DJ Hero Review: This DJ is hard as hell!

What more can I say? (No that Jay-Z track is not in the game… yet) The track list for the first iteration of “DJ Hero” (c’mon you know this is a franchise) is jam packed with 93 mixes of different songs that will definitely get your head bumping. However, of those 93 unique mixes, a few of the tracks have repeat songs heard in other mixes. Tracks such as The Aranbee Pop Orchestra – “Bittersweet Symphony” gets duo love when mixed with 2Pac’s “All Eyez on Me” and LL Cool J’s “Rock The Bells.” Now I’ll leave it up to you to say which one was best, but I’m rolling with DJ Jazzy Jeff’s “Bells”.

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XBOX 360 Games on Demand Sorta…

Ok so MS has finally revealed the launch line-up of games and what they are going to cost which you can get below.

But it wouldn’t be a DaveDaGamer article if I didn’t express my beef.

First of all the line-up. While it’s almost a given that a download service would try to make money off a back catalog of games first (long tail economics for ya), but please explain to me, why these long released title are coming at a price of $19.99 – $29.99? Isn’t that the same price that we can find these games at in retail stores?

Please tell me where the “cost” savings of not having to produce packaging, printing, pressing, advertising, shelf space are going? Definitely not to the consumers who are paying exactly the same thing. [Continue Reading]

The Hottest Video Game Hip-Hop You’ll Hear This Year!

This is a hot one folks! Coming straight from the U.K. is hip-hop artist Dan Bull with his latest track “Generation Gaming.” Described as “an epic rap documentary of the history of gaming from the early 90s to the present day,” I’d have to say he pretty much nails it, for the most part, although he missed the whole Genesis / Super Nintendo era. I guess he was more of a PC guy. On top of the track, what’s also cool is he put this whole video together himself. With tight lyrics and a sick beat, this has easily become one of my favorite video game related hip-hop tracks to date. You can check out or purchase his full album (although not all game related but it’s still tight) here. And just a heads up for all you rated PG kats, there’s some explicit language dropped in the video.

Resident Evil 5: The Demo Gameplay Footage!

Chris Redfield is back and badder than ever. Take a look at this direct feed gameplay of the new Resident Evil 5 Demo from Capcom. It’s only out in Japan for the XBOX360 users, but thanks to our friends in the land of the rising sun we have it for you.

The demo consists of two areas and from the looks of it, brings more of the goodness that inspired Resident Evil 4 to be a hit. Check out this hotness from Capcom!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this video later this week!

Gears of War 2 Review: Well Whaddaya Know?

It’s that time of year again. Gamers are among a slew of high quality games as the holiday season approaches.  We’re infected with sequelitis around this time of the year; which is no different than last year, and the game at the top of most 360 owners must play list is the sequel to 2006’s epic release, “Gears of War 2.” The first “Gears” game really put the Xbox 360 on the map, and cemented its reputation as the console of choice for action/shooter games, but can the sequel follow it up with the same intensity?

“Gears of War 2″ brings us right back into the thick of things with Marcus Fenix and his trusted partner Dom. We quickly find out that the events from the first game hadn’t turned out quite like the humans had hoped, and they are now forced into a corner by the ever ferocious locusts. Humanity must now go on the offensive, if they don’t want to end up extinct. [Continue Reading]

Tokyo Game Show 2008 Video Showcase

The Tokyo Game Show is in full effect! And you know what that means, GAMES! GAMES! and more GAMES! Here we’ll compile all the latest new footage of upcoming games dropping in the near future. So check back often for all the latest videos while the show goes on. [Continue Reading]

Review: Lego Batman

Holy Lego Blocks Batman! Yup it’s DaveDaGamer dropping a review on you for Lego Batman from Traveller’s Tales.

These boys are on quite a roll with their on the surface “kiddie” franchise. I say on the surface, because there is a polish to these games that are usually not found in games targeted for your lil brother or sister. These games consistently rank in the high 8’s or 9’s for review scores. That tells you they toe the delicate balance between accessibility and fun factor.

