Game Review: Cooking Mama: World Kitchen
Release: November 18, 2008
Genre: Simulation
Developer: Cooking Mama Limited
Available Platforms: Nintendo Wii
Players: 1-2
MSRP: $49.99
ESRB Rating: E
Website: www.cookingmamaworldkitchen.com

With the inevitable success of Cooking Mama on the Nintendo DS and the first title on the Wii, Cooking Mama Limited brings to the Wii World Kitchen. With a new style in art, more recipes, minigames, and motion-control-centric gameplay, will World Kitchen be a must-have for your collection?

World Kitchen puts you in the hands on Mama’s young child, be it a boy or girl, that you have a small amount of customization with. Do not get too excited about this feature, however, for it is very limited and rather pointless. You begin the game with a few recipes, some bizarre, that take you through a variety of minigames varying from chopping onions, spreading butter in the pan, searing meat, etc.

The art style has been upgraded from 2D to 3D which is a nice improvement to the series.

World Kitchen is full of problems. Though some minigames are easy enough to pull off, there are more that will leave you feeling frustrated. There are no tutorials and the time given to perform some of the minigames is not substantial enough. You will fail plenty in the beginning and many may not want to go back to play certain situations over again to improve. The voice work is laughable, at best, with the Mama character speaking with a heavy Japanese accent. The phrases spoken by the child character you control will grow old on you very fast.

With frustrating minigames and controls, a lack of depth, and quirky Japanese stylization, Cooking Mama: World Kitchen does not come off well as a purchase. Though this game is meant more for casual gamers, I would not even recommend this title to them. Hardcore gamers and casual alike will find this title unappealing after a few minutes.

This title is a definate pass.

If you are looking for great Nintendo Wii games, check out my Holiday Buyer’s Guide for the Wii at:

http://www.platformnation.com/2008/11/29/holiday-buyers-guide-2008-nintendo-wii/

If you plan on purchasing a Xbox 360 Arcade Edition in the future and when you get it home there is no external memory unit (256MB).  Have no fear, Microsoft has revealed that the Arcade Edition has a hardware revision and the memory unit will be  internal memory and it will still have 256MB of memory.

“We are constantly updating the console’s more than 1700 internal components. We can confirm that we are moving to internal memory for the Xbox 360 Arcade. The physical internal memory is the same size as the previous external memory units — 256MB.”

So what does this mean for the consumer, well my take on it is if you want memory on the go you will still have to buy a HDD or now a external memory unit it is nice that you have the on board memory for NXE but no memory for you to take with you.

If I was betting man, I would bet that when the men and women at Treyarch sat down and tried to imagine what they could do to honestly make World at War even better than COD4, they probably came up mostly empty handed.  So instead, it appears they set out not to top COD4, but to just try and keep up.  On the surface that looks like quite a task when you consider that COD4 was (and is still) one of the deepest on-line shooters to ever hit the market, and was also the victor of many game of the year awards.  It kept literally hundreds of thousands of people coming back day after day, night after night, for well over a year.  Very few titles out there can boast the kind of on-line numbers that COD4 can.  Well, I’m happy to report that World at War at least stays on par with it’s predecessor, and maybe even surpasses it in some areas.

One of the things that made the fourth installment of the franchise so popular was the setting.  Finally, a well made war game that took us out of the 1940’s and away from WWII, and in to modern times for some current day action.  Treyarch made a very bold decision when they decided to take their title back to that familiar setting that so many games had covered before.  A move that didn’t necessarily spark excitement from the community, but a move Treyarch was adamant about, none-the-less.  This time you find yourself right in the middle of both the Russian push in to Germany, and the Pacific assault against the Japanese.  The campaign premise of WaW should actually be very well known by fans of the series, as it follows the same design as the others before it.  You actually control two different soldiers and two different sides of the battle, that usually twist back and forth every couple of missions or so, at just the right pace.  As you start to push your way through the campaign, several things are immediately noticeable, like the gorgeous visuals.  From the nice looking textures and awesome lighting effects, to the authentic look of the guns and troops, it’s a real pleasure to look it.  Granted, these graphics aren’t much we haven’t seen before, but they still look top notch.  Keep digging and you’ll find it’s also a real pleasure to play.  The controls are tight and crisp, and while the AI is not super intelligent, they’re just smart enough to keep you entertained all the way through the fairly lengthy single player campaign.

