Let me start by saying that lately, I haven’t exactly been in a “let’s play video games!” mood. No sir.

I noticed this a while ago, and attempted to rekindle my love of gaming with something casual. Something small and addictive, that I was recommended to by the Internet. That game was Peggle.

Damn, it’s good.

Not only will it keep you playing for hours (roughly 1-2 a day, before it got boring for the day, in my case), but it looks and feels smooth, and it’s actually quite intricate. Decimal-point differences in shots can make or break your chances of winning.

Let me take a few steps back first. Peggle is a casual game by PopCap. The point of the game is to shoot all the orange pegs before you run out of balls. That’s it.

What makes it difficult is that each time you play a map, the orange pegs are randomly placed. There are also dozens of blue pegs in the way. And for those that really care, it keeps track of your score. After a certain amount of orange pegs hit, your score multiplier rises, which makes it easier to get free balls (since it requires a flat score in one shot). Therefore, Peggle quickly becomes a “lose some to make more” game. It’s full of risks, and it’ll keep you coming for more.

Depending on what “Peggle Master” you choose, you also have green pegs that grant you abilities, differing from lighting up 1/5 of the orange pegs of the map (therefore doing 1/5 of the work for you, which is a lot less than it sounds on paper), to allowing the ball to reappear at the top of the screen after you would’ve lost it. Depending on the map you play, certain abilities are better choices. You have to keep this all in mind while playing.

My “Peggle Master” of choice, often, is Master Hu, whose ability is “Zen Ball”. What this does is tweak your shot slightly to gain maximum points, which often equals “hitting more orange pegs”.

In the sound department, it’s nothing special. I recommend playing your music (mute the Peggle music in the settings) instead, personally.

Overall, everything in Peggle is top-notch (at worst, mediocre). It’s cheap, and a great game in general, fit for anyone in particular. It’s a good diversion from assignments and it’ll occupy your time, should you pick it up.

Today, I’ll be reviewing Chromehounds for the Xbox 360.

Chromehounds is a game about giant robots. You are a mercenary, hired to blow the hell out of other giant robots. There are 3 different factions. I don’t really care what they’re called.

You work for one or the other, depending on your “class” of robot. The classes are: Soldier, which is the basic combat unit, Sniper, which is…well…a sniper, Defenders, which are the damage takers, Scouts, which are the speedy guys, Heavy Gunners, which are just moble howitzers, and the Tactical Commander class, which is the “information specialist.” The game tries to make each class different, but they really just differ in ways of blowing stuff up.

The gameplay is pretty solid, and you can tell that it was worked on the most, although it can get repetitive and difficult at times. At the begining, you’ll most likely have to take out a small group of enemies, whose location is told to you by one of the NPCs, via coordinates on your map.

As the game progresses, you’ll have to take out larger groups of enemies, take out bases, and defend your allies. The main appeal of the game is the fact that you get to blow up so much stuff. There are at least 50 enemies in each level, and very few allies, so you get to kill a lot of enemies. There is also a cool story for each nation, usually involved with terrorists or one of the other nations, and it can actually get pretty interesting if you bother to listen. Finally, each faction has a leader type guy, who basically gives you info, and always has a fun accent, such as Russian.  Also, the game can be played online, and on teams, so you can experiment with what class works with what class, and have fun blowing up people from around the world.

The sound aspect is very good, so there’s not really much to say about it. Everything sounds realistic, voices come through well, and everything matches up well with events, including footfalls, which I find is a problem with a lot of games.

The graphics are also good, although the game can be too dark at times, while at other times there is too much bloom. Everything looks realistic, aside from lighting, and the game is generally nice to look at, save the fact that the landscape can sometimes be bleak and generic.

The largest problem is that the large bloom effect makes it hard to see very far. This is bad for classes like Snipers or Heavy Gunners. Turning down the brightness on your TV helps, but really, that shouldn’t need to be done.

Finally, the value is good, seeing as each class has a seperate storyline, and you can experiment with creating custom robots. The game can last anywhere between 10 and 15 hours, depending on difficulty, and if you use cutom made robots. Finally, the online multiplayer allows for a lot more playability, if you don’t mind listening to those idiots on Xbox live treating the game like a life-or-death situation.

