Suikoden IV -- Initial Impression.

Still trying to climb out from under the mountain of PlayStation 2 RPGs I've managed to collect, next up for me is Suikoden IV. I've spent about five hours on Suikoden IV and my initial impressions are of a game that's graphically a little less than Suikoden III. Musically the game retains its world music vibe the series is known for. The battle system allows for four of the one-hundred-eight stars of destiny to be used in battle at one time. It would seem the one-on-one duels of the earlier titles have returned to a more prominent role compared to Suikoden III. The army battles this time are naval battles as the story of Suikoden IV seems to be focusing on the Island Nations. The story also seems fully entrenched in Suikoden tradition with you playing the hero who stumbles into some major event that thrusts him into a massive tale of politics and intrigue. New to the series are sequences where the characters are voiced. Gone from this entry is the traditionally stunning FMV intro. Suikoden II used the save file from Suikoden, and in turn Suikoden III used the save file from Suikoden II. That's something also not in place for Suikoden IV. The game doesn't make use of the save data and that's most likely due to the fact that Suikoden IV takes place before Suikoden chronologically and there wouldn't be any information to carry over. Hopefully the story will live up to the series history. We'll have to see what further changes have been made to the battle system and how they'll change things up. Suikoden IV has returned to a single point of view narrative from Suikoden III's multiple main character perspectives. While I fully enjoyed Suikoden III's story, I'm glad to see Suikoden IV return to the older style. It's just easier to follow the story this way. Things are looking good five hours in. Hopefully it stays that way.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake -- Final Impression.

It took me 8:47:11 to complete Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. The game is superior in every regard compared to Metal Gear. The most overriding impression I took from the game was just how much MG2 means to the Metal Gear Solid series. Just about every aspect of the MGS series originates in Metal Gear 2. I've already described how the graphics and sound are vastly superior to the original. The gameplay provides far more depth than the original game. The radar, crawling, sound detection, and story all come into play to provide everything MGS offered without the 3D and polygons. MG2 is so impressive in that regard it would have dulled the shine of MGS had we been given the chance to play it back in 1990. The story, with its dramatics and heavy-handed preaching, is right on par with the MGS series. MG2 was everything one would hope for in a sequel. Everything was improved upon. The game is still fun to play today. I'm giving Metal Gear 2 and 8.5. There were some flaws in the presentation of Metal Gear 2 by Konami though. There are a couple of instances in the game where you need to refer to the instruction manual. The instruction manual Konami didn't provide. Those people who will play this without access to the Internet are going to have one bastard of a time getting by a couple sections. That's not the game's fault or Kojima's, it's purely Konami's fault with trying to save money. Kojima was going outside the game all the way back in 1990. His wacky storytelling and concept based bosses were also well in place with Metal Gear 2. To the point that Metal Gear Solid would have seemed tame, and Metal Gear Solid 2 wouldn't have seemed so insanely out there. Kojima's blatant thievery from Hollywood was also well in place by Metal Gear 2. Bosses straight out of movies like Predator and The Running Man among others all make appearances. Although Big Boss no longer looks like Sean Connery in his character portrait. It's cool to finally have the main story. We're still missing one part of it though. We're missing Policenauts. The Metal Gear series, Snatcher, and Policenauts all are connected. Maybe someday...

The Nintendo Wii.

Today Nintendo announced the official name for the system code-named Revolution. It's called the Wii. It's pronounced we. The concept behind it is twofold. Nintendo wants to bring people together in playing video games. It's no longer about the I. It's about the we. The Wii logo graphically demonstrates two people coming together to play. The i's representing people. So it's all artsy-fartsy high concept hippie crap. The piss jokes are already blazing around the Internet. This isn't just another Internet trend, this is like a furor of mockery towards Nintendo. They announced it today instead of at E3 because they're aware of the stunning nature of the name. It's leaving people dumbfounded. So they're giving them a couple weeks to absorb it. So when it comes time to show off the games at E3, people will have gotten beyond the name in theory and can concentrate on what's supposed to be important. You know, the games. The bottom line is, if the system turns out to rock, and the games deliver, then Nintendo's Wii will become beloved. Name and all. Many SEGA fans felt punched in the stomach with the announcement of the Dreamcast. The name sounded silly to me. I hated it. It more than left a bad taste in my mouth. Cut to the system a little bit later, and without even knowing it, Dreamcast was beloved. Why? Because the games were there. The system delivered. Same thing goes for Nintendo. It all depends on the games. If they don't deliver the goods, then you'll be hearing tons of talk regarding the name and how the system was doomed to fail from the start because of it. But it will sink or swim based on the games. For the most part, that's how it's always been, and it's how it will always be.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake -- Initial Impression.

