May 2005

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/godofwar/cover.jpg[/floatleft]What can I possibly say that can do [i]God of War[/i] any justice? That is a tough question to answer, as I could say nothing and let the game speak for itself, or I could go on for hours and hours. Fortunately for you readers, I won’t do either. I will instead try to give you a brief picture of just how wonderful, exciting, and awe-inspiring this game really is.

Let’s start with the basic story. It’s nothing overly complicated, but it’s based on Greek mythology when the gods ruled the earth’s dominions. As the name implies, the story centers around Ares, the God of War, or rather an individual who has been touched by Ares’s destructive power. Kratos is a man whom, at the outset, we know nothing about, but as we learn more about him, we discover that he led an army into a battle that could not be won and sold his soul to Ares so that he and his men could conquer. This affected him so painfully that the game begins with him jumping off a cliff and plummeting to his death, while the actual gameplay takes place in a flashback. During this flashback, he only has one objective: destroy Ares and reclaim that lost part of his soul as well as his freedom.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/godofwar/ss03_thumb.jpg[/floatright]I will hold none of my praise back. This game is simply fantastic and has replaced [i]Shadow of Rome[/i] as the biggest sleeper of the year. The action is your simple hack-and-slash type, but it tosses several mini-games into the fray to keep it interesting. For example, when Kratos damages a monster badly enough with his incredibly awesome swords attached to chains that are grafted into his arms, a button will appear over the beast’s head (usually the circle button). When you press this button, the game prompts you to perform an action, be it press a button rapidly or press a sequential order of buttons to match the screen’s prompts. As you successfully accomplish this, Kratos performs one or several devastating maneuvers to demolish his unfortunate foe. If you’re sick of hacking, you are given aid from different gods in the form of magic spells. My ultimate favorite: you are given the souls of the Army of Hades to command at your will, and at this point the game becomes totally unfair to your advantage.

To keep the game challenging, it tosses in several puzzles, none of which are too terribly challenging if you are good at remembering things you pass along the way. I was not good at this, but I still had loads of fun figuring out the solutions anyway, even if it took me much longer than it should have. Nonetheless, the graphics were flat-out amazing, and the music was very appropriate for the game. Seeing how fluid the game moves along made my jaw drop the very first time I saw it. The animations are near realistic, and the cutscenes almost look like you’re watching a live-action movie. I had more fun playing this game than I have anything in the last couple of months, [i]Knights of the Old Republic[/i] aside.

I’ll get this out of the way nowA

Three Bills

May 31, 2005

Reports of the Xbox 360 (what a lame name) are out indicate that the console will be released in the three hundred dollar range. Many people were thinking prices could skyrocket to the five hundred range, so you can spend the extra money on whatever it is you kids do these days. Expect to have your wallets ready for Thanksgiving of this year, which if you think about it, is not to far away.

Source: [url=http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/27/news_6126611.html]Gamespot[/url]

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/starwarsepisode3/cover.jpg[/floatleft]The Collective is a respected developer when it comes to action games. Makers of the fun [i]Buffy the Vampire Slayer[/i], the dev team gets a shot at a [i]Star Wars[/i] game. Recently, [i]Star Wars[/i] games have had a string of great video games, most known being [i]Knights of the Old Republic[/i] and [i]Republic Commando[/i]. With a [i]Star Wars[/i] game comes a legion of fans and high production values. We can expect the same from [i]Revenge of the Sith[/i], high production values, and fun gameplay.

[heading]Aggressive negotiations[/heading]

Action games are usually pretty shallow on storyline and high on bells and whistles. [i]Revenge of the Sith[/i] is an action-packed game where you take on the role of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, or the troubled young Anakin Skywalker (no relation to Luke Skywalker, well actually come to think of it there is). You take your lightsaber and Force powers into a series of missions. For each mission you control one of the Jedi as you play through parts of the movie. It’s very simple. The gameplay is pretty straightforward: clear out a room with some of your amazing looking saber combos and earn experience as you go. After the level, you get to upgrade your Force powers and move sets, making them all stronger for the missions ahead. The best part, however, is the Jedi-on-Jedi battles. The battles are broken up Tekken style where the action gets hot and intense. This is where you’ll find the meat and potatoes of the video game. It’s amazing how the choreography of the battle sequences look as you parry and attack. Beautiful stuff.

[heading]Want story, see the movie.[/heading]

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/starwarsepisode3/ss02_thumb.jpg[/floatright]Story is not the strong point of this game. As a matter of fact, after waiting to see the movie before playing the game, the storyline is terrible. While you get some clips of the movie incorporated with the cut scenes (which by themselves are actually good), the clip to scene transition is weak, and a whole lot of the story is left out. As a matter of fact, if you did not see the movie, you have no idea what is going on. Then again, if you’re playing this game, chances are you have seen the movie anyways. The voice acting is full of drama and adds to the depth of the characters, although throughout battle the phrases they utter can get to be repetitive and annoying.

You do get to unlock some cool bonus missions in the game that allow you to play as some other characters including General Grievous and Darth Vader himself (in the [i]Episode IV[/i] duel with Ben Kenobi, no less). Although it’s not the coolest feature in the world, it’s appreciated.

As you play the game, you can unlock multiplayer duelists and engage in some Jedi-on-Jedi battles. While it’s not as deep as say [i]Soul Calibur[/i], it is pretty fun if you have a friend over.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/starwarsepisode3/ss06_thumb.jpg[/floatleft][heading]Fanboy’s ho![/heading]

[i]Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith[/i] is a fun video game. Now since the gamer world is full of elitism (myself included), it’s nice to get away and play a fun game dedicated to something I love dearly. As a game, it’s shallow, fun, and short. Basically it is what it isA

In Memory

May 30, 2005

On behalf of all here at Snackbar Games, we want to say thank you to all of our brave soldiers who are stationed all around the world and fighting on the front lines. Also we want to remember and thank all the soldiers from yesterday who have fought for the freedoms we have today and sacrificed everything. Our thanks, prayers, and hearts go out to all of you.

Thank you.

If you asked me a month ago if I thought it would take me a full month to setup Movie Thunder to be as autonomous as it is I would have laughed at you. Here we are a month later, plenty of hours of coding, and a few dozen headaches and what we have is a gorgeous site that I am very proud of. Mad props go out to Pickle’s layout and the entire writing staff of Movie Thunder. You guys did some great work for this launch. I highly encourage all you Snackbar Fans to head on over [url=http://www.moviethunder.com]there[/url] right now and give it a look.