Some more GDC news

Kojima teases MGS5?: Raiden? Wow, they know how to make people excited.

Katamari Tribute trailer: Katamari looks pretty cool cell-shaded.

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time announced: Full blown R&C!

Final Fantasy XIII's battle system explained: Sounds like some other RPGs. Hopefully it's good.

New CryENGINE 3 screens: Okay, that looks better.

Japan doesn't like Dragonball Movie: Game: Haha, hah... ha...

Noby Noby Boy coming to iPhone: Talk about making the already hard controls worse...

Level 5 Studio Ghibli game 20% done: Schweet..?

Zero Punctuation, Resident Evil 5. Yup.

Just watch it. Nao.

Link

New PS3 Exclusive Katamari announced!

Finally, the PS3 gets it's Katamari game. Hell Yes, I've been waiting for this.

Just, give me some motion controlled rushing.

Link

GDC kicks off, some news anyone?

Where's a electronic game showing, without any news?


Max Payne 3 announced: While I am happy it was finally announced, the look and sound of this, makes me wary....

First footage of Crytech 3 Engine shown: Looks pretty, though how as much as I thought it would.

New reality game shows up in Playstation Home: Now, that's an interesting thing to do with Home, hopefully we will see more stuff like this in the future.

Warhawk developers all leave company, and form new company: Isn't that similar to changing your name?

RUMOR: New company made up from Warhawk staff making 'Warhawk in space?': Could be could, we'll see.

Developer I've never heard about shows 1 screen of new game I've never heard about: However, I like the look of it.


So there you have it, the start of GDC!

Today's Yahtzee is...

Fairly silly

David Hayter starts his own company

LINK

Sounds good to me.

Halo Wars demo preview

Name: Halo Wars
System/s: Xbox 360
Developers: Ensemble Studios
Release Date: 3/3/2009


PC users often say "RTS games don't work on consoles," I would like to start by saying, I really don't believe that, any game can work on any console, only if done right. Something like Medal of Honor: Heros proved that the PSP could do a First Person Shooter...

Anyways, the Halo series is one of my favorite, and I've sunk many hours into playing the games. Bungie, the developers of Halo are like old friends to me though, developing a few of my other favorite games, Myth I, Myth II, Oni. Myth was my favorite RTS, and possible my favorite game ever, so when an RTS of Halo was announced, I was excited, even after a cannon-destroying trailer, I still cut them some slack. I heard that it was being developed not by Bungie, but by Ensemble Studios, which I also didn't mind, hearing how famous they were.

[Myth II, by Bungie, 1998]

When I finally saw the game in action I was let down though, as it seemed to really be a RTS with Halo stamped on top of it. A lot of stuff in the game really made it seem not like Halo, from the videos and I was a bit skeptical. I stopped caring about the game, and heard there would be a demo, and a day before the demo came out or so, my Xbox 360 died, which made me have to wait until recently to try the demo.

The game starts off with a tutorial led by perhaps one of the most generic voice actors I've ever heard, they walk you through a lot of parts of playing the game, but they don't tell you some important stuff. Also, you can't skip any dialog in the tutorial, making it very annoying if you understand something early.

The actual game starts with some pretty pre-rendered cutscenes, but the story seems very generic, which is sad, because the Halo universe really interested me, and I read almost all the books, and played the games, so it had to be really bland and unoriginal to throw me off.

[Some fighting in Halo Wars]

The gameplay is really simple, however it works, I had no problems at all controlling any units or playing the game, to me it was as easy to control as any other RTS, no matter what the platform. Everything worked the way it should, but there wasn't a lot of options, and compared to some other RTSes I've played, it was quite simple. Simple isn't a bad thing however, as it didn't drag on as much as some RTSes.

The problem is that you don't have to worry about resources as they are infinite, and you can only build in select areas, so it boils down to something more along the lines of chess, with strategy only in how you move, rather then how you use the environment to your advantage.