Granted these Lego games are all based on the simple premise of everything in the worlds is made up of blocks from Lego playsets. Already the game strikes a chord with us because most of us have played with Lego’s growing up and I at least imagined creating vast worlds until I ran out of blocks. Famous stores like F.A.O. Schwartz and Toy’s R Us began building huge statues of King Kong and Godzilla out of Lego’s to attract users.

Traveler’s Tales looked at this lovingly and have honed their craft to bring us their latest attraction Lego Batman. Coming off the high that was Lego Indiana Jones, coincidentally the caped crusader killed at the box office and people were all excited about Batmania once again.

The first problem for me was the story. Now I’m a fan of the Batman comics and movies (yes even the first series). But where I feel that the previous Lego games connected with us, watching the familiar scenes from movies we adored played out in silent scenes, this title is missing. You see, this game isn’t based on any particular movie, comic, or cartoon series. It is an original story that manages to get as many of the characters in as possible. While still fun I think that this title would’ve been bolstered by picking from one of the more well recognized stories of the Batman.

What further brings us away is the epic score of Danny Elfman blasting through my speakers as my lil Lego men scamper throughout unfamiliar terrain.

All in all, I think that if you’ve enjoyed the previous Lego iterations you’ll like this one as well. There are some serious laughs, and there are a multitude of gadgetry to work with. One of the coolest features of this game is being able to play the game from the villain side after you unlock the missions with Batman and the Boy Wonder. Playing as a villain is almost universally cooler and this game doesn’t disappoint.

Lego Batman is the first Lego game made for the Next Gen console and it shows. TT definitely gets a lot of expression out of their fairly simple models. That shows the genius of the animation.

One thing this game is not is short. It will take you about 15 – 20 hrs to complete 100% and you will definitely enjoy re-playing levels with new abilities.

Check out Lego Batman for your quick fix of goodness.

DaveDaGamer

Tiger Woods Pga Tour 09 Nyc Launch Party

Last week the TrueGameHeadz crew attended the Tiger Woods PGA tour launch party in NYC. The event was cool and alittle disappointing. I say that because the only time you got to see the man himself, Tiger was when he walked in on the green carpet. And like wise for the others stars that came through, but that wasn’t a big deal. It would’ve been nice if Tiger stepped outta his super private area and waved to the masses or at least said something to the likes of “Thanks for coming by, or check out my game and hope you enjoy it!” cause you know it was for him and his game. Plus the music was ridiculously loud and some point. People thought their ears were gonna burst! Anyways peep the video of the event below…and did Anthony Anderson say “F@#K Tiger Woods????!!

Go for Gold! : Beijing 2008 Olympics Review

What up peoples. I know you must be in the thick of patriotic pride with Michael Phelps record breaking 8 Gold Medals in a single Olympics, or even amazed at Jamaica’s Usain Bolt’s unbelievable runs in the 100m and 200m World Record setting time.

The light from the global games usually means that there’s a videogame tie in as well. This year is no different as Sega does the honors and gives us a double dip. With the Wii’s Mario & Sonic at the Olympics and the more grown up fare of Beijing 2008 for the XBOX 360 and PS3.

This title packs in a whopping 38 events in 10 categories.

Most of the Olympic standby’s are here, but I would’ve liked to see the relays in. While the glamor sport of the Olympics are usually the track races, the level of difficulty for running the races in the game may turn some people off. For years Olympic games have been hindered by basic mash the buttons alternately control this year’s title is no difference.

Sega aims to add a little suspense to the start of races by having users time holding down the trigger to fill up a meter to coincide with the gun. Too bad it is more of a hindrance than a fun tool, because if you don’t hit the top of the bar your runner won’t leave the blocks. Causing you to immediately start at a disadvantage.

Because I’m an old school gamer, I know how to “beat” the system. You see, if you try to press the buttons as fast as possible, you will definitely catch carpal syndrome or snap your fingers off. What you gotta do is wrap the end of your shirt around your pointer finger and “slide” it back and forth as quick as possible.

