GameFawx Previews: Spike TV's Video Game Awards

In recent years Spike TV’s Video game award show has come under flak for being inaccurate and borderline rigged. After looking at the list for this year’s nominees, it might only confirm that again this year. After looking over the entire list of categories, the biggest thing that jumps out is the lack of Wii games, besides the best Wii game section. In the entire list, I only saw 2 Wii games make any kind of nomination. Now I know the Wii isn’t the most popular gaming machine, but it has had its fair share of games to come out this year, and they have been unfairly overshadowed by the big franchises that have been released on or about the same time.

I’ve also noticed a lot of games are in lists that they really don’t belong to. The biggest stand out is Mario in the Best Action-Adventure list. Mario has not and never will be an Action game, never. Mario is a platformer, always has been. And to see Mario get in that list and something like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow not make it in; yeah it’s not even listed, sets off a few red flags. I also saw Fable 3 in the RPG list. The Fable series are Adventure, not RPG. That series doesn’t come anywhere close to meeting RPG standards. Speaking of RPG’s that don’t belong, Final Fantasy 13 is also on the list. Now RPG’s are my favorite series, I can’t get enough of them, and FF 13 doesn’t belong on the “Best RPG” list in any way. I’d review it, but I’d have to force myself to play it in order to finish it.

Moving on to another list, in Best Graphics; ugh, I hate this list; the red flag is Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Really? Ok, I’ve been reading that Sonic Colors has been claimed to be the best looking Wii game this year, some have even said to date, or even a game like Monster Hunter Tri isn’t listed. And yet Epic Yarn gets on the list? Who picked this list, its yarn and it doesn’t belong on a best graphic list. I’ll get more into my thoughts on Games and Graphics in another post, so look forward to that one.

Now here’s a set of lists that need to be compressed into one big list. Best Music Game and Best Soundtrack. I say this because both lists are full of rhythm games. Things like Guitar Hero, DJ hero, Rock Band. The lists are so similar I don’t see the point in splitting it up like this. Chances are whoever wins one will win the other.

I couldn’t help but notice that this year one list is missing. Where is Best Fighter? There have been plenty of fighters released this year: Street Fighter 4, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom just to name two. Why is this list not even mentioned?

Let’s move on to the list that is currently dominating the market: Best Shooter. The Red Flag in this list is BioShock 2. I haven’t played it, but from my understanding, that’s anything but a shooter. The multiplayer might be a shooter, but not the single player. If that’s the reason, then a whole new list needs to be made for that. Split up the Single player shooters and the multiplayer shooters.

I also have to address the best Wii game list. How is Donkey Kong Country Returns on the list? The game hasn’t been out 48 hours at the time of this posting. Less than 24 at the time the lists went up. How can a game get nominated when it’s not even out yet? And yet again, Sonic Colors which is getting great reviews isn’t even mentioned.

Speaking of best games on console, the list for the Best on PS3 is flawed. Best game on a console needs to be exclusives, not multiplatform and Red Dead Redemption had the best PS3 list. How can it do that when it’s also on the Xbox 360?

That’s my thoughts on the individual lists, but there is still the voting method. To my knowledge, voting is completely up to an online poll. This leads to seriously flawed votes. With open polls like that, you get fanboys voting for nothing but their favorites and people voting for the current “Hot Trending” game and not something that might actually deserve the title of “Best of”.

If this award show intends to take itself as a serious award show for games, then the people behind it need to seriously rethink some of its policies. And I’m not the only one who believes this. The current biggest voice in this debate is AngryJoe and his online show AngryJoeShow. He goes into a lot more detail then I have, check him out he’s really good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmsUk9nmIuc

I’ll see you guys on the next posting of GameFawx.

GameFawx Reviews: Sonic Colors

I was going to do this review around Christmas, but I've been hearing/reading alot of controversy regardings this game, so I decided to bump up my schedule and do it now.

Sonic Colors is the 4th game with Sonic's name on it to come out this year, the second game to use the Hedgehog game engine, and the first 3D adventure since last years Sonic Unleashed. Now in recent years 3D and Sonic has never been a good mix, however this time I have to say the two mix great this time.

Now lets start with my favorite part of any game, the story. In past Sonic games, its been the same: The Doctor, I call him that to avoid the whole Eggman/Robotnik debate, attempts to collect the 7 chaos emerald in enact a plan to, you guessed it, take over the world, (Of Course). This time to my surprise, thats not the case, kinda. The emerald aren't even mentioned this time around and instead the Doctor is capturing little aliens to use as a fuel source. Kinda the same idea, and kinda simple, but I've heard alot worse.

Now the biggest issue I've heard people complain about are the controls. Some have said the control are clunky and broken. After playing and finishing the game using the Wiimote and chuck, I have to say who ever said that had no skill. I only encounterd one time where the controls caused me any trouble, and its was minor. My biggest gripe with the controls however is the jump precision. When your trying to land on a narrow platform, it can be rather hard to aim but thankfully this kind of situation happens about 3 times in the entire game.

The gameplay is set between a side view 2D and a straight view 3D aspect. Switching between the two is very seamless. Now some people have said Sonic has been about nothing but speed, I disagree but in this case your getting plenty of it. Every level is very fast paced and full of action, with very few points where you have to slow down or stop. But in order to keep Colors from being a straight running game, this time little creature are put in as powerups. When ever you collect one your granted a quicky use of a special power. These range from speed dash to drilling through the ground, to my personal favorite shooting across the stage in a laser beam. But I have to address the bosses of the game. They are far to easy to be called bosses. In all the bosses I faced, only one gave me any trouble because I took to long learning the patterns and this wasn't the final boss either.