This in general wouldn't be much of a problem if the actual combat was more interesting, but as it stands, it revolves around selecting all your units and telling them to attack. Really, I wish there was some skill involved other then that. Myth showed that controlling units in itself was a possible skill, and when they've taken away so much else in this game, it would be nice to have other parts of the game that make up for it.

[One of the Pre-Rendered cutscenes]

Some might say "Well, this was an experiment for RTS games on the consoles!" Well, they might be right, but what about games like the Original Halo? That revolutionized consoles FPSes, no matter how you look at it: Suddenly there was a ton of console FPSes, and they all started to have Halo's mechanics. And the original Halo was a much better, and more interesting game, which is a shame, because everything was there for this game to be a really amazing game, they just didn't put things in the right places.

Overall, this game came off to me as bland, boring, uninspired, and just not that interesting. Sure everything works, and some might say that's a feat in itself, but for me, I will wait for a console RTS, that not only works, but is worth playing through.

Jon God thinks Bungie should reacquire the rights to Myth, and make a forth game.

Capcom "not done" with HD Remixes!

Final Fight 3 HD Remix, make it happen Capcom.

LINK

Yahtzee reviews House of the Dead: Overkill

Link

I suppose this one isn't bad, but compared to some the recent ones, which have been excellent....

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII review

Name: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
System/s: PSP
Developers: Square-Enix
Release Date: 3/24/2008

As I mentioned before, I saw Final Fantasy VII quite some time ago. When I first saw the game, I really loved it, but after finishing it and thinking on it for a while, I realized it was only alright. There were many problems with the game, and the story was extremely hard to follow, in general, I though it was a good Final Fantasy, but not the best.

I've often talked bad about Final Fantasy VII, mostly to explain to people it's not "god's gift to video games" or anything, it's just a pretty good RPG. So, when they announced the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, I wasn't extremely excited, After playing Dirge of Cerberus, not liking it, and watching the movie, Advent Children, which was 'alright', I didn't expect much from Crisis Core, in fact, I ignored it for quite some time after it came out. That was until a friend lent it to me, and even then it took me a while to even start playing it.

The game follows Zack Fair, a character that was shown extremely briefly in Final Fantasy VII, and only in a secret cutscene. He and his friend, Angeal are sent on a mission to find a deserting high ranking officer from SOLDIER (A Special Forces Unit). The story becomes more complex, and interesting plot points are revealed.


There are a lot of parts of the story where things happen that seem really impossible, and you just have to suspend the disbelief. There's also a lot of parts to the game where characters really are just slow reflexed, or clueless to further the plot, which can get annoying, when you watch something happen, you know the character could stop, and they don't...

However, on the flip side, there is a lot of really good story telling as well, with interesting characters, and a good backstory for a lot of events in Final Fantasy VII. There are many times I was surprised at how clever some of the story telling was, with flashbacks tied into combat, and some interesting plot twists. In general, the story is pretty good.


The graphics are amazing, being some of, if not the best on the PSP, looking better then even Portable Ops. The character models are detailed, the textures are high enough resolution, and the environments look great. Really, graphics wise, there's not much to complain about. The pre-rendered cutscenes are also quite good, perhaps not as good as Advent Children, or Dirge of Cerberus, but still close.


The music is generally good, with some really amazing songs, that I will listen to outside of playing the game, but it also has a lot of really forgettable music, which sound more metal-y and doesn't match the game as well. Still there's enough good music for it to get good marks from me. The voice acting is hit or miss, some of the characters are voiced very well, while others are almost embarrassing, the general voice acting is decent, nothing that will destroy the game.

Unlike Final Fantasy VII, this game is an action RPG, and plays a bit more like Kingdom Hearts. The fights are in real time, and you can doge, block, attack and cast magic, using the face buttons. The trigger buttons switch between attacks, magic and items on the menu, and the cross button accepts what you selected. While the combat works pretty darn well, the developers made it way too easy to just mash the attack button and beat almost every fight in the game. Sure you can use magic, but for most fights, it's easier to just attack repeatedly. This isn't to say all fights, as the later bosses will force you to do other things, but most of the small monsters just feel like grind.


