World of Warcraft -- A Fishing We Will Go.

We have reached the point where we've pretty much come to grips with everything and are starting to advance in earnest. I have been focusing on skills over the leveling of my character. I've been leveling both the primary and secondary skills. The primary skills are based on your professions. You can select up to two professions to learn at one time. I have selected Herbalism and Alchemy. Herbalism is the gathering of plants. Herbalism fits in well with Alchemy as it's the making of potions from plants. Magus has selected Skinning and Leatherworking and Riddel is doing Mining and Blacksmithing. Both of their skill sets are complimentary to each other as mine are. There are some secondary skills you can do and I have been working on all three. They are First Aid, Cooking, and Fishing. First Aid is the making of bandages with healing properties. You need to collect cloth off the humanoid enemies in the game to create the bandages. Cooking is just that, the cooking of food to create items with healing properties. You gather ingredients from the fallen enemies and buy spices from merchants. You learn better recipes the further you advance. Fishing works great with cooking as it provides a lot of useful fish for the recipes. You can also find rare treasures and other items by fishing. Working for the group, I'll be able to make them specific potions they'll find helpful. Riddel will be able to make us heavy mail type armor and weaponry. Magus will be able to make us boots and pants and leather type armor. So far Magus has provided me with boots, pants, and a vest that's higher than anything I have found or can buy. It's very helpful for the whole group to be working this way instead of for the individual. I'm not aware of what Pent and Keldroc are intending to do, hopefully it will fill in what's missing. As a Hunter I'm able to tame creatures as pets and have them fight alongside me. I have completed the quests that will allow me to tame a pet. I still need to go to the main city for my area and learn the skills needed to train my pet. I have a few talent points to spend at this time, but I haven't spent them because I'm not yet sure what I'm going to focus on. There is time for that later. For the next few days I'll be concentrating on the skills and leveling my character and the completion of a few more local quests. Speaking of quests I have taken one on that's considered an elite quest. It means it'son the level of a boss battle or something of that nature. It didn't give me any warning that it was an elite quest. Although I can cancel the quest at any time without any penalty, I'd still prefer the game inform me beforehand that I'm about to undertake something on that scale. Once we've all had a chance to clear our starting areas, and develop our skills and the like, we'll head out into the greater world, group up, and decide what's next.

World of Warcraft -- Initial Impression.

I once said I'd never return to this genre. I had some of the best times playing Ragnarok Online, and I had what were easily the worst moments I've ever had gaming. The worst was enough to swear me off the genre forever. Or so I thought.  The concept of the genre is quite sound. The execution has always been flawed. And of course, there are the people themselves. My tolerance for dealing with idiots I can't virtually shoot or blow up is considerably low. So how is it I find myself back here again? Well, Riddel adores the genre and has been on me forever to play something with her. Magus has always expressed an interest in the game going way back, but he held off ever purchasing it. Between Halo 2, SOCOM 2, Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, and some Splinter Cell, we've quite enjoyed the thousands of hours we've spent playing online games. The promise of the genre is a strong lure, backed up by people you know and trust, I find myself roaming around Teldrassil as a female Night Elf hunter. Magus is a male Dwarf rogue, and Riddel is a female Human warrior. Pent will be a warlock, and Keldroc is to come along as a mage. My initial impressions are the game is fun and it's pretty. It's pretty for obvious reasons. The graphics are impressive for the size and scope of the game. They're nothing close to the best, but you have to consider the ambition of it all. The game is fun because at this point everything makes sense and it's full of stuff to actually do. You're being kept busy while gaining levels. Your focus isn't seemingly on leveling. That is what you're doing, but it's presented in such a way to disguise it extremely well. Right now we're all just leveling and completing quests in our starting areas of the world. We are spread out around the world and it will be a while before we'll be able to group up and work on goals as a group. The interface seems rather intuitive, there are a couple instances of how do you do this or that, but for the most part it's been easy going. Hopefully it will stay that way. Hopefully it will stay fair and balanced. I'll need to see how the level progression goes. How much pure grinding there is. There haven't been any instances of the other people being jerks so far. The game appears to allow you to tailor the game around your playing style. I'll need to see just how far that goes. But for now, it's surprisingly fun.

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness -- Or Just Cursed?

