From taking out a giant martial arts organization, defeating the unstoppable Shredder (Kevin Nash), dancing with Vanilla Ice, and still have time to tell some jokes as cheesey as their pizza! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been brought back to the world of gaming in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time a game originally released in 1987 from Konami on the Super Nintendo, and SEGA Genesis. The side scrolling beat’em styled game has not only been re-released, but it’s been complete remade, Re-Shelled, features new cell-shaded style graphics and sounds. The graphics were remade completely in 3D, with players now moving in and out of a true 3D camera. The opening and closing cinematics were remade with a stylized 2D look. The vocal quips of the arcade version return, re-recorded by the cast of the 2003 cartoon with new, new bosses, and the ability to play online over Xbox LIVE. With having a new graphic style, your now closer the action which makes it difficult, and a bit clustered at some times, especially if you have four people playing at once. The game play is the same: Beat’em up, collect health and power ups (Pizza Time!), fight a boss an then rinse, repeat. The big part of the game now is the multiplayer, which can always be fun, it’s the kind of game to play after a big night of Halo 3, CoD, or Gears of War. A game that’s enjoyable for friends and family. The only problems I have are some of the bosses have been changed around or completely removed, and the Elevator Level is gone! One of the best levels have been removed, and the bosses in that level have taken the spots of Beebob and Rocksteady spots, also in another level it’s a completely new boss, and I can’t figure out why? The game is 800 Microsoft Point ($10) which is alot better than the original marked price of 1200 Microsoft points ($15) But I wish there was a way to still play the original game in it’s true form. But if this the Turtles in Time I have to play for now so be it. The game is still a great 4 player game to play, that has a lot of replay value, and gives this generation of gamers a look into the games of the 90’s! Cowabunga!

So if you haven’t noticed one of things I praise in Video Games is the story, and the ability to take the player and emirs them into the universe that the story in presented in. Another thing you may have noticed over the past shows is that futuristic story lines and Space Operas is where my bread and butter is! And that’s when Crytek announced Crysis 2, I was ecstatic! Now the story was decent for Crysis, the old: Alien invade earth, and one human in a suit is the only one to save the day. Sound kinda familiar right?

So this morning when I went news hunting for show notes I found a neat little article on Kotaku about how Richard Morgan the lead writer for Crysis 2 had some things to say about the upcoming sequel, now I know a lot of developers knock other games by stating what their game will do that no other game has offered, so I wasn’t surprised when he knock one of the most popular FPS out there today: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which he described as nonsensical, implausible, and unresolved. You mean like story that takes place in the future where an ancient alien spacecraft has been discovered beneath the ground on an island near the coast of the East Philippines, and then creates a giant frozen sphere?

But then Morgan takes it one step further bashing Bungie’s beloved series: Halo stating: “The reason that its fiction doesn’t work has nothing to do with the fact that you don’t get to see Master Chief’s face, it’s because of lines like ‘Okay … I’m gonna get up there and kill those guys’, … I don’t like Halo at all … it’s full of these bullshit archetypal characters … the series has no real emotional effect.”

Really? Your first game consisted of a Nomad a character who’s face is unseen throughout the entire game, and he pursues mission goals with single-minded fervor. The player assumes this role throughout the game, and other than the end of the last cutscene, the entire game is viewed from Nomad’s perspective. Where Halo had multiple characters, and Two different character you played. The Chief, and the Arbiter.

The reason this pisses me of is because Richard Morgan doesn’t understand that video game plots are rarely judged with the same standards as novels and films because most game plots are made up as they go along by the development team and their managers, these people are better skilled at making awesome games than works of literature. And few titles that can afford a respected writer Eric Nylund, or Drew Karpyshyn certainly up the ante, but only because they can afford it. So if you looking for more of a story from Halo or any other game pick up one of their DVD’s, books or graphic novels, where a writer can get in depth on a character and environment without having to destroy the game play.