Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi

Well, here it is, DBZ’s first outing at a 3-D enviornment game, developed by Spike and Published by Atari. Well, the game is the fourth in the Budokai series and was released in 2005. Everybody thought it would be the best DBZ game ever, or at least an amazing one. Well, it’s not bad, but definetely no “amazing”, and let me tell you why.

The game starts off with the Story Mode, where you have to go through all the hardships that the Z Fighters had to go through. I think that this is where the game really shines. The story mode is incredibly detailed, and will take you at least 6 hours to complete, far more than any other Dragonball Z game. And they also try and cover every aspect of DBZ, including movies as well.  You have the Saiyan, Frieza, Garlic Jr., Cell, and Majin Buu sagas, along with multiple movies, like Broly, Bojak, Cooler, and more.

Let’s move onto the battling system. It’s an all new battle system for DBZ, and it’s simply lovely. It provides and open world to travel around, great space for battles, and just plain enviornments that are fun as hell to destroy. The controls are very responsive, and I think that Spike did a good job with the system and the enviornments.

Now here is where the game lacks. You have a lot of characters, I beleive over 55, 57 to be exact. Now, with all these characters, you would think that tha game would be very unique, well, it’s certainly unique, but not in a good way. This game made a terrible mistake with transformation selection. In other DBZ games, you would have to charge your Ki, and then transform into an altered state, most of the time of the better (Super Saiyan, Cell Forms, etc.). Well, in this game, if you want to be a Super Saiyan, you stay a Super Saiyan for the whole game and never revert. You would think that this would be good, unless you are facing a Super Saiyan 3, in which case you would want to level up during battle. But you cannot do that, which is a trrible thing that can ruin some great fun. You have to make sure that your opponent ot whoever you are playing with choose a character that has the same power level for maximal fun.

Overall, the game is a good one, but not the best DBZ game, (I thought Budokai 3 was) that falls from few design flaws, and one major one that can sometimes ruin battles for you. I’d at least rent it if you didn’t already own it.

• Graphics: 7/10
• Gameplay: 8/10
• Story: 10/10
• Sound / Music: 5/10
• Lasting Appeal: 5/10
• Replay Value: 5/10

Overall:  40  /  60        =        67%   (Not The Best)

Gallows: Orchestra of Wolves

Long have I awaited for a band to actually bring some punk rock to this bland, soft rock world. This band has done a near-perfect job of doing so. Gallows is a nice little British band that live for punk rock music, and they are certainly allowed to in my book.

The band has only released two albums, and this was their first. I have yet to hear their second album, but this record is all I need for this talented group. They’ve revived an old sense of Punk Rock that was gone for a very long time, not seen since The Casualties (wherever they are). The band consists of four members, and they work perfectly with each other.

Although the album as a really nice vibe to it, it isn’t perfect, and let me tell you why. You see, the band hasn’t grown very unique with their style of music. I could easily go listen to the Ramones and have the same experience listening to Gallows. Another problem with the record is that a lot of the songs sound the same, musically and lyrically. The band does a good job of delivering, but they needto work more on their own style, and keeping tracks different from each other.

Overall, the album is a realy nice listen that falls short of greatness. I just hope that their newest album, Grey Britain, is better and badder than OoW, even though it would be pretty hard to follow up and album like this one.

Tracks with Scores:

• Kill The Rhythm (8/10)
• Come Friendly Bombs (7.5/10)
• Abandon Ship (8/10)
• In The Belly Of a Shark (10/10)
• Six Years (6/10)
• Rolling With The Punches (7/10)
• Just Because… (7/10)
• Will Someone… (7.5/10)
• Stay Cold (8/10)
• I Promise This Won’t Hurt (8.5/10)
• Orchestra of Wolves (7.5/10)
• Sick of Feeling Sick (7/10)
• Black Hearts Queen (8/10)
• Last Fight For The Leaving Dead (7/10)

Overall Score: 107 / 140    =     76%   (Fair)

Fall Out Boy breaks up?

The apparent “breakup” of FallOutBoy is far from interesting. The band has informed their fans that they will no longer be recording new music, but simply touring. When asked if the band would ever be done for good, they reply by saying that the band will be defunct when it no longer continues to be fun.

Well, isn’t that something. They finally have their thoughts together. Their music gradually got worse with every album, it’s no wonder they would stop. I enjoyed most of their albums, but it seems that they are quickly losing their edge.