Random First Hour Reviews
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PortalA "Portal" movie would be awesome. I saw the fan made movie....
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The Legend of Zelda: Link's AwakeningI am SO glad I was not the only one that got stuck on this. I...
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How Persona 3 destroyed my love for Japanese RPGsI agree with you.. I always wanted to play this game but i never...
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SimCity DSThis is a really entertaining Blog that you've put up there. I...
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The Famitsu 40/40 List: 2011 Perfect Score UpdateOpinions are a thing on their own. In fact, they are fully apart...
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Paul Eastwood's reviews and writings
The Gaming Generation - Part 2
Blog Post
Paul Eastwood — Fri, 06/24/2011 - 6:00am
My name is Paul Eastwood and I used to write for this site. Not only did I write, I hosted and produced the one and only official First Hour Podcast (accept no substitutes!) Where have I been for the past however-many-months? Well, I’ll explain a little of that in this post, the follow-up to my last post, in which I discussed adults who grew up with video games.To put it simply, I don’t play games any more. In fact the date of the last podcast closely coincides with the last time I played a video game. Now I know what you’re thinking: “What in the zarking fardwarks?” I suppose it is hard to imagine. Me, who spent so much effort to carve out time to play video games. Me, whose childhood and high-school years are largely dominated by what games I was playing at the time. Me, whose normal conversation incorporates similes involving obscure video game characters.
The First Hour Podcast - Episode 10
Podcast
Paul Eastwood — Mon, 09/20/2010 - 6:00am
Epsiode 10 of The First Hour Podcast, the only official podcast of firsthour.net!
This week Paul, Greg, and Mike discuss Metroid: Other M, Halo: Reach, read the articles in Mafia II, and more! Enjoy the show!
Subscribe on iTunes or via RSS. Please leave us your feedback! Comment here, or email podcast@firsthour.net.
Theme Music
Sonic the Hedgehog 'Green Hill Zone (Euroclub '95 Mix)' - RayzaDownload the podcast:The First Hour Podcast - Episode 9
Podcast
Paul Eastwood — Fri, 09/03/2010 - 6:00am
Epsiode 9 of The First Hour Podcast, the only official podcast of firsthour.net!This week Paul and Mike discuss how addictive StarCraft II is, playing more Dragon Quest IX, Metroid: Other M, and more! Enjoy the show!
Subscribe on iTunes or via RSS. Please leave us your feedback! Comment here, or email podcast@firsthour.net.
Theme Music
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker 'First Time on Outset' - halcDownload the podcast:The First Hour Podcast - Episode 8
Podcast
Paul Eastwood — Thu, 08/19/2010 - 6:00amEpsiode 8 of The First Hour Podcast, the only official podcast of firsthour.net!This week Greg and Paul discuss Dragon Quest IX, voice acting in video games, Mafia 2, BioShock Infinite, and more! This is a game filled podcast that you can not miss.
Subscribe on iTunes or via RSS. Please leave us your feedback! Comment here, or email podcast@firsthour.net.
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Super Mario World 'Turning Terrors' - AeroZDownload the podcast:The First Hour Podcast - Episode 7
Podcast
Paul Eastwood — Thu, 08/05/2010 - 6:00amEpsiode 7 of The First Hour Podcast, the only official podcast of firsthour.net!This week Mike and Greg convince Paul to buy Dragon Quest IX, Mike finally gets to play Starcraft II after waiting 12 years, and we voice our opinions about the 3D fad. Don't miss it!
Subscribe on iTunes or via RSS. Please leave us your feedback! Comment here, or email podcast@firsthour.net.
Theme Music
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 'Party in the Shop' - Dr. Fruitcake
Download the podcast:The First Hour Podcast - Episode 6
Podcast
Paul Eastwood — Thu, 07/22/2010 - 6:00amEpisode 6 is finally live! Paul chats with Greg, Mike T. and Ian Bagley; it's guaranteed* to be a fun time.We take a look at getting good deals on older games, discuss retro gaming goodness, and take a look at Greg's review scoring system. Also talk about Fallout 3, Cave Story, NBA Jam and more!
