July 27, 2010 by Greg Noe
In a bit of sad news, Kyle Orland's original one hour gaming blog, Games for Lunch is on official hiatus. Kyle started Games for Lunch about a month or so before I founded The First Hour (to both my surprise and dismay at the time, complete independently) and has just written his 500th first hour review before heading into limbo. Kyle relied on other gaming sites to pay for his five(!) reviews a week and that has all dried up. We here at The First Hour were never quite as ambitious, so going from making nothing to making nothing wouldn't affect us as much.
With Kyle finished, The First Hour is part of a very small group of sites still writing anything like a first hour review. Game Trailer's Hour One only made it through five videos before seemingly giving up, but Kotaku Australia still publishes them periodically. Here's hoping a few other sites give it a try in the future.
We still plan to chug along though as I have no plans to quit. I've got a couple of games in my queue to write first hour reviews for, and our team of seven other writers always have things cooking up. If you have any suggestions on games to play, drop me a line at greg@firsthour.net
Read moreJuly 26, 2010 by Nate
Every Monday morning since the Wii craze began in November 2006, the Wii Shop Channel has been updated with new downloadable titles to purchase. The Virtual Console, one of the Wii's few enticing tidbits to core gamers at launch, promised to make all our favorite classic games through the N64 era available on one piece of hardware. Things started out strong for the VC, which reached the 100-game milestone just over six months after launch. It seems Nintendo just couldn't keep that pace, however, as the first seven months of 2010 have seen less than twenty new retro titles. With obvious Nintendo classics like Star Fox, Yoshi's Island, Pilotwings 64, and Excitebike 64 still waiting to be let loose -- in addition to the many unseen third party games worth revisiting -- it seems far too early for the Virtual Console to receive less than one title a week.
The future of the Virtual Console was looking bright in 2007, however, when Nintendo decided to make the N64 import classic Sin & Punishment available outside of Asia for the first time. It seems Treasure always planned a western release, as all the voice acting was performed in English (with Japanese subtitles), even in the original Japanese cartridge. The rumor is that a dried-up N64 market in 2000 made the niche developer think twice. In a rare showing of extra effort on Nintendo's part, Sin & Punishment was the first of a small collection of games formerly exclusive to Japan to make it to the Americas. It probably didn't take that much effort, though, since the only translation required was in the main menu and tutorials. The original Japanese subtitles persist even in the localized version.
I'd always planned on putting down the $12 to try Sin & Punishment at some point, but I figured the recent release of Sin & Punishment: Star Successor for the Wii makes this as good a time as any. Might as well snag the N64 game for some context, right? I downloaded the game with the intent of completing a first hour review for our readers, but it seems there isn't a whole lot to talk about beyond that first sixty minutes, so this has been upgraded to full review status. Lucky you!
July 23, 2010 by Greg Noe
Alpha Protocol is Obsidian Entertainment’s first original title after a history of picking up series where BioWare left off, including Knights of the Old Republic. Released about two months ago and published by Sega, Alpha Protocol is subtitled “The Espionage RPG.” Definitely an enticing combination of words for fans of Western RPGs.
Critics rewarded the game a very wide range of scores, from 20% to over 80%, so it sounds like we have a love/hate game on our hands. There’s obviously something in Alpha Protocol that appeals to some gamers, so I’ve decided to give it a try myself. I’m a huge fan of the Mass Effect series, and from a distance, Alpha Protocol appears to be an attempt to replicate its success.
Word has already come out that the cold reception the game received has scrubbed any chance for a sequel, but Obsidian shouldn't complain too much since they're currently responsible for developing Fallout: New Vegas and Dungeon Siege 3.
So let’s not waste any more time and get into the first hour of Alpha Protocol for the Xbox 360.
Read moreJuly 22, 2010 by Paul Eastwood
Episode 6 is finally live! Paul chats with Greg, Mike T. and Ian Bagley; it's guaranteed* to be a fun time.
Wetake a look at getting good deals on older games, discuss retro gaminggoodness, and take a look at Greg's review scoring system. Also talk about Fallout 3, Cave Story, NBA Jam and more!
*guarantee does not extend to any who may not enjoy this episode for any reason.
DownloadTheme Music
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island '2001 ElasticNewYear' - djpretzel
Read moreJuly 21, 2010 by Greg Noe
I can't name a lot of puzzle games I've honestly enjoyed. Tetris Attack, the Professor Layton series if those count, World of Goo? As you can tell I'm not a huge fan of the genre. I might play a puzzle game for a few rounds before I become bored, but Picross 3D was different, really different. I've already managed to beat over 200 levels and was becoming so obsessed with the game I was carrying my DS to work in case the opportunity came up over lunch.