So on to the real sequel to Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. I say real sequel because this is the first time it's ever been made available in the West. We found out via that bonus disc for the MGS3: S preorder that Kojima had nothing to do with the NES game and he thought it crap. Well, he really had nothing to do with the second NES Metal Gear game called Metal Gear: Snake's Revenge. It isn't even based on the Kojima made sequel Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Kojima made the sequel on the MSX computers for Japan. The game was released in 1990. The three years difference shows in the graphics, the sound, and the story depth. The game looks considerably better. It sounds considerably better as well. There is more story in the opening sequence of MG2 than there is in the whole of MG. What's also readily apparent is most of everything found in Metal Gear Solid was in place by MG2. Snake can now duck, and crawl. That opens up him moving around in vent shafts and the like. The enemies can hear him running over certain types of flooring. The codec system is fully in place. The support characters in the codec system are all there for your utilization. The radar is now in place. Another thing initially apparent is MG2 is much tougher than MG. We'll see how the story plays out and how well it bridges Metal Gear to Metal Gear Solid. We'll see how the action plays out and how much of an improvement it actually turns out to be.

Metal Gear -- Final Opinion.

I completed Metal Gear with a time of 5:28:34. The game actually holds up quite well for being from 1987. The graphics are sharp and clear and you can tell what everything is supposed to be without any confusion. You couldn't say that about all the games of 1987. The music is solid stuff for the time as well, no pun intended. Good sound quality and some decent composition. The two important aspects of this game are the reworked translation and the gameplay. The translation is vastly improved over the NES version's and the game tells the original story in a clear and concise manner. Such as it is. It's still entirely 8-bit in its storytelling style. Overly dramatic and right to the point. As if it was all they could do to put in that much because they're running out of memory or something. The story is about how Solid Snake is sent to infiltrate the secret base of Outer Heaven for Fox Hound to find and destroy the original Metal Gear walking nuclear tank. The characters of Gray Fox and Big Boss are originally established. They become major players in the series' overall story and it's nice to have the canonized version of the whole thing. The gameplay is actually still impressive and shows how much of what would become Metal Gear Solid's gameplay is based on that of the original Metal Gear. It's almost all there. The sneaking, the codec, the weapons, the key cards, the cigarettes, and the cold war black operations espionage story. The gameplay doesn't avoid all the 8-bit pitfalls though. Enemies reappear if you return to a previous screen. Codec messages are tied to locations and not events so if you return to certain screens you'll always get that codec call. Collision detection is sketchy. There isn't much help in what to do next. You can use the codec to call a specific character, and if you're in the correct area for whatever clue you need, you'll get the correct information. Normally something along the lines of whatever you need is located on floor one of building two. If you're not in the correct area though you'll get old information. If you've never played 8-bit games these sorts of issues might be deal breakers for you. If you've played 8-bit games then you'll likely be able to overlook these issues or even find them quaint or cute. The MSX Metal Gear is superior to the NES Metal Gear in every regard. The game is fast and fun despite its 8-bit issues. I'm giving it an 8.0. It's a great bonus to get this game and the sequel within Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.

Metal Gear -- Initial Impression.

