Gaming Shangri-La

Persona Persona Call Out Your Persona!!!

2008-12-23T13:26:00.000-08:00

The wait is finally over and Persona 4 is finally here. Alot of people wondered would it be worth it being on the PS2 this far into the current generation? I can safely that the PS2 doesn't hold Persona 4 back at all and in fact Persona 4 is in my opinion the best RPG of the year.

I have to say that it amazes me how much better Persona 4 looks over Persona 3 considering the game uses the same engine. The character models are in most cases alot larger and far more detailed then they were in Persona 3. The environments also look far better and are more varied then they were in Persona 3.

The story of Persona 4 centers around your character(he is unnamed and it is up to you to name him) moving to the rural town of Inaba to live with your Uncle and his little daughter Nanako for a year. Upon your arrival a string of grisly murders begins and it is up to you with your new found power of Persona to solve the case and get to the bottom of the mystery. The game is incredibly well written and has plenty of twists and turns along the way as well as 4 different endings.

Returning again for the soundtrack is Shoji Meguro and the soundtrack again is extremely catchy and the songs are a bit less repetitive then Persona 3's soundtrack was. The voice acting is great for the main characters although some of the voices seem a bit out of place at first. As well as some minor characters seem very very miscast. For example anyone who has played Persona 3 will no doubt be familiar with Chihiro the student counsel treasurer. She makes a small cameo in Persona 4 and is voiced by Wendee Lee. Now don't get me wrong Wendee Lee is one of the best voice actresses out there however her voice does not fit Chihiro and therefore she ends up feeling out of place as a result. But this is a very minor gripe because as I mentioned this issue only tends to be a problem with the minor characters you see only a few times throughout the entire game.

When it comes to gameplay it's pretty much the same as Persona 3 with a few tweaks. There are now more stats related to Social links where as Persona 3 only had 3 stats Persona 4 has 5 Courage, Knowledge, Diligence, Understand and Expression. More often then not these stats will need to be high enough to trigger certain Social Links. Social Links as well have changed a bit as well as you will now sometimes be able to level multiple Links at once. Let me set the stage for you. You agree to spend the day with a friend on Sunday and you head to the Bookstore where you happen to run into another friend. You will now spend the day with both friends and in effect be leveling both of the Links at the same time. Not only is this very convenient but it also makes for some entertaining combo's of friends. Another change to make note of is that the Social Links of party members will directly effect how the perform in battle. For example if the level of the Social Link is high enough a party member may take a fatal blow for you in battle that would have otherwise ended the game. This is just a small example of how raising Social Links effect performance in battle.

When it comes to battle again the game is very similar but has some welcomed tweaks. You can now take complete control over all the members in your party which is a very welcome addition especially considering that the Bosses are far more difficult then they were in Persona 3. For the most part you will be looking to exploit the weakness of the Shadows you encounter so that you can perform the infamous All Out Attack which in most cases kills every enemy instantly. Also welcome is that you can now choose which abilities you allies Persona will forget once they learn a new skill which is very welcome as you can tune them to perform better this way. Overall you have more control over every aspect of battle which as I said is needed because the bosses are a bit more difficult then they were in the past.

The bottom line is I could keep talking all day about the finer details of Persona 4 and it's improvements over the previous game however I don't have that much time. It would also be far easier to just play the game for yourself. It's quite interesting that the best RPG so far this gen is a PS2 game which I don't think anyone would have foreseen. As for all Atlus games I suggest you act quite because Atlus games tend to disappear quickly thanks to their very limited runs. Seeing how much a improvement Persona 4 was over the last game I can't help but be extremely excited to see what the future of the franchise brings us.

Best Sonic yet?

2008-12-06T14:27:00.001-08:00

For awhile now Sonic has been suffering from really lack luster releases. Many say that Sonic has not seen a good 3d game since Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast. Sonic Unleashed aims to fix that. Does it succeed? Yes it does but that's not to say it's anywhere near perfect.

First off lets start with how the game looks. Upon booting up the game you are greeted with a stunning CG opening which honestly makes me wonder why Sega has not made a Sonic CG movie. I'm sure one would be a total success were it to be made. CG aside the game is still very nice to look at. The night stages in particular have very beautiful effects and even suffer from a bit of slowdown every now and then.

Now I mentioned night stages. The game is split between night stages and day stages. At night Sonic turns into a Werehog. The game basically functions as a beat em up at night. Surprisingly there are quite a few moves to learn as you level up and get more and more powerful. There are also a few bosses that are quite fun to fight as well. So while they may feel somewhat out of place in a Sonic game I do think that the night time stages are a welcome addition. One thing I would like to add is that I don't understand the reason for Sonic to undergo a transformation for these night levels. They could have easily used Knuckles as the character for the night time missions which would make perfect sense. It would have also given Knuckles a role in the game. Doing this would have changed little in terms of storyline but I digress.

When it comes to the daylight stages in the game I have to say I am impressed. This is by far the best 3d game to capture Sonic's speed. The best part is that most of the time it is very fun to play. I say most of the time because there are a few sections in the game that are extremely annoying and that goes for night time stages as well. The daylight stages play somewhat like you are on a track most of the time however it never feels like that as you have many many different paths to take and rest assured you are in complete control most of the time. The speed at which you go through some of the stages is mind boggling. Like I said this game captures Sonic's speed very very well.

When it comes to storyline well. The game has one. It's nothing bad or good it's just kinda there. It revolves around Dr. Eggman waking up a evil being known as Dark Gaia which can control the way people feel at night and plots to destroy the world and it's up to Sonic to stop it. Like I said nothing special but Sonic fans will enjoy it nonetheless.

On the negative side the game like I said earlier does have a bit of slow down. Also there are a few horribly designed stages both night time and day time throughout the game that will be sure to annoy and frustrate you. However they are few and far between so it's not really a deal breaker. There are also still a few control issues in the game but they aren't nearly as bad as past games in the series. Also the final series of battles are incredibly annoying and seem to go on forever.

If you can get over the few problems I mentioned then you will surely enjoy yourself and fans of the Sonic franchise are in for a treat. By all means I would highly suggest giving the game a rental at least.

Gears of Meh.

2008-11-20T15:33:00.000-08:00

I would like to consider myself a fan of the first Gears of War. I played it just as much as Halo 3 online and although the campaign had it's flaws I still thought it to be a decent diversion and co-op was certainly fun. But now that I have played Gears of War 2 I have walked away extremely disappointed. Now before I continue be aware that this article will contain MASSIVE spoilers so please do not continue unless you have completed the game.

Now what everyone expects from a sequel is bigger better and more bad ass which is something the team behind gears said was their mantra while making the game but that didn't seem very apparent to me. At no point did I feel the game was better or more epic then the first game. Sure the game looks a bit better but in my opinion it was blown way out of proportion how much better the game looked over the first game because it is only marginally better. Now that in itself isn't a bad thing as Gears 1 was one of the best looking games around when it came out. But lets move on.

Now one thing everyone complained about in Gears 1 was the story or lack thereof as the game had little in terms of plot. Sure there was a storyline but you weren't really given much to go by. Now this is where the spoilers come in so please avert your eyes if you wish not to have key points of the game spoiled for you. Now alot of people have been saying the Gears 2 storyline is much better however I don't see why. There are more cut scenes but that doesn't mean that the game has a better story. My beef is lack of emotion. Gears 2 introduces quite a few new characters however they are all killed off before the end of the game. This makes no sense to me as you are hardly given more then 2-3hrs to get to know these characters and when they die you don't really care. Similarly when Dom finally finds his wife and has to kill her because of the state she is in how would you care? You don't know his wife she appears in a brief 10-15 second flashback and that's all you get other then Dom complaining about wanting to find her. If it's Dom you are supposed to be feeling sad for again the question comes up. Why? You don't know much about him other then that he seems to be Marcus' friend and seems to only be around so the 2nd player has someone to control during Co-op.

When it comes to evolving the characters there isn't much going on save for Baird. For those who have taken their time going through you will most likely have found the various research papers written by Baird which in turn expands his character as you learn that he is quite a intelligent guy and he is not only fighting but trying to understand whats going on during the war. As for everyone else they don't really change at all. Marcus is still big and gruff, Cole is still unstoppable and funny and Dom still follows Marcus around complaining about his wife. So really nothing happens in terms of character evolution.

Now another thing that bothered me was Gears 2's tendency to use gimmicky game play sequences like driving a tank or riding a Reaver or Brumak. The Reaver portion in particular lasts far to long. Now I know alot of people will say these sequences add to the variety of the game which is fine. However none of them control very well and they really only seem to be there to speed up the pace of the game or in the case of the Brumak slow down the pace of the game. Which is a sad thing as the last portion of the game shines until the Brumak section kills all the momentum and slows it down.

Now I will admit the multi player does redeem the game to a certain extent. Horde mode is a incredibly fun experience and I will challenge anyone to say otherwise. Sure at this point in time the multi player is a bit unbalanced but I'm sure that will be fixed at a later date as Gears 1 was patched to fix alot of the complaints of the community not long after it's release. As new maps are released I'm sure Gears 2 will be the place to be on Xbox Live and for good reason. One thing I would like to say is thank you to Epic for the spectator modes in Gears 2. In Gears 1 when you died you would normally just sit there and do nothing as the fixed camera almost always prevented you from getting a good view of what was going on in the remainder of the match. Gears 2 however has a incredibly flexible system that allows you to always keep the action in view and also allows you to take pictures. It's like a Demented Pokemon snap and gives you something to do until the next round starts.

Now I don't want anyone to misunderstand. I didn't hate or dislike Gears 2 I was simply disappointed. I followed the game quite a bit until it's release and I have to admit I was drinking the Kool Aid. I think after following the game and hearing all Cliffy B had to say about the game and the Tech behind it I built myself up to be disappointed. Here's hoping that Gears 3(Oh yes don't kid yourself there will be a Gears 3) will take the series to the next step in more ways then one.

The reflection isn't always perfect.

2008-11-18T15:06:00.001-08:00

Mirror's Edge was a game that impressed me with it's concept and I thought great now someone is finally trying to bring Breakdown to the next level. While I learned I was off the mark a bit I was still interested. Now that the game is finally here I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed.

First off I have to get this off my chest. Whoever decided that Mirror's Edge should have those Horribly animated cut scenes should be fired. No questions just gone. These cut scenes are the most horrible things I have seen in a game in a long time. They look cheap they aren't animated very well at all and they are just downright ugly. In fact they look so bad it's not a stretch to think that people may skip them and if they do this they will not get whats going on in the story. Not that that's a bad thing as the story is entirely forgettable. You play Faith who is a runner and your sister gets framed for a crime she didn't commit. Sounds like the plot of your average thriller no? Well therein lies the problem. The plot is so easy to read that you will see everything coming from a million miles away. There is one point in the game that I think was supposed to be a shocking twist however I already saw it coming about a hour before it happened so it was no shock to me. The whole game plays out like this so it's not really worth following the plot. The game is also tragically short about 5-6 hours depending on the difficultly.

When it comes to game play it's a bit of a mixed bag. When you are running the game is at it's best as running feels like it should and you feel like you can go anywhere and do anything. Until that is you find out that there is really only one path that works 90% of the time and it often comes down to trial and error. Will this path work? No? Ok how about this one? Yup. Ok that's the path you were supposed to take. Sure there are a few points in the game in which they will downright show you that there is more then one way to get to where you need to go but they are few and far between. If you can get used to this then the game is a joy to play. Until the last third of the game. You see throughout the whole game you are taught to always run from a fight and for good reason Faith isn't some superhero who can take down countless baddies with ease. She is just a runner and that's it. But then the game decides to throw tons of enemies at you and MAKE you have to beat them to continue. This is a chore because the combat isn't very good and is often times extremely frustrating.

What it comes down to is that most players will enjoy the first half of the game or so but when it comes time to be forced to take on the countless amounts of baddies the game throws at you players will either give up or get extremely angry. Either way it's a bad thing. Once you beat the game you don't have much to do either. Sure you can do the time trials and try to perfect your runs and there is the bags to collect throughout the story mode. However these offer little value to the overall package and clocking in at only 5 or so hours it just doesn't seem like a good value.
Mirror's Edge is definitely worth a rent if only to see how fun the running can be. But it's very hard to justify a purchase of a game this short and at the end of the day flawed. I would very much like to see a sequel to the game as DICE can easily fix the problems the game has.

Long live the Valkyria.

2008-11-10T15:24:00.001-08:00

The first time I saw Valkyria Chronicles awhile back I was quickly impressed by the games unique look and feel. Now that I have finally gotten to play the game for my self I have nothing but praise for the game. I'll start this off real simple. Valkyria Chronicles is a masterpiece in every way. If you own a PS3 and you don't own this game you are very much missing out. I think it is more then enough of a reason to own a PS3 alone. Why is it that I feel this way? Well read on.

As any who have seen the game will attest Valkyria Chronicles is absolutely gorgeous. The game utilizes Sega's CANVAS engine in which they describe the game to look like a living watercolor painting. Personally I think it looks more like a living sketch but that's not the point here. The point is the game is beautiful. The style the game has is undeniable and certain portions of the game will downright shock you with how beautiful they are.

When it comes to sound again nothing but praise. The game has a top notch voice cast that was able to deliver on all of the emotional moments and the Japanese voices are also included. The soundtrack fits the mood of the game perfectly. If there is one gripe with the game it could be that the gun sounds could have been a bit more realistic but that is a very very minor thing amidst all this greatness.

The game play is another very unique aspect of the game. The game is a cross between a third person action game and Final Fantasy Tactics. You will be givin a map showing all your units however once you select a unit you will go into direct control and move that unit around the field and attack. It's unlike anything I have seen before and is very refreshing. The great thing about it is that it never feels repetitive which is a very good thing. The game breaks down units into a few different classes. You have Scout, Shocktrooper, Sniper, Engineer and Lancer. Now most of those explain themselves expect for Lancer. The Lancer wields a giant lance(hence the name) that has a tip packed with explosives that can be fired like a rocket. They are primarily used as Anti-Tank unit's but as the game unfolds you will find other uses as well.

When it comes to storyline and characters this is perhaps where the game shines the most. Every character feels extremely human and you will care about what happens to them. The war the characters fight and the losses they endure through out are heart rending. Believe me when I say you will cry during this game. At many points in fact. The game shows just how beautiful and how ugly human behavior can be. For those out there that don't know what the game is about I will give a very brief idea of what you can expect. Welkin Gunther returns home after being gone for awhile only to find that War has been declared on Gallia and his home town has been caught right in the middle. He is forced to follow in his Father's foot steps and join the Gallian Milita and help fend off the Empire to save those he loves and his home town. Now I'm not gonna go any deeper into the story then this as it is a pleasure to experience it for yourself.

As I said Valkyria Chronicles is a masterpiece and a game every PS3 owner should have. This is one of those games that comes along once in a generation and should not be missed.

Welcome back to Silent Hill.

