Countdown - August 6-12, 2006

By: CAPTAIN GORDON EDWARD
Date: Thursday, August 10, 2006

Greetings again my friends, and with a new week, it is time for the Countdown. It feels like this is a week to remember too, which is great to say. This week seems to have given us some great games for the ending half of the summer. I finally have gotten a good jolt of juice, when it comes to these games, especially one that I will gladly be reviewing very soon. But with a little new, comes a little old.

Last week I was talking about Madcatz and their PS2 controllers. I had mentioned how cool it was to buy different ones to support those NFL teams out there. They have now also released something to add on those, and this time it is for the consoles. This also extends to the X-Box 360's faceplates, so it does not matter which one you play. Now you can pimp out your systems with the skins of your favourite team, further allowing people to love their systems, more than it is healthy to do.

With other accessories as well, CokeM Interactive has released a guitar controller for the PS2, riding on the success of the Guitar Hero franchise. Now if you had previously played the game, and I am sure a lot of you had, some of you had a little problem with the length of the cord you could play with. Luckily these guys have made their guitar wireless, so you can truly rock out without tripping. If I am able to get my hands on one, I will also gladly review this.

Back to what the summer is geared towards though, and that is the hand held games. I have personally talked to Atlus about this game, and found out it is a long-standing game over in Japan. They have had many games under the title, and only because the licensing laws in North America are brutal, they have not been able to bring the rest overseas. I am talking about Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation, which looks like it will be a must for any robot battler (or Robattler). In it you get to play all original robots, kicking robot butt, and taking circuit boards. This looks like a great game to play on the go.

Finally we have a game that a lot of people have been looking forward to. It is a game that I was playing at E3, and it consumed a lot of my time. Previously this company has released many other Zombie games, but this will have nothing to do with their Resident Evil games, other than give you a fantastic gameplay experience. I am personally talking about Dead Rising. This game is exciting just because you can have over a hundred different zombies on the screen at a time without having lag.


There are many other reasons to love this game, like how you can level up your character by killing zombies. Another thing to love are the different weapons that you can use in the game, as pretty much anything in the environment can be used. You have many different attacks, and different endings. You can torture the zombies by putting Lego heads on them, or showerheads that cause them to pour blood on the ground. There is so much going on, and so much customization as well. This, by far, gets me game of the week, and maybe even the game of the month. I urge everyone to pick this game up, because I can guarantee a great time will be had by playing it.

Those of you paying attention still though are invited to email me, as there is a little hidden contest for those of you still reading my articles. There is a fantastic new game coming out at the end of the month that I am falling in love with. It is the follow up to the best tactics game ever, and you can quote me on that. The game is called Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, and it will build on the same experience from the first game, and add a whole bunch more. This was another game I enjoyed playing at E3, and it consumed a heck of a lot of my time.

Now this contest will continue each week, and all you have to do to enter is... Email me my pick of the week, and the feature of the game, that I will disclose, along with your name and address. I will screen out the potentials, and pick one randomly at the end, so this gives you multiple chances to enter. I only add that there can only be one email per household per week.

The feature that I reveal to you this week is... Stack Attacks. In the previous Disgaea game, it introduced the ability to pick up and throw friends and enemies alike. In this one, when you pick up a friend, and you can attack your enemy with them to get a bunch more damage. You can further pick up a chain of people and create a mega combo attack.

In the end, this week looks fairly minimal for games, but there is a blockbuster out there with Dead Rising. No wonder a lot of other games pulled their punches, waiting to release on another week. Speaking of another week though, I will also mention that the Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories game will not be alone when delivered to the contest winner. You will have to come back next week and I can tell you what it will be accompanied by. All and all though, this is Captain Gordon... signing off.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? CaptainGordonEdward@Gmail.com