat on the mat. This game isn’t even worth buying for the die-hard boxing fans. I would steer clear of this at all costs.
Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout
Now at least Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout doesn’t try to pretend it is something it isn’t. This is straight up a workout game. I played this game for only an hour and I ached for days after.
I’m going to get my two complaints about the game out of the way quickly. First, there is no feature that weighs you with the Wii Balance Board. This means you have to weigh yourself and enter it in for the game to calculate how many calories you burn off per exercise. It’s a little inconvenient, but not a big deal.
The second issue is a bit more personal. For a lot of people it is more a mental struggle than a physical struggle to lose weight, and this aspect got under my skin a little. When you enter your height and weight, your avatar’s body shape changes to accommodate what the game feels your BMI and general appearance should be. I admit that I am 5′ 9″ and 205 lbs, this is a little overweight, but I’ve kept myself in decent shape over the years so it’s not like I’m rolling down the halls here at ESPN. If you looked at my avatar, you might say something different though.
For people who are using these games as the legitimate weight loss tools that they are, this could discourage them right off the bat. You know who else was 5’9″ and between 200 and 205lbs.? Tiki Barber in his final year with the New York Giants (at least that’s what he was listed as). Muscle weighs more than fat so maybe next time Gold’s Gym should remember that, especially considering all the meatheads I’m sure they have in their employ.
Of course, one could argue the opposite: Some people could use this demeaning representation of themselves as a motivational tool; once they see the image the computer spits back out at them they will be more likely to work harder to rectify the insult. And if you’re relying on video games to get back in shape then it might be a fairly accurate image for most people.
I digress. The game is a great game for its purpose. Like I said earlier, after just an hour of shape boxing, squats, push-ups, crunches, leg lifts, jogging, and jumping rope, I was ready to collapse and was in serious pain for three days afterwards.
To help motivate the regular gamer, the more you workout, the more you can unlock for your avatar as well. Every gamer loves unlockables.
This game has a purpose and it delivers. It helps you get in shape with a variety of exercises and makes an awesome compliment to Wii Fit‘s Yoga and Strength Training exercises to help you take that next step in your video game workout (I cannot believe I just typed that).
Ratings are based on a system of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.
Graphics: 7.0: This is a visually average game. It’s got that cartoony Mii look going for it, but at the end of the day, the visuals aren’t going to sell you on this game if you’re looking for a workout.
Audio: 8.0: The audio is solid. It gives a variety of generic music choices and “Eye of the Tiger” because everyone loves working out to that cliché (I guess). A lot of the exercises rely on audio cues because it is hard to look at your TV and do push-ups and everything seems to work adequately.
Plot/Plot Development: N/A: It’s a workout game…
Gameplay: 8.0: The controls are accurate and respond properly to your motions and it gives you solid feedback.
Replay Value: 9.0: In the end, the replay value is really going to depend on your will to want to keep working out, but the game helps nudge you along by offering unlockable content and a variety of exercises to keep it interesting enough for you to come back a half hour a day or more.
Overall (not an average): 8.0: I still think Wii Fit is the premiere exercise game out right now, but this makes a great complement, especially since it is only $29.99 in most stores. If you’re looking to get in shape quick before the weather really starts to warm up, pick up Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout, out now for the Nintendo Wii.
-Ray Carsillo
RayCarsilloWrites.com 