The Pinball Arcade (iOS, Android, PlayStation3, PS Vita, Xbox 360, and Mac)

Going to the arcade as a kid, I was never a big pinball person myself.  Although the tables looked cool, I found them kind of arcane with their magical 'specials' and 'lit' ramps and such.  Plus, I was never a good enough player to make my quarter last more than a few minutes.  For that reason I tended to gravitate towards more familiar games such as air hockey, Die Hard Arcade and the Terminator 2 shooter.

However, as arcades have come and gone (and hopefully are coming back again, albeit more sparsely), my interest in pinball has been renewed.  It would seem that pinball and its associated community is still relatively strong, despite the downfall of arcades.  In fact, it is much easier to find a pinball table in a bowling alley than it is to find an older style arcade cabinet.  There seems to be something about pinball that keeps fans dedicated to its upkeep.

I have never been all that impressed with digital pinball games.  Although my wife swears by Epic Pinball (Epic Megagames - DOS), I could never really get in to pinball games in general.  Manipulating the flippers by using buttons on a keyboard just didn't feel right, and the physics always seemed very artificial.  That has all changed though with my discovery of The Pinball Arcade.

I can't remember where I found out about this game.  It could have been a mention on Reddit, or maybe an advertisement in RetroGamer magazine.  Either way it doesn't matter.  This game is the cats meow.

You only have 20 minutes to kill?  Fire up your favourite table and practice hitting the left ramp a few times.  Your schedule suddenly clears up a bit and that twenty minutes becomes an hour of downtime?  Perfect!  Now you can put your practice to good use and go for the jackpot.

Farsight Studios obviously loves pinball and obviously cares about their product.  You can feel it in the fit and finish of the game.  I'm not talking about genius menus trees, or amazing intro cinematics because it has neither of these.  I'm talking about the game play itself.  It. Is. Awesome.  It easily is the closest thing to playing pinball you can experience without having a table in your house.

Tables run for about $4.99 for two (usually), or you can buy the season pack for either $30 or $40 depending on season.  Yes, that seems expensive, but the tables have been beautifully recreated from original, authentic pinball tables.  Plus, the pinball table at the local bowling alley near me costs a dollar per ball, or three balls for two dollars.  It doesn't take a genius to see how fast you can eat through real money, especially when you're new to a table.  This game also includes instructions for every table so that you can unravel those previously mentioned 'arcane' strategies and put them to use racking up points!

Having mentioned the fact that the tables are based off of real tables, I want to speak to this for a moment.  Being a nostalgia junky, I think it is absolutely amazing that a company is taking the time to digitally archive electro-mechanical devices, and that they're doing it properly right from the beginning.  Yes, you can emulate old consoles and arcade cabinets but it's never truly the same.  Somehow, Farsight has done it in such a way that it 'feels' right. It'll never be exactly the same as playing a real table - you can't feel the life of the table through you hands nor can you smell the warm bulbs, but it's pretty freakin' close.  I'm not sure what they've put in their secret sauce, but I hope they never change it!

I highly recommend that anyone with any device (sorry Blackberry!) at least give it a shot.  There is a free table of the month available for play, and you can try any table up to the minimum high score.

Who knows, maybe you'll get hooked as well.  The more pinball fanatics, the better for the community!

|http://www.pinballarcade.com/

My Beef With Xbox Live

So I have been an Xbox Live member for about 4 years now I think (off the top of my head) and now finally there are some rewards for being a gold member, the free 2 gold games. However, when I went to download Fable 3 the first game offered, I was not able to. This goes back to when I created my account somehow, and I still do not understand how, my account is registered as a Canadian account hence, because I live in Germany, my IP was not granted permission to download Fable 3, which isn't the main issue as I can see that and I am sure that tat could have been settled over the phone. If only the issue were so minor. When I signed back in on Friday last week the Free 2 Gold offer panel had a new addition on my Xbox. "you are expiring, renew your gold" now here is the issue that has me ranting and frankly extremely disappointed at the customer service. I can no longer even open the window although I have gold for the time being. How incredibly money-hungry is that? I have been a paying customer for 4 years and now just because I have not yet renewed my gold I cannot download the games. In fact I cannot even open the panel it takes me to a gold offer. If it wasn't for the fact that I am moving across the globe and would like a way to keep gaming with my brothers I would seriously consider backing out of gold permanently. Incredibly disappointing Xbox.

Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2

For one of the more epic games that most of us will have played. If you are reading this, you will most likely have played (or at least heard of) Modern Warfare 2 (MW2), but if not don't worry. I'll explain enough for you to understand. I am aware there are other reviews of other FPS games and although fair keep in mind, games such as Battle Field 3 (BF3) are made for both a different clientel and game time i.e. BF3 is made to be a very realistic representation of war (as far as gaming goes) and one gaming session should be easily over an hour to "get in the grove", whereas games such as MW2 and most Halo games can be played for less than an hour, in an arcade like style, and still be entertaining. And just to clarify Modern Warefare 3 will be discussed at a later date, although I have played it already, and for longer than 20 minutes.

I will proudly, and without regret state that I have played Modern Warfare 2 far longer than many games I have before it. I don't like it either, but for now I am going to call Modern Warfare 2 MW2... it is just far easier to write. I started playing MW2 when I was at a friends place and the game had just been released, I was not impressed by anything. We only had a chance though to play split-screen and the "spec-ops" in the game, where you are sent on special missions with specific campaign like goals, however without a storyline. I soon however changed my mind from this condemning opinion. As my friend was not able to play the online section of the game, he quickly lent us the game.