I don't understand what's wrong here. I mean, Castlevania doesn't require anything special. There is nothing different about it. It doesn't demand something impossible to do in 3D and retain what makes it Castlevania. Yet somehow they can't get it right. The controls are simple enough. Left analog stick to move the character around. The right analog stick controls the camera. The square button is attack. The X button jumps. The triangle button is for abilities. Read that as magic.  The circle button is context sensitive. It's the final stronger blow in combat, it steals in combat, it examines, and it opens doors to new rooms. The R1 button guards. R1 + square to launch a ground based enemy into the air. The R2 button locks-on and disengages the lock-on. The L1 button centers the camera. The L2 button cycles between locked-on targets. The select button brings up the map. The start button brings up the submenu. The D-pad up or down cycles through your innocent devil commands. You can have them follow your command, have them fight as they wish, or have them guard. Left or right on the D-pad cycles through the innocent devil's abilities. Read that as your magic.  The controls are all very simple and quite traditionally mapped out. So what's the problem? Hector moves ploddingly and in a boxy manner. He's not as fast or agile as he should be. You need to lock-on to a lot of the targets to hit them and even then you're swinging around and missing a lot of the time. Locking-on to swift moving enemies will often cause the camera to spaz out as it follows their movement. You're doing this within the most generic looking art design I've ever seen. Beyond the character design that is. The world is just incredibly boring.  The game has you wandering through very long corridors that feel extended just to increase the game's overall size. The character art is the opposite. It's just all so fruity to the point of being ludicrous. There are a couple of decent aspects to the game. The innocent devil and item creation systems are great. In item creation you collect materials dropped from the enemies. You can also steal material from the enemies. You then combine this or that in various amounts to create all your weapons and armor. It's more fun to fiddle with what can be made than it is to play the actual game. The innocent devil system is an interesting take on the magic. The story, which happens to be the direct sequel to Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse has you playing as a devil forge-master. You can create innocent devils. These devils act as familiars that you can level up. As they level up they learn abilities that allow you to enter new areas of the castle. They also learn magic. You have control over when they use it. It's a simple system that actually works well. You can guide how they evolve. Creatures will drop evolution crystals when defeated. They will be color based depending on the weapon you use. Using a sword drops red crystals, using an ax drops blue and so forth. You can look at their charts and see what it will take to get them to go whichever route. They evolve to different looks and have different magic. Their core abilities will remain the same as you'll need those to get through certain areas of the castle. The load time in switching between the innocent devils is pretty long. You have to switch from the battle types to the healer well in advance because the game doesn't stop while it's loading the new devil in. You have to switch the devils from the submenu, which also sucks. They should have done it from the main game. The load time in general is pretty bad. Between each room it loads. You're loading for six to eight seconds every other minute or so for the whole game. I will try to finish this game, but I seriously question whether I'll be able to make it or not...

Xbox 360 -- Impressions.

I have connected and set up my brand new Xbox 360. The console itself is gorgeous. It's sleek with nice curves and lines. If I were to describe the console in one word, that word would be class. The system is just visually classy in my opinion. I think this might be the best looking console in the history of video games, even surpassing the original SEGA Genesis. I'm laying the system down, not standing it up. The curves and concave plating really show up nice this way. The chrome disc tray plating is a nice visual flair. It catches the light. The glowing green eye is cool. It lets you know the system is on because the system itself is surprisingly quiet. Connecting the system was simple. The power supply adapter is about the size of a brick. This baby sucks down the juice. You have the great combination component and high definition audio and video cables. And you have the Ethernet cable which I just left in place from removing the Xbox and putting the Xbox 360 in its place. I didn't use the one included with the system. The controllers are godly. I'm instantly in love with it. Everything is responsive and tight. The button positioning is exceptional.  It's comfortable and feels solid and well made. Everything about the system feels solid and well made, from the console, to the controllers, to the power supply, to the connection cables. The feeling of class transfers over to the system interface. You have four panels that Microsoft are calling blades. If you sign up for Xbox Live, or transfer your current account over to the Xbox 360, the Xbox Live blade will be the default blade when starting up the system. The system will automatically sign in to the service. Here you'll have access to your friends list to see who is online. Check or send messages. Check the latest news. You can access Xbox Live Marketplace from this blade. Xbox Live Marketplace is just that, a store where you can buy skins, themes, game demos, trailers, redeem your prepaid cards or promotional codes, and check your download history. Some downloads are free, others will cost you Microsoft Points, which you can purchase. The next blade is the Games blade. Here you can check your achievements, played games, access Xbox Live Arcade, demos, and trailers. Xbox Live Arcade allows you to download small games that are stored on your hard drive. You can play these games over Xbox Live. They feature everything from newly created content to classic arcade games. You can play Joust over Xbox Live. I will say that again, you can play Joust over Xbox Live. Awesome. The next blade over is Media. Here you can access your music, pictures, and video. You can connect your Xbox Live to your PC, portable storage devices such as external drives, memory card readers, and even the PlayStation Portable. You have to download and instal Media Center on your PC to be able to link the systems. Once linked you'll have access to all the music, video, and images on your PC. Here is also where you'd create custom soundtracks. The final blade is System. Here you'll have access to all the console settings, parental controls, memory management, network settings, and computer connection settings. Each blade is color coded so you will get to know them visually. It's a slick design. The Xbox Live blade is gold. I'm assuming it would be silver, if that's the level of your Xbox Live account. Games are green. Media is blue. System is purple. Speaking of Xbox Live, transferring it over to the Xbox 360 was very simple. You just tell them you're already a Xbox Live subscriber. You'll enter your Gamertag. You'll then be asked to enter your Passport information. If you've already signed up on the official Xbox site, you'll have this information. That's all it takes. I'm impressed with the design, quality, and interface of the Xbox 360. All of it is just classy. Now for the games...

Oh, What a Night -- In Pursuit of an Xbox 360.