2008-10-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time coming but Silent Hill has finally arrived on next-gen platforms. Was it worth the wait? Well read on and find out.

Silent Hill Homecoming follows the story of Alex Shepard a soldier returning from war to his hometown of Shepard's Glen. However not all is what it seems. The town seems to be in a state of disarray and Alex's younger brother is missing. So Alex sets out to find his brother and it's not long before he finds out Silent Hill's involvement in all the problems with Shepard's Glen. Now as far as storyline goes there is good and bad. The storyline is solid however Homecoming borrows alot more from the sub par Silent Hill movie then it does from past Silent Hill games. This isn't to say Homecoming doesn't have a good story because it does but if you disliked the film you may be offput by all the similarities such as monsters the way the hell state appears. There are many more things to mention however I may be entering spoiler country by doing so. So lets leave it at that.

Visually the game is a bit mixed. The creatures look great and there is real time damage in place so as you slash at a creature you will see real time cuts and slashes appear on them. Most of the time Alex looks very detailed and great however there are a few instances in which he looks unfinished but they are few and far between. All other characters models however look unpolished and rough when compared to Alex. The fact that you will often see them on the same screen as Alex makes it that much more noticeable. The environments look pretty good most of the time and they look downright incredible during the Hell state. The transformation into the hell state was also handled very well. It is all in real time as the world peels away and the Hell state begins to show it self. Again very similar to the film.

This time around the combat system really allows you to fight back against the horrible creatures of Silent Hill. You can combo and dodge attacks as well as Counter attack and the like. Fire arms also are easier to use as they are far easier to aim. The combat system does take some getting used to and at first may seem a bit clunky however once you get the hang of it you will have no problems at all. The classic Radio and Flashlight return again and believe me when I say you WILL need them as Homecoming is a very dark game.

When it comes to sound design you are talking about Homecomings strongest point. The Voice acting is well done for most of the characters with no one standing out as horribly bad. But it's the sound you hear while around and about that makes this game. There always seems to be a tension in the air and hearing the white noise of the radio often adds to this as you near a enemy. Creature sounds are also very well done. Akira Yamaoka again did the soundtrack and once again delivers great music that fits the game very well especially in some of the boss encounters.

Overall Homecoming is a solid entry in the series but doesn't approach the level of the first 3 games which I consider to all be equally as masterful and are very much my favorite. If you are a fan of the franchise or a fan of survival horror in general it's certainly worth playing.

So StarCraft II is big.

2008-10-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

So recently Blizzard let out that StarCraft II is going to ship as 3 different games. The reason behind this is because the campaign is far to big to be done the traditional way. Now obviously there are alot of questions to be answered about this issue.

One of those questions is just how big are we talking here Blizzard? Well some reports state that each races campaign is as long as the entirety of all of the original StarCraft. Now if that's true that's quite a large game we are going to have.

The biggest worry right now is how the pricing is going to work. If Blizzard charges 50$ per game we are talking 150$ to play the entire StarCraft II saga. That's quite a pretty penny and may not be within the range of alot of gamers out there. Also remember that this figure doesn't account for any expansions the game may have down the line so the game could quite possibly end up more expensive. Even if Blizzard decides to sell the games cheaper then a normal product the combined three will still cost far more then a single game alone.

Would it have been better if Blizzard simply split each of the campaigns and then finished them via a expansion? Possibly. But I guess we won't know until the game finally ships. Or I guess I should say until the first part of the game ships.

Be open minded about evil kids.

2008-10-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

So the latest entry in the Disgaea series is finally upon us and it seems alot of people have been giving it a bit of a hard time. But I'm here to tell that not only is it the same great game we have come to love but it's even better.

First off we are gonna talk about graphics now if you have played past games in the Disgaea series you know what to expect. Now the game has been criticized for not using the power of the PS3 to it's advantage and I'm here to tell you that it does. While technically the game looks exactly as Disgaea 2 and Disgaea 1 before it that isn't to say it isn't using the PS3. There are countless animations for abilities and spells that would have never been possible on the PS2. Those who have played Odin Sphere and saw the slow down when the game got intense will know exactly what I'm talking about. So while the game isn't a next gen graphics masterpiece that's ok as I would think the series would lose a bit of it's charm if it ended up looking to much different.

The soundtrack is another great highlight of the game with Tenpei Sato delivering another catchy upbeat soundtrack that we have come to expect from the series. The Voice acting is also great and has pretty good anime cast in the line up. The original Japanese is also included so that is a definite plus.

Now the game play is the way you remember from Disgaea 1 and 2. It's you general turn based strategy action with great over the top animations. Now where the game changes it up a bit is that the game is far deeper. In past Disgaea games you would simply level up and learn things as you go and things would get more powerful the more you used them. While that's still true to a certain degree you are now able to customize the way you want a character to grow. You all remember the Mana you are rewarded with after each kill. In past games Mana was simply used for the council to get certain things like making new characters and getting better items. However in addition to all of those things Disgaea 3 allows you to use that Mana to let characters learn new abilities and spells and even new Evilties which are basic native traits that are always active. The great thing about this system is it allows you to make the characters into what you want them to be.

You will also be using Mana for other things as well such as creating new Clubs. That's right folks you can make new school clubs. You can appoint members of the party to the clubs and they gain a benefit from being part of the club. For example there is a club that allows characters seated in the corners of the classroom to earn 25% more experience. There are plenty of clubs as well and you will be sure to unlock plenty of them first time around. The Item world also returns. For those unfamiliar with the item world it basically allows you to enter a Item and level it up as you progress through the stages and it's a great way to level and make items even more powerful. Find a great weapon? Well enter the item world and make it even better and even more powerful.

The great Disgaea humor also makes a return. This time around you play as Mao Number 1 Honor Student of Evil Academy. Now when I saw honor student it's really not what you think. Mao is a demon after all. Being a honor student in the netherworld means being evil not attending class and never doing your homework. On the flip side those who do go to class, do good deeds and always do their homework are the delinquents of the school. This alone makes alot of the conversations between characters extremely funny. The story is basically about Mao wanting to defeat his father for destroying his games. It just so happens that Mao's father is also the Overlord of the netherworld. The story has plenty of laugh out loud moments and that's not easy to find in gaming nowadays so it's great fun.

All in all if you liked the past games in the series then you will love Disgaea 3. If you haven't played any of the previous games there is no better place to start. The only excuse not to play is if you aren't a fan of the humor or the game play. Otherwise pick it up.

Infinite Undiscovery.

2008-09-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

Infinite Undiscovery is a odd one. This is a game said to contain 10 years worth of RPG concepts that could only be realized with the power of the Xbox 360. It's from Tri Ace a dev known for great games in the past however it just fell so so short of what it should have been and the reasons for this are many.

We will start this review a bit different. Normally I would tell you about the good a game has to offer and then save the negatives for last however we are gonna reverse that this time around as there is a bit more to talk about on the negative side. Now don't get me wrong this doesn't mean that Infinite Undiscovery is a bad game and if you don't believe me please read to the end of this review.

Infinite Undiscovery is a game that needed alot more polish then it ended up getting in the end. That could really be the main problem with the game. The graphics show moments of being great particularly at the end of the game in the final area. However the vast majority of the time they are simply serviceable. Also the character models are hit and miss. Capell the lead of the game looks great as does Aya the Female lead. The rest are a bit hit and miss. Rico and Rucha look great however Eugene and Michelle look odd for some reason. Speaking of odd Infinite Undiscovery has some of the worst Lip syncing ever this generation. Now some of you out there will say that's because the game was originally Japanese and the mouths match that language. Not so. The Lip sync is so bad there is no way it was better even with the Japanese. In fact the movement of the mouths in general looks a bit like that of a dummy at certain points. This may have been less noticeable if you could play the game in Japanese but it would still be a problem. Oh and yes you read that correctly, you can not switch to the original Japanese voice track. Normally that wouldn't be that bad however the Voice acting in Infinite Undiscovery is horrible. There are some characters that sound OK but the vast majority are horrid. The cast does get better as the game goes on but it still isn't all that great. It's a good thing that the main 2 characters Capell and Aya have decent voice actors because they have alot of the better moments in the game.

One of the other sticking points for me was that the areas in the game were sometimes far to big. Now generally I would not complain about something like this however Infinite Undiscovery has one of the worst mapping systems ever. The maps only show exactly where you have been which is very annoying when the areas are so big and expansive. The game really needed prefilled maps. Some of the areas are so large that you can get lost for almost a hour without knowing where you are going.

Whew that was a mouth full. Now with that out of the way we can get on to the good stuff. Infinite Undiscovery has a great combat system. It's somewhat like a MMO however it's all real time. You have a weak attack(A) and a strong attack(B) you can also hold down these buttons to use special moves as well.The game does a great job of giving you plenty of members to experiment with and gives inactive members experience as well so you are really encouraged to mess with your setup. There are also a great number of moves and spells to learn so combat never really feels all that boring. Leveling also comes fast so you will not spend much time grinding. You can generally get by just fighting what you come across and not have a problem with the game.

Now in my last review I mentioned that Motoi Sakuraba's Tales of Vesperia failed to deliver a soundtrack that could live up to his previous track record with games like Trusty Bell and Valkyrie Profile 2 however I am glad to report that his work in Infinite Undiscovery is a very good return to form. There are plenty of top notch songs worth listening to over and over and they relay what is happening on screen very well.

There is also a fairly deep creation system in the game in which you can make food, Armor,Weapons as well as enchanting Armor and Weapons in a similar fashion. There are plenty of items to make and the system is very simple and works very well. I found it very fun to mess around and make things as the game went on.

Infinite Undiscovery also has a great story line. Which I believe is worth experiencing despite all the problems I mentioned. The moon has been chained to the earth to allow people to gain it's power via what is known as Lunaglyphs however the chains are also causing horrible disasters all over the world. However there is one man who is fighting to free the moon from it's chains. This man named Sigmund is known world wide as The Liberator. However you do not take on the role of Sigmund. You play as a young man by the name of Capell who at the start of the game has been thrown in jail because he looks exactly like Sigmund. As the game begins the young woman known as Aya frees Capell under the assumption that he is indeed Sigmund. One thing leads to another and Capell is thrust into something he neither wanted nor asked for. The story is very well done and does not rely on cliches all that much. In fact during the last 5 or so hours of the game I had forgotten all the issues I have mentioned thus far. I was completely Engrossed by what was happening and could not put the game down until I saw the credits role.

All in all Infinite Undiscovery is a game certainly worth giving a shot. You will find out pretty quickly if you will want to stick with the game to the end. Some will stay simply for the combat and some like me will be able to look past all the issues to see that great story that lies within. There is no denying that the game has issues and needed to remain in development for a while longer however most of those issues are superficial and do not prevent the game from being played.

The Tales Of Brave Vesperia.

2008-09-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

Tales of Vesperia is the latest in the long running Tales series and it had alot to live up to being the first next-gen entry in the series and boy did it live up to it all. It's great to see a classic style J-RPG come around as we don't get many of them very often anymore.

First off lets talk about the graphics in Vesperia. Vesperia uses a Cel Shaded style popular among anime themed games and for good reason as it's the closet thing to anime you can get without using full blown anime cut scenes 24/7. However don't expect to be blown away by Tales look. The game looks great but isn't even comparable to something like Trusty Bell (Eternal Sonata for those in the US). On the other hand the anime cut scenes will blow you away. The character design and anime cut scenes were handled by Production I.G. and any anime fan worth their merit will know that Production I.G. does incredible stuff. Many of these cut scenes are down right stunning in their beauty, It's a shame there aren't more of them here.

The combat is extremely fun. Think the Devil May Cry of RPG's only slower in pace. Everything is in real time and you will form combo's guard and use special moves and Magic to survive encounters. The great thing about the combat is that it is constantly evolving over the course of the game. Be it from new mechanics being added or the hundreds upon hundreds of moves you can learn the combat always feels fresh and fun to play.

The story is a bit off putting in that at first glace it seems to be nothing special. It simply starts with the main character Yuri Lowell investigating the theft of a Aqua blastia core from the Lower Quarter of Zapias. He soon gets arrested and breaks out of the Dungeon where he meets up with a young lady who joins him on his journey to find the stolen blastia. Now the story takes the first 6-7 hrs of game play to get you introduced to the various characters from the game but the story quickly becomes far more mature and deep then it first lets on. There are plenty of plot twists some of which come out of no where and you will never seen coming. It is certainly a story worth experiencing granted it takes a little to really take off.

Now as for sound the game has a decent soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba but it's not close to the level of his other work in games like Trusty Bell and Valkryie Profile 2 Silmeria. The voice acting on the other hand is a grand slam. We are talking about a All star anime voice cast here with the likes of Liam O Brian, Sam Regal, Michelle Ruff and Wendee Lee just to name a few. There are no bad voice with the exception of one and that's done of purpose as he is a annoying character so they helped get that across via his voice. Combat is constantly full of chatter be it story related chatter or simply spells being chanted and moves being called out. One of the great things I noticed from the game was the amount of victory dialog there was. There is at least 50 different things that the characters will say after a battle depending on who is in the party who killed the last monster who performed the best and so on and they are all very funny. The game also has this innovative feature they call Skits. Skits are little dialog sequences that can be activated when the game tells you to press the Back Button. These Skits are basically the characters talking to each other about various things and it really helps you learn about them and also gives a deeper understanding of whats going on in the storyline. A simple but very effective method of getting to know the characters. There are 100's of these skits and I don't even think I was able to see them all.

So as you can see the game really is a great entry in the series. There is little to bog down the experience. You vary rarely need to grind because of the nature of the combat system you can win battles even if you are very under leveled in fact one of the games achievements is about that fact. If you are a J-RPG fan or ever just a causal RPG fan there is no reason for Tales of Vesperia not to be in your collection.

Will Xbox 360 Final Fantasy XIII outsell PS3?

2008-09-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

So recently I have been seeing alot of debates and alot of articles talking about how it's a very real possibility that the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII will outsell the PS3 version. Now I am not here today to have yet another discussion about why it will outsell the PS3 but I am here to tell you why it wont.

Personally I think it's gonna sell better on PS3 because First and foremost PS3 is the only place to get the full Final Fantasy XIII experience by which I mean VS XIII is still exclusive and Nomura-san said it would stay so. You may not consider that a very valid reason but trust me for Final Fantasy and RPG fans in general it is a very big deal. Second is the PS3 version is going to be better quality.Be it better graphics, faster load times, better sound or simply the fact that it will be on a single Blu-ray disc the PS3 version is going to have something on the xbox version. Personally I think the Xbox version may suffer from slowdown. Any of those who have played Ninja Gaiden II know that there are many points in the game in which the game has a bit a slow down and one point in the game with MASSIVE slowdown. Lets be honest with ourselves Ninja Gaiden isn't even close to being in the same ball park graphically as FFXIII is. With that being the case it is reasonable to assume that the Xbox 360 version of the game is going to have some sort of technical flaw.

