One might wonder why I am reviewing a game that is older than dirt and that’s first appearance was on the original Xbox and to that person I would answer, “because I can, lol.”  In all seriousness, the reason for the review is because if you play the game today it is pretty much a solid rental or cheap buy that will give you 5-8 hours of entertainment while netting you an easy 1000 Achievement points if your inclined to play a game that is over 3 years old.

My son has this King Kong/Achievement fetish lately so after his flag football game last Sunday we ventured up to our local Gamestop to get the game which we bought for $12.  The games visuals are totally outdated when comparing them to today’s FPS’s but battling the great dinosaurs that are in the game is a fun as every encounter leaves you waiting for the next.  I couldn’t help but compare King Kong’s T-Rex to Turok’s.  Both are big, nasty, and full of heart wrenching roars as the T-Rex in King Kong would probably give the one in the latest Turok game a fair battle if they ever were to meet.

The game uses the standard FPS control scheme which controls quite well and the sound is also a pleasant surprise.  There are a few different weapons that you use in the game but arguably the best for me was when I was able to find and throw spears at my enemies.  At first it was tough but then I learned how to aim and I was able to hit anything that pissed me off.  The story in the game was ripped straight from Peter Jackson’s movie but the presentation was well done as you could follow the story easily even if you lived under a rock and had no clue who or what King Kong is.

I recommend this game for anyone who wants a quick 1000 points and for only $12 it is well worth the purchase especially if you get it at EB Games or Gamespot.  Those companies let you trade in your used games if you beet them or did not like them as long as it was within a week of initially buying it.  So do what I my son did, buy the game, keep it for under a week as you beat it and get the points, and then trade it back in for another game while getting the full value of what you payed for it.  Sweet deal if you ask me.

What do you get when you throw Tomb Raider, Gears of War, and a Hot Blond in a blender? The answer to that question would be found on the Playstation 3 and developed by Naughty Dog. Uncharted is the name while exploration and from-behind-cover-gunfights is the game. The hero of the game is Nathan Drake, part Indiana Jones with a mix of Laura Croft without the huge breasts, and your primary objective is to find the treasure that Sir Francis Drake was looking for back in the 1800’s.

After booting up the game I was immediately impressed with the opening cut scenes as they laid the foundation for the gorgeous visuals that I found throughout the game. The game is linear by design but the draw distance is up to par as you think your really in a much bigger world than your actually in. Just as the graphics shine throughout the controls do also. The shooting mechanics in the game are phenomenal as Naughty Dog has done the cover and shoot mechanic better than anyone I have seen yet. Popping in and out of cover never gets old as wave after wave of piraty-looking terrorist are after you and your companion Elena.

The story in the game was excellently crafted and easy to follow as long as you paid attention to the cut scenes. As intriguing as the story was the sexual tension that developed between the stories primary characters, Drake and Elena. Their love/hate relationship was comical at times and really helped develop the pace of the game when the story slowed down a little.

Naughty Dog took the blueprint for Uncharted right from the manual on “How to Make Video Games”, as there are a variety of game play elements that are used to break up the monotony of running around in the 3rd person view taking cover and shooting bad guys. There is an on-rails shooting level as well as a few levels where you man a jet ski when searching for the lost treasure. The game also boasts the best water effects I have ever seen in a video game, if you thought Far Cry had good looking water, you need to check out Uncharted.

Overall this game is definitely a must buy for all you PS3 owners out there as it took me a good ten hours to beat. The controls, graphics, story, and sound are all on par with the best games on the market today.

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The first Weekly Achievement Grab is brought to you by all the shooter’s out there that like to throw wave after wave of suicide bombing terrorists at you while you work hard to eliminate every last one of them before they blow you to smithereens. IF you are going to give Army of Two a proper play through then you might as well use this guide when playing the game. This weeks Grab will show you how to get the most out of your Army of Two Achievements if your just interested in playing through the game to enjoy the shooter.

This Grab will net you 350 points and couples the single player game’s Achievement’s with some of the multi-player’s. To get YOUR 350 start the game on the Contractor difficulty level and get through all 6 mission’s of the game while using the Partner AI and by using your Assault Rifles to amass 250 enemy kills, doing this will net you I75 points and will set you well on your way to YOUR 350. While playing through the campaign make sure you do a couple key things some of which practically happen automatically. First, you have to collect all the information cases in the game, kill 25 martyrs, kill 25 heavy armored enemies, heal your partner once, kill 50 enemies while in Back-To-Back, and purchase 3 weapons. Accomplishing these feats will net you another I40 points with the only two multi-player Grab’s to go. Next, you have to go online and finish a versus ranked match while never needing to be revived, this will get you two more Achievements, as you earn an easy 35 points which ends your first Achievement Grab. For completing this Achievement Grab you get YOUR 350 and officially become an Achievement Whore and a huge gaming dork.

