PSP Game Review Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

This game was originally an action adventure title for the Playstation 2, now it has evolved into a whole series with a dedicated following. Sony didn't even think this game would be as popular as it is today. This is the newest title in the series, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters is the first title in this series for the PSP System.
The first thing I noticed about this game is that it looks great. When you start the story mode, you are greeted with an intro scene. You can tell from this scene that the graphics are awesome. In the game, the details of the graphics are amazing. Ratchet especially looks great, even better than he does in some of the other titles in this series.

I can't even stress enough how great the graphics are. Of all the games I have seen go from PS2 to PSP this game is the one that has looked the best. Your surroundings have the smooth textures that the series is known for, as well as detailed scenery and a great set of enemies. The frame rate in this title is great, I have not yet seen it go below 30 frames per second, regardless of the actions on the screen. A lot of the special effects from other Ratchet and Clank titles were carried over to Size Matters, so you can look forward to that. This is one of the most visually impressive games I have seen for the PSP system so far.

This game is similar to the others, but like most Ratchet and Clank releases there are all new additions that you won't find on any other title. They generally give you a little something extra in each Ratchet and Clank game, probably so the series doesn't "get old" after a while. Some of the things that stay the same are, you can still buy weapons through out different parts of the stages, and you still defeat enemies the same way you did, with a gun or a melee weapon. In this game there is a new upgrade element which allows you to improve Ratchet and Clank's armor and capabilities. You will know it is time to upgrade when it starts getting harder for you to stay alive, or if you are dying to quickly it is probably because you are not fighting enough, which means your not collecting enough bolts, which means you can't expand your life-bar. You will see that being a solid warrior has it's rewards.

One of the biggest attractions to this title is Clank. In Clanks playable segments, not only are you playing as Clank in a regular stage, but you also use him to play a variety of different kinds of mini-games. There is one mini-game where Clank has to take control of a robot and defeat other bots around him in a Battle-bots like playground. Another game will remind you of Lemmings, in this level Clank has to guide little robots to "safe houses". You will also be able to travel into space and shoot down enemies that stand in your way. The cool thing about this level is that Clank turns into a giant version of himself that you get to control.

This game has a lot of unexpected things in it. For instance, the dialog is hilarious. This makes it way easier to get into this game. The dialog and cut-scenes make the game more fun and engaging. It makes you want to keep playing just to see what they will come up with next. This is one of those games that is hard to just play for a minute. Once you start playing you won't want to put it down. There is also a great online/multi-player game. You can have up to 4 player compete per battle. Setting up the games, picking a character, and choosing your name will all be like in other Ratchet and Clank online games.

If you have ever played a Ratchet and Clank game before, you will have no trouble getting used to the controls. The only little quirk I came across in this game is that you might come across an occasional camera issue, but there are two different camera modes you can toggle between so this may not be an issue for you. If you do have issues you can easily reset the camera with the L and R buttons. I would recommend this game to anyone. It has a humorous plot line, great single player, online multi-player, and the ability to grow your characters, this game is one of the best values available on the PSP system. Fans and people who have never played Ratchet and Clank will love this game. I give it 9 out of 10.

PSP Game Review Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee is the PSP exclusive edition of this Hot Shots Golf. This game has everything I love in a game. It plays for a very long time, unlike some games that you can beat in a matter of hours. It has tons of fun unlockable items. The controls are very simple, and the graphics are amazing. That isn't even the beginning of why this game is so great.

This PSP version plays just like the Playstation 2 version "Hot Shots Golf: Fore!. Basically, you choose which character you would like to start with, play the different courses, and try to unlock all the extras that the game has. This game is so popular because the controls are very user friendly, and the graphics are like you are watching a cartoon. I really love this game!

Hot Shots Golf doesn't have any kind of story involved in it. It is very similar to an arcade kind of game where you just play. I love this about the game. When you start the game you have 2 characters that you can choose from. As you play through the game more items and equipment is opened. You can play the match-play mode to unlock the really cool stuff and even unlock new characters that you can use. Some of the items you will be able to unlock are; golf clubs, golf balls, cool outfits, and accessories. New golf clubs and golf balls increase your characters stats, like how far they can drive and how much control they have over the ball. This game does a great job of being able to tell the difference between different accessories. A lot of times in other games, you can't really see the difference when you have unlockables, but in this game you can really tell the difference when selecting the different items. Some of the items you unlock are really silly, like the trucker hats or the sunglasses. The unlockable outfits and accessories have no real bearing on the game other than changing the appearance of you character.

I would just like to mention at this point that the ad-hoc play in this game is great. This game has a great multi-player mode. You can play with up to 8 people in one game. In the multi-player part of the game you are allowed to heckle and try to distract your opponents. It really is fun and I would recommend trying it out. It just makes this game even more great.