The way SE has been talking about the 360 version it seems as if they haven't even tested it yet. Meaning they don't know how well it will work. We have heard them many times say that the 360 port is not underway and it will not begin until after the PS3 version is complete. That being the case I wouldn't be shocked if they bit off more then they can chew and just aren't aware of it yet. Although this is SE we are talking about so they must have thought it through to some degree.

Also you must consider that alot of the Final Fantasy diehards like myself bought a PS3 long before they announced the Xbox version and they are not going to sell off their PS3's or anything. At least the majority won't as I have heard of people that say they will be boycotting the game because they feel betrayed by Square. Let me say this now Square did not betray anyone. They have always done what is best for the company. Back in the days of the PS1 and N64 they knew that the N64 would not be able to deliver on their vision for FFVII and because of this they changed over from Nintendo to Sony. Just think Final Fantasy simply would not be what it is today had it stayed on the Nintendo consoles. This generation is notorious for insanely high production costs in some cases exceeding those in Hollywood. Developers need to find ways to help recoup these losses and that is exactly what Square did. Sony was not betrayed in fact I would say they have it pretty good as far as Square goes. Square recently announced PSP versions of both Parasite Eve The 3rd Birthday and Final Fantasy Agito XIII not to mention the already in development Dissidia and Kingdom Heats Birth By Sleep as well as Final Fantasy VS XIII. Sony has plenty of Square exclusives so it is clear the relationship between the two companies is well and good.

So fear not it is a strong possibility that Final Fantasy XIII will sell better on PS3 and not only that but it just may be a better game on PS3.

A Tale of Souls Eternally Retold.

2008-08-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

Soul Calibur 4 is finally upon us. It's a exciting thing considering we don't get much quality fighters anymore. Soul Calibur 4 is probably one of the best fighters this generation and easily the best in the series. However that doesn't mean its perfect in fact it is far from such.

First off the game is gorgeous easily one of the best looking fighters out there. Environments are indeed destructible however you may not really notice as you wont see it all that often. Armor and equipment can be destroyed this time around which is nice. Some Environments are beautiful and really show off what the engine can do however the vast majority of the areas are dark dank cave or castle like areas that don't really show off much. The fighting animation is also top notch.

Now when it comes to balance well.... Soul Calibur has never been a series to concerned with balance. Yoda on the Xbox 360 version of the game proves this. Yoda is straight up broken. Far to many attacks miss him because of his height and he seems to be immune to throws. Vader is better balanced however if someone can learn how to use his force powers well enough he too is broken. Many of the characters have a few attacks that can be spammed over and over to win with very few chances to stop the chain and mount a counter attack. However the AI in the game doesn't do this and you will only have to worry about friends and people online doing this.

Which brings me to the online mode. Soul Calibur online is a very mixed bag. Often there are mass amounts of lag that will screw with your timing preventing you from playing properly. When the lag isn't there you will most likely be facing off against one of the aforementioned spammers which will quickly become annoying. However when these problems don't appear playing online is incredibly fun. It's great fun to show off characters you have made against others online and it's always entertaining to see what others have made and their reactions to your creations. Which brings me to the best thing about Soul Calibur 4.

Create a Soul mode. This is a mode that allows you to create a character which considering how many characters are already in the game is impressive. You start off with a decent amount of gear and will gain more by unlocking Honors(PS3) or Achievements(360) or by earning the gear piece by piece in the tower of souls. The sad thing is that the Create a soul mode could be alot deeper and I'm sure it will be as more and more DLC becomes available but it's sad it wasn't there from the very start. Also something to note that I found a little odd is that Male characters are far more customizable then female characters. Male characters have more gear to choose from as well as more faces which I found a bit odd. That being said Create a soul mode is still the best thing Soul Calibur 4 has going for it.

I'll Also give a quick mention of the guest characters. You all already know about Vader and Yoda. However there are a few characters designed by famous manga artists in the game as well. They look great and each of them has a good back story. What is sad though is that they are all just pallet swaps of other characters already in the game for example Shura = Cervantes. It's sad because when Namco made their own character they made a new fighting style I'm of course speaking of Hilde who is the only new character that has her own new style of fighting. It's disappointing yet they are still welcome additions to the game.

So all in all Soul Calibur 4 is either a love it or hate it affair. I would suggest giving the game a rent to see how you like it and if you do buy all means buy it. I'm sure the game will receive plenty of DLC in the future. The question of if that content will be worth paying for is debatable.

E3 Thoughts.

2008-07-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well E3 has come and gone and while there were some great announcements I would argue that most gamers will feel that it wasn't the best of shows this year.

Nintendo's presser was to me a big slap in the face of the core gamers. Nothing they showed proved that they cared about the core gamer. Sure they briefly let out that the teams behind Zelda and Mario are working on new projects but they never told us what they were or when to expect them. A new Animal Crossing game was announced but that's more of a casual game then a Core gamers game. Everything else was casual fair such as Wii Sports Resort and Wii music. Wii Sports Resort is the title that will be used to show of the new Wii Motion Plus attachment that tracks the Wii motes movement far more accurately supposedly a 1:1 ratio. The Nintendo conference was definitely the bore of the Big 3 conferences.

Next we have Sony. Sony's conference was pretty good in that they showed the games and they kept the numbers game to a minimum. However considering they used a very creative Little Big Planet level to show the numbers in a very fun way that showed off what Little Big Planet can really do I guess we could have done with more numbers in this case. It was a great way of getting more people to realize how great Little Big Planet will be once it finally ships. They showed a incredible demo of Resistance 2 that showcased a battle with the MASSIVE levitation. The demo was certainly impressive as the monster is immense. The player was picked up a few times and needed to fire a rocket into the monsters mouth before being thrown down. While the demo was brief it did show that Resistance 2 is certainly stepping up the intensity the second time around. Also of interest was a new game called M.A.G or Massive Action Game. This shooter is said to allow up to 256 players into a single game. They showed a CG trailer show casing the concept of the game but it really will be hard to tell just exactly the game will function with that many players until we see more. They showed a concept of squads of players but that doesn't help explain enough. Oh and lets not forget the God of War III teaser trailer. Yes the game is now official however the teaser trailer was very short and little was revealed about the plot. However there is already rumors spreading that the game is close in terms of graphics to the CG teaser that was shown off.

Now Last but certainly not least we have Microsoft. Plenty of rumors were proven to be true for Microsoft as they announced a complete overhaul of the Xbox Dashboard that will implement Avatars. Avatars seem to be alot like Mii's except far more customizable if the video shown was anything to go by. Also announced was Lips. A very Singstar esque game however the video shown shows being able to use a Zune or a Ipod to import music into the game possibly allowing you to use your own music in the game. However it is still somewhat unclear exactly how that will work. In addition to many proven rumors Microsoft also showed off what we want, The games. We were shown Demo's of Resident Evil 5 which showed for the first time that the game will be Co-op playable. Also shown was a very impressive Gears of War 2 demo. The demo showcased just how far the game has come since the first. There is always alot more going on on screen as well as the fact that the areas seem to be far more expansive then the first. The biggest moment came when Microsoft dropped the biggest Bombshell of the show and that is that Final Fantasy XIII will be coming to Xbox 360 in America. I say America at the end of that because it will only be coming to Xbox 360 in the US and Europe it will stay a PS3 exclusive in Japan. This news was certainly a shock to everyone in attendance. It was a shock to me that news this big didn't leak before the show.

Other games at the Show that impressed me were Mirror's Edge. This First Person Action game is very different then a FPS so you shouldn't call it one. You play a runner named Faith who is out to get revenge on the government for framing her sister for a murder she didn't commit. What is so great about this game is how the immersion really makes you feel for Faith. When Faith runs you she her arms pumping when you roll you see your torso it's as if you are seeing things through Faith's eyes and not just drone as in most First Person games. Think Breakdown except far more fluid and polished. Combat is not the focus of Mirror's Edge in fact it will be the running and platforming that is. There will even be a achievement for getting through the entire game without killing a single person.

Another impressive game was inFAMOUS. This game is by the guys at Sucker Punch which you may remember from the Sly Cooper series. Infamous is a open world game in which you play a guy who gains powers that you must choose to use for good or bad. The short demo shown was quite impressive. However alot more needs to be seen to show off the true potential of this game.

While there are certainly alot more games to talk about these are just the great ones that caught my eye. Also keep an eye out for. Little Big Planet, Mercenaries 2, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Halo Wars and the many more incredible games that will be coming soon. This will certainly be a very full holiday season.

But wait. Didn't I say that I didn't feel this show was really all that great? Why yes I did. My reasoning behind this is that in the past E3 always had many HUGE bombshell announcements and new game reveals. While we certainly had alot of incredible games at this years show we really didn't see that much new announced. We basically just got more info on the games we already knew about. While that is great there is just something fun about being shown newer, bigger and better games. I read a interesting interview where a dev said that the mid July timing of the new E3 may be to blame as most of the devs are simply trying to get their games ready for the Holiday Season and they really can't focus on revealing the next big game they have on the way. I tend to agree with this thinking. What we need to see is E3 moved back to the old May timing and maybe things will start to get better but its really hard to say at this point if that will ever really happen.

Expect alot more news in the coming months as we will be hearing from Square Enix at their own private party where they have revealed some major announcement about Final Fantasy VII will be unveiled. We also have Leipzig to look forward to as well as PAX and TGS.

Metal Gear Solid: The Motion Picture?

2008-07-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

As many know there has been lots of talk about a Metal Gear Solid movie recently. So many people have been getting caught up in who will write it, direct it, star in it, etc. But no one has stop to think would a Metal Gear Solid movie even work? Think about it this way. There is so much plot in MGS that certain cut scenes in the game near the 90min mark which is close to a feature length film. With that said is it even possible to make a Metal Gear Solid movie fit into the mythology of the series and be cohesive. Or would it simply be a cash in with a random Solid Snake adventure?

Then there is the important stuff like writers, directors, actors and so forth. Recently IMDB has listed Hideo Kojima as the story writer and David Hayter( The man behind Solid Snakes voice) as the screenplay writer. Now if true that is great however last we heard from Hayter himself that he was not involved and struggling to get Sony to allow him to write the script. Hayter is a rare breed indeed as not only does he play Solid Snake in the games, he is also very passionate about the series and knows just as much about it as any fanboy so Hayter doing the screenplay is a very good thing if it turns out to be true. Then there is the problem of casting Solid Snake. Snake is a Icon no doubt. Even if they got someone who looked exactly like Snake does in the games as soon as he spoke most fans would give up as we have heard Hayter's voice in the role for the past 10 or so years. There has been talk that David Hayter himself could play the role and I would tend to agree with this as he does indeed look a little like Solid Snake. I would rather have someone who looks close and sounds exactly like Snake then someone who doesn't look or sound the part. However Hayter has said in the past that he isn't very interested in acting in film. Could a Metal Gear Solid film make him change his mind?

Oh lets not forget the biggest thing and that would be who would direct. Now my vote would go to Hideo Kojima himself. Kojima-san has said it has always been a dream of his to be a director and this could be the perfect project to jump in on that. Now if this were to happen it would not be the first time a Japanese director would be making a film for a American audience as Takashi Shimizu director of Ju-on directed the American remake of the very same film better known as The Grudge. We have all seen what Kojima-san can do with the Metal Gear Solid 4 cut scenes it amazes me to think of the possibility's should he be allowed to direct the film. We could certainly expect great things from him.

All said the Metal Gear Solid Film has alot of hurdles to get over. Not to mention the bad track record of Games to Film adaptations. Could the movie be great? Of course it could. However the odds are very much stacked against it. However it is still a very early project and almost nothing is known about who will be working on it. Until we have more concrete info we cant really get a idea of how the film will shape up. Lets hope we get more news soon.

Being alone isn't that scary.

2008-06-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

When the end of the year comes and the best and worst of lists are written Alone in the Dark will not doubt top many "Biggest letdown" lists. It's sad to because Alone in the Dark shows alot of promise. It's easy to see the developers had the best of intentions and where trying to make something revolutionary how ever most of if not all of the aspects implemented into the game aren't realized to there fullest and bring the experience down.

Lets start with the story. You play Edward Carnby who awakens with no memory of who he is, where he is or how he got there. He is then thrust into a situation that is very much beyond his control but it seems it is up to him to get to the bottom of it. The game at first glance seems to have a great plot but it's hard to care much when the voice acting is so bad that you will find yourself wanting to skip the cut scenes. It also doesn't help much that what is supposed to be scary in the game is either not scary because of the voice acting or because of the rigid animation the game has going on. Which leads to the next problem.

Control. The game is so clumsy and slow in everything it does it gets very very frustrating. Some may say the controls are supposed to be like that it helps induce scary situations. To that I say that is no longer acceptable after Resident Evil 4. The game is so hard to control it's a wonder you can even defeat enemies in combat. Which again leads to the next problem.

The combat. Now if you were following the game like I was and watched the tech demo released on the web and on Xbox Live then you were no doubt impressed by the fire in the game. The fire indeed looks great and acts and works just like a real blaze would which is an integral part of the game. Why you ask? Well the monsters and enemies you come across can only be killed with fire. A great thing to add for story sake we all remember John Carpenters The Thing in which the only way to complete kill the alien was to burn it. That added alot of tension and terror to the film and I would imagine that they were going for the same thing in Alone in the Dark. However in practice it's very annoying and slows down the game quite a bit. Let me explain. The game utilizes a coat inventory system in which Edward will open his coat Ala the merchant in Resident Evil 4 and display everything he has acquired. A nifty way to show the inventory indeed. The catch is that the game isn't paused while viewing this screen so the monsters can still attack you. Why is this a problem you ask? Well at many points in the game there is no fire to utilize and you will have to make your own be it Flaming bullets or a bottle of flammable spray with a lighter to make a mini flame thrower. The problem here is that nifty little inventory screen isn't the best thing to sift through while being attacked and makes getting armed enough to fend off the beasts attacking you a chore. Were you able to simply attack the monsters with a nearby object and finish them off without flame that alone would make the game far more enjoyable.

In addition to all that Alone in the Dark is host to one of the most horrid driving sequences ever put into a game. There are more bugs and glitches in this little section then there are in the entirety of other games. It is so bad in fact that I would argue that if a player is unaware of the chapter skip function(that I wouldn't be surprised was added because of this horrid driving section) that this section of the game would cause them to give up and return the game.

Alone in the Dark is a bit of a mystery to me. Some of the problems with the game could have been fixed had it stayed in development for a while longer. We are talking about bad collision detection, jerky animation, bad camera, along with a few bad design choices some of which could be removed entirely for the benefit of the game. The game was delayed many times so I don't think it was being rushed that caused this to happen. It's sad really because you can see by what there is that the people behind Alone in the Dark really wanted to make something great and through out the game there are hints of that greatness but there are so many things both large and small that bring it down it's just so hard to recommend.

Snake's Final Mission.