Don’t feel like fighting the enemy alone?  Grab up to 3 friends and go at it together, either just trying to complete the missions, or competing against each other for kills.  While a big chunk of the story and a few of the missions from the single player experience don’t survive to see the co-op side of things, it’s a still fun way to enjoy the game with your buddies, all the while adding more replay value to the campaign.

When you decide you’ve had enough of Keifer Sutherland’s voice, you’ll probably find out that multiplayer is the place to be anyway.  Using a ranking system that’s identical in nature to the COD4 system, you’ll gain XP points for obtaining kills or achieving objectives.  While the XP/challenge system is just a touch different this time around, it’s still fantastic in all the right ways.  Some of the perks have been changed, but you probably won’t miss the ones they took out, and the 3-5-7 kill reward system remains in place, but has a touch more flare this time.  For getting 3 or 5 consecutive kills, the prize remains pretty much the same(Recon plane, then artillery strike), but if you can get to the 7 kill mark without being taken down, that’s where the real fun begins.  The hovering helicopter has been done away with, and it’s been replaced with a pack of fierce dogs.  Get those 7 kills in a row, and you can unleash a countless number of dogs upon your enemies, for up to 60 seconds.  While being on the defending side of this attack can be quite the annoyance, when it’s you that gets to unleash it, it becomes oh-so-much fun.  If you sink in all the time it takes to reach the highest on-line level of 65, you’ll discover that the prestige mode has also made the trip.  You can go through the ranking system as many as 10 times, before all the rewards finally come to a halt.

When trying to think of what complaints I could possibly have for this title, I always seem to find myself drawing a blank.  I mean, there’s no glaring holes or anything really wrong with this game.  The only valid points I can think to point out come from the lack of new content.  Granted, this is a new game with a whole new story and campaign, but outside of some minor changes and new multiplayer maps, it’s still just more of what we’ve already seen and done.

While trying to top COD4 would’ve been pretty hard, failing at making something just as good would’ve been hard as well, when you take in to consideration that Treyarch basically took the same engine, same multiplayer system, and same campaign design to bring us this game.  Not to take anything away from WaW, but it really does feel like COD4 with a new setting and a touch of polish here and there.  With that being said, the game still looks and handles so well, the touch of polish and new setting make it worth every penny.  For fans of the shooting genre, it’s highly recommended, but for fans of COD4, it’s simply a must have.

Release: November 10, 2008
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer: Treyarch
Available Platforms: X-Box 360, Playstation 3, PC, Wii, DS
Players: 1-4(co-op), 2-18(Multiplayer)
MSRP: $59.95
ESRB Rating: Mature
Website: www.callofduty.com/CODWW

A couple of months before E3 2005, Microsoft started a viral campaign to hype up the (then unnamed) Xbox 360. It was called “Our Colony,” and I played along with everyone else. In fact, I recently found the video that was the prize at the end of the campaign where J Allard came out and showed us the Xbox 360.Sure there had been leaks galore prior to that, and anyone who was following closely wasn’t all that surprised by its look, but it was a fun game to play and began the backbone of community that Xbox 360 is built on.There were campaign game screenshots galore, some for Oblivion, some for Perfect Dark Zero. But the one I remember being most curious about was the shot of a large reptilian like creature with pale skin, pale eyes, and spots on its skin; it was holding what looked like a mean looking machine gun.This was our first glimpse of the Locust. (more…)

I’m a HUGE Fan of The Chronicles of Riddick game on the original xbox console, so as a big fan of the series I have been waiting for the next one to be released on the Xbox 360.

