Advent Rising! Play-By-Play Review! (#2)

Wow! Let me say it again. Wow! That's how i describe this game so far. I am loving it. This game is wicked fun and the story is great. But a warning. It's INTENSE! Well if you let it get intense. This is the type of game you can really get into. The story is well done and drags you in. You ARE Gideon Wyeth. You ARE the last of humanity. You ARE fighting off an entire species almost single handedly. You get into it if you want to. Some people have trouble with this i know. So if you have trouble getting too intense with your games let me just tell you now that this game gets intese. Which i like but causes problems for others i know. One thing i forgot to mention yesterday is that this game is non-stop action. And it doesn't start slow either. Once it's started, IT's STARTED! There's no slow points. And another thing i forgot to mention is that this game has yet another thing to make it unique. On it's own as a shooter it's magnificient. But it adds another thing. Powers. Physchic powers. Now i know some christian are very much anti-physchic so if you're like that then here's your warning. Your character will be using the "power of his mind" to effect the flow of time, lift and move objects, as well as attack enemies. Plus many other powers. I personally think that the addition of super human powers just makes things more interesting. I rather like it. And one final thing, about objective content, this game definitely has violence. And i'd add very mild blood. But despite the fact that the box says "mild language" so far the only thing close has been when in a cut seen you say "he looks like some shoved a icicle up his..." and then you get interrupted. So thats the game so far.

Here's whats been happening in the story. (*Spoiler Alert! If you don't want to know the story before you play don't read this! I will be giving storyline spoilers!*) Where'd i leave off...oh yes. Hightailed it to Earth. Or, as i have now learned, Edumea. The home planet of humans in Advent Rising is not called Earth. it's Edumea. I don't know if they're just trying to give Earth a new name or if this just isn't earth or what. I'm thinking maybe i might learn more later in the story. Or maybe i'm just thinking ahead too much. But anyway, after fighting desperately to save Edumea we find out we only have one option. Grab the fiancee, find a ship and run like heck! The jerks are gonna blow up Edumea! so after landing on Edumea and finding your way to the nearest city that's what you do. After much intense fighting and some tricky driving in a Scythe (a armored car type vehicle) as asteroids smash the city (it was mentioned earlier that Seekers throw rocks. I.E. asteroids) you reach a ship and meet the newest character. Marin Steel, spunky chick fighter pilot, you her and Olivia (your fiancee) jump into a ship and jet it into space. Only to watch as Edumea is blasted into oblivion. Crap! You are the only survivors. After searching all the Comm channels you decide to call the Aurelians. The peaceful aliens who revere you as Gods. So your buddies the Aurelians come and you spend a while on their ship and learn amazing things. You spend some time in melee training as well as learning that deep down you have amazing super human powers! Yippee! You start out with lift and learn more later.

So after fun on the Aurelian ship learning and resting you arrive at the Aurelian homeworld, and just as you think you can go in for a peaceful landing it happens. ATTACK! You were followed. These Aurelians seem to get followed a lot...we learn why later. So big huge Seeker warship opens fire on your small (in comparison) Aurelian ship and the Aurelians have one choice. Fight back! So you and a bunch of brave Aurelian warriors jump ver to the Seeker ship and board and fight your way to the control room from the outside. Just a quick hint(*Spoiler*). Now that you have your lift power you can lift and throw enemies off the side of the ship if you're outside. So after fighting your way all the way through the ship and in the process learning the surge power and fighting a boss (if you want to call it that) the ship starts to fall. Not because of you. Because of the seekers. Just as you finish exterminating the last of the Seekers in the control you get a call over the comm asking you to come to X location to be reinforcements and just as you walk in the room you see a Seeker step forward from the crowd of enemies and as he gets shot down he drops a rather large looking bomb. Which then rips a whole in the floor that grows. Then you have to outrun the rips in the ship as it falls apart and try not to get blown off. Then it cuts to movie scene and you see yourself get blown off high up in the air. And of course since you're falling from space you're right above an ocean. So somehow using your powers you fly (?) down and grab a piece of drift...well not wood, but something floaty, only to hear something bad (as in your fiancee's frantic screaming) coming from the wreckage of the now sinking Seeker ship.

Now of course being the hero you have no choice but to swim over and save her life. Or try. So after fighting through the few surviving seekers (and by few i do mean few) you find Marin, Olivia and your two Aurelian friends trapped behind some glass doors. Using your powers (in a cut scene) you open the door but can only hold it long enough to let out everyone *but* Olivia. Who you get to watch drown inches away from you just on the otherside of a glass door. So again you loose a loved one from behind a glass door. Oh, the feeling of helplessness and despair! Now all that's left of Edumea is you, Marin and your H.A.Z.E. blasters. So now that you've lost a brother and a fiancee you have a real big reson to hate those darn seekers! Thus the intensity i mentioned earlier. So then you swim to shore and after a quick talk and a herioc little line about how you're not the only person who suffered loss today you get attacked by Seekers. To bad they didn't know you woke up on the wrong side of the bed when they got your fiancee drowned. BOOM! You get the Negate power! Melee fight and if you're like me you kick their butt so hard. You then run to the nearest city while getting chased by seekers and then have a final standoff on a beach where some seeker ships "seek" (haha) to kill you, But get shot down by cannons in the city.