2008-06-16T07:57:00.000-07:00

Before I even start with this review I'm going to state this clearly. Metal Gear Solid 4 is easily one of if not the best game of all time. Metal Gear Solid 4 is everything Kojima-san promised it would be and proves to be a fantastic ending to one of the most memorable saga's in gaming history.

There is no hiding that Metal Gear Solid 4 is the best looking game of all time. The graphics really must be seen to be believed. There are many times throughout the game in both game play and in cut scenes where the game looks photo realistic. In fact there are many occasions in which the HUD pops up as a cut scene is coming to an end and looks out of place because it looks like you are watching a CGI movie.

MGS4's game play while similar to older MGS games has evolved and allows for alot more freedom in how you do things. In the past you would really need to sneak around or face certain death. However Snakes new arsenal of CQC moves, Octocamo, a new Weapon customization system and far more freedom of movement makes fighting a far more viable option. Another option for FPS fans allows the game to be played almost entirely like a FPS although I found this is not as fun or engaging as playing the game normally.

No longer are you limited to cramped hallways when sneaking as this mission takes place in a many war zones across the world. While previously you may take on 4-5 enemies at once you will now find yourself up against much more enemies and fighting in full scale wars between PMC groups and the Rebels that are trying to stop them. These battles aren't merely superficial either. Helping one of the factions will align you with that faction and they will not attack you and may help in your mission by attacking the enemy and distracting them so you can get where you need to go.

Also no longer will you be limited to finding your weapons on the battle field as early into the game you meet up with Drebin a gun launderer that allows you to purchase guns, ammo and custom parts for your weapons. When finding a gun on the battlefield you won't be able to use it right away in most cases as they are ID locked. Drebin can unlock these ID's for a price and allow you to use them. You get "Drebin Points" by selling weapons that you already have found. For example when you pick up a AK-102 it will go into your inventory but every one you pick up from then on will be sold to Drebin for points allowing you to purchase things to help you on your mission. While this is a great addition to the game and the weapon customization is very fun I found that being able to purchase ammo whenever you need it makes the game a bit to easy. But that is a minor complaint.

Throughout the game there are also many event's that are played very differently then the rest. Such as riding on the back of a motorcycle while being attack in a city at war or trying to escape a ton of gecko with the help of a armored carrier. All of these control very well and are extremely fun and a spectacle to behold visually. There are more game play variations later in the game but I won't spoil them as they are very fun to see as they take place and one of them is kind of a spoiler.

Now I'm not gonna get to deep into the story as I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. Many faces from the past appear in the game such as Naomi, Meryl and Mei Ling among others. There is also alot of fan service in many forms such as jokes and whatnot from the MGS series that only fans of the MGS games will see and find funny. Such as Otacon calling you via Codec and telling you it's time to switch to Disc 2 before realizing that MGS4 is on Blu-ray. You will also see flashbacks as well. Many times during cut scenes there will be a prompt to press the X button doing so will trigger flash back like imagines showing many things from the past, the significance of the events going on or showing something you may not find a link to just by watch what is going on. It's a very cool way to get refreshed on certain events from the MGS universe. I will also say that the cut scenes are 90 minutes long rumor is not true. While some of the cut scenes are quite long especially the mission briefings between acts none are 90 minutes long. The ending however may be close to the 90 minute mark but I didn't care to time it as I was to enthralled with the ending to one of the greatest saga's in all of gaming history to care about something so trivial.

On the bad side there really isn't much to say. There are a few animations in the game that look a bit odd or out of place but that's a very minor complaint as for the most part the motion capture is excellent. Some will say the installs between acts is a negative however they are very short only taking about 2-3 minutes to complete and they only occur every few hours of game play so you can use them as an excuse to get up and have a break or make a snack or something. The main install isn't anything to complain about either it takes about 8 minutes to install which is about the same that other games requiring a install take.

All said Metal Gear Solid 4 is easily the best game on the PS3 if not the best game of this generation or all time. If you own a PS3 you owe it to yourself to own Metal Gear Solid 4. It would be a shame to miss the ending to one of the best Saga's in all of gaming history.

Ryu Returns!

2008-06-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

Ninja Gaiden II has finally arrived and with all the recent controversy about Tomonobu Itagaki leaving and suing TECMO some have wondered if that may have had a effect on the game. Well the answer is no but that's not to say that Ninja Gaiden II is perfect because there are a few flaws.

Alot of people thought that Ninja Gaiden II didn't look much better then Sigma which is untrue. The game is gorgeous and needs to be seen in motion to be appreciated. The animation is top notch and some of the best you will see anywhere. The environments look great and some of them further in the game look straight up stunning. The enemies look great and they pack quite a few onto the screen at once which is impressive. The much talked about gore effects are incredible, blood and body parts never disappear remaining to show the carnage you have caused in your path. It's a small touch but its really nice.

The game play is great. Although there are almost no puzzles and little platforming. Ninja Gaiden II focus's on only the combat and that's where the game shines. The combat is by far the best in any action game to date. This is not a button masher. Button mashers look elsewhere as you will quickly get your ass handed to you if you don't know what you are doing. Defense is immensely important you will not beat the game without learning how to block, counter attack and evade. Each weapon in the game has a impressive move set and they get new moves as you level them. All of them are very fun to mess around with and decently balanced although there are a few weapons that seem to work far better then others like the Dragon Sword and the Scythe. The variety in combat is impressive if you get bored of using the Dragon Sword you can use something else and it really changes the experience.

Little tweaks make the game alot more different then Ninja Gaiden 1. Such as the new health system. When you fight you health will go done and a portion will become red. However after the fight is over the health with recover up to that red line. This makes Health alot more manageable but it doesn't make the game any easier. The new quick menu system allows you to change your weapon, ranged weapon, use health items and change Ninpo(which is no longer useless). Also Defense has been changed a bit sense Ninja Gaiden 1. In the original you can basically stand by blocking and wait for a opportunity to counter and this would work for the most part. However in Ninja Gaiden II the enemies will grapple you very quickly if you stay still for to long. Counters as well are a little different in that the timing required is a bit more precise then in the original game. While these are minor changes to be sure but they make a game feel very different from the first.

Now on the downside there are a few things to note. First and foremost is the camera. It's the same as the first and that means you are bound to have trouble with it from time to time. Although you can control it finding time to do so during combat is asking a little much. However pulling the R trigger centers the camera behind you so if you make a habit of doing this the camera is not so bad. Also the bosses seem to be a little cheap in the game. The bosses in Ninja Gaiden 1 were hard because they were either huge(Bone Dragon) or extremely fast and smart(Alma) however almost all the bosses in Ninja Gaiden II have cheap shots that you have to avoid and if you do this they aren't very hard. It's like figuring out the pattern to win. While that does add difficultly to the game it just doesn't feel the same as Ninja Gaiden 1 did. Now I know alot of you out there don't care about the story in the Ninja Gaiden games but I as a Dead or Alive fan who loves the universe and the characters in it found Ninja Gaiden II's story to be a bit weak. No where near as good as the first for many reasons that I will not go into so not to spoil it for those who have yet to play it. The soundtrack as well is not up to par of the first game. At best its serviceable. These may sound like stupid things to some but to fans of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive they are very valid complaints.

All in all Ninja Gaiden II isn't as good as the first one but that's not to say its not good. The game is still incredible and maintains the punishing difficulty the series is known for. One thing I don't seem to understand is why the Gaiden games connect some plot points but not others. For instance Momiji a great new character introduced in Dragon Sword is no where to be found in this game. Nor is Rachael the fiend hunter. You would think that once the world becomes infested with fiends that being a fiend hunter she would be trying just as hard as Ryu to solve the problem. But I digress this is another topic for another day.

The World Ends With You!

2008-06-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

It's not very often you see a entirely new IP from Square-Enix and one look at The World Ends With You will make alot of people wonder why. The World Ends With You separates it self from the norm in quite a few ways making it one of the best DS games out there.

The one big thing that The World Ends With You does different is that it takes place in the real world. You follow Neku a boy who wakes up in Shibuya with no memory and a timer oh his hand. You soon find yourself being attacked by Noise and the story begins to unfold. Now some may say big deal who cares it takes place in real world Shibuya. Well taking place in Shibuya influenced the game alot. As some may know Shibuya is often referred to as the fashion mecha of the world where all the big trends start. The World Ends With You heavily deals with this in the game as armor takes the form of different clothing brands and styles and the more popular that brand the more effective it becomes.

The combat puts the DS's 2 screens to very good use. During combat Neku will appear on the bottom screen and his partner appears on the top. You control the bottom screen with the stylus and the top screen with the D-pad and other various buttons. Yes you control both screens at the same time and while it may seem very daunting at first once you get used to it it's not to bad. If you fail to get the hang of it you can set the game to quickly take control of the top screen.

Over the course of the game you will gather pins that each have a particular power during battle each is activated by a different move of the stylus and for the most part the stylus is pretty responsive although there are a few pins that are somewhat difficult to use consistently. The pins only allow for a certain amount of uses before they need a cool down period in which you need to wait until they are usable again similar to most MMO's. You will collect various pins and use them to build a deck for combat. There is a large amount of pins and they all can be leveled up and some even evolve into better pins so there is alot of variety in combat. Although on your first play through you may just find yourself sticking with the pins that are easy and quick to use.

The World Ends With You takes alot of chances and most of them pay off. The characters are great and well developed, the story while somewhat short is still very good, the combat and new and fresh. The positives are almost endless. So with that said are there any negatives? A few. The game very rarely forces you to fight so some may try to just rush through without leveling and that will be a big problem further into the game. The combat while great is very hard to get used to and if someone cant get used to it the CPU controlling the stop screen isn't always very good and you will often find the top screen character getting killed during boss fights. However if you don't have a problem with the combat then it's not a problem at all.

The World Ends With You holds alot of promise of becoming a franchise for Square-Enix. The game has performed well and it's refreshing to see SE do something so different from the norm. If you have a DS you should get The World Ends With You a shot you may like it and then we may get a chance to see more of Neku and company in the future.

The Dark Hour Returns.

2008-05-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

So if you don't know what Persona 3 is and you own a PS2 you may have something wrong with you. P3 was the best RPG of last year and one of the best PS2 games ever released. If you never played it you now have your chance. Persona 3 Fes is the enhanced version of the original game along with The Answer. The Answer is a 30-40 hr add on that takes place after the events of Persona 3 and provides a real conclusion. Oh and did I mention you are getting all this for a budget price? So there really is no reason to pass it up.

First off if you don't know how Persona 3 works I'll explain. During the daytime you basically do everything a normal high school student would. Making friends, Dating and of course taking classes, Studying and exams. At night the game functions as a hardcore dungeon crawl. It's these two complete opposites that keep the game so inventive and fresh through the whole 100+ hr experience.

You will spend daytime trying to balance your time between studying and hanging out with friends. The key here is the closer you get to your friends the stronger you can make your persona which in turn will make the battles that take place at night easier. Certain Persona can only be obtained after you have reached a certain point in a relationship with a certain character so the game encourages you to get to know all the characters so you can excel in battle.

At night battles will begin and you will explore the tower of Tarturus. Battles are your basic turn based affair with a few twists. You don't fully control your party. You can direct them to use a certain strategy but you can't directly control their actions. This dynamic adds alot more strategy to battles then you might think even more so during boss encounters. If that sounds a bit rough fear not as you do hold complete control over the main character so you will be able to make up for the rest of the party's short comings. You also have to be careful not to push your party to hard as they can become tired or sick and hinder your exploration. Those that become tired or sick will be alot more susceptible to being knocked down or end up on the receiving end of a critical hit so you must plan ahead to avoid such things.

Fes adds a number of new additions into the game such as a weapon synthesis system in which you can combine Persona and weapons to make powerful new weapons to fight off shadows. A costume system was added in which when you put a costume on a character it really looks different unlike the first version of P3. In addition there are also new Side quests, A new Social link involving Aigis and alot of little fan service for those who played the first version of P3 such as seeing more of the social link characters around town far more often then in the first version.

But wait that isn't all. Persona 3 Fes also includes Episode Aigis which was changed to The Answer for the US release. The Answer is a add on to Persona 3 that will take about 30-40 Hrs to complete and takes place after the events of the original game. You take on the role of Aigis and for some unknown reason the same day begins to repeat itself endlessly. It is up to S.E.E.S to find out exactly how this is happening and to stop it once and for all. The Answer plays out just like the night portions of Persona 3 however there are no social links this time around which may disappoint some. However The Answer is simply there to give closure to fans who didn't fully understand the ending to P3. Also be aware that the difficultly of The Answer is much higher then that of Persona 3 unless you played Persona 3 on hard mode.

Now you may notice that I never once mentioned anything about graphics and the like and that is because there is simply no need. Persona 3 is a game that is immersed in it's world. The story and the characters are what make this game shine. Atlus went as far as to hire many big name anime voice actors( Michelle Ruff, Vic Mignogna, Liam O'Brien)to bring the characters of Persona 3 to life and it shows. Anyone can find a character in Persona 3 to relate to and that makes the story that much more emotional by the end.

All in all Persona 3 Fes is one of the best games to ever see release on the PS2 and in my opinion one of the best RPG's ever made. Atlus took two ideas that upon hearing them would sound crazy and combined them to make one of the most compelling RPG's to date and it certainly should not be missed by anyone.

Say it ain't so Frankie

2008-05-16T19:21:00.001-07:00

It's a sad sad day for Bungie fans everywhere. In a shocking revelation Frankie O'Connor will be moving on from Bungie. He left a message to fans thanking them for all the memories over the years and assures us he won't be to far away. He is departing Bungie to go work with Microsoft on the Halo franchise.

He leaves us with positive thoughts stating that we will be surprised on what Bungie is working on. There isn't really much I can say about this it's sad that we will be without who is perhaps Bungie's most vocal member. It seems no one really saw this coming but it's nice to know that we will be seeing a lot of Frankie as he shifts focus at Microsoft.

For now I think mister chief says it best.

Gears of War 2 Thoughts.

2008-05-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

So last night the first game play footage of Gears of War 2 was revealed. How was it you ask? Well calm down and I'll tell you.

First off all that talk of the Unreal Engine 3 looking way better for Gears of War 2 is really kind of non sense. While it is true the graphics are better they are only slightly so. That's not a bad thing as Gears is still one of the best looking games out there.

What is impressive is the amount of things going on at once without even a hint of slowdown. I think that's where Epic has truly gotten the Unreal Engine to shine. The video depicts an area of the game in which you are aboard a armored walker of sorts heading into Locust infested territory. What results is absolute chaos. Looking off the side of the Derrick as the armored vehicle is called you can see 20-30 locust running around trying to take the vehicle down. Also multiple Brumacks and Seeders firing those nasty exploding missile pod things. Oh and yours is not the only Derrick entering this fight. So as you can see a lot is going on and there wasn't even a hint of slowdown anywhere and that's very very impressive.

