NCAA Football 09 All Play
Genre: Sports
Developer: EA Canada, EA Tiburon
Publisher: EA Sports
Release Date: July 15, 2008

To me, football is life. The summer is honestly the most boring time of the year for me because even though I enjoy baseball, I just can’t handle anything but it. Besides that, the heat is astronomical down here in the south and there isn’t a single down of football being played. But come the end of July, there are training camps to pay attention to. What players are doing well? What players might not end up on the roster when it’s all said and done? What kids got suspended for doing something stupid? These are all questions that roll through my head, and it’s conversations I have with others that keep me going. But when the end of August and the beginning of September rolls around; your best bet is just to leave me be.

You see, I meant it when I said that football is life. During the fall, my Saturdays consist of setting the alarm for eight fifty A.M. so that I can get up to watch College Gameday at nine. After that’s over at eleven, it’s flipping around between all the college football games that are on until a little after midnight when usually USC or UCLA finish up their games. After that is the wrap up show for all the scores of the day and then bed around one or two. Sunday is kind of the same thing except that it’s with the NFL and my day isn’t usually as long. It begins around eleven in the morning and usually ends around eleven at night. Mondays have one game on in the evening and then November starts the one game a week on Thursdays. But in between, I’m paying attention to scores and highlights online and on recap shows.

Football is a god to me no matter how I get it. And college football is probably my biggest weakness. So when the opportunity came about to review NCAA 09, I was all over it. EA Sports’ first college football venture onto the Wii and it’s about time. But could the crowd keep me in it? Let’s see.

Story / Modes

The biggest mode in the game is to play through the “Dynasty.” Here you take your favorite college team and take them through the current 2008/2009 season. After that is over, you keep on going through season after season. Along the way you’re going to recruit players, and coach them, and discipline them, and redshirt them, and do every single action that comes along with being a coach. Kind of puts you in the driver’s seat while also having to get out there and make all your decisions work too. It’s an all out blitz to keep your team in line, and make sure you build the best one over multiple years. But the problem here is that this is the least amount of requirements I’ve ever seen for a Dynasty mode in my life. It just seems as if most of the fun of recruiting and everything has been dumbed down a bunch of notches.

Let’s not forget some of the other modes which are alright, but nothing special. There is the “Mascot Game” in which you can play as your favorite team’s mascot against another team’s mascot. Fun, but it isn’t Earth shaking. There’s the “Play Now” feature where you can just pick any team and play against the computer or a friend. And that’s about it.

Really?

Yes, really. There is no “Campus Legend” mode. You can’t create your own player or create your own team (school). A lack of online play is also very upsetting considering that was one of the big selling points of Madden 08 for the Wii, and here we don’t even get the option. So much was taken out of this version of NCAA Football that it isn’t even funny. And I’ll get into this more later, but this specific version of the game is obviously aimed at families with the whole All-Play thing going on and I think that’s great. But why on Earth would you take out multiplayer mini-games when you want everyone to play together? It just makes no sense.

While the game itself is fun from a football point of view; it just pales in comparison to anything else.

Story Rating: Mediocre

Graphics

Well, we’ve come a long way from 10 Yard Fight, but this is in no way a beautiful game. The player models look good for the most part. There is enough detail on the players themselves that they look like real people at times, but that’s where the realism ends. The uniforms are what bothered me the most. Never at any time do they move. You’ll see no wrinkles and so far I haven’t seen any dirt or tears or anything and the team I chose to play a Dynasty with plays on a grass field. How do you expect me to take this seriously when as much wear and tear happens to the players’ jerseys as it did in Tecmo Bowl.

Let’s move over to the sidelines where there is absolutely nothing going on. Why aren’t the teams standing over there? I mean come on people. The teams aren’t there yet the chain gang is running along freely like they are supposed to have no-one to contend with. Move over a little further to the stands and they have one or two banners on the walls which looks incredibly retarded. To make matters worse, the fans all look exactly the same and they are flat as boards. Yes folks, we’ve got plywood people again. Hello 1995!

Graphics Rating: Mediocre

Sound

NCAA 09 does make one long for the lazy days of fall watching tons of football when it comes to the sound department though. Every team’s fight song is included here making for some good memories and new hopes for the upcoming season. The band for LSU (my chosen team) actually played a couple different songs that I’ve heard numerous times by attending games in Tiger Stadium. They come through perfectly and with plenty of cheers from the crowd (?), err…crowd.

The announcers are Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN fame, and they do a decent enough job. As with all football games though, the dialogue gets very repetitive after a little while and starts to become annoying. I hate Herbstreit enough already as it is, but I’m willing to sit and listen to him for the little bit he does talk during games.

What will end up bugging the ever living hell out of you is the guy who screams at you constantly through the Wii-mote. He lets you know when the clock is running down or if the defense is going to blitz which is all fine and dandy. It’s the idiotic remarks he makes at other times for no reason at all. He screamed at me constantly when a guy was open and he wasn’t. Then he’d yell that the other team is running the same play, but they were about to receive the kickoff from me after my team scored. I wanted to reach into the Wii-mote and strangle him. Other then him though, the sound came through pretty nicely.

Sound Rating: Good

Control / Gameplay

Ok, let’s step into the All Play mode first so that everyone can understand where that’s coming from. This was designed so that even if you are not an avid game player and can’t possibly figure out how to hike the ball, pick a receiver, throw it, catch it, and then have the speed up to gain yardage. Also for kids. With All Play, simple flicks of the remote can do just about anything on the field you need to do. It will pass for you. It will lateral the ball. It’ll do anything and the computer will do the rest so you don’t have to try and find open holes in the defense or anything. That is all fine and dandy and can get a football loving family together to play a game even if they aren’t video game savvy.

Playing alone though is a different story. I’ve been playing Madden and NCAA since they first came out so long ago. I put the difficulty up to the highest setting and usually end up demolishing the computer. If I lose a game or two though, it’s kind of fun because it keeps things interesting. The problem here is that the AI is one of the biggest cheating sons of bit…a-hem, excuse me. It’s just ridiculous. There was one game in particular that my quarterback threw six interceptions. SIX! In one game that was played with four minute quarters. How is that even possible? I’ll tell you how.

If you seem to know what you’re doing fairly well, then the game will recognize it and make sure that you suck every once and again. Let me throw an example out there. I was driving down the field being up by a good twenty points. My receiver was running down the middle of the field all alone and in the clear for a long touchdown. I targeted him, threw the ball (flicked the Wii-mote) towards the screen, and the ball flew about five yards between two defenders and they intercepted the ball. Seriously! That happened more times then I care to even talk about here because it was just ridiculous. It barely ever paid attention to where my quarterback was actually throwing the ball unless the game was close or the opposition was ahead.

Throw on top of that the simplified running game where you can break about ten tackles on one play just by shaking the Wii-mote and all realism goes right out the window. Besides the bad passing and interceptions too, there are way too many fumbles for a game where any player has hands. If they all had nubs, then I’d understand. One game between LSU and Troy saw a total of fourteen turnovers (fumbles and interceptions) combined for both teams. That is just one of the most absurd things ever.

Oh, and while I’m at it, allow me to throw in another complaint. This one may be minor, but it happened enough to bug me. On kickoffs, the in-game scoreboard and clock will appear at the top of the screen. Well, it blocked my entire team. I never had a clue where my controlled player was until the very last second when the opposing team’s returner was right up on him. Hello!

