KoG - Reviews, Previews, Cheats and More!

Wii Sports Review

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:07:00 +0000

Tennis, Baseball, and Bowling: All in One!

Introducing the Nintendo Wii, this game was released with each package of the Wii sold. Now, is Nintendo known for its sports games? Of course not, but nonetheless, this game isn’t one of the “Madden” franchises we all know and love. Wii Sports brings family-fun back and Nintendo has constantly said they want the Wii to be a family-fun system. What has Nintendo made that makes this such a great game?

Nintendo added five games: Boxing, Tennis, Golf, Bowling, and Baseball- all combined into one great game. You can use both the Wii-mote and Nunchuck for this game, but you will be using the Wii-mote for the majority. When in the main screen, you are given a choice of the five games to play, Wii Fitness, and Training. Personally, the Training is the most fun out of this game. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing the regular sports, but the Training is what I would be doing if I am playing.

I can do it Dad! You don’t have to teach me!
As far as the regular games go, you are playing as if the pros were, but with your Mii. Yes, Wii Sports revolves around your Mii. They are finally making their debut in this game .You are not playing with star hitters, unless you consider yourself a star, which we all do, but with your Mii you created when you loaded up your Wii.

These Mii's add spice to the game, because it’s like you are playing as your favorite baseball player or tennis player. You can even make players out of the Mii's for the corresponding sport. How fun would it be to see a Tennis player play Baseball? Yeah, that is so hardcore!!

The other mode (which I undoubtfully enjoy) is the Training. It enables you to play what we would call “mini-games.” All five sports have three mini-games with it. Baseball, for example, is hitting home runs, while in Tennis you can return a serve. The mini-games are the best part of this game, because there are so many and you are not limited to only a few. Fifteen games do not seem like a lot, but once you play one, you’ll want to beat your old score or even your friends score!

Wii Fitness is like your trainer. You’ll play three sports- Tennis (Which you serve the ball back to the other player fifty times), Baseball (In eight pitches, try to get a home run in each) and Bowling (Knock down as many pins as you can with five chances of not missing). After all that, it will score your fitness based on Endurance, Speed, and Balance. It will also calculate your “Wii-Age.” When I did it, my age was 35 “Wii-years”.

Will this be a home run?!
Graphics are nice and crisp. I like playing this game because of how clean it is. When you swing at the ball, you actually hit it. You are always moving during Tennis and always pitching/hitting in baseball. The Graphics aren’t your “OMGZ, LIEK DIS IS UH-MAZING” kind, but more of a Nintendo style, meaning they’re nice and clean, but not a top-notch deal. The Graphics don’t bring this score down, though.
The Sound they have for this game is awesome. When you hit the baseball, you hear the crack of it hitting the bat. When you’re moving on the court, you hear your feet moving when you are going for that tennis ball. You even hear the grunts of yourself when you hit that punching bag! Nintendo has finally found something that works, and the works of this game is awesome.

Let’s close this review, shall we? The Graphics and Sound are awesome. You can make your own Mii and play as him in the game. The Gameplay is just pure enjoyment. I love every bit of it and I am positive you will too (Unless you are some bastard that no one likes). If you pick-up a Wii, you get this game for free! So why not head out and pick one up?

Closing Comments
Let’s close this review, shall we? The Graphics and Sound are awesome. You can make your own Mii and play as him in the game. The Gameplay is just pure enjoyment. I love every bit of it and I am positive you will too (Unless you are some bastard that no one likes). If you pick-up a Wii, you get this game for free! So why not head out and pick one up?

Good/Bad Points
+ comes free with the Wii
+ great for fitness
- can be repetitive/boring at times
- there should be more sports

Presentation: 9.0/10.0
Graphics: 9.0/10.0
Sound: 10.0/10.0
Gameplay: 8.0/10.0
Lasting Appeal: 9.5/10.0

9.5

Awesome

overall score is not an average

Review by SimzBoy123

Call of Duty 5: World at War Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:55:00 +0000

Call of Duty 5 (subtitle confirmed as World at War) currently holds a love/hate relationship with fans of the series, mainly because the developer of the much-praised first-person shooter has been confirmed as Treyarch. Treyarch's other "big" games include Call of Duty 2: Big Red One and Call of Duty 3, both of which received heavy criticism.

The setting of World at War has also been confirmed. It is to take place during World War II (please hold your groans), but this time in the Pacific Theatre (and possibly the Eastern front- meaning Germans vs. Russians... again). The Pacific Theatre is generally uncharted waters (pun very much intended), only being touched a handful of times, most notably by the Medal of Honor series in Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault (Electronic Arts).