As far as game play goes there are a few interesting things to take note of. First it seemed as though there may have been a new weapon, an automatic pistol of sorts. Second there was the ability to use a downed Locust as a living shield. Third was of course the chain saw duel. Basically how it looks like it pans out is that if both players chain saw at the same time they will mash the B button and the one who does it faster wins and gains the kill. It will be interesting to see how that works out in Multi-player as the animation takes a bit and if the characters are invincible during the animation it may become a bit unbalanced.

Before seeing this video I wasn't at all excited about Gears 2. I thought it would be simply a rehash with new missions and that's it ala Unreal Tournament. However I was pleasantly surprised and am now excited for the games release. I'm anxious to find out what other changes and improvements Epic has in store. If you've yet to see the video you and find it at GameTrailers.com or on the Xbox Video Marketplace. Go check it out.

Mirror's Edge.

2008-05-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would find myself looking forward to a EA game. Maybe it's not so much that I'm excited about it but more that I'm hoping they pull it off. For those that don't know Mirror's Edge is basically a First Person action game somewhat like Breakdown in which the movement is far more realistic and you will see your body as if you really are the person you are playing. You will see your arms when you running full speed just as if you are really pumping your arms and you will see your legs as well. If you perform a roll when landing from a jump you will see you torso just as you really would. Immersion is the name of the game here. Some are worried that motion sickness will even take hold of players as they get into the game.

Now graphically the game looks great if a bit to shiny. What I am really wondering is if the game play will be able to handle the concept well enough. I'm hoping EA DICE takes the Breakdown concept and runs with it. If they can pull it off it will easily be one of the more innovative games to come out in a while. I'm hoping the game doesn't devolve into a run of the mill shooter in which you just happen to be able to see your arms and legs. I want the game to really immerse you in the character and make you feel as if you are really there in the game fighting enemies and jumping from building to building as if you are a street runner.

It will be interesting to see how EA DICE handles the game and I'm anxious to play the final product. Let's hope they can deliver.

A Journey worth getting lost on.

2008-04-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

Lost Odyssey was described as Hironobu Sakaguchi's masterpiece and now that it's here is it safe to say that it is? Yes it is within certain bounds.

Lost Odyssey is somewhat of a mixed bag. While the story is certainly a masterpiece is every way the game is riddled with little technical glitches. However I will say this before we go on that those little problems should not stop you from playing the game as the positives more then make up for the negatives.

As many may know Lost Odyssey is the epic story of a man named Kaim Argonar. What do I mean by epic? 4 disc's and a incredible story thats what. The game starts at the Wohl Highlands during a war and by the end of the battle everyone is dead. Everyone except Kaim who is a Immortal and can not die and has lived for 1000 years. However Kaim doesn't remember much about who he is, where he comes from, or why he is here. Over the course of the game Kaim will slowly begin to regain his memories and discover why it is that he is immortal and why he is here. The story is full of Heart ache, Political intrigue, War, Murder, Love and there is even a bit of comedy here and there to. The great thing about Lost Odyssey is that it nails all of the emotions. This game will make you cry and if it doesn't you may not have a soul.

The real treat in Lost Odyssey is A Thousand Years of Dreams. When ever Kaim remembers something about his past it comes to him in the form of a dream which are presented as short stories. These stories all of which were written along with the entire game by acclaimed and award winning Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu. These stories recall a specific event from Kaim's past and they are the most emotional stories you are likely to read in a long long time. Some tell of a lost loved one, some tell of a war that Kaim fought, while others are about the differences in the way people think in different parts of the world. Each will move you in some way shape or form and thats not a easy thing to do when each of them had to be translated.

The game play in Lost Odyssey is your classic turn based combat and I mean classic. The game goes back to the roots of Final Fantasy the series that Sakaguchi-san created all those years ago. While admittedly a bit slow by todays standards the game never feels dull. The reason behind this is that Lost Odyssey is turn based combat perfected. By midway through the game you will have 5 members active per battle and you will have various spells and abilities to choose from. Black Magic, White Magic, Spirit Magic and Composite Magic. Immortals do not learn skills and spells on their own like mortals do so you need to link a Immortal to a skill one of the mortals has to learn it. Immortals can also learn abilities by equipping items with skills attached to them. This system in essence allows you to customize your Immortals to perform how you like. The combat also incorporates a ring system. The ring systems allows you to enhance your attacks if your timing is good. Basically 2 rings appear on screen and you need to time it so they over lap for a bonus such as damage of a drain effect. Another nifty thing present in battles is that Immortals being just that can't really die. Sure they can get knocked out but leave them be and after a few turns they will get up on their own. Take caution though as if everyone in your party is reduced to 0 HP Immortal or not it will be game over.

So with all these nice things to say what is wrong with the game? Well game has frame rate stutters quite often even in areas where not a lot is happening. There is also a bit a screen tear every now and then but it doesn't happen to often. The graphics are also a mixed bag. The game uses the Unreal Engine 3. Some areas look absolutely stunning but for every area that looks stunning there are a few that look horrid. You can tell that the Unreal engine couldn't fully realize the artistic direction the game was meant to have but they did the best they could with what they had. Load times are also a bit to long and often. Also the game has somewhat of a slow start. The game won't really seem like anything special until the events that occur towards the end of the first disc about 7 hrs into the game. These events are what makes it almost impossible to not finish the game.

But like I said all the negatives should not stop you from playing Lost Odyssey. Had the game been kept in development for another month or 2 so they could iron out the bugs and frame rate issues the game could have been better. All the issues are superficial and should not stop you from experiencing one of the best stories gaming has seen in a long time.

Falling for the hype?

2008-04-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

So I have been roaming around the net recently and have started to see something I don't know how I should feel about. Alot of the advance reviews for Grand Theft Auto IV are coming out and almost all are giving the game perfect scores across the board. Now granted I have yet to play GTA IV and once I do you can be sure to find my review right here. I just find it hard to believe that everyone is giving the game perfect scores across the board as if there is absolutely nothing wrong with it in anyway. We know as gamers no matter how good a game is it cannot be perfect it's just impossible. Now I have enjoyed GTA games in the past however I got fed up with the series after seeing the games were more or less rehashes of each other with minor upgrades.
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So this begs the question. Why is the game getting such perfect reviews? Have the reviewers fallen for the hype and are overlooking every little bad thing in the game as a result? Are they all GTA fanboys? Do they really like gangster stories? Or is the game really that good? It amazes me that a game like Bioshock that I and many others consider a masterpiece didn't get scores as high as GTA and Bioshock did alot of things games had never done before. Even if GTA IV is that good it's just another GTA it's basically the same game GTA has always been just with way more spit and polish that the power of next gen allows.

I don't know maybe I'm selling GTA IV short and if that's the case we will all know once I get my hands on the game for a reivew.

Kawaii Heart.

2008-04-17T13:57:00.001-07:00

Well Kawaii means cute and that must mean I'm talking about Arcana Heart. Yes Arcana Heart is out. Is it the fighter that fans have been waiting for? It's that and so much more.

Arcana Heart is a very pretty game the animation is very smooth and the sprites are sharp and look crisp. It's right up there with Guilty Gear. Each of the 11 characters are somewhat varied so there are a lot of animations to see add on to that the 11 arcana and there is a lot to see.

Now when it comes to game play Arcana Heart is one of those fighters that a master will always destroy a button masher. The reason is the complex nature of the battles in Arcana Heart. Blocking is a big part of the game if you don't learn to Block effectively you will lose very quickly. One of the unique features of the game is called Homing. Homing allows you to launch yourself at your opponent no matter where they are on the screen allowing you to get close and start some big combos. You can cancel Homing as well so there is a bit of strategy in psyching out a opponent. There are also all kinds of cancels and counters that you can learn.

Each of the 11 characters has a Arcana that is native to them however the plus point is that the game allows you to change that Arcana. Which effectively allows you to customize how you fight and find a style that suits you. While each characters move set isn't huge that is a good thing as it allows you to remember most of the moves once you learn them instead of limiting yourself to one character that you wanna master.

Arcana Heart has a very charming look and feel to it which is odd for a fighter in which the characters are beating each other senseless however it never feels out of place. With a Arcade Mode and a Story mode the game will keep you occupied for a decent amount of time and if you have a friend to play against then you can keep yourself interested for quite some time. At only 30$ if you are a 2d fighting fan it's hard to pass it up. And as with most Atlus titles if you don't pick a copy up soon you will be paying for it later so go out and pick it up.

Ryu comes to the DS.

2008-04-07T16:35:00.001-07:00

I know what you all are thinking. Ninja Gaiden on the DS pffff. Yeah well that's justified but don't go discounting Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword just yet. Many wondered what Team Ninja was thinking when they announced a Ninja Gaiden game for the DS wondering how could the fast paced game play be translated over to the DS. Well let me tell you the game still feels just like Ninja Gaiden.

First off Ninja Gaiden DS is a very pretty game. The backgrounds are pre rendered giving the game a very crisp look. While talking to NPCs and during story segments the game utilizes a anime art style that is used to great effect it fits the Ninja Gaiden universe very well. The animation is about as good as it gets on the DS.

When it comes to game play the DS touch screen and stylus are put to full use. In fact that's all you will be using as everything in the game is controlled via the stylus. You will move by using the stylus similar to a mouse, Where you point Ryu will move. Attacking is as simple as using the stylus to slash enemies and Ryu will follow suit or tap a enemy to throw stars or shoot arrows at them. There are also more complex moves that require a bit more skill such as the Izuna Drop but that's the gist off it. You can also Block and while blocking simply making a movement with the stylus will result in a dodge that will be vital to surviving combat.

The story while simple is welcome to fans of the Ninja Gaiden series. It follows Ryu on his journey to rescue Kunoichi in training Momoji who happens to be the sister of the Shrine Maiden Kureha who some will remember dies at Doku's hands in the first game. While on his mission to rescue Momoji Ryu quickly finds out there is alot more going on then he first thought and it quickly becomes a mission to not only save Momoji but the world. Like I said the story is simple do to the nature of the game. Basically you will get a cut scene before and after each chapter. That said the game does still manage to introduce some compelling new characters such as the earlier mentioned Momoji and its nice to learn abit more about the inhabitants of the Hayabusa Village.

Any fan of the action genre will find alot to like in Ninja Gaiden DS. Fans of the series may find the game play a bit to easy but will enjoy the storyline regardless. So all in all it's a great game that may come as a shock to fans that thought Ninja Gaiden DS would be nothing more then a cash in. Team Ninja brought their trademark polish to the game and its a welcome addition to the Ninja Gaiden universe.

It Continues Where it Began.

2008-03-31T15:27:00.001-07:00

The long wait is finally over and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is here. Was the wait worth it? Yes, yes it was. Crisis Core is easily the best game in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII there are many reasons why this is, so lets get to it.

For those that don't know(and if you don't how dare you) Crisis Core follows Zack Fair during the events that lead up to Final Fantasy VII. Some will remember Zack Fair from Clouds flashbacks during Final Fantasy VII. What Crisis Core does so well is show you why Zack is so important in the FFVII universe. There are so many big and small things that are direct results of the actions Zack takes throughout the game. For example Cloud would most likely be dead had it not been for Zack rescuing him from Hojo's experiments at Nibelhiem. Little things like the Pink ribbon Aerith always wore was givin to her by Zack and Zack very well may have been the one who gave the Seventh Heaven Bar its name. But don't think that everything is about Zack cause while the game does heavily focus on him there are also a few other stars. Namely Angeal and Genesis, sharp fans will know that Genesis was inspired by and played by Gackt in the Japanese version. Over the course of the game you will slowly start to see Zack mature and take on traits of mentor Angeal which in turn Zack passes on to Cloud. By the end of the game Zack refers to Cloud as his legacy. It's also very refreshing to see Sephiroth pre insanity and you also get to see first hand what sends him over the edge. We also get to learn alot more about the Turks as well. Seeing characters from FFVII when they are younger is also refreshing, we get to see child Yuffie(who is easily the cutest character ever) Tifa, Cloud and of course Aerith among others. To put things shortly without spoiling to much Crisis Core is the beginning to one of the most epic RPG's of all time and is chalk full of fan service.

The game play is fitting for PSP its very simple and is easy to pick up and play and the game is never to too hard but is never to easy either. Materia return but the system that accompanies them is not nearly as deep and complex as FFVII. The game has a system called the DMW which is more or less a slot machine with various characters on it that will every now and then make a combo that will unleash a summon or limit break. It's also the system that governs your leveling up but fear not when it comes to leveling up it is not random. Encounters are split between being random and not, from time to time you will be able to see your enemy before engaging other times it will be random. In combat you will attack and use materia as well as items. You can also dodge and guard but these actions use AP so you will need to be careful. The combat at times can feel somewhat repetitive but if you mess around with the materia more you won't notice it as much.

Crisis Core also has hundreds of missions that can be done in addition to the main story. While some are just challenges others often have funny story line connections. Such as a series of missions in which Yuffie uses you to collect treasure that ends up being useless. The game itself is about 20-25 hrs long and adding the missions could easily double that.

All in all Crisis Core is the best game in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and should not be missed by anyone. The ending alone is worth working your way through the game as it is one of the saddest and most iconic endings in all of gaming history. RPG fans who own a PSP should own Crisis Core and others should give it a try. Crisis Core along with Final Fantasy Tactics War Of The Lions are the reasons to own a PSP in my eyes. So go out and pick it up.

What happens in Vegas really should stay there.

2008-03-25T15:48:00.000-07:00

Rainbow Six fans have been awaiting Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for awhile now and it's finally hit store shelves should you rush out and get it? Well no sadly. I will say this, if you are a fan of Rainbow Six you will love Vegas 2 despite what I'm about to say.

I remember playing Vegas when it 1st came out on 360 and thought wow this looks great and its amazing how new the game play is from past Rainbow Six games. That was then and this is now and Vegas 2 looks and plays almost exactly like Vegas 1 and after seeing and playing things like Gears of War and Uncharted it just isn't acceptable.

Vegas has nothing fatally wrong with it. It's a bunch of little things combined that will bug you more and more over the course of the game. First off the graphics they just don't hold up against most of the games coming out now. It looks like Ubisoft just rehashed the old Vegas engine and didn't tweak it at all. There are portions of the game that are down right ugly but for the most part the graphics are simply serviceable. Another annoyance is that the lip syncing is horrid almost nothing any of the characters say match with the way their mouths are moving and its really bad here. Other bugs involve your squad often getting lost and left behind in a level. On one of the levels my mission was to get to a train and disarm a bomb. Upon reaching the train I ordered my squad to disarm it. However nothing happened because the "bomb disarming guy" had gotten lost over the course of the mission. I then had to restart and baby sit the bomb guy to make sure I didn't have to repeat the process again. That's not all either, countless times when I ordered my team to Open a door and clear the room they wouldn't. Upon further investigation I found one or sometime both of my squad members staring at a wall as if it was the love of their lives. The fact that these bugs appeared as often as they did is a bit disturbing. Also taking a que from Call of Duty 4, Vegas 2 now has a penetration system. However unlike COD4 it doesn't work to well. Here is a prime example. There is a system in the game that allows you to see your enemies locations with a satellite. In a certain area in a convention center I used said satellite to discover that one of my enemies was standing on the other side of a cloth wall. I then proceeded to unload an entire clip into said wall. Now logic would dictate that his choice of cover should have proven fatal. NOT SO. He somehow was unharmed and proceeded to come around the corner and kill my squad mate. Again this happens far to often to be considered a glitch.