Overall, Chromehounds is a very good game, but it could be much better, if given some more time in development.

Duke Nukem 64 is yet another instalment in the wondrous adventures of Duke Nukem, Earth’s best gun totin’, gum chewin’, alien killin’ hero. After returning from single-handedly destroying an alien empire, he crash-lands on earth, which is infested by alien hybrids! Duke must blast his way through tons of aliens, puzzles, and general danger. Along the way, he has to save “babes” which are basically just women who have been restrained by the aliens in some way.

The gameplay in Duke Nukem is great, and easily the best aspect of the game. It’s full of action from start to finish, and there is a large amount of violence(enough to make Giovanni go “ewwwwww” and look away).

Anyway, the game is both fun and challenging, and does not allow for boredom. You’ll constantly be blowing the heads off aliens, flying around on rocket boots, blowing up very, very expensive equipment, and trying not to fall off cliffs. The only problem is the save system. You can only save after a level is completed, so if you die, you restart the whole level. Its kind of annoying, but it’s not really a major problem. Finally, the game is not too repetitive, seeing as new enemies are introduced periodically, and almost none of the levels look the same.

The graphics are also quite good, if not great. They can be a little fuzzy, especially enemies, and all the characters are two-dimensional (they look a bit like paper). But on the other hand, scenery and explosions look great, as does the animation on firearms, even when firing. Duke himself is barely ever seen, except for his hands and feet, such as when you choose to kick the hell out of some alien instead of shooting it. There is also a particularly well animated picture of Duke reloading a shotgun after each level. My favourite thing about the graphics, however, is how great bullet wounds and other wounds look.

The sound on this game is not very good, only because there is almost no music. The voices and sound effects are quite good, and match up well with what is happening. Only a few things talk, but when they do, it’s quite good. The aliens mainly just roar and gurgle in death, or bellow out a challenge when they see you. The best part of the sound aspect is when Duke talks, seeing as it’s always hilarious. He will frequently shove how cool he is down dying enemies throats. Some lines he uses include “I’ve got balls of steel!” and “I’m here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all outta’ gum.”

Finally, the value of the game is great. It’s extremely long, and very enjoyable. The game is about 15 hours long if you spend the time finding all the secrets.

Overall, Duke Nukem 64 is a great game.

This is the second game in the Oddworld series, and is my favourite. You play as Abe, the same guy from the first game. You have to try and save the Mudoken (that’s the race you are. They’re like people, but really thin and blue/green) Ancestor’s bones from the evil guys, who mine it for the main ingredient on their beer, soulstorm brew. The evil guys are the Glukkons. Anyway, the Glukkons are using Mudokens to mine these bones, and you have to save all, and I mean ALL the Mudokens to stop the mining. You traverse through a huge expanse of mines, while trying not to die. You have no weapons, but can possess enemies with weapons.

The gameplay is very innovative, and makes you think constantly. The “no weapons” thing makes the game insanely hard, but its also what makes it fun. You can, however, possess enemies by chanting. Only problem is that they usually run away, but some can’t, giving you an opportunity to wreak some havoc, or open a door, etc. Oddworld really takes a step away from the platforming games, where you can kill almost everything, and makes you use strategy and cunning to win. Another cool thing is that some Mudokens won’t follow you right away, while others have disabilities. For example, a lot of the later stages have blind Mudokens, which you have to tell to stop or go, in order to keep them from being crushed/ground up/eaten/shot/electrified/fall off a cliff. The alternative is killing all the Mudokens.

The graphics in this game are average. There aren’t any breaks or empty spots, and everything looks okay, but its nothing special. And everything is way too grey. The walls, the ground, a lot of the enemies, even Abe is a greyish blue. I know its supposed to be underground, but its a little ridiculous.

The sound in Oddworld is great, and can sometimes be hilarious. Abe has a lot of vocal commands, which help him get Mudokens to follow him. He can apologize, slap, tell people to follow, and many other things. But, best of all is the fact that he can fart. It’s random, unnecessary, and hilarious. The fart also makes other Mudokens back away, so I guess it can be helpful. There isn’t much music, though, and when there is, it isn’t interesting and/or repeats a lot. The sound effects are very good, can be easily understood, and fit in with what is happening

Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus is over 20 hours long, seeing as it has two discs, is very hard, and requires EVERY Mudoken to be rescued or killed.