Being a action RPG, the game is extremely liner, and the main storyline only took me a little over 15 hours to complete, but you can carry over all the items, and experience you collect over the game into a new game, to unlock more, and there are dozens upon dozens of side missions, which I am told can take you up to 100 hours to complete, so if you're into that, there's a lot of stuff to do other then the main quest.

One thing that really stuck me about this game, is the ending, which is one of the best I have ever seen among my many years of gaming. It's extremely well done, with a good mix of gameplay and cutscenes, but if I say anymore I will spoil it, so go play it yourselves.


What I liked:

Story: The story was interesting, and I was happy to follow it to the end. The characters, and everything else kept the story going well.

Main Character: One of the better main characters Square-Enix has popped out recently. Though he at first might remind you of Tidus, you realize he's not taking it seriously, and it's just a show he puts on. In general, I liked him a lot.

Gameplay: The gameplay is quite good, and everything works the way it should. There's a good mix of timing strategy and execution.

Ending: It's good. Beat the game. See it yourself.

Final Fantasy VII references: The references to Final Fantasy VII were done quite well, and some of them were quite silly.

Music: Be it remixed old tunes, or new tunes, this game has quite a few memorable tunes that you will end up humming to yourself.

Voice Acting: Some of the voice actors are pretty good in this, the main character, Zack, for example. Sephiroth and Cloud were decent as well.

Flashbacks: The in-fight flashbacks were genius, they made the game a whole lot better. Gave backstory without being too intrusive.

Pre-rendered Cutscenes: The pre-rendered cutscenes are quite good in this game, being better leagues better then most PSP game's pre-rendered cutscenes.

Some pretty cool looking moves: Some of the combat moves in this game look great, and are fun to watch the many times you see them throughout the game.

Good use of source material: You can tell the developers really liked Final Fantasy VII (It's not the original team, though it has some of the members) the world is recaptured quite well, and they tried very hard to now tarnish the name.


What I didn't like:

Story: There are parts of the story that are just bad, you have to sit back and go "Who thought this up?"

Difficulty: The game is really easy, I beat the game only dying perhaps 5 times, and not hacing almost any trouble at all. Most of the time you can win by repeatedly attacking without any strategy.

Music: While there is a lot of good music, there is also a lot of generic metal music, in the style of Advent Children, which you probably will be glad to not have to hear after beating the game.

Voice Acting: Some of the voice actors just aren't good and really get on your nerves, it's a shame.

Some pretty dorky looking moves: After seeing some cool combat moves, it's a shame to see some of the worse looking ones, especially over and over again through the game.

Not enough environmental intractability: Really, the environment is pretty static, minus chests and people to talk to. I wish there was a little more to it...

Camera can turn against you sometimes: While the camera outside of combat is usually good, it can get stick on things, which is really bothersome. The camera in combat is annoying, due to the fact that it cannot be controlled, most of the time it works fine, but there's always those other times...

Main villain isn't very interesting of a character: The main villain seems like a mix between some of the villains in other Final Fantasy games, and has little personality, which makes him very uninteresting.

Some parts of the game really test your ability to suspend disbelief: There are really some parts to the game which will take you out of the world, because they make no sense, and aren't explained.

Feels like a spin off: As good of a game as this is, it feels like, due to the fact that it is a spin off, it can't reach the feeling of a full game. This isn't actually completely a bad thing, more just a fact about the game.



Overall Scores:

Presentation 8.5/10: While there are problems with it, there is just so much good about it to ignore.

Graphics - 10/10: Everything looks spot on, can't complain.

Sound - 8/10: Some bad songs, and below average voice acting bring down otherwise fine sound design.

