With little or no fanfare, the rating system poll has concluded. With a close vote, the “Out of 100″ system won out with 58% of the vote, with 38 votes. Out of 10 followed with 42, with 28 votes.
We, however, will do some final tweaking on the system. We’ll rate on 10 specific categories, and total the scores for the final out of 100 percent score. Watch this post and the ratings page for the tweaking.
So, I’m sure if you live in the US, you’ve seen the ads for Stride. Apparently the flavor is supposed to last VERY long. I recently bought a pack of Forever Fruit Stride, and I decided, “Why not do some sleuthing for everyone’s benefit?”.
I needed a basis for comparison, so I used Sugar-Free, Bubble Gum Flavored Extra, a pretty average gum. It’s in the silver packaging to the right.
Then, I cut both pieces of gum to about the same size for accuracy. The pieces to be chewed are on the right. Now to chew!
It took only 6 minutes for the Extra gum’s flavor to completely fade away. Not too impressive; the package size more then makes up for that though (it holds around 20 pieces). But to average, only around 2 hours of chewing. Sure explains the 30 cent price tag.
Stride lasted a decent 12 minutes until its flavor ran out. A nice showing, and the piece was still pleasant to chew afterwards. With 14 pieces in a pack, you get 2 hours and 8 minutes of chewing; not a big difference from Extra but still something. 6 minutes more chewing may not be a big difference, but it at least proves marketing claims right; Stride really does last long, in comparison to the competition, but it doesn’t last forever.
Yeah, guys, sorry for the drought. Let me assure you that plenty of new posts are in the mix (a review for Bee Movie, Crysis, Beowulf, etc.) and we have content lined up for our Video and Internet game of the week. Not to mention, Sinister has some posts lined up as well, which all get pretty popular with you guys. I might even start working on a new project or two!
Anyway, to clear up the vague Star Wars references, a new header for the site is in the works. It should be finished before the week ends and it will hopefully be good. I’ll update this post when it’s completed.
I’ll be COMPLETELY redesigning the site. Let’s see what happens there.
EXPECT TURBULENCE!
BOOM! It is done. Do you like it?
The Serious Nerd has an official Steam Community group, located here!
If you have Steam, come join and play with us! When we amass enough members we’ll have regularly scheduled Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike nights; private servers at great speeds and tons of fun!
Every so often, event winners will be awarded with prizes. Even if you don’t own any of the games we’ll play, you can still participate in the chatrooms and download free demos from the Steam Shop!
‘Tis truly is the season to be a gamer. With the Orange Box, Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, amd Sam and Max Season 2 all out, there really is no way to go wrong when you pick a game and you have plenty of worthy choices.
Sadly, I, the reviewer, have to catch up on these games! I’m only one man, but I’ve already lined up a Call of Duty 4 and Crysis review, and I plan to review Sam and Max Season 1 (not sure if I’ll do it yet). So, please don’t be alarmed at a lack of posts that I or anyone else makes; we’ve just got exciting, nice, long, and insightful reviews lined up for you, and for the latest and greatest games too!
And that’s just me; don’t forget Josh, Anthony and Mario!
Pyro Sand 2 is hard to classify. It’s a really great online game; it’s pretty much a giant sandbox where you throw chemicals together in interesting ways to make Rube Goldberg Machines, gigantic explosions, or interesting devices. You could spend hours wasting your time to create an exact to the minute time bomb, or a device that spells your own name over a matter of hours. The possibilities are endless and the enjoyment is infinite. From water to sand to nitro to flames, you have all kinds of potential dangerous things to mess with and you can do it at your own pace; setting options like pen size (to create walls, etc.) and speed (to stop time completely or to speed up lengthy projects). You must simply try it for yourself.
Here’s a good example.
Rating: Everyone (no offensive content whatsoever)
Wii Compatible?: No
I like Moxy Fruvous. One Piece is cool. King of Spain is an awesome song. Moxy Fruvous made King of Spain. Kalei C. combined Moxy Fruvous with One Piece. Therefore, she wins.
Forever.
COWBELL. MORE ANIME. FEAR THE REAPER.
MORE AWESOME.