It's Monday, November 21 and I'm out to get my hands on a Xbox 360. It's around noon. On impulse I decide to take the trip down to the next town over and their Super Walmart which is open twenty-four hours. It's cold this time of year in the high desert of southern California. I figure better to wait it out inside where it's warm. I arrive at the Super Walmart around one in the afternoon. A full eleven hours ahead of the street date and on sale time. I find out that they've received thirty something systems and that there is already a line of about one-hundred people ahead of me. This does not bode well. This is a telltale sign that this system shortage is no joke. It's for real. I head home and consider my options. The stores not having midnight sales the next day come to mind. What's my best option? I head out to Best Buy and arrive around nine at night and find about two-hundred people waiting outside. Kill that idea. So I think of the next large retailer close to Best Buy and come up with Target. I arrive at target to find about eight people outside. Now this is more like it. They say that the store only has core systems. Not the only option of the premium version. As the store was still open, I go inside and head to the electronics department where I ask the guy if it's true he's only received core systems. He points me to a stack of about sixteen green boxes. He tells me that's the full lot. On a level where some panic is registering, I have the idea of asking him if he has any of the hard drives that are sold separately. He says they had them, but had sold through the run of eight that day. To hell with this, I'm out of there. I head back to town and notice the line outside another target ranging around fifty people. I just keep driving. Toys R Us is near and that's my destination. It's roughly around half past ten. What's this? Only seven people in line at Toys R Us? I think I've lucked out. It's even better when I get into line and confirm the people in front of the line are father and son. That's one X360. The two students who follow, yep one X360. The husband, wife, and daughter, even better at one X360. I'm fourth in line. Hot damn. Now that's some luck. So it's just going to take doing the time, and this sucker is mine. The first hour spent in line was rather entertaining as everyone discussed the system and what games they were getting and what was coming down the line.  The next hour and a half were comically spent watching a movie. Yes, watching a movie. Someone put a flatscreen HDTV in the back of their mini-van and had it hooked to a DVD drive. Unfortunately the movie was Old School.  A moronic comedy that actually served its purpose well and killed ninety minutes. It wasn't too bad then. The temperature was hovering around thirty-five degrees. The conversation died as the temperature began to dip into the mid twenties a few hours later. The misery sets in fully. It's painful as I'm underdressed in both footwear and a means to keep warm. Combat boots aren't the best thing to wear while standing on concrete for twelve hours. My feet were killing me from standing, and the cold. My back decides it's a wonderful time to act up and partially go out.  I'm fighting boredom, frost bite, foot and back pain, and finding myself just reaching the midway point of the night. Suffering away in pure misery. The conversation picked up, games of Monopoly were being played. People were arriving. It was freaking cold. And it bothered me more than it normally would or should have for some reason. But it was all worth it. In a few more hours I'd have my Xbox 360. Time seemed to stand still. Around seven the manager for the store arrived and said she'd be coming back out sometime soon to hand out tickets to those waiting in line for the stock they had. Around forty-five minutes before they were to open and start selling the X360 she comes out and goes to the head of the line. She asks them which version they wanted and gives them the ticket for the premium system. Number two opts for a premium system and gets his ticket. Number three also opts for the premium system. There I am fourth in line. I'm about to cut her spiel about the extended warranty and all that short and just say premium. But she tells me all she has left are core systems. Did I want one? Did I want one? Did I want a fucking core system after just spending twelve hours in pain and the freaking cold? Did I fucking want one? I have never felt such rage in my life. If I could have imploded the entire universe at that moment, none of us would still be here. I respond with a vicious "no" that actually makes her step back from me a bit taken aback. I left the line, hopped in the car, and took off. Just barely noticing the dawning realization shockwave make its way through the line. What are my options? Circuit City maybe?  Off I go. I get there to see a line of about sixteen people. I get out and ask if they've had any sort of preorder campaign. They have. You need a voucher. There is a conversation taking place on the state of the lack of systems within the area. I relay my Toys R Us story. The one guy offers to sell me his voucher for face value. Wow. That's lucky. But wait, you guessed it, core system. Fuck me. Back to the car. Best Buy. It's close, but it was so damn crowded forever ago. Oh wow. Easily five-hundred people here now. I'm angry as hell, in pain, and beyond reason at this point.  I get out, get in line. Come to find out that this was like the luckiest break in all the world. Microsoft held a launch party for the Xbox 360 locally called Zero Hour. They rented a medium airplane hangar at the Palmdale Airport. They filled it with gaming kiosk showcasing all the Xbox 360 titles. They had food, drink, live music. They invited 3,500 winners from an online contest to the event.  They made it so that each person would be able to buy a Xbox 360, all of the launch titles, and all of the launch peripherals.  One of absolutely everything for 3,500 people. Guess what? Only like 2,000 people show. Best Buy was servicing the event. They were selling the systems. So what happens to all those extras? They were siphoned back into the Best Buy system. How do they do that? They take all the extra everything to the closest Best Buy. Best Buy # 106. My Best Buy. Hot damn, now that is lucky. Real luck this time. There were mountains of systems stacked up in Best Buy. Baskets full of every peripheral available for the launch. Tables and tables of all the launch titles.  I got through the line in roughly forty minutes. I got my Xbox 360. I came home and came on to post this entry while it's all still fresh and sore in my mind. I have been up far too long. I'm hurting, I'm hungry, I'm tired, and this entry is done. I will actually leave the hooking up of the X360 for later. Now I'll shower to warm up and ease the pain. I'll eat something, and I'll sleep the sleep of the dead. Never again will I suffer for a console like this. Never fucking again.