Gameplay - 8/10: While the difficulty makes things very easy, the game is still fun to play. Loads of fun.

Lasting Appeal - 8/10: While there's a lot to do other then the main storyline, it's not for everyone, as it is very simple, and there's not much story behind it.

Overall Fun - 9/10: Yes, it has it's problems, but they didn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying this fine game. The ending is incredible, and worth playing anything to get to it, luckily the rest of the game is a lot of fun as well.


Yes, this game is worth the $30 price tag it currently bares.

Final Fantasy IX review

Name: Final Fantasy IX
System/s: PS1
Developers: Squaresoft
Release Date: 11/13/2000

My first Final Fantasy title was Final Fantasy VI for the SNES, and I remember seeing a large portion of it, though never beating it (Not until more recently that is). Years later, I was brought back to the series with Final Fantasy VII, this time the person was watching playing made it all the way through, so I saw the end of it. Later I saw a very small amount of Final Fantasy VIII, which I wasn't drawn to. Finally we come come Final Fantasy IX, which to me was my favorite.

The Final Fantasy games usually consist of a long in depth story, with lots of well written dialog, amazing pre-rendered cutscenes, and lots of turn based battles. While the last few games in the series went with a more techno-punk theme, while this goes with a much more fantasy/steampunk world.

In comparison to the last few Final Fantasy titles before it, this game is a lot more light hearted, which could have been a disaster, however, it's done so well, it makes it hard to imagine a more serious version. The game does have a serious story, and it is done very well, but it also has very silly moments to it, and I think it's safe to say, it will make most people at least smile.

The game follows a kidnapping of a princess, and ends up dealing with crisis on a global level. The game is pretty well paced, only slowing up a few times. One interesting feature of this game is the ATE (Active Time Event) feature, letting you see what other characters are thinking, how they are acting, and what they are planning, which gives it a depth not often found in video games.

Something that puts this game above so many others, is the characters; they are all well defined, and have their own problems, moods, and backstory. Throughout the game the characters change, and by the end of the game the depth the characters have is nothing short of stunning. While books generally are expected to pull of this type of character development, it's rarely seen in other media, and this is one exception.


The graphics on this are top notch, they are not as realistically styled as Final Fantasy VIII, but they still look quite good, even today. The character models are all very styled, and different from one and another, and the backgrounds are all detailed and pretty. The animated cutscenes are fairly good, though occasionally, I think some of the characters look a little strange.

The music is also amazing, setting the mood for the world, with dozens and dozens of songs. Almost every song in this game is pure quality, with memorable tunes, and atmospheric sounds. A lot of the locals in the game are perfectly accented with the music that go along with them.

The gameplay isn't as customizable as Final Fantasy VII, but in being so, it helps make each of the characters unique, with their own fighting styles, making you choose your party to suit your playing style. The battles retain the ATB (Active Time Battle) system that the earlier games used, making it turn based, but active at the same time. While there is nothing particularly new about the battle system, the good graphics, camera angles and characters make it completely forgivable.


Playing through the game is a lot of fun, and it's amazing to notice all the little things about the world and characters, but it's amazing to see that no detail was spared on non important segments, lots of the side quests are well designed and interesting, while they didn't need to be. There is also a huge amount too the game, with hours and hours of stuff to do not relating to the main storyline. If you were looking to get 100% it would probably take you well over 100 hours.



While the story may be simplistic, the characters make it a unique experience, and hold everything together. As I mentioned before, this game really pulls you in with the depth of things, no one is really a bland character, with everyone, including small characters seeming to have their own lives, thoughts and agendas. To me this game defines the genre by pulling the best parts of books, and the best parts of movies together into an interactive experience.


What I liked:


Good Story: While the story isn't as complex as Final Fantasy VII, or VIII, it's still a great story, and holds it's own.

Outstanding Characters: This game has by far the best character development I've ever seen in this industry, with Metal Gear Solid in second. Still it's not the closest second.

