Source: Joystiq

It’s hard to describe how much fun I had playing that video game. It was release back in Q4 2007 and was appreciated by many critics. Now I’ve tried playing a Tomb Raider game before, and totally hated it. But this video game, is a live action adventure in the making. The characters are highly relatable and most of the mechanics of the game are plain fun. Simple puzzle solving, jumping from ledge to ledge, always on the brink of death. Many times I got a high stress level simply because I didn’t want my character to die. Usually it’s simple to discard this feeling considering nowadays you simply re-spawn to the check point that was 20 seconds ago.

Nathan Drake, is a really cool character to play and the story is not mind blowing. But I still felt compelled to complete the story, especially considering a sequel has been recently announced for this fall. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves will resume his adventures. Now I had tried the demo a while before purchasing the game, and I’ll have to say that the combat was very frustrating, as I recall I did not even complete the demo because I found the shooting was way too hard. At the same time it’s on this same spot I got stuck a few times, getting killed by hordes of pirates going in and out of cover. I guess I’m not use to aiming in 3rd person view. Nice balance between exploration, fighting and shooting. The cut-scenes helped the story move on while adding a great narrative value to the story.

It’s a must own title in my book.

The original idea of the show is like the one of friends having a “couch discussion”, only they wanted to add a little more by filming in front of a green screen where they can have different contextual background and where Steve, the editor, can insert graphics and comments related to the discussion at hand.

This show is pretty much about all the stuff I like and talk about on this blog, a few times I’ve mentioned TRS (Totally Rad Show) with my reviews of Cloverfield and Shaolin Soccer. This show is one of the best you can watch on the web.

The best way to experience the show is to have a quick look at it, here is their latest release. You can visit their show page to access the various formats to download or to stream it.

From what I’ve gathered Morpheus, Lord of the Dreams, will have a part to play in the story line (something about the Sun falling off the sky). The plot isn’t clear but it’s not what is fun about it. It’s the game-play, the gore, the action and the thrill. The game will retail for 39.99$, but I believe it will be worth every penny. The only drawback you could consider is that this game is for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), unlike the previous games of the franchise that were on the PlaySation 2 (PS2). There has been some serious speculation that a port would come in the future. Fear not, God of War III will be released on the PlayStation 3 (PS3) sometime in 2009 you could presume.

Despite being a portable game the visuals push the PSP to it’s limits bringing the best graphics seen so far on that handheld gaming console. Mark your calendars, set yourself reminders, pre-order, buy yourself a PSP! Kratos, anti-hero of all is coming back. Who said games were for kids anyway.

Update: I’ve played the demo and I am truly amazed at how good it looks on the PSP. Readyatdawn did a great job to bring the feel of God of War to a portable game.

The music score and the visuals a decent considering it’s a PlayStation 2 game, and at the time it was pushing the graphics of the PS2 to it’s limits. Fun and quick anyone would enjoy.

I was extremely pissed off when Valve cancelled the release of The Black Box that would of included Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2. The games I don’t already own and would gladly purchase. However now there is only The Orange Box that includes these three games and the two I already own. Every game site seems to tout it as a great deal, and price wise it’s really good. I’m sure if you’re out there and never played those games you’ll have your money’s worth of playtime. Valve has an other clever idea for their marketing, since you don’t need these games twice you should/could give them to a friend that hasn’t played these games 2 years ago. Upon release I’ll be able to send a code to a friend so he can get these two games. The thing is if he really likes it, he’ll probably end up buying The Orange Box and get stock with two copies of those games too. I would of like better respect from Valve and at some point I wanted to vote with my dollar, make them understand how wrong it is. I just wonder what will happen when they reach the end cycle for Episode Three… will they create a new bundle to rip off their loyal contributors? I believe they had the right method at first with The Black Box, but were corrupted by evil and let money get to their heads.

I’ll finish off with my appreciation of the purchase of the game via Steam, since you need the thing running anyway to play their boxed games why not get it online. It was a few clicks and hop they got money through PayPal. The games are associated with my Steam account and through a nice pre-order discount I saved a total of 16$ compared to what my local Canadian retailer would of charged me. I consider this my first digital purchase and I think it might grow on me…

Expect a review soon, if you never played those games before look-out for massive give aways in the coming weeks, not from me – but from all the ones buying this bundle across the globe. Half-Life 2 made a kind of revolution in my gaming life with a solid story line and cinematic value action adventure.

The PSP still has some nice games coming it’s way and the developers seem to have a nice hold of it’s technology. The package I purchased came with Daxter, a Family Guy UMD and a 1GB Memory Stick. It’s still a bit pricey but I would never trade that for a DS Lite, despite the price difference, I want some serious gaming on my handheld, otherwise I’d rather just play with what’s on my phone.

Just in case you’re still wandering, the new PSP is slimmer and lighter. It has apparently a brighter screen, and thanks to a decision made by Sony, all PSPs will be able to access the whole processing power of the device. This way developers will be able to push the games a little further.