Killzone 2/Wipeout HD

Killzone 2 has many great aspects to it, but gameplay isn't really one of them. The music in the game is good, the graphics are spectacular, but the campaign is pretty mediocre. I guess you can't expect too much of a story in any shooters, but it seemed like this one should've been better. There were plenty of great guns, plenty of helghast to shoot, and great boss fights (though few in number). There are a few problems with the story. There is little to no character development. You don't really get to know anyone that well, but then again, the campaign is pretty short, at about only 10 hours, if you're good. There is also a weak plotline. The plot is literally to stop Radec (Visari's main man) from getting codes necessary to control nuclear bombs. There really isn't much more to it than that. Literally, the entire campaign is spent trying to find Radec. Of course, Radec is one heck of an opponent to verse. He can cloak himself and then re-appear right next to you, while almost instantaneously kill you with his knife. I guess Radec further proves my point that the boss battles are fantastic, but the story and the stereotypical helghast soldier get very old, very fast. It's a game of fantastic graphics, great weapons, okay gameplay, and a bad story. All in all, it's still worth purchasing, but lower your expectations a little bit.  90/100

Wipeout HD is the newest installment in the ongoing Wipeout series. This game packs a bunch for being only 19.99 on the playstation network. Wipeout is all about fast, brutal racing, and that's all it is. That's all it has to be to be great. Sure, it's difficult, but that doesn't make it bad. That's the thing that separates me from most of the other critics. I enjoy challenging games. I like games that you have to work for to accomplish what you want. I like games that require you to push yourself to your limits to achieve in them. Anyways, about the game. The game has online capabilities, a campaign mode, and a racebox mode. The game has many fun aspects to it such as zone mode, where you race until you smash your vehicle, and you gradually go faster as you progress from level 1 to level 2, or from level 2 to level 3, and so on. There are 12 vehicles types in the game, some of which you need to unlock to race with. Every vehicle has 100,000 loyalty points you can earn, which can get you the 100,000 loyalty points trophy, and can also unlock all of the vehicles skins for that vehicle. The game has 8 different main stages where you can race the computers on novice, skilled, or elite mode. Elite mode is very difficult and can get extremely frustrating. The computers can beat you by 1 second one run, and then 12 seconds the next, even if you got the same time both runs. But eventually, you will be able to win. It is not impossible. It is just very hard. Wipeout HD's is also one of the two PS3 games with a 4/4 difficulty of obtaining 100% of the trophies, so if you're up for the challenge, get this game. Also, if you just want to have some fun and race on novice mode, that's fine too. With graphics in full 1080p, there is nothing not to like about this game. 90/100  

The Descent (Movie Review)

Let me first say this: If you plan on exploring a cave, explore it first, then watch this afterward. This movie is that scary. The Descent is about a group of girls that decide to go exploring a cave. Everything is amazing at first, but matters turn out bad when the group finds out the only way to continue onward is to crawl through a very narrow opening to press on. As they are doing so, the small crawl space begins to topple down on itself. Luckily, all of them make it out just in time, but the problem is they're stuck, with that be their only way back. Matters get worse when the girls find out the cave they're in is not the one that had intended to be in. Then out of nowhere a mysterious creature shows up behind one of the girls and pounces on her. The creatures resemble humans, except for the fact that they crawl on all fours and make terrible shrieking noises. The somewhat plus side to the girl's chances of getting out alive is the fact that the creatures are blind. They can only rely on their scent and hearing to catch their prey. Of course, this gives them the advantage in a pitch black cave that echoes every noise, and happens to be their own territory. The movie from there on out is purely about one thing. Survival. 

The Descent succeeds on many levels. The acting is beautifully done, the cinematography is great, and the story itself is simple but so brilliant at the same time. When you watch this movie, you can't help think, "What would I do if I was in this situation?" and most of you will come up blank. This movie shows how strong the human instinct is for survival, and how resourceful people can still be even under tremendous anxiety. What I truly liked about this movie was how the girls didn't freak out and just die on the spot. They chose to press on and try to make it through. A lot of scary movies have very dumb female roles, such as "The hot chick opening the door, even though she knows something is going to happen if she steps out there." No, not these girls. The majority of them keep moving, because they know if they want to get out to see another day, they're going to have to kill, and stay calm about it. The Descent is fear in its purist form. Watch this movie.   Score: 80/100

Dead Space

What is it about Dead Space that makes it so horrifying? Is it the music that makes your skin crawl, or the cries from your enemies as they sprint toward you, or is it just the fact that you're on an abandoned vessel in space, and you have no one to help you? I'd say all of the above and more! Dead Space also offers amazing graphics, an intriguing storyline, and great new features never before seen in games. What new features you ask? How about this? You can use an item called "Stasis" to dramatically slow down your enemies so your can kill them much easier. You can use melee attacks to kill your enemies, such as stepping or hitting them with your gun. You have a wide variety of weapons at your disposal such as the plasma cutter, pulse rifle, line gun, force gun, contact gun, ripper, and flamethrower. I'm not going to explain what they do though, for it would ruin the surprise! Oh, did I mention that in order to kill the enemies, you have to shoot/stomp/hit off their limbs? Shooting them in the torso does very minimal damage, even on easy mode.