Control/Gameplay Rating: Poor

Replayability

With all the troubles that come with the game, it’s also one that will be played over and over again. Sadly though it’s my love of football and LSU that has me constantly playing because it surely isn’t anything the game did correctly. It’s really hard to come up with much more then that. If you love football, then you’ll play this game regardless of the problems with gameplay, the shoddy graphics, and screamer guy coming through the Wii-mote. If you’re not that into football, then you’ll be turned off right away. Simple matter of preference here.

Oh wait, you can keep playing the Mascot Game over and over again. The reason I say that is because at least this way you can see exactly who the mascot for every team is and what they look like. I still don’t understand why the Alabama Crimson Tide has an elephant as their mascot. Makes not a damn bit of sense.

Replayability Rating: Above Average

Balance

Is the game balanced? No, by God no and I’ve already touched on this. There are four levels of difficulty and one never seems to be harder then the other. Some teams are more competitive then others, but that’s to be expected because it is that way in real life. North Texas isn’t going to give LSU a run for its money nearly as much as Florida or Georgia would. That is one of the better things here, but it doesn’t matter because no matter who is playing who on whatever difficulty level, the computer will still screw with you.

My first playing of the game came with me controlling LSU against Appalachian State on the Heisman difficulty level which is the supposed hardest. After playing through the four quarters set at five minutes in length each, the final score was a victory for LSU standing at 84 – 0. My quarterback had thrown four interceptions, but I got back the ball on fumbles. Trindon Holliday (real names can’t be used in the game for legal purposes, but I know who it was by his body build and number 8) ran back three punts for touchdowns against the Mountaineers and destroyed them. Immediately after finishing the game, I restarted it and played them again. LSU won 21 – 3. All of a sudden the App. State team was running all over LSU and making us fumble left and right so they stayed in the game the whole time.

How about even the smallest amount of consistency here?

Balance Rating: Poor

Originality

Can’t really say this is an original idea because it is a football game. Football has been around for ages as have games modeled on them. Hell, this series of NCAA games along have been around for years even though this is the first jump onto the Wii. Not too much has changed from the models found on previous games from other systems except with things being left out and this version being a bit crappier as a whole.

You know what would have been a nice touch here with the theme of all this family togetherness and getting the kids involved? Instead of only having the Mascot Game, let there be a Mii Game. Have the teams have the heads of your created Miis on them instead of helmets. Kids could get all excited by seeing themselves passing the ball or running in for a tackle. The only time the Miis are actually included in the game is when you make a good play or get hit hard, then the face shows up in the corner for a few seconds.

The All Play mode is very good though and quite the nice touch so that everyone can join in. It is simplified beyond all belief and does not take a genius to figure out that simply flicking your wrist will allow you to pass and other such things. It’s a great idea that can really be wonderful for any family that enjoys football, but knows not to get near dad when the game is on or he’ll bite your head off.

Originality Rating: Poor

Addictiveness

Even though the football aspect of the game keeps me coming back for more; I just found it so hard to sit down for hours on end and play constantly. I’ve been known to play through over a half a season in one sitting, but this game just annoys me so damn much at times that one play through is enough for me. After that I’ve got to just take a break for a while and do something else because I know that I’ll come back later for more. Sadly though since the game has been in my possession, I’ve noticed that it’s being played less and less daily. It will get plenty of gameplay out of me especially during the college football season when real games aren’t on, but not in big lumps of playing time.

Small spurts folks, small spurts.

Addictiveness Rating: Decent

Appeal Factor

NCAA Football is a game that has been a staple in my collection for years now, and it upset me tremendously the last couple years when the Wii hadn’t put out a new yearly release. When the news hit my ears that we’d be getting one for 2008/2009; words failed me. It was finally time to start playing as my favorite LSU Tigers and having the control over them I wish was mine when watching them live on television. Fans of the series are going to feel the same way and pick up this game so that they can make their own decisions about it no matter what reviewers say.

This is a football game geared towards football fans, but that’s not all. EA Sports knows that the diehard football fans are going to be all over this game so they went a different route to attract a larger audience. All it has to do is hit either the son or father in a family that is a football fanatic, and then let their family know everyone can play together on it with great ease. All Play is going to make this game appeal to so many more people then past versions have. A lot of the problems and omissions better be fixed before next year’s release though or the appeal is going to be limited, and I don’t mean to the families. If the hardcore football guys start to avoid a football game, then there’s a problem.

Appeal Factor Rating: Above Average

Miscellaneous

Having every possible team to play through is a great thing and could make for endless match-ups that I could never get through in my lifetime. That’s one of the things that was done right, but that’s about it. So much else was done wrong or just not done at all.

Have I mentioned the pointless act of building up your team and exciting the crowd? After every score you can freak out and move your Wii-mote as much as possible to build up the crowd. If you’ve done a good job, then your excitement stats get higher and then do nothing for the game. Point?

I don’t care how much you gear your products towards families because it is great if a company is looking to promote togetherness. But if you are going to alienate your core fans by taking a beloved franchise and turning it into a children’s game, then you’ve got a real big problem. College football fans are freaks; myself included. We know what the stadiums are supposed to look like. We know what our teams do in certain situations. We know the atmosphere surrounding the big games of the season. You can’t possibly pass off a college football game without both teams standing on the sidelines and consider it realistic. It just isn’t done that way.

And sure these are all young kids playing the sport, but they’re on their way to be professionals in a sport they love. Enough of this nickel and dime crap of making sure the game stays close by having every other play result in a turnover. If you suck at the game, then get better. If you have worked your butt off and played the game until you needed a serious haircut, then you deserve to destroy the computer if you’re able to.

Miscellaneous Rating: Poor

The Scores

Story: Mediocre
Graphics: Mediocre
Sound: Good
Control / Gameplay: Poor
Replayability: Above Average
Balance: Poor
Originality: Poor
Addictiveness: Decent
Appeal Factor: Above Average
Miscellaneous: Poor
Final Score: Mediocre

Short Attention Span Summary

NCAA 09 had my hopes built up beyond belief for over two years and then had them crash down and break into pieces in mere minutes. As a sports’ fan, I’m just disappointed. It has none of the big time feel of my beloved college football, and has taken everything I love about this franchise and just left it on the cutting room floor. There are so many games aimed at children that it’s easy to come up with a football one for them. Start from scratch on it though. Don’t take a developed franchise and make sure it’s friendly for everyone in the family to enjoy. Because when you do something like that, you don’t make it enjoyable for all. You only make it enjoyable for those who have never played it before.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play NCAA 09 and not be happy about it.
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Star Wars is awesome. Star Trek sucks horribly. Metropolis is not my cup of tea. Sphere is completely and totally phenomenal. It is all a matter of opinion though, and just because I’m not a fanboy of the science-fiction genre doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the occasional film, book, or video game. So when I was graced with Immortals Of Terra: A Perry Rhodan Adventure; I knew it was going to be either love it or hate it. Only time and some gameplay would let me know for sure.

Story / Modes

It is the year 4934 AD and you are in the 1346 New Galactic Era. Your name is Perry Rhodan and you are an immortal space officer living on a space station that is currently under attack. As officers and other staff rush to defend the station and repair damage that has already been done, your friend Reginald Bull (aka Bully) has you cornered in a room and won’t let you through. You soon find out why as he lets you know your friend Mondra Diamond has been kidnapped by the robotic forces attacking the station. You must find Mondra before it is too late, and as you travel along on her trail… new, dark, and interesting discoveries are revealed that prove there is a lot more to this kidnapping then you are led to believe.

