I was five years old during the summer of 1984 when Ghostbusters the movie was released. To a five year old, the Ghostbusters were the coolest guys in the world. I remember going on a family vacation that summer and begging my dad to turn up the radio anytime the theme song came on the radio. When the movie was released on VHS, my brothers and I watched the tape so many times we could repeat every line in the movie from beginning to end. When I first heard that a Ghostbusters game was in production and the story was being written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, that five [Read More]

If you haven’t purchased any of the addition episodes that have been released for Fallout 3 the Broken Steel expansion is the best place to start. There have been a lot of positive changes and updates to the core Fallout 3 game included in this release. Most notable is a change to the ending of the game. Fallout 3 did so many things right but the ending was one of the more anti-climatic endings of a game this generation. Ending the game actually means, ending the game. If players complete Fallout 3 and want continue exploring the wastelands and completing side quests they are forced to revert to a previous save file to do so. Downloading Broken Steel will allow you to complete the main story and continue exploring the wastelands filling those gaps in your achievement list.

Crouching under a grove of palm trees, hidden by tall grass, I stare down the barrel of my sniper rifle patiently waiting on the American troops to come charging over the hill. My team has silently coordinated a beautiful plan of attack that has pushed our enemy into a single corner of the map. Our planes are flying above their base continually pelting their position with payload after payload of bombs weakening their attack plans. My teammates have moved our tanks into a position that should help us prevent any type of moving assault that our enemies might be assembling. With my weapon locked and loaded, my job is to pick off any ground troops attempting to flank us from either side of our position. As a further precaution, we have secured our recently seized bases with enough explosives to ensure any attempt of a hostile takeover will be extinguished by the flip of a switch. This match will be ours as long as we keep it together and hold our position. It is just a matter of minutes now….

Thrust into the wasteland as the “Lone Wander from Vault 101” and ending up “The Last, Best Hope for Humanity” was a long, and at times, trying journey. If you missed the first two parts of my review you can check them out here and here. Following your fathers trail requires a lot of back and forth through the wastelands and they are anything but safe. Constantly having to defend yourself against on coming attacks from Raiders, Super Mutants, Feral Ghouls, Mole Rats, Vicious Dogs, Deathclaws, Mercs, and more, isn’t always an easy task. No place outside of the fortified walls of wasteland settlements scattered across the D.C. Area are safe. Weapons are the key to staying alive while moving from place to place, lots of weapons. Weapons aren’t any good without ammo and decent armor compliments the pair nicely.

I spent the last two weeks logging into Xbox Live to play 1 vs.100, a new online game show. 1 vs. 100 is a two-hour game show featuring live gameplay between players, multiple rounds, and a rather boring host commenting on the action. That sounds like a real game show, right? The idea of bringing a game show with real world prizes to peoples living room is very intriguing. Millions of people connect to Xbox Live everyday and this game has been designed to give anyone the opportunity to get in on the action. This is accomplished by giving gamers three ways to participate during a live show. Every round a player is chosen to be The One. This person is selected to sit center stage and answer multiple choice trivia questions in a Who Wants To Be A Million style arena. Another 100 players are selected to be a part of The Mob. Remaining players logged into the game will be part of The Crowd.

If you enjoyed Fallout 3 but missed out on first two games in the series its not to late to go back check them out. Good Old Games has both Fallout and Fallout 2 available via download for $5.99 each. This small price tag will get you a DRM free copy of the game that has been patched to the latest official version. Unlike other digital download services you don’t just get a license to play the game. Buying games at GOG.com means you actually purchase the game. Titles can be installed on any PC and games can be re-downloaded at anytime. You don’t need an internet connection to play games from their service once the initial download is completed. All games have been modified to guarantee that they are XP and Vista compatible. $5.99 gets you more than just a copy of the game. Downloads include a digital copy of original manual, avatars, artwork, in-game soundtracks, original soundtracks, a reference card, and hi-res wallpapers. The Fallout games include all this plus a copy of the Fallout Bible, Pip-Boy Avatars, and Fallout series wallpapers. If Fallout 3 has you curious about where it all began or wanting to take a trip down memory lane, Good Old Games is making it possible.

Picking up were Part 1 (check it out here) of my Fallout 3 review left off, you are rising out of the vault and into the wastelands. After your fathers unexpected exit from Vault 101, you forge into the unknown in hopes of reuniting with him on the outside. As you escape the fallout shelter with the assistance of your childhood friend Amata, the overseers daughter, you gaze across the ruined landscape of the D.C. Area for the first time. Looking over the horizon for the first time, its obvious the world has been destroyed. There are no signs of life, no color, nothing but ruins. As drab and depressing as that sounds the game is ascetically beautiful. The remains of buildings and technology scattered throughout the world looks reminiscent of a 1950’s era Sci-Fi movie. The game does a great job of making you feel alone, to the point that wandering the landscape creates an eery feeling.

With over a hundred real-time hours logged in the Bethesda’s post apocalyptic wasteland that is Fallout 3, I still can’t get enough. Having completed the main quest just shy of ninety seven hours I wanted to share my thoughts on the game. Not knowing how to write about a game of this magnitude I decided to break up my “review” of the game into parts, allowing me to focus in on each area I wanted to comment on. In this post I am focusing on the starting stage of the game, life in Vault 101. For anyone unfamiliar with the Fallout 3 universe, the story takes place in a post apocalyptic version of the Washington DC area. In the year 2077, a war broke out leaving the United States, and possibly the world, nothing more than a dark, desolate, radiated wasteland. The war did not completely destroy all of mankind and those left behind are struggling to survive in the ruins of what was once the great American nation. The story of Fallout 3 takes place roughly 200 years after the bombing occurred.

God of War: Chains of Olympus is the first game I picked up for my PSP following my post regarding Sony’s high-tech paperweight. (Check it out here if you missed it.) I have been looking for a reason to justify owning a PSP, Chains of Olympus was great choice. This game does everything it can to show the capabilities the PSP has to offer to gamers. The game kicks off throwing players straight into the gore filled action one would expect from a God of War game. Chains of Olympus is a prequel to God of War games released on the PS2. The story takes place shortly after the death of Kratos’s wife and daughter. The game starts with Kratos in the ancient city of Attica where he is fighting off an onslaught of Persian forces. In the mythological world of the game Helios, the sun god, has been weakened giving Morpheus, the god of dreams, the power to put ancient Greece to sleep disturbing Olympus’s rule over the nation.

If you have played any of the previous iterations of Punch-Out!! then the new Wii version will feel very familiar, but only in the best way. Nintendo knows the way to a gamers heart, nostalgia, and they didn’t pull any punches updating this franchise. Players will find themselves going toe to toe with the likes of Glass Joe, Bald Bull, and King Hippo (to name a few) while collecting star punches and listening to remixed versions of the original theme music. Fans of the NES classic will recognize arenas, sound effects, and cut-scenes that will have them reminiscing about all night sessions of pass the controller with friends in no time. The pugilist Little Mac is back again and ready to battle through the ranks of the Minor, Major, and World circuits to become the World Champion. Trainer, Doc Louis, is still in Mac’s corner providing great words of inspiration like, “Hey Mac, have you seen my chocolate bar?” and, ”What is your favorite flavor of protein shake Mac? Mines Chocolate…”. The roster of challengers features classic fighters from the original NES game along with a few appearances from the arcade version and over-the-top stereotypes are still included. The game features one new fighter and he introduced early in the ranks. His name is Disco Kid and staying true to the humor of this series, he is as flamboyant as his nickname suggests. There is a lot more to Punch-Out!! than repackaged fan service.