UFC Undisputed 2010

What’s up guys! For my next review, I chose to do another favorite of mine, UFC Undisputed 2010. I really enjoy this game because I enjoy watching the UFC fights.  Plus, I like to beat the crap out of some guys. This game is both good for the greatest of UFC fans as well and somebody who is just looking to knock someone out.

                In this game is featured all the best fighters in the UFC. It has all the major fighters in all the classes, such as Brock Lesnar from the heavy weight, Shogun Rua from light heavy weight, Anderson Silva from Middle Weight, George St. Pierre from welterweight and BJ Penn from the lightweight. The game as a whole features over one hundred UFC fighters so all of your favorite fighters will be in the game, even some of the up and comers as well.

                The game play of this game can be a lot of fun, but like most every fighting games it is also very difficult. The stand up aspect of the fighting is probably the easiest and most fun. Since the buttons are the easiest to press you often, find yourself throwing a barrage of kicks and punches trying to knock your opponent out. This works well if you are fighting an inexperienced fighter but if you are fighting on a higher difficultly or someone with some experience they will probably block and dodge you until you leave yourself open for the knockout punch. This leads me into the knockouts, which are always the coolest part of the game. Knock outs can happen at any time and pretty much anyway, and when they do they are AWESOME! I mean who doesn’t like knocking some dude out!

                There are other things that you can do other than punch and kick. You can also fight people in what they call the clinch, which is pretty much when you got each other in a headlock or tied up in some way. From here, more strikes such as elbows and knees can be thrown. You can also take an opponent to the ground with a takedown and from there you can throw more strikes and even perform a submission.  While on the ground you can also progress your position on the ground and work your way to a dominate position. This can earn you points if the fight were to come down to a decision.

                One of the bad parts of the game is that it sometimes does not seem realistic. Mma fighting is fast paced and happens quickly. For the most part the only part of the game that moves at normal fighting speed is the standup striking game.  The ground game is actually slow and can be very difficult to advance your position. All the ground game is done by spinning a joystick and this can be difficult because you have to move the joystick in half and three quarter turns. Submissions and submission defense are much the same you have to rotate the joystick after the submission has started to either defend against it or apply the submission. This is difficult as well, because often your thumb will slip off the joystick. The good thing about these things though is with practice you can get better at them.

                 One of the coolest parts of the game is the career mode. In the career mode, you create a fighter and take him throughout his career starting out as an amateur and ending as a champion that is if you can defend your title.  This is cool because you go through the process of picking your fights and training yourself for each of the fights. This allows you to prepare yourself to defend against their strengths. I really enjoyed this part of the game myself because I established myself as the type of fighter I wanted to be and won a championship I then got to defend that championship. I really enjoyed it because the better the competition the better the fights became. This made it so I couldn’t just run through the career mode but it also wasn’t so difficult that I could not win.

                Over all I would have to say that, this game is worth giving a try, especially if you enjoy watching the sport. It will give you the opportunity to fight with all your favorite fighters and maybe even learn more about the sport of mixed martial arts. This game is also worth giving a try if you just like knocking people out. However, it’s not for everyone, as I said it is still a very difficult game that takes a lot of strategy at times. 

Until next time, Go Knock Someone OUT!

-Zane

Rock Band 3

For my first review, I decide to do it on a game that I see just about every day in my apartment, Rock Band 3.  I got Rock Band 3 this past Christmas as a gift. Now I am going to be honest with you when I first got this game I was not overjoyed. See I had once had Guitar Hero World tour and enjoyed it for a long time but I eventually got tired of music game and traded it all back, at least whatever the games store would take. Therefore, upon getting Rock Band 3 I was not too sure that I was going to enjoy it.

                Well after having the game now for over two months my opinion has greatly changed.  I have found Rock Band 3 to be a very enjoyable game. Like I said earlier I play it or see it played now just about every day.