Speaking of difficulty, Sonic Colors is not a gmae you will shoot through on your first try. You will die a few times, you might even see the "Game Over" screen once or twice. Thats called a challenge and there is nothing wrong with that. But to keep it from being too hard, special pop up icons have been put in to give you at least some kind of warning of whats ahead of you.

Moving on to the sound. The only time you hear any kind of vocals in the music is during the credits, both sets. Other then that, Sonic Colors goes back to stage focused instrumental music, and it fits just fine. I caught myself bobbing my head to a few tunes, but sadly nothing really stuck. Also I need to add, that this is the first Sonic game in a few years that my ears don't bleed when Sonic, or Tails talks. Sega has dumped the group known as the 4Kids team and recast every character, except for the Doctor. And of the three characters I've heard, I'm not complaining one bit.

Believe it or not, there are plenty of reason to keep coming back to Sonic Colors as well. Completionist will find several branching paths in every level, and hidden red rings that unlock various things as collected. There is also a multi player mode that lets up to two players play through several specially designed levels. Finally there is also a challenge mode where you attempt to beat scores on your levels.

Sonic has faced some hard times over the years and has a long road to go if Sega ever wants to get Sonic back in the spotlight. But I have to say Sonic Colors is the best 3D Sonic game I have ever played. Is it perfect? No, but its everything fans have been looking for in a 3D Sonic game, Earning a final verdict of a 8 out of 10. Go buy this, you wont regret it.

See you on the next posting of GameFawx.

GameFawx Reviews: Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2

The world of Star Wars is a world we all know of today. I myself am a huge fan of the entire series, I even liked the prequels. So I was very excited when I heard a sequel was being made to 2008s Force Unleashed. After actually playing TFU 2, I am very disappointed.

TFU 2 starts off shortly after the light side events of its predecessor with Darth Vader going to the clone labs to find the main character, "StarKiller", still alive and in shackles. You are informed you are a clone, and a failed one as well. You quickly break out of the lab and the game begins. This is a good setup for a story, a quest to find your missing friends and find out if you are a clone or if you were lied to. Sadly, this is as far as it goes with the plot. As you play the game, none of those questions are awnsered. Just when I had gotten to a point where I thought the game was about to go into detail of the story and really take off, the credits began to roll. I was so shocked at the sudden stop, I felt like the game wasn't finished. Now it's a pity that this idea wasn't expanded upon, considering how TFU 1 ended, and how 2 began I would have liked to get at least some kind of awnser to how the character survived, but again throughout the entire game you get nothing. Some people might argue this is a setup for a part 3, but this is the third time I've played a game where it just suddenly stopped and the reaction has never been good.

Now the gameplay hasn't changed much from the last one. Controls and camera are the same, so no problems there. To change things up this time, your given a second lightsaber and a ability to enter a "Rage Mode" where your power is doubled and you unlock more advanced attacks. This however is brought down by the lack of enemies in the game. Your first encounters with each types can be a little rough, but once you learn the patterns, its becomes routine and rather boring. Even on hard mode, I was having very little trouble with the enemies this time around. I must say, I like the addition of realistic lightsabers this time, with limbs and parts getting sliced off with each cut. This feature hasn't been seen since 1994's Jedi Outcast.

Now I have to talk about the levels, in TFU 1, each level was easily labeled with the changing of the players clothing. Most players will use the same base when identifing the levels in TFU 2, and using that base there are only 4 levels, and one is so short, it might as well have been a cutscene. However, there are move levels then that since each one is broken into sub-sections, each ending with some kind of boss battle. Now thankfully there isn't any boss fights like the second boss in TFU 1, but trouble is, there aren't any fights like the second boss in TFU 1. There were virtually no challenge to any of these bosses in the game what-so-ever. Only one gives a headache, but thats only because you spend 3/4 of the time dodging attacks. Also like I mentioned above, there is one level that is beyond short: the Degobah level. It lasts all of 5 minutes, at most. Now some people have argued that there isn't anything to do on Degabah and thats why its so short. My reply to that is, 1993's Super Empire Strikes Back for the SNES had more then this level.

Speaking of length, this is what caught by surprise the most. I finished the game in just under 6 hours, on hard. I'm guessing easy can be done in about 4 hours for a skilled player. This is the biggest let down of the whole game. TFU 1 was at least twice as long, and the harder modes really tested your skill as a player. In todays market, paying 60+ dollars for a game that short is unacceptable. Anything under 5 and most people dont even bother with it, ever.

All in all, Force Unleahsed 2 feels like one step forward and two steps back. They added alot of stuff to make it different from TFU 1, but took out alot of stuff to really appeal to the more hardcore players. Which is why, on my scale, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 rates a 4 out of 10. Just below average. Not a bad game, but could have been better. This is a weekend rental at most, and thats IF your not playing something else that came out on the same day.

I'll see you on the next posting of GameFawx.

Welcome to GameFawx

Greetings and welcome to my new blog, GameFawx. A place where people can come to hear information on various games and game content from an average player. Over the years I've noticed alot of websites and magazines have been "losing credit" when it comes to the content that they add, so I've decided to try and provide a place where information can be given from someone who isn't getting paid to say things. Now please keep in mind, I can only post opinions and reviews on games I have and played, so if I don't get to a favorite, sorry. I also entend to do my reviews in a way no one does: no comparisons to existing games. Every game I review will be reviewed in and of itself, allowing for a fair and honest view.

Now I won't just be doing game reviews, I'll also be sharing various views and ideas I've had in my years of gaming. Things I've noticed have happened to the gaming world that should really be addressed.

Thanks for coming, hope you enjoy my thoughts, and I'll see you on the next posting of GameFawx.