At the beginning of this generation there were three major consoles that entered the market all vying for the industries top spot, the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3. The problem with this fact is that only two of the three are legitimate gaming consoles. While the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are machines whose internal specs are usually optimized for their systems’ games, the Wii is stuck in the mud with its major selling point being a gimmicky controller thats only utilized in game play half of the time while the only new titles that come around are Playstation 2 ports. In my opinion, when I think of “Next Gen”, the Wii does not enter the picture.

Since in my mind there are only two true “Next Gen” consoles I think to pick an early winner one would have to rule out the PS3 and go with the XBOX 360 entirely. The reasons for this are simple, the 360 has the library of games and the Live service. Sure the PS3 has games and you can play some of them online but neither compares when looking at the games and services that are found on the 360. It seems that almost every game that runs on both consoles runs better on the 360 and while your whoring out yourself for thay almighty Gamerscore you can actually communicate with people via an XBOX Live headset. It just does not get any better than that.

People say that this is Sony’s year though and that Microsoft has screwed up by throwing all it’s cards down in the 360’s first two years by releasing Halo 3 and Mass Effect already but I would beg to differ. What does the PS3 have to offer this year? Haze, Metal Gear 4, Little Big Planet, Motorstorm 2 and Resistance 2. Sure there are a few more First Party games coming to the PS3 but these are the heavy hitters and they all should be pretty damn good but the 360 has a few games coming also. Ninja Gaiden 2, Too Human, Fable 2, Halo Wars, and Gears of War 2 can definitely stand up to anything that Sony has to offer and all these games will utilize the 360’s Live service which allows for finding buddies at the click of a few buttons.

Will Sony’s Home have what it takes to dethrone XBOX Live? I highly doubt it. Sony could have just copied Live and one upped Microsoft by making it free but that would make too much sense. Instead they took the PC MMO Second Life and made it their PS3 Live. Hey Sony, when I hop online to play with my friends the last thing I want to do is walk around a virtual world to find them. What are they thinking? They want to be different, they want something new and fresh but this is not it. I think Home will fail miserably but Sony would never admit it even if it did.

As it turns out my vote is for the XBOX 360 for winning the console war. It is rather early for a clear cut winner but I am basing my decision on what I have seen from both consoles thus far. For now, I will keep playing on Live, keep playing my PS3’s First Party games, and keep letting my Wii collect dust as it sits there making sure my ten month old does not get at my HDTV manual.

The first Weekly Achievement Grab is brought to you by all the shooter’s out there that like to throw wave after wave of suicide bombing terrorists at you while you work hard to eliminate every last one of them before they blow you to smithereens. IF you are going to give Army of Two a proper play through then you might as well use this guide when playing the game. This weeks Grab will show you how to get the most out of your Army of Two Achievements if your just interested in playing through the game to enjoy the shooter.

This Grab will net you 350 points and couples the single player game’s Achievement’s with some of the multi-player’s. To get YOUR 350 start the game on the Contractor difficulty level and get through all 6 mission’s of the game while using the Partner AI and by using your Assault Rifles to amass 250 enemy kills, doing this will net you I75 points and will set you well on your way to YOUR 350.

While playing through the campaign make sure you do a couple key things some of which practically happen automatically. First, you have to collect all the information cases in the game, kill 25 martyrs, kill 25 heavy armored enemies, heal your partner once, kill 50 enemies while in Back-To-Back, and purchase 3 weapons. Accomplishing these feats will net you another I40 points with the only two multi-player Grab’s to go.

Next, you have to go online and finish a versus ranked match while never needing to be revived, this will get you two more Achievements, as you earn an easy 35 points which ends your first Achievement Grab. For completing this Achievement Grab you get YOUR 350 and officially become an Achievement Whore and a huge gaming dork.

Achievement’s Earned-16 of 37

Mission 1 Complete-30

Mission 2 Complete-30

Mission 3 Complete-15

Mission 4 Complete-15

Mission 5 Complete-15

Mission 6 Complete-15

My Virtual Friend-35

Seven-six-two Millimeter-20

My Kind of Case-40

Fission Mailed-20

IF It Bleeds We Can Kill It-30

Out of Debt-15

Beast With Two Fronts-20

Weapon Specialist-15

Boots On the Ground-10

Surviving the Game-25