On the bright side the game play is very tight. It's not much different then Vegas 1 but the game play from Vegas was pretty tight to begin with. There is a new A.C.E.S system which is just a fancy way of saying you can make a character. However the options are very limited and not very fun to mess with. There are quite abit of things to do online but then again this is a Rainbow Six game so you know what you are expecting. The game uses a system similar to COD4's unlocking system in which you gain experience and unlock stuff the higher you get and when I say similar I mean total ripoff.

It's odd Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 are very different styles of game. However they both have a similar theme in that they take place in modern times. It's hard not to be comparing the 2 even if they are in the end very different. With how great Call of Duty 4 is when you compare Vegas is just gonna lose. However like I said the games are very different in game play. Call of Duty 4 is far more action like and Rainbow Six is very much the thinking mans FPS. If you loved past Rainbow Six games you are gonna love Vegas. It's just sad that they didn't polish the game a bit more before release.

The Brawl Has Begun!!!

2008-03-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

Lets get this out of the way. If you own a Wii and don't own Super Smash Bros Brawl there is something wrong with you. Brawl IS the best game Wii has to offer period.

Now with that out of the way lets get on with the review. Smash Brothers is total fan service and this is coming from a Sega fan. I'll admit I played the other Smash Bros games and never really got the bug. However there is simply so much stuff in Brawl that you will find something to like.

First off I'm not gonna talk about the games graphics simply because it's on the Wii and that's not exactly the Wii's strong point. They look a bit better then Melee that's all I'll say. The soundtrack is all over the place. There are great new songs and awesome older songs for example the green hill zone music from Sonic The Hedgehog. That being said there are some songs that seem out of place particularly in the Story mode where most of the music is epic but there are a few little midi pieces that just seem wrong.

Speaking of the story mode its far more in depth then any of its predecessors. But It's more or less a total Kingdom Hearts rip off right down to the enemies almost being exactly like Heartless. But thats not a bad thing as Kingdom Hearts is great so it would make sense that taking ideas from greatness would produce more greatness. Playing through the story mode will unlock almost all of the characters and there are a TON of characters. The story mode entitled Subspace Emissonary plays out like a side scrolling brawler, you will fight enemies as you advance and there will be a bit of platforming here and there as well. You will also fight some bosses some old and some new. The story is quite long considering how much other stuff is on the disc clocking in at about 7-10+ hrs depending on your skill and which difficultly level you choose to play at.

Other then the story mode you have the Basic Brawl which you can edit some options to make Brawls more fun or hectic, Event Mode in which you will compete in a ton of different events, Boss Battle mode, Online Brawl, Level editor and more. Honestly it would take me awhile to list all the stuff Brawl has to offer. I said it before the sheer amount of stuff they managed to stuff into Brawl is mind boggling. Snake alone has 30+ different secret taunts that have full conversations with other MGS characters through the use of Codec screens. Like I said Brawl is a game full of Fan service.

Brawl allows you to play many different ways. You can use the Wii mote alone or with nunchuk, Classic controller, or if you still have a Gamecube controller you can use that as well. No matter which way you play the controls work great. In the case of the Wii mote and nunchuk combo the game works surprisingly well. But like I said all the methods work great.

Online play is great and for the most part lag free although there will be a few matches with lots of lag. The only down point is not being able to invite friends but Nintendo could fix this with a patch in the future and with how fun the game is who cares anyway.

So there you have it Brawl IS the best game the Wii has to offer if you own a Wii you should own this game. It's that simple. There is simply so much to do and unlock in Brawl that you could be playing for more then a year without even adding the online play into the mix. With the online it's endless. Brawl is also the perfect party game. So go out pick it up invite a few friends over and have a blast. You will have a hard time finding a funner game anywhere else for quite a while.

Do reviews matter?

2008-03-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

So recently I have been seeing a lot of articles here and there asking if reviews matter anymore. Well I guess the answer would ultimately depend on who you ask but it can go both ways. What you need to keep in mind is that a review is nothing more then a opinion. As such it may differ from your view on a particular game as the thoughts of the reviewer may not necessarily match the thoughts you would have on a particular aspect of a game.

Now all that said reviews can certainly be helpful. For instance should you find a reviewer that you know shares your likes and dislikes about gaming you could easily depend on said reviewers opinion. However even though reviews can in some cases be helpful I also think its important not to rely on them to much either. I can't tell you the amount of games on my favorites list I would have never played if I had relied solely on reviews. The Xenosaga games are a good example. Major complaints even by those who gave the games a good score were that there were far to many cut scenes however I found them quite enjoyable. It's examples such as this that I feel prevent reviews from being the end all be all.

One thing I think reviews could do without is the numbers. I fail to understand them. Often I have found myself reading what seems to be a glowing review only to get to the end see the score of 7.5 and find myself wondering if I had missed something. I think its unnecessary to have a number at the end of a review. There is just to much room for error with numbers being added to reviews. In my opinion(yes a opinion in a article about reviews which are nothing more then glorified opinions ironic no?) the words presented by the reviewer should be enough to either convince or prevent a reader from purchasing a game.

All in all if you take anything away with you after reading this be it that reviews are a double edged sword. While they may be able to help you they are not the holy grail and remember if you are in doubt you can always rent a game and you never know you may come away with an all new favorite.

EA trying to buy Take-Two

2008-02-25T12:51:00.000-08:00

When I saw the headline EA makes a bid for Take-Two my reaction was probably the same as millions of gamers across the world. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. This is simply another case of EA trying to buy out the competition. It's a fact that if the buy out goes through that EA will no longer have any competition in the sports game market. Which honestly I could care less about because I don't care a single bit about sports. What does worry me however is that if EA is taking this approach in sports games they will do it with other genre's as well. And as we have all seen EA games suffer in quality and no I don't consider Burnout a EA game yes it is released by EA but Burnout was great even before EA bought Criterion.

Another thing I don't like is that EA are franchise whores and not the good kind like Square-Enix. Whereas SE will take years to get a game right and make it perfect EA spits out yearly crap piles just to make money. Just think would Bioshock be good if they released it every year? No it would get worn out and start to suck. And if EA gets their hands on Take-Two that will no doubt happen. Some will say but what about Dead Space and Army of Two those look like good original EA games. On the surface that may be true but Army of Two was delayed by a massive amount of time and a lot of rumors spread that it was because the game was so bad. As for Dead Space I simply see that as a Bioshock ripoff with a bit of Resident Evil and space thrown in just to look original. Granted that both these games could be great and prove me wrong but if that happens then they too will fall victim to being whored out year after year.

It scares me to think that in 50 years the only company in gaming would be EA. While thats a little extreme is it really that hard to imagine? If that was to happen the only good new and original games would be coming from Japan as I doubt EA could buy many companies there. The sad part is that most of these buyouts do benefit the share holders of the companies being bought and as such they could care less about the industry as long as they get paid. It's sad that if EA wants to keep doing this that there is really no way to stop them. EA CEO John Riccitiello has said it's not about killing off competition but to me thats exactly what it is. I mean look at Madden after EA bought the NFL exclusivity the Madden games have been the same old same old each year just roster updates and not much more. With the amount of money EA has why don't they just use it to make better games and prove to people they aren't trying to become a monopoly. I guess that is just wishful thinking. I guess the only thing we can hope for is that if buyouts continue like this that Microsoft and Sony get there first at least games wont fall as far that way.

UPDATE: While not much related to the purchase of Take-Two this does seem funny. As I stated in my article EA buying Take-Two would eliminate sports game competition. Not true says EA CEO John Riccitiello stating that Wii Sports and Hot Shots Golf would be there main rivals. I got a good laugh out of that. Wii sports isn't competition as everyone who owns a Wii owns Wii sports. Hot Shots Golf is a great game but in no way tries to be a Golf simulator as Tiger Woods does. Obviously John was stretching here to defend the decision to purchase Take-Two.

Is GDC the new E3?

2008-02-20T17:22:00.000-08:00

So with all the big news coming out of GDC already many may be wondering is GDC the new E3? In the past E3 was the place where all the bombshell news was released. However last years E3 saw almost no big announcements at all. GDC is only 3 days in and already we have more big news then all of last years E3. Gears Of War 2(meh) Ninja Gaiden II release date June 3(yay) and we might finally get to play some of the XNA games Microsoft talked about so much and we can even play some of them on our Zunes.

GDC isn't even over yet as we have yet to see what most of the bigger developers have to say. So is GDC the new E3 or will E3 make up for last years lack luster showing? It will be pretty hard for E3 to make the industry buzz like it used to.

Devil May Cry 4

2008-02-11T15:34:00.000-08:00

So after much wait I have finally got my hands on Devil May Cry 4 and wow I must say I'm impressed. First off I played the game on the PS3 but I played on the demo on both platforms and I think the PS3 is the better choice. The PS3 requires a install but the install makes loading almost nonexistent and when you do see a loading screen it only lasts about 1-3 seconds. I also think the PS3 version has slightly sharper graphics. That being said the game is great no matter the platform.

As some may know Dante the DMC main stay takes a back seat most of the game to new comer Nero. Don't fret as you will be playing as Dante later in the game. DMC 4's story takes place in the City of Fortuna which at the beginning seems like any other overly religious community. Dante comes and seemingly for no reason kills the leader of this city. Nero takes it upon himself to get to the bottom of what has happened and the twists and turns begin. Now for those who don't like the fact that Dante isn't the main character I don't think you need to worry. In fact by the end of the game I found myself liking Nero far more then I ever liked Dante.

The games graphics are very very impressive. On PS3 second only to Uncharted. Devil May Cry 4 in my opinion has the best graphics on the 360 although I would bet some would argue that point. I just like the art style DMC4 brings and therefore like its look more then I would for say Gears Of War. Anyway back on track, the game has incredibly detailed character models and some extremely beautiful locals. The animations are also top notch its easy to see that Capcom gave DMC4 very high production value.

On the game play front not much is new. Playing Dante is very close to DMC3 only you can change styles on the fly instead of each mission simply press up, down, left or right on the D pad to select one of the 4 styles. Nero functions differently but DMC fans will be right at home. Nero has the unique Devil Bringer. With this tool he can grab and throw most enemies even most bosses for big damage. Over the course of the game the Devil Bringer will gain new abilities such as being able to grab from afar and pull the enemy to you or grabbing a enemy and using it as a shield. As is the DMC way you will be trying to rack up huge combos in a effort to boost your style rating which at the end of each mission will be used to grant you proud souls which can be exchanged for new upgrades. Variety is key as spamming the same move may be easy but it won't result in a good rank which in the long run hurts you as you will have less new moves to use against your foes. In a way the game forces you to be creative in your fighting or suffer. Some may think this is a bad thing however I found it made the game far less repetitive.

So all in all while Devil May Cry 4 doesn't do much new its still a incredible game with astonishing production values. It's definitely a game that you can show off to friends to make them say wow. Any action fan should throughly enjoy Devil May Cry 4 and other should give it a shot.

Best Wii game ever?

2008-02-01T17:06:00.000-08:00

So whats the best Wii game ever you ask? I'll tell you it's No More Heros. Now before all the fan boys go nuts let me it explain. No More Heros isn't better then Zelda or better then Mario it's simply different.

There is more style in 5 minutes of No More Heros then there is in the entirety of any other game out there. First off the graphics No More Heros uses is a Cel Shaded style and while that itself is nothing new the art style displayed is awesome.

Next we have the story which I won't spoil a bit of. This is one of those games where everything is so damn funny that you can't wait for the next cut scene. The voice acting for the main characters in the story is great. The game has such a wild sense of humor as is to be expected from Suda 51. There is a lot of otaku humor and if you are a otaku you will get a kick out of some of the jokes. Each character is unique and fun to watch and there are a lot of them. You will be fighting your way to number 1 and each new boss has their own distinct personality some are cool, some are scary and some are just plain nuts.

The game play is where the game really shines. No More Heros has some of the best combat controls seen on the Wii which is amazing when you consider how simplistic the combat really is. You are basically just pressing the A button over and over while moving the Wiimote in the right direction. While there is a bit more to it then that it's basically what it boils down to. What I think makes up for that is that there is always so much going on that you won't really notice that you are more or less just pressing the same button.

Now the game isn't perfect as there are a few issues. There is a lot of pop up in the games open world sections. The open world sections themselves are a bit weak as they seem more or less just a in between for the missions. There is also a bit of collision detection problems in the open world aspect as well. In all honesty most of the games problems stem from the open world aspect of the game. However after playing it it's hard to imagine another way the game could have been done without the open world aspect.

Ok so No More Heros isn't the best game on the Wii but it is by far the most original and stylish. If you own a Wii you owe it to yourself to play this game, the only reason you shouldn't would be if you are not a fan of violence. Otherwise this game should be in your collection.

EGM let slip PS3 Ninja Gaiden II?

2008-01-22T08:17:00.000-08:00

Recently a page in an issue of EGM seems to have let slip the fact that Ninja Gaiden II is coming to PS3. Is this true? Well yes and no.

While it is true that Tecmo/Team Ninja owns Ninja Gaiden and can technically do whatever they want with the IP Microsoft is publishing Ninja Gaiden II. That alone makes the chance of Ninja Gaiden II coming to PS3 very unlikely.

Now that being said I am certain Ninja Gaiden II will be coming to PS3 at some point in time. Ninja Gaiden Sigma II anyone? Remember all Ninja Gaiden Sigma was, was a remake of the Xbox exclusive Ninja Gaiden. And like I said Team Ninja does indeed own the Ninja Gaiden IP so taking into account their tendency to re-release games it's almost a certainty.

So what of EGM? Well the whole thing was in a listing not a article so it is very likely that it was simply a typo. Considering the popularity of the Ninja Gaiden series it's easy to see why there has been such a fuss.

UPDATE: As predicted EGM has stated that the PS3 listing for Ninja Gaiden II was simply a mistake.

Heads Up: Prototype

2008-01-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

Prototype ring a bell? No? Shame on you! Prototype is the next game coming from Radical Entertainment of Hulk Ultimate Destruction and Simpsoms Hit and Run.

Have you played either of those games and thought "Hmmm I wonder what this would be like without the license holding it back?" Well we are about to find out as Prototype is just that. Radical Entertainment are Open World masters and its just the type of game environment that they thrive at creating. And for the first time they are making a Open World game not being held back by a license. What should you expect from Prototype? Well you should expect it to be the new standard in Open World gaming. You can also expect it to make games like Crackdown look shallow by comparison.

