DSFanatic2010

College is a fresh time for people. You experience self reliance, socializing with the real world, and you practice for your career of choice. These students at DigiPen IT have done more than practice. They have practically begun their careers. Because you don't create a game this immersive and cool by just practicing. This game is an arcade racing game combined with a skateboarding game. The object is to race your car through the track and reach the end terminal, while avoiding obstacles and keeping from careening into the endless abyss. While doing that, you are also rocketing off ramps to do amazing flips and turns. The game is best played with an Xbox 360 controller plugged into your PC. You use the left analog stick to turn your car and the right analog stick to make your car roll and flip, and you can see rockets on your car activate when you do a roll. You can also turn on your boost, hop over things, and even turn into a plane. The turning is tight and responsive, and doing tricks is a lot of fun, although holding down the right trigger to accelerate can get uncomfortable. I feel like I'm in the world of TRON: Legacy in the game. The graphics look amazing, with multicolored lighting effects, amazing scenery, and some awesome explosion and laser effects. The game is a visual stunner. I'm a big fan of techno music, and the soundtrack is amazing. It fits the atmosphere perfectly, and just makes me want to dance! The game's announcer has a great sense of humor with phrases like "weaksauce", "better than sliced bread", among others. They'll make you giggle. If I have anything bad to say about this game, then it's that the story mode is short and generic, and the later levels can be frustrating. But don't let that hold you back at all. This is an amazing game, and will wow anyone who decides to download it. And by the way, it's free, which makes this game a must-own for any PC gamer.

This game is my ultimate time-killer. But it doesn't just kill time. It stabs it to death, destroys its innards, dumps it into a landfill, and dumps recycled aluminum all over it. To put it slightly less gruesomely, I love this game. Graphcs: 9 out of 10. The graphics are some of the best I've ever scene out of Telltale Games. The lighting is very '30s nightclub, and the effects and textures are very high quality. The animation on the models are very smooth. Most lip-syncing is very top-notch but some lip movements are of in comparison to the dialogue. The game is not without its graphical glitches, though. I've seen cards floating over the Heavy's head, chips moving to the middle by themselves, among others. They are funny, so it's nothing to worry about, unless you worry about that sort of thing. Gameplay: 9 out of 10. This game is a point-and-click simulated poker game. The controls are very simple using buttons and a slide to bet, raise, call, check, and fold. If you don't know anything about that stuff, look it up. Controls: 9 out of 10. The mouse pointer and buttons work perfectly. There's not much else to say. Audio: 10 out of 10. The game's audio is the pearl in this clam. The cast includes William Kasten as Max, Gary Schwartz as the Heavy, Matt Chapman as Strong Bad, Roger Jackson as the Host, and Tycho Brahe's first ever and hopefully permenant voice actor, Andrew "Kid Beyond" Chaikin. All characters have a boatload of dialogue and can interact with each other in rib-hurtingly comical ways. Conversations between characterscan be interuppted, though, so anticipate a few bugs. But for the most part, the system works well. The dialogue is funny and will keep you laughing for hours. The music consists of jazz remixes of music from Sam & Max, Homestar Runner, and Team Fortress 2 media. The remixes are catchy and top-notch. Overall, you should buy this game just to hear these guys talk to each other. One last thing I should mention, this game is only $5! All the quality you get is well worth more than $5, but this MSRP makes this game irresistable for any poker enthusiast or comedy lover. Get it now!

Ratatouille is one of my favorite Disney/Pixar movies. The same can't be said for the video game, but I think it's still pretty enjoyable. Graphics: 6.5 out of 10 The graphics are kind of mediocre. They definitely belong on a 6th generation console, which is what this was primarily developed for. If I saw these graphics at a Wii preview instead of something like Kirby's Epic Yarn or Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I'd be writing angry letters to Nintendo. They're not bad, but I have definitely seen better out of the Wii. Controls: 8 out of 10 The controls are very nice on the Wii. There is an active camera, but sometimes you have to manually adjust the camera, which is slightly annoying, but luckily you don't have to do it often. The Wii Remote is very nicely implemented in the game while not feeling overused. Controls are responsive, but running is a bit loose, so I wouldn't recommend doing it. Controls for the slide and boating levels are not very sensitive, unlike the rest of the game, which can be frustrating. Level Design and Content: 9.0 out of 10 The game is an action-platformer with some puzzle solving and cooking simulation(there was no way they could release this game without this). The platforming is very fun and challenging, but can be frustrating at many times, and some secrets just mock you with no accessible path. The story mode is about a 3 hour run, so it's very short, but completionists will be happy to know that secrets, collectibles, and extra levels will make this a 25 hour game to find and unlock everything. The story mode retells the Ratatouille story pretty well, but omits and/or changes some things. I won't go in depth, to avoid spoilers. Overall Score: 8 out of 10 The game has its impressive peaks and controller-throwing valleys, but Ratatouille is a good game for fans of the film to own.