Demo Rundown March '09 Part 2

Currently listening to
Rage Against the Machine
Microphone Fiend
Album : Renagades



Ninja Blade



Oh Ninja Blade, how you've pained me since I started your demo up on my xbox. There is no redeeming value in this game for me. My first thought was: "Ooh From Software, they made some OK Tenchu games, maybe this will be pretty good. I was sadly disappointed. The demo starts out in 2015 Neo-Tokyo with a chopper full of Ryu Hayabusa clones. When your character hops out, he is thrusted into a lame Quick Time Event (the first of many) and takes out what looks like a bunch of giant eagles. Once you hit the ground, you're thrusted into a broken down building full of generic monster baddies. You start out with 4 different weapons. One being a shuriken like weapon, which you throw with terrible accuracy. The Crosshairs are slow and the weapon itself is almost useless to the point where you don't even want to use it.

The Demo is full of ideas that have already been seen and done to create an overall mediocre experience. There is a lackluster and long boss battle with a spider which starts in yet another QTE sequence, which by this point outnumbers the amount I've seen in any game in such a small amount of time. The controls are horribly average, the characters are generic and it feels like nothing more than sluggish Ninja Gaiden Clone. This one hits American Shores April 7th.

Guitar Hero : Metallica



This Demo gives you the chance to try your plastic instrument skills on 4 different songs.

• No Excuses - Alice in Chains
  
• Stone Cold Crazy - Queen
  
• Seek and Destroy - Metallica
  
• Sad But True - Metallica
  

Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of Metallica, but the demo contained two of their better songs. The demo also features the insultingly easy Beginner difficulty. As if easy weren't enough? I do understand it's probably for 5 year olds, but what Neo-yuppie scumbag wants their kid listening to Metallica in the first place.

The graphics look great and the band members look spot on, as they did in Guitar Hero Aerosmith. I'm not really sure what else I can say about a Guitar Hero demo. Anywhich way you slice it, it's Guitar Hero. It hits street March 29

The Chronicles of Riddick : Assault on Dark Athena



It amazes me to see how a mediocre character from a bad movie franchise can go as far as to make a good looking set of games. I like that the game is very stealth based and they definitely let you know that by throwing at you in a ship with a huge crew. When Riddick kills, you can see the fresh blood on his hands, which is nice attention to detail. Also, the kill animations themselves are impressive.

There is a neat section in the demo who you take over a bike-esque control node to guide drones equipped with arm blasters through heavily populated corridors to pick off some baddies before they reach you. I don't really buy the allure behind Riddick as a character so I found things relating to the story to be a bit silly. Vin Diesel's voice acting doesn't make that fact any better. I guess you're better off sticking to what you know. He does his thing well, it just doesn't do anything for me. Assault on Dark Athena is set to release April 7.

And with this concludes my first ever Demo Rundown. I hope to do this more, But I guess that is dependant on the way Xbox Live releases demos. Perhaps I oughta look into OXM as well. Thoughts?

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Demo Rundown March '09 part 1

Currently Listening to:
Sex Pistols
Holidays in the Sun
Album: Never Mind the Bollocks

March 2009 has been a big month for demos on Xbox Live. Games from all different kinds of genres have been released this month and i'm gonna take a look at them.

WWE : Legends of Wrestlemania



As the name implies, Legends of Wrestlemania features wrestlers who have been in infamous matches for Wrestlemania, the industry's biggest event of the year. Wrestling fans will appreciate the "Re-live the moment" match between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. The Demo Also features a match which mirrors the Wrestlemania 3 bout between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan. The demo itself features arcade style gameplay, which seemed dumbed down more than anything. Personally, I'm not a big wrestling fan, but I found a lot of fun in Smackdown vs Raw '06 and '07. Ever since I've wanted nothing to do with wrestling games and this demo really didn't change that for me.

On-screen buttons take up most of the display for QTE like button press sequences and really take you out of the game. Also, god forbid you leave the ring. The camera switches to a behind the audience angle which is awful and extremely distracting. Previous titles were intuitive and were bursting with variety. This, however, stank of rotten fish and sweaty old men. Legends of Wrestlemania hits the Streets March 24th.


Wheelman



Okay, So I'll only be reviewing one Vin Diesel related game this blog, I went the easy route and decided it would be Wheelman. The demo looks impressive. The game is fun enough. Driving is pretty straight forward, combat functions such as ramming have to added to help take cops and other enemies out easier. while shooting, its very reminiscent of the 10 dollar Starsky and Hutch game that came out on the PS2. The special moves are neat such as concentrated shots and the "cyclone" (handbrake 180 turn to shoot enemies behind you) don't seem like they'll be repeated to death in the real game. the Air Jacking feature shown in the demo's side mission is also a neat, albeit impossible trick.

The game is very Hollywood, as seen in random explosions and the numerous slo-mo's throughout. While the fluff is fun for awhile, I dont think it'll make for a toally substantial game. Midway really knows how to pay homage to their classic titles. Many of the license plates feature names of class games "MRTL KMBT" (Mortal Kombat) "RMP 8GE" (Rampage)
"DF3 NDR" (Defender) and "ROBO TRN" (Robotron). Wheelman comes out March 24th

Wanted : Weapons of Fate



I heard news of this movie based game a while ago, then absolutely nothing between then and the release of the demo. I wasn't a fan, so I didn't expect anything from this game. The first thing you'll notice is their attempt at quirky (and slightly referential) difficulty names : "Pussy ", "Assassin" and "The Killer". The demo itself was painfully mediocre. The settings was an airplane, so it was extremely claustrophobic. It gives me the feeling a lot of the game will be this way.

The shooting is not at all accurate, you just sort of shoot in the general direction of your crosshairs. The cover system is very sticky, making it not very functional. The specials aren't very helpful. One is an extremely slow motion dash for the next cover spot, leaving you enough time to take out one, maybe two enemies. The other is bullet curving, which is just a tacked on gimmick. It takes forever to aim a proper shot, and useless if the enemy doesn't die in one hit because you'll he to wait for him to poke out of cover to finish him off. I also feel the need to point out that the Tutorial is far more interesting than the demo level... That's just awfully sad.

I'll be posting part 2 before the end of march which will feature: Guitar Hero: Metallica, Ninja Blade and The Chronicles of Riddick : Assault on Dark Athena. Look out for that!

ERRR

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Low Alititude Inverted Fun (LAIF?)

Currently Listening To:
Rancid:
Life Wont Wait
Corazon De Oro

Recently, I acquired a copy of Ubisoft's newest game in the Tom Clancy line, HAWX. I completed a challenge laid out by the Frag Dolls. The Frag Doll Valkyrie posted a video blog of her completing the Demo Mission of HAWX, upside down posted these rules for a small contest:

*Film yourself completing the demo or any level of H.A.W.X upside down.
*Submit your video link in the comment section of this [FD forum] blog.
*The first three submissions will win.

Here is the video which sparked the contest.



Here are 2 videos, one from Myself and the other from a friend and contest winner, SeductivPancakes (he filmed his challenge at my place).





In the end, we both won copies of the game. Props to Ubisoft and the Frag Dolls for putting the contest on and sending the games so quickly!

As Always,
ERRRskate151

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