Game Reviews | Game Previews

Summary

So i havent played a EA sports basketball game since NBA LIVE 99. I've been deticated to the 2k series and have loved all of them. However, I only really purchased this because 2K dropped the ball and doesnt do college series any more.

pros:

This game is pretty good. I absolutely enjoy playing it. The graphics are great. Gameplay is fun. Crowd response is good. I absolutely love the new feature on LIVE that allows you to see people around you that are rivals to play them. that is clutch.

cons:

plays sometimes look fake
players make weird impulse glitchy looking moves when shooting down low
online play so far has not been very smooth

other then that
this game is awesome
I played it for a good 5 hours last night, and did not get sick of it. the commentating is good other then them saying the same stuff about being the best senior in the nation, and mentioning like a new person each game.

but again
i definetly would reccommend this to friends. ea sports impressed me.

Summary

Ncaa Basketball is a fun but sometimes frustrating game.

In Dynasty, you can choose any school you wish, i chose North Carolina for example. The first year i lose to the second round in the tourney to Butler. 92-65. That's where it gets frustrating. The simulation does not make any sense at all. Pepperdine wins the national championship and Denver is the #1 rank for the next years season. And playing UNC my second year i go 6-22 even though being projected to win the ACC. The first 4 years can be a little confusing but after that, it starts to make sense again. From what happened the earlier years, with Denver being so well, they start to get recruits and i guess they are the next powerhouse...Well at my first four years at UNC i had #1 recruiting class and #2 the year after that, so it takes a while for your freshmen to start making an impact. Well now im 16-1 and its working out so far.

Gameplay- The new tempo addition can be more of a challenge than something to be like " oh this is fun..". You have 3 choices, up tempo, balanced or half-court. I prefer balanced because you can do half-court and up tempo determining your teams opponent. It is incredibly hard to drive the lane. Kinda impossible unless your on fastbreak. The gameplay is pretty fun i have to say.

Graphics- They are pretty nice, but a lot of look- alikes.

Summary

I played the first Lumines on the PSP and loved Puzzle mode, it was borrowed so I didn't had the time to play the game to it's fullest.

I bought Supernova just for the Puzzle mode i remembered being very addictive, challenging and fun but found a lot of fun in all the different modes.

It's a shame there is no online multiplayer (but being this the "Patch Generation" we can hope for some add on).

The game can get to be very challenging and hard on Dig Down mode and beyond ten skins in Challenge mode. As well some puzzles are very hard (I haven't managed to complete them all).

If you like puzzles this is a must have! $15 is a good price I think and you'll find an add-on already available on the PS Store, it's a holiday add-on so I guess it's not going to be available forever.

I'll be waiting for more downloadable content and trying to place my name on the leaderboards.

Summary

The playing field is far too small with the square pieces far too large. This makes gameplay (although relatively the same) shorter with less room to build up combos. This makes multiplayer usually just quick 30 second matches most of the time depending only on if one player gets better pieces than another since they come down at random with no shared pattern. As soon as one player gets the upper hand with the middle divider shrinking the other persons playing field it is usually game over. There should have been more 2 player options. Like an old school Tetris (or Tetris Attack), or Dr. Mario, or Bust-a-Move, etc. type of system where the more blocks you clear, the more "garbage blocks" appear on the opposing player. This is no where to be found. And any lack of online play is unacceptable. This was a great title that originated on Sony's own PSP. Why they dropped the ball on this for the PS3 is anyone's guess.

Summary

Lumines Supernova is the latest in the trippy puzzle series, and the first to premiere on the PS3. As someone who owned and played the hell out of Lumines Live! for the 360, it is clear to me that Q Entertainment has listened to fan feedback when crafting this downloadable title. The main complaint leveled against Supernova's downloadable predecessor was leveled towards the game's pricing structure, which nickeled and dimed players endlessly to add features that should have been in the game in the first place. Supernova clears this hurdle and comes packaged with several cool new modes. In addition to the Classic mode (which is still easily the best of the bunch) there are a number of new modes: a Puzzle mode which challeneges players to clear all blocks on the screen in a certain number of moves; a Mission mode in which players must create shapes out of the colored blocks; a Dig-Down mode, which asks players to clear a filled screen; and finally a Sequencer mode which allows players to create their own beats.

The Classic and Puzzle modes are actually quite easy. The solutions to the puzzles remain pretty obvious through the end, so this mode seems more like a distraction than a full-fledged brainteaser. Classic mode, unlike similar modes in other puzzle games, never really ramps the difficulty up. Instead, each increasing level brings with it a change in tempo, music, and skin. While this makes for a very dynamic experience, and it can prove a little disorienting to new players, it will soon become possible to play for hours on end without losing. I typically quit playing Classic mode after an hour or two out of boredom rather than losing to the computer. It should also be noted that several of the skins in Supernova aren't actually new, but taken from past entries such as Lumines Live!. The mission mode, on the other hand, can sometimes become rediculously difficult. It's fun to see what shapes can be made out of Lumines blocks, but at the same time many of these missions come down to luck rather than skill. The Dig-Down and Sequencer modes are entertaining enough, but none of the extra modes are enough to make me quit heading straight for Classic on the menu.

One odd omission from Supernova is any sort of multiplayer mode. Lumines Live! had a VS CPU mode (which had to be bought seperately) and an online multiplayer component, and it's rather strange to see that this sequel lacks these options. Perhaps they will be added as downloadable content in the future. Speaking of DLC, Q Entertainment is clearly very fond of the whole concept. A "new" set of skins was just released under the name of The Classic Collection. These skins are classics from the first two Lumines games. It is evident that we should expect more DLC in the future.

While Supernova is a solid puzzle game in all respects, the thing that really puts it above all other games in the genre is the ambiance that it creates. The trippy music and flashing visuals are capable of putting players in a trance-like state that few, if any, other games have achieved. Lumines Supernova is the closest I've come to being high on drugs.

Graphics: 8.5/10: They're just blocks, but they sure are purty. Also, the background skins look great.
Sound: 9.75/10: The best element of Lumines, the sounds are absolutely hypnotic.
Gameplay: 8/10: It's a puzzle game. You destroy blocks.
Entertainment: 8.5/10