Perry Rhodan is someone I knew virtually nothing about, but for some reason the name sounded familiar to me. After some research it was revealed to me that Rhodan has actually been the title character of a series of science fiction novels, a space opera, audio plays, comic strips, and countless other things for the past fifty years. German created Rhodan has taken on worldly issues including the Cold War, the peace movement, and more, and made them into science fiction stories that deal with problems in space. A rather interesting concept quite honestly, and this would be the first time he has been transformed into a video game.

The story itself may seem rather simple in that Rhodan is in space and needs to try and find his kidnapped friend Mondra. But as you play, you’ll realize that there is a lot more to the story then originally portrayed. Mysteries start unraveling dealing with everything from weird space cats to murder. It does take some getting used to if you know nothing about Rhodan as I really don’t, but it starts to come around and things clear up here and there. I can’t say that my mind wasn’t in a state of confusion often, but maybe that’s just the way it is for someone who isn’t too well read on the immortal Perry Rhodan.

Story Rating: Good

Graphics

From a graphics standpoint, Immortals Of Terra first appears to be visually stunning. The layouts and backgrounds just seem to suck you in with their depth and intricate details. As you play more though, that’s when the little problems here and there show up, making everything not as perfect as you once thought. No glaring issues make it too noticeable or distract you from gameplay, but it is obvious, most of all, that the characters were never really meant to interact with the background scenes. The backgrounds were drawn first, and then characters were put in on top of them to be free-roaming, but without the ability to accidentally bump into anything.

The characters look really good and the interaction as they speak and have conversations makes them look realistic. A number of cut scenes are dispersed throughout the game which actually tell a lot of the story without gameplay necessary. These cut scenes have been done quite nicely and keep you glued to them instead of looking around thanks to some nice visuals and good animation.

Graphics Rating: Very Good

Sound

Now here is where my affection is won if you’re a film or video game in the world of science fiction. For some reason or another I just love the sounds of computers or the actions done by hitting some big red mystery button. Immortals Of Terra does all of that to complete perfection, making the zapping noises of lasers sound authentic while every switch that is thrown on the spacecrafts makes some weird sound worthy of being straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

What makes the sound for this game even better is the wonderful musical soundtrack implanted through the various stages. Instead of getting all high tech and sounding like you’re in a club, you get these glorious epic numbers that make you feel as if you are drifting through the farthest reaches of space. At times it made me feel like I was a kid again and pretending to be in a spaceship with my friends traveling to far away planets. The mood is just captured exactly right, making me feel like it is me who is out amongst the stars.

The voice talents are good, but they come off as rather robotic at times. It never quite feels like they’re reading with any personality; just straight off of the script or a bunch of cue cards. It wasn’t too bothersome, but this is the one and only real complaint in the sound department.

Sound Rating: Enjoyable

Control / Gameplay

It appears as if we’ve finally gotten to something that would deter me from playing this game over and over again, and it is the gameplay aspect of things. First of all, let me get the good things out the way, and that’s dealing with the puzzles. Most of them are quite easy to figure out, and I don’t mean solve. When it comes to the ease of figuring them out, that means the process of solving them is simplified enough that anyone can figure out what they’re supposed to do. Figuring out where to go next or what to do next is also made easier by a scanning function made available by the device on Perry’s wrist. It allows you to check out the whole room at once and what can be used or what doors are accessible are all pointed out to you.

Now onto something a little different.

Other aspects of the game just get frustrating at times, and that includes the point and click method of movement. Movement can be done quite easily if you can ever get to it. Sometimes it takes you forever just to go on to the next scene because you are doing an immense amount of reading. History is all well and good, but present it to me in a better way than having me become super literate. Throw on top of that the fact that you can never skip past any talking between the characters; no matter if you’ve heard it once or fifty times, you have to sit through it. You just have to sit there and take it again and again and again.

As for moving around and solving puzzles, the controls are easy and great. Getting to them makes the gameplay incredibly frustrating.

Control/Gameplay Rating: Mediocre

Replayability

Immortals Of Terra has all the possibilities of being a game that can be played over and over again. Most of the puzzles are really enjoyable and take some real thought to get through them. Not every puzzle is that way because a couple times you’re just going to be searching around for stuff to open doors or get things activated. Pretty much some seek-and-find crap that will get you to the next level, but they’re still alright. It’s being able to relay your answers to the puzzles that can get frustrating at times. You may know the solution in your head, but trying to interpret it to the game can be mind-boggling.

The game’s backgrounds are so beautiful to look at that I wouldn’t mind just seeing a slideshow as my screen saver. Seriously the game looks that damn good at times, but in order to see all of those wonderful images… you have to sit through the long ass conversations that take almost half of the replayability right out of this game. Not being able to skip conversations or even speed them up gets so incredibly frustrating that there were moments I wanted to just turn the game off and come back later when I was ready to handle it.

Replayability Rating: Decent

Balance

Things progress nicely in Immortals Of Terra so that you move along from simplistic puzzles to those that are a little bit more complex to some that are downright infuriating at times, but that’s how they should be. What’s cool about that is seeing a story told on different levels without blatantly publicizing it. Perry Rhodan’s mystery is able to continue right along without missing a beat, but your puzzles are going to go from easy to extremely hard as you move further and further into the game. Sounds about right to me.

Believe it or not, you may actually have to write some stuff down at times in order to make it through a particular puzzle. Took me straight back to my days of playing Shivers. Man, I’m going to have to dig that game out.

Besides the difficulty rising as you get deeper into the game, more stories and clues start getting unlocked as well. The story here is so deep and complex that it almost seems endless at times. When you think something has been figured out and you’re well on your way to rescuing Mondra, another situation pops up that requires you to go in another direction. Nice work of being able to incorporate so many different little tidbits and storylines into one big game.

Balance Rating: Great

Originality

When something is coming to video game land for the first time, it’s hard not to call it original. Perry Rhodan has been around for decades in every form of media imaginable, but never has he fallen into the world of gaming until now. The story is unique and actually made me want to do some research or read up on the characters so I could learn more about their past. I kind of want to see whether or not anything in the novels or plays is connected to what was presented here in the game.

Then on the other hand, the gameplay itself is nothing new. Pointing and clicking, searching and retrieving, it’s all been done before elsewhere so in a way I felt at times like I was playing a less complex version of Resident Evil. There are no battles (zombies) happening and Perry can’t really die since he is immortal, but the puzzles and methods of solving them reminded me of many games that have already come my way.

Originality Rating: Above Average

Addictiveness

My God have I never wanted to play a game so much and then just lost all interest in doing so when my butt hit the computer chair. It’s the damn talking and reading that kills me. Go ahead and call me illiterate or tell me I’m an “action monkey,” but you’re wrong and that can be said with a guaranty. My brain comprehends reading and loves figuring out different puzzles while being given tons of knowledge to have to comprehend and sort through. If there are fifty pieces of scrap paper spread around my desk and pens that have run dry all over due to figuring out word puzzles or having to reexamine paragraphs that are hiding clues then I’m a happy camper.

But when you don’t let me do it at my own pace, then consider myself done with you. I just can’t handle listening to the dragging conversations from these robotic sounding bastards who are being presented flash cards to read from. And if I wanted to read one of Perry Rhodan’s novels (which I do), then it will be done when it is “reading time,” not while I’m trying to solve some puzzles. Ugh!

