PONG [Warcraft 3 Custom Game] (PC) - Review

The Final Rating 9.5/10

PC gaming doesn't get much of a good rep, so it should be expected that most of the games being reviewed these days are obviously console games and according to what I have statistically concluded, those schmoes are too lazy and too broke to afford the real deal, a PC of course (that or they are just downright stupid). For a long time, I have strayed away from the Warcraft 3 community, every now and then logging back on hoping that a brand new game worth of praise and play will pop up to welcome the hook once again that made Warcraft 3 so damn great to be one of the greatest PC gaming experiences of all time. Mind you, its not Warcraft 3 itself that makes Warcraft 3 so great. Not by a long shot. Its not the campaign and its not the real time strategy "make-a-base-and-or-command-your-units-to-destroy-everything-hostile-to-win" against computer players or actual players. Its certainly not the majority of online custom games and ranking games based off the whole real time strategy scheme. However, it is indeed the custom games made by the players themselves, via map making which became the heart of the Warcraft 3 experience, including the online custom gaming competitiveness, especially with clans. PONG by USEast (Azeroth) user "EroticSideBurns" becomes an ironic yet very welcoming custom game for the Warcraft 3 custom gaming community in essence of new generation innovation for both map making and custom gaming competitiveness!

We all should know by now since it should be obvious already, that PONG is one of the very first video games ever made in video game history as well as a game that still seems to stand the test of time, also being a simulated version of table tennis, aka ping pong. If it wasn't for Atari and Magnavox, there would be no PONG, or rather PONG wouldn't be the way it is this very day. Be reminded, there would be no Chuck E Cheese either (Yea... you remember those childhood memories, don't kid yourself). It is not the history of PONG or that long lineage to ramble on about here. After all, this is just another game review.

Your probably asking yourself "What is so special about this version of PONG?". Sure it seems like your regular game of PONG at first, except it is quite a bit different in the end, which seemingly points out that you can't always judge a book by its cover. Heck, the game appears to be quite different as soon as you start playing it. Perhaps its almost a game that stands on its own, as if it reinvents PONG.

The problem with Warcraft 3 custom games these days, especially the problem that constantly leaves people lingering outside the community or walking away, is the very fact that more than half the time, the majority of lazy ass map makers constantly fail to humbly impress the majority of online players that outweighs them. Most map makers really don't give a damn these days and rather let the community rot simply because they have that excuse on their mind, "Its too late to do something big even though I probably can. But so what if I did? It doesn't matter anymore because people are moving on after all these 9 years of Warcraft 3 gaming from beginning to now, you'd figure people would move on to newer and more presentable games that catch the public eye or move on with their life.". Well the people who believe that should get their thoughts fixed because that's just downright undermining. In fact, they should just stick their heads in a microwave and press the start button (Seriously, just end your life while you can for being such a pompous imbecile).

There is a whole load of greatness to "EroticSideBurns"s version of PONG while at the same time, there are certain things that keep the game from achieving an absolutely perfect score. After all, nothing can be absolutely perfect while at the same time a game can be executed so well that it would do no more than deserve a rating of perfection. Believe me though when I say it, because most of the games I will be reviewing will hardly ever have a perfect rating. Honestly, I really try hard to be fair with games, and with PONG, even "EroticSideBurns" would understand this simply since I know he will be reading this review after all as well as take my feedback into consideration as he has been.

Now its time to get down with the very execution of PONG. If there had to be two things about Warcraft 3 custom games that show a first impression, those things would be the map's display picture and the loading screen. No worries, its not that they are a big deal even though they both are the same pic and don't really do all that much. This pic certainly lets the player know that he or she indeed is about to play a custom game called "PONG", which ends up being a positive regardless of how horribly made the picture is. Being more psyched out about a display picture or a loading screen just becomes a better plus if you ask me, but like I said, it gets the job done and nothing else.

Instead of having a half-ass layout like this...

 It should look something like this...

When finally exiting the loading screen and starting the game, you wait a couple brief seconds for the menus to burst in your face and ask how the game should be set up for both players (I believe I forgot to clearly point out that PONG is a two player game, yea that's right, for now that is, until "EroticSideBurns" creates a mode or version for additional players of which he announced as probable in the near future). The menu opens up asking if you want to play to win with points, lives, rounds, and time. Then it asks if you want to play with Events (decided by in-between duration if enabled) and or Power Ups (decided by occurring frequency if enabled). And finally, an intermission option (decided by time). Once the options are set, the game begins as soon as the ball timer counts down. So far, everything is promising. There's an intermission option for timed breaks, events which make the game more interesting though sometimes a pain, and power ups that further lead to the advantage of the ball. Another thing is that the gold resembles thrust power, lumber resembles the number of points and lives you have that differ in between the modes points/lives/rounds/time, and upkeep resembles the current version.

