Cam's Eye View: DLC Domination Part 7: Renegade Ops for the PS3 and 360 review

Welcome back to another DLC Domination. Who here has seen the awesome film The Expendables? You know, the 2010 film with all the big action stars of yesteryear and of modern day with Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, and cameos from Arnold and Bruce Willis? Well, if you haven’t, you need to buy it! It is this generation’s Commando, it’s this generation’s man sandwich of pure man energy! It’s an enjoyable film and I think you can find it cheap now so there is no excuse if you haven’t seen it. The whole film seems like it would set itself up well to be made into a video game since it can be over the top, a lot of goons to shoot down, and explosions everywhere! We kind of get that film-to-game adaptation with the game called Renegade Ops. While it might not be the hottest 360 or PSN downloadable game out there, it is just pure high-octane action. You get explosions, you get multiple vehicles to pilot and shoot stuff in, and you get an incredibly stupid and clichéd story line. It is more like an arcade game or an NES game like Jackal, so if you are into those kinds of games, then I say download it right now if you’ve got the points. Does this game have its faults? Well, you will have to read and find out.

            The story starts off with an evil villain named Inferno who contacts the United Nations and states that he has basically taken the whole world hostage. Inferno then demands that he rule the world or else it will all burn to the ground. While the United Nations tries to think of a more logical way on how to stop the villain, an army general goes commando and brings along 4 bland and personality-deprived teammates to take down Inferno and SAVE THE WORLD!!! Yeah, it’s total super popcorn flick stuff. No one has a solid personality, the characters you play as are bland, and some can even be useless in gameplay! I love this kind of terrible story telling, but at points it seems like they are trying too hard to make this story seem serious. It just isn’t possible, and you won’t give the slightest care for what happens in the story. Give them credit though, they did nail the stupid popcorn movie lines. Then again, the guys who created the awesome Just Cause 2 made this game.

            The gameplay, however, is much more interesting than the stupid, stupid cookie cutter story. You get to control 4 different vehicles that you can choose to play as in each level. However, the only two that are actually useful are the two vehicles that are on the cover art for this game. They really don’t play any differently from each other. The left analog stick can control them, and you can aim and shoot using the right analog stick. Each vehicle out of the 4 has its own special power, like a strong cannon, calling an air strike, pulse blasts, and a super strong armor. You can gain power-ups, health pick-ups, secondary weapons, and special items to unlock extras. During some areas of the game, you will be able to unlock the ability to ride combat helicopters to take down the tougher parts of the missions. You can also play with up to 4 people at the same time offline and online, and cause even more over-the-top action set pieces than seen in a Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis film. It’s over the top fun that reminds me of another downloadable game called Gatling Gears, but that’s for another time.

            The graphics are nice. They get the job done and are not the best nor are they the worst. Everything runs smoothly most of the time, and I rarely have dealt with slow-down with all the explosions and action on screen. The enemies are varied enough to make sure the game doesn’t feel incomplete. Controls feel good, and you pretty much have a good amount of control over your character’s vehicle. The music is fine, but it can sound a tiny bit generic and could have been used for any popcorn flick action film. It isn’t bad music, but it isn’t very memorable.

            There are some minor problems though that bring this game down. The first is its price tag, it’s 15 dollars on both PSN and Xboxlive. It’s a bit pricey for this kind of game when you could easily get Gatling Gears for 10 bucks on either platform, which in a way is a better game. The game can also get a bit boring due to a few minor things like repetitious boss fights, missions, and not enough variety besides the helicopter piloting. The story is also very boilerplate for an action game, which made me think back to Jackal on the NES. I enjoy it for its popcorn script, but overall it just feels like a waste of time. I also feel like two of the characters are completely pointless and/or useless. It’s the two drivers who have the pulse gun and the super armor, since their weapons are not the strongest, and along with the two other characters you can play as, are boring and unoriginal.

            Overall, this game reminds me a lot of Deathsmiles and Vanquish, where I enjoy the over-the-top gameplay, but it also doesn’t have a lot of substance. Granted, it’s easier than Gatling Gears, but I feel like Gatling Gears is a better game since I had more fun with that game than this game. It is better if you have more than one person playing with you, but don’t expect it to be a game you will play over and over and over again. I would say, wait for the game to drop down in price (if it ever does) to download it. Until then, get games like Gatling Gears or Hamilton’s Great Adventure.

This game gets an 8 out of 10

Heavy Metal Gamer Previews: Sonic Generations

This is NOT a review, it is a PREVIEW of Sonic Generations. I do apologize that the camera is sideways, one bad thing about filming off of a TV, stuff like this. Other than that, I hope you enjoy the video, and hopefully you enjoy Sonic Generations when it comes out.