Addictiveness Rating: Bad

Appeal Factor

I’m willing to bet that there will be a huge crowd of Europeans that want to dive right into this game. Obviously they’ve been presented with Perry Rhodan’s adventures more then anyone since he originated in Germany. Might as well throw in anyone who is a diehard science fiction fan and loves everything space related. Those people are going to eat this game right up. You can include all of those with an extreme amount of patience in this group too. Even if they could care less about the future and space stuff, the game is fun enough with the puzzles and all for anyone to enjoy it. But they’re going to have to have the patience of the elephant who sat on the bird’s egg waiting for it to hatch.

If you have ADD or ADHD, you might as well just forget about it.

Appeal Factor: Decent

Miscellaneous

Nothing else really comes to mind here when thinking of extra stuff. The game is fun to play with some really great puzzles making you use your mind for once instead of just your hand-eye coordination. The story is very deep, but takes too long to come forth. Talking = bad!

I will say this and maybe it was only my copy, but there were some issues playing the game after a couple days playtime. It loaded just fine the first time and there were about three or four days of gameplay with no problems. Then came a few errors not letting me load the game. Uninstalling it completely and then reinstalling it didn’t help because now it wouldn’t load at all. Next I tried moving away from the laptop and loading it on the desktop, but had the same issues. Weird considering it played just fine for the first couple days.

Miscellaneous Rating: Bad

Guitar Hero Aerosmith
Genre: Music/Rhythm
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: 06/29/2008

By now you either know what Guitar Hero is or you were: A.) Just born like right this very second or B.) Have been living in a box. It’s the game that lets everyone who is a wannabe rockstar get behind the strings (?), err…strings of a guitar and act like they know what they are doing. My first experience to this franchise came on the Wii at the hands of Guitar Hero III. My frame of mind didn’t want to play it right away simply because I lumped it in with such games as Dance, Dance, Revolution and knew I’d suck highly at it. Amazingly enough, I was wrong.

I’m not the hugest music fan in the world, but there are those bands and songs which are my favorites. You’re not going to find a giant CD collection in my house because it’s probably been about eight years since my last purchase of one. Local radio, Sirius, and downloadin…umm, borrowing music from others is the way I get my musical kicks. Yeah I listen to a lot of it, and one of the bands that has blared in my head the most over my twenty-eight years has been Aerosmith. So let’s see now. I love Aerosmith and found out that my total disgust of Guitar Hero was premature. What kind of resolution could be brought to life in order to satisfy these two loves?

HOLY HELL…Activision did it!

One would have to wonder whether or not making a game entirely devoted to one band is worth the price of admission (the purchase). At first glance, that is exactly what you’re going to think. In fact, you’re going to be wrong because some other artists are thrown into the mix here so you don’t get tired out on Steven Tyler’s enormous mouth. No matter how much you love something; there’s only so much you can take before it gets boring. Or creepy in the case of Tyler’s face. {Shudder!} Could it be done though? Would this prove to be another successful step in Guitar Hero‘s ever growing legacy? Only play time would tell.

Story / Modes

Essentially GH Aerosmith is exactly the same as the others that have come before it, but with a few twists thrown in. In earlier games, you played the part of a small-town band who is trying to make it big so they go from gig to gig and create a buzz. You work your way up to the center stage and end up going from playing in front of twenty people in a bar to playing before thousands in Japan. An interesting enough premise without getting too convoluted or confusing.

Things are a bit different this time around as you’ll end up playing two songs as the no name band and then if you pass those; you play two or three songs as Aerosmith. It kind of takes away from the whole idea of GH as a game, but maybe that is not what was really intended here because the focus is almost totally on Aerosmith. What bothers me the most though is that the sets aren’t chronologically in order. Sure the different venues go along with the career of Aerosmith, but not the songs. One second you could be playing “Rag Doll” (1986) in the Orpheum (tier 3) and then playing “Walk This Way” (1987) in Moscow (tier 4). I’m not quite sure why things are somewhat mixed up.

You’re not going to get much of a story here even though the gist is that you play your way through Aerosmith’s career. A lot of songs are jumbled up or played at the wrong time. One second you’re the opening act and the next you’re playing as Tyler and his longtime bandmates. Not to mention the supreme lack of battles which takes a lot away from the game. Getting up to the battles was one of the most sought after accomplishments and winning them was even more so. Hoping they’re coming and never seeing them makes it even more disappointing.

Story Rating: Average

Graphics

All looks rather well in GH Aerosmith as there have been some vast improvements over its first venture onto the Wii. Some corners have been smoothed out, colors are a little brighter, and the animation rolls along much finer then it did in GH III. One of the noticeable improvements is the singing ability of those on stage. It was pointless looking at your lead singer before because his mouth barely ever matched the words you heard in your ears. Now at least it appeared like he was trying to lip synch.

One of the more innovative tactics that worked here is getting the exact movements of Steven Tyler and the rest of Aerosmith down to a tee. It’s great seeing Tyler move around the stage with his dance moves and throwing his microphone stand only to grab it at the last second with the ribbon tied on it and pull it back. Joe Perry’s facial expressions are priceless and spot on as his stone like look concentrates on the strings. Everything just looks like more time was taken on it so that it could be as realistic as possible while still looking cartoonish.

I will say this though. Tyler’s mouth is incredibly large here. I mean it is of dynamic proportion which is saying something considering how huge it is in real life.

Graphics Rating: Enjoyable

Sound

The sound is awful.

Sha, Right!

It’s Aerosmith for the love of God. GH has great sound no matter what, but throwing in Aerosmith makes things even better. All the beats, riffs, and lyrics are there with pinpoint accuracy so there’s nothing not to enjoy. The only problem is if you don’t like Aerosmith which then you probably wouldn’t end up playing this game to begin with, but that’s all a matter of opinion.

Some of the other songs aren’t of the best quality, but that has nothing to do with the sound of the game itself. It goes back to how “nails against a chalkboard” sounding some of these cover bands are. Steve Ouimette did the cover for “Devil Went Down To Georgia” in GH III, and it was decent but nothing like Charlie Daniels’ version. Same holds true here as Ouimette returns to cover The Black Crowes’ “Hard To Handle.” Good song, bad cover. Another band called Wavegroup is here for some covers as well, and while not awful, they’re not too enjoyable either.

The Aerosmith stuff is awesome. Most of the rest, not so much. Make that the covers are not that good, but the stuff from Stone Temple Pilots, Cheap Trick, Lenny Kravitz…all good tunes.

Sound Rating: Great

Control / Gameplay

Coordination is the name of the game. You must be able to not look at a controller while playing. You must not be one of those people who moves the controller and your whole body as you jump or run. And you must know how to use both hands extensively at the same time. One hand is going to be hitting the different colored frets according to the notes coming at you on the screen. Your other hand is going to be strumming the bar (guitar pick) as you hold down the frets so the notes can be heard. Sounds simple enough, but it really isn’t. And once you get the hang of it, don’t think a real guitar is that easy either because it isn’t. Just because you’ve mastered five colored buttons and a bar; that doesn’t mean you know how to strum a Fender Stratocaster.

Your goal for each song is to make it through it with as few mistakes as possible. You want to hit a good percentage of the notes while also trying to get as long a streak of consecutive notes as possible. Those are your personal goals though. Making it through each song requires a bit more. For each song there is going to be a “rock meter” to your right which will judge how much the crowd is digging your playing. If you are hitting your notes and rocking out then they’ll be happy and jam along with you. The more notes you miss though; the more the crowd will be pissed off and let you know how much you suck.