Although the campaign is traditionally short for a first person shooter (FPS) it is still disapointing. The action may be fun, but it has next to no replay value. The grafics, in my opinion of little importance to the quality of the game, more of an indication of how expensive a game was to produce, are little improved from the previous game in the Call of Duty series: World at War. Although this was not a horrible thing, it did not do anything for the game either.

Luckily I was not disapointed by the online multiplayer. In fact, quite the opposite. I enjoyed the online multiplayer to such a degree that I would not put it past myself to say that at the time it may have been the best online FPS on the market (although I enjoyed Halo Reach to a similar degree and Gears of War in a different manor). I strongly believe that the gameplay is what makes games what they are, shown by the evergrowing minecraft universe and other such games. This was also the case for MW2, the gameplay is of such high quality that even today I play it from time to time. Although the weapons are unbalanced like in most FPS, this was the first game in which one could make ones own classes in an arcade style, fast paced game. The classes are a great way to keep the game alive longer as the major developers have now fully understood.

To keep the game alive, there are other aspects which infinity ward has used to make MW2 one of the most long lasting game that exists. This includes the leveling up system they used, to increase longevity, known as the presige mode, where one can willingly give up the unlocks that one has to gain in fame. Essentially bragging rights amongst your friends. This means that eventhough you aren't playing against them, you sure are competing with them "off the battleground" everytime you play.

In the gaming world, MW2 acts as a great bridge between full arcade games such as Halo Reach (full of colour and fantasy worlds) and the more realistic FPS such as what the Battle Field series is aiming at achieving (realistic weaponry, worlds and physics in the game). What makes MW2 so fun in a short period (ignoring the pride gained by prestigeing amongst your friends) is the ability to climb, which is not an option in the Halo series.

MW2 is a great game that has given me entertainment beyond belief for far more than 20 minutes. That is what makes it such a great game, although it will be outdone eventually, I do not believe that its playability of the game has been outdone yet. If I were to give the game a rating, I would say that it gets a rating of 6/10 overall, but this is mostly due to the lacking campaign capabilities, the online part of the game would have gotten a 8/10 in my mind.

If you do not agree let me know what you think, and we can talk about one of the monsterous games.

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3, a game that got a lot of people excited. Now if I am to be honest with you guys, I have to tell you that I have been playing for just over a year now. So maybe not quite 20 minutes but I haven't changed my opinions much since.

The Campaign
Unlike it's predecessors, Battlefield Bad Company and Bad Company 2 (I must add here the stories and characters of these two games were discontinued for Battlefield 3) The game is much more serious. not from gameplay but from writing. The quirkiness of the characters which made the Bad  game so entertaining. What we are left with is a Die Hard game. Having said this the campaign is definitely simply the precursor to the multiplayer. It did have it's moments, however if you tried (even a little) to do the mission your own way you would most likely end up dead in a matter of seconds. You definitely can notice that it is only an entrée to the online meal. If after 20 minutes of campaign I had to choose to keep or drop, I would drop.

The Multiplayer
The Multiplayer of this game benefits strongly from the nearly complete destruction (especially the ability to bring down an entire house on your opponents) and the dust effects (which in my mind are insane) aswell as the sound quality and depth really emerse you into the game. As far as customization goes Battlefield 3 leaves little room for want. With four different classes each with unique items (ie Defibrillator for the Medic) and weapons takes the game away from the excessive freedom of Call of Duty and puts you into a slight RPG type game where you must choose if you want to heal or resupply your team (only two examples). On top of all this, yeah I know there is even more there are none class specific handguns and shotguns to add to the carnage. To top off your character you can choose a "specialisation" which gives your character a perk ie. sprint or suppression (your vision becomes less blury when shot at). There is even more on top of all this there is an arsenal of vehicles at your disposal. From tanks to attack-choppers to humvees to transport-choppers to speed-boats and even jets, yes you can fly a jet and have dog fights above while your team pilots a helicopter around you and a tank below. It gets pretty messy sometimes but in the right setting, gametype and map it just feels so right! The multiplayer also allows for co-op missions, I have yet to test these as no one I know owns the game. If after 20 minutes of multiplayer I had to choose to keep or drop, I would keep.

Overall
If you don't play online don't get this game. It's as simple as that. The campaign is short and mediocre at best. The multiplayer, however, makes up for what the game fails to deliver in the campaign. The game heavily rewards teamplay do if you are more a lone gun, titles like "World at War" or "Modern Warfare" might suit you better.

Super Meat Boy

I must say, that I didn't play this game for very long, but hey, this is about first impressions and what not, so here. I don't know if you've played this game or not, but just to clarify it, it is a platform game, with an amusing finish to each level where the collection of all of your plays are shown on one screen, your final screen. This amusing finish filled with your fast paced failed attempts of each of the times you've "grotesquely" died is extremely amusing.

I must have played for approximately 30min or so, I knew though that I liked it after the first five. Due to the large quantity of levels availible to the player, its extremely addicting and to say the least, it could have taken much more of my time from me. I am used to bloody games, but when I first saw the amusing death of my meat boy I was shocked by how bloody the whole thing was. If you don't have a problem with that though, it's a great laugh to have as a filler.

Needless to say, great fun, great filler. Any time to waste? Although not my favourite game, a quick fling if you get a chance is a great thing.