IGN recently published a article previewing the game and I highly suggest it for a read as it is very interesting. Radicals goal isn't to throw you into a world and build you up as you deal with bigger and bigger problems. No they are going to give you all that power from the very beginning see how you use it to adapt to the situations you may face. What do I mean by power? The better question would be what don't I mean. There is almost nothing you won't be able to do. Wanna just go commando style sure, Use mutant like powers to destroy all foes? no problem, Use super human speed, strength and agility to out maneuver enemies? You got it!!!

I could sit here all day and praise what Prototype is attempting to accomplish but I don't have that kind of time. If you wanna know more I highly suggest you check out the IGN preview of the game.

Rumor: MGS4 Comming to 360

2008-01-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

Rumors of Metal Gear Solid 4 coming to Xbox 360 are nothing new. However today oddly enough on the 1st day of the new year Xbox Family brings this rumor back up yet again.

Today Xbox Family has reported that a Konami distribution representative has personally said that Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming to Xbox 360. And not only does the rep reveal that but also says that the Xbox version has been in development for quite some time and will be coming 12-14 months after the PS3 version.

Now I don't know about you but I refuse to believe this rumor until Konami themselves have a official press release regarding the subject. Kojima-san has stated many times that Metal Gear Solid 4 will remain a PS3 exclusive as have others involved in the project. Kojima-san has also stated that if a Xbox 360 version of the game was to be made it may suffer in quality as they have been designing the game for the PS3. Storage alone would be a issue as the game is on a Blu Ray disc. Thats not to say that the folks at Konami couldn't find a way to get MGS4 on the 360 as I'm sure they can. But a series famous for its quality might be better off remaining on the console it was designed for.

To anyone who has read this story I say take it with a very large grain of salt. Even though the article states multiple times that it is not a rumor in my eyes it is in fact just that. Like I said earlier I won't believe this until Konami themselves have a press release.

UPDATE: As I thought Konami has stepped forward and denied rumors that Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming to Xbox 360. Not only that they seemed baffled that this rumor got started. You can check out Konami's response here.

Street Fighter IV Thoughts.

2007-12-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

As many may now know Capcom has announced Street Fighter IV the 1st real Street Fighter game in about 10 years. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I got when I heard the news and saw the first teaser trailer of the game. But that has all changed and that excitement has manifested itself into doubt.

Recently on the 1up Show they talked about Street Fighter IV and showed the 1st footage of the game in motion. Now to start things off when I saw the style they were going for in the game from the screen shots I wasn't very happy. However I held off any doubts hoping that the game would look better in motion. Well now that I have seen it in motion I can say I am very very disappointed. The style they seem to be going for is the more American bulky looking fighters look. Hell if it wasn't for the Red and White karate suits that Ken and Ryu wear you wouldn't even know it was them in the video thats how different they look. And when I say different I don't mean in a good way, they look horrid. In addition to Ryu and Ken not looking like Ryu and Ken their bodies when not in movement just seem wrong somehow. It's really hard to explain unless you've seen it.

The thing that saddens me is that Street Fighter IV will most likely be a blast to play because Producer Yoshinori Ono is trying to appeal to all the things that made Street Fighter II the massive hit that it was. However in trying to perfect things like the game play it seems they have completely overlooked the visual appeal that Street Fighter II had with its more anime style.

Being a Street Fighter fan for awhile I am one who believes that Street Fighter IV shouldn't use 3d character models and that Capcom should stay with sprites. With the quality of the hand drawn sprites being done on the PS2 at the end of its life span with games such as Odin Sphere and the Grim Grimore I firmly believe that if they wanted to Capcom could get damn near anime quality sprites out of the Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware.

But I digress. This all may not even end up mattering as some may know a large amount of complaints about certain sprites for Street Fighter II HD was enough to make Capcom redo them and make them better. So who knows maybe Yoshinori Ono will hear the complaints from the fans and they may just end up changing the style of the game. Here's hoping Capcom is listening.

Is Duke Finally comming?

2007-12-19T13:13:00.001-08:00

As some may know a new teaser trailer for the long in development Duke Nukem Forever has been released today. Which you can find here. After watching this clip which shows little of any real game play I came away kind of confused. I thought shouldn't a game that has been in development for 10 years look a little better then this? While the game doesn't look bad by any stretch of the imagination it just doesn't quite look as good as I had hoped. And whats with the cheesy voice over at the end? I mean I know Duke is supposed to have that somewhat cheesy sense of humor but thats a little much. Hopefully that voice is just a place holder until some real voice over work begins. I guess my problem is that after being in development for 10 years Duke Nukem Forever has so much to live up to and this teaser doesn't show that it will live up to any of that. Heres hoping that this is just a bad trailer and not a bad game.

New FFXIII and FFversusFXIII trailers!!!

2007-12-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

For those of you that don't know there are new Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailers up all over the net. While they aren't the newest trailers shown in the Square Enix closed mega theater at this years Tokyo Game Show they are newer then the ones that have been available for awhile now. While the Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer is more or less just a extended version of the fight from the original it's still very much worth a look. The Final Fantasy XIII trailer shows off a lot more then the first trailer. Battle scenes are extended and there are some impressive views of a lush jungle valley. You will also get a peek at Shiva and a new character who to me looks to be inspired by Final Fantasy VIII's Seifer in his Kingdom Hearts 2 form.

One thing that really excites me is a scene in which Lightning throws a grav bomb into a group of enemies and as she dashes toward the enemies the camera pans a bit and then she is in a battle. If this transition is anything like what battles will be like in the final version of the game that really excites me. It makes sense as one of the producers of the game said one of the exciting things about working with the PS3 is that there will be no load times and this could be a way to phase out the shattering glass effect seen in the older FF's. And all this is assuming that Final Fantasy XIII doesn't use the battle system from Final Fantasy XII which some people are assuming is going to happen. However I don't recall Square Enix stating one way or the other.

Either way you can find the trailers here at Final Fantasy VersusXIII.net or here at N4G and you can always Google them as well. Enjoy.

UPDATE: FF-XIII.net has released 1080p versions of the new trailers which can be downloaded and watched on your PS3 if you so please. Give them a click as they have done a good job getting the trailers in 1080p you can get them here.

Assassin's Repition

2007-12-09T14:17:00.000-08:00

When I first saw Assassin's Creed I thought "awesome metal gear solid crusaders style". I was excited for the game but now that I have played it I feel let down.

1st off as some may know there was a much talked about Sci Fi twist to Assassin's Creed now I won't spoil what it is I can tell you that its pointless and out of place in the game.

The game looks great its nothing spectacular but it does its job, it is by no means ugly but its not beautiful either. Not counting NPC's related to the story there seems to be only a few NPC models which is annoying but not to bad. The animation is great it looks very fluid and the way the animations work as you free climb a building just looks awesome.

Now the game breaks down like this. You have 9 targets to assassinate throughout the game 3 per city. Now herein lies the problem in each city you have to investigate before you can have a chance to kill your target. You will be doing tasks like saving citizens, eavs dropping, pick pocketing, beating people for info, scaling tall buildings to reveal more of the map and so on. The problem is you will repeat these tasks endlessly so much it gets to the point where I wanted to just put the game down. Even the NPC's repeat the same few phrases countless times. Its as if they had a few voice actors read the same line off a card and just hit loop. There are NPC's that will follow you around begging for money and they seldom leave you alone. I can't even begin to tell you how annoying it was to hear them say "I need money I'm hungry and sick" 10000 times in 30 minutes. And like I said the tasks you will be doing are mind numbingly repetitive.

The combat system offers up a decent amount of depth but the problem is you will never need any of it. You will simply need to learn to attack and counter and there will never arise a need to use any other combat abilities in the game at all. You will get the ability to use a dagger, Sword, throwing knives, a hidden knife and your fists. However you will only be using the sword and hidden knife as there is no real reason to use anything else. It's disappointing that the game never forces you to take advantage of the many abilities you obtain throughout the game.

The story while I can't say much while somewhat different was rather forgettable. It's sad Assassin's Creed could have been so much more but what it ended up being was a decent game with a few unique twists. At best I would recommend it for a rental. Here's hoping the sequel will get all the problems fixed and be the game that Assassin's Creed could have and should have been.

New GTAIV Trailer impressions.

2007-12-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

For those that don't know a new Grand Theft Auto IV trailer was released today, if you haven't seen it yet its up on Xbox Live and you can Google it and probably find it on a million different sites. I checked the trailer out and came away with conflicting thoughts. While the action in the trailer is certainly intense even more so then what we have seen in past GTA games I couldn't help but think "wow is that what it looks like"? It seems to me at least that the 1st trailer for the game was far more graphically impressive. It leaves me wondering is it just me noticing this? Has the games delay perhaps had a effect on the games graphics engine? Or is it just that after playing beautiful games like Mass Effect and Uncharted that the GTA engine just fails to impress?

Vivendi and Activision merger.

2007-12-03T16:45:00.000-08:00

The Company that owns the company behind World of Warcraft and the company behind Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero 3 are merging. Vivendi and Activision have announced plans for a merger and once complete the company will be known as Activision Blizzard.... someone needs a new creative department... Anyway with this news came news of big Sequels such as Guitar Hero IV and Call Of Duty 5. I personally am excited about this news as some may know Activision was close to beating out EA as the #1 3rd party developer and now with this merger Activision Blizzard may just over take EA after all. And who knows maybe with this merger we will see sequels to long lost games that we have been waiting for such as Diablo III. Time will tell.

Star What?

2007-12-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

Star Wars sucks!!! I'm sorry it's true Mass Effect has made such accusations true. Star Wars is little more then a scribbled short story in the back of a 8 year olds notebook. Mass Effect is a game that I didn't expect to like I'll admit I'm not the biggest Bioware fan. I thought the Balder's gate games were simply ok and I'm not a Star Wars fan so I never got into KOTOR and Jade Empire just didn't do it for me. So as you may expect I was fully expecting to hate this game. But I'm glad to report not only am I completely in love with the game but that Mass Effect is one on the best games of all time.

The thing that strikes me most about Mass Effect is the fact that it's all original this isn't something inspired by something else ala KOTOR. Bioware created a insanely in depth and complex universe from the ground up, a universe dare I say more compelling then Star Wars.
Each of the many Alien races are diverse and intriguing and I found myself simply talking to them just to learn more about their species and there culture. And as I said before there is so much depth to this universe it's insane. The story is your classic "stop the big bad guy only to realize there is a bigger bad guy out there" but it's done so well and so polished that you will hardly care. In fact the fact that this story takes place in such a compelling universe will make you forget about the Sci Fi clinches and simply become enthralled with the story. And the greatest part you might ask? Simple this is only part one of what is expected to be a trilogy.

The game looks beautiful the character models are simply stunning. Which is a good thing because it really brings this universe and it's characters to life. The environments are varied the main story line worlds that you visit for the most part are beautiful. However the other planets you can go explore sometimes seem a bit empty but thats completely understandable considering how much is here and hardly takes you out of the experience. And unlike a lot of the bigger games I have seen recently there are hardly any visual bugs in the game.

The much talked about Dialog system while not revolutionary is certainly a step in the right direction. Simply put there is a wheel with 6 options (sometimes less depending on the situation) that you choose at certain points in the conversation. You can choose to be nice and soft on others, you can choose to be mean and speak your mind or you can kinda play in the middle and it really feels like you are the one choosing what to say. What you choose to say will sometimes get you Paragon(good) or Renegade(bad) points which slowly build throughout the game and ultimately decide which kind of hero you will end up being. While you level up you will be given the chance to raise Charm or Intimidation which will open up new options in the dialog wheel further creating new situations you can find yourself in. And the great thing is these new options are not just little show pieces and another random thing to level up they really do help. Later in the game I used my Charm to prevent one of my squad members from going rouge had I not had charm leveled up I may have had to fight him or worse lose him. It's things like these that make Mass Effect so epic and incredible that you can't help but love the game.

The Game play will take some getting used to but once you get the hang of it you will hardly care. The game plays somewhat like a Gears Of War but with RPG elements. You can hide behind cover although I often found myself simply standing behind the cover as the Gears Of War cover system is far superior. You have 4 basic weapons you can customize and add to Shotgun, Assault Rifle, Pistol and Sniper Rifle. You can add upgrades and new ammo to each gun tailoring it to a specific enemy or situation. You will Earn abilities for use in combat as you level up such as the ability to nonstop fire your assault rifle without the decrease of accuracy and without worry of overheating. And you will learn new Abilities for each weapon. You can also control the things your squad does as well. Sadly leeching abilities from your squad is often all they will be good for as the squad AI like in most games isn't that great. Don't get me wrong they will help you out every now and then but don't expect for them to save you or win the war or anything.

So with all these great things you may ask is there anything wrong with Mass Effect? Well yes a few things. There are at times a lot of slowdown it never inhibits the game play but its there. As I mentioned above the squad AI isn't the best in the world but it is by no means the worst either. The soundtrack oddly enough is completely forgettable which is odd for a game where everything else is so epic the soundtrack isn't. I thought the game was a bit to short but that may be a matter of taste and with all the side quests and such that can be done some will hardly think the game is short.

So yeah Star Wars sucks and Mass Effect is now the Sci Fi universe to beat. Great Voice acting, A deep and complex universe, Incredible story, Great alien races, Awesome dialog options. The list goes on. If you are a RPG fan OWN IT!!! If you are a FPS fan check it out. Everyone should at least give Mass Effect a shot and I'm sure everyone will love it.

Uncharted.

2007-11-26T09:43:00.000-08:00

So I have gotten quite a bit of play time in with Uncharted and I have to say I'm very impressed.
The thing thats strikes me most about Uncharted is how its just plain fun to play never does it get boring or tedious. You never get frustrated by the platforming or the shooting it's just so incredibly fun.

The graphics are some of the best seen on the PS3 thus far, the game is a treat for the eyes on a HDTV. Never a bit of slowdown although there is some screen tearing but not enough to pull you out of the experience. The jungles are vibrant and beautiful while the catacombs are dank and creepy. The vegetation in particular looks stunning as it sways and moves with the breeze. The effects of water on Nate's shirt after he comes out of a lake while simple looks stunning. Little details such as the explosion from a grenade or the water effects on the characters really is what makes this game so beautiful. And I haven't even gotten to the animation yet. Uncharted has bar none some of the best animations ever put in a game. Just little things like Nate flinching as bullets bounce off the cover he is hiding behind really brings the characters to life.

The Voice acting is perfect as well and not only in the cut scenes either. Nate will have you laughing and feeling for him as he is panicking while jumping from ledge to ledge his constant chatter to himself and Elena and Sully when they are around make him really feel like the everyman that Naughty Dog said he was supposed to be. The cut scenes are more cinematic then most films. They will have you laughing or being in suspense as to what is going to happen next. And the kicker is that you will care as the characters are so lovable. Naughty Dog did such a great job with the characters in Uncharted it makes me excited what we may see from them in the future.

