Game Too Hard? Fear Not!

Well, Wii owners should fear not anyway. Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who created Mario (as well as several other of your favorite Nintendo characters) told USA Today in a recent interview that future Wii titles will be shipping with a new "Demo Play" mode.

"Demo Play" mode, as it's currently being called will literally allow the game to play itself. If the player encounters an area in the game that is simply too difficult for he or she to overcome, this mode can be activated and the game will take over, clearing the obstacle or level until the player re-assumes control.

The first title to incorporate this new "Demo Play" mode will be the recently announced New Super Mario Bros. Wii which was unveiled to overwhelming applause at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

"Demo Play" is a tentative name for the new feature for now and is expected to change in time for it's inaugural debut with New Super Mario Bros. Wii this fall.

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Prototype (XBox 360) Review

Game: Prototype
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Publisher: Activision
Release: June 9, 2009
Type: Action
Rating: Mature(Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language)
Players: 1

Prototype is a third-person action game that puts you in control of Alex Mercer. A man with no memory and no past. He's out for revenge and he has the means to get what he wants. As the back of the box states: "Become Anything....Change Everything."

The beginning of the game introduces you exactly what Alex Mercer is, and exactly what's going on within the game. You see, there's an infection. And this infection lives inside of you and it's what gives you the ability to shape-shift your body into a vast array of weapons and also perform feats of superhuman strength. However, the citizens of Manhattan aren't so lucky as the infection is turning them into mutated creatures who are hunting and killing the rest of population and more primarily, you.

After the introductory phase of the game, all the powers that you had are stripped away and the game rewinds itself back in time to 3 weeks prior. Mercer awakens in a morgue surrounded by men in biosuits ready to cut him open and start experimenting. Obviously, you escaped and Mercer becomes re-aware of the abilites that he possesses. As you control The Prototype, Mercer will talk to himself, in complete disbelief of what he is doing, like his body is on autopilot.

One of the first things you learn to do is how to Consume another living person. Alex will actually absorb the person into his own body, taking with them their life force, memories and abilities. Key persons throughout the game can be consumed that will give Alex more insight into what's going on around the city as well as what happened to him. It's also a neat feature to note that if you want to hijack a tank or a helicopter, you will need to consume a solider that knows how to pilot that vehicle so you can absorb his training. Think of it like the Matrix. What took that solider 8 months to learn, can instantly be injected into your brain through consumption. Earning other abilites throught the game is easy too, and there are alot. As you kill enemies and complete missions, the game rewards you with EP (Enhancement Points). These can be used to upgrade Mercer's abilites throughout the game. Everything from increasing your overall health, to adding a new type of shape-shifting weapon to your arsenal. And core abilities that you've purchased can even be upgraded, like your running speed or your jump height.

Now, once you get Mercer upgraded a little bit, it becomes easier and easier to move about the city, which is vast. You can go from the ground to the top of any building with no effort at all. Running through the streets is also no problem as Alex will automatically jump on and over cars and push people out of the way. Almost nothing will stop him once he gets moving. Just moving about the city and smashing and destroying things is what most people will want to do, and it's a lot of fun. The explosions are huge, the draw distance is vast and the amount of action going on at once on screen is just amazing. This game just runs smoothly and looks beautiful even with so much chaos going on.

Aside from just running around and blowing stuff up, the game also has some hidden orbs for you to search for. Some are hidden near landmarks or points of interest like the Empire State Building, and others just offer helpful gameplay tips. Prototype also offers you the chance to (sort of) take a side as you can destroy army bases for extra EP or upgrades or destroying infected hives for the same type of rewards. As time goes on, these hives will pop up in more places and more military bases will as well to try to contain them. And as the hives spread, the city becomes more infected and the situation gets more and more out of control.

In closing, Prototype is a great game if you're into the free-roaming action games like Spider-Man 2 or the Incredible Hulk games. This one, however, is definitely not for the kiddies. There's copious amounts of blood and sometimes disturbing amounts of gore and lots of cussing. The game looks great and the city literally transforms as the populous becomes more infected. Alex will start out weak at first, but don't worry, you'll be upgrading so fast you'll be handling your enemies with ease and running at super speeds in no time. Even when your're not doing the missions, Prototype offers a world where the player always has something to do: whether it's just running around and beating up tanks or just seeing how many of the challenges you can complete.

I would also just like to say that this game has been compared to Infamous a lot and after playing both of them, you can't really make that comparison. Yes, they're both sandbox action titles with a main character with special powers, but that's where the similarities end. Any fan of this genre of games needs to do themselves a favor and play both games. Both titles are great in their own right and I can honestly say that one isn't better than the other.

Rating: 4/5

LEGO Rock Band Coming This Holiday

Do you really want to get the Guitar Hero or Rock Band games for your younger children but are afraid that the music contained within them might be a little too risque? Fret not. LEGO Rock Band aims to put a family friendly spin on the popular Rock Band music franchise.

Allowing the player to take up smaller, less complicated replicas of music instruments and play along to music as the notes scroll down the screen, playing Rock Band is easily one of the most enjoyable experiences to be had by anyone with a video game console. And this iteration looks like it won't be that much different than the last two games that came before it.

Everything about the game is LEGO. The characters and the clothes they wear, the instruments and even the venues that your avatar performs in are all right out of the LEGO universe. Players familiar to the franchise will be amused to notice that the shapes of the colored notes the scroll down the "track highway" have even taken on the shape of the single LEGO studs. As you play through a song, the environment your character is in will react to different notes and verses of the song and transform from beginning to end. If you hit the right notes correctly you can even earn extra clothes and gear to outfit your rocker with.