For the first time in the series, World at War will feature co-op gameplay, vehicles, and squad elements within the game's multiplayer. Swimming will also be introduced, as well as flamethrowers, both perfect tools for a jungle setting.

World at War will have been developed by Treyarch for two years when it is released, making its development time twice that of Call of Duty 3's. It will also run off a modified Call of Duty 4 (Infinity Ward) engine. These modifications include improved lighting and physics, which will allow the player to do things such as set buildings on fire via flamethrower and cut holes in thin wood with bullets, creating openings big enough to squeeze a soldier through.

It seems as if poor Treyarch deserves another chance. We'll just have to wait and see how heavily this plot thickens.

Proposed Release Date: Late Fall/Early Winter 2008

Preview by The-Professor

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:54:00 +0000

When you first pop Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 into your console, you're greeted with a nice screen that allows you to select your characters gender, appearance and weapons. It's pretty nice because of you being able to have plenty of options to work with and not having only a small variety of weapons to use.

The game is great in how it's realistic, being stealthy instead of bursting in a room will guarantee your life while in some others, it'd probably be the better idea (even though if you're having a huge firefight in one room, the enemies in the next aren't alarmed at all). The ranking & leveling system is something extra special. You get a certain number of points for special sort of kills and as ranks go up, you unlock more item (along with achieving large amounts of experience to actually rank up).

Vegas is an amazing game in the combat & cover systems as well as the wide variety of weapons, armor, clothing & camo styles. Your character can be truly specific to your own preferences and most likely not look the same as the next. The large amount of weapons supplied to you are a great help in all situations. Close combat? Take a shottie and an assault rifle. Aiming more for long range? There's still a choice for a sniper and an ACOG scope to go on your other guns.

Now on to the story. Being someone who hasn't played the first Vegas, I didn't know the story and didn't have any expectations about the game, all I wanted was a good, stealthy shooter and I got that. Now, even though I was pleased with the actual game itself doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed with some parts. This is specifically the AI. To put it in a blunt form, the AI is stupid. I can be having the loudest firefight of a lifetime in an empty corridor with crazy echoes from the grenades & shotguns while in a room just on the other side of a standard wall there are 3 enemies chatting and not aware of what happened. So what do I do? I send my idiotic teammates to the door for a Breach & Clear which kills everyone in the room. I can't count the times on two hands and two feet that my teammates have run out into the open in a stealthy situation or have gotten stuck in a room because they're too stupid to use the door.

a screen shot of one of the levels
Even though the story is amazing by it self, the co-op, Terrorist Hunt and online play are amazing in themselves. It's always fun playing the story with a friend so you're not alone, or going in to a situation where you have to clear out 30 enemies from a complex.

My one beef with the co-op mode is that the second player is basically just a hired gunman. He doesn't have the ability to control teammates or really do anything without you there. It's kind of useless in a way, why can't your teammate who is also basically a team leader order the AI around? It doesn't make much sense, especially if you're in the case where you want to go around one side and he wants to keep an eye on the AI. What will you do? Well, obviously you'll have to switch controllers unless you want to set them up and wait for his signal to open up a door/make them move (and of course, they can only follow you).

Closing Comments

All in all, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is a great game, but there are a couple of things that majorly hold it back from being anything close to perfect. I do recommend purchasing it but don't get too disappointed when you come across the flaws.

Good/Bad Points
+ character customization system
+ great variety of weapons, clothing, armor, etc
+ good combat system and cover system
+ some great single player missions
+ nice multiplayer modes
- the AI is very stupid
- some missions are silly
- the save system is horrible

Presentation: 9.0/10.0
Graphics: 9.5/10.0
Sound: 8.5/10.0
Gameplay: 9.5/10.0
Lasting Appeal: 8.0/10.0

8.9

Great

overall score is not an average

Review by ShadeSlayer

Halo Wars Images, Videos and Trailers

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:50:00 +0000

Within this post is a large amount of images, videos and trailers involving Halo Wars.

Halo Wars Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:50:00 +0000

After over two and a half years of development, Halo Wars is finally getting close to the Xbox 360. Created by Ensemble Studios, the people who made the Age of Empires franchise, it is running a similar type of idea where you build up your defense system, and military to fight the Covenant enemies.