Heavy Metal Gamer: Aerial Assault Review

Heavy Metal Gamer: Aerial Assault Review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGJ7zEKnXnE

Brand new review, sorry for no intro, but I explain why there is no intro. Hope you enjoy the review, and thanks for watching.

Cam's Eye View: Yakuza Retrospective Part 2: Yakuza 2 for the PS2 review

Hello everyone, and welcome to part 2 of Cam’s Eye View’s Yakuza Retrospective! So, as you all know, I liked the first game, yeah, it had its faults and demanded commitment, but it was a great game. I just wish I knew about this series sooner so I could find a good condition copy of the game, but I know some people would rather rent it to see why it was so great. So, let’s dive into the sequel and one of the better late-coming PS2 games from 2008, Yakuza 2. If you liked the first game and wanted to bash some more skulls in Japan, we’ve got a sequel that definitely brings in more Japanese crime syndicates to fill your prescription of skull bashing. Now, granted, nothing much has changed, but there are some pretty good improvements. So, let’s clean off your brass knuckles, whip out Rosetta Stone Japanese, and read on about Yakuza 2! Personally, I wouldn’t recommend going through the hassle of Rosetta Stone, but do what you want.

The game’s story takes place an entire year after the first game, with Kazuma Kiryu is living with young Haruka as basically father and daughter. While going to the cemetery to pray for some characters that were in the last game, the 5^th Chairman of the Tojo Clan meets Kazuma to discuss some business, but is then assassinated. Kazuma finds out that there are some more major clan wars going on and some foreign mafia groups from Korea are getting into the mix of things. A lot more twists happen, and we get to see what has happened to some characters from the past game. Now, this is a long game, so make some popcorn and get a few beers or whatever you drink, and get ready to go through a lot of text and cut scenes.

The gameplay is very similar to the last game with a huge city to run through, and people, who for some reason get mad by just looking at you, ready for your fists. There are some more mini-games, like a first person fighting game that is fun, but most of the game is the same as the last one, but with some minor changes. This time, the game takes place in Osaka and in the Shinjuku district in Tokyo. There are multiple missions to do, like help a guy get a specific doll from those crane games, catching a freeloader, and picking off Yakuza people. The fighting has been improved with a lock-on feature that you can implement, that makes you strafe from side to side when focusing on a single opponent. This means no more flailing around when enemies sneak up behind you to hit you. The rest is the same, a blue bar will fill up where you can execute special moves, and you get health from normal items and can buy disposable weapons like guns and swords. Kazuma can also help out in a host club as one of the side stories in the game. It’s like a dating simulator, so basically, say the right things and get more money. Another improvement they’ve added is that you can finally play on the easy mode from the beginning instead of the last game where you started out on normal and then if you died too much get switched to easy mode. The mini-games range from the crane games, slot machines, the first person fighting game, Mahjong, Shogi, batting cages, golf, and many others. Again, you get a lot of stuff to do, just like in the GTA series.

Yakuza 2 definitely takes control of the PS2’s power, since the game looks amazing! It still has a lot of that Japanese film noir charm and is executed well. The language stays as Japanese with English subtitles, which is great since the voice acting in the last game seemed called in. The music is also very well done with calming music and rock and roll sounds. Four different people composed the soundtrack. The four people are Hidenori Shoji (F-Zero GX), Hideki Sakamoto (Echochrome and Shinobido), the third is Norihiko Hibino (Bayonetta, Ninja Blade, Zone of Enders, and Boktai), and Takahiro Izutani (also Bayonetta and Ninja Blade). It’s interesting since the Metal Gear Solid games often pop up between these 4 composers. Just a fun little fact I thought I would tell you all. Overall, Sega did a great job giving this game a great presentation.

However, it does fall flat on some areas that are kind of surprising to me. While I didn’t mind the length of the last game, for some reason I don’t like how long this game is. In my opinion, it is kind of boring. Maybe it’s just how long and tedious these chapters can be. It also doesn’t help when it comes to finding certain people, and then the map doesn’t show you where that person is. I also think that the game borrowed too much from the last game and is more like Yakuza 1.5.

All and all though, this is a good game. It’s very solid, and the story is quite captivating with love and betrayal everywhere you look. It is much more of a polished game, and it is better than the last game in a lot of ways. I would recommend picking this game up over the first one, but I think both games are very good. Now then, it’s time to get Yakuza 3 since we got Yakuza 4 this year, and a newly announced Yakuza game with zombies was announced, so it is a good time to be a Yakuza fan.

This game gets an 8 out of 10

Heavy Metal Gamer: House of the Dead Review

Heavy Metal Gamer: House of the Dead Review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9AK2OffOhs

A brand new review of one of the first zombie based games I ever played, and the first light gun/rail shooter game I ever played. Hope you enjoy the review, AND the new INTRO!

Thanks for watching!