Smiling in the shadows

Ok, so last night I picked up the demo for Shadow of the Colossus, and myself and Alana came home and I got a chance to play it. My first play through left me disoriented to the new gameplay. I had to fiddle with the options as always. You know, inverting controls here and there. After tweaking the options I was soon galloping about. Speaking of galloping controlling the horse is amazing. It feels like an actual beast with weight and inertia. The X button is used to spur the horse and the left and right on the stick pull on the reigns. The sword, one of two weapons the bow being the other, is used to identify your destination. When raised into the sun the reflection will focus on the right path while you move it around.

After riding through the field and climbing up a cliff I soon encountered the meat of the demo... a colossus. The sword is used to identify the weak spots of the colossus in the same way it is used to determine the path to follow. The colossus itself was huge... HUGE. It truly lives up to its name. After about 20 minutes of running around in circles, and finding weakspots, and trying to determine the best course of action to tackle this thing I discovered the best path is up the foot. So, I started climbing, and stabbing, and climbing, and stabbing. I eventually got to the head and took down the massive creature. After the black arterial spray and the creature crumbled to the ground, these huge black snakes of energy swirled about in the air and soon shot through me, and BAMF end of demo.

The demo was good. The game will be incredible. I'd say in a whole it took me about 1/2 hour to determine how to take down the colossus and accomplish that task. There are supposed to be 16 colossuses (colossi?). I can only hope that they get more challenging as you progress through the game, because as a whole this one wasn't too hard to tackle.

Until the game is released...

...only The Shadow knows

Standing in the shadow of destiny...

Last night I was informed by the Nate that the new OPM has a demo for Shadow of the Colossus. He told me it was AMAZING! This kid was hating the game before he played the demo. So, now I'm really intrigued. I am going into to town to pick it up today so more will be posted once I play it.

Return to sender

I came across a helpful website for anyone interested in delving into the world of video game rental services. I personally use GameFly, but lately I haven't been pleased with their services. Their selection isn't the greatest, and they always blow their horns that they will have all the new releases in stock, and they never do. I usually end up having to wait a couple of weeks to finally play a new release. Plus their shipping time needs to be cut drastically. Waiting a week to receive a game is getting out of hand. ALSO, does anyone else hate the GameFly commercials that are overdone on G4TV? Anywho, this website by TopTenReviews.com gives a detailed analysis of current video game rental servies out there and what they consider to be the best. GameFly made #5. Go figure. As of right now GameLender seems to be in the lead and I may be switching over to it soon.

Read the reviews and decide for yourself.

Gunning for the west

I have been highly anticipating this game ever since I read a preview about it a month ago in Edge magazine. I discovered that GameTrailers.com has some trailers for GUN.

CHECK THEM OUT

...and tell me what you're impressions are.

The Revolution is coming! by Nintendo

Ok, GameTrailers.com has a preview video of the Nintendo Revolution controller. Now, up until now I didn't consider the Revolution to be a contender in the next-gen wars. I figured the fanboys would eat it up and pay an assload of cash for roms of their favorite classics while us computer freaks would already have them downloaded from years ago. However, now I am officially excited to see what the Revolution can do. If it promises what it implies in the trailer then the Revolution may very well revolutionize the way we play games. My official statement as of right now, having just viewed the trailer, is "I don't consider the Revolution to be fanboy fluff, and I am aching to see some games fully utilize the pontential of this incredible piece of hardware."

VIEW TRAILER NOW
...and then change your pants

F.U.B.U.

So, I was perusing GameTrailers.com earlier and came across a few fan-made gems that I thought I might share with everyone.

Lord of the Halo 2 - Halo/Halo 2

Parody - Final Fantasy VII

Tribute - Prince of Persia

Faint Remix 2 - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

There you go, kiddies. Enjoy.

We'll get medieval on your Violent Games Act!

ESA (Entertainment Software Association) to take a stand against violence. Well, the Violent Games Act anyway.

BOO MICHIGAN!

P.S. FUCK YOU ROD! YOU AND YOUR "SAFE" GAMES!

3kalbia Mirror

Be an angel with Halo

We all know about the devastation that Hurricane Katie caused down in Louisville. Well, instead of sitting around playing Halo and doing nothing, I've decided to do something. And so, with the click of a button, I bought a T-shirt. Not just any T-shirt mind you, but a Halo "Fight the Flood" T-shirt.

That's right, gang. Halo gamers are uniting to bring hurricane relief to the victims and to collect limited edition swag, in the form of a T-shirt. My brother and I have already ordered ours. The price tag on this bad boy is $20. However, $15 of that goes straight to Red Cross for hurricane relief.

As of September 9th Bungie has raised $120,450 in relief money from the T-shirts. I find this is a shining example of what the gaming community can offer. Not only do we like to kill each other for sport, but in the face of true disastor we can help out as well.

BUY YOURS TODAY!

3kalbia Mirror

Something for you Squares out there

Can't get enough FFVII? Well to prime all of you for the onslaught of the revival of FFVII with Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus I found this gem at Megagames. It's an old school RPG in the vein of SNES with it's top down camera. It's Final Fantasy VII: The Dark Cloud.

FFVII: The Dark Cloud

Description:

" Final Fantasy VII:The Dark Cloud takes place two years after the much loved Playstation game. Cloud Strife has left his teammates and has shut himself off from the outside world. It seems that even though Sephiroth, the legenadery soldier was defeated, Cloud is still plagued with nightmares and visions of his former enemy.

But across the other side of the planet his former teammates decide to try and find Cloud and question him about his abrupt departure. But are the nightmares of Sephiroth just dreams, illusions or are they something more sinister? Was Sephiroth realy destroyed back in the crater? And what is the Dark Cloud?"

- Megagames

So, there you have it. It's freeware, gang. Download it! Play it! Comment on it! No, seriously. Tell me what your thoughts are, or better yet send them to creators too.