My favorite feature of Dead Space is actually the store. You can buy virtually anything, as long as you find the schematic for the particular item, which you find in the game.  (It's not difficult at all) You can even buy power nodes, which upgrade your weapons, rig, stasis, and kinesis. The problem is they cost 10,000 bucks, so for the first run through,  you should probably just find them in the game.

Though Dead Space is rather short, normally beaten in under 10 hours, those are probably some of the best ten hours of gaming you will do for a long time. And once you beat the game, it's not over. You can replay on the file you just beat and do another round with all of your weapons and upgrades. Pretty cool huh? You also unlock Impossible Mode, which is for the true gamer. I have beaten it, and I'm proud to say so. It is very difficult. I'm talking punishing difficult. You're going to die a lot. Dead Space is the best survival game of 2008.  93/100 

Motorstorm Pacific Rift

So, for my first video game review, i decided to do it on Motorstorm Pacific Rift, or also known as Motorstorm 2 to some people. Anyways, Motorstorm 2 is a beautifully made game, in both its graphics and its gameplay. In the game, there are two main modes, which would be The Festival and Wreckcreation. The Festival is basically just the main game, or the campaign mode of a racing game so to speak. The objective of Festival mode is to race against the computer and work your way up the ranks, with rank 8 being the highest you can get. Going up the ranks gets significantly harder because the computer level gets more difficult as you progress. In fact, I get more 1st places versing people online than I do racing rank 8 computers. The festival is a great way to race for both beginner and experts gamers. Wreckcreation is the other mode in Motorstorm 2. It consists of online, free-play, split screen, garage, and options. Online play is extremely well done in this game! It matches the player up very quickly, and starts the race very quickly, unlike the first Motorstorm. In the garage, you can customize things such as your vehicle, your driver, and you can even look at how close you are to receiving your next trophy. The overall gameplay of Motorstorm 2 is great. I've never had so much fun with a racing game since Mario Kart for SNES. The graphics aren't perfect, but they are really good. Some critics argue that the graphics of Motorstorm are better than the graphics of Motorstorm 2. If this is so, the difference is very minimal, and the gameplay is so much fun, that you won't even notice. Pacific Rift is a phenomenal game, and is every bit an IMPROVEMENT on the original Motorstorm.  90/100

Movie Review (Yes Man)

First of all, before I get started, I should probably explain what I'm even blogging about. I aspire to be a film/video game critic, so I'm going to start writing some reviews about recent movies/video games that are currently out.

One of my favorite movie sites out there today is known by the name of Metacritic. They review movies, video games, music, and some books, though not too many. It's a very cool site, and it's very well done. What I especially love is their rating scale. Metacritic bases their rating scale out of 100 points. Anything that is considered good is highlighted in green. Anything average is considered yellow. Anything bad is considered red. Also, good, average, and bad differ depending on the subject.  For movies 60-100 is considered good. 40-59 is considered average, and then anything 39 or below is considered bad. My ratings will be based off of that system. But for video games, anything 75-100 is considered good, 50-74 is considered average, and 49 or below is considered bad.

Yes Man

I may as well start with a movie I believed to be a real dud. This movie is Yes Man. Simply put, I did not enjoy it. Sure, there were a few funny scenes/moments, but most of the movie I felt this strange awkwardness as if I think someone is judging me poorly for watching such a bad movie. But why was this movie bad you ask? There are quite a few reasons. The first problem, and probably the main problem was the dialogue. The dialogue was about as pointless as small talk. I'm sorry, but I'd like there to be some interesting conversation going on at least somewhere in this film, and there wasn't really any of that. The second thing wrong with this film is the relationship between Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel. First of all, Jim Carrey is 46, and she is 28. That makes Jim look a little too old for this girl to start with, but that's not really all that important. The main problem is their personalities. Zooey Deschanel is too different from Jim to be compatible. She's spontaneous, and interesting, and plays in a band at a bar for seven friends, while Jim Carrey is somewhat recently divorced, and just boring in all aspects. There are basically no positives to say of Jim in this movie expect for the scene at the desk where he taped his face up and gave Norm a sort of scary looking smile. That actually got a Laugh out of me, even though it probably wasn't that funny. The third and final bad thing about Yes Man was it's plot. Honestly, someone tell me where the storyline was? I could not find any at all.

The bad things put aside, there was one person that saved the movie. The character of Norm, played by Rhys Darby is hilarious, and a great actor. He portrays a man about the same age as Jim Carrey, maybe a little older, and he is his boss. The thing is he's entirely immature. For example, he throws a Harry Potter and a 300 movie party which require costumes for entrance. This shows his rather quirky/nerdy/immature side, but he does his role perfectly. I have not seene Rhys Darby in any other films yet, but I must say he did a phenomenal job in Yes Man. It's just a shame that he did a phenomenal job in Yes Man.     Score: 38/100