Cam's Eye View: Modnation Racers for the PS3 review

Who here likes Little Big Planet? I know I do! I love that game so much. Great graphics, great platforming, and an overall great package that is a good reason to buy a PS3. Though what do you get if you take the simple version of Little Big Planet’s creation formula and combine it with Mario Kart-style gameplay and those mighty mug doll things? Well then, you get one unique package of a game known as Mod Nation Racers for the PS3! Although it isn’t as amazingly creative or as polished as Little Big Planet or Mario Kart, Mod Nation Racers holds up on its own as a great and fun racing game where you can create your own character and tracks. It definitely isn’t in the top 10 PS3 games, but it is definitely in the top 20. So, let’s create a character and drive our way through Mod Nation Racers on the PS3.

Unlike a lot of racing games, this one actually has a story, but its simple so I won’t talk too much about it. The story is about a young driver named Tag as he dreams to be the best racer. He signs up and goes through 5 different tours to win the gold. There isn’t much as of story and there are some predictable outcomes and twists, but it does have some memorable characters.  I warn you though, don’t expect a deep story for this racing game

Like I said, the gameplay is a racing game. It’s more along the line of Little Big Planet and Mario Kart combined into one. You get the Mario Kart-style racing with item uses and the size of the karts. The Little Big Planet parts come in with the Mod creator and level creator. You can design your own Mod and your own kart and get more pieces by winning races and completing specific challenges within the race. You also get the usual kind of online play as you can race up to 12 people. You can also play with up to 4 people in split-screen action. The challenges within the races are usually like get multiple points by drifting or spinning and even hitting opponents. The main gimmick, which seems to be a common gimmick now in racers is drifting. Drifting is the only way to gain boost in your boost meter. You will need to master this if you want to get through later races. Like I said above, there are 5 tours that you need to go through and you either need to be in third, second, or first to continue on in the tours. They usually have about 5 to 7 races.

While not the most graphically accomplished game on the PS3, since God of War 3 and Uncharted 2 cover that territory, I can safely say that it is a very good-looking game. It definitely has its own charm with the people looking like those Mighty Mug figures in motion. While there isn’t much story, the voice acting is pretty good. The conversations that the two announcers have get you through the story pretty well, and are fun to listen to at times. The music is also fun to listen to with some cool songs through certain levels. I also like that there is a hub world that you can share your creations with. You can easily kill a few hours just driving around in the hub world. I should know, I did.

However, if you thought I didn’t have anything bad about to say this game, well you-are-WRONG! I actually have a rather big list of faults that this game has. Number 1, the load times. These load times are awful, since it seems like it takes forever to load the levels and it just gets tedious when you don’t want to race and want to go to the hub world and etc. Number 2, the AI is overly aggressive midway through the game and to the end also. This has to be one of the most unbalanced racing games I have ever played in my life. This isn’t like the rubber banding like in Mario Kart, oh no. The AI in this game will do anything to make you screw up! Number 3, the AI is trigger-happy. This has happened A LOT throughout the game for me. I am in first place and I am driving my merry way through the final lap way ahead of the opponents and then BAM! A squad of missiles or something hits me and then 6 racers pass me. I mean it happens A LOT more so than it should. Number 4! Poor design flaws in the tracks. Sometimes when I am racing it seems like the tracks themselves are not fully polished. Not that they look bad or anything, but I feel like I could have made it through the game easier if there weren’t certain obstacles, or better designed roads to ride on. I had to restart like 45 to 50 times because I fell off a cliff or into the water because I made one wrong turn or didn’t drift at the right moment. Finally, we got number 5, unforgiving gameplay. This is basically an issue of all of the above problems. If you mess up once, it always seems like the game won’t give you any time to recover. You fall off a cliff, 7 racers pass you. You get shot, 5 racers pass you. You don’t land correctly after being thrown in the air, you’re stuck on the other side of the road and all racers pass you. My final complaint however is the unbalanced online multiplayer. It always felt strange since it was like I was working at a disadvantage for some reason; it’s hard to explain. I felt like a lot of this game could have been polished more, but that is just me.

So, that is my review of Mod Nation Racers. While it is definitely a flawed game that should have been more polished instead of trying to release it by a certain time, they should have saved it for the fall. I would be lying though if I said I didn’t have fun with the game. It is definitely a good kart racer, but like I said, it needs some work done on it. I say for now, rent it, but if you are hardcore about your racing, then yeah I would be glad to tell you to get it, but for little kids and for people like myself, I don’t see any reason for them to get it. Just go get a PSN card instead and go buy Joe Danger, which is more polished and more fun, in my opinion. Like I said, it’s definitely one of the better PS3 games, but it definitely isn’t top 10 material.

