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Hi all!

I don’t usually play a lot of Nintendo DS games. My wife and son usually take the honor of playing these games. However, recently I bought the DS game “My Japanese Coach” for my son to get him more exposure to languages. After putting in the game and getting him setup as a user he was given a basic test to rate if and how much Japanese he knew.

Rating:

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Since my wife speaks some Japanese at home, and I speak some also he actually got a lot of the basic questions which was a nice surprise to me. At this point the game basically is broken into “lessons” and the first section is lessons 1-29. My son moved to lesson 5. For the next hour or so my son was consumed by the games and lessons and moved ahead 3 or so lessons. He retained a lot of the new words (maybe 30 or so) and was speaking and could understand them.

He took off to bed in the normal routine and after charging the DS a bit I took my turn. I have been speaking and studying Japanese off and on for about 16 years or so after I took it in college. I think of myself as mid-intermediate. I set up my account and took the test. I jumped to a lesson and took off.

My initial through (before I even opened up the game) was that this was pretty easy stuff and more for kids to use to start to learn a language. Wow was I wrong, and for the better. I was sucked into fun games, lessons, and training and really started to get into it. At the higher level it goes into verbs, adjectives, and the different writing styles (katakana, hiragana, and some Kanji).

This along with the game able to recognize Japanese writing was a really nice challenge. The writing system goes slow where you trace the characters with the stylus and after you trace it a few times it fades away and you have to write it without help. Even though I know all of the basic characters it really was nice to be able to practice my writing in a controlled manner. Then there are games to backup your writing with recognition games and speed.

I was only playing the game for few hours and I am only 10% in, it looks like! The difficultly slowly raises, but it is a fun and an interactive way to memorize and retain the language. If you have kids or your want to study a language this is a great way to start the adventure. I have only done the Japanese version and do not know how the other versions of the coach compare.

Sayonara…

Andrew

p.s. If you’d like to pick up this game from Amazon, click here:

Hi all!

The new PlayStation Network (PSN) game “The Last Guy” just came out about a week ago. This is a fun little title that combines several elements - you collect people stuck in buildings hiding from zombies roaming the streets in various cities, and guide them to the escape zone. This is a top down, Google Maps-like view, and you direct your guy near the various buildings.

Rating:
When you get to the buildings, the people come out and follow you in a line. The more people you have in your line, the more stamina you have, and you can perform special techniques like surrounding a building with your long line and any new people escaping the building automatically zoom to the back of the line.

As each city progresses, different types of zombies come out and add different types of challenges. There are basic zombies that just chase you, but give up when they lose sight of you. There are some that guard important areas and can sense you (which you have to trick them). Then there are some really strange ones like spore zombies that if they see you will fill the area with a fog that prevents you from seeing the screen (in normal viewing mode).

Another view you get is basically a thermal view in which you can see green dots for people. The bigger the dots, the more people are in the buildings. This helps you plan our your path and strategy. This view is also helpful when you can’t see (like when the spore zombies attack) or invisible zombies like the chameleon zombies (which you can see in this mode when they are invisible in normal mode).

With all these things combined, this game is a lot of fun. I ended up going back to try to rescue more people in the time allotted and seeing if I was able to rescue all the VIP people from each level (5 each level in different building/areas)

The visuals are fun and you get to go to famous cities throughout the world. The music is very catchy and has some really fun/weird sound effects and voice-overs.

For $9.99 this title is a great value. If you are not sure, you can download the demo and try out one level. Try it out, and let us know how you liked it here (if you have a PS3 of course).

I give this 3 out of 4 Green Knights.

–Andrew

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Image via Wikipedia

Hi there!

I have noticed that digital download of games over the “net” are becoming more available. This is true for PC gaming with the highly successful service Steam where you can buy a game, download it, and play it on any pc. No CDs, DVDs to keep track of, and a big advantage is that you do not have to have the disc in the drive to play. I use this type of service a lot on my Playstation 3 on the PSN (Playstation Network). You put some money into your “wallet” and when you see a game you like you just use the funds from your wallet to purchase it. You can download it at anytime and it is already activated.

I think on the other side of the coin, you get your shiny new disk and box which you may or may not keep. I do like the feeling that you always have the media on hand, but there have been times where the disk is scratched or you just can’t find that nostalgic old game you really want to replay. The boxes that the games come in are getting more compact and less of a waste and can store in a DVD tower, but personally I am getting tired of keeping discs.

I think the digital download age is coming about for games. It is very convenient, and, if the service or company is popular enough, you do not need to worry about it going under, etc. There are only a few downsides that I can think of off the top of my head:

• Bandwidth issues (downloading large games)
• Do you have to be connected to the service to play the game?
• Ongoing charges, if any

The only real problem I have right now for some of the games is when they are cheap (e.g. $4.95) it is too easy to just buy it without thinking about it. Then if you do that many times it could get expensive. The small inexpensive downloadable games I have recently bought for the ps3 (Super Stardust HD, PixelJunk Monsters, etc) have provided a ton of fun play. Moreover, some of these have provided more fun and play time than the $60 Blu-ray disk games.

What do you guys think?

–Andrew

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Hi there!

My first article was about the playstaion3 (ps3) trophies. I think the best game to review to start off would be the only game currently on the Playstation network (PSN). This is Super Stardust HD. It has its roots in the old Asteroids game we played when we were kids pumping quarters into a black and white arcade game. This game is based off this simple concept of blowing up rocks on a 3d spherical planet, and not getting crushed in the process!

