I never played the first American McGee’s Alice, beyond a demo back when it came out which left me unimpressed. The art I saw for the game was generally very nice, but the actual game didn’t really click with me.

Madness Returns, however, seemed pretty interesting in previews I’ve seen, so I decided I’d check it out as soon as it came out, though negative reviews all around made me decide to just rent it.

Since I haven’t come close to finishing the game (done with chapter 2), this is an impressions post rather than a review, though honestly I doubt the game throws any curveballs gameplay-wise, so I’m pretty sure I’ve seen everything that is to be seen here (considering the total lack of BOSSES in the game…). So read on and see what I thought (I’ll make it short).
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jobocan Console, Games, impressions, PC, ps3, Review, xbox 360

Ah E3, a magical time for gamers where all the hottest new games are revealed, new hardware is shown and, outside of the big keynote conferences, more games are announced and tons of games are playable on the showfloor, sometimes for the first time, for journalists top try out and comment on them.

But the biggest part of E3 is definitely the big keynote conferences, namely the ones by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. I have a few things to say about them after watching them, so let’s go! Keep in mind I’m only talking about the big 3 here, so there’s gonna be no mention of the EA or Ubisoft conferences (despite Ubisoft kicking Microsoft’s ass, and that JUST by showing Rayman Origins footage… but I digress)..

Read on! (wow, I wrote a lot more than I thought I would… Oh well)
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jobocan 3DS, Console, e3, Games, Handheld, impressions, News, Nintendo, ps3, Vita, wii, Wii U, xbox 360

The next generation of handheld gaming has started, with Nintendo taking the lead with a super early, near-stealthy release of their device.

The main selling point here, at least when it comes to the advertising and first impressions, is the glasses-free 3D, something no other system has ever done (well… technically the virtal boy didn’t require 3D glasses… but I’ll consider the virtual boy as a whole to be a big pair of 3D glasses ).

So are Nintendo setting the world on fire with their new device? Read on and see!
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jobocan 3DS, Console, Handheld, impressions, Review

If there’s one thing you’ll hear gamers complain about a lot, especially more retro-style gamers such as myself, is that the gaming industry in the last 5-6 years has been drowned by First-Person Shooters, and none of them are particularly good other than the online component (if that interests you at all). The only exception, to me at least, has been Borderlands, which is more like a “What if Diablo was an FPS?” kinda thing. And there’s Bioshock, but to me it was good more because of the awesome visuals than the actual gameplay.

Bulletstorm comes in as a game that, while it mimics the crappy grey-brown look of modern games, seems like it might be a lot more fun. But, as I always do, I was incredibly skeptical about this, since every FPS I sort of got excited for ended up being total shit, like Singularity. And, the title… Bulletstorm? Yeah, lots of thought went into THAT one (that was sarcasm, by the way). So I didn’t hype myself up too much, but I still kept a close eye on it.

So I played the Bulletstorm demo yesterday… Read on and see if it might be that one good FPS this generation!
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jobocan Console, demo, Games, impressions, PC, ps3, xbox 360

Pinball is awesome. Marvel is awesome. So, obviously, mixing the two should result in awesomeness.

So yeah, this is made by the guys who made Zen Pinball, and I LOVED Zen Pinball. As such, I don’t really feel the need to do a complete review of this, but, instead, I’ll quickly comment on each of the tables available in the package.

So read on and see if they’re fun here!
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jobocan Console, Games, impressions, ps3, PSN, Review, XBLA, xbox 360

This morning I woke up with a box in front of my door, addressed to me. I open it up to find a yellow “?” block.

After hanging it to the ceiling and hitting it from the underside, something came out! (okay, I didn’t really do that… yet)

I’ll say that it looks pretty badass. The paint isn’t perfect, like Peach’s lips aren’t colored at all. And the plastic is a bit on the cheap side. But overall it’s a very nice little statue.

Speaking of little, this is actually fairly small. It’s a good size but… I have a 4 inch tall mario figurine that I bought earlier this year, and it’s actually as slight bit taller than this one.

Anyways, this is a pretty fun Club Nintendo reward, and I’m currently looking as to where to display it in my room…

jobocan impressions, Nintendo, sexy

Well that’s a game I was not hyped for. Which is sad since I love the Castlevania franchise. I mean, I even beat Simon’s Quest. Other than a few crappy games in the series, such as… most of the 3D games (I haven’t played the ones on PS2… though I haven’t heard much good about them) and Encore of the Night, Castlevania has been one of the most solid series in the history of gaming, with incredible super-challenging side-scrolling platformers on the NES, SNES, Genesis and Turbo CD, to more exploration-based platformers on the Playstation and portable systems.

When I saw that this one was rebooting the franchise, and going for a more God of War style of combat, I couldn’t help but be very skeptical about it. The gameplay videos I’ve seen, as well as various previews/impressions have done nothing to convince me that this was not much more than a God of War game with Castlevania elements tacked-on to it.

Well, the European PSN just got a demo of the game, and I had to check it out, see if it would prove me right about what I thought the game might be like, or if it would actually prove to be awesome.

Usually, for demo impressions, I usually name what I liked about the demo and what I didn’t, but here’s I’ll go for a more standard style.

So, read on!
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jobocan Console, demo, Games, impressions, ps3, xbox 360

Well, this is a moment I was quite hyped for. Finally getting the play the demo for Vanquish. One part of me is very excited for this game, and then there’s the part of me that says “calm down, it’s probably just another bland TPS”. SURE, it’s being made by Platinum games, who made the incredibly badass Bayonetta, but, on the other hand, it’s a TPS with a cover system, which has pretty much never been really enjoyable to me (too slow, too easy, rarely actually any fun to play).

Me getting excited about a TPS is all sorts of weird. Almost as weird as me getting excited about an FPS. In both cases, I usually end up being disappointed (most recent example: Singularity… Please don’t suck Bulletstorm, PLEASE), and this is why I’m being VERY skeptical about Vanquish.

So does this game follow the blandness of most TPS, or is it actually good?

Read on and see!
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jobocan Console, Games, impressions, ps3, xbox 360

Earthworm Jim, amongst the biggest badasses in the video game world. I mean, they just don’t make heroes like him anymore. Random earthworm who had a super-advanced space suit falling on him from outer space, making him a super powerful, lasergun-totting, super hero? And he can use his head as a whip? Awesome.
He hasn’t seen lots of action in quite some time (let’s just forget Earthworm Jim 3D, shall we?), but finally Jim is back and awesome as he should be.

I wanted to do a full review of this, but, well, I can’t find the motivation/originality to write a full complete review of such a classic game without sounding like a broken record. Instead, I’ll just quickly give my impressions on it, which will be a lot simpler.

Read on!
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jobocan Console, Games, impressions, ps3, PSN, XBLA, xbox 360

Well, at first I was planning to do a full review of Blur. It seemed like an interesting racing game, combining more realistic racers to Mario Kart. I had pretty good hopes for it.

It’s been out for a while, and I finally got around to renting it, and after quite some play time, I just can’t get into it at all, and, as such, I’ll just give my impressions on the game, and explain why I don’t really like it, or at least why I don’t feel like it lived up to its incredible potential.

Read on!
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jobocan Console, Games, impressions, PC, ps3, xbox 360