Mario Kart DS -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Mario Kart DS. That entails completing all the missions, earning a gold rank in the Nitro and Retro Cups in the three speeds of 50, 100, and 150cc. It also means earning gold ranks in the mirrored 150cc tracks. The gameplay is pure Mario Kart. Hopping into a turn to initiate a power-drift and drifting into the turn enough times to charge up the power boost that will rocket you out of the turn all the while hitting items boxes in hope of that perfect offensive or defensive item for whatever your situation might be. The graphics are great all around. The characters and courses are very well done. The tracks from previous titles have been improved or recreated as best as possible for the system. The new tracks all look great and are for the most part well designed. The sounds are pretty good. The karts roar and zoom appropriately. The character voices are decent. The offline game is marred by cheap AI in the 150cc levels. The game plays catch up with the computer controlled character. Taking one out with a red Koopa shell isn't as helpful as it should be as they are recovering and right back into the race almost instantly. Skill takes a back seat to luck. It shouldn't ever be that way in my opinion. The online mode fares much better. There the gameplay is near perfect and great fun. The game is saved by the online aspect. I'm going to give Mario Kart DS an 8.0.

Mario Kart DS -- Mission Mode & Online Play.

Mario Kart DS offers up two features the other games in the series haven't. One is the new mission mode. There are fifty-four of them. They're set challenges for you to meet. They range from challenges like "Reach the finish before Mario!" and "Collect 40 coins!" and "Perform 10 power-slide turbo boosts in 1 lap!" and "Get the Star and use it to hit 5 Cheep Cheeps!" to full on boss battles like "Hit the Eyerok's eyeball 3 times with shells!" and "Use Mushroom boosts to hit Chief Chilly and knock him off the stage 3 times!". You're rated in how you do from C, B, A, one, two, and three star rankings. They're a great bonus to the offline game. The online game is the other new feature to the series. The online interface is pretty much crap. You sign on to Nintendo's NWC and you select the mode you want. In you then sit there while the game searches for your friends or rivals or regional players or whatever. When trying to put together a four player game with friends, it should be a snap, shouldn't it? But it wasn't. We were all on at the same time. We were all searching for friends. It took us numerous times to get all four of us into the same game. The game will sit there and search for a few minutes. If you don't have four it searches for the full search time and then starts the game. Even though we had each other's Friend Codes we couldn't seem to find each other every time. Hopefully this is just a network kink that will be worked out.  Once we were able to get into a four player friend's game, the gameplay was exceptionally fun. There was no noticeable lag.  The annoying chance factor that shows up in the single player game isn't present in the online game just for the fact that you know it's the luck of the draw and that it's another living person causing the action. It's not the game attempting to keep things close as it does in the offline game. The online game appears to only be the racing aspect. The battle mode doesn't seem to be present. That's a shame, as that's the real draw in multiplayer Mario Kart. I think Nintendo's first official step into the online world is rather good where it counts. The gameplay is key, and that's covered. I don't understand why there isn't battle mode online from a technical point of view. I mean, if they can track four players in a race and all the items and all of that, what's the technical limitation in doing it for battle mode? What am I missing here?  

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness -- Initial Opinion.

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is Konami's fourth attempt at a 3D Castlevania game.  Two Nintendo 64 games and two Playstation 2 games later they still apparently haven't gotten it right. The control and movement of the character are the first things that come to mind from the two hours I've spent with the game. Those two hours covered about 14% of the overall map. The character's movement comes off as plodding.  The camera is rather flawed already. The level design seems put together from a construction kit. Go down the same squared off hallways to the same turns. Whoever designed the levels just would insert the parts. It doesn't have an organic feel to it at all. The graphics come off as lackluster initially. The music seems to have potential. The familiar system may go either way. The infant fairy is rather cool and helpful. The battle demon is more of an annoyance. I'll have to see where it all goes. The initial impression isn't very good. It comes off as a major step down from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Sly 2: Band of Thieves with a time of just around twenty-five hours. That was with achieving 100% complete on all eight chapters. You could easily knock ten hours off that not looking for the clue bottles. The game offers up the core gameplay of the first title while expanding it off the paths and into more of a free roaming experience. Everything great about the first one has been retained. The exceptional art direction and graphics. The wonderfully comic Saturday morning cartoon storytelling. The ending events are actually strangely downbeat. Took me by surprise, and I like that. The gameplay is very polished, to the point of being slick. There aren't any real camera issues to be found at all. Being able to play as the three characters is great. They handled each one correctly. They offer distinct gameplay styles. I really like this series. It's a good thing I got around to it. Better late than never. This series actually feels more Nintendo platforming than anything Nintendo has produced this generation. It's that good. I'm going to give Sly 2: Band of Thieves a 9.0. I will have to make sure I pick up the third game.