Rock Band 3 Keyboard



            Rock Band 3 is different from past Rock Band games; in this Rock Band, the developers added new instruments, the keyboard and a 3 part vocal harmony. The 3-part harmony allows there to be up to three singers at a time. As cool as this is, the downside is not all songs have a 3-part harmony and some songs that sound like they should do not have it. However, the feature is still cool if you have the microphones to do it. The keyboard, obviously, allows a player to play keyboard parts of songs. This is cool because you can play it two different ways. You can play songs the normal way with the five colors and you kind of play it like a keytar. Or, you could play pro keyboard, lay it flat, and try to play it like a normal keyboard. The way that it works is they have color sections and a the map out the color sections on the screen and the key that is to be play shows up in the section it is suppose to be played and you press it when it reaches the bar. Just like, you would on all the other instruments. Playing the pro keys is fun but it is very difficult. Rock Band 3 also includes pro modes for the guitars and the drums. You have to buy a special guitar for the pro mode though. It looks just like a real guitar with strings and everything. Below is a video of the pro keys game play, I believe this example is of pro keys on expert.

         By adding these new instruments, this allowed the developer to add in a wider variety of songs in this rock band, song such as Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, James Brown’s “I Got You”, even songs like Huey Lewis and the News’ song “The Power of Love.” Now just because they have brought on a keyboard and harmonies to the game does not mean that all the songs are going to be “poppy” the developers also had some heavy hitting songs in Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People”, Slipknot’s “Before I Forget” and Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark”. Therefore, you still get a wide variety of songs.

            One of the downsides to Rock Band 3, I believe, is that you still cannot unlock additional songs in career mode. To me this almost eliminates a purpose for playing a career mode, but do not fear in this world of technology we live in the internet has once again played a huge part in a Rock Band game. Yes, you can still download songs from the internet. This is awesome because the Rock Band library now holds over 2,000 songs, including a new Billy Joel pack, which I was excited about.

            As I was saying earlier, the career mode is pointless when it comes to unlocking songs but there are other things that can still be unlocked. The truth is that every time you play a song you are pretty much improving your career. When you first get the game it ask you to pick out a band name and you play as that band the whole time you are playing the game. As you play more and get more fans the more popular, your band becomes. As your band gets more popular, you unlock things like a van for the band or even a bus. You also unlock larger venues as well. The game is trying to mimic what it would be like to start as a garage band and rise to greatness. In addition to the venues and modes of transportation, you can also unlock accessories for your character. These accessories include clothes, hats, sunglasses, even instruments. You can apply all these things to a character after you create one. I thought that the developers did a good job with the create a character mode. I had a good time making me in to a rock star.

            After playing the game myself for a couple of months now, I would have to say that Rock Band 3 caught me by surprise. I thought that I was done with music style games, but I can honestly say I have had a blast jamming out with my buddies in the apartment. So I would say if you enjoy music as much as I do or just got a group of friends you would like to jam with then this is a game that you need to play.  I will say that if all possible try it out in a store or if you know somebody that has it try theirs first because I will say probably the biggest downfall to the game is that you will end up spending a pretty penny to get all the parts involved. So I would not recommend you buying this just to try because if you do not like it then my might be out of luck because most games stores these days do not take trade in instruments anymore. So try it before you buy it.

Until next time, ROCK ON!


My boy DJ ROCKIN OUT



-Zane



Welcome!

Whats up guys! My name is Zane and this is my new blog. It is called Casual Gamer Reviews because that's what I am, a casual gamer. I personally have a PS3 and have access to a Nintendo Wii. I also have some buddies who have Xbox 360, Super Nintendo, and even Sega Genesis. I enjoy playing video games and also enjoy enjoy sharing my opinion about them as well. So I thought why not share my opinion with you guys. This blog is design to give you, the reader, my opinion of some of the games that I am playing or have played that I think are worth giving a shot or just a total waste of time and money. So if you are looking for an opinion on a game that you have been thinking about trying from a casual gamer, such as yourself, then you are in the right place. I look forward to your comments and chatting about some good games. Thanks for reading.

-Zane

P.S. Feel free to recommend games as well. Either games that you would like to see reviewed or games that you think I should give a try.