Simply Amazing.

Wow. This game, simply put, is one of the best games I have ever played. To start, the graphics are prodigious and unbelievable. In fact, the graphics were so good that I had to head over to a thesaurus in order to find a better word to describe them. When you first start the game after a plane crash (get the demo here if you want to see this yourself), you are see water droplets covering your field of view (they appear to be on the screen) and the fire to your left and right. It seems the only option is to go to this creepy obelisk before you. Inside the obelisk is a "bathysphere," or underwater elevator, which takes you down to the City of Rapture. Your adventures begin here, in the city of anarchy that is Rapture. The most innovative feature of the game are the plasmids, gene tonics, and other genetic modifications that make you stronger, faster, or give you the ability to shoot fire or freeze people and objects. For example, "Winter Blast" will freeze an enemy momentarily. While frozen, you can pull out a gun and shoot the frozen fiend until he shatters into millions of ice particles. Also, you can hit your enemies with swarms of bees (which come from your arm!) or fool them with a target dummy! My favorite part of the game was the moral choice of whether or not to kill a "Little Sister." Killing the Little Sister yields more Adam (the "money" used to buy more genetic modifications) ; however, your choosing to kill an innocent little girl. If you don't kill the Little Sister you get less Adam, but every three you rescue you are rewarded a basket of goodies including a little Adam and a random gene tonic or plasmid.

The Verdict
10 out of 10
Pros: Intense graphics. Plenty of innovative ways to kill enemies, which adds some variety to the single player, as there is no online multiplayer. Great twist in the storyline. Two very interesting endings. Genetic modifications rule. Excellent job of increasing the difficulty as the story progresses. The second best story to a game I have every played (second only to the Half-Life series). Scary atmosphere and environment.
Cons: Final battle is a bit lame and ridiculously easy.

Buy this game. It is worth every cent of $50.

Weekly Headshot Podcast

The Weekly Headshot Podcast is now available on iTunes or look at

http://www.freewebs.com/natetenz978/weeklyheadshotpodcast.htm

for the official home of the podcast.

Enter the Beer Pouring Robot

I saw this when surfing the web the other day, and realized it was one of the coolest things I have seen in awhile. This remote-controlled beer/drink dispensing bot looks pretty sweet, and has a great function! The robot has built in speakers which receive input from the remote operator's microphone, uses a pressurized system for pouring beverages, and holds cups in its "hands." Check out more of "Chassis" the beer pouring robot at

http://www.suicidebots.com/2008/02/25/hanging-with-chassis/

and maybe you'll be inspired to build your own beer pouring robot.

Lost Planet: Extremely Lame

Capcom's latest release, "Lost Planet: Extreme Condition" really doesn't cut it among the ranks of awesome shooters such as HL2: Episode 2, Bioshock (be sure to look out for my upcoming Bioshock review!), and Crysis. To start, the graphics are amazing, but unfortunately that's all Capcom invested in. The snow, ice, monsters, and other characters are heavily detailed. Over time your character becomes covered in snow and ice until this melts in a heated area, and the graphics of this are sure to impress. No thought was put into the basic gameplay that leaves much to be desired (especially when competing with innovative titles like Bioshock). The storyline isn't bad, but also leaves much to be desired. The game also has an "arcade" and amateur feel, and soon you will want to push quarters into your CD drive.

The Verdict:
6 out of 10
Pros: Graphics are intense and support Direct X 10
Cons: Lame gameplay that lacks innovation, thermal energy is annoying, and the storyline just doesn't satisfy. Also graphics for fire and explosions aren't very good. There is no real desire to play this game, especially if you have better titles installed.