Today Atari released some Screen shots of the next Riddick game as well as Tekken 6. (Check them out here Riddick, Tekken 6) (Thanks to xbox 360 fanboy for posting the Screens)

They don’t really show us much about the game, but it gives you a sense of how the game will look.

Go to T-Shirt hell to get your holiday T-Shirt.

Any time anyone mentions the word Zombie in a video game I automatically scream like a giddy school girl, so is it any surprise that I am forewarning you readers that my Left for Dead (or L4D cause its shorter to write) mayyy be a tad bit biased? Ever since that fine day in 2007 that this game was announced for the PC I have been clamoring to Pub listeners about this brain eating title. With feverous anticipation I was hungering for this game like and undead soldier seeing Sooches juicy ass for the first time, it was time. So when this game finally arrived into my lap I ripped into the packaging, and with a forceful thrust inserted my Disk into my 360, but what awaited me once I entered into the world of the undead?????

There is no denying that, from the outset this game is ALL about the multi-player, from the menus, to the games itself, L$D tells you who on your friends list is playing the game (Right on the main screen), so before you even have time to decide what mode to play you are seeking out any friends to help you survive the madness that is to come. I wont spend much time going over single player, as the single player game is exactly like the multiplayer game, except with AI bots as your companions and not so much fun factor. The AI in no shape or form is shabby, your AI counterparts are very competent and do a great job to look out for you while you are facing hordes of flesh eaters, but its just not the same experience that comes with your friends into the fray. So you got single player down? Good, onto the real meat and bones and blood and guts of the game.

L4D is divided into four stories, cleverly inserted as movie with its own cool looking movie poster while the screen loads, that is then divided into 5 chapters per movie.
What is amazing to me is how truly expansive the replay value is in this game, while only 5 movies that take about an hour or so to complete seem short for a full price game. The fact that the game really does an excellent job of randomizing your experience every time insures you will be yearning to come back for more. Walk into a room and there may be only four or five Zombies, but the next play through you may find up to twenty or thirty Zombies in the same room. This really forces you and your teammates to stick together and rely on one another. I have never played a game that forces people to be so unselfish and actually reward’s each player for excellent teamwork. During my many, many grinds through L4D I have often not made it out of a sticky situation, but that is purely do to either holding back a hoard of Zombies so my friends could escape, or going back to rescue on of my fallen comrades, and while I lay there, my flesh being torn apart I see my friends riding off to safety I often feel like I still one, the team made it, even if I had to sacrifice myself. I can’t say I have ever played a game that has brought these emotions out. If you are a gung –ho Joe that jumps into every fray DO not expect to last long. It is imperative that you “Talk” and communicate with your squad mates. “Who has a medi-pack?” “How much ammo do you have?” “Who has a Pipe Bomb?” and “Arrr Help me, help me!” are phrases you will be both saying and hearing A LOT!

The game itself is graphically good looking, while no Gears I never once found any texture pop up and man, is this game smooth and fast. If you are familiar with any of Valve’s control styles, Counter Strike, Half-Life, you will feel right at home. The weapon selection is reality base, and while there are only about 10 weapons to choose from, this never becomes an issue, each weapon reacts and controls how it should, also it does not effect how you play the game with your friends either. I was never forced to take a shotgun because all my teammates had an Uzi, if you all want to go Ash style with your Boom Sticks feel free.

Zombies, Zombie they all look the same, except in L4D which does a good job of introducing a couple of new Zombie classes that add a great game play twist to the game
Here is the breakdown of the newbie’s.
The Boomer - Huge and obese infected that vomits like a fire hose. Can be shot while strafing. When it hits a survivor with its vomit, the vomit acts as a pheromone to the AI controlled normal infected and causes them to focus their attack on that player. The Boomer gets points for all attacks against the target by infected. Moves slowly. Also, when killed, the Boomer does as his name says and explodes, causing all nearby Survivors to become puked on.

