Nintendo it’s not that were mad at you… were just disappointed Thursday, Mar 20 2008 

Uncategorized , , , , normandybusiness 3:30 am

Although I strictly only test on the Xbox 360 I still own every main platform including the Nintendo Wii. And everybody knows that Smash Brothers has come out and everybody knows that the online plays like a side of garbage. I say to you Nintendo: if you were to not mess up once at all this generation it would be to release at least one game that worked online. I know Mario Kart is on the way but I seriously CAN wait to be hit by a Blue Shell online, I just want to play some Smash. By the third day I could beat the computer AI on the highest level “9″ so where does that leave me. I need human opponents. Anyway nothing that hasn’t already been said.

Read more of my Articles on 360 Game Testers.

 

Army of Two: Original or Lowered Expectations Friday, Mar 7 2008 

Uncategorized , , , , , , , normandybusiness 4:17 am

I must put my foot in the door, as a Xbox 360 game tester I have seen this increasing trend of violence, shooting, and a first person perspective ( in some mixed berry fashion) overwhelm the gaming industry. It isn’t anything that hasn’t already been said but I think along with some of these trends entering video games I also think that expectations are being lowered. Originality can be considered a game taking a third person perspective as a change of pace. Instead of looking beyond the idea of military shooters, sword swinging fantasy, and tons of blood, we stick to the basics of what sells to all the frat kids who buy Xbox 360’s.

Which brings me to Gears of War Jr. or Army of Two.  I may seem like Gears of War with a middle eastern make over but it has it’s own things to offer to make you stray far enough away from the similarities.  The thing that I found to be quite irritating is the game is based on co-op, either multiplayer or single player, and that is far from the truth.  Well, yes, the game has co-op but to consider the small nuances between players a big step ahead or something innovative is like saying Ashley Simpson is a musical savant, even if she might carry a few autistic qualities.

Using one player to carry a car door while the other shoots cover fire is barely a reason to take a fresh breathe of artistic.  Of course I am not saying that Army of Two is a bad game, I just wish that they would take a note from the Nintendo Wii console and package all these Shooting games on one disc.  Just like Nintendo’s minigame packages, it would be a bunch of slightly varying shooter games where to can get a head shot in a variety of ways.  Or we can just wait for Portal 2.

 

GDC was Amazing-ish Part 2 Sunday, Feb 24 2008 

Uncategorized , , , , , , normandybusiness 6:40 am

Well, I accidentally just deleted my post on GDC, so here I am writing it again.  Just to give a recap of what happened.

Gears of War 2 was announced. whoo!

Sony didn’t have any bomb drops or any news relevant to gamers or testers.

I met with other testers and talked about upcoming games, that probably won’t be that great.

Then I think I finished the post with saying that I would love to test for the new Gears of War game, and that it would never happen.  Heres to dreaming and deleting posts, damn you WordPress.

 

Team Fortress 2 Xbox 360 Version Wednesday, Feb 13 2008 

Uncategorized , , , , normandybusiness 11:35 pm

To simplify the Xbox 360 version it can be said that it is awful. This upsets me quite strongly, because in 2007 Team Fortress was the best multiplayer game released. Better than Halo 3 (easily) and just a bit better than Call of Duty 4. Why I decide to write about this now is that it is has been about 4 months since the games release and we have yet to see Valves take on making the game better. There is also going to be new content that were not even sure that the Xbox 360 is going to get. I can’t complain to the extent that I would want to because they packaged it in the best deal I have yet to see in gaming. The Orange box brought us 5 games for the price of one, and every game is superb. On top of that Portal could be considered the best game of the year.

I still must complain to a degree or I will not get my sleep tonight. The problem with the Xbox 360 Team Fortress 2 game is not the game play it is connectivity to the internet. TF2 constantly kicks me out of matches for no reason, makes me freeze in one play for a long period of time, takes 1 minute to load into a game that I instantaneously get kicked out of and so on. One patch was released that help the game not look like a flip book, but these changes are barely noticeable when compared to the perfect connections of Call of Duty 4 and other games. On the PC it runs great and I could play it on that platform but I really like it on the Xbox 360 because the game overall doesn’t require perfect accuracy or twitch like reflexes so I don’t want to sit in that uncomfortable position in front of my computer. If I would have personally worked on the project I wouldn’t have released the Xbox version at the same time with the PC’s version. Although I hear that the Playstation 3 version didn’t fair so well even though it was released several months after. I guess I will just go an rant to the other ten people playing this game.

For more information and articles go to 360 Game Testing.

 

Xbox 360’s Mass Effect Monday, Feb 11 2008 

Uncategorized normandybusiness 8:05 am

Yes the game is now a few months old but I did just finish Mass Effect. I have to say, it is a testers nightmare and the whole game is full of bugs and mistakes. I personally didn’t test on the Mass Effect project and in all actuality, testing other games is what kept me from playing Mass Effect for a while. Anyway, as I said Mass Effect had quite a few big problems. Still, after 10 hours into the game I totally forgot about its downfalls (which is hard to do as a person who is only suppose to see downfalls). I started to gain a full respect for what the developers were trying to do in the game. I built interpersonal relationships with the characters that diminished the texture popping, frame dropping, and Xbox locking that the game undeniable exhumes.

It’s definitely an experience worth playing although I feel that the games beginning really doesn’t reflect how good the game gets in the middle and end. Xbox 360 needs more deep games, instead of the crap I often have to test, unless my publishers are reading, and in that case I mean crap as a good thing.

Besides that I am heading to Massachusetts for… I think a meeting.

Remember to check out a site that I write Xbox 360 testing related stuff on:360 Game Testers.