Could this be the shortest demo ever? Yes, this is on the "high-speed" version of the game ("throttle monkey"), and I did kill the tanks as fast as possible, but my very first try at the demo on normal wasn't much longer (30 secs?). The demo ends after you kill four tanks, so it's possible to play longer, but only if you suck.
It was pretty fun, but maybe at the 40 second mark you realize there's nothing else to do. The game got pretty mixed reviews, although it's only $5. Eh.
We finally got on the bandwagon! I've been really busy lately, so I haven't had time to make videos or write reviews, but I really wanted to talk about these two DS games. I got my friend Neofletcher to do a podcast with me, since he's also obsessed with the DS.
Both of these podcasts are very in-depth (i.e., LONG), and we really just did them for fun. We'll try to make future podcasts shorter. Originally it was going to be a single podcast, but I decided to split it in two because of the length.
See videos for both games at the bottom of this post.
Part 1: Space Invaders Extreme (Tommy Gun + Neofletcher)
This is an update to Space Invaders, similar to what they did with Pac-Man CE on Live Arcade. New enemies, new weapons, and best of all, the whole game thumps to the music (think Rez, Lumines)! As of this recording it's an import, but it's coming to the US on June 17th.
20 minutes, 8MB:
Corrections and Additional Info:
It's called "Fever Time" not "Frenzy."
I found out that the bosses in the PSP version are not shrunk down, it actually is a differently shaped field than on the DS, although they remove the borders on the PSP to give it slightly more height than the main PSP levels.
Part 2: Nanostray 2 (Tommy Gun + Neofletcher)
A sequel, this is a very traditional shmup (more so than Nanostray 1). Has D-pad control or touch-screen control.
About a year ago I wrote a review for a product called the Thylus, a thumb stylus for the Nintendo DS. A few months ago Thylus asked me to do a promotional video for them, and here it is:
Note: This is a Rabbit Run, not a speed run. To understand the difference please read the Rabbit Run FAQ entry.
Scroll down this page for information on this video, this game, and this run. Reading about the game before you watch the video may help you understand it better.
The purpose of this Rabbit Run is not to beat the level as quickly as possible, it's to show a lot of the cool weapons in the game. I could have played the whole battle with a machine gun, but that's not interesting.
Showing the controller on the screen was a bit of an experiment. This is NOT something I'm going to do for every video. I just did it in this case because, well, there are a lot of controls for Snowblind, but also because I was using a lot of the controls. The whole point of this run was to show off as many different weapons as I could, so I was constantly switching.
If you think it's interesting, let me know, and maybe I'll do it again with another game if it makes sense.
About the controls: It's possible to bring up a menu to switch weapons, but that pauses the game and really takes you out of the action. The "quick" way of switching is to use the d-pad. UP/DOWN cycles guns, LEFT cycles through Augmentations (things like invisibility, abbreviated as "AUG" below), RIGHT cycles grenades.
Game: Project: Snowblind Level: Rescue (End battle only) Developer / Publisher: Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive Game Released: February 22, 2005 System: Xbox ESRB Rating: T (Teen) Spoilers: Shows weapons, one battle. Length of Run: 2:40 min. Played By: Tommy Gun Read the rest of this entry »
Quick Summary: Project: Snowblind is an FPS that's essentially Deus Ex 3, but they changed the name and focused more on standard FPS action. It's a mostly linear game with lots of weapons, and a few "powers" you can use.
Game: Project: Snowblind Level: Intro Developer / Publisher: Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive Game Released: February 22, 2005 System: Xbox ESRB Rating: T (Teen) Spoilers: Intro Played By: Tommy Gun
Quick Summary: Project: Snowblind is an FPS that's essentially Deus Ex 3, but they changed the name and focused more on standard FPS action. It's a mostly linear game with lots of weapons, and a few "powers" you can use.
I loved Deus Ex, but halfway through my save file got corrupted, and I couldn't finish it. I really love cyberpunk, so this game really interested me. After I beat it, I made some videos of it, and decided I might as well review it while I was at it. This was about a year ago, and all this content has been sitting on my hard drive since then. So, while this review was mostly done, keep in mind that I may have left some things out. Links to both videos are in the review below.
You may have noticed CRG has been down for a few weeks, and was a little spotty before that. Well we are now on a completely different, much better host! The old server went down unexpectedly, so some comments were lost, but that's about it (my backup was about a week old). I also got rid of all the ads!
In other news, my other roommate just bought a PS3, so at some point I might have some PS3 reviews up (though he keeps it in his room, unlike the 360 in our living room). There really aren't too many PS3 exclusive games I'm interested in playing though — LittleBigPlanet is the main one that comes to mind, and of course a new Twisted Metal if they make one.
Now we just need to get our hands on a Wii, which we've been trying to do for a year. We're all pretty broke at the moment though, so we haven't been trying that hard.
Ever wonder what real musicians think of Rock Band? I don't normally post links to other sites, but this is a great little essay. He started off as a hater, having never played it, but actually went out and bought it. He tells the story of playing Rock Band with his friends, and how he got hooked:
With the writer's strike still on, I've had more time to play games, and I just beat this game a few minutes ago. It got such great reviews that I've wanted to play it for a while. After finishing it, do I now wish I had a magic dagger that would let me rewind time to avoid ever playing it?
"Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" is the first of the Sands trilogy. You play as the Prince, with the ability to rewind time. It contains 3rd person platforming and puzzle solving, as well as sword-based combat.
Quick Summary: Rock Band is Guitar Hero/Drum Hero/Karaoke Revolution combined. Made by Harmonix, the creators of Guitar Hero, it's the ultimate party music game.