Jan 05 2012
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Castlevania: Lord of Shadows

Yes!

I’ve been waiting for a long time for this one to drop to decent levels. The late 2010 game, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has dropped to about $19.99 for both the 360 and PS3 on Amazon.

This seems like an high production value B game. From what I understand, hardcore Castlevania fans weren’t huge on this entry into their lore. Gameplay is God of War style – fixed camera, and you can move around within the confines of what you see on screen. No demos out there that I know of, but I think Devil May Cry 4 has a demo in both the Live and PSN Markets, and I think that will give you a decent idea of what you’re in store for.

Looks like I need to find $5 more in stuff to get free shipping.

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Jan 03 2012
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Deals, Fuersty Collection

Fan of Saints Row 3?

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard - XBox 360 CoverI just finished up Saints Row 3. Picked it up on Friday, and played more or less leisurely over a long holiday weekend and finished it up late Monday night. I really, really enjoyed it, but it did feel more empty than Saints Row 2.

What’s very notable in Row 3 is the developers willingness to play with “normal” open world conventions. Over the course of the game, you may find yourself involved in a Zork-type text adventure, a light cycle game, fighting against a video game (within a video game) dragon representation of one of your enemies, fighting in a wrestling match, etc…

Much to my surprise, what it reminded me of, was the 2009 game Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. In Eat Lead, you find yourself engaging in JRPG style boss battles, fights against a villainous representation of the developer of the game you are in, and other genre-bending, breaking the fourth wall, filled with tongue in cheek humor.

Both the Saints Row Double Pack (containing Parts 1 and 2, though I wouldn’t classify either as a true B-game) and Eat Lead are pretty cheap these days. Recommended!

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Dec 31 2011
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Deals

Quake 4

Was wandering through my local Gamestop recently, and saw Quake 4 Used is down to a mere $4.99.

If you’ve recently played through iD Software’s Rage, and enjoyed yourself, pick up a copy of Quake 4. To be honest, I haven’t completed either Quake 4 or Rage. My man-crush of iD is without equal (I’ve bought nearly every game, on nearly every platform they have been published on);  But I’ve found both Q4 and Rage to be a bit long in the tooth, and pushing non-first person shooting elements in your face, even if they are unanimously agreed to be less fun.

Anyway, Quake 4′s characters and shooting corridors share a ton of elements with Rage. There are some fun vehicle and mech segments in Q4 as well.

If you’re lucky, you may also score a copy of Quake 2 in your game box. When the game was new, a bonus disc – containing a 360 port of Quake 2 – was included! Sorry, achievement hunters, no achievements on the Quake 2. This was actually the game I bought with my 360!

Dec 31 2011
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Fuersty Collection

Added Tropico 4, El Shaddai

Standard US 360 cover for El ShaddaiGot my shipments of Tropico 4
and El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.

Live has a demo of Tropico 3 up, 4
has some additional modes and vectors to consider. I really enjoyed the demo of 3, but it never dropped to be cheap enough to get me to buy it. Last week, amazon.com had Tropico 4
down below $20 and I decided to jump. This is my first console RTS game since Populus on the Genesis, really. Not sure what to expect.

El Shaddai has a demo on both Live and the PSN. I absolutely fell in love with the art direction. The play style is similar to that of the God of War series (Playstation) or something like the recent Conan
game. There’s a force third person camera that is more of less on rails. You are able to jump, roll and fly (to some degree) in any direction, and combine combination attacks via straightforward button presses. Very often the games feature “quicktime events” to finish off bosses. The art style here is really unreal, a pastel colored dream. The story is also quite trippy as well.

Picked up both for under $20 shipped from Amazon.

My B Game backlog now consists of:

  1. Mind Jack
  2. El Shaddai
  3. Tropico 4

That’s the order I’m planning on starting/finishing them, and creating Podcast reviews here on the site.

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Dec 28 2011
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Deals

No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise

Amazon has No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise (PS3) for about $16 bucks these days.

Amazon.com

I played the original version on the Wii, and it’s a classic B Game with a B+ or A- budget. My understanding is that Heroes’ Paradise for the PS3 is a blend of the first two Wii games, with some special features. Being a Wii-port, if you will, the game supports the Sony Move system. It probably will play well with the Move, but you can also play with the typical PS3 controller.

There is a demo of the game up on the PSN, if you’re interested in checking it out.

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Dec 27 2011
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Cursed Crusade

Amazon recently dropped the price on the Atlus title Cursed Crusade. I’ve had my eye on this title since it was announced, along with The First Templar. Two historical based hack and slashers coming out around the same time? Interesting.

The First Templar was pretty -meh- , but I’m still interested in Cursed Crusade. There is a demo available on XBox Live and PSN.

The Cursed Crusade on Amazon.com

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