Mario Kart DS -- A Whole New World.

The Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector arrived today. It allows my Nintendo DS to be connected to the Internet via the USB port of my computer. It's the only real solution for those of us who want their NDS online and aren't willing to fork over the cash for a wireless setup when the wired one we already have works so well. And for those of us who wouldn't be caught dead in a McDonald's using a NDS, or even worse a Starbucks. I was a little worried about it because when I ordered the connector which is only available through Nintendo's online site store there was a connection test Java application which my computer decidedly failed. The UPS man or woman left it on my doorstep while I was out collecting Dragon Quest VIII and Sonic Rush. Upon my return I immediately set about installing it, which proved quite simple. You simply load up the CD-ROM that came with the connector and click that it's okay to begin installing. It'll ask for your language selection, English of course. It'll begin installing the drivers. It will then ask for you to plug in the connector. The connector comes with a very nice USB extension cable for those people with the USB ports in the rear of their computers.  My computer has some USB ports in the back and a couple in the front. The ones in front are angled at forty degrees hidden behind a panel. My computer tower is also hidden away within the desk. The extension cable allows me to close the panel on the front of the tower, which allows me to close the panel hiding the tower within the desk. Without that cable I would have to connect and disconnect the connector each time I wanted to use it. With it, I can leave it eternally connected. It's a nice touch that personally saves me a lot of hassle. Once you've plugged in the connector the computer will recognize it as what it is instead of an ordinary USB device. It will then begin the setup of the computer so the device will work correctly. You'll then be asked to register your NDS. This is registering it with the computer and not Nintendo. It let's the computer know that it should allow the NDS to interface with it instead of blocking it. There will be an icon for the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connection Registration Tool in your taskbar. Clicking on that brings up the program. You'll need to load up your NDS with a Wi-Fi enabled game and go to the game's Wi-Fi menu. There will be an option there to connect. Instantly the PC noticed the NDS which I originally named Searren. Searren appeared listed in the program on my PC. Right-clicking on Searren brings up the options to grant permission to connect or to block from connecting. I selected to grant permission of course. After the configuration the NDS will ask to run a test. I clicked okay and a few painfully agonizing seconds later it connected successfully. That's it for the installation. It was really quite simple and painless. I'm sure Nintendo's tech support lines are working overtime with this one though just because people are stupid after all. After that I reloaded the game and went to connect to Nintendo WFC, which is what Nintendo calls its network. Once connected it had me save some information to my NDS and the game cartridge. It created my Friend Code. The Friend Code is how Nintendo sees me individually. With the Friend Code I can meet up with specific people online.  I have to give people I want listed as friends my Friend Code. They'll have to send me their Friend Code to get them on my list. I'll enter their code into my NDS via the game cartridge. It will be save both on the NDS and the game cartridge. Once I've entered the code and I have someone on my list, I can choose to play in the friends mode. It will connect me to only those people on my list who have me on their friends list. Mario Kart DS offers four modes from which to join games online. The before mentioned Friends mode. There is also Rivals, where you'll be matched against those players of comparable skill level. Regional Races allows for you to be matched with only people from your own country. Worldwide Racers allows for you to be matched with anyone from anywhere in the world. I must say it was rather impressive to be playing online versus other people from around the world from my portable Nintendo DS. Nintendo's system is rather primitive compared to Xbox Live but it seemingly more than gets the job done. Consider me impressed with Nintendo at this point. Now I just need to wait until I can make some friends...

Mario Kart DS -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is another portable title, this one for the Nintendo DS, Mario Kart DS. My initial impressions of this one are sort of obvious. It's Mario Kart on two screens. The classic Mario Kart gameplay is here. The hopping, drifting, and item use are all present and accounted for. The colorful initial cast of characters are also there.  The standard options are all there. Time trial, Grand Prix, Vs, and Battle are all there. However there is a new mode called Missions. I haven't accessed that one yet. The game is the first Nintendo DS title to feature online play. It comes with a twenty-seven page instruction manual called Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Instruction Booklet. Ease of use! As my Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector is as of this entry in Portland, Oregon, I haven't had a chance to test it out yet. That should happen sometime tomorrow when the connector arrives. There are two cups from which to race. The Nitro Cup is all new courses created for the Nintendo DS. There are sixteen in all. The Retro Cup features Nintendo DS versions of classic Mario Kart courses from the other games in the series. There are sixteen courses in all for the Retro Cup as well. The courses are taken from Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, and Mario Kart: Double Dash. They're from the SNES, N64, GBA, and Gamecube games respectively. As of this entry I haven't attempted those so I can't give an impression on their faithfulness to the originals. I should get into the gameplay and the online aspects in future entries. Right now the game seems very much classic Mario Kart.

SOCOM: FIRETEAM BRAVO -- Final Opinion.

