Toronto Thumbs

Review
Dante’s Inferno

Dante’s Inferno is an utterly baffling game to write about. On one hand it is a completely derivative, by-the-numbers large budget action game – a shameless, wholesale rip-off of Sony’s God of War series. The monsters are one-note, your wife is a sexualized damsel-in-distress, and your final enemy is Lucifer – a familiar asshole of an antagonist who you fight to the end in an apocalyptic arena. You wade through tiny enemies and later fight bigger enemies who you finish off with brutal quick-time events. On the surface it’s a smorgasbord of been-there, eviscerated-that.

On the other hand, it’s an adaptation of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, a seminal work of literature from the 14th century. It is an historical source that, unlike several Greek epics, has not been plundered for popular culture’s sake with great frequency. In its portrayal of the Underworld, developer Visceral Games pays a startling amount of respect towards the original material; so much so, in fact, that dismissing the title entirely because of its derivative game-play would do gamers a grave disservice.

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

Fashionably Late Review
Patapon 3

The Patapon series for the Playstation Portable is easily at the top of the list of my favourite handheld titles. With addictive game-play, simple-yet-effective visuals, a great “score” and an unapologetic view of level-grinding (and loot collecting) – what’s not to love? Part rhythm game and part RPG, Patapon 3 is no different from its predecessors in how it makes the player feel, even if a good deal of the game has changed.

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Review
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean

Sometimes I think that the LEGO franchise has a license to print money; any video game adaptation (that bears the LEGO name) of a film will always do well. The formula is essentially the same for each game: stick to the major plot, ensure that the character design reflects that of the movie and capture the charm. Though it seems like this system could become repetitive, each game manages to be entertaining. The latest in the LEGO lineup, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (developed by Traveller’s Tales and published by Disney Interactive Studios), is just as addictive and fun as the games that came before (and certainly far more engaging than the middle two films).

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Posted in DS, PlayStation 3, PSP, Reviews, Wii, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

Review
Tron: Evolution

Disney Interactive’s Tron: Evolution, developed by Propaganda Games, is a third-person action-adventure game in which you enter the electronic world of the cult-classic-turned-modern-awesomeness. With a great single-player campaign and an awesome multi-player offering, Evolution is both a fantastic game as well as a constructive way to prepare for Tron: Legacy, the film.

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

Christmas Ideas
Toy Story 3

Woody, Buzz, and the whole gang come alive in this Disney Interactive title developed by Avalanche Software; Toy Story 3 is a larger-than-life action/adventure platformer that does far more than tip its cap at the film of the same name. The game focuses on the story of the toys in their latest adventure: Andy has grown up and is going off to college, leaving the toys to try and get him to play with them just one more time. Of course, things are never that easy, and our intrepid little friends ride a veritable roller-coaster of adventure before the tale reaches its conclusion.

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Posted in DS, Mac, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Reviews, Wii, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

Review
Invizimals

When I first played Invizimals for the PSP, it was at the Sony Holiday Event that was held in Toronto back in October. It was difficult to assess whether the game was destined to be good or not since it relied so heavily on a quiet environment; the Sony Centre was anything but that day. Still, I was intrigued by the principle and was enthused to give it a solid go for a review. The first thing that you need to know about this game is that it uses the PSP Camera, and if you don’t already have one it isn’t a big deal: the game already comes with one in the box for $40.

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Posted in PSP, Reviews | 1 Comment »

Fashionably Late Review
Football Manager 2010

2009 looked to be a dark, dark time for Worcester City FC. If you believed the pundits in the media and the majority of the club’s supporters, Worcester was poised to be relegated from the lower echelon of the Football Conference – already a whopping five tiers below the fabled Premiership – into true obscurity in the English footballing world. The players, all on part-time contracts, looked resigned to their fate and had nothing but a brave face to put on before starting what may have been their last semi-professional campaign.

As for the Canadian manager, he’s in the first year of a two-year extension to his original contract and is the darling of the board room and the supporters. If they only knew he was keeping one eye on the job market and taking more than a cursory look at the insecure manager positions in the higher leagues…

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Posted in PC, PSP, Reviews | No Comments »

Event
Sony PlayStation Holiday Event 2010 – Third Eye

Now you have to ask yourself: do you feel lucky? Well, do ya?

On the opposite side of the main floor from Killzone 3 was another first-party section; games like Little Big Planet 2, 3D-enabled Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Move-enabled SOCOM and a variety of other Move titles were on display. There was also a PSP table, featuring a bevy of games (including a neat one that used the PSP Cam). We decided to check out some of the titles here before moving upstairs to the third-party area.

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Posted in Events, First Impressions, PlayStation 3, PSP, Sony | 10 Comments »

FanExpo 2010
B Number 2 – Tron: Evolution

Easy to recognize.

When Tron 2.0 came out, it was pretty clear to me that only those of us who saw the original movie would be excited, if at all; fans are a fickle bunch; resistant to change; any departure from the plot is met with a frown and an insistence that “this never would have happened in the original”. Monolith did a good job toeing that line between canon and the introduction of new material. Even with generally favourable reviews, Tron 2.0 underperformed from a sales perspective, and support was eventually dropped; a shame, really, since the faithful user community kept producing mods for it, as well as an expansion.

Tron: Evolution, though, is a whole other story, and has something going for it that 2.0 did not: an accompanying motion picture (Tron: Legacy); even though that film may not be as closely tied to the game as one might expect.

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Posted in Events, First Impressions, Move, PC, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

Late To the Party
Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines

My final destination (for now) in my mad quest to play everything in the Assassin’s Creed franchise was finally reached the other day upon my completion of Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines for the PSP. When Bloodlines hit the shelves last year, it received a lukewarm reception from many; I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Posted in PSP, Reviews | No Comments »