Have you been in court recently? Probably not, since it is quite boring. The Ace Attorney series wishes to change that, and casts you as Phoenix Wright; a happy-go-lucky, but experienced defense attorney, solving seemingly hopeless cases, and defeating ruthless prosecutors, all with a dramatic, exciting air to it all. This point and click adventure game hearkens memories of the good old days of text-based adventure games, all the way back to games like Mystery House, with somewhat simple graphics but with good story progression and gameplay elements. This is the game’s third US outing and it brings a satisfying and well-tied up close to Phoenix Wright’s story arc, paving the way for new defense attorney Apollo Justice (whose game has already been released in Japan).
The game starts you off as Mia Fey; Phoenix’s deceased mentor and friend. You play Mia Fey’s second case since she started being a lawyer, and it starts off the game well, featuring Phoenix as the defendant in a shocking incident that ended in the death of Dahlia Hawthorne’s old boyfriend Doug Swallow; Hawthorne is Phoenix’s current girlfriend. The case itself features old and new faces, is exciting and comes to a great and dramatic end, and is a much better and refined introductory case then others in the series, which were meant to simply introduce you to the game concept, with easily completable and minute long trial that dwelled on painfully obvious facts (I was glad to not be introduced to the Court Record button yet again for the 35th time). After a zoom forward in time to the present, you play as Phoenix Wright. Accompanied by Maya Fey, Mia’s younger sister, and Pearl Fey, Maya’s cousin, you are whisked into a highly suspicious case of thievery as one of Maya’s priceless treasures is stolen. The case seems oddly out of place in the series’ standard murder cases only mantra, but the story ties up this somewhat loose end together and gives the story some zing and extra length. With this extra length though comes a price; a harder case due to the pile of evidence left behind that you no longer need.
The next case follows a twisty poisoning case, with a supposed “Phoenix Wright” taking the stand and then getting a guilty verdict on the original trial, getting an old friend convicted. When Wright learns of this, he takes up the reins and eventually proves his friend’s innocence after a harrowing and angering trial. An old rift is closed, and the case comes to an emotional end.
Mia Fey again is played, and this time it is on her first case; a seemingly vanilla murder case by an already convicted murderer. But old faces come back into play and the trial ends in tragedy.
The final, longest case accomplishes cleaning up all story holes, as you play as Phoenix. A seemingly innocent visit to a spirit dojo ends in murder and questions finally put to rest as the game ends on a note of love. An overall exciting case, it has you daringly taking the role of Edgeworth as he plays a part as defense attorney and the return of an old prosecutor with a grudge yet to solve.
The controls are simple and don’t particularly demand the DS touch screen’s use; the entire game could be played out with the buttons on the DS. With only a few controls going on, if you familiarize yourself with the court controls, the most confusing controlling scheme of the game, you get used to it quickly and it is simply a button tapping exercise.
The game’s graphics are a vast array of GIFs of the characters; from the quirky Luke Atmey, to the ambiguously gay Jean Armstrong, the characters feel somewhat alive and can do the funniest poses; the mouths of the characters match the text, and these animations lend themselves well to the “defeat” of certain characters in court (such as the maddened, laughing expression of the murderer in the second case). The “drawing” style of the characters is nice and is of an anime bent; it’s popular on the internet to edit the likenesses of the characters for a unique result. No art style change from the previous game at all. The same goes for the graphics of the backgrounds; detailed, but not detailed enough to anger people when a lot of stuff reveals “No clue here.” when examined. The drawing is nice, and the animated sequences throughout cases look great, and even if they are relatively short, are a nice treat to look at.
The music in the game is a vast array; from music from the first game to newly composed pieces, the tunes are catchy and each case brings a few new ones to keep you aurally entertained. The songs themselves lack any kind of vocal and simply match the mood or setting in the game; for example, a sad theme for a detention center after a witness becomes depressed, etc. The rare bits of voice, for objections, take thats and hold its are nice, but sadly the whole game lacks voice, which could have been easy to manage considering the game’s lack of space taking content on the DS cartridge.
The game’s worst crutch is its lack of re playability; once you play a cause once, re playing it has no changes and the progression, dialogue and music remains the same. You unlock only a new case, and menu artwork, for the case you have just beaten and you don’t collect any sort of achievements. The game holds no branching paths, so the only real re playability is to seek out every bit of uttered text to see every last bit of humor. Otherwise, the gameplay doesn’t hold after the ending is reached.