This game gets a 7 out of 10



Cam's Eye View: DLC Domination part 5: Lara Croft: The Guardian of Light

What can you say about famous female video game protagonist Lara Croft? Well, I mean, besides her curvy Angelina Jolie figure, the ability to look hot while shooting two guns, and her ever lovin’ hobby of tomb raiding. She definitely has had a long career since her games during the PS1 and Saturn days. However, it seems like recently she hasn’t been doing so well, since it seems like every game just got worse and worse after the PS1 era. What happened? She was one of the first female protagonists that made women more than Princesses in distress. Now she is known as the game series that has poor camera placement among other mess-ups. It’s weird because you think they would have revamped it early on since a main criticism was the camera set-up in her game. It seemed like she needed to retire, put up her two guns, and just stay as a nostalgic look at females in gaming. That changes now, however, with the recent smash hit Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light! Finally, Crystal Dynamics did something different by changing up everything about the game. It’s still platforming-puzzle-solving goodness, but it’s more on the line of an arcade style game. This definitely caught everyone by surprise, and well, this is the first Tomb Raider I ever played, so let’s dive into the light with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light!

The story starts out with our loveable Lara getting into another situation with a mystical artifact and some evil gang wanting to get it first. Thankfully, they cut through the crap and have the mystical artifact summon a powerful demon wizard guy named Xolotl. The demon then kills the bad guys and is about to kill Lara, but the guardian of light, Totec, awakens and joins up with Lara to save the world from Xolotl’s evil plans. I’m going to have to agree with mainstream reviewers, and say that this game’s story is very weak and basically had about 5 pages of script, total. Though like Super Mario Galaxy 2, the story doesn’t really matter since it doesn’t get in the way of the pure sweet sensation of the gameplay.

The gameplay in the Guardian of Light is in the form of games like the 3D Gauntlet arcade games where it’s done from an isometric view and not side-scrolling like Contra. You control Lara, and if you play with a friend you can control Totec the Guardian of Light. You go through multiple levels fighting off evil henchmen, demonic lizards, giants, giant spiders, and an evil sorcerer at the end. Oh, did I forget to mention you fight demonic dinosaurs? I don’t even need to explain the rest of the game since I just told you that you fight demonic T-Rexes, but this review would suck if it were this short, so let’s continue. The main weapons in the game are guns, but you also get to use a golden spear to impale enemies with and use to solve puzzles. There is also an offline and online multiplayer option. The game pretty much says, “Hey, play with a second player”. I think everyone can agree it’s more fun with two people since you can do stuff like stand on top of Totec’s shield to get to higher areas, or use Lara’s grappling hook to help Totec to get across the area. If you’re playing alone, you can use the spear to throw at the wall to make a makeshift platform for Lara to cross.

The graphics are amazing for a downloadable game. Just because it’s a downloadable game doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice presentation. There is a lot of detail everywhere, and everything just looks great. The puzzles and platforming are perfectly balanced. I say that since I never felt overwhelmed by a certain platforming section or a certain puzzle. Granted, I might have died a couple times solving some of them, but just like God of War 3, I never felt that specific areas of the game halted the game for me. The voice acting is good if a bit over the top sometimes, with Jim Cummings doing the voice for Totec, and of course, Kelley Hawes doing the voice for our lovely Lara Croft. Just to cover my tracks, I think the main villain overacts just a bit. While the music is reused from old Tomb Raider games, it still sounds nice and doesn’t overshadow the environment or what is happening in the game.

Now, this game isn’t without its flaws, but for a reboot of the franchise, it got a lot right. What is puzzling to me is that online co-op was never released for both consoles on the same date as the game’s release. It’s even more annoying since I got it on the PS3 and I STILL had to wait for the online co-op. Did they expect this? I mean, granted, I’m glad they are not giving us online co-op as DLC and putting a price on it. Of course, the most common criticism is the story, and yes, we all know it sucks because not a lot of emphasis or time was put into making it good, but the game is more of an arcade game than a full-fledged Tomb Raider game of old. This means that story isn’t going to be the main role here. The main role is the gameplay, which is perfect.

Like I said, the story is the weakest part, but the good definitely outweighs the bad by a landslide. This is a VERY good game, and I would highly recommend downloading it for your PS3 and 360. It sucks that PS3 owners have had to wait for online co-op, but if you have a 360, then you didn’t have to wait. This game is definitely worth the 15 dollar or 1200 point price tag. Thanks for reading, and hope to see you guys again!

This game gets an official 9 out of 10!



