Nintendo... Y U NO TAKE MONEY?!

Hello, valued readers. Long time, no see! Apologies for the delayed absence, we know that those of you who read our blog are loyal and we appreciate your time and patience. For that patience, following this post I'll let you know a little about what I have planned.


I've written in detail about the PS3's exclusive lineup this year. We all know the 360 will dominate in third-party sales, it has since it was released. Nintendo's Wii U comes out sometime next year, the 3DS is out now... so the focus has understandably shifted somewhat away from their sales juggernaut, the Wii.The only notable exclusive announced for the Wii this year is Zelda: Skyward Sword... kind of a paltry lineup for a console that has 80 million units in households at the moment.

But some fans are crying foul. There are a number of Japanese Wii titles that have already been released, but won't be seeing the light of day in the United States. One fan decided to say something about it...

Whether you're a Nintendo fan or not, you have to agreed that the man makes a good point. Sony did a fair job of continuing to support the PS2 well into the PS3's life-cycle (it was only late last year, four years after the PS3 launched, that NPD stopped listing PS2 sales on their monthly console sales charts). Why can't Nintendo continue to support their loyal fanbase, arguably the most loyal of the three console manufacturers, with nearly a year left on the development of their next home console?

Feel free to discuss Nintendo and the "Project Rainfall" movement in the comments below. As for what's to come next, the plan is this: I'm working on a two-part Wayback Flashback review of the first and second Assassin's Creed games in preparation for reviews of both Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations when it is released in November. I have a number of opinion pieces milling about in my head, ranging from whether modern games are too easy to the validity of the "achievement/trophy" metagames in today's market. Hopefully these will be features you'll see in early August. Until then, thanks for your patience, live long, and may the Force be with you!

Suburban Knights!

I love absolutely everyone from ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com
This is their new super crossover. Watch it!

Shilling my wares on any plaform I can... BUY MY DVDS!

I don't really like doing this on the blog, but I figure it's the easiest way to reach those who I know, and who like what I like. That's right, welcome to b-Bay, the only auction site where... you can buy my dvds.

So, it's been a year, I'm all moved in to my new place, but still have waaaaaay too many dvds that I never watch (cuz I"m watching all my blu-rays, or Netflix Instant). So, if you're interested in any of these, leave a comment or send me an email, and just remember that all prices are negotiable.

Did I mention the Camera

The Hybrid and SuperGamerologist talking about few current events.

We got a new camera!

SGamerologist on screen and Hybrid behind the camera

Lets hope we crank out some video content now!

Written Gamerology: Hunted

Such an awesome name.

Bethesda has much on its plate with the development of the RPG Skyrim, which continues the much vaunted Elder Scrolls saga. However, while that’s being developed other games are coming out of the company such as Brink, Rage, and Hunted. Hunted is a fantasy game set around the gears of war design of the stop and pop shooter. This is a game full of good ideas and intentions. Does it rise to the occasion and show all of its potential or does it fall short of the mark like a weakly fired arrow?

The story is one all dungeon and dragons players will enjoy. Caddoc, a melee loving warrior, and his elven female archer companion Elara are off on another adventure for gold. But Caddoc’s mind keeps sending him troubling visions of a mysterious woman and a danger filled adventure, setting the stage for the upcoming game and foreshadowing events to come. The story is quite good. It keeps the player interested by spoon feeding the tale through cutscenes and dialogue between characters as the game progresses. It is also slightly long-winded at points with a bit too much story told through dead characters via the adventurer’s device known as the Deathstone. The Deathstone isn’t a terrible way to further the details of the quest and flesh out the story but it can definitely get old waiting for the audio clip to load. It may irk some to the point where they become a chore.

I cant see anything and Im not even in a dungeon yet.

The word chore is not how I’d like to describe this games design, though it hardly makes it to intuitive or spectacular. Hunted, however, falls short in its multiplayer, particularly when played on a TV that’s not widescreen. The split-screen multiplayer scrunches the screen into a box shape. The borders of the box show the different features like magic but it is completely unnecessary. On a basic television this game is nigh unplayable in multiplayer because of this. Also the menu for leveling weapons and spells are poor too, forcing one player to level up both characters even when in co-op mode. Lastly the health and mana potions can be difficult to notice no matter what TV is being used. It’s almost impossible to see on a smaller screen.

It’s almost as bad during gameplay. Gears of War was built on the idea of two sides hiding and shooting, utilizing cover to it's fullest. This game is using that same mechanic. Unfortunately, one character in this adventure has primarily melee abilities. This makes for a clunky battle system all around. It means half the time one character feels useless because either the fighter is in the way of the archer's shots or is being shot to pieces because of unrelenting arrows rushing at his face. And that damage is massive! Hunted makes the player feel cheated at almost every death, due to unnecessarily high damage and the aforementioned low visibility. Often times, monsters will run up and stab you in the back with no way of knowing they are there until you have lost half your life. I haven’t played a game until now that made my deaths feel so undeserved.

Speaking of dying, when a character goes down there is a limited amount of time before the chapter games over and gamers must restart. The checkpoint system can be daunting to say the least. Worse, sometimes neither character has a revive potion so it’s a promised party restart. Despite touting to its similarity to Gears of War, it fails to homage to Gears of War intuitive buddy revival system. Lastly, this kind of battle condition makes players rely on using the cheapest strategies to win.

Winning or not the worst part of gameplay we’ve found were the puzzles. The Walls and I spent too much time lighting torches or pushing things. Every puzzle seems to revolve around these two actions. Is that a torch? You will light it. Is that a cart? You better push it. Quite frankly this game’s puzzles are rock-stupid. Granted yes, this game has a linear design. The player or players kill from point A to point B. But I would like to see the small puzzle pieces on the wall puzzle or one with multiple keys. Portal problems these are not.

...Dumb Puzzles...

Problems or not Hunted doesn’t have a terrible presentation. It’s actually quite good. The locales look varied and distinct from sprawling over grown forest to the broken warn torn city. It’s exciting exploring the dungeons sometimes in almost complete darkness wondering what may come out of the corner. Sadly, the character’s models are only decent and the game takes some time for textures to load. Also every once in a while the animations in cutscenes are off. The music was decent but for the most part forgettable. The dialogue and sound effects, however, are top notch.

Hunted feels like another notch in Bethesda’s belt. But, thats not such a good thing. This game is primarily based on co-op gameplay and because of design its broken. Finding the fun in this game is like pulling teeth. Its painful and hard to do. Worse, it is fun and feels really good when fun rears its head. Yet that only really makes it toe-stabbingly-bad when the flaws rear their ugly head. At best this is a renter and do not play it one anything but a widescreen TV!

Update, Upgrade, and Evolve

Every year gamers have wide eyed anticipation for the conventions and expositions for video games. What are we watching for? The new games, systems, and trends for the industry. And players and spectators thrive on that new fix. This years E3 was massive as Skywalker pointed out here! However, here is the media I loved from the show. Check it out.

Drake is always exciting.


A very Bioshocking look at America.


Halo 4 is in the hands of a new developer. Will 343 Studios produce the same quality in this game?


Nintendo is notorious for making mobile sytems. This is something a little different.

This E3 was full of interesting things to check out. For more information try the IGN and Gametrailers links to the left. Gamers and friends of gamers and parents of little gamers definitely have great things rushing at them in the coming years. Whats got you excited or made you take notice this E3? Let us know!