Picross 3D is not a typical puzzle game, it's slow moving and requires a lot of careful thought. There is little guessing involved and it does an excellent job of driving you on from puzzle to puzzle. As someone who had never played a Picross game before, I really had no idea what I was getting into until I read Nate's half hour review of the game. The game is cheap though so there's little investment for a chance of tons of hours of gaming. Plus it reminds me of my Kakuro obsession during my senior year of college.
Get ready for my shortest review ever!
Read moreJuly 20, 2010 by Paul Eastwood
Video games came into homes more or less in the mid 1980's. Sure there were games before then, before the crash, but I'm considering the NES as the start of what we now know (and love) as gaming. Because of this, my generation is the first that have grown up entirely within the era of videogames. This holds a lot of implications, and I'd like to look at a few of them over time.
I was born shortly after the NES debuted. Even though I wasn't an avid gamer until I was a teenager, I do remember video games always having a presence in my life. When I was about 5 years old, we lived in an apartment complex that had a janitor named Mario. Even though my family didn't own any video game systems at the time, I remember thinking it was funny that his name was the same as the guy from that one game. One issue this brings up is this: what becomes of gamers when they "grow up?"
Read moreJuly 19, 2010 by Nate
It's hard to find a gamer who doesn't have some experience with the Half-Life franchise. A champion of PC software when things started shifting heavily in the favor of consoles, the original Half-Life wowed critics with its pulse-pounding scripted sequences and seamless stitching of narrative and gameplay in first-person. The long-awaited full sequel, Half-Life 2, received just as many accolades, if not more, for its advances in artificial intelligence, character animation, and especially the robust physics engine powering the game's many objects.
And yet, it was only two weeks ago that I first experienced a game in Valve's flagship franchise myself. I've never been much of a PC gamer: I can count the number of games I've played on a computer monitor on one hand, and four of them begin with the words "Star Wars." I've had many consoles in my life, but rarely a PC with the power to play current games. I'm actually typing this on a Macbook right now, and as we all know, Macs just aren't for gamers.
That said, Valve has made an effort to bite into the Apple market with Mac versions of Steam and many of its own big games offered therein, just in time for the annual 4th of July sales on the incredible digital distribution service. And if Valve is willing to create a Mac version of Half-Life 2 and price it at an outrageously fair $3.39 just for me, then I guess I owe it to them to try the game that millions have gone headcrab-crazy for.
But for all its fame and glory, the bottom line is that Half-Life 2 is a six-year-old PC game in a genre I'm not terribly enthralled by. Did I hate it? Hit the jump, smash that caps lock key and ready your profane comments, PC fanboys, because I'm about to tear into your beloved Half-Life 2 like a shotgun into an antlion.
Read moreJuly 16, 2010 by Greg Noe
No, I'm not really excited that it's another Rock Band game or even yet another LEGO game, but that LEGO Rock Band DS is essentially the direct sequel to Harmonix's original rhythm games: Frequency and Amplitude. For the unfamiliar, Harmonix's first two games were essentially the precursor to Rock Band where you played multiple instruments, but the catch was you had to flip between instruments after successfully playing a few measures of another. The gameplay was quite a bit more complex than Harmonix's original Guitar Hero games as there were multiple sets of scrolling notes that you had to keep an eye on to efficiently keep your streak going.
July 15, 2010 by Grant
Few gaming series have changed as much as Castlevania. What started off as an action platformer evolved into an exploration focused action RPG with the release of Symphony of the Night, a genre which has been dubbed “Metroidvania.” This style for the series wouldn’t be seen again for several years until it hit the most unlikely of platforms: the Game Boy Advance. Handheld gaming rekindled interest in the series, and since Circle of the Moon in 2001, six handheld Castlevania titles have been released. Dawn of Sorrow is the first one for the DS, and is a direct sequel to the final GBA Castlevania game. Since these games are rather short and focus heavily on post game content and speed runs, I’ve decided to do a half hour review. This has nothing to do with the fact that Dragon Quest IX comes out this week and I’d rather play that than write. Nothing at all!
July 14, 2010 by Greg Noe
It's hard for me to go an entire year without playing some Legend of Zelda game, heck, just the first half of this year included Spirit Tracks and The Minish Cap, so why not feature the first hour of another? The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was released in 2006 on the Nintendo Wii and GameCube. It was originally going to be for just the GameCube, but Nintendo thought it would make for a great launch title on the Wii (which it did, got me to buy the system), so then the GameCube release was delayed a month to let sales of the Wii version have free reign.
Twilight Princess went on to win game of the year awards and was generally praised around the industry for its gameplay and presentation. For the sake of full disclosure, I beat Twilight Princess within a few weeks of its release on the Wii and have mixed feelings about the game. It's been almost four years though since I've played it so here is its second chance with me in the form of the first hour review of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii.
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