The game is set back to 20 years before Halo: Combat Evolved which means a lack of the Flood (Yay?) and possibly a new race that hasn't been seen before. Halo Wars follows the UNSC ship Spirit of Fire, the crew, and of course, the AI on the ship. All of those people help you in your quest to defeat the Covenant.

one of the many screen shots of the gameEven though not a an actual part of the Halo series, Halo Wars is still a highly anticipated game and should make for some very fun times. We assume that it'll be great because of the 6 months of development spent on the controls alone.

Halo Wars is set to be released in October 2008 and we're hoping that it doesn't experience the same type of set backs as in the first two Halo games.

View Halo Wars Images, Halo Wars Movies/Trailers.

Proposed Release Date: October 2008

Preview by ShadeSlayer

How We Do Our Scores

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:27:00 +0000

Our scores have special wording for how they're rated, this is an explanation of it.

Editors Choice Award: Any product with a score of 9.0 and above.

Perfect: A product with a score of 11.0, it will never happen.
Amazing: One of those rare products. Must have a score of 10.0
Awesome: Quite impressive. Gained if the product has achieved 9.0 - 9.9.
Great: A great product and still one of the best titles, but is lacking in some perspectives. All scores of 8.0 - 8.9 will get this.
Very Good: Still a pretty good game, but has a big problem or two. All scores from 7.0 - 7.9 can have this.
Good: An adequate game with some large problems, but something decent. Anything with a 6.0 - 6.9 can achieve this score.
Decent: Maybe the odd interesting fact, but not very good. Products with a 5.0 - 5.9 can have this.
Mediocre: Even though not the worst, it is close. 3.0 - 4.9 is the range of scores for this category.
Sucks: One of the worst titles you can come across. All games with a 0.0 - 2.9 get this.

Any score with a 10.0 or higher can achieve the platinum award:

10.0

Amazing

All scores that achieve a 9.0 - 9.9 get the gold award:

9.0

Awesome

The scores that are from 6.0 - 8.9 acquire a silver award:

7.0

Very Good

And finally, anything with a 0.0 - 5.9 can have the bronze:

3.0

Mediocre

Please note: None of our scores are averaged, they are simply an overall achievement for the game/product.

Xbox 360 Wireless Networking Adapter Review

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:53:00 +0000

I've always wondered what the little slots by the rear USB port of my Xbox 360 were for. I never could quite figure it out. Recently, I purchased the Wireless Network Adapter by Microsoft and finally figured it out.

The wireless networking adapter was released by Microsoft to create the wireless capabilities for internet. It is actually quite convenient, too. For a whole $99.99, you receive a little object that'll connect to most wireless routers and make your connection to Xbox Live simple and surprisingly, quite quick.

While playing some games on Xbox Live, I experienced no time-outs nor lagging that was caused by me, everything happened so quickly (especially downloading off of the Marketplace). Even though the Ethernet cable can give you a bit more of a stable internet connection, the wireless adapter holds up to what it should do and keeps up at about the same speed.

Luckily, for lack of connections, the adapter connects via a USB cable to prevent an extra cord for power. Also, it has a capability of connecting to many different bands (so you won't need to replace a router to use it).

Probably the most convenient of all is the ability to use System Link play without the Ethernet cable. The setup for this little gadget is quite simple. It involves three steps:

1. Connecting the adapter to the Xbox.
2. Plugging in the adapter.
3. Changing network settings/entering a password to connect to your router.

After that, you're all done.

All in all, I'd have to say that this accessory is probably one of the most useful ones you can get for Xbox 360 due to all of the possibilities and I believe that it will likely still be better than any third-party accessories to be released.

Good/Bad Points
+ very convienient
+ easy setup
+ fast connection
- it is a little pricey
- it can be a bit... useless if there isn't a wireless router to connect to

Performance: 9.8/10.0
Quality: 10.0/10.0
Ease of Use: 10.0/10.0
Value: 8.0/10.0
Longevity: 10.0/10.0

9.6

Awesome

overall score is not an average

Review by ShadeSlayer

The E3 2008 List of Upcoming Games

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:35:00 +0000

Here is a list of games that will be presented in the upcoming E3. Even though it isn't all of them, it's a great amount and will be updated as more information flows in. The good thing about this is that these games will be presented and previews will be put up for them throughout the summer/fall months.