Collectors Edition DC Universe Online

I normally only do 1 Collectors Edition videos a month but I REALLY wanted to talk about this one.

Today on Collectors Edition we take a look at the new Dc Universe Online Collectors Edition.

Cam's Eye View: 3D Dot Game Heroes for the PS3 review

Ah, yes, Legend of Zelda, the first game in the long running Nintendo franchise to appear on the NES and still considered a classic. It had an open-ended world, great music, fun gameplay. Then, Link to the Past came out, and it was awesome and was the number 1 game for the SNES 5 years running. It’s hard to beat that. Then we also have games like Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Ages, Four Sword Adventure, Phantom Hour Glass, Spirit Tracks, and the Minish Cap that kept the top-down perspective and are really good games. However, today we are not talking about Zelda. You might be asking, “ Then why did I take up minutes of your time and nostalgia talking about Zelda when I am not reviewing a Zelda game?” Well, before I answer that, let me just say you won’t get those minutes back, though I will say that we will be talking about a game that took the Zelda formula and slapped it on a different console. No, I am not talking about Legendary Axe or Final Fantasy Adventure. No, this is much more recent. The Zelda formula this time was put on a PS3, and called 3D Dot Game Heroes! While you can say it isn’t an original game, I think it has a pretty original concept being a parody of the old NES and SNES adventure games of the time. It definitely stands out as a game that deserves to be in the top 20 PS3 games. Well, maybe in the top 10 for me personally. So let’s dive into a 2D world that’s gone 3D, and review 3D Dot Game Heroes.

The main story in 3D Dot Game Heroes takes place in a fictional 8-bit world called Dotnia. It tells of an evil being that was sealed away by a brave hero in the past. Fast forward years later, and the king has finally had it with being 8-bit, and decides to go 3D 8-bit! It’s hard to explain. When all of Dotnia was turned into 3D, the evil being was released. Seems like they forgot to lock the jail door or something as he now plagues the land of Dotnia. It is up to a lone hero to get all 6 sages and fight the evil being and lock him away once and for all! It’s a basic story that doesn’t take itself seriously, so just like Deathspank, you shouldn’t take it seriously either.

The gameplay in this game takes the form of action adventure games like Zelda, Final Fantasy Adventure, Legendary Axe, but mostly Zelda. You go around finding swords, solving simple puzzles from the 8-bit days of action adventure games, fight giant bosses, and find unique items to help get through the huge overworld. Of course, with games like A Link to the Past, there are side quests to be completed so you can get more health or weapons. Another thing to note is when you have perfect health, your sword is huge, and depending on which ones you get, can pierce through walls and do a spin attack faster. You can also go to the blacksmith in certain towns, and upgrade your sword’s size and length. Another main form of attack is the magic you get after meeting each sage, but it is kind of overshadowed by the main hero’s huge sword. I’ll let you come up with a sex joke for yourself with that last message. The final thing I need to mention is that you can create your own hero or choose from a selection of already made characters.

The graphics are really unique. Everything is made with little squares or called bits. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING is made of tiny blocks. Even the water is made of little blocks and it definitely looks like an NES game with a 3D face-lift. The creature design is clever and some even look like they were taken right from an 8-bit Zelda game. I also like the heavy amount of game references that you see in the game. It gives the game a comedic edge. I bet you that old gamers can find a lot of references and find them really funny. Like I said, you shouldn’t take this game’s story seriously, kind of like Deathspank. The music is also well done with some pretty catchy tunes mixed with bleeps and bloops to give it a very unique feel, but it does get repetitious so be prepared. I also like how everyone’s movements are like two frames of animation, which reminds me of games like Zelda. The game is right in the middle of difficulty, but I’ll talk more about it in the paragraph below.

It’s time now to talk about the bad parts of this game. While I said the difficulty is in the middle, sometimes the game can be downright tedious. I know the main point of adventure games is to talk to EVERYONE, but it’s hard since the text is too small unless you have an HD television, or else you won’t know what they need you to do. I also find the attack movements of the main hero limited. I know it’s supposed to be a tribute to old games and such, but it makes the game a tiny bit more difficult than it should be. I also find it annoying that even though you can save anytime, I recommend you save inside a village inn or else you will start right back in the middle of the overworld. My final complaint comes from a common one I have with a lot of games that everything is way too expensive, and you don’t get that much money unless you slay a boss. I don’t like it where the first game in the series has items that are way too expensive to get.

Overall though, 3D Dot Game Heroes is a wonderful PS3 game that I would recommend to ANYONE who has a PS3 or the love for old-fashioned action adventure games. I say, if you want to buy it, wait for it to go down in price then pick it up, but in the meantime, rent it and play it for yourself. It’s really fun to play, and I enjoyed my time with the game. Thanks for reading and have a nice day.