The graphics in this PSP version are very similar to that in the PS2 version. In the golf courses themselves you can see great distance. You can change the camera angle to see exactly what you need to in order to make your shot. I really enjoy the way the camera angle changes on it's own while it is showing you where your golf ball is going after you hit it. The frame rate is very smooth and the, and it has very tight, clean lines making the graphics in this game great.

As I mentioned before you will unlock other characters as you play through the game. There are unfortunately a limited number of caddies to choose from, but your caddie doesn't really affect your game much, so it probably doesn't matter. The caddies do offer some encouragement, they say things like "Good Shot", or "A Little Right". The sound effects are fun too. The game has different noises for the sound of hitting the ball, or going through a tree, or landing in the water, or hitting a rock. The sound effects are pretty realistic and fun too.

Overall this game is great. You can set up with either a 3 button action swing or on auto mode to make it so you hit it straight every time. There are lots of different menus and game play options, which makes for a great gaming experience. The sound isn't amazing, but for a golf game it definitely isn't bad at all. I would say this game isn't difficult, just long, which I really like. It takes a while to unlock everything, and that is half the fun of it. There are over 250 unlockable items, and you can only unlock one item per round of golf, think about it. This game is also great because it is really fun and cartoonish, but at the same time it really is all about the golf and strategy. I would say get this game, you can pick it up anywhere for 20 bucks, and it is totally worth it.

Trying To Get People To My Blog

I originally started this blog so that I could share the things that I enjoy with everybody. I really love the PSP system and I wanted to share my feelings about the games that I have purchased and stuff like that. Right now I am trying to get more traffic to my blog. I am not having very much luck. At the moment I am only getting about 20 visitors a day, and that is mostly from doing the blog traffic exchange thing. I would love to put some links on my site for other peoples blog if there is anyone that would like to do that. I am also looking for someone who would be willing to put my link on their blog. If anyone thinks that it might be beneficial to put their link here just leave a comment and I would be more than happy to. And if anybody wants to put my link up that would be great. Anyway, that's it for now, I will post my next game review either later today or tomorrow. I will be reviewing Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee. It's a great game!!! Okay, until next time...

PSP Game Review Thrillville

Thrillville for the PSP System is a game that is also available on the PS2 and Xbox. It is slightly different for the PSP though. Basically the whole game revolves around your crazy Uncle Mortimer. He is the scientist who owns Thrillville. He really liked your coaster designs, so he decided to put you in charge of running Thrillville. You make all the decisions that have anything to do with the park. Like, the number of rides, how much each ride will cost, how many bathrooms, where you put your food stands, and so much more.

In Thrillville you are in charge of every aspect of the theme parks. Not to mention there are so many other things you can do. You have five parks that you will be in control of. In order to switch parks you just have to choose which one in the menu screen. You can customize your character to look exactly as you want it to. You get to build your own roller coasters in this game too. Anything you can think of you can control in this video game.

The game play in Thrillville is broken up into 2 different aspects. There is the management aspect and then there are the rides and mini games. The management aspect of the game is played by finishing missions, or specific tasks. There are different tasks for each part of managing your park. Things like hiring employees, building new rides, changing prices on rides, and other thing involved in managing a theme park. When you complete the tasks you earn money, this money is then used to improve your parks. These tasks do not need to be completed in order to continue in the game. It is just like a side story. You are able to roam around and build the park the way you want it to be.

The other aspect of the game is riding your rides and playing the games. This is my favorite part. You get to play on the games and rides that you put in your parks. The thing that I enjoy is that most of the games will be similar to another game you have played before. For example there is a shooter arcade game that will remind a lot of people of Gradius or R-type. None of the games are particularly fantastic but having so many to play makes it great. The great part of this aspect of the game is that you get money for playing the games which you can use for your parks. You can also ride all of your coasters and rides if you just get bored.

Like I said before, there are so many things you can do in this game. You can sell your old rides, you can build new ones, research potential rides, spend money on advertising your park, and even take out bank loans to spend more on your parks. It is really like managing a theme park. You are also able to talk to the people in your park to see if they like it. You can also play the flirt game, this allows you to increase your "attraction" rating by matching a series of heart colors. You have to try and press the correct colored heart in a spinning wheel. You will sometimes be able to challenge visitors to mini games, and sometimes you are able to play matchmaker, which allows you to control your visitor. Once controlling them you go and talk and flirt with other visitors.

Another part of the game is hiring and training your employees. You have three types of employees, groundskeeper, entertainer, and mechanic. All of the training is done in the form of mini games. The mini game to train your entertainers is very similar to Dance Dance Revolution, you have to push buttons at just the right time to make her dance. The mechanic mini game is kind of like pipe dream for the computer, you have to put pieces together to get from one part of the puzzle to the other, in order to repair rides. The groundskeeper mini game is like a third person shooter, you have to go around the park and try to catch debris and clean up puke. You also earn money for these mini games.

