How Playstation All-Stars Ruined My Life

On April 27th, 2012 (yes, I unfortunately remember the date...) a new game was announced! There had been some rumors circulating toward the end of the preceding year that said a combat-heavy, Smash Bros style game featuring Sony's biggest characters was in development, with many details such as specific characters and stages included with the rumor as well. These rumors were confirmed to be just about 100%

accurate when gameplay was finally shown off several months later. The game became what we know today as Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royale.

I love Nintendo and its line-up of characters and I love Smash Bros. style gameplay, but I also have a deep-rooted and long-running affection for Sony's diverse library of games. I love Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, Ape Escape, InFamous, and possibly my favorite of all, PaRappa the Rapper. But even beyond that, characters like Kratos from God of War, Fat Princess, and Twisted Metal's iconic Sweet Tooth were rumored to appear in the game, meaning that the roster was sure to be diverse and represent a huge assortment of games, perhaps beyond even the extent of Super Smash Bros. There are also plenty of amazing third party games heavily associated with the Playstation brand like Metal Gear Solid, Spyro the Dragon, Final Fantasy, and Crash Bandicoot! Could they be represented in the game as well? Finally, my childhood dream of a large-scale and chaotic crossover of Playstation all-stars would come to fruition!

Top 5 Games of 2013

2013 has really been a big year for games. I played through tons of fantastic ones, but there are still a lot of amazing looking games that I haven’t even had the chance to buy yet! But of what I have played, there are several games that I think are completely outstanding and I can’t wait another second to gush all about them. I also have a couple of honorable mentions...there were a few too many games to condense this to a top 5, but not quite enough to stretch out to a top 10. Regardless, here it is, my top 5 games of 2013!

…also I haven’t beaten GTA5 or Tomb Raider yet. So…um…onto the list!

Why You Shouldn't Buy a PS4 or Xbox One

After 8 years of incredible advances in technology, amazing games, and stupid consumers buying lazy, unfulfilling products, the next generation of video game consoles is upon us! The Wii U, the PS4, and in just a few hours, the Xbox One will be out and available for purchase! While the Wii U has been out for about a year, right now all of the interest is undeniably in Microsoft and Sony's new systems. Why...well...who knows? I'm not even sure myself. This is gonna be a really dumbed down piece compared to my usual reviews and other pieces on games. I'm not targeting super-informed gamers or anything, I'm talking

to the average Joe who wants something to play the new Call of Duty on. The premise of a new console launch is always exciting and it's easy to find yourself getting caught up in the hype. After seeing Killer Instinct and Dead Rising 3, I was admittedly ready to hop on the Xbox One bandwagon and pick one up myself. But thinking about it rationally for a bit, I came to a different conclusion: blowing $500+ on this thing the year it comes out would be the stupidest thing I could possibly do.

The Last of Us Review

I’ve intentionally held off on talking about The Last of Us until a few months later because I wanted to see if the game left an impression on me the way the media said it would. The game got tons of perfect scores everywhere. Naughty Dog is well-known for setting the bar on every console they develop on; the charming platforming of Crash Bandicoot that defined the PS1 era, the expansive and imaginative world of Jak and

Daxter on PS2, and Uncharted becoming one of Sony’s flagship franchises for the PS3. The Last of Us marks the first time since joining Sony that the developers have worked on multiple series on the same platform, and it managed to slip in just several months before the launch of the PS4. Did this game define its generation of hardware the same way Crash and Jak did?

Pokemon X/Y Review

Pokemon is something everyone can relate to. …well, not everyone, but a lot of people! Pikachu is one of the most iconic fictional creatures there is, the anime has been going strong for well over a decade, and every few years we’re treated to a new batch of Pokemon to add to the mix. For the record, I think Pokemon Black and White is the series’ strongest installment to date. For the first time in many years it didn’t just feel like another expansion pack to existing Pokemon, it felt like a clean slate! Not a single Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, or Sinnoh Pokemon was to be found until after the completion of the main game. There were a total of 156 Pokemon to catch and not a single one was a familiar face. Not all of the designs were spectacular, but

plenty of them were memorable and useful, making Unova really fun to explore. But the new Pokemon were just half of it; there were all kinds of new gameplay mechanics and additions to the battle system that made Black and White feel like a huge leap from Diamond and Pearl. Hoenn and Sinnoh felt like new adventures in familiar worlds, but Unova truly made you feel like you were doing something fresh and new entirely, despite the similar gameplay mechanics to previous installments. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Pokemon X and Y.

Pikmin 3 Review

After a 9 year hiatus, the Pikmin series is back. Notable for being the first important Wii U game since it came out last November, longtime fans and first-time players alike were all looking forward to taking control of massive armies of the adorable little creatures. Given the number of delays this game suffered, expectations were certainly high. Did it deliver? For the most part, absolutely!

Sonic Adventure 2 Review

The past week or two some friends and I have been getting pretty into Sonic the Hedgehog. Not like, marathoning every game or anything, but we’ve been talking about some memories with the games, listening to the music again, etc. One thing that would come up a lot was Sonic Adventure vs. Sonic Adventure 2. The comparisons were…really strange, but we eventually came to the conclusion they both had some advantages and disadvantages over the other. I was in support of SA2 completely. While I had loved SA as a kid, SA2 I had loved even more.

You see, I never had any Sega consoles as a kid, so my first experience with Sonic was Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, which I looooved as a kid. I got SADX shortly afterward, and loved it as well. So in 2010 when Sonic Adventure was rereleased and got abysmal reviews, I was shocked. What had happened?! I remember that game being awesome! Was it just because it was an older game? But even then, when games like Banjo Kazooie and HD Collections of other 3D platformers from that era were released, they were praised to the moon and back and sales were terrific. How was SA any different than those other 3D platformers from the time? And when SA2 was rereleased late last year, people gave it bad reviews too. But how?!