It’s rather simple to keep things under control on the Easy and Medium levels, but you better make sure you are an accomplished player before heading into the Hard and Expert settings. Easy is only going to throw three colored frets at you. Medium will throw one more color at you, but chuck in a few more double notes and some quicker ones as well. Hard and Expert jump up to five colors while making you hit almost every note in the songs which calls for some fast finger work. Drink plenty of water if you plan for a night of Expert play because you’re bound to cramp up.

Control/Gameplay Rating: Good

Replayability

If you’ve played any of the GH franchise before then you know just how much you want to keep playing. That is not only because of the enjoyment factor that it presents, but by just how much you love the music. See for someone such as myself, GH Aerosmith is one of those games that I can pop into my Wii five years from now and get just as much enjoyment out of it because I’ll still love hearing the songs. Why not be a little more active as you listen to music instead of just sitting there? And if you’re not musically inclined then this is perhaps the best way for you to feel like you’re doing a little piece of the music.

There are other reasons for playing this game over and over again and that is the different things that can be unlocked. A number of costumes and guitars for the current playable characters are available in The Vault after you earn enough cash to buy them up. You can also purchase different characters, songs, videos, and other such things for you to play whole new variations of the career mode. What’s a little more difficult about this game is that some things are available to buy right away while others must first be unlocked and then can be purchased if you have enough cash stored up. Double whammy.

If you are looking for the quick way out then by all means jump online and find the cheat codes to unlock everything, but what’s the point? Do you really feel like you accomplished anything if you don’t have to work for the special features? Nice job lazy ass. But even then you’d want to play this game over and over again merely because it’s a fun time. Have some friends over or jump on Wi-Fi and challenge someone from around the world.

Replayability Rating: Classic

Balance

GH has a way of letting everyone play no matter what their skill level may be. If you can play at all, then you can play it without getting incredibly pissed off thanks to it being too hard. You just really have to know your limits when it comes to the level you want to play at. If you play on Easy then expect it to be pretty simple all the way through. Things are going to pick up a little along the way with some double notes thrown in, but nothing really more difficult then that. Medium will have you doing one more color for a total of four, but the speed picks up a little bit and some more double notes and such are included.

For those of you who have been playing a while and have more experience, then you may want to step up to the Hard level. I myself can only do a few songs here and there at this stage and I’m not that good at it. The final fret comes into play here for a total of five, the speed is faster, and you’re going to have lots of difficult notes to pick up. If you got the courage to do that, then perhaps you can jump up to Expert which is simply out of my league. All five frets will be played with a super fast speed that has double notes and split notes alike. I’ve tried it once or twice, but have yet to complete any song on Expert in any GH game.

But you see, it’s ok if I can’t master every level because I’m still able to enjoy the game and have fun with it at the lower two options.

Balance Rating: Enjoyable

Originality

This is not an area where GH Aerosmith excels because it’s just like every GH game to come along so far except that it has new songs. That’s it.

You can take it here as six of one or half a dozen of the other. If you have the first few games and are satisfied with them, then you probably wouldn’t need to get this game. That is especially true if you aren’t an Aerosmith fan. What fun would it be for you? You may love the game and playing the guitar, but there’s no sense in playing songs you despise. If you’re a fan of Aerosmith and want to see what it’s like for an animated Steven Tyler and company to jump around stage, then you’ve got what you want.

Middle of the road here because it all depends on what you’re looking for. Nothing new on one half, but brand new stuff on the other.

Originality Rating: Mediocre

Addictiveness

Have you ever heard someone recite a line from a film and it made you want to watch it so damn bad? How about when someone talks about riding a specific attraction at Six Flags or Walt Disney World and then you can’t wait to go on vacation there again? The same thing happens when it comes to any GH hero game. Play it a few times and go through a number of the songs in it. Then try to go through your day at work listening to the radio or hearing some music in your car as you travel to and fro. If a song pops up from Aerosmith or any artist you’ve played a song from, it’s going to get your fingers twitching for the fake guitar.

Seriously, it has happened to me everywhere I’ve gone. Songs from GH III that were played by Rage Against The Machine, Santana, and numerous others seemed to be on the radio constantly after I got the game. It is only a matter of time before Aerosmith blows up my radio by being on the rock, classic rock, alternative, metal, pop, and rap stations all at the same time. Then my fingers will start to curl into position and I’ll want to be at home jamming along with “Walk This Way” and “Rag Doll.”

Addictiveness Rating: Unparalleled

Appeal Factor

It all boils down to your taste in music here and that rings true with GH Aerosmith more then any of the others in the series so far. Rock Of The 80s and Legends Of Rock both had certain genres for their games but they had numerous artists and many different songs for everyone to enjoy. If you are not someone who likes Aerosmith, then you might as well wait until GH World Tour.

For me it was a no brainer that I’d pick this one up because Aerosmith to me are some musical gods. Almost every one of their albums has been in my collection at some point or another. I know the words to countless numbers of songs they perform. Hell, I even did a school project in high school senior English to “Angel.” That has to tell you that I’m a huge fan and the appeal of this game has been there for me ever since word of it first hit my ears long ago.

It’s a fun game and it has some great songs to enjoy so the appeal is going to be there for countless crowds and ages of people.

Appeal Factor: Very Good

Miscellaneous

Ok, let me just say that one of my biggest gripes here is the new thing added to the “star power.” Whenever you get your star power all loaded up, you can kick back on your guitar and make the screen erupt in a blue light and get double the points. It also makes for an echo to the song and for the Wiimote to vibrate the entire guitar. No problems there. What I don’t like is that the crowd now does an annoying “slow clap” during the entire star power. It’s not bad on rocking out songs when you can barely hear it over the music, but not on everything. On kick ass ballads like “Dream On,” the slow clap is just incredibly out of place and annoying.

Now it’s time to touch on my biggest gripe of the game and that involves this question; who the bloody hell chose which Aerosmith songs to include or not include here? Where is “Cryin’,” “Amazing,” “Hole In My Soul,” or “Crazy?” Better yet…where are “Dude Looks Like A Lady,” “Janie’s Got A Gun,” “Eat The Rich,” “Just Push Play,” and “Angel?” I just don’t get it. How can any of those songs be left out; let alone all of them? It doesn’t make any sense to me. You could have left out some of the damn cover songs or even a few of Aerosmith’s lesser known tracks and at least put a few of those in. What’s worse is that the load screens tease you by giving you little trivia tidbits on songs like “Just Push Play,” but you don’t get to play it.

One thing I can be thankful for is that “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” was mercifully left out.

Miscellaneous Rating: Mediocre

The Scores

Story: Above Average
Graphics: Enjoyable
Sound: Great
Control / Gameplay: Good
Replayability: Classic
Balance: Enjoyable
Originality: Mediocre
Addictiveness: Unparalleled
Appeal Factor: Very Good
Miscellaneous: Mediocre
Final Score: Good

Short Attention Span Summary

Man, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I was looking forward to this game and truly do enjoy it now that it is in my possession. It’s a lot of fun and just as addictive as GH III was when I was first introduced to it. But let me tell you that my disappointment ran incredibly deep as gameplay went on and more and more of the songs I expected to play weren’t there. All leaked playlists on the internet were avoided so that’d it be awesome to be surprised as each level produced cooler and cooler tracks. But then there was no “Janie. No “Dude.” No “Eat The Rich.” WTF man? GH Aerosmith is a good game, but it’s nothing more then filler until GH World Tour on October 27.