(Gameplay 3.3)

Even though the game play sounds very basic, the depth they built into the game play is nice. There are three basic types of rocks: regular, gold, and ice. Along with that you get three types of blasters: Rock Crusher (good overall and nice spread), Ice Splitter (very fast and great for ice), and Gold Meter (a gold stream which is flexible and great against gold rocks). Each weapon has its arch rock type and situational use to keep in mind when destroying the asteroids.

You also get two more tools that can make or break your survival and that is bombs and boost. The bombs blow up most small and medium objects in a set distance from your ship. The larger rocks will just break apart into smaller chunks. Your boost will propel your ship forward very fast and temporarily makes you invulnerable. It took me a bit, but the boost can be a nice weapon especially when there are enemies in a line.

Once you learn the weapons and when to change blaster types, each stage gets a set of enemies that has their own patterns, attacks, and vulnerabilities. For example, there are two types of UFO round enemies. One is small and has fast maneuvering and they are vulnerable to the ice splitter. The other types are larger spinning ships (like a band saw) that chase you around and gang up on you.

There are five planets with five stages each. At the end of a planet you face a boss enemy. I really enjoyed this game for what it is. It is very satisfying the way the rocks break up and inside of them sometimes are bonus (neon green) cores that have weapon type boosts, new ships, bonus points, etc. The game play is challenging in the beginning, but once you master moving and shooting and when to choose which weapon type it becomes much easier, but never easy (as you get up in planets).

(Graphics 3.5)

The graphics are beautiful in 1080p HD. The colors are vivid and on a bigger screen the universe behind you (not that you get a lot of time to look at it) is a nice touch. It goes to show that even a fairly simple game can look great. With the colors, planet maps, background you tend to really become immersed into the visuals.

(Sound 2.0)

The sound is not bad. The music is clean and appropriate for the game. In the basic game there are three basic sound tracks. The main two are very upbeat and techno based which helps when the rocks are flying. The third is custom, so you can use a playlist of mp3’s from your PS3 if you have some. This is nice if you play this game a lot, since you can play and listen to an album that you enjoy. The multiplayer addition includes a grander orchestral soundtrack to give you more music in the game.

(Additional Content)

(1) Solo Pack: This pack includes a few new solo modes which really increase the replay ability of the game. These modes are extremely challenging. The almost impossible ones are bomber which you only have bombs, and survival which there are a ton of little pink objects that can’t be destroyed, and basically is how long can you survive. My favorite is endless where there are meta waves of enemies and asteroids which come at you from all over, and at the end of the wave there is a nuclear bomb, when you destroy the bomb a wave of energy clears the whole planet, and the next wave starts. I currently am trying to get the trophy on this level (destroy 10 nukes).

(2) Multi Pack: This pack is to add a few new modes. The first is split screen co-op mode where now you and your partner are basically playing your own separate screens, but on the same planet. When you are close to each other you boost your partner’s weapon power. In the basic co-op you have to always stay in range as only one screen (much harder). There is also some vs. modes with various types of battles (death-match, king of the hill, etc..). These are fun, and I think you can play up to four players. The only problem with multiplayer is right now there is no online play and the lack of online play keeps this from being a really great simple game.

(Final Comments)

I give this game 3.0 of out 4.0 Green Knights. It is low cost game with great visuals, fun game-play, and will challenge most game players. I think this game is a great example of what downloadable content should be for the PS3. Even if you are not sure there is a free demo on the PSN store for you to try out your rock crushing abilities.

– Andrew

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Hi all!

The Playstation3 (PS3) has just received trophies! Yea!

To anyone new to the PS3 or doesn’t have one, the PS3 hasn’t had a system-wide reward system in place until now. The XBOX 360 has had its gamerscore system in place for a while now. This change for the PS3 was introduced the beginning of July with the 2.40 (broken) and 2.41 firmware upgrades.

The introduction of trophies is a great addition. It adds that little extra incentive for people that like to push the limits of the games they buy, and see if they have the right stuff. On the other hand, there are some really weird or insanely hard trophies for each game that will have people pulling their hair out. Once you get all the trophies for a game (copper, silver, & gold), you achieve the platinum trophy for that particular game. Each of the smaller trophies boost your PS3 gamer level (score) and the platinum trophy boosts it a lot. As you “level up” it will be progressively harder to gain levels.

I am really looking forward to working with the PS3 trophy system. I play a lot of PS3 games and now I have a way to track my progression. In addition, this can be a fun community building tool. I can compare my trophies with the trophies of people on my friends list. Right now I have to believe my friends when they said they shot the fly off the general’s shoulder at a 1000 paces ;).

What does everyone think about these type of tools (“Carrots”) to encourage people to get as much out of a game as possible? It can have good and bad consequences.

**Super Stardust™ HD, a PLAYSTATION Network-exclusive released last year, will be the first game to leverage the Trophies system and will offer a variety of trophies. I am currently trying to get these now**

The following games will offer Trophy support:

• BUZZ!™ Quiz TV
• LittleBigPlanet™
• MotorStorm™ Pacific Rift
• NBA 09 - PS3
• PAIN** (out now, trophy patch coming)
• PixelJunk™ Eden
• Resistance 2™
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation
• Warhawk™** (out now, trohpy patch coming)

– Andrew

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