Initial Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon Impressions

The Earth is screwed. Or at least that’s how things seem when you boot up Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon. Our planet has been attack by a giant race of ant-like aliens, and it’s up to you and the Earth Defense Force to stomp them out.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: this is not a triple-A title. Nor does it have any ambitions of being such. It’s budget price and low-quality production values clearly indicate that notion. With that said, B-movie experiences can be enjoyable in their own way (I’m looking at you, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand). Does Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon provide a fun experience at a budget price?

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Max Payne 3 Review

After the events of the second game, Max has hit rock bottom. With nothing more than a substance addiction, and a commitment to do his job properly, he begins anew in Brazil as a bodyguard for a wealthy family. It doesn’t take long before things go south, and it’s up to Max to save the day the only way he knows how: by shooting dudes in slow motion.

Though the events of the third game take place almost immediately after the second, there’s been an almost decade-long gap between the releases. Since 2003, the franchise has changed hands from Remedy to Rockstar, and the genre has evolved quite a bit. Is Max Payne 3 a return to form? Or washed up like its protagonist at the beginning of the game?

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Check Out My Kid Icarus: Uprising Review on Splitkick.com

Apologies for the long delay, but my review for Kid Icarus: Uprising is finally live on Splitkick! It took me awhile to play through because of its surprisingly long length, and a really long time to write. I struggled with it for weeks, and wrote three completely different versions of the review before finally settling on one to submit for edit.

Thanks to the team at Splitkick for editing, and publishing the piece, as its a game I want to encourage others to try, even with its fundamental flaws. If you’re still on the fence about it, check out my review at Splitkick.


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Gears of War 3 Review

Do you remember the Gears of War Mad World commercial? Up until that point, the game had been presented as a ‘dudebro’ shooter with all of the emphasis on its revolutionary cover mechanics and stop-and-pop shooting. Then the Mad World commercial hit television and it presented the game as something more emotionally charged. Unfortunately, it was all for the sake of advertising, as none of that Mad World feeling ended up making it into the game. Gears of War 2 sort of tried to capture that, but those few attempts came off as unintentionally funny.

While Marcus and company weave through bombastic firefights and kill all varieties of alien lifeforms in Gears of War 3, it actually manages to capture that Mad World feeling in a number of spots. In one particular case, it literally captures it, but that’s going way into spoiler-territory. Let’s back up and talk about this new, improved and somewhat more emotional Gears of War 3.

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Gears of War 3 Review?

If you’ve been holding your a breath for my Gears of War 3 review, you can exhale. No, this isn’t it and no, I’m not close to having one ready. Though my progress through the game was stilted by my practice for T12: Toronto Fighting Game Championships, I’ve now got some time to make progress.

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Out Now: Gears of War 3

It’s time for Gears of War to finish the fight with the third installment of the series, which hits store shelves today. Will you be running out to stores this week to show those Locusts whose boss?

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Vanquish Review


Vanquish has the dubious distinction of being Gamespot’s 2010 Best Game No One Played. Back when it was released, I paid no mind to it, as I had no interest in a Japanese interpretation of Gears of War and Halo. However, despite my initial disinterest in the game, the general buzz about the game was that it was pretty good. With that in mind, I kept it on my list of games to pick up on the cheap. I was able to do just that a few weeks ago during the big Blockbuster closeout event in my country. Do I recommend you follow suit?

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Uncharted 2 Single Player Mode Review

 

For the first few sections of the game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves made me wonder what all the hype was about. The game starts out with a stealth sequence that I didn’t find very fun to play, followed by a pass through a jungle, which was 95% of the original game. I had high hopes for Uncharted 2 surpassing the good but flawed original, but things did not start off on the right foot for me.

But then you’re running through a city with an armored vehicle trailing close behind you. Then you’re running away from a helicopter. Then you have to escape a collapsing building. From that point on, Uncharted 2 was pretty awesome.

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Early Impressions of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2 was the main reason I picked up a PlayStation 3. Based on everything I saw and heard about this game, this was one of those games that I could not miss. Before I got around to this though, I decided to play Uncharted 1, which was really good, but flawed on a number of levels. If Uncharted 2 were to really live up to the hype for me, it would have a lot of obstacles to overcome that soured me on the first game.

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Girlfriend Gaming – The Co-op Adventures of 50 Cent and Tony Yayo

As I watched my girlfriend shoot up dozens of terrorists in 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, I longed to join in on the fun. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t feature local co-op, which is par for the course for this style of game. Instead, I picked up my own copy and we recently had the opportunity to play online co-op together. Without spoiling anything (as if anyone cares about the ‘amazing’ story contained in this game) we started playing at the point just before you fight a helicopter, and ended our session just after we shot down the third helicopter. Yes, that plays out as ridiculous as it sounds.
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