Very good gameplay: The gameplay, though not original, is still just as good as the other games, and therefore remains very addictive, and wonderful.

Huge amount of content: You get your bang for your buck, with a playthrough taking generally around 40-60 hours, along with tons of side quests and content.

Amazing soundtrack: One of the best video game soundtracks of all time, up in the ranks with Chrono Cross, Shadow of the Colossus, and Metal Gear Solid 3.

Pretty graphics: The graphics in this game are pretty, lots of pre rendered backgrounds, and good character models. Simply a pleasure to just see all the areas.

Good art style: The art style is a lot lighter then the previous Final Fantasy titles, and it's nice to see a more fantasy-y Final Fantasy. All the environments and characters truely look like they belong in their own world, the one you are playing.

Nice variety: While the game is primarily an RPG, they mix up the gameplay, by forcing you to play with certain characters at some points. There are also a load of mini games and side quests, with require you to do different things.

Colorful: This game has color, again another departure from VII and VIII, with bright locals, and colorful clothing, which is welcome addition.

Cute: There are some generally cute parts to this game, be it people's feelings, character designs, or the Moogles (A certain species of animals).

Genuinely funny: This game consistently has it's funny moments, and it would be hard to not at least smile. There's also a good amount of humor, rater then too much, which is a hard balance to strike.

Good Ending: While I thought Final Fantasy VII's ending was rather insubstantial, this ending is really good, it makes sense, ties things up, and is well done.

Active Time Events: This feature alone made the game unique, everything else is the icing on the cake. Not to say this is the only good thing about the game, far from it, it's just a huge leap in the series, and it's a shame it hasn't been used since.


Things I didn't like:

Plot elements towards the end: Towards the end of the game, there are a few plot points that seem to be just thrown in, even so the story flows fine, it's just a little strange.

Final Battles: While the game overall is well done, it seems they didn't spend enough time on the final battles, as they aren't anything super special, and can feel a bit too easy compared to some of the other bosses.

Some things not fully fleshed out: While the story finds a way to flow through everything pretty well, there are a few times I wished some parts would have been used to their full potential, no such luck. Again, this is only a few times, and it wont distract from the story.

Main antagonist is a bit too feminine: Okay, wow. The main villain in this game can easily be mistaken as a female, he dresses like one, and looks like one. It just is really odd when you look at him, and think "That's a guy?"

Pacing falls a little slow sometimes: On occasion the game will slow down and feel a bit boring, however this only happens once or twice, and isn't a huge deal.


Overall Scores:

Presentation - 10/10: Really everything flows together so well, I can't find a reason to bring this down.

Graphics - 9/10: While the cutscenes occasionally make the characters look a little odd, the graphics overall are quite amazing, and the art style is wonderful as well.

Sound - 10/10: Great soundtrack, and good sound effects, nothing to complain about here.

Gameplay - 8/10: While there's nothing really wrong with the gameplay, it's not very original, being very similar to almost any other Final Fantasy title.

Lasting appeal - 9/10: Sure it may take longer to bread a Gold Chocobo in Final Fantasy VII, but there's still a lot of extra content here, and overall, it's a game you'll want to come back to.

Overall fun - 10/10: This is one of those games I will remember forever, it's just so good. There are so many good parts about it, and really, it helps me define everything that makes video games special.


Jon God wishes Sony would release this on the PlayStation Store©. Also, Jon God hated Final Fantasy X.

Noby Noby Boy to get offline multiplayer?

Looks like Noby Noby Boy may be getting new music and split screen multiplayer in a new update, this makes me happy!

LINK

"All I Want" Headed to Rock Band next week!

IT'SSSS AAAAAALLLLL IIIIII WWWWWAAAANNNNTTT!!!!

YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!


*Ahem*

This makes me very happy.

Today's Yahtzee is....

Truly hilarious!

