Sports/Racing

The Rating System:

Filet Mignon=Excellent, fresh, and a memorable piece of art.

T Bone= Good helping, but not worth trading for a Filet.

Pork chop= In the middle, barely recommended.

Hotdog= Nearly complete garbage.

Cat Food= The slums of the food/videogame franchises

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Forza Motorsport 3

I haven’t had the pleasure of playing too many racing games. I have the first Burnout, and I have played two other Burnouts, and I love them. I also own Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart DS. Plus, my cousin and I had mad skills at Mario Kart Double Dash, but he broke his copy, so I don’t have too many options…that was until I heard about Forza Motorsport 3. This game isn’t like any other racing game. The thing is, you get to control over 400 real world cars from over 50 top manufacturers. With those cars, there is a great racing game that will last you a long time. The four key points are cars, graphics, tracks, and options. The cars in this game are very popular and very realistic. For example, German cars have smaller engines, though they could match up to American muscle cars. Americans, on the other hand, create heavier cars due to bigger engines that make more sound. The creators knew this very well. They made American cars sound crazy and German cars light and quick. This is just one of the realistic factors of Forza. Some car manufacturers included are Chevy, Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Dodge, Ferrari, Mercedes, Lamborghini, Porsche, Saab, Volkswagen, and others. Take control of a Vanquish, SS Camaro, Corvette, Bugatti Veyron, Enzo, Charger, Carrera, Mustang, Viper, and other trademarked cars. That’s what makes Forza feel like no other racing game. You drive cars that you see every day. (Unless you live in Kansas. Then, you don’t see as many exotic cars.) If you are a fan of Ferraris, for example, they have old and new ones, from 1960 to 2010 models. The cars allow higher age groups to play. If you are new generation, you automatically think: MUSTANG. LAMBO. VIPER. BUGATTI. They have those cars. My dad likes new cars of course, and he’s practically a factbook about cars, but because he’s older generation, he is familiar with the older models, and goes for Porsche, Corvette, and cars that were started back before my generation. The cars can suit anybody’s needs. If you are a beginner, you would use something like a Volkswagen Beetle, and pros would go for a Bugatti Veyron or Porsche 911. My point is, the makers of this game weren’t all American, and the makers must have flown in some international car fanatics. The cars were selected and designed so well and so realistically that you are overwhelmed with how real it sounds compared to the real thing. The cars sound and look how they’re supposed to, which took tons of effort. That’s what a good videogame needs: Great variety and huge effort put into the design. The graphics left me wide-eyed.

The scenery was almost real, and in my opinion, killed Halo’s look. Yep. I said it. It looked better than Halo. The water was crazily real, the track speeding away was textured well, and the cars had curves and dents and wings and rims and looks like the real thing. With lots of color and environments, the graphics were perfect for every car. Not even the smaller manufacturers has detail left out of their cars. The Porsche has its famous headlights perfectly curved, the Mustang’s muscles are right on, and the Beetle is…well…a Beetle! It looks like somebody took a picture of the car, put it into a videogame, and animated it. Vwalah! Not a pixel off. Your car progressively gets scratched and dented with every hit, and by the end of some races, I find that my Corvette’s lights are missing and that the guy infront of me messed up my paintjob. Your car looks like crap by the end of the race, and you don’t lose wheels! The graphics could make anybody say wow, and there’s no denying it. The tracks were from the real world, like the cars. For once, half the tracks DON’T  frustrate you with narrow roads and sharp turn. You could actually gain speed and ride smoothly. The tracks vary, from easy to medium to hard, and you have to test them out yourself to find out if it suits you or not. Still, there is a track for everyone, because there are over thirty to choose from. No slippery roads are animated, no five minute pitstops are added, and tracks contribute to the mood of the race. Lastly were the options. You could take pictures during the race, save races, paint your car, but car parts, upgrades, compete online, compete in a story mode, race events, earn credits, auction cars, buy cars, race against others on the same console, and replay missions. Lots of features for a racing game! Forza looks great, sounds great, and is so easy to use. There are settings to let the system auto-brake during sharp turns, turn computer players to become easy competitors, and let the races suit more to your pace. Enjoy the game, and if you are a racing fan, this is a must have game no matter what…but you have to have a 360. Yes, this is to compete with Grand Turismo, so it’s only on the 360. Take that PS3! This Filet is racing game perfection.

Tips and Tricks:

• Experiment with many cars in Splitscreen before you purchase the car.
• If you want to race with fast cars in Splitscreen, race in the last track listed, which is a circular racetrack.

That’s all animated….that’s how great the graphics are.

Two Bugattis getting crashed on purpose.

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Wii Sports Resort

All Wii owners start off with the game, Wii Sports. After about 1 and a half years of Wii, Nintendo made a smart choice by making a new and improved version of the game called Wii Sports Resort. The game has 3 major points, like graphics, games, and the motion aspect. To start, the graphics of this Wii game were nothing to sneeze at. The Miis actually had arms, and the water visual was enjoyable to look at. Depending on the game you play, you have different sportswear.– Arcery: Hunting quiver–Basketball: Jersey–Skydiving: Skydiving outfit– Swordplay: Samuri Armor.. and much more. The Miis looked human, and the graphics were sharp and wide at the same time. Plus, it never lags. Second, the game’s game variety is huge, and it fits all gamers’  needs. There are 12 sports overall, and each of them have 2-3 mini games within the sport. For example, the Swordplay category has the Duel Mode, Speed Slice Mode, and Showdown mode. There are about 20 activities to choose from, like Dog Training, 3-Point Contests, Table Tennis, Dogfights, free Airplane Cruises, Skydiving, Swordfights, Archery, Wake-boarding, Canoeing, 100 Pin Bowling, and much more. Each game is fun (except Canoeing) especially Swordplay. The whole Resort is chock full of variety and fun for hardcore gamers, parents, softies, and practically anyone. It’s nothing like the first Wii Sports, though it lacked Boxing.

Lastly, the Wii Motion Plus makes the Wii show its stuff. Skydiving, Swordplay, Dog-training, and Frisbee Golf clearly display the power of Wii Motion Plus. Every slight movement detail that you do shows on the screen on your Mii, and whatever you are holding doesn’t fade right through your body. The Mii’s body never disappears, and Wii motion Plus really makes you feel ike a Swordsman in Showdown. In Skydiving, Nintendo clearly shows off the Motion Plus. In Archery, your aiming is much easier than Mario and Sonic at the olympic games, and Swordplay is better than other Wii sword games. Buy this game. I garentee that you and your family will love it. A T Bone with tons of gameplay.

Tips and Tricks:

• In Swordplay, when you see people in orange armor, don’t strike until they lift their swords.
• Use a flare in Island Flyover to find Miguel’s Guide Plane, so he could take you to more i Points.
• In basketball, don’t dribble for too long, or the ball will get stolen.
• Look for secret fruit targets in Archery Games.

Swordplay

Secret Targets

Secret Strikes in Wii Sports Resort

Death

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