The Game play as I mentioned earlier is just so fun, there is very rarely a lull in the action you are always either solving a puzzle, doing some incredible platforming, or gun fighting with enemies. The puzzles are fitting even if they are a bit to easy but that only serves to keep the pace of the game up and again not have a lull in the game play. The gun play is not to dissimilar from Gears Of War you have a cover system simply press circle and Nate will stick to the wall. You can pop out and shoot or blind fire. You can also roll in most directions and evade shots. You can also use Hand to Hand fighting combos if you so wish which are more useful then you may at first think. But where the game really shines is its platforming elements. It seems no matter what you do the game knows where you want to be. A death in the game will never be the games fault. In the older Tomb Raider games the grid like system in place would cause stupid death countless times, not so in Uncharted. This is how platforming should be in a game like this. Even though Tomb Raider Legend did away with the grid it could still learn a few things from Uncharted.

Uncharted is such a joy to play in every way. Never a lull in game play not even from a load screen as once you start there is no loading EVER. Lovable characters, great game play, awesome story, beautiful graphics. What more could you ask for? If you own a PS3 this game should be in you collection.

White Engine development hits a snag.

2007-11-19T11:55:00.001-08:00

Square Enix has announced that the development of the White Engine has hit a snag and is moving along very slowly and as such Final Fantasy XIII will be delayed. For those that don't know the White Engine is Square Enix's in house engine that is the backbone behind FFXIII. Past expectations have placed the visuals that the White Engine can produce on par with those found in the film Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children. Square Enix reassured fans that the work on the White Engine will continue and that they haven't given up on it.

I personally hope that the White Engine makes it to the PS3 intact as I like the style it produces far more then something like say the Unreal Engine 3. Games running the UE3 have had many problems and it's worth noting it's hard to distinguish yourself from the pack when you look like everything else. Such as Gears Of War and Dark Sector looking so close it's hard to tell that they are in fact different games. Oddly enough one of the best looking UE3 games I have seen thus far is Square Enix's own The Last Remnant.

UPDATE: It would seem my worries on this story are for not as the source was in fact a mistranslation. During Square Enix's financial meeting the White Engine was mentioned only briefly and was not said to have development issues. Well that is certainly a load off my mind, I think I just heard a sigh of relief from a million SE fanboys.

Blacksite Area 51 A dissapointment in everyway.

2007-11-17T13:34:00.000-08:00

Awhile back when the demo for Blacksite Area 51 was released on Xbox live marketplace I was impressed. I thought the graphics were great and the game play while not incredibly innovative was good. But now a few months later upon the games release I have been underwhelmed in every way.

The story is horrid "Alien artifact brings dead soldiers back." None of the characters are even the least bit interesting in fact they are all stereotypes. The game play is slow and forgettable. The much talked about morale system is more or less useless because the AI is so brain dead. A fight near the end of the game is so annoying because the AI refuses to do its job. The point of the fight is that the boss has a weak spot on its back, the squad says split up and supply a distraction however once you have the attention of the beast the squad sits there and DOES NOTHING. And if you try to go for the kill shot the brain dead squad wont get the beasts attention and you wont be able to get the kill shot. A simple fight that should have taken no more then 5 mins took me more then 30 because of the AI.

The levels are bland and in certain missions too big. There is tons of pop in and tons of visual oddities such as your squad members running at a closed door disappearing and then reappearing next to you and it happens far to often. There are tons of collision detection problems which seems to be all to common in Unreal engine 3 games.

I wanted so bad to love this game as the Area 51 franchise has a special place in my heart from the arcade light gun game. But Blacksite under performs in every area: graphics, story, game play, multi player etc. It's hard for me to even recommend renting Blacksite. It's sad because I know I'm not the only one that wanted to like this game.

Earthworm Jim to return?

2007-11-14T11:02:00.000-08:00

If you don't know who Earthworm Jim is I suggest you slap yourself and go do some research. Earthworm Jim was a game back in the days of the Sega Genesis that had a good sense of humor and was one of the few games back then that really was fun and funny at the same time. You can then understand my excitement at the recent announcement that Interplay is re-opening its Dev studio.

Interplay has expressed interest in making sequels to Earthworm Jim, Dark Alliance, MDK and more. All of these franchises are classics to be sure and if Interplay can get things right alot of gamers will be very happy. There is a problem however Interplay doesn't yet have the money to make this happen. As it is Interplay sold the rights to a Fallout MMO to fund the restart of the Dev. How Interplay will get the funds to get these games into development remains to be seen but here's hoping they find a way.

Xbox games coming to 360.

2007-11-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know the 36o fall update is coming early December. Microsoft has announced the ability to download xbox 1 games via the market place will be added. On launch there will be only a few games such as Halo, Crimson Skys, Psychonauts and more. The games will cost 1200 Microsoft points (about 15$). Microsoft announced hopes to expand the downloads to as many of the xbox library as possible. I personally think this is great as some xbox games are becoming harder and harder to find.

In other news the Fall update will also include a family timer which will allow parents to control the amount of time their children play. The update is set to hit around December 4 so keep a eye open.

COD 4 Own it!!!

2007-11-12T07:37:00.000-08:00

So now that Call of Duty 4 is out people have been asking is it better then Halo 3? Simple answer is yes but its really like comparing apples to oranges. Where Halo is more of a fast pace action shooter COD4 requires more planning. Thats not to say you can't run in guns blazing but it will more than likely get you killed.

First off Call of Duty 4 in my opinion has the best graphics thus far on a console. The sound design is absolutely incredible you will drool if you have a good 5.1 set up. The game play is as tight as it gets. It amazes me that Infinity Ward got a game that looks this good to run at a constant 60fps with never a bit of slowdown.

The single player campaign is brief about 4-5hrs but you can extend this by trying the game on a harder difficulty. The battles that you take part in are mind boggling. At times the amount of action is so intense you may need to pause the game and take a breather. The story is your typical action movie fare nothing you haven't seen before. The set piece battles that you take part in will leave your jaw on the floor.

Enough about the single player though the people will be buying COD4 for its multi player. Perks are awesome and really add uniqueness to the experience. For those that don't know what perks are they are basically ability's that you can earn and equip on your custom classes. A few examples of perks are something like Last stand when you are killed you don't die right off the bat you pull out a sidearm and get a chance to finish the job. Or martyrdom a perk that drops a live grenade when you are killed. Deep impact a perk allowing your bullets to penetrate deeper through walls. These are only a few of the many perks in the game. But thats not it, as your rank increases you will unlock new game types, weapons, attachments, camo, challenges, and more. Thats the beauty with COD4's online play is that you are always unlocking things there is so much to unlock its insane. And if you ever manage to unlock it all you can then mess around mixing and matching to try and make the perfect class. But the most important thing about COD4 is it's incredibly fun.

So like I said COD4 and Halo 3 are apples and oranges I still love both games and I still play both. That being said if you own both games you will not need to bother with any other online shooter for quite some time. With COD4 being near identical on PS3 and 360 there is no reason not to on it on either console. You owe it to yourself to own this game or at the very least give it a rent you wont be sorry

MS keeping 360 around longer.

2007-11-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

I think most would say that the xbox's life was shorter then it should have been. Microsoft was to quick to abandon the console even though games weren't yet pushing the system to it's limits. Well it would seem that Microsoft has learned from it's past mistakes as this statement from Microsoft games division CFO Mindy Mount shows.

"Look at the PS2; they've gone a long-time and seem to have pretty good legs on what they are doing...If we were able to do that, as CFO I think that's great, because every year you draw it out you increase profitability."

So it would seem we can expect the 360 to stick around a bit longer then the 1st Xbox did.

Barlog leaves SCEA.

2007-11-07T08:04:00.000-08:00

Cory Barlog better known as the director of God of War 2 is leaving SCEA. Word of mouth is that Barlog decided to depart to follow other opportunities. A SCEA rep had this to say

"We can confirm that Cory Barlog, Game Director for God of War II, is leaving the SCEA SM Studio and we are grateful for his work and creative vision for the critically acclaimed God of War franchise... Moving forward, we are confident in the God of War team, as they are an extremely talented group of people that are passionate about the franchise and dedicated to creating even more epic content with God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP and God of War III for PS3."

Kinda makes you wonder what a makes a guy leave a successful franchise like God of War. And more importantly how will God of War fare without him.

Story Telling in Games

2007-11-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

I recently read an article that Kotaku linked to about story telling in gaming and thought I might offer up my thoughts on it. One thing the writer of the article says is he thinks that games these days have to many cut scenes and points out Final Fantasy as an example. Now I don't know about you but when I play a RPG like Final Fantasy I'm in it for the story. And while games can tell a story without cut scenes like Half Life 2 did, that method just wouldn't fit within the RPG genre.

I have never played a RPG that I thought had to many cut scenes and I played all three Xenosaga games which by the way is my favorite gaming trilogy( yes even over halo). I was in fact slightly disappointed when the 2nd two games didn't have as much cut scenes as I had expected. I remember playing Final Fantasy XII only about a month after having finished Xenosaga Episode III and despite loving FFXII thought that it didn't have enough cut scenes. A friend of mine later joked that I had been spoiled by Xenosaga.

My thoughts are that if a story is good and worth telling no amount of cut scenes can ruin the experience within reason of course. People constantly compare Film and Gaming in the storytelling department. Very rarely do I see a movie where I get attached to the characters and really care about what happens because after all I only invested about 90mins-2hrs in the universe of this movie which isn't really all that much for me to care. However games are much longer 10-20 sometimes even up to 50hrs long. When you spend that amount of time in a universe you find yourself getting more attached to the characters there. Don't get me wrong there are movies out there that I really liked but they are few and far between. Most of the time I see a film at the box office it is because the trailer caught my eye or its a nice little diversion from everything else.

Now I know everyone doesn't think and fell the way I do and I understand that. But the Hollywood types who say film is vastly superior to games in story telling need to be silenced. They must remember that compared to film gaming is still a new form of entertainment. And they also should remember that film wasn't always the king of story telling it is today. Books for a long time reigned as best place to get a story. They must also remember that film wasn't perfect right out of the gate it took decades to get right. Story telling in games will evolve and I don't think the pestering of film critics and Hollywood types is needed for it to do so.

Photorealism are we there yet?

2007-11-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

So recently GamesRadar published an article discussing if consoles have become powerful enough to render perfect likenesses of actor's and actress's in games. This has always been something I have been interested in so I thought I would offer up my feelings on the subject.

First I will say with a simple no that consoles aren't yet powerful enough to produce these digital clones if you will. While you may be able to immediately identify a actor in a game that doesn't mean that its photorealism. I'm pretty sure that anyone who played the old ET game could tell it was ET they were controlling and that was nothing more then a few pixels. I for one don't think we will have photorealism until any random person could look at a side by side of a actor from a game and from a film and not be able to tell which is real and which isn't.

There are a few reasons why this won't happen for awhile. My biggest issue is hair(which GamesRadar touched upon in the original article). Hair has never really looked real in gaming outside of pre rendered cut scenes. Even in visually eye popping games such as Heavenly Sword Narkio's hair looks like nothing more then long red cloth tubes that randomly fly in all directions. And even worse are the games where hair looks like cutout paper with a glued on texture.

Second is that clothing in games is still hit and miss. Take Dead or Alive 4 for example. The clothing in that game looks incredible but when things get hectic it will go through the characters and flow in ways that makes little sense. And this happens in countless games.

I personally think that original characters always look better then characters modeled after a human being. Final Fantasy XIII's Lightning as she is currently known at this point looks far more realistic than any other character I have seen and yet she is in a fantasy setting.

So like I said there is still a few things holding games back from reaching Photorealism. I think it may still be a few console generations before we reach the "Holy Grail" of graphics technology.

You can check out GamesRadar's article on the subject here.

Japan's #1 360 fanboy?

2007-11-02T07:56:00.002-07:00

This here is Jamzy, he's the biggest Xbox 360 fan boy your likely to ever see. See the Halo 3 logo shaved into the side of his head? Yeah he's a crazy fan boy he also happens to run the Xbox 360 Famitsu blog "360 Psycho" which you can find here. It's all in Japanese so unless you can read Japanese you are out of luck. I thought it was nice to finally see a Xbox 360 fan boy in japan. Maybe Jamzy can help give the 360 a bigger name in japan along with the help of Microsoft's aggressive plan to capture more of a audience there.

Snake says chillax

2007-11-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

So Konami has announced that MGS4 will be delayed until Q2 of 08 which isn't that shocking and if it is you don't know Kojima to well. After the announcement Konami's stock dropped a bit and it seems that everyone thinks this delay is a bad thing.

I don't however think it's so bad. Some are saying the reason for the delay is so they can get the rumble functions into the game which is great(i would much prefer it out of the box then through a patch at a later date).

Also everyone needs to remember that the PS3 is getting a ton of Great titles between now and then such as Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Haze, Devil May Cry 4 and Unreal Tournament 3. If you ask me the delay will give people time to experience more of the games coming in what is being called the best holiday season is gaming history.

So like snake said relax and enjoy some of the other games out there you will still get your MGS 4 it will just be a little later then expected.

The PS3 system seller?

2007-11-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

Well I cant think of a better 1st post to start off a brand new blog then this. Awhile back when i bought my PS3 i picked up 2 games Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Resistance Fall of Man. Those 2 games were great. But since then my PS3 has been more or less collecting dust with the exception of Heavenly Sword which was beautiful but way to short. That is until now with the release of Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction which very well may be the PS3's 1st system seller.

The game has been getting rave reviews by all who touch it(with the exception of Gamespot who's lower score has caused something of a spat with Insomniac) with scores in the high 9's everywhere and a few perfect scores as well. I myself can't praise Tools of Destruction enough. While its nothing new over some of the classic Ratchet and Clank games back on the PS2 Tools of Destruction is so polished and so fun its hard not to love it. Classic platforming, crazy weapons(Groovitron anyone?), great humor, awesome voice acting, music that fits the worlds perfectly and a epic story just to name a few things i love about the game.

The best thing however is the balance the game has. While in most games like Tools of Destruction you will pick a weapon you like and pretty much stick with it until the end, not so here. The weapons are all so fun to use that not only will you want to use them all you will need to use them all as the final segments of the game get pretty crazy and you will be using up more ammo then you can imagine.

When it comes to gameplay you can't ask for more. Tools of Destruction has so much variety it's insane and again its all so incredibly polished. There's the classic run and gun that we have come to expect from the series and great platforming elements, the gravrail segments are eye popping as they give you dynamic views of the massive game worlds which are incredibly beautiful, arena battles, space battles and great use of the Sixaxis motion sensing.

I could go on forever. But with all these great things there are a few sore spots. Tools of Destruction has no multiplayer to speak of which is disappointing because past games in the series had it. Another complaint would be the cliffhanger ending(its almost as if Insomniac just played Halo 2 and thought the ending was a good idea and drew inspiration from it) which is surly setting up a sequel. Which is great but with Resistance 2 coming next it seems we might not see the next Ratchet and Clank for awhile.

However these minor complaints should not stop you from picking up Tools of Destruction if you own a PS3 you owe it to yourself to have this game in your library.