You then get transported to a council meeting in the city where you find out that the Seekers have been "benovolently" taking care of the Aurelians for the last thousand years, providing resources and technology to bring them to a point of advancement where they can join the galactic council. So that's why they've been able to follow the Aurelians so well...hmmm. Anyway, the Aurelians now decide they need to tell the galaxy about the evil of the Seekers (they blew up a planet! And tried to wipe out a species!) but just as they are argueing this some big seeker leader walks in and here is my paraphrase of this cut scene "This party's over, get 'em boys!" So now you get the Aeon Pulse power, which basicly turns your hand into a gun (OH YEAH!) and you then have to fight your way through a ton of tough enemies (this is kind of hard) and then you chase down the Seeker commander and just as you catch up with him it goes to a cut scene "you don't know i'm really on your side. there's powerful people who want to meet you who could give great power to someone like you..." says the Seeker. "What do you mean? What people? Ahh!" And down drops a boss. this boss gave me problems but i did beat him. Here's just a quick hint. Negate and Surge. So after beating that boss and some more cut scenes you start on your next mission. which i will play and write about later. Just one interesting note to add, your fiancee's dead and you and Marin seem to be getting close in these cut scenes...hmmm.

Anyway, that was long! I guess i did a lot of playing! I need to go now but i'll write more later. This game is great so far, i'll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading!
Chris

Advent Rising! My play-by-play review! (#1)

Hello and welcome to my Play-By-Play review of Advent Rising! what is as "Play-By-Play" review you ask? well it means after every time i have some fun as Captain Gideon Wyeth of Advent Rising i'll sit myself down and blog aout it. so this is only my first instalment. so far i've only played the beggining and the seen the storyline pretty well set up. let me give you an overview of this game at first glance. it's story was written by Osron Scott Card, an awesome Sci-Fi writer who gave us such great books as "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow" and so the story should be absolutely amazing. and as a bonus it's been planned from the beggining as a trilogy. the website by the way is www.adventtrilogy.com so since it's a trilogy we can expect 2 more Orson S. Card written games in the future. now what makes thus game special besides the story? well it has a unique method of gameplay that makes it play like a first person shooter, like Halo, only in third person. which in my opinion makes things easier. and at times more fun. so not only does this game have a fun unique story by a cool author but it also is unique as a gaming experience. now looking at it as a christian parent or just a christian trying to see if this game is for you we must remember this game is rated T for teen. which mean 13+ for some content that may be offensive to younger people. what gives Advent Rising it's T rating is (according to the ESRB ratings council) "Blood, Mild Language, Violence" so far i have encoutered 2. blood yes, when you get shot at you bleed. not graphically or in a gross way. just a little blood flys when you get shot. and alien corpses lie in pools of purple blood. and of course if there's blood there's violence. gun violence mainly. but so far there has been no offensive language, mild or otherwise.

so anyway here is what i've done so far. game starts out flying through space you are ace pilot Gideon Wyeth, you fly over a huge alien ship to land on a earthling space station and meet up with your big brother. typical big brother picks on you but you two obviously care about each other. more characters are slowly introduced and you learn more about your world. your brother, Ethan, is a famous war hero and kind of cocky and puffed up about his greatness. which gets him in fights with marine grunts and all sorts of lowly military people who are jealous and just sick of mister bigshot. so as your training progresses you have a fun little brush up where a marine holds a gun to your brother's head and you save his life. and somewhere in here you meet your fiancee Olivia (the chick in the picture) who works as a physicist on the space station. then life gets interesting. an alien race, known as the Aurelians, have come to visit. they are peaceful but when they came they were followed by a not so peaceful race known simply as the seekers. it's not completely clear why the Aurelians sought out the human race and reveres us so highly, almost treating us as Gods. and it's not clear why the seekers seek us out and wipe us out where ever they find us. methinks more on that further in the story. but anyway from here on the after a peaceful meeting with the Aurelians the space station is attacked and you must escape from it with your darling Olivia as well as your brother Ethan. unfortunately only Olivia makes it and you get to watch Ethan killed right in front of you (we don't see that, we see Gideon's (our player's) reaction). so then you jump in an escape pod with your beauty and hightail it to earth.

and we'll see what happens next in my next installment. so far i love this game. keep reading for more!