A countdown starting from 3 is presented before starting the game to give the players time to prepare.

Intermissions can be enabled to be activated every so often to help the players cool down.

The gameplay is pretty much what you'd expect PONG to be from birth, except some enhancements have been made to make the game more appealing, such as the use of events, power ups, the ability to slow the ball or maker it go faster, and the ability to thrust the ball as a smash against the opposing player. Frankly, I couldn't of asked for all that much more ever since I started playing this version, however there were a few glitches in some previous versions that have actually been fixed according to my understanding, so hopefully the game will be under constant active revisions and numerous releases will pop out every now and then for some time.

Gameplay footage found on youtube of a player playing against a computer.

There has never been a version of PONG I have ever played where its possible to control the speed of the ball. The ball alone has the ability to go over 100 MPH. This element alone makes "EroticSideBurns"s version of PONG innovative and revolutionary. However, maybe there are other versions that do the same thing, but not according to my knowledge since I haven't really played much of PONG outside of Warcraft 3. The fact that the game takes advantage of the use of player colors with ball contact makes things look quite a bit more fancy than your average PONG, especially since you have the ability to change your color. Colors really work out great in this game, doing a magnificent job to detail the obvious, such as who hit the ball and which player is which. I can't say the same thing about the gameplay options being a total breakthrough, since I'm assuming gameplay options have been implemented in various other versions of PONG outside of Warcraft 3 which are certainly more limited due to technical advancements this day in age. However, the idea of power ups and wacky events has also been something completely new to PONG, which should most certainly not be taken lightly but should be used for fun rather than for a serious game since gameplay can get intentionally unfair, which of course doesn't degrade PONG's execution but stands out more as an appeal factor than anything else.

A speed hit is executed by the blue player to make the ball go faster.

A slow hit is executed by the blue player to make the ball go slower. A power up also becomes noticeable at the bottom middle of the court.

Its quite obvious that "EroticSideBurns" used the map editor to a great advantage if not at its full potential. The way the ball hits back and forth as well as the control of the paddles accurately demonstrates what the game is made out to be. However, it would be nice if I had a little more control over the angle of the ball, especially against my paddle in a slightly more realistic way. There are very few glitches occurring since the version updates. The version being reviewed now is 1.05. A still existing glitch I have seemed to encounter from the past still appears to be in this version, and that is when the ball catches the back of the paddle and comes back into play. Mind you, its a fair advantage for both players but at times it does seem kind of lame knowing the ball obviously shouldn't of made contact with the paddle and count as a point which occurs in almost every game I have been playing so far, though not too frequently. This is indeed one of the issues I would like "EroticSideBurns" to fix, although the fact its very minimal and leads to each player's advantage, its really not that big of a deal.

A mode for additional players would be great, but regardless, being a two player game for the moment is not a fault for PONG since not only can you play against other players online, but you can also play against the computer or use practice against the wall. Wow, seems like this game knows how to pack accompanying features that are most satisfying! Thrusting is a very interesting element in this version of PONG. I find there to be a few problems with the thrust function which sometimes lead to a good advantage, depending on how one would want to look at it. In past versions, thrusting at the wrong time meant the possibility of the ball smacking back at you, once you start to recover from the thrust. Ever since 1.04, this hasn't been the case, hence the constant revisions to this game do become quite useful and even the playing field gratifyingly. However, thrusts do have a paddle freeze duration, although the recovery time for the most part is just about right. The further out your paddle goes to attempt a thrust based on timely impact of the ball, the longer or what have you it will take to recover, which makes a lot of sense in the end. Although there have been a few times I have thrust the ball at fast speed and felt as if the recover time should be lessened, which usually happens occasionally at the same time it leads greatly to the other player's advantage when I wouldn't be able to counter the ball at the shortest amount of range. Also, the sparkling effect of the thrusts can lead to a vital distraction at times the ball starts going incredibly fast. The animation for thrusts should be changed a bit, while the animations for slowing or making the ball go faster seem rather fine. Another thing to add about thrusts is that the thrust keys themselves seem clustered between the up down arrow keys that control the direction stride of the paddle that adds to the possibility of slip-ups with thrusts while trying to maneuver the paddle. Perhaps the hotkey for thrusting can be changed to something more simple to avoid occasional slip-ups such as the spacebar or shift key. Plus, it would be for the best since players of different sides are using the opposite horizontal arrow key.