Bethesda Softworks

Fallout 3

Caom

Bionic Commando
Bionic Commando Rearmed
Caom Project #1 [untitled]
Caom Project #2 [untitled]
Dark Void
MotoGP 08 other
Neopets Puzzle Adventure
Plunder
Resident Evil 5
Spyborgs
Street Fighter IV
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

D3 Publisher

Bangai-O Spirits
Ben 10: Alien Force -- The Game
Naruto: Clash of The Ninja Revolution 2
Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

Deep Silver

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

Disney Interactive Studios

Pure
Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals

Electronic Arts

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Crysis Warhead
Dead Space
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Mirror's Edge
Skate It
Spore
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Microsoft

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Fable 2
Gears of War 2
Halo Wars
Too Human
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise

Midway Games

Blitz: The League II
Game Party 2
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
TNA iMPACT!
This is Vegas
Touchmaster 2
Unreal Tournament III
Wheelman

Namco Bandai

Soulcalibur IV

Natsume

Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility

Sony Computer Entertainment

Killzone 2
LittleBigPlanet
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
PixelJunk Eden
Resistance 2
SIREN: Blood Curse Episode #1 [PSN]
SOCOM: Confrontation

SouthPeak Interactive

B-Boy
Big Bang Mini
Edge of Twilight
Mister Slime
Monster Madness: Grave Danger
Ninjatown
Two Worl: The Temptation

Valve

Left 4 Dead

XSEED Games

Little King's Story
Valhalla Knights 2

Information retrieved from IGN

Grand Theft Auto IV Cheats

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:41:00 +0000

Enabling Cheats
Access your cell phone by pressing UP on the D-Pad and press UP again to access the keypad. Once you're there, enter one of the following codes and click the green send button to activate it.
*note: enabling specific cheats on the Xbox 360 will disable achievements. Refer to the notes near the bottom to see which ones.
*note: once you've already enabled a cheat, you can quickly enable it by going to the OPTIONS menu and down to the CHEATS menu.

Full health and armor ^{1, 2, 3, 4}

Dial "362-555-0100" on the cell phone to enable. Also, if you're in a vehicle when enabling the cheat, it will automatically repair the car.

Full health, armor, and ammunition ¹

Dial "482-555-0100" on the cell phone to enable. Also, if you're in a vehicle when enabling the cheat, it will automatically repair the car.

Weapons #1 ¹

Dial "486-555-0100" on the cell phone to enable. It unlocks the baseball bat, handgun, shotgun, MP5, M4, sniper rifle, RPG, and grenades.

Weapons #2 ¹

Dial "486-555-0150" on the cell phone to enable. It unlocks the knife, Molotov cocktails, handgun, shotgun, Uzi, AK47, sniper rifle, and RPG.

Remove Wanted Level ^{3, 4}

Dial "267-555-0100" on the cell phone to enable.

Add One Star to Wanted Level

Dial "267-555-0150" on the cell phone to enable.

Spawn Annihilator ^{3, 4}

Dial "359-555-0100" on the cell phone to enable.

Spawn Cognoscenti

Dial "227-555-0142" on the cell phone to enable.

Spawn Comet

Dial "227-555-0175" on the cell phone to enable.

Spawn FIB Buffalo

Dial "227-555-0100" on the cell phone to enable.

Spawn Jetmax

Dial "938-555-0100" on the cell phone to enable.

Spawn NRG-900

Dial "625-555-0100" on the cell phone to enable.

Spawn Sanchez

Dial "625-555-0150" on the cell phone to enable.

Spawn SuperGT

Dial "227-555-0168" on the cell phone to enable.

Spawn Turismo

Dial "227-555-0147" on the cell phone to enable.

Change Weather and Brightness

Dial "468-555-0100" on the cell phone to enable.

¹ - Disables the Cleaned the Mean Streets achievement.
² - Disables the Finish Him achievement.
³ - Disables the One Man Army achievement.
⁴ - Disables the Walk Free achievement.

World of Warcraft Review

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:17:00 +0000

For the Horde!

Oooohhh. Big, bad, Warcraft. The game that "only nerds play". That one MMORPG that "ruins your social life". Meh. I don't care what people say, WoW is one of my absolute favorite games of all time. It combines Player Vs. Player aspects with questing and dungeon raiding. The game lives up to its name of being a "Massive Multiplayer Online" RPG, as the world itself can take hours to cross on foot and there's always people to quest with.

one of the many maps you can play on

When you finish installing all the patches you've missed for WoW, you're greated with a delightful login screen. After putting in your account info (which should be kept secret), you're able to select a server and go to the character page. From here, you can create your own hero to brave the realm of Blizzard's most succesful series. There are 8 races to choose from in the orginal WoW- Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, Night Elves, Orcs, Undead, Tauren, and Trolls (the first four being Alliance races and the last four being Horde races). There are also 9 classes- Mage, Warlock, Druid, Shaman, Hunter, Warrior, Rogue, Priest, and Paladin. As you adventure, your character will increase in level and power.

