50 Cent: Blood on the Sand Catch-All

That's right, you read the title correctly. 50 Cent. Blood on the Sand. Catch-All thread. And you still clicked through? Ok, cool.

I really didn't expect this game to be anywhere whatsoever on my gaming radar. However, some positive impressions have started popping up around the internets. The Joystiq review has this, among other things, to say:

Joystiq Review wrote:

The very best games, the pinnacle of any media, really, are those with an ability to teach us something, however slight, about ourselves. This highest of compliments can be paid to 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. For Fiddy has taught me exactly how much I'm willing to forgive if a game has solid controls, great structure and a few really good ideas.

Eurogamer gives it a 7/10, having some good things to say about the gameplay.

The gameplay is described as one part Gears of War style third person shooter with a cover system and one part The Club successive kill combo system. The story, however, is supposed to be pretty bad.

So, if you can ignore the G Unit trappings (which I realize may be enough to turn some people completely off given the way that 50 apparently refers to the game's female character as some variation of a female dog) and turn your brain off enough to endure the crappy story, it sounds like some solid gameplay is there to be found. I get the feeling that this game may be laughing at itself and might just slip into the category of, "So bad that it's good".

There is no competitive multiplayer, but there is co-op.

I'll be keeping an eye out for this once it comes down in price or as a rental.

Yeah I'd sooner die than give money to this modern day Uncle Tom.

I am voting with my wallet against celebrities in games.

I mean, where does it end?
Paris Hilton's Chihuaha Racing?
Steven Segal: Osteoporosis Ninja?
Miley Cyrus Snap? (think Pokemon Snap with jailbait girls)

Jonman wrote:

Steven Segal: Osteoporosis Ninja?

Admit it: you'd be curious about this one.

After listening to the last 1up podcast I was entertaining the idea of giving this one a rent but the Eurogamer review points out that there is no local / split-screen co-op. The B-movie amusement of playing this locally with some friends was the only draw for me.

adam.greenbrier wrote:
Jonman wrote:

Steven Segal: Osteoporosis Ninja?

Admit it: you'd be curious about this one.

Yes, curious in the same way that I'm curious what syphilis is like.

I saw a preview in EGM a while back, it looked halfway cool.

I'm not sure but I think that the Joystiq review might have actually been more entertaining than the game itself.

I'm glad there's some good gameplay to be had, but I'm not gonna spend my money on it. I hope the developer can take those mechanics and build a game I care about somewhere down the road.

The real question is how this does in sales. In spite of being critically lambasted the first 50 Cent game sold surprisingly well. Will having decent gameplay increase the sales figure, or will the protagonists waning relevance keep this good game from doing the same numbers of its terrible predecessor.

Podunk wrote:

I saw a preview in EGM a while back, it looked halfway cool.

So you'd say like 50 cents worth of cool?

I keep calling this the Snakes On A Plane of video games; it looks so ridiculously absurd that it might be good if approached with the right mindset. For Eurogamer, 7/10 is a very solid score.

My brother, who is mostly a non-gamer, does kind of like Halo and Resident Evil 4 and has played Gears Of War co-op with me... and, he likes G-Unit. So I have a feeling I'll be playing this for family bonding reasons, if nothing else. But I'll wait to buy it used.

Catch-all? Yeah you tricked me with your title.

I actually playtested the first 50 Cent Game for Vivendi. Not sure I can say much beyond that, but I have not followed this game with anything resembling interest.

I'm assuming that the cover system is to allow me to cap a Female Doggo without getting merked.

Joystiq wrote:

"So bad it's good" is a much rarer quality in games than in film, because they're so often excruciating to play. But 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand blends terrific gameplay with really bad ... well, practically everything else to create a final product that I love -- not like, love. I suspect you'll love it too ... just in that dark, secret way we love the things that are almost certainly making us stupider.

Sold!

Funkenpants wrote:

I'm assuming that the cover system is to allow me to cap a Female Doggo without getting merced.

Your gansta card has been pulled.

WiredAsylum wrote:
Funkenpants wrote:

I'm assuming that the cover system is to allow me to cap a Female Doggo without getting merced.

Your gansta card has been pulled.

No way. He was worried that if you capped the wrong person, your punishment would be investing in mutual funds.

WiredAsylum wrote:
Funkenpants wrote:

I'm assuming that the cover system is to allow me to cap a Female Doggo without getting merced.

Your gansta card has been pulled.

Your both wrong.. Murked

TheGameguru wrote:
WiredAsylum wrote:
Funkenpants wrote:

I'm assuming that the cover system is to allow me to cap a Female Doggo without getting merced.

Your gansta card has been pulled.

Your both wrong.. Murked

Wordsmythe, you want to get in on this?

Just read that 50 Cent is currently optioning the movie rights to a Saints Row.

That should be ... good.

TheGameguru wrote:
WiredAsylum wrote:
Funkenpants wrote:

I'm assuming that the cover system is to allow me to cap a Female Doggo without getting merced.

Your gansta card has been pulled.

Your both wrong.. Murked

That's the way it's spelled in yiddish, not gangsta.

Funkenpants wrote:

I'm assuming that the cover system is to allow me to cap a Female Doggo without getting merked.

Does that involve merkins?

beeporama wrote:

I keep calling this the Snakes On A Plane of video games; it looks so ridiculously absurd that it might be good if approached with the right mindset.

That is a perfect way to describe Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad. I'm hereby officially adopting your nomenclature.

adam.greenbrier wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:
WiredAsylum wrote:
Funkenpants wrote:

I'm assuming that the cover system is to allow me to cap a Female Doggo without getting merced.

Your gansta card has been pulled.

Your both wrong.. Murked

Wordsmythe, you want to get in on this?

Yeah, it's "you're."

The sheer hubris of the game trailers put me off.

I don't think 50 cent is near as "hard" as he thinks he is.

GameSpot sez: 7/10

The Good: "Brash, cocky attitude"

The Penny Arcade guys show the demographic of said gansta game.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/2/25/straight-dome/

Botswana wrote:

The sheer hubris of the game trailers put me off.

I don't think 50 cent is near as "hard" as he thinks he is.

I wonder how "hard" he thinks he is? A quick look at his Wikipedia page assures me he's way "harder" than I am, but at the same time, the game obviously depicts a fantasy 50 Cent that he distances from the "real" him. I doubt he seriously believes he could personally take on helicopters in battle. (From a Kotaku interview: The war setting is not only inspired by movies, but by 50 Cent's own visit to the troops in the non-fictional Iraq. "The intensity of being a part of the war setting...it's probably the most dramatic situation you can actually be in, and people consciously go into that, which is a trip to me.")

Yoreel wrote:

The Penny Arcade guys show the demographic of said gansta game.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/2/25/straight-dome/

Kudos to Gabe, the girl in the third panel looks so sweet and wholesome that I developed a crush on her almost immediately, which really helped the punchline.

The war setting is not only inspired by movies, but by 50 Cent's own visit to the troops in the non-fictional Iraq.

Why did we not deploy Fiddy back in 2002-2003?

This year's Army of Two, mostly terrible but still a guilty pleasure. That's my guess.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

Why did we not deploy Fiddy back in 2002-2003?

It would have been like going nuclear. You don't deploy Fiddy unless you're taking on Russia or China. The big boys.

I feel bad for wanting to play this.