A counter thrust is executed by the blue player after the red player's attempt.

Even though events and power ups are optional, in accordance to the review its only fair if I get a little in detail about them. Events are made to distract and challenge the players of which they do a good job at. Usually after a certain amount of version releases, new events become added, certain things become nerfed, and etcetera. Then there are power ups. Power ups either slow an opponent's paddle down or speed up the player's paddle whom claimed the power up. Power ups do the same part as events do, except not as drastic and overly intentional to even the playing field for both players to have an equal advantage. Since they are optional, again, they do not degrade PONG's execution.

PORTAL event; two portals appear randomly on the court and as the ball goes through one portal, it goes out the other. A power up is noticeable on the right side of the court

A BALL'S POINT OF VIEW event; The point of view is set into abstract first person point of view in the direction of where the ball is going. Parts of the wall are shown on the right.

Last thing to nitpick is the use of ranks and the leaderboard. The leaderboard does its job by taking up very minimal space and not being well hidden at the same time which also records outstanding accuracy of the active game, especially by taking note of the elapsed time of total playtime. Ranks are a great installation to the game, but the problem with a ranking system in Warcraft 3, is ranks must be saved and loaded with codes that becomes a hassle. Even I didn't even bother with the ranking feature, but the ranking system itself still adds to the game. Maybe sometime in the future, which map makers themselves claim doubtful, Warcraft 3 custom games will be able to have automatic saving and loading. The great thing about this ranking system is it comes with emblems that show up in the leaderboard.

Leaderboard during active game.

Leaderboard showing end results of played game.

I almost forgot, certain MP3 tracks were used as well. One was used for the start of the game, the other for the intermission, and the last for the end. While the only MP3 I could recognize was for the ending (A track from Super Mario Land), I still found the MP3s to add more to the appeal while at the same time not lag the gameplay or what have you.

All in all, PONG by "EroticSideBurns" turns out to be a great blast from the retro past. Like I said, I wouldn't expect much more out of what he made PONG to be on Warcraft 3. Its really about time someone did something different for this game. With that being said, heres another great reason to go buy a copy of Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos along with its expansion pack Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne. I can't recommend this game to everyone though, because some of the people I tried to get into this game just found it to be a bit boring, which I just find to be an outright absurd remark of a game they should play a little more of. Give PONG a chance, because its addictive and became a new reason for me to play Warcraft 3 again with yet another strong game with a supporting community to keep it interesting!

Pros:
- Passable representation of first impression display picture and loading screen.
- Flawless control of the paddle.
- Ball reaction is fairly accurate.
- Use of events and power ups do their job to make the game more interesting.
- Options for using events, power ups, and etcetera.
- Use of a color identification system does well to detail the obvious.
- Use of a points system which is drastic is displayed nicely.
- Installation of ranking system and its fancy affiliation with the leaderboard.
- Use of a leaderboard.
- Constant revisions currently being made to make improvements.
- Use of catchy MP3 tunes
- Great use of indicators; gold resembles thrust power, lumber resembles points and what not that you have in accordance to the mode being played, and upkeep resembles the current version.

Cons:
- Thrust animation can be a distraction depending on the speed of the ball.
- Sometimes thrust recovery dooms the player from countering a returned ball due to a fast velocity of the ball's speed.
- Ranking system is a hassle even though its made to add interest.
- Back paddle hit is an obvious glitch that could be fixed.
- Display picture and loading screen are the same half-ass picture.
- Thrust hokey can cause potential slip-ups

Red Dead Redemption (XBOX 360) - Review

The Final Rating: 7.0/10

So it seems that gaming is still alive and the modern age still shows that perhaps there is hope for the release of brilliant classics! Although the console age has been wearing thin and people take the consoles themselves for granted, there still exists games that keep these consoles at the edge of exclusive prowess. And yes, I mean the Nintendo Wii, XBOX 360, and PS3. "Red Dead Redemption", though not the most perfect game in the world, still proves to be one of the best games on the console as well as the PS3 console. Unfortunately the game was not ported to the PC, which is very unfortunate for PC gamers such as myself. Although I didn't finish the game, I got far enough through it to judge it wholeheartedly because unfortunately I had to give the game back to my freind before I had the chance to beat it.

