lost in games

A short (and hopefully sweet) Game releases post now live at OnThisIsland - Link

The original DS was released in 2004 amid skepticism about the console’s chances to rightfully succeed its predecessor, the mighty Game Boy. Sony’s handheld invsasion with the PSP looked like it would steal Nintendo’s lead in handhelds with its shiny, sleek and powerful console. The DS on the other hand was bulky, ugly, and featured a touch screen. How would that work in games?

5 years later the DS is estimated to have worldwide sales of around 96million units. It has simply become a phenomenon with adults and children alike. Whether it’s Mario Kart, Brain Training or Nintendogs it seems like everyone has fallen in love with it.

Read the entire post on OnThisIsland

This week on OnThisIsland my game of the week is the fantastic FIFA09 expansion pack Ultimate Team where you build your own customized team and play in online and offline tournaments.

Read more here

This week on Game Releases i have nothing to say about the HD consoles. It’s MadWorld (Wii), GTA: Chinatown Wars (DS) and Resistance: Retribution (PSP). We can’t keep up with these releases and it’s supposed to be the slow part of the year….

Here’s the link to OnThisIsland and the full post.

This week’s Game Releases post is now live at OnThisIsland - LINK.

It’s dominated by the Resident Evil 5 release (360, PS3) but with nods of approval to Persona 4 (PS2) and Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (PC, DS).

Another weekly release list blog post published on OnThisIsland. LINK

My first post was published yesterday on www2.onthisisland.com. Onthisisland is a great site to check what events are and will be taking place in Cyprus and also hosts opinions on these. It’s a sign of how far games have come when they can be found alongside music, sports and movie events. I will be posting at least once a week on the site.

Here is the link to the first post Game releases (23 - 29 February 2009)

How can one not have memories of the Street Fighter series in the arcades. I was never any good at it of course and in any case I was more of the NBA Jam type of player.

But going to Piccadilly, especially during the anti-occupation demonstrations, was part of my teenage life. Street Fighter 2 was by far the most popular machine in that place. You could see people playing the “single player” campaign but also playing the Vs mode. Coin after coin. Challenger after challenger.

I can still remember some of the epic Blanka Vs Ryu battles and Honda’s hand slapping people around. Even when I was playing with my Phoenix Suns, Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson I could hear (Sho-)ryu-ken in the background.

It was the lion in the jungle. The King of all Arcades.

It’s now 2009 and I am twice the age I was then. The popularity of the beat-em-up genre has been replaced by the FPS. It’s now all about Call of Duty and Halo.

But, after a million versions of SF2 and a not so well received SF3 Capcom wants to lure old fans back and attract newcomers as well with Street Fighter IV.

Edge reviewed the arcade version and gave it a 10. Eurogamer reviewed the console version and gave it a 10. Will Street Fighter 4 prove to be enough to revive a whole genre on its own? That I do not know.  

What I do know is that it is my game of the week.

Release list:

(1)   Street Fighter IV (360, PS3)

(2)   Race Pro (360)

(3)   50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (360, PS3)

(4)   Disgaea 3 : Absent of Justice (PS3)

(5)   Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS)

(6)   Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre (Wii)

(7)   Nerf-N-Strike (Wii)

(8)   X-Blades (360, PS3, PC)

(9)   B-Team Metal Cartoon Squad (DS)

(10)   Eledees: The Adventures of Kai & Zero (DS)

Having refused to put myself through the copy and pasting all the Nintendo DS and Wii shovelware this will be a short and easy blog post. In 1989 the first Prince of Persia was released and became part of my childhood memories. The animations offered by the game were remarkable for its time. However its unforgiving gameplay (a regular thing those days) prevented me from ever finishing it. The series then remained in anonymity inspite of a few more releases.

Then in 2003, Ubisoft  resurrected it with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Tim, which i played on the PS2. It was a fantastic game, and the first proper successor of the original game. Now, we are in the HD era and another Prince of Persia comes along. Is it another royalty fitting for the title? Many reviewers seem to think so.

This week’s game of the week is of course Prince of Persia

1. Prince of Persia (360, PS3)

PSP Store

I would like to make an exception this week and also mention 2 titles that have become available on the PSP store (US). Everyday Shooter and Super Stardust Portable are games available on the PSN and are two of the best available downloadable games out there for the PSP’s big brother. At US$10 each, both titles may be worth downloading on the PSP as well even without that second thumbstick.

Why are you reading this? Aren’t you bankrupt yet? Do you still have the time for more games? You should saving your money in this financial crisis and be playing all these games that have already come out and stop looking for more.

You gamers are incorrigible…….

Although the high season has now practically ended (being the thanksgiving week in the US) there a few more games you can check out. Those of you who can still afford to, please read on.

Resistance 2 is heads and shoulders above the rest and is the obvious choice for game of the week. I had played the original which i thought it was a solid FPS, though unimpressive.Resistance 2 is not the best game EVAR, but i have read (and heard) some very positive comments about it’s multiplayer and co-op. So why not combine it with the official PS3 headset and immerse yourself into the online world of the PS3? Resistance 2 is my game of the week.

If we were in another decade, let’s say eighties or even nineties, the release of Sonic: Unleashed would have been momentous. Those days Sega even had it’s own gaming console. Instead it will be ignored due to Sega’s insistence of releasing mediocre titles for the fast, little hedgehog. How things have changed…..

But we are not done yet.

As you can see below there is a great deal of shovel-ware for the DS and Wii again. I will help with your digging to unearth those titles worth talking about and maybe buying. For the Wii, there is Sam and Max: Season One (Wii) which is a PC adventure game that has found its way to the console. Then there is Ninjatown (DS), a strategy game which bears similarities to Tower Defence and PixelJunk Monsters.

Hmmm….It feels strange to write about 2 games in the same week for Nintendo’s consoles….

Releases:

Resistance 2 (PS3)
Socom Confrontation with wireless bluetooth headset (PS3)
Official Sony PS3 Wireless Bluetooth Headset
Official PS3 wireless keypad
Disney Sing it: High School Musical 3 (PS3, Ps2)
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (PS3, 360, Wii, DS)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Platinum) (PS3, 360)
Sony PS3 80GB bundles
Peppa Pig (Wii, DS)
Sonic Unleashed (360, PS3, Wii, PS2)
Armored Core for Answer (360, PS3)
Sam and Max: Season One (Wii)
Youre in the Movies (PS3, 360)
Ninjatown (DS)
TT Superbikes:Legends (PS2)
Super Pick Ups (PS2)
Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams (DS)
Buzz: Brain Bender (PSP)
Who wants to be a millionaire: 2nd Edition (Wii, DS)
101 In 1 Explosive Megamix (DS)
Football Director (DS)
Ellen Whitaker’s Horse Life (DS)