The game’s price is $30, a nice price considering far more pricey, but lower quality titles exist. If you had pre-ordered it, you would have recieved a nice bonus of a Phoenix Wright plushy!
Overall, the game is quirky, original, and is a great farewell to Phoenix and his dominant story arc. The gameplay is no different then past games; but what’s bad about getting the good gameplay again? The game is good, but it may not appeal to everyone because of the amount of reading involved. I’d stay away from it if you are more of a twitchy player; the novella in a cartridge type thing going on with is game will never appeal to you. One last thing; PLAY THE OTHER GAMES FIRST! This game, as the Phoenix story arc closing, contains several references to the past that may completely leave clueless new players in the dark.
84% Good
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Now playing: Jonathan Coulton (Portal) - Still Alive
via FoxyTunes
I’m going to be handing off the Weekly Poll to Josh next week, so here’s my final poll. It’s a pretty long, multiple choice poll on what you think of Rock Band. Please be specific and try to fill in each “category”!
For the purposes of length, I will review only the new games in this package: Half Life 2 Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress Two. Also, I give each game a separate score (sans Editors Choice) for averaging the scores for the entire Box.
In what could be quite accurately described as one of the best game packages ever, The Orange Box, you will find the one of the world’s most successful game franchises: the Half-Life Series. This package is genius on Valve’s part because it places all of Half Life 2 and its 2 preceding episodes in one place, making it easy to get up to date on the series, known for its intriguing story, and great graphics and physics . Not only this, but it also includes two other games; Team Fortress 2, a “sequel” to a great creative team driven multiplayer game, and Portal, an interesting twist on the average puzzle game. These games combined make for a great package.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Half-Life 2: Episode Two is the second episode of Half Life 2, the critically acclaimed game about Gordon Freeman, a scientist who finds Earth to be ruled by alien dictators called the Combine, and who is tasked to lead the uprising against them. The second episode picks up after Episode One, where you find yourself in an overturned train car that you were in after attempting to escape the cataclysmtic explosion of The Citadel. The game’s focus is on the open spaces of a forest; your goal to get to White Forest, a complex holding the last hope to completely destroy the Citadel.
The game controls well. With standard settings, the game controls on the well known and common WASD layout. You can customize every last key for every last action in the game, allowing you to use any layout you wish (even the classic Arrow Keys setup). The game now also supports gamepads, so you can play with the console feel, without the actual console. Although I haven’t tested this option myself, it seems to offer many options for comfort (analog stick switching, etc.).
Half-Life 2 is known for its top of the line graphics, and this new episode is no exception. The game auto detects the best settings for your PC, but you can customize your graphics to amazing new levels of graphic awesome to ’90s like badness. The newest hits in top of the line graphics, Bloom and HDR, are availible here in full force. When I played the game, I had it on maxed settings and the game looked simply amazing, with great texturing, detailing, and shadowing. The game played smoothly on my settings, and it was usually running at 30-50 FPS. I tested on a variety of graphics settings later though and it seems none encounter weird problems (but that depends on your graphics card; I use a Nvidia 6800 Ultra).
The game’s audio is good as well, but not always top of the line. The music sometimes dispersed into tense moments of the game do add to the tension, but sometimes the music is a bit too techno for a gritty game like this. The sound effects are good, and the guns sound convincing. They echo through the landscape and fade with distance, but can sometimes be overpowering. For example, the sub machine gun, when fired, is a lot louder then all of the other weapons. But, the firing of weapons, explosions and music all have a nice bass effect. My floor was practically shaking when I got a laser shot at me by a gigantic Strider. The voice overs are good, especially for Alex, who continues to a be a well fleshed out and overall interesting character, who is not just some dumb AI companion who blindly takes bullets and makes pointless one liners.
The game adds a lot of depth with the brand new addition of Achievements, just like the ones on the Xbox 360. You get them by achieving a goal, such as running 20 enemies over with the car. The make the gameplay experience a lot better, because if you consider achieving them the game slows down a bit and becomes a bit more methodical. It lets you see a lot more of the game.
This game by itself, out of the Orange Box, is $30. A good deal considering a possible $50 price tag, but is of course better bought with the Orange Box.
