I bought this the other day for DS. It's pretty cool as far as that whole "brain training" genre goes. This one is focused on building your vocabulary and to some extent, it works. I'm learning new words everyday.
The game runs very much like Brain Training. The idea is that you play a few games every day and it measures your competance at the games in some sort of scale where you can try and reach the top. It fails on a few levels.
Firstly, there way of helping you to learn these new words is by telling you what their definition is. The problem is that Dictionary definitions are often hard to grasp. What they need to do is put the words in some sort of context too. This would certainly help get the gist of how to use the word rather than just knowing what it means. When I was growing up, hell, even now, I use words in the wrong way or the wrong context because I "kind-of" know what it means but don't quite get it right or say it in the wrong way. This is a process of learning. It's only after someone picks you up on this, corrects you, that you learn what's really going on.
Another problem is that the character recognition is a bit off. The way I do an E is apparently not accepted. There were similar, but not as frequent, problems on Brain Training. The good thing is that it gives you ample time to correct it if it gets it wrong. Some of the games aren't as smooth or as well designed as Brain Training and this is something that is quite important to get right. The games in Brain Training were not the best of fun but they suited a purpose whereas there are times with the Word Coach that you wonder why you are doing this. There are no games that require much speed as they all involve reading definitions of words; this is not necessarily a bad thing but I often feel like I should be doing the games at speed when that sometimes works against me.
All in all, it's not a bad game and I hope it fits the purpose of teaching me new words and improving my speaking and writing but I feel like if this game were actually made by the same developers as Brain Training, it would be better.
75%
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Half Life 2 Episode 2 Review
So, I got round to playing it finally and I have to say, I was very impressed. I think the problem with Episode 1 was that, being the first of these episodic releases, you never knew how long it was going to be. There had been plenty of hype around this which was almost over-shadowed by the release of the Orange Box, which also contained, new releases, Portal and Team Fortress 2. Did it add up to the hype?
The first thing that is remarkable about this game is the setting and that was obviously going to change due to the end of the last episode. You do not start in a forest straight away however, as the ending of Episode 1 may have led you to believe. This game starts, more or less, in an Antlion nest, a cavey sort of place but being armed with nothing but the gravity gun at first is not easy. There are a different type of antlion too, these prefer to attack you with some sort of spray from afar. Then you make your way to the forests where you are given a car, different from the buggy, which helps you cruise the landscape with ease. You end up at a missile silo which delivers much of the familiar urban combat we're used to.
Another great thing about this game is all the new stuff they've added in this game. The creatures you come across are mostly the same, especially the soldiers as there is no change here but the best new enemy is the Hunter. These are a bit like Striders only a bit smaller. They are just bigger than a man and this makes them quite dangerous because they can enter buildings. They are difficult to kill, will take up a lot of ammo and have two attacks; one being rapid-fired, it hits you and then explodes and the other is a charging tackle which sends flying into the air. You are able to run them over which is a relief to find out when you get the car. In terms of new weapons, there is the Magnusson Device. Not technically a weapon because you cannot select it in your inventory, the Magnusson Device is fired using the gravity gun to the underbelly of the Striders which it sticks to. These explode and blow the Strider up. These are dotted all around one particular part of the map where you are under attack from Striders and Hunters.
The gameplay parts are fantastic, it seems amazing how many new ideas keep coming from the same world and the same series. What Valve are best at is making sure the player knows where to go and what to look at without thinking that they are being guided through. This is done by using set-pieces in a fantastic way and by prompting players rather than forcing them. If a player wanted to give something else a go, they could but they'd probably fail and enjoy the game a little less because of it. The set battles are always fresh because the scenery differs enough for each battle to be different. Puzzles are always fun to accomplish because they are always different but always still conform to the logic of the universe you are in.It goes the same for character building. The characters are well established with great voice acting on every part. Particularly compelling in this episode was the voice of the Vortigaunt who leads you underground to save Alyx.
When it comes down to it, some people may say that this game is a little short (I completed it in one sitting) but the fun and excitement you get out of it is the kind that makes you go back and do it again. These episodes are designed to be short and contain more story. If they weren't so short then they'd take a lot longer for Valve to churn out and that is certainly something I don't want!
All in all, a great episode and I now cannot wait for Episode 3.
95%
The first thing that is remarkable about this game is the setting and that was obviously going to change due to the end of the last episode. You do not start in a forest straight away however, as the ending of Episode 1 may have led you to believe. This game starts, more or less, in an Antlion nest, a cavey sort of place but being armed with nothing but the gravity gun at first is not easy. There are a different type of antlion too, these prefer to attack you with some sort of spray from afar. Then you make your way to the forests where you are given a car, different from the buggy, which helps you cruise the landscape with ease. You end up at a missile silo which delivers much of the familiar urban combat we're used to.