This game is part of a long series by 3DO, which is about plastic army men come to life. It’s is one of my favourites, and the story is as follows. You take control of some southern colonel, who is the best of the best when it comes to helicopters. You have to fly and shoot your way through tan forces, bugs, sprinlers, roman candles, and tons of other stuff, in order to claim victory for the green. All you have to do this is your trusty helicopter, which can be upgraded. It comes fully stocked with machine guns, napalm, missles, rockets, and a ridiculous amout of other explosives. Oh, and you also have some useless computer ally who dies right away.

The gameplay is very good, and really holds your attention. There is a lot of action, and you almost never stop shooting, seeing as there are so many enemies. Luckily, you can move pretty fast, and it’s not too hard to avoid fire.

The levels are also pretty varied, so you won’t just have to blow up some tans over and over, or see the same garden 10 times. The game starts out at a normal difficulty, and gradually gets harder. Luckily, it doesn’t go too far, so you won’t be shooting the screen or anything. Also, said screen can sometimes be too cluttered, and the scenery gets in the way a bit, because it’s hard to tell what is at the same height as you. Sometimes you’ll run into a freaking flower, or some grass. But, the game is too fast paced and entertaining for you to really notice. The difficulty overall is probably “normal.”

The graphics are very mediocre, and are the game’s weakest point, which is surprising, because it’s for N64. Anyway, everything is bland, and the scenery doesn’t look very good. It’s sometimes hazy or blurry, and I’ve noticed a few spots of nothingness around hills and bottoms of trees. The only thing that looks good is your helicopter, which is obviously focused on in order to distract from the rest of the game. It doesn’t work well, because you have to look for the small, blandly coloured enemies, which are sometimes exactly the same colour as the mountains or snow. Finally, anything with legs moves a little bit….jittery, and the many bugs in game look like they have been put on fast forward.

The sound is quite good, and is pretty impressive, seeing as a lot of 3DO games have terrible sound. The gunfire, explosions, and other prominent warfare sounds are very realistic, and there are no spots where events and sound don’t match up. Unfortunately, the music is not very good, and is usually covered up by the sound of helicopter blades. The music is annoying, and repeats a lot, with little variety between levels. Otherwise, the game has a good sound feature.

The value of this game is about 10 hours, seeing as the last couple levels are pretty long/hard. There is also a few multiplayer modes, such as deathmatch, or one where you have to create soldiers with green/blue/grey/tan items, which are put into a machine. But, the multiplayer gets boring pretty quick, and doesn’t add much value.

Unreal Tournament is a great series, and surprisingly, the games did not suffer drastically when sequels were made. The best ones are the first and last, last being UT3. The game’s story is actually different from the other ones, but not by much. In UT3, you are hired into service by a large military company, headed by none other than Malcolm. You have to do a variety of missions for the company, in order to get more important missions, so you can eventually take out the monsters that destroyed your town. It’s basically the same ladder climbing system, but with a different reason.

The gameplay is phenomenal, and is great for lengthy play and quick gore-fests alike. You can turn down the gore, but why would you want to? To me, there nothing better than seeing your foe’s brains splattered all over the screen by an impact hammer. Anyway, there are 3 different mode to choose from: campaign, quick play, and multiplayer. Campaign is what I previously described in the plot section. Quick play lets you choose between a bunch of different modes, all of which are ridiculously fun. Deathmatch is your basic blow the hell out of everyone, UT killfest I’ve come to expect. Capture the flag is just capture the flag. Grab the flag, bring it back to your base. Team deathmatch is just the same as deathmatch, but with teams. Vehicle capture the flag is one of the three new modes in the game, and lets you control tons of cool vehicle, from tripods to tanks, in order to get the other team’s flag. In this mode, I have to assume the flag is made of diamonds, seeing as you die a lot for one flag.

Warfare is the best new mode, and lasts longest. You can use vehicles, your hoverboard, or just walk in order to blow up the enemies “nodes”, which are like the shield generator on Endor. They protect the “death star” as I call it. Its actually a spherical generator. Blow it up, you win. Finally, there’s duel. You just have to kill one other guy, and he switches out with another guy, and whoever has the highest score wins.