*guarantee does not extend to any who may not enjoy this episode for any reason.
Subscribe on iTunes or via RSS. Please leave us your feedback! Comment here, or email podcast@firsthour.net.
Theme Music
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island '2001 ElasticNewYear' - djpretzel
Download the podcast:The Gaming Generation
Blog Post
Paul Eastwood — Tue, 07/20/2010 - 6:00am
Video games came into homes more or less in the mid 1980's. Sure there
were games before then, before the crash, but I'm considering the NES as the start of what we
now know (and love) as gaming. Because of this, my generation is the first that have grown up entirely within the era of videogames. This holds a lot of implications, and I'd like to look at a few of them over time.I was born shortly after the NES debuted. Even though I wasn't an avid gamer until I was a teenager, I do remember video games always having a presence in my life. When I was about 5 years old, we lived in an apartment complex that had a janitor named Mario. Even though my family didn't own any video game systems at the time, I remember thinking it was funny that his name was the same as the guy from that one game. One issue this brings up is this: what becomes of gamers when they "grow up?"
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Full Review
Paul Eastwood — Mon, 06/14/2010 - 6:00am
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is the final chapter of the Metal Gear saga (kind of). It seeks to wrap up the complicated plots from the previous three games, which up to this point seem to be fairly divergent. It also seeks to perfect the gameplay and presentation for which Kojima-san and his Metal Gear Solid games have become famous.It is also the first game in the series on the PlayStation 3, and it uses this hardware to be one of the best looking games ever. The MGS series has always used the in-game graphics engine to render its cutscenes to prevent a jarring disconnect between graphic styles, and this is the first time it works perfectly. The in-game character models look good enough that you can't complain a bit. The facial animations and lip-syncing is increbible. The game is, in a word, stunning.
So we know the game looks good, we can tell that from screenshots and trailers Is it good? Is it fun? Is it worth buying? For those of you with short attention spans, the answer is yes. For everyone else, read on.
Resident Evil
First Hour Review
Paul Eastwood — Fri, 05/28/2010 - 6:00am
Resident Evil is the original survival horror game. It didn't invent horror, but it definitely laid some groundwork as far as the genre went in video games. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sony PlayStation. In 2002, it was released as a remake for the GameCube in a surprising deal that had the series on Nintendo's system and eventually led to the stellar Resident Evil 4. It is the GameCube REmake (get it, RE stands for Resident Evil? Ah, nevermind) that I will be playing.
So what I want to know is this: Is this game good, and is this game scary? I've played Resident Evil 4, and had a few good jumps, but overall it was just a moody action game (arguably becoming the basis of the modern third-person shooter). The original (and remake) had a lot more focus on puzzle solving and exploring, and less on fighting.
I'm going all out with this one. I'm playing at night, while everyone else is sleeping, with the lights off. Let's see if we can get a good scare out of this.Infinite Space
First Hour Review
Paul Eastwood — Fri, 04/23/2010 - 6:00am
Infinite Space is a DS game published by SEGA as a collaboration between Platinum Games and Nude Maker. Platinum Games previously developed Madworld and Bayonetta for SEGA, and Nude Maker comes from a background making... well, let's just say their name isn't just a bad translation. However, these two teams had previously worked together on the XBox game Steel Battalion. Yes, the game that cost $200 and came with a giant mech-dashboard controller.
While Steel Battalion went over the top with its controller, Infinite Space seeks to go where no anime character has gone before. The concept of the game is space exploration, and the building of a fleet to undertake said exploration. And because we all know space is a very dangerous place, there will be battles; many battles.
The producer of Infinite Space said this has been a long time dream of his, as he grew up inspired by science fiction. He mentioned several influences, but if I list them here you will get the wrong idea of the game. It's nothing like the influences he mentions.
What is it like? Well, I'll tell you, or at least what the first hour is like.
I've played a million games, and I've rocked them all.
Copyright 2007-2012 Greg Noe. All rights reserved.
