My Top 5 Xbox/Xbox360 Games Continued...

Number 4

Up next on the list we have Mortal Kombat Deception, an Xbox game that was released on October 4, 2004. MK Deception is a fighting game that relies heavily on extravagant finishing moves and blood splattering abilities. The single player is known as Konquest Mode which follows a young man named Shujinko who searches for the Kamidogu at the bequest of an emissary of the elder gods. I absolutely loved this story mode and I have always hated single player modes. It really gets you into the whole story and it continues on from the previous installment of the Mortal Kombat franchise, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance.

The multiplayer is what you would expect from a fighter except for the big amounts of blood and gore (especially from the death traps). What makes the Mortal Kombat series unique is the presence of fatalities and exclusive to this game hara-kiri. Fatalities are unique to each character and performed after you have won the match that allow your character to perform a brutal killing move. Hara-Kiri on the other hand allows a player to commit a character specific suicide rather than have a fatality committed on them. 

My personal favorite part of this game has got to be the mini games that you can do by yourself or have other people at the system join you. The main new mini game that I thought was fantastic was Chess Kombat (See the trend with K?) where you choose characters and play chess with taking pieces equaling fighting actual matches. Overall this is my favorite Mortal Kombat game and my favorite fighting game and I highly recommend it to everyone! (18 & up as it is rated M)

Top 5 Xbox/Xbox 360 Games IMO

Number 5

Obviously from the title you can see that I am kicking off things with a game from a series I was arguing against in the previous blog entry and this will not be the last entry from the Call of Duty series, I can promise you that! Unfortunately this game's online multiplayer mode is virtually unplayable with almost every lobby being modded. If you can manage to get a modder free lobby then holy cow get ready for some fun! This is around the time that the Call of Duty franchise really started taking off in popularity and online multiplayer first person shooters were gaining traction. 

What made this game so special in my opinion? A few things, starting with how simple the game was to pick up and understand to play. One of the best features World At War had was the boot camp mode where new players could face off in multiplayers so they don't feel overmatched against more seasoned veterans. There was really only one overpowered weapon (I'm looking at you MP40) and one overpowered perk (Juggernaut sucks) which made the game fairly balanced. Did I mention unscoped sniper rifles?! My personal favorite type of gun in all Call of Duty games. Not only was the multiplayer experience fantastic but this was the game that introduced the ever popular Nazi Zombies mode to the Call of Duty franchise. Those two things I have had endless hours of fun with and still bring me back to the game from time to time.

The Kar98k. My favorite weapon in Call of Duty World at War

Yearly Gaming Franchises...is it Time to End?

Is It Time?

As the the end of August came and passed the next installment of the storied Madden Football franchise hit shelves and with that a bunch of questions came up as to whether another edition of the game was needed. This does not only apply to the Madden franchise but also Call of Duty games (and yes I know the companies take turns each year) and basically every sport has a yearly entry. So my question is, why are we paying all this money each year for a game that is basically a roster update with minimal changes? I have been as guilty as anyone buying Call of Duty every year and only recently stopped getting the new Madden games that come out. I know this is a money making business for Activision and Electronic Arts but this is getting more tired than Jadeveon Clowney looked against UNC last week.

Time to retire at the top like Barry

I may be wrong in thinking this but don't all these games feel recycled to everyone? It seems like in Madden's case that all it adds is a new tackle animation and up to date rosters each year with their new product. And as for Call of Duty it's just new maps, same recycled guns and maybe a new game-type. Activision is just releasing its new engine for the Call of Duty games that fans have been asking for them to come out with for years. There have been no monumental changes for any of these franchises for years and that is unlikely to change even with the release of the new systems and it really is disappointing. The only way to change the companies from releasing sub par yearly content is to stop buying it which judging from the sales numbers is a sheer impossibility.

If the companies could come to a compromise and release a game every lets say two years that would be much more manageable for everyone. They would have more time to develop new features and consumers would be able to save the price of the game every other year. So with all that I still do think that it is time to throw in the towel and retire these every year franchises or at least slow their pace.

The Curious Case of Johnny Football

Johnny Manziel

On December 6th 2012, history was made when the first freshman in NCAA history won the Heisman Trophy. This award is the highest honor in college football citing the best player of that season not taking into account the players conduct off the field. Enter Johnny Manziel and his historic season last year leading him to win this award and take a place in College Footballs storied history. All this is well and good but this guy is one big pompous dirtbag. I am trying to be non biased here but with everything I have seen about this guy I can tell he is the next Ryan Leaf. 

(Thomas Campbell/USA Today Sports Images)

Keep doing that taunt Johnny 

Not only was he arrested in June 2012 and charged with three misdemeanors but he has also "inadvertently" committed an NCAA violation getting him suspended for the first half of the Texas A&M Aggies 2013 season opener against Rice. Johnny Football was also pulled from that game in the second half for taunting his opponents and doing his signature money taunt (in the picture above). What does it take to get through to this guy? He even left the Manning Passing Academy early because he allegedly "overslept" his alarm. Judging from his history he was out partying all night getting that money and he slept in. There is no doubting his talent on the field and he is the poster child of NCAA football but there is going to come a time when he has to realize that kids look up to him and that he needs to grow up. It would be a shame for his career to be cut short because he couldn't handle the limelight that comes with being a star. So with that, stop being Johnny Football and go back to being Johnny Manziel and for god sake stay off social media!