Furious sword and sorcery action, rocking tunes, and, well, making a town for big-headed weirdos. All this and more at your pickering public library.
To start with, Conan has arrived for both PS3 and Xbox360.
Take on the roll of Conan as you hack, slash, loot, and generally make a nuisance of yourself through the world of Hyboria. This game is pretty bloody, so it is not for the kids, there is an M rating on it for a reason!
This marks the second PS3 game in our collection. Hopefully more will be trickling in over the next couple of months.
Next up on our list is Guitar Hero Encore:Rock the 80s. With such monsters of hair metal as Dio and Limozeen, you can rock out with your Flock (of Seagulls) out!
Finally for the Wii owners in the crowd, we have My Sims, a simplified version of The Sims for PC. Direct the lives of bobble headed inhabitants of a town. Build the town, build the beds, build it all with a (literal) wave of the hand!
That's what's new with games. Come in and check out some of our other titles as well, and don't forget you can put a hold on games if they are checked out. When the game comes back in, you will get a call to pick it up.
Wow did we get a giant pile of games in this week, so many that I am going to resort to the magic of the bulleted list in order to draw attention to the sheer magnitude of great titles now available. BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE BULLETED LIST!
Playstation 2
- Teen
- The Simpsons Game
- Naruto:Uzumaki Chronicles 2
- .hack//G.U. Vol.3 Redemption
- Warriors Orochi
- High School Musical:Sing It!
- Junior
- Digimon World Data Squad
- Hot Wheels: Beat That!
- Surfs Up
- Metropolismaina 2
- Cars: Mater-National Championship
Xbox360
- Adult
- Stranglehold
- Beautiful Katamari
- Kengo: Legend of the Nine
- Vampire Rain
- TimeShift
- Kane and Lynch:Dead Men
- Mass Effect
- Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare
Wii Games
- Adult
- Pool Party
With the Hard cold winter set in, supplies of vital electronic entertainment have been cut down to a mere trickle, but a brave expedition has reached us with some new life sustaining video games.
Unfortunately their pack mules were only able to bring us 3 new titles in this post-holiday shipment, but three is better than none! Unless of course you are talking about being shot, in which case three is definitely much worse, but I digress.
The first item is the game version of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End for Xbox 360. The game lets you take the role of Jack Sparrow, Will Turner or Elizabeth Swann and relive the movie. You can apparently also take side missions that set you up against famous pirate villains of history. Swashbuckling action abounds in this Teen title, but as it is a pirate game it should probably been rated ARRRRRR! (sound of crickets). Nothing huh? Very well, moving on.
If piracy is not your thing but you still like playing movie based games, then we have Shrek the Third for the Nintendo Wii. In this game you can play as Shrek, Donkey, Puss in Boots, Fiona, as well as Arthur and the most might of all characters, the dreaded Sleeping Beauty! Using the (sigh) Wiimote you brawl against villains from the film. When Brawling gets old, there are 6 minigames to unlock and play.
Lastly, if movie games fill you with a dread like the visit of your relatives over the holidays, we have a stress reliever in the form of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. Lead the elite team of Ghosts in their efforts to quash rebel forces in Mexico. In Clancyland the U.S. has built a wall along the border,and Mexicans are gathering there. Time to the elite Ghost team to take care of the problem!
Thats it for this time, enjoy!
One small last shipment of games has arrived before the end of the year. And hopefully you enjoy Ninjas cause thats what we have. Ninjas Ninjas and MORE Ninjas! More Ninjas then you could shake a stick at if you could see them, and if you can see them they aren't real Ninjas!
Well really we only have two ninja titles come in, but that is 66% of the new stuff, so...
Anyway, the first ninja game is the stealth action game Tenchu Z. Immerse yourself in over 50 ninja type missions such as Assassination, Espionage and...what? Hostage rescue apparently. I have never heard of a ninja hostage rescue team before. Ah! No doubt because they are so stealthy and awesome they rescue you before you even KNOW you are a hostage! Hooray! Well, not only can you do all that ninja type goodness, but you can play the game co-op and design your own stealthy ninja of doom. Want me to write ninja again? Sure! Ninja!
Ahem.
The second ninja related game we have is Legend of the Dragon. A cell shaded fighting game that lets you take one of 18 characters and battle in 18 different arenas.
The last game we have new is Command and Conquer 3:Tiberium Wars. This real time strategy game for Xbox360 lets you continue the battle between the forces of the Global Defence Initiative and the sinister Brotherhood of Nod. This time adds the twist of an alien invasion here to harvest the precious precious tiberium.
So Metallica is apparently thinking of premiering their new single through the game Rock Band (thanks Joystiq).
Having defeated Napster, Metallica goes on to conquer new forms of media!
Well, if all this vidjamagame nonsense is not for you, you can still rock out old school with the CDs we have in our Catalogue.
There is a is a tradition of doing stupid and painful things to oneself in order to raise money for a charity, from shaving your head, to sitting in a dunk tank. For some reason people are more willing to help the less fortunate if they get to see some jerk suffer first.
Well, in that tradition the website Loadingreadyrun.com presents their first annual Desert Bus for hope.