92% Incredible
Portal
Portal’s game concept is unique; it takes the idea of traveling through space using gateways (like Prey, where the portals were unchangeable except for turning them off and on), and crammed it into a gun. A gun that shoots portals.. doesn’t that sound fun? You’re given this gun, and you have to solve a multitude of puzzles while trying to avoid your untimely death. All FOR SCIENCE!
For a puzzle game, you would expect no story, but there is one. You are a test subject of Aperture Science, Inc., and your task is to test the Portal gun. Under the watchful eye of GLaDOS, you test this gun with the promise of cake. But things turn sour ,and evil, and weird, as with most robots bent on trying to kill you for pointless goals.
The controls of the game are simple and configurable to any play style. The default play style of WASD seems to work the best, but the option to use a gamepad opens a whole new realm. The game fundamentally uses only a few keys, with the gameplay actions numbering very small.
The game looks on par with Half-Life 2, since it uses the same Source engine. The graphics are of course still editable to your needs. The game uses simple colors like black, white, red and grey, and is mostly composed of straight lines and cub like shapes, so the graphics department doesn’t have much effect on gameplay.
The game’s audio consists of only a few stock sounds; the portal gun firing, the turrets shooting, etc. The sounds are all good but nothing to really write home about. The voice of GLaDOS, the computer, is well done and it’s hard to believe it wasn’t generated by a computer (a person does the voice for her).
Like Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the game’s replayability is enhanced by Achievements in-game (such as jumping 300 feet). Also, after beating the game, you unlock tons of advanced maps and challenges. The game however, is short and these levels are few.
The game by itself is $20. A good deal, considering the shortness of the game.
89% Good
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is probably one of the longest awaited games in this package. Originally announced in 1998 as the obvious sequel to Team Fortress, it was originally developed as a realistic looking game like Half-Life 2. But the developers soon turned to a cartoonish look for not only a different look but easy distinguishing from other classes. Seeing exactly who killed you is a rush!
Being a multiplayer game, this game has no story at all, whatsoever. No single player campaign is tacked on. It’s just an endless battle between hordes of people over a briefcase and control points. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
This is a repeat from the past games mentioned here, but the game follows a standard WASD control scheme and can be completely customized. The game also is compatible with a gamepad.
The game’s cartoonish look really lends itself well to this game. It provides a visually distinctive experience from the more monotonous looks of other multiplayer games like Counter-Strike, and it allows for slightly easier gameplay. Since the game uses specific classes, it would be hard to distinguish between this classes in real-life graphics because it is mostly body shape and faces that make these characters unique. To do a realistic look you’d have to avoid exaggeration and the line between class distinction would be made a lot thinner. This helps a lot more then you’d think- knowing if a Medic or a Pyro is coming to help you out makes team play easier; if you had a Medic you could charge the other team; if you had a Pyro you could do sneak attacks with the side consequence of death by flames. The graphics, although cartoony, are good quality and will remind of Pixar movies (the graphic quality is close to the same).
The audio of the game also helps in class distinction; to the mumbles of the Pyro behind a mask, to the Russian accent of the Heavy, you know who’s calling for your help and who to run to first. Another notable voice in the game is the woman who tells you “The intelligence has been stolen!” or “Ten seconds left!”. She sounds relatively James Bond like and is really well voiced. The gunfire sounds good, but isn’t amazingly unique; but the sound of you getting gibbed is both disgusting and mildly realistic. The music is good though; from the main menu’s spy-like themes to the strains of your failure playing as your team loses a round.
The game is infinitely replayable- with hundreds of matches going on at once, and tons of unlockable achievements, from getting 1000 kills to winning a round on a map in less then 5 minutes, it’s not hard to end up with the 50+ hours of playtime under your belt, like some people end up doing (it’s a large number). Sadly though, there is a lack of multiplayer maps.
The price of the game alone is $30 and a decent price for a game this replayable. It stands on its own and if you don’t care for Half-Life 2 you end up getting a sweet deal anyway.
96% Incredible
Overall
In the end, the Orange Box is a combination of tons of some of the best PC games out right now. All sport good graphics and unique gameplay, but in the end all have flaws- nothing Box breaking in the end though. If you can afford it (and who doesn’t have $50 laying around who calls themself a gamer), buy it. It will be worth your time!
92% Incredible
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