There’s all the classic UT weapons there, but they look different. Also, the game’s campaign is very long, about 10 hours, seeing as one Warfare match can take a half hour on normal. If you count the skirmish and online play, the value is as limitless as Warcraft 3.

The graphics are ridiculously good, but I can’t actually play them on full, seeing as my laptop wont let me. Even on the second lowest setting, they are pretty good. The gore is still good, and any types of explosions look okay. The scenery suffers a bit, but its still noticeably better than some other games. I’ve seen the game on full, and it blows Half-Life 2′s head off with a flak cannon. The characters look real, the explosions look real, the gore looks phenomenal, and the scenery make you feel like you’re really in the game. Unfortunately, I wont be seeing it in person for quite some time. Anyway, the graphics are great, mad props to the designers.

The sound effects are astounding in this game. You can practically hear it when you reduce your foes to a puddle, and when you melt their skin off with a bio-rifle, you can hear the sizzle. The announcer is still that obnoxious yelling guy from the original, who basically just screams out if you have gotten more that one kill in a row. There are also a lot of tiny details that the creators put in, such as being able to hear footfalls, or hearing the charging of laser, or the sound of a rocket flying through the air. I play with headphones, so everything sounds closer, but even on just speakers, you can spot these special touches. My favourite sound in the game is when you fire off the redeemer, a huge, nearly map-clearing missle. It’s like the sound of a nuke, kind of delayed, but very cool when it gets there. Finally, all the sounds match up perfectly with events, and the music always fits the area, and never bores you.

Unreal Tournament is a must-have for shooter lovers everywhere, it is the only shooter ever to surpass the original.

Audiosurf was actually released on Steam last month. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, and so, I was curious and bought it. I rarely buy games on impulse but I was feeling like taking a risk at the time.

Man, what a great choice. Audiosurf is an absolutely astounding game. Allow me to educate you about what it’s about.

The premise behind it is that you can pick a song (whether mp3, m4a, ogg, etc, it’s compatible with a lot of formats), and it will create a track out of it. The road is bumpier based on the beat behind the song, and goes higher the calmer the song is. If it’s a downward spiral, the song is intense and fast.

What you do on these tracks is collect coloured blocks and try to make ‘clusters’ (groups of 3 or more coloured blocks) out of them. At the end of a song it calculates your score and places it on a scoreboard with other people who played the same song.

It’s somewhat complicated on paper, but in action, you take to it quickly. There are different “characters” (or ships) that have different abilities that mix up the game types a little. Mono, for example, changes the game to two types of blocks: grey blocks (which you are to avoid) and coloured blocks(they’re all one colour, which changes as the song plays).

The game can be psychedelic at times (especially on tracks that are associated with drugs), and it gives you something to do with your hands while listening to music.

The graphics in the game simply blow me away. They’re extremely customizable, and when playing the frame rate is smooth. The game is full of subtle effects that you never really notice at first. For example, your ship changes colour based on what’s happening in the song at the time. It’s the small things like this that make you think about how much time the developer put into making the game.

The sound in the game is notable in that, considering it uses your music, it has the greatest soundtrack any game has ever offered. The sound effects in the game are subtle yet can get in the way if you play the game to listen to your music loudly. The game does offer the ability to turn off sound effects though, and it’s not hidden at all.

The gameplay is smooth and addicting. You’ll always be looking through your catalogue of music, considering, “What kind of track will this song make?”. The normal mode of play is a decent puzzle game, while the Mono mode is good for your reflexes. It’s a varied game, and it can please many types of gamers.

This game will last you a very, very long time, and is an excellent deal for the price point (which is only $10). I’d suggest you download the demo, and if you like it, give it a purchase. You won’t regret it.

Crash Bash is basically Mario Party, but with Crash Bandicoot characters. The story is that Aku-Aku, and his evil brother, Uka-Uka, want to see who is stronger. So they get other people to compete for them. Anyway, you have to battle through 28 levels, with somewhere around 5 different minigames, which increase in difficulty, depending on what level you’re on. There are bosses, too. The game is about 5 hours long, if you don’t get stuck.