Desert Bus, one of the mini-games from the unpublished Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors is a "game" where the goal is to drive from Tuscon to Los Angeles at the speed limit of 45 miles an hour. This takes 8 hours. You cannot pause or save the game. The screen shows a constant unvaried desert, no other cars, no people, no animals, nothing. The bus edges slowly to the right, so you cant even tape down the controller and leave it. For gritting out the 8 hour trip you get, (Drumroll please) one point, and the chance to drive back.
The charity is up to over ten-thousand American Dollars in dontations, and have been playing this "game" for more than two days straight, and have donations enough to make them play for over 90 hours as of the time of this writing. Now that is dedication!
The funds will be donated to the popular Childs Play chairity, run by the author and artist of Penny-Arcade. The charity provides videogame and other toys for children in hospitals over the holiday period.
So, if you want to donate to a charity, and prolong the suffering of your fellow human beings, then donate to keep the desert bus running.
Mass Effect
ESRB Rating:M
Check Catalogue Availability
Mass Effect, there are many, many, MANY reviews of it online already, but hey, I have to make blog entries anyway, so why not add my 2 cents to the mix?
The best way I can sum this up is that I have played for about 4 hours, and even now the fact that I am sitting here at work and not playing fills me with a rage that I fear will lead to a brain aneurysm. The game is awesome, the conversation system is everything it is promised to be, and I care about discovering the story, not just getting to the next group of npcs that I need to shoot in the face.
The annoying technical issues mentioned in other reviews are a bit of a distraction, but they pale with the high quality of voice acting, story, and "world" elements that draw you into the game. I care about the people I talk to, and want to hear their stories, from the floating jellyfish prophet, to the hazard suited ammonia breathing banker.
One thing that really impressed me is that Bioware took pains to include humans from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities in the story, not just White North American types, and even more impressive, these ethnic groups are people, not cardboard caricatures.
Combat is a bit of a trick to learn at first, but once you understand the "rules" then it becomes a fairly simple process.
This game was everything I had hoped it would be, and I give it my highest rating, one galactic singularity of mass up!
We don't have it in quite yet at the library, but we do have it on order. You can put a hold on it through our online catalogue. No holds on it when I wrote this, so be first in line to get this great game.
The folks over at Joystiq have my attention to a free game that both helps your brain and starving people in developing nations.
Freerice is a game where you are presented with a word and four other words, one of which means the same thing as the first word. For every correct match you make, the site's sponsors will donate ten grains of rice through the united nations to help ease hunger. As you get correct answers the words get harder, but if you start missing answers the difficulty eases off, this means you should be challenged, but still be able to get answers right.
The game is also pretty addictive, I can't seem to break through the level 41 layer.
Another shipment of games has arrived and is ready to whisk you away to a land of magic and whimsy where you can meet wonderful new people, and then beat them up. Or I suppose you could improve your brain, hey, who am I to judge?
For our PS2 owners we have three games new to the library:
Odin Sphere is our first offering this week, a two dimensional side-scrolling brawler has you fight your way through five "books" as you discover the interweaving tale of five heroes. This game is beautiful, creative and fun. You should definitely check it out.
For those who want 3d battles, with big hair and people screaming at the top of their lungs, DragonBall Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 might be more to your taste. Pick your hero and beat the stuffing out of other characters from the DBZ universe. Hopefully the fight won't last 4 hours...
We also have Transformers The Game available for your transforming robot needs, beat up Decepticons! Play as Decepticons! Let Jazz actually accomplish something besides being the "Urban" robot. The sky is the limit! (Note: The limit is actually much closer than the sky.)
Four games for the Xbox360 have come in as well:
For the hockey fans out there we have NHL 08 from EA sports. Lead your team to victory and claim the Stanley Cup. It might be the only way the Leafs will ever take the cup.
For those who need a little more "bang bang" in their games, we have two choices for the 360, first off there is Earth Defense Force 2017. Defend the Earth from hordes of alien invaders and giant bugs, and I do mean HORDES. Blow up buildings, cars, anything you want!
If Alien shooting isn't your thing, and you are more an 90's Hong Kong action movie type, then you too can be the "Hot Handed God of Cops" Inspector Tequila in Stranglehold. (As played by Chow Yun-fat).
For the kids we have Surf's Up. Based on the movie of the same name, take on surfing challenges as any of 10 characters, including the chicken guy.
Finally for our Wii owners, we have Big Brain Academy:Wii Degree. Improve your brain size with a bunch of mind exercising mini-games.
Will Wright is like unto a god, with powers to create worlds both fantastic and sublime. He is also a devil, tempting us with such wonders but not allowing us the true bliss of experiencing them. For years I have waited, glassy-eyed and drooling in expectation over Spore, lamenting each new delay, beating my breast and crying out to the heavens in my grief.
Hark! There is good news! For he who maketh the game has spoken, Spore shall come upon the the early days of spring, 6 months from now.
I am sure he could shave some time off that if he wasn't appearing in the new Simpson's game or accepting fellowships from BAFTA
Until then, here are some Will Wright inspired offerings to keep you occupied;
- March, 2007 (1)
- April, 2007 (14)
- May, 2007 (28)
- June, 2007 (24)
- July, 2007 (18)