Apparently the dismal sales of the PSX in Japan has motivated Sony to cut the prices of the machines by $40-50 (now only $675 and $868) and re-release them with improved features in DVD burning and will now allow users to browse the PlayStation bulletin boards. I am failing to see how this device is still worth the pricetag that it carries. I am also trying to figure out how these new features are suddenly going to make this unit fly off the shelves.
Source: Gamespot
News / by
/ 
While its not secret the SB Crew is BF: V crazy, Pretz and I joined with Team Xtreme from Xtreme Gaming Cyber Cafe to get in on some tournament action. So far so good as Team Xtreme won our first scrimmage. Game time continues next week. They are still looking for good members so if you are in the San Antonio area hit them up, and join in on the fun. For more info check out their website. Xtreme Gaming Cyber Cafe
[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/seasons/cover.gif[/floatleft]I was recently contacted by someone at Sugar Games about reviewing their latest release and aside from the long list of games I have to write about, there wasn’t much going on so I obliged. If you aren’t familiar with Sugar Games, they release many PC based puzzle games similar to what Pop-Cap games does. Typically these games are highly addictive and quickly become an obsession.
What I like about many of these short puzzle games is that you can play a game in under 5 minutes so its not a daunting task to play a round or two. They are also typically very simple in concept and Seasons is no exception.
[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/seasons/ss04_thumb.jpg[/floatright]The concept of Seasons is based on the 4 seasons, or 2 seasons if you live in Texas like I do. There is an icon that corresponds to each season: a snowflake for winter, a leaf for spring, a sun for summer, a pear for autumn. Since the seasons in order go from Winter to Spring to Summer to Autumn and back to Winter, likewise these icons/tiles can only change in that order. The playing area in Seasons is filled with tiles each bearing one of the icons that corresponds to a season. It is your job to create vertical and horizontal rows of 3 or more matching tiles. You do this by flipping a single tile. A row of 2 leaf tiles and 1 snowflake tile would allow you to click the snowflake tile and flip it into a leaf. This would create 3 matching leaf tiles, make them disappear, and increase your score. If you happen to click a tile that doesn’t result in a 3+ match you are docked points and the tile does not flip. At any given time Seasons lets you know the number of available moves on the board and it is your job to make sure your next move doesn’t eliminate all of your possible moves or the game is over.
There are 2 different game types that you puzzle game junkies may be familiar with: Action and Puzzle. Puzzle allows you to continue playing until there are no more available moves on the board. As you play, the board has less and less tiles. At certain points, additional tiles fall onto the board creating more moves for you to choose from. As you would expect, matches with a higher number of tiles involved result in more points. A Puzzle game is over when you no longer have any tiles you can flip to create a 3 tile match. I highly recommend playing a few games of Puzzle to get the hang of the game since it can be difficult at first to spot tiles to flip. The second gametype is Action. Action is a time based game. You have a short amount of time to make each move. When a move is made and tiles are removed, additional tiles fill their spaces so the board is always full. Each move doesn’t reset the full timer so you have to have fast eyes to make sure you have a string of moves lined up way in advance. My high score on Action is actually more than double what it is on Puzzle and I was highly surprised because Action stressed me out so much and about gave me a heart attack.
Dots and I spent some time playing Seasons together and we really enjoyed it. She used to spend a lot of time playing Noah’s Ark and I know she loves puzzle games so I knew this one would be up her alley, but I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy it. Seasons is a different twist to the same style of puzzle game you have probably seen before and it is definitely worth the time you spend playing it. At $15, it borders on overpriced, but for a puzzle game fanatic it may be the next great addiction.
News / by
/
Our good buddy Setsu over at Paladin let me know about a mod for Jedi Academy 2 this week. The mod was written by one of his good friends. It is apparently an overhaul of the lightsaber fighting. You can download the mod and read about it at the following link. I have been told this is a very solid mod that you should all try out.
[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/ttt/cover.jpg[/floatleft]I took my sweet time getting around to playing The Two Towers as you can pick up Return of the King for about $26, but I had fun playing it and since it’s a bargain for $20 I figured I’d let you know about it.
As you can probably guess, the game closely follows the story of the 2nd movie in the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. As the game begins you are allowed to choose which character you would like to play as: Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli. After playing with all three, I much preferred Aragorn’s attack moves and he seemed to be a more balanced fighter. Legolas had faster arrow attacks, but he seemed to be a little weak on the melee attacks and Gimli felt very sluggish in all aspects.
Regardless of which character you choose your journey will begin as Isildur. You will see a cut scene showing the bearers of the rings and you will have to defend yourself. This mission sets up the story of the movie trilogy which many of you are already familiar with. I used this intro mission to learn the control scheme and figure out which attacks worked best together and basically to familiarize myself with the game. Being that you are a Level 10 Isildur, you shouldn’t have too many problems with this level. Upon completion you will see Isildur strike down Sauron with a single blow. The story then jumps to the scene where you must play as Strider/Aragorn and defend Frodo from the Ring Wraiths. The Ring Wraiths are easy enough to defeat and allow you to really start the game.
[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/ttt/ss02_thumb.jpg[/floatright]As you progress through the slew of levels you will build experience points. The XP system is quite simple and makes it easy to build up some hefty points very fast. As you kill enemies you are given a rating on the kill. The more enemies you kill without being hit the higher your rating goes. You eventually reach the level of Perfect which virtually kills most enemies with one hit and allows you to rack up serious XP. After a short while, your meter is reset back to the lowest level of fair. Upon completion of a level, your kills are counted up for each level and XP is rewarded accordingly. Each time you level up based on XP, you have a new set of abilities you are allowed to purchase using the XP Points you earned. Some abilities are actual combo moves, some are upgrades to the strength of your weapon, and others increase your life meter for future battles. You are also graded on your efficiency of the level overall. You will be given a score of Fair, Good, Excellent, or Perfect based on the number of kills at each level.
The main gripe I have with TTT is that you are unable to go back and replay levels that you have already completed with the same character. You can replay it with the additional 2 characters if you like, but you unless you nail Perfect on each level the first try, you are stuck with an “incomplete” game and that drove me nuts. Apparently they fixed this for Return of the King.
The Two Towers is graphically a very well done game. I think that EA did a very good job on the modeling of the characters and the Orcs. The mere sight of an Uruk-hai made me a little nervous since they are pretty bad to the bone enemies. The level design was also well done and created a very nice environment to slay some Orcs. I also have to give some attention to the way they transitioned from cut scenes to gameplay. It was very cool and created a nice epic mood for the gamer to get into the game instead of just merely playing it.
[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/ttt/ss04_thumb.jpg[/floatleft]One little bonus that seems to be a common addition to games recently is the addition of DVD style bonus features. In the Two Towers you unlock bonus content from the movie as you complete levels with each of the 3 characters. The truly hardcore LotR fan will no doubt play through with all 3 characters to unlock all of the content as well as the hidden playable character at the end of the game. I didn’t particularly like playing with Legolas or Gimli so I will pass on those things for now.
In a nutshell, I really enjoyed LotR: The Two Towers. Two Towers is a really nice RPG-ish action game that puts you in the action of the epic trilogy. Spot on graphics and wonderful gameplay really make for an enjoyable experience. I am a huge fan of the Tolkien series and I am definitely going to have to pick up Return of the King after this. At $20 and being a Player’s Choice title, you have no reason not to add this one to your library.