I have completed the single player campaign in SOCOM: FIRETEAM BRAVO. There is a multiplayer mode, two of them in fact, but I don't have my PSP connected to the Internet, and I don't know anyone with a PSP for local multiplayer. So I won't be commenting on those. The single player game is actually quite fun. It gives you the full SOCOM experience in a handheld version. The control works well and provides little hindrance beyond the initial learning curve. The sights and sounds are all SOCOM. The graphics are decent enough. They have lower polygon counts to keep the frame rate up. SOCOM has never been even a remotely pretty game, so it's not like you're missing much. The action is far more important. The action is pretty faithful given the changes made to the control. The game is truly SOCOM with the artificial intelligence, it will do some damn stupid things. At this point I don't think it would be SOCOM without retarded AI. I don't know what it would be if the game functioned perfectly. The crosstalk feature proved to be rather cool, but I'm not sure how functional it will be considering the amount of time I've spent with SOCOM 3 online. I'm going to give SOCOM: FIRETEAM BRAVO an 8.0.

Sly 2 -- Expanded Property.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves quite literally expands on the first game. The first game's level structure called for a natural progression through the level. You'd follow the path from A to B to C. Sly 2 ditches that form of level progression in favor of a large sprawling hub world from which to seek out jobs. Each chapter gets its own hub world. Each hub world will have a safe house location that you use as your base of operations. You can go there to switch out the characters you're playing as. The jobs in each world are story based. They do an excellent job of advancing the plot. In the Jailbreak chapter for example, you need to bust Sly and Murray out of jail as Bentley because they've been captured. He'll need to survey the area first. He'll need to do something about the alarms he's noticed surveying the area. He'll need to figure out how to break Sly out. Once Sly is out you'll need to work on getting Murray out. It's continues along needing to do this or that so you can achieve the main goal. Instead of just going from hotspot to hotspot on the map as you were in the original game, you need to find waypoints that mark the start of a job. They add in a nonlinear feel to it by letting you decide on which mission to do first for the most part. Sometimes only one will be available to select. In the first game there were bottles that contained clues that you needed to collect in order to break into the vaults within each level. Only the hub world has them this time around. There are thirty in each location along with the one vault per location. The vaults still contain new moves for the most part. They're not required to complete the game. It's an entirely optional aspect to the game.  The bottles and vaults are counted in the 100% level completion rating though. It's this new format that is adding considerable size to the game. I am 50% through the game at over ten hours. The game is looking to be about twice the size of the original and it's offering up all of the same great gameplay.  That's sort of the textbook definition of sequel. More of the same, just bigger and better.

SOCOM: FIRETEAM BRAVO -- Control Issues.

So how did Zipper Interactive fit SOCOM on to the PlayStation Portable when it's missing a second analog stick and some extra buttons? The answer is they did a pretty good job of it. The analog stick moves the character forwards and backwards. It also rotates the character to the left and right. If you hold the L button and use the analog stick you can strafe to the left and right. If you tap the D-pad to the right you'll enter free look mode.  You can move the cursor around freely to manually aim. Holding the L button down while in free look mode allows you to move the character. Hitting the triangle button allows for you to cycle between standing, crouched, and prone positions. Hitting the circle button allows you to access the command menu where you can enter specific commands like cover target and fire at will. Holding the circle button while a context sensitive icon is on screen will issue the specific command shown. These appear in key instances to help you not have to fiddle with the command menu. The X button is the action button. It fires the selected weapon, throws grenades, or any other action. Holding the triangle button will automatically switch between grenades and the primary weapon.  The square button is for context sensitive commands like climbing, entering through windows, having an escortee hold position or follow, and the like. You reload with the combination of left on the D-pad and the square button. Hitting up on the D-pad enters the scoped views. Down on the D-pad returns you through the scoped views to the standard view.  To change the rate of fire, the combination of left on the D-pad and the triangle button is used. Since there isn't a second analog stick on the PSP, you won't be running and gunning in the same way that you're able to in the PS2 series. You press and hold the R button to target an enemy. While holding the R button, hitting the L button cycles through the targets. You can actually run and gun this way with the single stick. Holding the R button on a target allows you to move and fire. The free look mode and the scopes allow for traditionally controlled sniping and precise shooting. In the normal view you'll be able to see enemies on the play field from a distance greater than your lock on range. You'll get an enemy out of range message. You can switch to free look and snipe them. Or you can move closer for the auto aiming lock on. Certain factors come into play in determining your accuracy with auto aiming. Your stance is one thing you'll have to consider. Standing is less accurate than crouched, and crouched is less accurate than prone. Movement comes into consideration as well. If you're not moving, you're more likely to hit them. Distance is also a factor. If you can get close enough, and remain undetected, and fire from a prone stationary position, you're essentially assured a single shot kill. If you're in full run from a great distance, you're pretty much assured to miss more than a few times and it will take a considerable amount of hits to drop the enemy. This mechanic has the tendency to slow the game down in comparison to its console counterparts. It makes it play with stealth more of a factor.  That's not to say that the game doesn't have its moments of intense action, it surely does. I am through 79% of the single player campaign. The learning curve of the controls makes it really easy to get into the game and to truly get going. I feel the controls are a great success.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves -- Initial Impression.