Another great thing about this game is all the new stuff they've added in this game. The creatures you come across are mostly the same, especially the soldiers as there is no change here but the best new enemy is the Hunter. These are a bit like Striders only a bit smaller. They are just bigger than a man and this makes them quite dangerous because they can enter buildings. They are difficult to kill, will take up a lot of ammo and have two attacks; one being rapid-fired, it hits you and then explodes and the other is a charging tackle which sends flying into the air. You are able to run them over which is a relief to find out when you get the car. In terms of new weapons, there is the Magnusson Device. Not technically a weapon because you cannot select it in your inventory, the Magnusson Device is fired using the gravity gun to the underbelly of the Striders which it sticks to. These explode and blow the Strider up. These are dotted all around one particular part of the map where you are under attack from Striders and Hunters.
The gameplay parts are fantastic, it seems amazing how many new ideas keep coming from the same world and the same series. What Valve are best at is making sure the player knows where to go and what to look at without thinking that they are being guided through. This is done by using set-pieces in a fantastic way and by prompting players rather than forcing them. If a player wanted to give something else a go, they could but they'd probably fail and enjoy the game a little less because of it. The set battles are always fresh because the scenery differs enough for each battle to be different. Puzzles are always fun to accomplish because they are always different but always still conform to the logic of the universe you are in.It goes the same for character building. The characters are well established with great voice acting on every part. Particularly compelling in this episode was the voice of the Vortigaunt who leads you underground to save Alyx.
When it comes down to it, some people may say that this game is a little short (I completed it in one sitting) but the fun and excitement you get out of it is the kind that makes you go back and do it again. These episodes are designed to be short and contain more story. If they weren't so short then they'd take a lot longer for Valve to churn out and that is certainly something I don't want!
All in all, a great episode and I now cannot wait for Episode 3.
95%
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Future gaming
Games I'm looking forward to in the future (this list may include games that are already out that I can't afford and will buy in the future) are Zack & Wiki, NFL Tour, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Smash Bros. Brawl and GTA4.
Zack & Wiki is already out and it's supposed to be a Monkey Island for the Wii. Any time anyone mentions Monkey Island when they are describing a game, I'm there, it's just something I can't help. Monkey Island is probably one of my favourite games of all time. The animation, the sarcastic humour, the puzzles, the piratey theme, the great characters, the great dialogue, it's all just brilliant. I think it was the best of all of those point-and-click adventures that were popular at the time. So Zack & Wiki is supposed to be the Monkey Island of today and it's got the Japanese cute look to it which I'm often not too fond of but what could go wrong. It's bound to have annoyingly squeaky voices and the reviews I've seen say that this is the only real problem with it.
NFL Tour is something I've written about previously, saying that I was looking forward to it. I was until I read the IGN review! Seems that they've really stripped the game down and not in a good way like I'd hoped and they've made the single player mode really boring with no collectibles or stat-ups or anything like that. This is disappointing. I'm still probably going to get it and have a go because the multiplayer is said to be quite good but it's probably not going to be the cracker I was hoping for.
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is the next installment in this brilliant series. My only problem with the last game was that it was too much like the ones before it and that was especially annoying since it had moved up to the DS. This game promises a ot more, especially in terms of the story. The gameplay, especially the power-ups have differed, making it more fair and much more tactical. I really want to play it but being British, of course I have to wait!
Smash Bros. Brawl is looking immense as ever. The dojo is really giving away some neat ideas of what the game's going to be like. I especially like the part about the Shadow Moses stage that communicates to Snake how to defeat the characters. They have videos, check it out. The rest of the game looks good; great stages, characters, pick-ups and that. Controls look nice and there's all the old favourites such as the home-run game, trophies, taunts and such, I can't wait.
GTA4. What can I say? I need this game in my life. GTA4 is one of those universally fun games. Some people love the missions, some people love the cars, some people love the mindless killing! It will be released eventually and when it does I've no doubt it will be one of the biggest grossing games of all time!
So there you go! I want them all!
Zack & Wiki is already out and it's supposed to be a Monkey Island for the Wii. Any time anyone mentions Monkey Island when they are describing a game, I'm there, it's just something I can't help. Monkey Island is probably one of my favourite games of all time. The animation, the sarcastic humour, the puzzles, the piratey theme, the great characters, the great dialogue, it's all just brilliant. I think it was the best of all of those point-and-click adventures that were popular at the time. So Zack & Wiki is supposed to be the Monkey Island of today and it's got the Japanese cute look to it which I'm often not too fond of but what could go wrong. It's bound to have annoyingly squeaky voices and the reviews I've seen say that this is the only real problem with it.
