Toronto Thumbs

Late to the Party
Assassin’s Creed

As many of our readers know, I’m late to the party for a lot of things. Assassin’s Creed by Ubisoft was one of those games that I was never interested in; whether the marketing didn’t reach me, or I wasn’t really looking for it, I never bothered to pick it up. What little I saw of it showed a hooded man running around the Middle-East, parkour style, murdering people. As a concept, that did not appeal to me.

Of course, I was completely wrong. Drawn into the display at the 2009 Sony Holiday Preview Event, I got to watch Assassin’s Creed II. Not only was it spectacular to behold, it also included an actual plot! Of course, after this I did some reading and realize that there was far, far more to this franchise than I initially thought. My timing could not have been more perfect to purchase the game, too, as it had just attained Greatest Hits status.

While my overall feelings about this game are positive (I would recommend it to anyone that enjoyed a good story), the experience did have moments that were trying, and I will deal with those up front so that I can end on the note that I ended on when I finally finished the game.

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Posted in PC, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

Three MCs And One DJ
A Review of DJ Hero

DJ Hero was released October 27, 2009. But before that date, the Toronto Thumbs staff already loved it and talked about it a great deal. We claimed our love for it in our coverage of Microsoft’s X’09 event and Sony’s Holiday Preview Event. When it came time to choose our top games of 2009, DJ Hero found its way on both Shaun’s and Jorge’s lists. It’s not surprising – the two love both music and amazing games.

We decided it would be fun to review the game as a group, which in turn has caused some delay in getting it all together. We’ve also included Toronto Thumbs newcomer Eleanor D.’s thoughts on the game.

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Posted in Awesome, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Wii, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

REVIEW
VVVVVV

VVVVVV is a game that made me angry. I mean, really angry. Ten minutes would barely go by when I would see a challenge game maker Terry Cavanagh set up and hate his goddamn guts. But I also couldn’t keep from giddily laughing to myself. The clever bastard always had another twist, another devious bit up his sleeve. It is one thing to be beaten up, but quite another to respect the person for doing it.

VVVVVV has you playing Viridian, the captain of a ship that gets caught up in some weird space anomaly; it’s the way these things often seem to happen in space. His crew is spread out all over this little dimension and it’s up to you to rescue them. The most basic of platformer abilities, jumping, is off limits. Instead, you reverse gravity. Every level can be, and will need to be, viewed two ways to solve it.

Cavanagh doesn’t play with too many other elements apart from the gravity reversal. There are some genre staples (conveyor belts and disappearing platforms; dumb pacing enemies; the ever menacing spike, rarely seen in the singular) but the game is lean, eschewing the Metroidvania’s habit of relying on new abilities to keep the gameplay fresh. Instead, Cavanagh uses clever level design to inject a surprising amount of variety into the game. The gravity flipping is used to its fullest, and no opportunity is wasted or missed. Occasionally, Cavanagh plays with ideas, like a vertically scrolling bit ominously titled “The Tower,” but these stages are built on the solid foundation that up can be down at the press of a button. They serve as temporary pleasant distractions, not game changers.

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Posted in Art, Awesome, Indie, Pics, Reviews | 5 Comments »

GEAR REVIEW
Mad Catz Wireless Gaming Adapter

For years, I have lamented the fact that I could only take my Xbox 360 online by running a long Ethernet cable across my living room floor, which posed a health hazard to anyone else that happened to walk by. As I’m not a fan of having cables stapled up my wall to run along my ceiling and back down another wall to my router, this was the best I could do. The long cable would be hauled out only if I wanted to go online, and I would weigh it down with mats so that the likelihood of someone tripping over it would be minimal.

Microsoft has had its own brand of wireless adapter for the console for years now, and has just also released a Wireless N version of it for about $99. The pricing is a little steep to justify, however, so I shied away from purchasing one. Luckily, Mad Catz has also released a Wireless N adapter at a more affordable $79.

The small adapter comes with a short Ethernet cable, an AC adapter, and some software to help get it up and running. Ironically I’m a bit of a technophobe when it comes to installing and using new software and hardware, and I even get nervous about it. Thankfully setting up the Mad Catz Wireless Gaming Adapter was a fast and simple process. Although it connects to the 360 (or any other wired network-enabled device, for that matter) the actual network information, including any relevant passwords, is stored on the adapter itself. By connecting it directly to a computer, it’s possible to configure the device. A few short minutes later, it was up and running properly with my Xbox 360.

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Posted in Awesome, Gear Reviews, Xbox 360 | 3 Comments »

GEAR REVIEW
SteelSeries Siberia V2 Full-Size Headset

If you game online with friends at all, you know how important it is to have a good, comfortable headset to voice chat with. Unfortunately being frugal when it comes to headsets doesn’t pay off, as they need to be durable, dependable, and most importantly comfortable.

My Xbox 360 came with a wired headset, as did my first Xbox LIVE subscription, as does the Xbox chat pad. Microsoft is willing to give these away with so many other peripherals that I ended up with three of these. I’ve used them from time to time but truthfully the set isn’t that comfortable. Maybe it’s because I have a lot of hair, but the headset just never sits right. It’s always sliding around, the microphone needs constant adjusting, and the sponge earpiece, covering only one ear, feels strange.