I've started in on Sly 2: Band of Thieves for the PlayStation 2. A few changes are instantly apparent. The game seems to have ditched the map into level back to map progression style in favor of a city or location from which you run around and find missions. You can now also play as any of the three main characters. Each playing differently with their own skill sets. Bentley and Murray aren't just there for support this time around. They get in on the action. Murray is all brawn. Bentley is weak and all brains. Their play style reflects that. The game also appears to be much larger than before. Sly Cooper took around nine hours to complete. I've put in about five hours on Sly 2 and am roughly 16% complete. Some aspects seem the same. Most notably are the great art direction and the graphics, sound, and voice work. The same level of storytelling seems to have returned. It's very much the well thought out Saturday morning cartoon style of the previous game. Hopefully the changes in action don't take it too far from the original. We'll have to wait and see.

SOCOM: FIRETEAM BRAVO -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me will be SOCOM: FIRETEAM BRAVO for the PlayStation Portable. The first thing I did was to create a profile within S:FB. The second thing I did was to connect the PSP to the PS2 via a mini-USB cable and load up both SOCOM 3 and the S: FB software and go to the crosstalk sections within each game. I hit "sync all files" in both titles and almost instantly the games had communicated and altered each profile and were asking me to save the changes. As I haven't played S: FB yet there wasn't much change to the SOCOM 3 file. The S:FB on the other hand had numerous changes made to it. Unlocked character skins for multiplayer, weapons made available in both the single player and multiplayer modes, and the alterations of missions in the single player based on my actions in SOCOM 3. As of this entry I have completed the first three missions within the campaign mode of S: FB. My initial impressions are that once again the PSP's shortcomings compared to the PS2's Dual Shock 2 controller require some creative control schemes from the programmers in bringing over known PS2 series to the PSP. I can tell you that S: FB's learning curve isn't anywhere near as tough as GTA: LCS' and that you're likely to be far more comfortable with the controls far sooner. I've managed overall A ranks for the first three missions so I don't think control is a real issue. The game uses sparse environments and less texture mapping than its PS2 counterpart, and the game looks and moves rather well because of it. The crosstalk objectives also make themselves known at the start of the missions as the game rattles off everything that is in place because of your SOCOM 3 actions. I'm initially finding the game quite fun. I'm pleasantly surprised at this point.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories -- Final Opinion.

I come away from Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories with mixed feelings. There is an awful lot to like about the game. Just the fact that it is truly the full console Grand Theft Auto experience in your hands is quite impressive. Everything from the series is there. The whole of Liberty City with some new additions. The hidden packages. The minigames like firefighter, vigilante, pizza delivery, street racing, RC racing, the dirt bike racing, the ambulance and taxis, and more. Graphically it's impressive for being the ugly PS2 Grand Theft Auto visuals on the PSP, if you catch my drift. The characterization is as it ever was. Rockstar's sense of humor is in place, whatever you might make of that. The voice acting is on par with everything that's come before it minus the celebrities. The custom soundtrack makes a massive difference for the better. There are a couple of sore spots though. A few of them come from it being the full Grand Theft Auto experience. The mission designs have mostly been seen before. The load times are horrendous, partially do to the PSP, partially do to Rockstar's game design. The actual story part of Liberty City Stories is mostly ho-hum been there done that before. A couple of characters from Vice City show up and a few others have their fates permanently decided. That's it as far as anything cool about the stories themselves. They just don't pop. It's cool to be back in Liberty City and to see some older characters, but nothing great comes of any of it.  The other problem is the real problem. The controls have a hideous learning curve, at least for me. It took me a very long time to finally adjust to them. Once I did the game became fully playable, but it did cause more than a little frustration overall. This version is probably the least glitchy of games I've played in the series. Every now and again something would mess up but nothing on the level of Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, or San Andreas. In the end, it's still fun, still as frustrating as the series whole, and technically impressive.  I'm going to give Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories an 8.5.

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal -- Final Opinion.

Thirty-five hours later I have completed Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal and what a fun ride it was. The series retains its great visual style and its great comic storytelling. The controls are perfect with hardly any camera issues. Truly something rare for a 3D based platformer. You have everything from the previous games and more. They really have it down and are pretty near perfection with this series. I managed to find all the hidden titanium bolts, accomplished all skill points, found and earned all the trophies. Playing through the game twice and earning and unlocking everything results in another Insomniac Museum. This one just as good as the first one. Here you'll get more abandoned concepts, actual abandoned minigame levels, the uncensored original level one of the Quark's Vid Comic series of 16-bit platforming, and a ton more. Again they manage to actually make you feel rewarded. I'm going to give Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal a 9.5. I look forward to seeing this series on the PlayStation 3.

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal -- Further Upgrades.

