• Tag Archives 2007

  • 50-Cent Comics: The Programme #2

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    At MegaCon this year, I picked up a number of cheap comics. Most were 50 cents, some were $1. There might not be any spectacular gems here, but for that price it is hard to find a bad buy. I picked up a variety of older and newer titles, including this one.

    I grabbed The Programme just because it looked interesting. It wasn’t a title that I was familiar with which isn’t too surprising as it was limited to 12 issues and published in 2007, long after my peak comic buying days. The entire series was written by Peter Milligan with artwork by C.P. Smith and published by WildStorm. The premise of the story is that during the Cold War, Russia and the U.S. created super-powered humans as weapons to be used in case of war. Until that eventuality, they were put on ice. With the Cold War now long over, they have woken up. It’s vaguely reminiscent of The Boys tv show, at least in the fact that superheroes are treated as a national asset.

    I happened to pick up issue 2 and it is sort of slow moving and confusing jumping back in forth in time and place (of course, I did miss the first issue). However, it seems interesting and I would probably pick up the other issues if I ran across them for 50 cents. I’m not terribly fond of the artwork however. Everything is just so dark…there’s not much detail to be seen. The covers are kind of nice though.


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  • Electronic Gaming Monthly – Holiday 2007

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    electronic_gaming_monthly_223_2007-holiday_001

    Source: Electronic Gaming Monthly – Holiday 2007

    While EGM was one of the best and best selling game magazines of all time, it was getting pretty close to the end of its life by this time. The final original issue would be published in January 2009, about a year after this issue. The Holiday 2007 issue includes:

    Press Start

    • Letters – Some comments about Nintendo publishers’ declining game quality, shorter games, video game testing, controller abuse, religion in games, and more.
    • Holiday Buyers’ Guide – A guide to the best gifts for 2007. Some of the items mentioned include a trip to Jules’ Undersea Lodge ($475/night), VEXplorer Robot Kit ($200), Pipe Dream for the Game Boy ($12/used), Shock Ball ($20), Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp ($9000/5 days), Master Chief Mimobot USB stick (I have an R2D2 one of these), Zelda Animated Series DVD ($25), Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel ($130), Mushroom Lamp ($12), Atari Keychain ($45 for 3 different ones), 8-bit Tie ($20), and lots more.
    • Foreign Object – A look at SNK’s Doki Doki Majo Shinpan!…a game that teaches you to be a pervert.
    • Ask the Pros: Halo 3 – Some of the best players and how they play the game.
    • Preview: Unreal Tournament 3 – Coming soon for the PS3. But will it match up to the PC version?
    • Online Game Trading – A comparison of five online sites that let you trade in your games.
    • Preview: Lost Odyssey – An early look at an RPG exclusive to the Xbox 360.
    • Rumor Mill – Bioshock coming (again) for the PS3, EA working on a live sports trivia game, Metal Gear game coming for the PSP, and EA working on a game based on the GI Joe movie.

    Reviews

    • Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games – Historic, perahsp, for teaming up Mario and Sonic for the first time but the game itself is a pretty mediocre sports game.
    • Geometry Wars: Galaxies – A classic gaming inspired shooter for the Wii that is quite good but you need the classic controller to really enjoy it.
    • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn – Another game in this strategy/RPG from Nintendo. The biggest change from the previous game in the series is being able to save during battle.
    • Need for Speed: ProStreet – I solid entry in the Need for Speed series. What was this, like the 150th one?
    • Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground – This skateboarding game for the PS3 and Xbox 360 is pretty average but if you like Tony Hawk and skateboarding and gaming then you will probably like it.
    • Manhunt 2 – A murder/adventure game for the Wii and PS2 that isn’t quite as good as the original (which wasn’t spectacular or anything to begin with).
    • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Call of Duty…you love it or hate it I guess. Or both. But it gets a pretty good review here for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
    • BlackSite: Area 51 – A pretty mediocre first person shooter. But hey, there’s mutant alien things.
    • Kane & Lynch: Dead Men – An FPS built for co-op play for the Xbox 360 though oddly you can’t play online.
    • Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – This action game gets good reviews here. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that this came out. But then the movie came out more recently I suppose. I thought it was pretty disappointing but what do you expect from a movie based on a game…
    • Naruto: Rise of a Ninja – A platform game (featuring lots of fighting of course) featuring Naruto for the Xbox 360.
    • TimeShift – Controlling time offers a unique twist in this first person shooter for the Xbox 360 (coming soon for the PS3) but it ends up being pretty average anyway.
    • Mass Effect – Excellent action/RPG from BioWare for the Xbox 360. This is another game that seems like it came out more recently…
    • Contra 4 – This review best sums this game up when it says that it “looks, plays, and sounds like some long-lost 16-bit sequel”. If you loved the original Contra then chances are you will it least like this iteration for the DS.
    • Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends – I could never get that excited about cooking games…
    • Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings – Not the best sequel but if you are a Final Fantasy fan then you’ll probably still want to play this iteration for the DS.
    • Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus – A decent iteration of Metal Gear Solid for the PSP.

    Game Over

    • Seanbaby’s Rest of the Crap – Some of the um… less positive aspects of Christmas. Including The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause game for the Game Boy Advance, Elf Bowling: The Movie, Christmas Country for the CD-i, Santa Clause Saves the Earth for the GBA, and Elf: The Movie for the GBA, among other tidbits.
    • Retro: WTFiction!? – A look back at Final Fantasy VII’s convoluted and somewhat nonsensical story.
    • Grudge Match – Assassin’s Creed vs. Creed.
    • Next Month – Coverage will include Metal Gear Solid 4, Wii Fit, Killzone 2, Halo Wars, Super Mario Galaxy, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, Assassin’s Creed, Rock Band and more.

    and more!


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  • Etrian Odyssey (Nintendo DS)

    Posted on by Azrael 1 Comment

    Etrian Odyssey (Nintendo DS, 2007)

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/155876283483/djpubba-vgprintads-etrian-odyssey-etrian

    Etrian Odyssey was the first in a fairly long running series of role playing games for Nintendo’s handhelds. Etrian Odyssey was released in early 2007 by Atlus for the Nintendo DS. The game is completely turn based and can be compared to classic, primarily computer based RPGs like Wizardry and Bard’s Tale (though with better graphics).

    Etrian Odyssey even requires you to do your own mapping but does allows you to do so with the stylus and lower screen of the DS. It even provides a variety of ready made symbols for your use so it isn’t quite like the graph paper days of old. Etrian Odyssey provides a lot of dungeon crawling for you to enjoy if you like that sort of thing. It allows a party of five characters of various classes and you can swap out with other characters when you are taking a break from dungeon exploration back in the town at the guild hall. As is typical with RPGs your characters will advance levels when enough experience is gained. When this happens you can allocate skill points to specific skills.

    The pace can be slow, the difficulty relatively high and the story is somewhat lacking but fans of old school RPGs should love this one nonetheless. It received mostly positive reviews and sold reasonably well for a game of its type. Unfortunately, prices tend to be pretty high for this one on eBay today, particularly for a complete copy.

    There have been a number of sequels and remakes as part of this series. Sequels include Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard, Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City, Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan, Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth and the upcoming Etrian Odyssey X. In addition, the first couple of games have been remade. The original game was mostly remade as Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl and released in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS. There have also been a couple of spin-offs: Etrian Mystery Dungeon and Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2.

    If you try the first game in the series and are a fan then you have plenty to look forward to though the game system does tend to change-up some between iterations.





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