If ever a specific band version of GH comes out again, they’d better not drop the ball like this again. I mean they might as well make GH Queen and leave out “Fat Bottom Girls,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and “Under Pressure.”
http://media.insidepulse.com/zones/diehardgamefan/uploads/2008/07/ghawii.jpg

Ok, so the constant trend of non-originality in theatres is of course going to spread to gaming consoles because it is an easy way to make money. Filmmakers can’t possibly get their imagination running one bit so they go back and take old films, old video games, and even old cartoons so that they can get motion pictures moving again. Hence is the case with Speed Racer which I have not seen in theatres, but am not sure I’d really enjoy knowing what epilepsy or a cocaine high is like.

Thank you Wachowski brothers.

Moving onto the game though and you have to wonder how things can really go wrong here. Speed is a well known character that has been around for decades and with today’s technology; it could turn into a very successful racing game. I kind of doubt a franchise because you can only do much with it since there would be no new characters and such to put into a second game unless another film is released. Racing games though are far and wide very popular (Mario Kart, Need For Speed, etc…), but there appears to be a problem even though I didn’t see the theatrical production of Speed Racer. Epilepsy still may have set in.

Story / Modes

Ok, so Speed Racer is a guy that is driving around in the Mach 5 and doing whatever he can to win races for his family. His nemesis is the mysterious Racer X who pretty much shows up anywhere that Speed is and looks to defeat his arch enemy in each and every race. Speed has a few friends helping him along the way in the form of Pops, Mom, Trixie, and a pet monkey named Chim Chim. You wouldn’t find the monkey anywhere in this game, and if he is then he is well hidden. And believe me I would have loved to have seen him somewhere.

Other then that, there isn’t much else to the story of Speed Racer. That isn’t just because this is a racing game, but that’s all the story ever really was in the cartoons as well. From what I understand, the theatrical version got a bit more substance to it, but it’s still just a bunch of racing.

Story Rating: Mediocre

Graphics

Credit must be given where credit is due, but it’s not like this was anything that impressive either. The visuals are very sharp and things look brighter then most starbursts, but while playing this game, I began to think. Something just wasn’t quite right in my mind while playing Speed Racer because memories came flooding back in large amounts and in quick succession. Memories of playing games at my cousin Trey’s house when I was a young teenager because my Super Nintendo was broken. Memories of searching through his games and looking for one that either I didn’t already own or that didn’t look incredibly boring.

Memories of…F-Zero.

You can’t play this game and tell me that isn’t what it looks like. There are overly bright colors and tracks that twist and curve making you look cross-eyed or with a tilted head to see what is coming next. The only thing about F-Zero is that you could actually see the power-ups ahead of you before you came right up on them. It was frustrating looking for a “speed up” track and being on the opposite side of the track and passing it before it even came into view. But that isn’t exactly a graphics’ problem, but a creation problem. The graphics in Speed Racer are sharp and nice, but they look rather kiddie-ish and not anything new.

Graphics Rating: Poor

Sound

Speed Racer doesn’t really pick up points in this category either. I’ll be quite honest with you and didn’t even notice any music the first four or five times I played the game because my concentration was focused on trying not to freak out, but more on that later. Well, I did notice the overly loud and annoying little tidbit of music that plays when you select the game off the Wii menu. My girlfriend ran out of the bedroom and yelled at me to turn it down even though it was on a very low volume. The music is going to be the first thing that will probably get on your nerves because the tunes played out during each race are just bothersome. They are like bad versions of techno music made from the original soundtrack of the animated series.

Kids probably won’t even care much about the music even though it would probably appeal to them more. You see, if I paid no mind to it for a while because of focusing on control of the game, then you can almost bet good money that kids won’t have any clue there is even any being played.

Sound Rating: Bad

Control / Gameplay

I’m sorry to keep going in this negative direction; especially since Speed Racer could essentially be considered a kids’ game, but I have no choice. The game can be played either with the Wii remote turned sideways or with the new Wii Wheel accessory that came about thanks to Mario Kart. Not having yet purchased Mario’s new racing game with all his friends; I played this game by just having my Wii remote turned to the side. Am not really sure the wheel would have changed my mind anyway.

The controls are actually rather simple as one button is held down for the gas and you just title the Wii remote to turn your car in the direction you want to go. It sounds simple doesn’t it? And believe me, the controls are simple to learn, but rather difficult to master. Let me take that back. The controls are easy to master if you can somehow avoid being anywhere near any other racers. Once you are tapped or Heaven forbid, Car-Fu’ed, then you are going to lose it and have a hard time regaining any control of your car. If you can possibly get back to a straight path without fishtailing back and forth at least four times, then I give you all the credit in the world.

Control/Gameplay Rating: Mediocre

Replayability

In the case of wanting to play this game over and over again? Well, I’d play it enough to unlock all the championship courses and different racers, but once that is done, so am I. There’s just no appeal in the game that makes me want to throw it back into my Wii and play it when I’m bored or looking for some fun. It really isn’t anything at all like Excite Truck where each course is enjoyable to play no matter how many times you take out some trees or plow through a shallow pond. Speed Racer‘s courses are virtually all the same but with different psychedelic backgrounds.

The good thing about it is that there is a ton to unlock. You only start with about four or five racers to choose from and have sixteen more that can eventually be unlocked by finishing different championship levels. Even those different levels need to be unlocked by finishing a certain rank in earlier races. You can unlock a bunch of new cars and some cool power ups which makes for a lot of competitive spirit when first playing the game, but that fades after everything is available.

Replayability Rating: Poor

Balance

There’s isn’t a whole lot that can be said here because it’s not just the cracked out races, boring characters, and annoying music that makes the game bad. It’s also the stupid A.I. that makes you want to rip your hair out. Let me give you a prime example. The first time I ever played the game; my vehicle shot out to an early lead in the second race and was rocking out for a good portion of the race. My car wasn’t hitting any walls so it was building up a bunch of power boosts that were being saved for near the end of the lap. I hit a couple of the speed power-ups on the track and shot out ahead of the field and then plopped on three power boosts to really get a good lead. I hit the straight away near the end of the lap as my car begins to slow down…and all of a sudden another car taps my bumper.

WTF?

How on earth did that guy stick with me? This is early on in the game and I should be beating them by a whole lap or better right? That isn’t all either because as soon as he tapped me and slowed me down; three other cars passed me. I mean come on. It can be understood if that happens on some of the more difficult races further on in the game but the second one? Incredibly ridiculous. This annoyance is built up even more by the fact that there is no little map in the corner of the screen to see your race progression or where your opponents are located at in relation to you. Speed Racer would mark the first racing game I’ve ever played without that little map. At least that I can remember on the next generation systems.

Oh and don’t bother becoming allies with anyone either because they will take you out just as quickly as your rivals will. It is actually better not to become allies because if you happen to perform a Car-Fu move on any of your allies, even by accident, then you get penalized. Stupid. At least if you’re against the entire field, you can just take out people as you please and not worry about any penalties.

Balance Rating: Bad

Originality

Not much in the way of originality here because it is a racing game. Racing games can’t really be different in terms of the meanings behind them because the main objective is to win each race. The things that are different and make them better then other racing games are whether there are characters you care about, courses that are fun to race on, and cool cars that you want to see your awesome characters race in. What happens though if you don’t really give a damn about any of those factors?

Such is the case here in Speed Racer as you may not give a flip about any of the racers except for Speed himself and Racer X. I honestly couldn’t even tell you who any of the other racers really are and I used to watch the cartoon as a kid. It just seems like one of those generic racing games that chose a bunch of random names for racers they just came up with out of their own heads. The same kind of goes for the courses (which all seem the same but with different colors) and the vehicles which are totally lackluster.