Your character will be flying like Usain in no time

I can’t for the life of me understand how in this age of pack in peripherals, that publishers don’t take advantage of the occasion and include Track mats! Ever since the original Track and Field for NES that came with the original Power Pad, it seemed like the best input for a game such as this.

Just think people actually getting off the coach and exercising during this game. (Nintendo how could you not do this?)

Either way, there are a lot of other none finger snapping events to compete in.
My personal favorites include the high jump, floor exercise, and balance beam.

Each one of these feature DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) esque inputs but with a slight twist. In the high jump you have to tap exceedingly fast to build up strenght and then tap again to jump.

For the Floor exercise you have to tap the corresponding button when your character’s foot makes contact with it. This is trickier than it sounds because the athlete is completing a dance routine and has start and stops are different intervals and can throw you off.

The balance beam is similar in that you have to have “Rhythm” with your character in order to succeed.

I keep referring to character because there are no licensed athletes in this game. That’s sort of a bummer because at this time of year people really want to be Michael Phelps or Shawn Johnson, but will have to settle for a hopeful look a like. (You get a random character for every event, may be white, black, or mixed) But I guess it helps to generalize the sport.

All in all this is a fun game to play and even more so if you have friends over. It should keep you busy till London comes around check it out!

-DaveDaGamer

Journey Back… Soul Calibur IV

Into this stage of history…

Soul Calibur IV is upon us. The game has long been a staple to fighting came fans. This version is actually the Fifth in the series. (Let’s not count Legends on the Wii) Getting it start on the PsOne as Soul Edge, this game from Namco could’ve easily become Tekken with swords. As we all know it became so much more.

Starting with the stellar Soul Calibur on the good for its time Sega Dreamcast. Namco redefined what a fighting game could be. Full of graphical flare and animation, this game immediately became the killer app no one thought it could be. It kept legends of fans happy until the sequel came out with a new quirk.

The original “Next-Gen” was upon us and Soul Calibur 2 saw release on all three major consoles. R.I.P. Dreamcast. But with it, came more fuel to the console war fire. Namco decided to include three special characters for each console. That announcement sent the Internets ablaze with fury about which console had the best character. PS2 got Heihachi Mishima of Tekken fame, GameCube got Link, and the XBOX got Spawn?

The first two made sense as they were tenants of said consoles, but the XBOX wasthe fledgling new kid on the block and hadn’t benefited from having a star character to include. I personally liked playing with Al but I had to concede that Nintendo’s Link was probably the most worthwhile inclusion. I mean Heihachi didn’t even have a weapon!

Soul Calibur 3 suffered from the fact that part 2 was so great. It went largely overlooked, not to mention the fact that it came out exclusively for the PS2 when everyone was anticipating the new “Next-Gen” consoles. So lets skip over that.

Which brings us to the newest iteration. Soul Calibur Eye Vee. Again Namco reached down into it’s bag of tricks and decided to give the consoles an “exclusive” character, with Darth Vader!?!?!?! for PS3 and Yoda!?!?!?!?! for XBOX360. Now, how two Jedi (technically three but we’ll talk about that lata) ended up on this stage of history is anyone’s guess. We can pretty much expect anyone who can fight to be open season for entry.

Now. First things First. The game looks beautiful on both systems. The animation is top notch, and the vistas are great. I’ve always felt that this series couldn’t look better and then it does. But I have to ask… It must be some sort of tradition or something, but how come fighting games don’t have deep character interaction and fully fleshed out endings and stories? I don’t want to read about it, I want to SEE it.

Namco first teased us with the original TEKKEN with these non-sensical CG endings. Damn right we beat the game with every character just to see those beautiful 10 sec endings. Even if they didn’t make any damn sense. But this part of the fighting game experience has not been updated. This is unacceptable, especially when the Soul Calibur series goes as far as giving you paragraphs to read about each characters personal journey and interactions. I know it may be a budget thing, but damn it, that would be NEXT GEN. Other than that you aren’t really luring me into connecting with a character other than I just like their moves. This isn’t the arcade (yes I know it’s there too) give me a reason for beating that boss who kicked my ass 32 times.