This game gets an 8 out of 10



Cam's Eye View: Red Dead Redemption for the PS3/360 review

Recently, I have wanted to see a lot of western films. I want to see films like Tombstone, Unforgiven, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, that one awesome Samurai Jack episode parodying that last film I mentioned, and you get the idea. I have also been wanting to play some western-set games like Samurai Western, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, and even a game I am currently playing called Wild Arms. Overall though, I want to play a really good western game. I am still currently playing Wild Guns, so don’t email me about that game. I also wanted to find a copy of Sunset Riders for the SNES, but there is one game from Rockstar that has gotten critical acclaim and I have actually been looking forward to reviewing it. What is that game? GRAND THEFT AUTO 4! No, I’m kidding. It’s Red Dead Redemption. That is right, people. I am actually going to play a Rockstar game. Don’t get your hopes up since I don’t really care much for Grand Theft Auto series, but I just like the idea of a free-roaming open world set in the Wild West. I mean, who didn’t want to be a cowboy when they were a young kid? It was like one of the big fantasies next to being a cop and a firefighter. Heck, sometimes I dream of being in those stand-offs and then wake up right when I hit the guy with a bullet. So, let’s put on our ten-gallon hats, get on our horse and ride into Red Dead Redemption!

The main story centers around bounty hunter John Marston who is sent to New Austin to kill members of his old gang he used to be a part of. If he doesn’t, the government will never release his wife and son back to him. This story is unique, since it’s like watching a marathon of western films all in one game. Granted, the beginning can be a bit sluggish in pace, but once you get going, the game sets you in an interesting world with great and memorable characters.

The gameplay is of a third person sandbox game that stretches through New Austin to Mexico, as you ride around stopping robberies, saving civilians, taking down bounties, skinning animals, playing poker, shooting down powerful men, and doing anything you want. Like I said, this is a Rockstar game, so this will give you A LOT to do since it will take about 30 hours or even more to do everything. John Marston’s main forms of attack are multiple varieties of guns, like a sniper rifle, rifle, handgun, and shotgun, to name a few. You can hoof it through the entire game by foot, but it’s more fun to grab yourself a horse and ride around. Sometimes, you will be able to ride on carriages to either get to locations or to defend people. On your down time outside the main missions, you can do multiple side quests like I listed above. You can collect bounties, play a lot of gambling games, or just take care of random encounters. You can also kill or capture animals to skin them and sell the meat and fur to shops to buy items and more guns. While gun fighting, you can slow down time and choose multiple targets and then shoot them all down like they were nothing! Outside of the main game, you can go online and do mostly the same stuff you can do in the main game, but with more people, like multiplayer poker, horse racing, shootouts, and liar’s dice. You will be getting a lot of playtime that is worth the price tag.

The graphics are pretty impressive with everything getting a lot of detail and shine. There are a lot of funny little glitches from time to time, and they are fun to find also. The voice acting is top notch as everyone sounds like they are supposed to, with not a lot of hiccups in the script. I also like the animation on everyone since it looks like everyone was motion-captured, including some of the animals. Horse riding during the sunrise in the game is so much fun. I have good memories of just running through the sunrise on the back of your horse to get to your family. The music is also nice to listen to, like stuff you would hear in a western film with a few songs that are pretty cool to listen to when you’re in certain areas of the game.

This is a pretty good package with very few low points that I am going to address. One thing I just don’t like about the game is its pacing. It just seems rather slow, and I don’t mind it most of the time, but it’s a really REALLY long game, and it just seems like some points in the story could have been easily cut out, since in my opinion, some areas didn’t really progress the story that much. From my time of playing it, I thought it never ended. It goes like this 1. You go kill a bad guy, 2. You go kill another bad guy, 3. You think you’re going home, but you then are forced to kill the main leader of the bad guys, 4, You think you have finally beat the game, you see your family, but you still do work around the family farm. Does this game ever end? It does, but it just seems like there could have been some way to make the official ending where you meet up with the family. It’s a little overwhelming how long the story is, and I just wanted to get it done. It also doesn’t help that most missions are time-based, meaning you have to be there at a specific time to do that mission. It’s just tedious and, in my humble opinion, not that fun to wait around. Well, there you have it. My review of Red Dead Redemption. It’s a good game with a lot of things going for it. You will definitely get major playtime for the price tag, so I say go get it unless they come up with a gold edition or something. Overall, it was really good and I wonder if there will be a sequel for this game. For the time being though, I won’t touch the game for a while. Thanks for reading and have a good day.

This game gets a solid 9 out of 10