"Red Dead Redemption" just seems to be one of those games that was hyped to the point that people claimed it was the most perfect thing since so and so. The truth of the matter is "Red Dead Redemption" is not the most perfect game ever. In fact its far from being perfect. Ironically though, the game seems entirely based off a movie released in 1957 and remade in 2007. Can you guess the name of that film? Its none other than "3:10 to Yuma". Making that relation, if its not obvious to you that the game already shows some lack of creativity before I brought that up, then I'm sure you just made that realization. Actually, it might be completely inspired by the film in general only with some stitches put in the story so it wouldn't be so obvious, which is of course the greatest news of all. This similarity the game shares with an old film does not by all means declare the game as rubbish. Theres plenty to the game that stands out at the same time flaws still are apparent.

The game takes place in the olden days of the American wild west. You play as a cowboy known as John Marston who was formerly involved in a gang of criminals. He soon decides to leave behind his life as an outlaw, feeling compelled to do what he feels is righteous. Failing to negotiate with Williamson, the new leader of the former gang of outlaws Martson was once a part of, John becomes enraged and seeks to hunt the bastard down for not only nearly ending his life, but also keeping him away from his own family he was promised to be reunited with once he hunted down the remaining gang members. Thankfully, the story plays out quite well and remains efficient.

This opening scene shows the proficiency of voice acting and cinematic usage the game uses quite well to its advantage throughout. Some footage is also included.

Portrait of main character John Marston.

Many people claim this game to be a Grand Theft Auto clone. Well, its not exactly a Grand Theft Auto clone since the game itself does distinguish itself from the GTA franchise simply due to the fact that not only it marks its time period in the past in comparison to GTA, there is also not that much of an emphasis on the gangsterism, even though it is existent with the role of outlaws.  Being an open world sandbox game sharing relevance to the structure of GTA, Red Dead Redemption plays as its own game but does not reinvent gameplay or schematics in any way whatsoever. The layout of the game even goes to show that it does set itself aside from GTA with the feature of an actual still-framed title screen with options instead of automatically deploying the player into the environment.

Its fair to say that Red Dead Redemption stands as a well made game overall. Unfortunately like most games, it's not perfect. Revolving around the RPG oriented sandbox environment, the player goes from mission to mission travelling from person to person and place to place just as in Grand Theft Auto or any other open environment game that is relative.

Graphical representation of the environment.

Luckily there are multiples of mission varieties that attempt to try to keep the player engaged as well as astounding cut scenes and voice acting that remains over the top throughout especially with over the top graphics that only add to the realism. I only hoped that the missions became more interesting instead of more tedious and repetitive after the first hour of the game. However, there are still some pretty interesting encounters throughout the game that do come in a bit late to keep the player's full interest.

The first kind of missions the player starts out with are the ranch missions. Basically going around herding animals, taming horses, and all that cowboy mumbo jumbo. Although this is a good look into the days of the wild west, it gets tedious and seems that it could play out better even though it tries to blend the environment a bit before going out doing the later shoot outs that give the game its thrill.

Herding cattle during a ranch mission.

Then theres convoy and shoot out missions. Through convoys, you guide other persons or amounts of goods from point A to point B usually fending off waves of outlaws. Through shoot out missions you either defend a zone from outlaws, take to the offense against outlaws, rescue certain peoples from the grip of outlaws, retrieve certain goods from outlaws, or an old wild west showdown gun draw involving the "Dead Eye" feature presented in the middle of the game. With this variety of missions, the game certainly stands on its own, especially with the western showdowns involving the "Dead Eye" feature that make the game unique along with the ranching missions.

Gun fight sequence while carrying out through a mission.

Presented is a strong sense of realism engaged with the not only the well supported plot with impressive voice acting and cut scenes, but also the environment and conflict presented making the game well worth playing. This still doesn't excuse the presented flaws this game has to offer. The game still manages to get around these flaws which don't drastically effect the gameplay in general but only slightly.

The first of these flaws is the aiming reticle. The damn thing is so small that sometimes it doesn't appear to be on the screen due to how well it copes with the environment. A way to highlight the reticle by at least giving it some better indication to show that it is present throughout the game would be a lot helpful to the player. When players meddle with the difficulty settings, the aiming reticle becomes bothersome due to how barely noticeable it is and trust me, I myself had this problem and it was quite annoying. Luckily the auto-lock feature presented on the easier difficulty modes of targeting comes in handy for this issue but seems quite broken when enabled, especially on default only giving the player more of a reason to disable the auto-lock feature by bumping the target difficulty up to expert which in the end becomes annoying with the reticle since it will at times be hard to aim and shoot at the same time.