Jon God's top 80 Games, part 1

JON GOD'S TOP 80 GAMES LIST

People often ask me, what is my favorite game. I don't think, after all the games I've played, I could choose a favorite, so I think, what are my favorite GAMES... And even then it's hard, so I came up with a list of 80 of my favorite games, which I will now present you with, in 10 parts.

Part 1

To start this list off, I chose random games from a larger list, and this is in no particular order, so here we go:


Name: Myth II: Soulblighter
System/s: Mac/PC
Developer: Bungie
Release Date: 11/30/1998

Ah Myth II, one game I always refer to when asked my favorite games. Myth II was a one of kind apart from it's own series, in the RTS genre. It sacrificed unit building, researching, and resource managing for a much deeper combat experience.

The game took place in a Lord of the Rings like world, albeit much darker. The game was violent, gritty and just overall much darker then most stories set in this time period. The story stands as one of the best game stories I've seen to date, still. It has top notch story telling, and music to go along with it.

The gameplay gave control over moving individual units, and give them unique powers, making them feel worthwhile, while in most RTSes, your units are just cannon fodder to throw at each other.

The game was amazing online, and may be one of the best games I've ever played online. The online is so good, people still play it today, more then ten years after release, thanks in part to the incredible modding tools released with the game that allow for almost anything, and the dedicated community.

Really, there's not much I can say wrong about the game, it even featured online Co-Op up to 16 player. Just amazing stuff, completely worth finding a copy, since there are patches to allow it to run on today's systems.



Name: Shadow of the Colossus
System/s: PS2
Developers: Team ICO
Release Date: 10/18/2005

This game is interesting, I first played the demo of it on a demo disk, and didn't like it. However my older brother rented it with a few other games while working at a video rental shop. I gave it a second try and loved it.

The game is unique in a number of ways, with a huge free roaming environment, very light but touching story, beautiful graphics, and epic boss fights. Also this is the only adventure game that I know of that only has boss fights, and no smaller enemies.

Walking around the huge wilderness, the place really comes to life, with pretty much no copy/pasting of level pieces, which makes the whole map different everywhere you go. I could go on about the little details, like your in game horse's AI being really lifelike, the fact that the hero isn't perfect, and stumbles and such, but I think it's better to just try it yourself.

The bosses in this game are beyond any other game, after you play this, no future bosses will seem that special. Each boss is well done, and a lot of fun to fight, they all require different strategies and fighting them always feels exciting, which is really amazing.

The music and story telling in this game are also quite amazing, and I couldn't talk about the game without bringing them up.

Again, it's hard to find anything wrong with this game, it's just amazing, and a complete classic, I request you go find yourself a copy now.

Name: DRIV3R (Or Driver 3)
System/s: PS2, Xbox, and PC. (There is a GBA version but it's different)
Developers: Reflections
Release Date: 6/21/2004

Okay, stop rubbing your eyes, I really put this here. I know a lot of people hated this game, gamers and critics alike, with it's glitchy gameplay, boring plot, and it's similarities with GTA.

I however loved this game, sure there were problems with it, but it didn't stop me from playing it for hundreds of hours.

The story was a lot more 'Hollywood' then the preview games, but it didn't matter because that's what the games were going for. A Hollywood chase movie.

The gameplay in this game was glitchy, but most of the glitches occurred when you were on foot, where the controls, and AI was terrible, however while you were in the car, the handling and gameplay was unparalleled. The driving physics were so good it made it hard to play any other driving games for quite some time.

Even though the game was glitchy, it was still fun, in fact the glitches made it fun in it's own way. I often looked for ways of glitching out of the map due to complex tactics. I spent many hours walking around looking for such glitches.

The game had really miserable in game music, but the music used for cut scenes was really good, and I listen to the soundtrack to this day, lots of good choices for songs.

The graphics to this game were also quite good, with a great lighting engine and good models for cars, with astoundingly good damage modeling. Made GTA look like a mid range Dreamcast game.

