Ferrari Card Battle

Deep within Ferrari: The Race Experience on Wii, lies a card game! Each player is given 33 cards (or 16 if you play half-deck), and on each card is a picture of a Ferrari with the stats of that particular car. The idea of the game is to trump the other player, by picking a feature of your car that represents it best and trumps that same feature on the other players card. The catch is you can’t see the other players card so you have to guess your strengths. Here’s an example; we start a game and I’ve got a 1958 Testarossa that’s rare as hell and costs $12,000,000. I go first because someone has to, and I’m lucky. I don’t know which car the other player holds, but I’m pretty sure it’s worth less than 12 million dollars, so I pick the money category…

After the critical and commercial success of Ninjabread Man, a press release was issued on 8th of February 2008 announcing the sequel, Ninjabread Man: Blades of Fury for Wii. More than 4 years have passed, and we still haven’t seen any screenshots or had any update on its release. Will it be a Wii U launch title? 3DS eShop game? Or will it still come out for Wii and compete with Dragon Quest X? We did some investigating and got more than we bargained for.

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I wish the TAKEDOWN kickstarter failed

With the successes of Double Fine’s unnamed adventure game and Wasteland 2, Kickstarter is the current darling of the independent gaming community and ‘crowdsourcing’ the hot new buzzword being thrown around by insufferable energetic web 2.0 conmen. Kickstarter hasn’t always been a success though, my favourite unfunded project being the criminals who developed Tony Hawk Ride failing to fund some marble madness clone they wanted to inflict on us. If only the same could be said about smug upstart Serellan’s lame sounding tactical shooter TAKEDOWN.

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Ridge Racer Vita – Impressions

DING DING DING – that’s the sound of Nintendo being knocked out of the hardware business. All-Star development team Cellius™ have released their first game after 5 years of development, Ridge Racer Vita. Sony’s new handheld features amazing graphics and a home console experience in your hands. It’s more than a controller with a screen.

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Just Cause 2 – A Man’s Game

THIS GAME IS SO GOOD. I’ve been playing it a lot and enjoying every second; but until now haven’t been able to pinpoint WHY it’s so good. Sure it’s got amazing graphics and a better draw distance than even Xenoblade Chronicles, but there’s something else that sets this game apart from all other open world games. It makes me feel LIKE A MAN. IT MAKES ME WANT TO YELL SHIT AND TYPE IN CAPS. It taps into my male primal urges to dominate the land. All I’m doing in Just Cause 2 is finding new areas and blowing stuff up until I get a big fat 100% “Settlement Complete” medal. What now? Next area. Find some packages, blow stuff up, “Settlement Complete”. Next area. The game is so MASSIVE that I can do this and nothing else. Your influence increases the more chaos you cause; the game REWARDS you for running into an area and beating your chest.

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F***heads – AAA Douchebag

The Last Story – A New Page In Game Design

The Last Story is captivating. It tells the story of a group of honest mercenaries striving to be knights – not so they can dominate the world – but merely on the hope of a good night’s sleep without one eye open. The story that unfolds is wonderfully intriguing and engaging, and with fun gameplay and interactive environments; you’re not just watching or reading the story, you’re PLAYING it. It’s a fairy tale set in a living, breathing world that embraces the interactive nature of videogames. It’s such a different game in so many aspects and brings a lot of new things to the table in terms of how you approach things as a player. I could fill this entire paragraph with buzzwords and verbal wankery, and still fail to capture what the game is like. Everything has a magical, whimsical story-telling feel to it, like a long descriptive dream with talented British voice actors. It’s a love story because I’m in love with this game.

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Mario Party 9 – Feature Breakdown

There isn’t much point doing a review for this – you either like Mario Party or you don’t. If you do, then you’re in for a real treat. I think this is the best one yet due to the quality of the mini-games, amazing graphics, and excellent presentation. Above all, I prefer the new board concept to the old one; it makes the progression of the game a lot more exciting. This makes my earlier impressions post a bit redundant, but that must be how Mario Party 8 feels right now. I’ve played a lot more since then, and unlocked everything in the game.

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Mass Effect 3 – Impressions

I’m just going to come out and say it; this is the game of the year. I was so ready to hate this game. The day one DLC that is so obviously cut content, the tacked on multiplayer, the retconned elements of the story – I’ve been swallowing the hate machine from /v/ with gusto. But I can’t hate it. Everything is just too magnificent, I just did this thing right, I don’t want to talk bout it too much because of spoilers, but is was such a momentous event that other, lesser games, would’ve had this as their climax. Not Mass Effect 3, where this represents just the culmination of the first of what I hope is many acts this game will produce. Oh shit I can’t keep writing, I’m gonna go back and play more Mass Effect.

Mario Party 9 – Impressions

After FIVE LONG YEARS, Mario Party is back! Was it worth the wait? No, not really. More Mario Parties would have been nice. Nevertheless, this is the best looking one yet, with some of the most polished mini-games and a brand new concept of play!

Now that every player shares the same place on the board, you might think the competitive strategy aspect has been taken out or dumbed down…

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Tales of the Abyss – Impressions

I’m about 8 hours into Tales of the Abyss 3D and really enjoying it. It’s very cool to have access to such a huge RPG in the first year of a new system. The first real RPG in 3D is a pretty big deal, and the effect is done well in this game. It’s quite basic compared to most 3DS games i’ve played, but really adds to the presentation. The simplicity of having spoken text pop-out to the front of the environment is enough to make turning on the 3D worthwhile. The 3D is barely noticeable in battle and on the horrendously ugly world map, but it’s still worth keeping on because it’s un-intrusive (much like Steel Diver). The world map is really bad though.

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Kid Icarus: Flaccid Uprising

This game is going to flop, and it’s your fault. Nintendo knows Kid Icarus: Uprising will be a tough sell, and they’ve already started a heavy advertising campaign for the game – spanning several trailers, 8 page magazine articles, hundreds of screenshots, and multiple Twitter accounts. It took the spotlight in the recent Nintendo Direct, with lengthy coverage explaining all the games features in great detail, and recently featured in Iwata Asks. There’s even going to be a special tournament event across America before the game launches, and it’s taking center stage at every event Nintendo shows up to. Why is it so important this game does well? The team developing Kid Icarus: Uprising have put the new Super Smash Bros. on hold to make this – that’s why.

Sora are pouring their heart and soul into every aspect of this game. Originally speculated as a launch game for 3DS, it’s now been over a year since the systems launch and Kid Icarus: Uprising is finally ready. It’s got an arse load of stages, a STUPID amount of custom weapons and items, and every mode under the sun including online multiplayer, StreetPass and AR Card functionality. It even comes with a stand, just in case you feel slightly uncomfortable while playing it over long sessions. They have every angle covered, so why is this a recipe for disaster? What’s wrong with the game, if it’s going to be so awesome?

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SSX: Deadly Descents Demo – Impressions (From Chat)

SSX has finally arrived in HD! After a failed Wii game that nobody could figure out how to play, EA has been inspired by recent market trends and added some grit and realism to the franchise. What’s it like? A demo has just been released on PSN and Xbox Live, go download it! If you can’t be arsed, or you’re waiting for the demo to be available to Xbox Live standard members like me; then read on as Infernal Monkey shares his experience!

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“Durpthroughs” – Fatal Frame IV – Batch 3

Ooooops, I’ve had these done for a while now, but I’ve been so busy I forgot to put them up.

In this round, Misaki battles a bully from her childhood and a new character surfaces to explore the medical wing of the creepy complex in search of the man responsible for the kidnappings. The ghost encounter rate continues to increase as the setting gets spookier, so how long can I last!? Enjoy!

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