Originality Rating: Poor

Addictiveness

I don’t want to play this game any more. I do not. It has no remote possibility of ever making its way out of its spot in alphabetical order from between Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Summer Games. There’s just no enjoyment to be had from it and it makes me want to take a bunch of valium just so my nerves can calm down from the freakish tracks they had me race on.

Sure there are more things I could unlock like a handful of extra characters or a couple more power-ups but there is just no desire any more. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think there was much desire there to begin with after playing it through a couple times. It seemed alright after reading the back of the gamebox art. It also seemed OK after having it load up and going through a few tutorials. But anything after that just made all that “it’s not so bad” go right out of me.

Oh, and speaking of load times; that’s another thing that will make you not care to play this game much. They are incredibly long no matter if you are waiting to start a race or merely trying to move from one screen to the next. Incredibly frustrating getting all pumped up to start another race and having to wait a good five minutes just to get there.

Addictiveness Rating: Awful

Appeal Factor

Gamers won’t want to play this game much and I doubt that even the casual fan will care much for it either. There are so many other racing games out there with characters people will actually care about and courses that won’t seem like they got a makeover with a sixty-four box of Crayolas that there just isn’t going to be much of a demand for Speed Racer by anyone that is old enough to buy it themselves.

As for kids, I can’t see them really caring for it either. I sat down and played this game a few days with the mindset of a child between the ages of five and twelve and just let all my negativity go away. Kids aren’t going to want to play this game much because they aren’t going to care about it. Who cares about characters that have stupid names and that weren’t in any cool cartoons or other games? Who cares about races that don’t have easy power-ups like a flying turtle shell or flames coming out the back of your car? Nobody, that’s who.

Kids aren’t going to want to play this game either because of the difficult learning curve. In order to perform some of the stupidly named Car-Fu moves, you have to be able to not only jump your car in the air but also make it do a 180 degree turn and then make it go in reverse and land on your opponent that you don’t even know where they are.

Appeal Factor: Bad

Miscellaneous

You know my thoughts on this already and there really isn’t much more that can be said to show my complete displeasure for this game. And oddly enough, as much as I hated this game, it also made my blood pump. It’s weird but my hands would hurt so much after each race because they were gripped to the Wii remote. My girlfriend would tell me constantly that she was talking to me during a race or two, but I never would respond.

I never even frickin heard her because my concentration was just set so intently on making sure someone didn’t come up from behind and cause my car to smoke or make me freak out and spin repeatedly. It certainly didn’t make me care any more about the game though because I’d be done playing after only two or three races and have to come back later. Throw something like Mario Kart in there and it’ll be two or three hours before we change games.

Maybe the intensity brought about in each race is a positive thing, but if it is, then it’s the only thing.

Miscellaneous Rating: Poor

The Scores

Story: Mediocre
Graphics: Poor
Sound: Bad
Control / Gameplay: Mediocre
Replayability: Poor
Balance: Bad
Originality: Poor
Addictiveness: Awful
Appeal Factor: Bad
Miscellaneous: Poor
Final Score: Bad

Short Attention Span Summary

It was worth a shot and I gave it all I could, but it just doesn’t merit much when the game is as bad as Speed Racer is. Things just couldn’t have gotten more annoying then they were in this game and it is a shame because the animated series was so awesome and this game actually made me hate everything Speed Racer a little bit. That makes me sad. But at least after not playing the game for a day or two now, I’m just sad and no longer thinking that I’m on drugs. Seriously folks, never before has a single narcotic entered into my body but it almost feels like a certainty that what Speed Racer showed me and made me feel makes me believe that I was only a day or two away from being the focus of the show Intervention.
http://diehardgamefan.insidepulse.com/files/2008/05/speed1.jpg

Sherlock Holmes Nemesis
Developer: Frogwares
Publisher: The Adventure Company
Genre: Adventure/Mystery
Release Date: April 14, 2008

Hello there all. My name is Danny Cox and this will be my first review for DHGF, but you may have seen me elsewhere around Inside Pulse including the DVD Lounge, Popcorn Junkies, Tailgate Crashers, and well…you get the idea. Alex was kind enough to let me take my expertise in reviewing and use it for good in the land of video games. Actually, they were happy to get someone else who had a love for PC games, so here we go.

The first game to arrive in my hands is that of Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis which I hadn’t heard of personally, but knew there was a series of games involving the historical detective. In Nemesis, Holmes is pitted up against a rather well-known burglar Arsene Lupin who was his arch-enemy in several stories written by Maurice Leblanc.

There are many mystery games out there. Numerous ones in my collection have no historical relevance and usually start from scratch. Going in and using the world’s greatest detective is just too easy and actually makes too much sense not to do. The Adventure Company has impressed me before with favorites such as Dark Fall and The Black Mirror, so my hopes were rather high and my excitement couldn’t be contained when the plastic was taken off the case.

A little snooping and deduction soon made my excitement back into a dark alley and hide.

Story / Modes

Sherlock Holmes is an easy excuse to make a mystery game. Take him and pit him against anyone in creation, but that would mean using too much thought. His enemies are right there in the novels as well, so it takes even less imagination then first thought. Holmes is up against Arsene Lupin who is a master thief in nineteenth century London. He has stolen small things and great treasures from all walks of life, but he has one main goal…foiling the good deeds of Holmes and all of Scotland Yard.

Lupin blatantly states that in the period of five days, he will take five treasures of great importance from such places as the National Gallery and Buckingham Palace. Lupin is looking to stand up for the French Republic against the British Empire and prove his countrymen are superior and can dupe even the greatest of British minds. Being as arrogant as he is, Lupin leaves Holmes riddles and puzzles so he can have at least some sort of chance of catching him.

You know, that isn’t really very original but it still sounds as if it would make a good mystery game or movie to me. The cool thing about it all is that it isn’t simply a battle between Lupin and Holmes, but France and England. Talk about really wanting to piss some people off there. Things get even better when the mystery doesn’t actually unfold as the story goes along, but gets more complex. The only way that it will begin to unravel is if you yourself can figure it out.

Story Rating: Enjoyable

Graphics

Maybe I’m being too picky, but I wasn’t overly impressed. Coming from a guy who is infatuated with the graphics of the Wii and not so much that of a PS3 or Xbox 360, that’s tells you something about my tastes. The characters’ faces are all sunken in and each of them looks like the drugged out whore you’ll meet on the street within the first five minutes of the game. When they are talking to you, you’re going to end up hypnotically staring at their lips because they flop up and down like a puppet without much enunciation movement at all. It just takes away from some of the better graphics in the game because you’re drawn to the inconsistencies.

Nemesis is a total 360 degree game in every direction which makes for some nice detail to buildings and rooms. Every nook and cranny is covered here which shows London in all of its natural beauty. The coolest thing is the minute details shown to some of the nineteenth century features like old-school street lamps and cobblestone streets. These intricacies make it hard for me to complain about the graphics, but those characters just bother me and take away from the full effect you’ll get while playing.

In another bothersome note, my system has all the requirements needed to play Nemesis and then some yet I had to tone them down in the “options” menu. Tone them down too much and it looks awful. Tone them down midway and things still look decent, but there is yet a bit of stalling and stuttering between scenes that make it not only difficult to play but annoying.

Graphics Rating: Decent

Sound

The music is just fantastic and honestly made me contemplate just leaving the game on and letting it play in the background while I did other things around the house. The mix of piano along with the string instruments from an orchestra set the mood perfectly and hits home with my love of classical music. Sadly though, this is the only place where Nemesis excels in the sound department.