The Hunter - The most agile boss infected, able to climb walls and jump far. Attacks by knocking down a survivor and slashing. The only way for the survivor to escape is either by a teammate helping (killing the Hunter) or the Hunter deciding to retreat. Similar to the fast zombies from HL2 Ravenholm rooftops. Wall jumping is possible.

Left 4 Dead Tank Infected The Smoker - The Smoker has a 40-50ft tongue that can be used to drag/trip players and even choke them from above. Survivors are able to shoot this tongue off to protect one another. When the Smoker dies, it deploys smoke which severely reduces the visibility of the survivors, thereby hindering their ability to see enemies and survive.

The Tank - A huge, muscular infected with amazing strength. Can pick up and throw cars and other large environmental items, smash through concrete walls. Players cannot choose to be the Tank; infected players are randomly chosen to spawn as one. Very loud. When you spawn as the Tank, a frustration meter begins building up for every moment you’re not in the presence of Survivors. If this meter fills all the way up, you lose control of the Tank.

The Witch - These are non-playable AI super-boss infected. They are very rare, only one or two in each campaign. They are the most dangerous enemy in the game. Witches become hostile when you shoot them, shine light at them, or fire weapons around them. They kill with one hit. After killing their prey, they run away.

All deadly and all the more fun!

It took me a long time to get into and play L4D’s death match style, I just wasn’t interested in the traditionall tag your dead modes that are fashioned in ALL multiplayer death match style modes. What I found was what may be one of the most fun party modes in a long time. The death match style works and plays exactly like the co-op mode but this time teams take turns 4 as humans 4 as re-spawning zombies, (The 4 badass types) each taking turns as one team tries to survive to the safe house, while the other tries to stop them, all while still having to contest with the AI enemies running around.
The levels are randomized so as to stop any team from having the map edge.
I took me a while to write this review, as I wanted to really spend a good amount of time to truly give you a full, in depth, review. After killing undead after undead I can truly say. I WANT MORE!!!!! This game has potential to be Game of the year. for 2009! If and, I say if Valve does what it usually does and provides up with more movies in which to play. If a recent comment by Valve’s Michael Booth in an interview with Firingsquad.com he stated:

“We already have ideas for additional missions, features, and content that we hope to ship in future releases/updates to Left 4 Dead. In addition, an L4D-specific update will be made to the Source SDK so members of the community can make their own missions, characters, and L4D MOD content.” MOD content MOD content MOD content MOD content MOD content MOD content Ahhhhhhhh I want my Army of Darkness MOD NOW!!!!!!!!
So is it any surprise that The Gamers Pub awards Left 4 Dead with a Game rating of……

The Playstation 3 Review of Resistance 2, by Jelloshots

After finishing what I would call a really great storyline in Resistance, I was feverishly anticipating what would come out of Resistance 2.   Upon watching demo video from E3 I found myself in a bit of a worried thinking that, what would come from Resistance was not what I had envisioned.  Upon finally playing Resistance 2, I found myself more in a rush to see how the outcome of ease story mode sequence ended rather than enjoying how I got there.  Overall it found that R2 was an ok story, but nowhere near as interesting as the first, but I am jumping ahead of myself lets look further into R2 shall we?

One of the major things I really liked in Resistance 2 was the controls.  Because you make your own, I felt that the R2 team gave gamers more control over their experience, by being able to really tweak your game play experience.   I love the fact a game lets you customize the controls to what you want out of them not what they say you should have.  Another point I found even better than just the option to customize your control scheme was the fact that the game gives you your tutorial with your scheme and not the default one.  I myself have set up the controls just like Cod4 and they work out great since most games are going that way.