NFL Tour is something I've written about previously, saying that I was looking forward to it. I was until I read the IGN review! Seems that they've really stripped the game down and not in a good way like I'd hoped and they've made the single player mode really boring with no collectibles or stat-ups or anything like that. This is disappointing. I'm still probably going to get it and have a go because the multiplayer is said to be quite good but it's probably not going to be the cracker I was hoping for.
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is the next installment in this brilliant series. My only problem with the last game was that it was too much like the ones before it and that was especially annoying since it had moved up to the DS. This game promises a ot more, especially in terms of the story. The gameplay, especially the power-ups have differed, making it more fair and much more tactical. I really want to play it but being British, of course I have to wait!
Smash Bros. Brawl is looking immense as ever. The dojo is really giving away some neat ideas of what the game's going to be like. I especially like the part about the Shadow Moses stage that communicates to Snake how to defeat the characters. They have videos, check it out. The rest of the game looks good; great stages, characters, pick-ups and that. Controls look nice and there's all the old favourites such as the home-run game, trophies, taunts and such, I can't wait.
GTA4. What can I say? I need this game in my life. GTA4 is one of those universally fun games. Some people love the missions, some people love the cars, some people love the mindless killing! It will be released eventually and when it does I've no doubt it will be one of the biggest grossing games of all time!
So there you go! I want them all!
Life...
I've been playing a couple of games recently. One is Madden, which I have been playing a lot! It's one of those lazy things where I can't really be bothered to get up and change the disk, which is the ultimate in laziness but happens to me every day! I love the game, don't get me wrong, but I feel that it does get a little grating. I can't play the game online because the Americans are a hundred times better at it than I am. I would hope that the opposite would be true for something like Fifa because I am making a claim here that just because they are American means that they should be better at playing Madden. This generalisation might get me in trouble (with who I'm not sure) but fuck it! I think the thing about it is that you have to have a lot of experience to be good and I've only picked it up in the last few years. Is still enjoy the single-player and I think I'm getting better sometimes, then I go back online and get embarrassed!
The other game I've been playing is CoD4 which rarely gets old. The online is excellent although I don't really get the prestige mode. Surely this is just for elitists to boast about the special symbols next to their name but I would rather have a massive scope on my amazing gun! I end up playing team-tactical mode most times. There's something about the slow, calculated nature of search and destroy with only 6 players on the map that I love. And it seems to be the only mode which lets you play all of the game modes on a shuffle type setting. It had one but it disappeared! I suppose the best thing about CoD4 is that it's one of those games that you discover something new every now and again. Like discovering the joys of claymore mines for the first time or finding a new spot to hide that everyone goes past so you can blow their heads off without them knowing. I suppose the best thing is when you find yourself in a really evenly matched game with a couple of people who are really chatty and not complete dickheads!
I still haven't got round to playing HL2Ep2 which is a travesty I know. Having never played the Xbox version of HL2 before, I was intrigued to see what it played like so I started playing that with a view to moving on to Ep1 and then Ep2 after all that. I got bored, what can I say, I've played that game 6 times (I know, I'm sad!) and now I've run out of steam, no pun intended! I'm going to go back and play it because it is supposed to be really good installment. Are they going to release Ep3 on the Xbox. Is it going to be freestanding or is it going to be packaged in a different colour box, like turquoise?
Anyway, welcome to my gaming habits for the past few weeks!
The other game I've been playing is CoD4 which rarely gets old. The online is excellent although I don't really get the prestige mode. Surely this is just for elitists to boast about the special symbols next to their name but I would rather have a massive scope on my amazing gun! I end up playing team-tactical mode most times. There's something about the slow, calculated nature of search and destroy with only 6 players on the map that I love. And it seems to be the only mode which lets you play all of the game modes on a shuffle type setting. It had one but it disappeared! I suppose the best thing about CoD4 is that it's one of those games that you discover something new every now and again. Like discovering the joys of claymore mines for the first time or finding a new spot to hide that everyone goes past so you can blow their heads off without them knowing. I suppose the best thing is when you find yourself in a really evenly matched game with a couple of people who are really chatty and not complete dickheads!
I still haven't got round to playing HL2Ep2 which is a travesty I know. Having never played the Xbox version of HL2 before, I was intrigued to see what it played like so I started playing that with a view to moving on to Ep1 and then Ep2 after all that. I got bored, what can I say, I've played that game 6 times (I know, I'm sad!) and now I've run out of steam, no pun intended! I'm going to go back and play it because it is supposed to be really good installment. Are they going to release Ep3 on the Xbox. Is it going to be freestanding or is it going to be packaged in a different colour box, like turquoise?
Anyway, welcome to my gaming habits for the past few weeks!
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
100 hand controlled marios
This is a video of a hand controlled mario using the Eye toy. Then there's 100 and he almost still doesn't complete the level, what a loser!
Monday, 21 January 2008
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