When they had a staff meeting for the game, the “background sounds” guys must have been absent. You only get background noise every now and then which makes absolutely no sense. Walk past a grouping of pigeons on the ground and you’ll barely hear a single coo. A horse and buggy zooms by (and I do mean zoom) and you can’t hear and clippity clop or spinning wheels. That’s what I want to hear when I’m walking around. Not just my own footsteps.

Last but not least is the voice acting which is a joke. Holmes and Watson are the first people you’ll hear and they sound like two Americans with bad British accents. Honestly. Both characters lack bass in their voices and they sound like they’ve been sucking on helium tanks. Walk around and talk to the women on the street and you’ll notice that they all have the exact same voice. Come on, even if you could only afford one female voice actress, at least tell her to change her voice from time to time.

Sound Rating: Bad

Control & Gameplay

No sense in trying to hide it here by trying to be nice about it; it sucks. The menus sometimes take forever to get through by freezing up when you click on anything. If you try pulling the scroll bar down on the menu, it will also freeze and before you know it you’re looking at a different part of the menu then where you stopped. It is aggravating and quite frustrating when you’re already annoyed by having to adjust the graphics constantly.

Controlling the characters is a royal pain too. What I mean by royal pain is that my stomach was killing me after just an hour of gameplay because I was incredibly nauseous. You can play around with the mouse sensibility, but it never seemed to stop spinning around like a globe. It just made me sick to my stomach and I’ve never really had that kind of problem before with games such as Shivers, Myst, or even Resident Evil.

Then there is the whole getting used to the controls aspect of it all. I’d try to walk over to a table and pick up a teacup, but the next thing I knew I was looking at the ceiling. When my line of sight actually focused on the teacup and the hand icon was right on it, it wouldn’t pick it up. I had to keep waving my mouse back and forth over the cup and randomly hitting the button hoping it would snag somehow.

The puzzles aren’t that bad when you get to them, but it’s just “getting to them” that sucks. Oh, and if you can figure out how to get out of looking in your briefcase in less then ten minutes then I bow down to you.

Control & Gameplay Rating: Very Bad

Replayability

You would think that a game with puzzles wouldn’t be played over and over again once you figured out the puzzles, right? Well, call me different because it’s the puzzles that I find enjoyable here. I don’t mind doing them repeatedly, even if the solutions are common knowledge to me. It isn’t the solving it that makes it fun, but the doing it. That part of Nemesis was very entertaining because some of the riddles were very challenging and made for some real thinking to come into play.

Making things even cooler is that the puzzles don’t often lead to a solution or next stage, but another puzzle. You’re not going to get away with solving some number scheme and then making your way down a hidden flight of stairs. Oh no, you’re going to have to work if you want to advance. Throw on top of that the “seek and find” puzzles and now aspects of my current favorite game series (Mystery Case Files) are included. There are even fill in the blank quizzes.

Other then those things though, you’re not going to want to play any of the portions of the game leading up to each puzzle. Besides dealing with the little annoying tidbits; sea sickness is not something I enjoy on a regular basis.

Replayability Rating: Poor

Balance

Nemesis really wouldn’t be a bad game at all considering how awesome some of the riddles and puzzles are while portraying nineteenth century England in all its beautiful glory. Some things require immense amounts of thought and even some note taking just so you can remember them later on and plug them into places you’ll come across later on in the game. If you’re looking for a time-consuming puzzle solver then you really can’t ask for a better game then this one in my opinion. And at twenty bucks, the price can’t be beat.

The thing about Nemesis is that it honestly could be a very good game if not for all the problems. Puzzles range anywhere from simple to time consuming which makes for a good counterbalance when getting a sense of elation after completing an easy puzzle only to have a real head-pounding one right around the corner and bring you crashing back down. That is what makes an adventure game enjoyable, and it is the one bright spot in this mess of a game. You’ll notice exactly what I mean later on in the game when you can’t even have Sherlock make logical choices in common sense allowing the criminal to get away free as a bird for a while.

The question remains though: can you get past dizziness, half-bad graphics, awful voice acting, virtually no sound effects, and just overall frustration?

Me either.

Balance Rating: Poor

Originality

Let’s face it; there is barely any originality here. We’ve had countless mystery games with tons of puzzles thrown our way. Yes, just about every puzzle in Nemesis is unique in its own way, but when it comes down it, it’s still just a puzzle. I will give credit here though for the fill in the blank puzzles because I almost felt like my life had been whisked back to high school instead of the nineteenth century. Talk about confusing yet exhilarating all at the same time.

There isn’t much originality either in the way of making Sherlock Holmes the central character. He’s perfect for the part but he’s also been there before. And from what I’ve read during my research on the internet; many of those who have played his other games weren’t as thrilled with this one as they were with the others. You can only use a character so much before it loses all credibility. Mario is the exception of course.

Originality Rating: Mediocre

Addictiveness

God, could I be any more torn here? Never before have my wishes wanted a “Puzzle Only Mode” more. I’d play them night in and night out if I didn’t have to get to them in order to enjoy them. But no, in order to play them I have to stick on eight Dramamine patches and put my puke bucket next to me.

On more then one occasion my girlfriend would in and ask me if my hand was up to my forehead because I was stuck on a puzzle. Imagine her surprise when I merely told her I couldn’t open a random door placed at the bottom of the stairs and wasn’t sure why.

Addictiveness Rating: Mediocre

Appeal Factor

No question about it, this game WILL sell in stores. Fans of the Sherlock Holmes series or even just those looking for a decent puzzle-solving mystery game will surely check out the back of the case and tell themselves, “Hmm this could be fun.” And you know what? They’re right. It could be a fun game if there weren’t so many flaws holding it down. Hell, this could be an absolute great game if it weren’t hadn’t been designed on a fishing boat by blind monkeys.

People really need to check out the puzzles included in Nemesis though. These are the types of challenges I’d love to see thrown into the next Resident Evil game, making the thought-process needed to play just as important as the reflexes for shooting up millions of zombies. I can’t tell you how often a mere “press the buttons in order” puzzle has pissed me off for being so easy. The puzzles in Nemesis are what made me love the first Shivers game so much. But the controls and other little awful things of Nemesis are what set it apart from Shivers and make me loathe it as well.

Appeal Factor: Mediocre

Miscellaneous

Not much else can be said that I haven’t already covered. The puzzles and music rock while the rest blows. Can’t get much simpler then that.

Miscellaneous Rating: Bad

The Scores

Story: Enjoyable
Graphics: Decent
Sound: Bad
Control & Gameplay: Very Bad
Replayability: Poor
Balance: Poor
Originality: Mediocre
Addictiveness: Mediocre
Appeal Factor: Mediocre
Miscellaneous: Bad
Final Score: Below Average

Short Attention Span Summary

For bring my first time reviewing a game; I got the short end of the stick didn’t I? Not that I’m blaming anyone because my expectations were pretty high when it was announced Sherlock Holmes Nemesis would be on the way to my mailbox. Mysteries are awesome. Puzzle games are some of my favorites. 3-D graphics of old turn of the century London just screams coolness. But there are just some things you can’t get past when the biggest reason for playing video games is to have fun. Being nauseated and hoping Jack The Ripper appears to take out people in the street is not what I would consider fun.

Ok, Jack The Ripper appearing and taking out people would be cool to see, but not while nauseous.
http://diehardgamefan.insidepulse.com/files/2008/04/sherlock1.jpg