There's no word yet on whether or not the game will be released as a bundle with it's own instruments or even what songs the game will include. One thing is for sure, anyone who was interested in Rock Band before but was turned off by it's somewhat complicated nature should definitely keep an eye on LEGO Rock Band.

Tetris Turns 25

Last week celebrated the 25th anniversary of the most influential puzzle game ever created: Tetris.

If you've every played a game in the vain of Dr. Mario or Bejeweled, you have this game to thank. It was created 25 years ago by a man named Alexey Pajitnov while working for a Soviet-funded government R&D center. Unfortunately for Patitnov, the Soviet government claimed ownership of the game and sold off the rights very cheaply and he received nothing for it. Fortunately for Nintendo, they would profit greatly from the game when it released in 1986 for their Nintendo Entertainment System (pictured above).

However, in 1991, Alexey moved to the United States and founded The Tetris Company where he designed puzzles for the Super Nintendo classics Yoshi's Cookie and a lesser known title, Pandora's Box. Five years later Pajitnov began working for Microsoft where he developed the spiritual successor to Tetris, Hexic, where the player must rotate tiles to form certain patterns.

So, the next time you're playing your favorite puzzle game, just remember; chances are that game probably never would have existed if it were not for Alexey Pajitnov and Tetris.

Fuel (Xbox 360) Review

Game: Fuel
Developed: Asobo Studios
Published: Codemasters
Release: June 2, 2009
Type: Racing
Rating: Everyone (Comic Mischief)
Players: 1(Offline) 2-16 (via Xbox Live)

The Game
Fuel is another racing game from the pros at Codemasters. Savvy gamers may have remembered their previous exploits in the DiRT series and the older Colin McRae offroad games. Fuel aims to follow suit with the same type of crazy offroad races and vast catalog of selectable vehicles as it's distant cousins, with several key differences.

The first thing gamers immediately notice is just how big the game is. Asobo received a Guinness World Record for having constructed the largest interactive world ever in a video game with Fuel at 5000 sq. miles. The gigantic environment is it's own living, breathing colossus with ever changing weather effects such as blizzards, tornadoes, and lightning storms, most of the time taking place while you race and tossing all sorts of debris into your racing path. As you traverse the game world and pass from zone to zone, you'll notice that each area is almost like it's own little planet. Each zone is different either sporting lush, green forests or dry plains that show nothing but leafless trees and brown grass. The weather, the scenery and the world are easily the most impressive thing about Fuel. I found myself multiple times, literally stopping to smell the roses.

So what will you be exploring this awesome world in? Well, a little bit of everything. There's multiple styles for every class of vehicle that include ATV's, dirt bikes, dune buggies, monster trucks, muscle cars, and even a few hidden vehicles for good measure. You can even customize your driver with different helmets, shirts and pants as well as different styles of tattoos if you choose to let him ride without a shirt on.

And what exactly is the point of the game? To race and to win, of course. The career mode of the game lets you race different courses for each zone that you're in. If you win, you gain fuel. Fuel is what the game is centered around and it's the game's currency also. So when you win a race and earn some fuel, you can then take it and buy new vehicles. Now, winning isn't the only way to earn fuel. If you just want to drive around and explore the game world, you'll find white canisters of fuel all over the place and running into them will increase your current stash. So as you progress through the career and continue to win, you'll also open up more zones that you can instantly access via heliports. Since the game is so large, it would take you hours to drive to the other side, so as you can imagine, it's much easier just to fly where you want to go.

That's pretty much what Fuel consists of. It's a lot of fun. There's a lot of huge jumps and places to explore. You'll find yourself lost for hours just driving around chasing Tornadoes and looking for all the hidden vehicles that drive around the world randomly. There's also points in the game where you can drive to and just do some sightseeing. And I nearly forgot to mention, you can even create your own races in this game. Want to challenge your friends to a race up a mountain? Do it. You can draw out the course of a race and set your own checkpoints and ultimately where the race will finish giving this game a lot of replay value. Overall, if you're into racing games, you'll get a lot of mileage out of Fuel.


Final Rating: 4/5

Welcome to Gaming @Hopkins!

Hi, everyone. My name is Erik Mabry and I am the Gaming Technician for Johns Hopkins. What does that mean? Well, it means I am responsible for maintaining the various video game consoles scattered about the different units of the hospital. Whether the problem be as simple as a broken controller or as complicated as faulty wiring with the system, I'm the one you call to take care of.

In addition to keeping watch over all the different machines out there, I also spend time with the patients and even play games with them if they need to. I take great passion in my job and I want to do everything I can to really make it grow and to realize it's full potential. And that's really where this blog comes into play.

You see, in order to properly enjoy all the Playstations and Xboxes and Nintendos, you need to know and understand what they can do and most importantly, what are the best games for them. The aim of the blog is present an easily accessible tool for anyone to find out any information they want about these great machines. Information like what are the best games out there for the younger kids or what new technology is on the way that could maybe benefit one or more of the patients?

So in the coming weeks, be sure to check back regularly for updates and for important information regarding the fun and exciting pieces of technology. You can also follow me on Twitter @HopkinsGamer where I will inform everyone of updates to the blog as well as make short updates via Twitter itself. And of course, feedback is welcomed. Thank you.

Flash! Okami-Wii Delayed! Nooo!

Okami (from the folks the brought you Viewtiful Joe), orginally set for a March 25th release, has been delayed a couple weeks until April 15th. This means we'll just have to wait a little longer to get some of that sweet Wolf goodness on our Wii consoles. Sigh.....