Of course, this is a headset that’s included with systems and other peripherals, so I forgive that it’s not of the greatest quality. It certainly gets the job done. Its special plug means I can’t use it with my PC, so for that platform I have yet another headset. It’s a cheap Logitech one that shares many of the same shortcomings as its Xbox counterpart, with the upside that it covers both my ears – when it’s not falling off. Still, for seven bucks, I’m not too worried about it.

It wasn’t until PAX 08 that I realized there are much nicer gaming headsets to be had. I can only blame this ignorance on the fact that I was never on the market looking for them. But there, on the showroom floor, several companies were showing off their wares. Big headsets with retro designs that reminded me of sitting around a record player in kindergarten with giant head clamps on seemed to be the norm. I tried a few on but ultimately shied away because of their price tags (the one pair I fancied was going to cost over $300 with all the necessary “accessories”).

Recently SteelSeries gaming gear became available in Canada, via Best Buy. Among their product offering are several gaming headsets. Better still is that with proper adapters, they’re useable on different platforms. So with this in mind I checked out the SteelSeries Siberia V2 Full-Size Headset (henceforth referred to as “the V2″).

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Posted in Awesome, Gear Reviews | 3 Comments »

REVIEW
Tekken 6

Tekken 6 has been around in specialty arcades for just over two years but has been available to home gamers for just over a month. My first serious foray into the world of Tekken was playing Tekken 3 in the arcades. Eventually, I would get a bit more serious about it, playing it at home on the PlayStation. I had played some Tekken Tag Tournament in the arcade while killing time in theatres waiting for movies, but not enough to really claim to know the game well. When I went to the Sony Holiday Event, I got to sit down and play it, and it blew me away. But even that did not prepare me for the amount of fun I would have playing it at home.

I have raved about how incredible this game looks (there is no exception on my plain ol’ tube television at home), as well as the more realistic pacing in my impressions from the Sony Event, so I will instead focus on gameplay.

The standard offline section of the game is full of typical fighting game goodness, with Arcade, Team Battles, and Survival modes. Each of these options is fun and challenging, especially given the deformable terrain and multi-stage levels. The Rage system is refreshing; when you’re getting low on life, your hits become more powerful. You can even perform moves that allow you to extend your juggles by bouncing your opponents off the floor thanks to the Bound system.

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Posted in PlayStation 3, Reviews | No Comments »

FASHIONABLY LATE REVIEW
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

The all-star comic cast in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 features some impressive talent and a gamut of super powers. My two favourite characters to play as, however, are Wolverine and Deadpool. It’s not that I don’t think the rest of Marvel’s superstars are cool – It’s just that once you have Wolverine and Deadpool on your team, you don’t quite need anyone else. So the other two dudes you choose to round out your team of four? Who cares who they might be?

Beat-’em-ups are meant to be just that – good, old-fashioned beat downs at the touch of a button (or in most cases, at the repeated mashing of a button – but that’s just semantics). So my preference for these short-range characters has some sort of sense to it. Apart from allowing for some up close and personal fisticuffs, Wolverine and Deadpool have some of the best banter found in the game. Because the banter can get repetitive during extended play sessions, it’s a good idea to pick characters you can stand.

Comic fans and those that respect the medium know that it’s capable of some excellent storytelling. Games derived from comics, however, don’t always come through in this regard. It’s not something to hold against comics-related games so much as it’s something to hold against games in general. While in recent years games with narrative have become a big movement for the industry, not all of them have great stories. It’s a forgivable offense, as games themselves are a) still a very new medium and b) much more than just a story anyway and can be appreciated on many levels.

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Posted in Comics, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

Overview
Academy of Champions

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Carsten Myhill from Ubisoft Vancouver to take a look at that studio’s very first title, a fantasy soccer game called Academy of Champions. I was intrigued to see how this game would play, especially considering that while the game is good for all ages, it seems to be targeted at the ‘tween’ demographic. In an industry that often strives for realism (read: FIFA series), how would a cartoon-y soccer (Carsten: “Football!”) game turn out? Surprisingly well, actually.

In the game you portray a young soccer player (your choice of male or female) attending soccer legend Pélé’s Brightfield Academy, a soccer university of sorts (many comparisons were made to Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series). Here you will take your character on a journey that will lead him or her to become a great soccer player. Through a series of training, conversations, and actual soccer matches, you will provide your character with loads of experience and special tokens that allow you to unlock goodies in the store. The 16-hour single-player campaign (20 or so hours if you want to unlock everything) seems to be a good mix of hands-on and observation.

This game does not claim to be an accurate sports simulator. But I believe that it’s good because of this fact. While not as intense as other sports games, Academy of Champions has a decent physics engine. It’s caricatured and feels like an arcade title, for certain, but the engine replicates the feeling of a great soccer match. The training exercises are mini-games and are cleverly disguised soccer drills that allow you to hone your skills while ultimately bringing a smile to your face (some of the mini-games actually allow you to use the balance board, too). The actual matches are also real enough, but concentrate on the essence of the game, and remove the trappings of penalties, throw-ins, and corner kicks which, while authentic, ultimately slow down play.

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Posted in Overviews, Wii | No Comments »