Once you get you controls right I guess its time for gameplay.  The hardest part here is figuring out where to go first.  You have the normal story mode, Coop mode, and Multiplayer modes.  All modes are very different.  I am going to explain each mode separate so that all get the time they should.

After the cliffhanger ending of Resistance fall of man I had to start with the single player story mode.  The campaign was pretty good, as I stated before this games story did not blow me away.  I don’t think Insomniac lost anything with this game, but they did not make any progress either.  I was hoping for a story that would drag me right into the invading world of the Chimera, but it did not seem to do it at all.  Don’t get me wrong, while the story mode lacked in narrative, which did not in any way stop me from playing almost non-stop. This game lets you swap difficulties during game play, but I choose to stick it out on normal mode and make it though.  There were a couple of tough (COD4 Insane) spots but anyone seasoned shooter should make it through.

Next, was my exciting venture into the world of multi player.   My best way to describe this is a bigger slower version of Unreal tournament.  Having a party system is great.  It works well and is very easy to use.  Playing 30v30 is a little tricky at first but with the size of the maps there is no problem.  I have yet to find myself stuck with a lot of people around.  Now one would think that a game that big would be full of laggege but I have yet to see any at all.  My only real problem with multi player I don’t seem to like the weapons (But that just a personal thing).  I find at time I can just keep shooting people and they don’t seem to die.  The only plus here is that you gain points just for hits and not only for kills.  I am a little unsure about the leveling system as I have yet to play any ranked games. Over the entire multiplayer is both a sub par and excellent fray into the multiplayer universe. Sub par in the sense of nothing to WOW my pants off, but excellent in their way it finally brings to consoles what PC players have enjoyed for some time and that is an experience with many players on one map that does not seem to run like it has had a gallon of molasses poured on it.

That now brings me to the last game type Coop.  I have to say games with coop always go up a notch if done right. I LOVE (CAPS LOVE) this games coop.  They choose to keep it very simple my offering 3 different class types.  You can have a soldier with carries a big heavy machine gun, grenades, and had a mobile shield system.  These guys are great just walk around and shoot everything.  Next you have the medic.  This role I have not played much but have a laser that with suck life out of the Chimera.  They also can shoot a health pack that will heal players around it. They are limited and you gain them with ammo packs.  That leaves the spec op’s.  This role gives you the marksman sniper.  This gun shoots a 3 shot burst is a scope weapon.  Although headshots don’t do much this role is fun.  They carry the ammo packs, which you can hold up to 3 of.  This pack is on an auto re-spawn timer so they are always generating without the need for you to do anything.  In my onion this is the most vital role since a medic can’t heal a soldier will run out of everything without them.

Now on to the coop play.  Coop isn’t just a regular story.  Once you pick your game you join and pick your class.  You can change classes during games so it’s not a big deal if you want to try s something different later.  Every map has multiple objectives.   The game picks how you go from one to another.  Most games I have played follow a different path and it makes it fun.  The major downside is if none plays as a team you can be really stuck.  This is why they call it coop but everyone who has played a multi player coop knows what I mean.   The only thing I wish was different in this mode would be the leveling.  It really takes a lot to level up and it can almost be too much at times.  You have the option to gain a lot of points per round but it can still be very tough.
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Now I am sure your wondering about the sound and graphics.  Both are great.  Playing with a pair of Astro headphones really made me feel like I was in the game.  I really enjoyed turning this up and playing in the dark.  Although while Resistance was not a scary game, there were some thriller parts of very loud an action pack parts of the game.  On top of good sound is great graphics.  This game is awesome looking.  They did put some great time and detail into this game and it shows.  There are times when you are just in a huge open area but they did a great job of keeping you on track with where to go and how to get there.

With all this said this game is a great buy.  I look at this as a must own for ps3 owners.  Having three different game modes will give you plenty of options and great replay value.  But as a game across all platforms coming out this holiday season I have to give this a Gamers Pub rating of a…….