PvP (player vs. player) combat is the second largest focus of WoW (the first being group dungeon raiding) and uses the best system I've seen so far. There are 3 types of PvP- World, Battleground, and Arena. World PvP is simply that- PvP combat in the world. Depending on the server type, you'll often find members of the opposing faction snooping around in your questing zones. Attacking that person would be an example of World PvP. Many guilds and high-level players enjoy raiding the other faction's towns for fun and to cause grief for the enemy. Battlegrounds are special PvP zones that pull players from a select group of servers (called Battlegroups) and pit them against each other in war zones. These war zones are seperate from the world in that only the pulled players will be in it- that is, multiple battlegrounds can run at the same time with different players. There are no quests in Battlegrounds, only pure combat between the Horde and the Alliance. Battlegrounds are usually made up of more than 10 players per side.Arenas are a big deal among the high-level players. In these, players are put against each other in smaller teams (think 5v5 and smaller) for carefully planned combat.

PvE (player vs. environment/monsters) is the other focus of WoW. PvE refers to both questing and dungeon raiding. Questing is generally done alone, while dungeon raiding is done with a group. Dungeons in WoW are different from what you'd expect. These dungeons (called Instances) are unique to each group that enters them. It's like a battleground- each group has their own dungeon with their own monsters with nobody else to come in and muck things up. Instances are great sources of experience (especially for low level players). The best equipment for PvP can be found in the high level dungeons.

World of Warcraft is a game that is great because it's simple. It uses some of the most basic RPG elements- you won't find many fancy features here- to create an experience that'll keep you on the edge of your seat for hours/days/weeks/months/years.

Closing Comments
If you're on the edge about buying World of Warcraft, do it. 15 dollars/9 pounds per month really isn't bank-busting and it's definitely worth it. If you're worried about looking nerdy, just don't talk about WoW at school/work. That's totally understandable.

Good/Bad Points
+ fun with friends
+ long lasting
+ good combat system
+ interface can be easily modified
+ Blizzard is constantly updating it
- the graphics are a bit outdated
- a wee bit expensive for some
- some class balances issues

Presentation: 8.5/10.0
Graphics: 6.5/10.0
Sound: 9.5/10.0
Gameplay: 9.8/10.0
Lasting Appeal: 10.0/10.0

9.0

Awesome

overall score is not an average

Review by The-Professor

List of news posts & other content.

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:06:00 +0000

News Posts
» How We Do Our Scores
» E3 2008 List of Upcoming Games
» KoG Main Site

Other Content
» How We Do Our Scores
» E3 2008 List of Upcoming Games
» KoG Main Site

List of Guides & FAQs

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:05:00 +0000

Guides
n/a

FAQs
n/a

List of Previews

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:03:00 +0000

Xbox 360
» E3 2008 List of Upcoming Games
» Halo Wars Preview (by ShadeSlayer)
» Call of Duty 5: World at War Preview (by The-Professor)

Playstation 3
» E3 2008 List of Upcoming Games
» Call of Duty 5: World at War Preview (by The-Professor)

Nintendo Wii
» E3 2008 List of Upcoming Games
» Call of Duty 5: World at War Preview (by The-Professor)

Playstation 2
» E3 2008 List of Upcoming Games

Playstation Portable
» E3 2008 List of Upcoming Games

Nintendo DS
» E3 2008 List of Upcoming Games

PC
» E3 2008 List of Upcoming Games
» Call of Duty 5: World at War Preview (by The-Professor)

List of Cheats

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:02:00 +0000

Xbox 360
» Grand Theft Auto IV

Playstation 3
» Grand Theft Auto IV

List of Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:51:00 +0000

Video Game Reviews
» World of Warcraft (by The-Professor)
» Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (by ShadeSlayer)
» Wii Sports (by SimzBoy123)

Movie Reviews
n/a

Music Reviews
n/a

Product Reviews
» Xbox 360 Wireless Networking Adapter (by ShadeSlayer)

KoG Main Site

noreply@blogger.com (Alex-KoG) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:39:00 +0000

We are now up and running. If you'd like to be a site editor, send a Private Message to ShadeSlayer.