Need for speed, most wanted

i am only doing this review because someone asked me, so it will be a little spotty. i am not familiar with this game in particular, but i am familiar with the "Need for speed" series. as far as i know this is a racing game like any other, except to add a little flare to driving around in endless circles they call it "Most wanted", because just face it, endless driving gets old fast, so they gotta make it sound cool. i suggest if you ever want to look up something about games www.esrb.com, this is website of the "Entertainment Software Rating Board" which rates just about every game ever made, you simply type in the name of the game it will give you information on any objectable content. i looked up this game on this site and found 5 entries, one for wireless (i'm assuming this means on mobile phones, i'm not sure because i lot has changed since i left america), one for the new PSP (PlayStation Portable) and one for GameBoy Advance/Nintendo DS. and they clumped together all other systems, such as both the X-boxes, both the Playstations, computer, etc. the one on wireless said it should be ok for any age, on PSP it gave a suggestion of 10+ for "mild violence" and on GameBoy Advance/Nintendo DS it said it should be ok for any age. just for future reference for any reading this if it's on a Nintendo system it's probably ok. and for all other systems it said 13+ for "mild violence" again, i'm not sure what kind of violence you have in a racing game but thats what they say. so my basic summary of this game is as follows:i have never played this game but from what i know of the genre and the makers this should be ok for almost any age, but once again i stress i do not know this game very well, i have never played it. but as a older individual use your own judgment on games.

Thanks for reading,
Chris

Hey everyone. I'm back.

Hey everyone, sorry i haven't done anything with this in a while. i've been thinking i need to change the nature of this blog. if you want me to give my expert christian game freak opinion on a game then just comment on one of my posts and tell me the game and the system please! if you do that i will answer you as quickly as possible. and if you leave a E-mail address i will E-mail you once i'm done, thank you for reading.

Chris

Star Wars:Knights of the Old Republic

this game is for both computer and Xbox and was, and is, extremely popular. it won 2003 game of the year award and has been played by thousands of people, including me. i thoroughly enjoyed this game and thought it was wonderful. this is a definite must for any star wars fan. this game is of course rated T for teen 13+. it gets its T rating because of violence, which of course you can't have a game with lightsabers, blasters, and force choke without violence. the basic plot of the game is that you wake up as a republic soldier on a ship under attack and you seem to have no idea why your there. so then you have to go rescue some jedi chick and in the process learn new skills and bust some heads. now for objectable content there is of course the violence and though theres not usually blood there are times when you'll come accross a corps thats been torn apart by a rancor (that big scary thing in episode VI that luke has to fight in jabba's palace) and that can be slighlty bloody. and then of course you travel with a hardened republic soldier who will occasionally say "d***" but thats it for profanity. so then after this you find out your force sensitive (can use the force) and you can learn all sorts of powers. one of them being darth vaders famous force choke, so if the idea of an enemy choking and then falling at your feet dead bothers you than you might not like this game. and then theres also the emeror's force lightning (from episode VI) that sorta shocks all your enemy's which is, of course, violent. and this game is all about choices, your choices move you towards the light or dark side and affect the game in huge ways. one example is at one point a guy is rude to you in a bar you can either walk away, threaten to kill him, or you could use force choke and really do kill him. so if the idea of always having th option to be evil sounds bad to you than you won't like this game. because the whole thing is about choices. and one more thing that might bother you is that you equip diferent things to your party members or you can unequip them. basicly meaning some characters yopu can strip down to thier undergarments meaning you can have 2 jedi chicks in bikini type outfits walking around with lightsabers. but thats only if you take there clothes off, its recomended you keep thier clothes on for defense so that shouldn't be a problem for anyone.

thats it for objectable content in this game. my rating on this game is that it is a wonderful game. it's one of those games you can really get into. and the plot will keep you guessing until the bitter end(revan?). i'd efinitely give the game a rating like this:
fun:10-10
story:10-10
control:9-10
apropriatness for a christian:8-10
and for th game as a whole i would give it a 10-10.

so basicly in summary, this game is a must for star wars and role playing game fans. and even if you don't like roleplaying games or star wars you'll probably still like it, i never really liked role playing games until i played this. though it's probably best to go with the rating on this one and keep it with the 13+ age group.

The Christian ProGamer

wlecome to The Christian ProGamer, this i a blog that i will put christian game reviews on. now since there is a sad shortage of "christian" games the reviews will be about main stream games. i will write about games for GameBoy, Xbox, Nintendo 64 (it's out of date but some people still play it), and computer, because these are the things i own games for. if you have any games that you want me to write a review about i will either try to play the game and write the review or i will try to find a christian who plays video games and who has the game and who would be willing to write a review. if you are a christian who plays video games and is interested in writing games reviews from a christian view point please comment on the blog and i will be in touch. the main purpose of this blog is for people who have kids or friends who play video games but know nothing about video games themselves to be able to read about what is in these games (you wouldn't believe how many people unknowningly allow thier kids to play pretty bad games. you want an example? i know many 12 year olds who play a game called grand theft auto that has a rating of M, M means mature ages 17+. not 12. and frankly even though this is an extremely popular game i don't think 12 year olds should play games with prostitutes in them). and the other purpose of this blog is for those people out there who play video games and want to know more about what games they play, and want to know what games to buy. and now, enjoy as i write my first game review....