Ratchet & Clank was a run and gun platforming game that did everything right. The depth of the game gameplay was amazing. You would run and gun through the levels and there were a ton of weapons and items to acquire and use all the while enjoying the great graphics and art design along with a charmingly well done comic storyline. The game hid titanium bolts within the levels to be found. They also had hidden skill points to be found. They changed up the gameplay with vehicle combat. You would actually have to complete the game once to be able to access the mega weapons within a new game plus. You couldn't get all the skill points until the second go round. You couldn't truly call the game complete on a single play through. You were rewarded with the true ending and some good unlockable bonuses. So what did Insomniac do when faced with making the sequel Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando? They did the usual thing of bringing you much more of the same in the sequel. Only they didn't stop there. They added an experience system to the great weapons featured in the series.  As you used your weapons, they would gain experience until they would level up and become new and stronger weapons. You could level them up three levels. They also added some new spherical levels. Where the whole level is on a sphere that you can rotate as you play through it.  They added optional treasure hunt levels. Of course they're only optional for the normals. The completion types have no choice. Once again you had to complete the game once to be able to have access to the mega weapons and then proceed to leveling them up and earning the final skill points to call it truly complete. They went one step further in using the save file from Ratchet & Clank in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando. If the game detects a save file from the first game you'll have access to a bunch of free weapons from the original game to be used in the second game. You can even level those weapons up to level three.  You can't reach truly complete in the second game without having the first game's save file. So that brings us to Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. Once again the game uses the previous game's save file to grant you access to select weapons from the second game. Not only that, but the second game's save file is altered by the original game's save file presence so that it shows you played both games thus unlockingselect weapons from the first two titles. They've kept the titanium bolts and skill points intact and have added trophies to be found within the levels. They've thought up new and improved weapons, which can now be leveled up to level five in the first play-through. Once again you can't achieve true completion without playing through it a second time. In the second play-through you'll get access to the mega weapons which can now be leveled up to eight where they become omega weapons. There is just a massive amount of stuff to do in truly completing the third game. As of this entry, I've completed the game once, achieved all the skill points possible, found all the titanium bolts, leveled all weapons as far as possible, and earned all the trophies possible. It took me twenty-six hours. Playing through Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando twice took less time. I have started in on the second play-through. The enemies are stronger, and they add a bolt multiplier. Bolts are the currency in the game. You get them from defeated enemies or smashed items. The multiplier allows for you to earn the bolts from which to buy the mega weapons much faster. I have leveled a couple of them to level eight and omega weapon status. Luckily they start at level five where I had leveled them in the first play-through. It shouldn't take too long to earn the bolts to buy all twenty weapons and get them up to level eight. The reward for truly completing the game in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando was something called the Insomniac Museum. It was a level you could run around and look at all the exhibits which ranged from effects demonstrations to abandoned character concepts to the history of the characters and much more. It was easily one of the coolest rewards offered by any game. One of the few that really felt like a reward for all the hard work put into accessing it. The Insomniac Museum makes a return in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. Hopefully it will prove just as rewarding.

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal -- Initial Opinion.

While still playing GTA: LCS, I will be playing Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. R&C: UYA is the third game in the R&C series. Ratchet & Clank is easily one of the best action platform games on the PS2. It used a wonderful art style and a really solid run and gun gameplay mechanic. It backed it up with a great cartoon story. With the sequel, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, they did the usual thing in giving you more of what you loved about the original. They offered a much larger game with more weapons. They kept the great humor level and the high production values in place. The great gameplay was improved upon with an RPG like leveling up of the weapons. The more you used them, the stronger they got. R&C: UYA is going to have to go a long way to top R&C: GC, especially if they're just going for more of the same. Hopefully they'll be going for something more. Hopefully they'll attempt to keep things fresh with new ideas. What's clear from what I've played of the game thus far, is that the high production values in the story presentation and the humor of the previous games is entirely intact. The difficulty level has also obviously been increased over the previous two installments. The controls also seem as rock solid and responsive as they ever were. We'll see if the third time is a charm or a chore as I'll play through the game.

Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus with a time of a few minutes under nine hours. It's short, and sweet. The game uses the context sensitive action style of gameplay to the fullest. As you play through the game you'll find clues stuffed into bottles. Collecting all the bottles in a given level will allow you to crack the code for a safe hidden in the level. Opening the safe will grant you access to a page of the Thievious Raccoonus which will usually teach you a new move. There are a couple of different move styles. The context sensitive ones are set to the circle button and will come into play as you need them. The other moves are set to the triangle button and are selectable by cycling through them with the L2 and R2 buttons. The interesting thing about these moves are that they're essentially designed to make the game easier if you're having problems. They aren't needed to complete the game in any way and I never had to use any of them. The graphics are wonderful, as is the voice, sound, and music. It's all exceedingly well done. The game has a great comical story that's told via the impressive cartoon style of the art direction. The gameplay is tight and controls perfectly. They broke up the standard run and jump platform gameplay by incorporating minigames into whole levels. The minigames are all well done and also control with the same perfection as the standard levels. Everything about this game is just handled on a really slick and polished level. I highly enjoyed it. I'm giving Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus a 9.0.