Some of the mini games may seem a little pointless, but they are still fun. The fact that the PSP only has one joystick makes it a little hard to play some of the mini games. For instance, in the groundskeeper game you use the joystick to move your character and then you use your X, circle, square, and triangle to aim your gun. This would have been a much easier mini game if there was a second joystick to control the gun. Another downside in Thrillville is that because of so much going on in the park, sometimes the frame rate breaks up a little or slows down too much. Basically Thrillville is a great mini game collection and a simulation game, it's like the best of both worlds in one game. The mini games aren't original but they are really fun.

The amount of options in the simulation aspect of this game makes great game play, but the lack of originality in the mini games is a little disappointing. There is a little motion blurring in the game, but since there are literally hundreds of visitors running around your park that you can see and talk to that really isn't that bad. The soundtrack for this game includes a lot of original rock songs. It sets a good mood for the game but isn't distracting. I would say that this is a pretty easy game, there are good tutorials to help you get started, and the rest is pretty self explanatory. You can play the tutorials at any point during the game. The multi player option is great. You can play any of the mini games with a friend via ad-hoc. While Thrillville isn't the first theme park simulator, it does feel more original because of the mixture of simulation and mini games. This is a great game to sit and play for a long time to build up your park, or if you just have a minute you can play one of the many mini games. I would give this game 9 out of 10.

PSP Game Review Midnight Club 3: dub edition

This is a fun street racing game for the PSP system. There is high energy arcade type racing that can be very exciting. The career mode is very in depth. There are 3 full cities to race through. The graphics are great, and you get to choose from more than 60 kinds of cars, all of which are customizable. There were a few downsides to this game that I have come across. The load times are less then desirable. The voice overs are kind of cheesey. The multiplayer portion of the game was not anything special. Other than these few downsides I really like this game.

This game like the other Midnight Club games before it give you the ability to race in a completely open city setting. You start in San Diego, after a few races you will open Atlanta as a raceable city, and soon after that Detroit becomes available. All of the cities are full of back alleys, shortcuts, and jumps. There are also Rockstar logos in a few places, you get a special bonus for finding these. The cruise mode is good for this, you can cruise around any of the 3 cities to get to know the tracks better and look for those shortcuts.

The races in this game are checkpoint races. The checkpoints are scattered all over the place leaving it to you to decide which ways to go and which ways are faster. This is another reason to take advantage of the cruise option. There are a few point to point and timed races to provide some variety, but mostly just checkpoint races. This game is very arcade style in the sense that it is less then realistic. You get big air when you go off jumps, you can turn corners at unrealistic speeds, and the crashes are huge!!!

There are a few different types of cars you can choose from. There are tuners, muscle cars, trucks, SUV's, motorcycles, and luxury cars. Each type of car has it's strengths and weaknesses. The cars in Midnight Club 3: DUB edition have some special moves that make this game unique. There are 3 kinds of special moves that the different car classes have. Big cars like the muscle cars have the ability to knock all the traffic around you out of the way. Another special ability is "agro" this ability allows you to inflict more damage on the cars that you hit. The faster cars like the tuners can use "zone" which allows you to slow down time so you can make a sharp turn easier or maneuver around traffic easier. There is also one ability that all the vehicle have, this ability is automatically available as soon as you start playing. This is the method of using a slip stream to boost you. This little feature comes in very handy while racing. The learning curve in this game is very realistic. If you crash once or twice you will still have a chance to catch the lead, because realistically your opponents will probably crash once or twice as well. You also don't have to worry about some car coming out of nowhere and passing you if you have been doing really well.

Most of the game is played in the career mode where you start with about 20 grand. The career mode starts in the garage where you pick out your first car. The career mode is all about the racing. There is not a lot of story attached, you are basically just trying to get to the top of the street racing scene which is done by beating certain people. You start off challenging a few people that are milling around the city. Each of these people usually have a series of about 3 or 4 races. Once you beat these races you get invited to race with specific car clubs, with bigger series and better prizes. For these special car club races you have to have the specific type of car that everyone else is racing with...i.e. a tuner or a muscle car and so on. You could go and buy the car you need, but usually you will be presented with the option to participate in a tournament where the winner just happens to receive the car that you need. It's actually quite convenient so you can save your money to build up your cars. There are also races that aren't connected to any tournament or series and these are called city races. City races are good for earning extra cash to build up your cars too.

I really enjoy customizing my cars in this game, it is easy to do and for those people who are not very car literate it is not confusing at all. Your vehicle starts with all stock parts. As you play upgraded parts will start to become available. You can then buy them to boost your car's acceleration, top speed, and handling abilities. You can also customize the outside of your car with body kits, decals, custom paint jobs, rims, just about anything. The career mode is the biggest part of the game, but it is not the only part.

Midnight club also comes with an arcade mode which has all the races available in career mode, it also has a few multi-player races. The multi-player races offer some fun, there are variations of capture the flag, tag, and a few paint games. Overall this game does have a few downfalls but it is still very enjoyable. I would give it a 7 out of 10.