A good indication of the amount of enemies left is listed in the bottom left of the screen. If only the reticle was that good of an indicator instead of blending so well with the environment to be barely noticeable.

A gun duel which makes use of the "Dead Eye" mode feature. As you can see, the screen gets tinted and while it remains tinted, you will remain in the mode feeling as if time is slowing down and etcetera, giving you the upper hand to lay down your shots on your opponent and win the duel.

Another flaw is the repetitiveness of missions and lack of reward. Ranch missions are the first missions you start out with and you start out with quite a few before going out into gun fights where the game becomes more amusing. From herding cattle to taming horses, even though the environment tries to make the player feel as if they are an ordinary cowboy in the west, fact of the matter is it just seems to be more of a chore than anything that appears to be rewarding in the end. Speaking of horses, transportation throughout the game is primarily by horseback. The use of horses is well thought out, especially gun fights on horseback adding to the realism. Its quite awesome to shoot a guy and watch him collapse off his horse almost like a rag doll. However the burden of horseback, is its your quickest method of transportation other than the use of trains or stage coach. Heck, stage coach saves the most time since its rather rare to come across a train at the right given time. Still, it takes forever to travel on horseback and quite annoying. The player will be extremely relieved with the present alternatives. Not to mention the horse races especially by stage coach are pretty lame.

Burden of riding on horseback to get to another destination through a huge environment from time to time.

There really isn't much of any rewards at the end of each mission besides money just like in GTA, other than unlocking new tools like the use of a lasso as well as unlocking generic costumes, which I guess is a plus. After a while you will notice that missions do become more of a chore and less rewarding each time. Even when there are larger circumstances, everything just plays out the same. There are some intense battle scenes through the game such as going through the border to Mexico while shooting down an ambushing army of outlaws. This appears to be one of the only things in the game that seem to bring out the intensity while a lot wears thin and seems very delayed at times.

While crossing the border of Mexico, John Marston gets ambushed. This appears to be one of the more intense and challenging missions of the game.

The use of certain tools gives the player more of an edge, for multipurpose use. With the lasso you can round up people and do all sorts of stuff like place a person on a train track, carry a person around on your horse, or even other sorts of pleasurable torture methods that will keep you occupied for quite some time if your bored of doing the generic missions given to you. Its just great that after doing a set of missions, you get awarded such tools to add to the fun.

Using a lasso to round up a random person riding a stage coach.

I have to admit, the gun fights were pretty well done. Gun duels could of been a bit more challenging, especially with the broken "Dead Eye" implementation where kills are just way too easy to pull off, although the realism ends up satisfying. Some of the ranch missions were quite well thought out at first such as cattle herding or trying to round up a bunch of horses and tame them even when the weather turns out bad to make things more difficult. Use of unlockable tools come in handy that keep the player occupied abd add to the enjoyment, especially the lasso, making certain mission rewards quite well worth accomplishing. Unfortunately the game was only released on the 360 and PS3, making it a bit harder for PC gamers to get their hands on and give the game a go. With all the game has to show, it can be said that a lot of hard effort has went into it to make it the decent game that it is and nothing more. It is definitely a recommended playthrough for anyone who wants to have a good time shooting up an environment full of outlaws and feeling like a bad ass cowboy. I wouldn't say its the best western game ever since I would personally prefer Sunset Riders and Gun Smoke, but its up there for now.

Pros:
- Great voice acting and cinematic cut scenes that use advantage to make the game a unique experience to play through.
- Impressive graphics.
- Proper use of realism, especially through ranch missions and gun fights to represent the old wild west theme.
- Fairly good but generic plot.
- Fairly decent selection of tools and weapons.
- Good variety of enjoyment added with unlocked tools from certain missions at random points of the game.
- Introduced varieties of transportation become relieving in the sense you don't always have to ride on horse as the only resort.
- Good controls.
- Good length.
Cons:
- "Dead Eye" mode feels kind of broken.
- Aiming reticle barely noticeable that may result some players to use the broken auto aim feature in a lower difficulty of precision.
- Missions become repetitive and may also become a chore, especially ranch missions and racing.
- Mission rewards could be a little more convenient at times, feels kind of similar to other sandbox games.
- Riding on horseback from point A to point B becomes bothersome.
- Limited to PS3 and XBOX 360, no other ports.
- Genericness of missions cause a delay towards getting to the more challenging missions.
- Gun fights could be a bit more challenging as well as missions in general.