Time to break out the fight stick, Continuum Shift shipped today

Thats right joystick junkies, it is that time again to pick your fighter, master their moves and take this fight online. This time there is no Ken, Ryu, Cammy, or Bison because BlazBlue is back with a sequel to last years blockbuster, toting the name Continuum Shift. Unique features to this release is beginner, tutorial, and challenge mode along with creating your own army in legion mode, and lastly the new characters.

Intense look behind the scenes of Kane and Lynch 2

Boasting more videos than a B-list celebrity looking to turn their career around, is a behind the scenes look at just how INTENSE the game is. Intense is the word that describes the development of this title, and well...take a look for yourself of the behind the scenes to Kane and Lynch 2: Intens....er, I mean Dog Days.

NCAA Football 2011 Review

Living in Phoenix, Arizona there is only one thing that keeps my sanity in July and that is the release of the newest NCAA Football game from EA. Every year I wonder how they will top the previous year’s version; and every year they find a way.

The Good: They've made great strides on the presentation of the game thanks to their partnership with ESPN.  Having ESPN’s presentation style to the game makes it feel much more real than previous. Couple this with new pregame entrances by the players and better game lighting and you have a game that looks and feels amazing.

Boys throwing balls

The most important aspect to any sports game, for me, is the dynasty element. EA redid the menus of the dynasty to give is a well overdue make-over. Also receiving a well overdue make-over was recruiting. By removing the football emoticon style of talking to the recruit and replacing it with a randomized pitch has greatly sped up the process.

Boys running with balls

The Bad: Well, this section should be short because there really isn’t much to complain about. But if I had to be nit-picky, I would work on further expanding the customization of each player; more for the actual look of the player, more for uniforms and allows for player’s uniform numbers to be duplicated (1 player on offense and 1 player on defense could both be number 22, for example). I’m a Washington State Cougar alumni so I would like to see WSU’s correct pre-game entrance in the game as well as Butch (Cougar mascot) to look less like a crack head. Finally, more variations to post touchdown celebrations. After scoring a touchdown I want to do more than just jump up and down or take a knee.

Ah - let me just jump over this

In Conclusion: Every year there is the crowd that debates whether it is worth it or not to spend $60 on the new year’s game because they have the previous year’s version. And to answer those people, I say yes, it is well worth it. I give NCAA Football 2011 a 9 out of 10.

NCAA Football 2011 is available now for XBox 360, PlayStation 3, PS2, etc

Tournament of Legends | Review

Synopsis: Are you a fan of mythological creatures, fighting games, and over the top voice overs? Tournament of Legends recently released for the Nintendo Wii and Sega was generous enough to send me a review copy to dissect and get my thoughts of time spent with their title to you devoted gamers. In Tournament of Legends, you are able to play as one of ten fighters out of the box from a Valkyrie to a Minotaur, with two unlockable fighters to boot. This is a 3D fighter supporting up to two players that allows gameplay with either the remote and nunchuk or my fave, the classic controller. Let’s get on with the review of this epic fighter of massive proportions.

Praise: It’s a fighter, and if you’re a fan of fighting titles, even bad ones are fun for a while, but being that there aren’t many games in this genre for the Wii, Tournament of Legends has enough appeal to make it the best option for fighting fans that are no longer playing Tatsunoko vs Capcom or Super Smash Bros Brawl. There are many features that are a great fit, but the most unique in my opinion is that you are able to earn and use different weapons and magical abilities throughout gameplay to use to your advantage in between fights. Also, is the chance to replenish health and knocked of armor in between rounds by spinning the joysticks frantically. In regards to the characters, Sega has presented a pretty solid line up as each fighter is from some myth I have idolized at one point or another, along with the environment to go along with each fighter. I also like that both you and your opponent can lose pieces of armor, increasing vulnerability to finish the match more brutally as your weapon will land more hits and land them harder with each piece of armor lost.

Gripes: My biggest issue is a tough call between two things that are pretty important in fighting games. First, is that there is no online play, so if you want to play against someone besides the computer, you will have to have a friend over or teach your pets to use the use the Wii. This is big issue to me as I tend to only play single player when I am getting used to a specific fighter before seeing where I rank against other real people. Movement is frustrating at times because you can’t move while attacking, so if you are pounding buttons you are stuck attacking in that direction and when you are done flailing, the movement is a bit sluggish regardless to which fighter you pick. While it is nice to have additional variety in the Wii fighter genre, the graphics, looked like something out of a previous generation console, and even though graphics tend to be the last thing I criticize when playing a game, it just seems like even a certain fighting game on my iPod touch looks better than this.

Overall, if your system is not connected to the internet and you like fighters and mythological creatures, you will like this game. There are weapons, abilities and characters to unlock to keep you coming back for more. However, if you prefer to take your fighters online, you may be disappointed. The good news is that this title released at the affordable price of $29.99, so you have to ask yourself what is it you need in a fighter before dropping the cash to play as a god.

Mashbuttons.com gives Tournament of Legends a 6 out of 10.

Tournament of Legends is available now for the Nintendo Wii.