End rant… The game is still beautiful ya’ll!

The gameplay on Soul Calibur is a mixed bag. Like any fighting game ever created, there are imbalances between certain characters. To this day, Mitsurugi is too powerful and the majority of his attacks connect no matter what you do. Maxi is great for pulling out a win with constant barrage and girls (all 2,000 of them) are annoying as hell. But the game is still fun, because its beautiful to see the distinctive fighting styles collide.

Too often an important hit just misses or even worse connects but doesn’t register, but it’s often forgotten at the beginning of the next round when you release a combo straight from a Shaw Bros flick.

In this stage of history, Namco introduces a visual guard break, consisting of head, torso, and legs. When broken your character becomes more vulnerable to attack of that area and is disrobed! This is where 2,000 women is a good thing . Fighting women in their skivvies may give some heart attacks and the uninitiated to sit back down after unleashing their wrath for fear of their mums or sisters questioning their playtime.

Speaking of control, I have no idea how the game works on a normal controller. Purchase of a new SC game, for me, also includes a purchase of the official arcade stick from Hori. 60 beans? That’s a steal for comfort and memories of the arcade machine in the Pizza shop. (Damn I have to many video game accessories) The Hori stick gets my full endorsement, with its metal plate for a bottom, official 8-way arcade joystick and authentic buttons with microswitches. You just can’t get a better feel. I suggest copping it, and for you trash talkers you can plug your XBL headset in as well.

As for the included characters I have to say XBOX has gotten the short end (pun intended) of the lightsaber once again. Yoda may be the most revered Jedi in history and made people wet their pants when he fought Dooku in Ep 2, but playing with him has the unduly effect of feeling cheesy on both sides.

He is too short to grab, so no grabbing Yoda. Nope, Yoda can’t even grab Yoda. I guess he got the Teflon force! Plus almost ever attack causes him to launch himself in the air and swing around like a gnat. I totally wouldn’t want to fight him in real life, much less the game. Its fun to watch Asteroth bring down the axe on him. But I guess I’m just sadistic.

Vader on the other hand, is balanced well and fights like a Zen master. Errrm Jedi Master. His attacks aren’t too powerful and it’s generally fun to fight with him. I’ll do a separate review on Vader.

But all in all they don’t stick out, but I doubt many people will rank them as their favorite SC fighters.

Who is your favorite fighter? Well now I get the chance to create my own (I know it was in SC3 but we’re not gonna talk about that, are we? Right) and take him online and vanquish the world. Although I don’t like the fact that your characters moves are identical to the character they are based on, I respect the limitation, but it would be great to add some flare to the style. Like err a drunken monk with a staff. How cool would that be?

I also wish that they included a screen capture and upload system in the game similar to Halo 3. People have made all sorts of creations online Hulk, Snake, Raiden, Altair and many many many more. It would be cool if you could legitimately send your creations to yourself and make galleries, come on “Next Next-Gen” let’s go with the simple features already.

When you create your character you get to take them online for the first time. Yippee! I get to bust some ass with my Afro Shoalin Monk Hells Wind Staff dude! I wish you could see! I played dozens of games without the dreaded lag that has plagued the one-to-one input necessary for the precision of fighting games. EVERY FRAME COUNTS! This bodes well for the upcoming Street Fighter Eye Vee! Fighting fans rejoice the time may come where we don’t have to be in the same room with each other and can really claim supremacy due to the ability to take on many more challengers.

The ranking system isn’t as robust as it could be, but it’ll suffice.

Yup that’s Soul Calibur IV in a nutshell. If you are a fan of the series, pick it up. You will definitively melt away the hours when you have friends over.

DaveDaGamer OUT!!!

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