The gameplay is not very good, seeing as it is ridiculously repetitive. You end up doing the same thing over and over, as well as redoing levels to get the special collectibles, crystals, trophies, and gems. Another flaw is that a lot of the bosses are recycled from previous games, stretching as far back as Crash Bandicoot 1! This is the fifth game in the series, by the way.

Also, most of the games and bosses are very simple. For example, one of the minigames is just a game of air hockey, but you’re in ships. This is probably the most complex one. Even though this is a terrible game, there IS a piece of hay in the needle stack, the minigame polar push. You ride polar bears, very small ones. You have to push each other off an icy platform. There are some cool powerups, like a shrink ray, giant anvil that crushed whoever its over, and lighting that makes you unable to move. This is probably the only reason to play Crash Bash, but there is no ‘quick play’, so you have to do the campaign.

The graphics are also pretty bad, but only because they haven’t changed at all from the first game, which was released almost five years before. Everything looks okay, but it should be better.

The sound is just fine, but still lacks dialogue on most characters. As with the other games, Aku-Aku does a lot of talking. He still gets to say my favourite line, “Unamagola” in the Deathmatch mode. He’s a powerup. But the baddies, Cortex, N.Gin, etc, have lost most of their speech. They now just scream, yell, laugh, or grunt a lot. The good guys do the same thing. The sound is probably the best thing in this game, which is pretty sad. It isn’t great, but at least it matches up with stuff that happens, even if the music is repetitive and annoying.

Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is the first game in the Jak & Daxter series, and is the second best one.

You start out as Jak, a young boy, whom the developers were too lazy to voice. The game claims him to be a mute. Anyway, you start out by going to an evil island, where you witness some bad guys talking to the local monster tribe. Daxter falls into a pit of black ooze, which turns him into a squirrel thing. You go back home and tell the local sage about what you saw. He tells you that, in order to stop the baddies, you must go get help from a more powerful sage. So, you and Daxter go off to find precursor orbs, which are magic, energy-producing artifacts. You need to complete various tasks, like giving money to a guy so he can buy pants. These orbs power stuff you need to use, like a flying jet-bike. The game is pretty fun, and is good for all ages. Even my mom played it.

The gameplay is solid, and it’s not too difficult to start. The game gradually gets harder, and some of the acrobatic stunts take a few tries. One of the best aspects of the game is that it slowly lets you get used to the game, before throwing anything too hard at you. The areas are large and not too linear, meaning that you can take different paths and go to different areas, but some don’t progress the story, and just give you precursor orbs. There are not very many boss fights, and most of them include using some kind of cannon or vehicle, seeing as Jak isn’t exactly the best fighter around.

The game follows the design for the PS2′s early games: rather tame violence, and a likable, honest main character, with a quirky partner. Jak & Daxter reminds of Ratchet and Clank, but with the personalities switched. The game lasts about 7-8 hours, without getting all the orbs, and other secret stuff.

The graphics are quite good, and there are not many flaws. Everything looks like what its supposed to look like, and all the special effects are very normal and well made. The only problem is that there is nothing special. The graphics are just like a bunch of other games, and I think they could have done better, seeing as there are a lot of unique areas that could be given really great graphics.

Also, it suffers from what I like to call either the Sony glitch, or the living wall glitch. What happens is, when you move towards a wall, it indents and moves left a bit, then reverses when you move away. Nothing major, but it’s there.

The sound in this game is okay, but there’s not much of it. At some points, all you can hear are Jak’s attack cries. I dunno how he makes them, seeing as they sound a lot like words, yet he is a mute. They remind me of Ocarina of Time‘s prominent “hiyas”. The music is good, meaning that there are no breaks or discrepancies in it. Sometimes the music makes no sense, such as smooth jazz in a jungle. That just seemed weird to me. When people talk, the sound usually matches with the person’s mouth movements, but it sometimes looks a little sloppy, and will not match the minor character’s mouths. The sound is the weakest part of Jak & Daxter.

In conclusion, Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is an above average game, but not by much. If you’re looking for a game that will hold your attention for a couple hours, or something to tide you over for awhile, this is the game for you.