Overall, sure it had it's problems, but I had fun with it, and still consider it to be one of my favorite games, so it can't have been *too* bad...

Name: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
System/s: SNES (Later, GBA/Wii)
Developers: Nintendo
Release Date: 4/13/1992

Jeez, I love this game so much, I played through it many times, and I don't think any Zelda game will be as good ever again. This game had charming graphics, nice music, absolutely wonderful level design, and a great map and concept.

This game was long, but in a good way, with each dungeon being unique and interesting, due to the wonderful level design. Some of the gimmicks and tricks used in this game are so wonderful, it's sad that any time they have been used since they just don't seem as good.

The game changed a lot depending on how far through it you were, being able to access new areas with the items you obtain along the way. There are some really clever secrets as well, which add a lot to replay value.

As adventure games go this is near, or on the top, just amazing all the way through.

Name: Star Wars: Droid Works
System/s: Mac, PC
Developers: Lucas Learning
Release Date: 1998

Ah Droid Works, another game I didn't initially like. I avoided playing it for a while, but when I finally did play it, I fell in love with the game. It has great graphics for it's time, a interesting story, fun gameplay, and lots of customizability.

The game's main feature is being able to build your own droid, which you send out on missions. Different parts can drastically change the way your droid performs, and it's a lot of fun to find the parts you like, and make your optimum droid.

The missions provide a nice bit of variety but it's sad you have to play a lot of them over again a few times with small tweaks. Still the way they shake things up keeps it fun.

The game is light hearted, but still has an interesting story, which is an interesting mix. For a marketed to kids game, teens can still find it fun, if a little cheesy.

Overall, it was a quite good game, especially for what it was trying to be. I know I'll always remember it.

Name: The Secret of Monkey Island
System/s: PC, Mac, (Numerous others)
Developers: Lucas Arts
Release Date: 1990

One of the earlier point and click adventure games, and darn was it original. Really it's one of those games that captivated a lot of people with it's unique story, setting, humor, and characters. It also boasted interesting puzzles and great dialogue.

On it's surface it might look like an average pirate adventure, but you look a little closer, and you'll notice that the game has it's own rules, and it plays by no one else's but it's own.

This game made me laugh aloud more then most games, which is saying something. It also made me use it's own in-jokes, and references, even on people that didn't have any idea what I was talking about.

It's classic, you can't deny it, something you go back and play now, and notice that it paved the way for quite a number of other games.

The game was just good, and I can't really put into words what I mean by that, so I will just say it again: This game is good.

Name: Star Wars: Battlefront
System/s: Xbox, PS2, PC, Mac
Developers: Pandemic
Release Date: 9/20/2004

Battlefront. This game I missed so many times before finally trying it. I kept watching it played at parties and such, but never got behind the controller myself. It's a shame, because when I finally did play it, I loved it, every second of it.

Battlefront, while not doing anything really original, does it right. It puts together a number of concepts, and does it will enough to be an immense amount of fun.

Pulling all the battles you saw in the movies, along with a handful of new ones, the game really found itself a lot of fun in chaotic battlefields, great mutliplayer, and good bots.

Again, the game is quite simple, and not very original, but it's something I have played for years, and will continue to play for years.

Name: PixelJunk Monsters
System/s: PS3, PSP (Soon)
Developers: Q Games
Release Date: 1/24/2008

You may remember what I sad about this game in my review. Still I'll recap for those who didn't see it when it went by the first time.

This game is the best Tower Defense game I've ever played, it made me notice the genre, and actually pay attention to it afterwards. This is in part due to the many things that make the game great, style, balance, Co-Op, difficulty, replay value, and updates.

The game was nearly perfect on release, but future updates have made it even better, with the expansion pack, and free patches. These releases have added hours of gameplay onto a game I already spent hours upon hours playing.

Really, just find a way to play this yourself, it's simply the best in the genre.




And that's it for this part of "Jon God's top 80 games" Hopefully I will continue with this soon