Rad:
Catherine sets sales records for Atlus

By selling well above any Atlus game in the U.S, whether it was because of a heavily sexualized ad campaign or pure drive from Atlus and Persona fans, a new IP from Japan has given hope to many others who would like to see more creative and oddball Japanese properties release state side. The gamers are saying yes! I for one, want to applaud and thank everyone who made this series of events possible.

I am happy to say "like the others who have enjoyed the likes of Tetris, Intelligent Cube and Bombastic, that I couldn't wait to get my hands on another cube puzzler like Catherine and I have fallen in love with the game". I have become enamored not only because of the story or quirky stylized set pieces, but because of this puzzle gameplay.

I am glad to see this game succeeded. I am probably part of a small fan base saying this, but these kinds of games give me great joy when they release, especially amongst the plethora of generic first person shooters and remakes this gaming generation.

Fad:
Big Happenings at Grasshopper Manufacture

Grasshopper has made a name for itself with games like Killer 7 and the oft referred No More Heroes in the past and fortunately in the last month and a half they have been very busy in the spotlight once more.


One story tells of Grasshopper losing the director Massimo Guarini who worked on Shadows of the Damned with Akira Yamaoka, Shinji Mikami and Goichi Suda which released in late June.
Shadows of the Damned was released to great praise from reviewers and fans alike, but unfortunately did not fare well in sales, this could have possibly been due to a lack of marketing.

In light of that tragedy, Grasshopper has announced two new games.

One, Lollipop Chainsaw which is going to be a zombie melee action game where you will be dismembering zombies as a cute zombie hunting school girl. Lollipop Chainsaw's story is being developed by none other than James Gunn of Dawn of the Dead fame with Goichi Suda.


The second, Sine Mora which is still scant on detail. The announcement is of a diesel-punk side scroll shooter that Akira Yamaoka will be developing the soundtrack and sound design for.


No more heroes: heroes paradise will also be dropping in a few weeks, so keep an eye out.


Let's keep up hope that events like these will stay the fad of day instead of the likes of those pesky hacking fiascos of yore.

Bad:
Call of Juarez: the Cartel

I have to admit, I really wanted to like this one. Whether it was the single player or coop with friends, I just couldn't get into this one. I even feel utterly disappointed after having played "Bound in Blood" of which I thought brought a great cast of characters, great scenarios and fun gameplay to the table to say the least.

This title suffers from so many flaws it's ridiculous. This game has an instantly forgettable cast, a setting of questionable subject in which you are gunning down common thugs and forgettable street bosses after screaming "DEA freeze" or "You see anymore of them". There's horrible dialog which reeks of narco ignorance and is so poorly recorded that it sounds like they are talking from inside of trash cans. The subject dialog was so bad that it will make anyone who's been educated on the subject beyond "reefer madness" cringe and at the same time have you wondering what the hell is going on.

Then there's the coop, if you have nothing to play with your friends, you can kick around the time in short bursts until the point system and repetition in coop becomes too annoying to continue.

I won't say no one will like this game, but I could never recommend this title.

If you are a fan of the series the only upside to this game is they improved the dueling mechanic a little.

Be warned unless your thing is shooting those "darn dirty dopers" in the street while scoring a point to one up your team mate while screaming yeehaw and pounding a natty, you'll be sorely disappointed.

Sadly this game falls victim to a sort of current modernism that just takes the romance out of the settings, character development, gameplay and all that could have been. The polish on this dookie feels less than stellar compared to it's two year old prequel. In fact it always seems to be asking too much to ask for a decent game with this kind of setting these days.

Oh what I would do to see more hard boiled style games like Max Payne regarding these subjects, alas we'll just have to wait for Max Payne 3.

Rad:
Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time


As many of you are aware, Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of time was released on June 19th 2011. This remake was an all superior version compared to the original. Fixing many camera angles and bugs, re-rendering the graphics beautifully, adding many immersive effects such as being able to control the bow and long shot with your 3ds camera and even adding hints for those who were always lost in the original excursion. The gameplay in this legendary series stands the test of time, giving 3ds owners something to be proud of. Ocarina of Time 3ds is nothing less than superb. comparison Images courtesy of Nintendo3dsblog

Fad:
Major gaming label hackzors

We all know about the infamous Sony hackings back in april and may. Yes, yes, those hacks that have had the entire fanbase of sony shaking their fists in anger and waiting around for the compromised network to be restored. Well it seems that these events have brought many other hackers out of the woodwork in june. It also seems that the new fad for hack attack is gaming companies, that's right, our beloved gaming companies have been under continuous assault in june. With Bethesda, Epic, Bioware, Codemasters, Square-Enix, Sega and yes even Nintendo having been savagely defiled, it seems that no one is safe in these dark times. Let us hope these malovelent attacks against such great providers of entertainment end and the hackers move onto subjects less beloved by us.

Bad:
Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem is finally here and it SUCKS!!! After waiting 14 years for this iteration of the beloved franchise of Duke Nukem, even the fanboys can agree that the developers failed to revive the corpse of the once grand Duke Nukem and disappointed almost everyone. With bland stage design, poor gameplay, plain enemies, and an unoriginal plot, the only redeeming quality this game had to offer was the voice actors quirky one liners and even those sucked.

Now here's a virtual hooker to oggle to make you feel better about that purchase.