Back to old-school action with the next game. I'm playing Metal Gear via Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence's second disc which itself is named Persistence. This is a perfectly emulated version of the original MSX computer version of Metal Gear released in 1987. It even emulates the MSX startup and RAM check sequence. The MSX version was created by Kojima and his team at Konami. The Nintendo Entertainment System version is actually a heavily altered port of the MSX version that was handled by a different team within Konami. Kojima had nothing to do with it at all and even goes as far as to call it "crap" on the series history disc that came with preordering MGS3: S. The NES version changes things considerably. You have an entirely different infiltration method, an entirely different maze layout, different and missing bosses, and one of the most infamous "engrish" translations. The game controls simply enough. The right analog stick or D-pad move Snake. The square button fires the selected weapon. The circle button punches. The L2 button brings up the item selection window. The R2 button brings up the weapon selection window. The select button access the codec communication system. The MSX version has easily superior graphics without breakup glitching. The music is better in using the original superior compositions and also in sound quality. The translation is entirely new. Gone are "The truck have started to move!" and "I feel asleep." Now we get "Argh! The truck has been moved" and "Ah, fell asleep." There are some more important changes to the translation though. Like the character of Dr. Petrovich in the NES version now has his proper full name of Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar, which makes Metal Gear connect to the Snatcher series both ways instead of the one way of the Metal Gear references within Snatcher. And that's very cool to me. We still have to see how a game from 1987 comes off as far as actual gameplay is concerned in 2006 and I'll save that for my final opinion.

Condemned: Criminal Origins -- Final Opinion.

It took me roughly fifteen hours to play through Condemned. The game is a great exercise in tension. The enemy AI just does things to constantly give you the creeps. The combat is just vicious. The graphics are great in their intentional ugliness. The sound design is brilliant in messing with you just as well as the enemy behavior.  The story is interesting even though it might go someplace a little weird at the end for some.  It's not going to replace Silent Hill or Resident Evil, but it's an entirely valid and well done and more importantly unique entry into the survival horror genre. I'm giving Condemned: Criminal Origins a 9. Bring on the sequel.

Condemned: Criminal Origins -- High Tension.

There are different types of scary. There is the classic Resident Evil something is going to pop out and say boo scare. There is also the Silent Hill I don't want to go down that hallway because of the concept behind what's awaiting there might damage my perceptions. It might mess with me on a core and primal level. Condemned: Criminal Origins uses just the right amount of both styles. Condemned isn't going to shake your foundations, thus far anyway, but it might just make you afraid of the dark for a while. It skillfully employs tension better than any game before it as far as combat is concerned. A couple of factors come into play to make this work. First off, the weapons. You can only carry one at a time, and most of them are melee based. There isn't any carrying around a bunch of fancy firepower like in Resident Evil. You won't be armed with a pistol, a shotgun, a grenade launcher, and rocket launcher with plenty of ammo to spare. You might be lucky to find a pistol, or maybe a shotgun, but when you do, it'll have a few shots in it, and that's all you get. You won't be finding shotgun shells or bullets strewn around the game. It's realistic in that fashion. How many office buildings do you know that are stocked up on ammo to the point of leaving it around for someone to find? That's right none. The world of Condemned reflects that. Finding that shotgun is great, but having two shots left when you find it sort of kills the party, and ups that tension. Being first person, and primarily focusing on melee weapons also greatly adds to the tension. The fact that the enemies are all drug-crazed and in a frenzy doesn't help in calming your nerves. Nor does the fact that they're smarter than the survival horror genre's standard. A lot smarter. The game's sound design also really adds on the tension. You'll often hear them before you'll see them.  It's freaky as hell the first time you hear them and you creep around the corner with only a lead pipe for your defense and you see one of them on the far side of the room. Problem is he sees you too. And he runs over to the wall and grabs the fireman's ax and then proceeds to run over to the lamp and smashes it sending the room into near total darkness before running off somewhere unseen. You can hear them breathing. Mumbling to themselves. You can hear their footsteps. You can hear them banging on the walls. You hear them in the ducts all around you. So far there has been a lot of getting a quickglimpse at them before they scurry off down into the darkness leaving you knowing you have to head into the darkness with them. The game greatly uses misdirection. They'll have an enemy smash or knock something over on your left and you quickly turn that way and catch a rolling trash can as it comes to a stop. Now a cackle and footsteps running off on your right and you quickly spin that way. They've got you spinning and nervous and well on your way to becoming disorientated. You're becoming paranoid. You come to a hallway intersection. You'll try to see as far as you can to the right and left before picking one. You'll quickly establish nothing is there and spin around to check the other way. You'll go down the hallway and keep checking behind you, because it's getting to you. It's one of the most palpable senses of pure tension I've ever felt in gaming. And when they do stand and fight, they're brutal. Smashing them in the head with a pipe can and will often literally send blood and teeth flying. All with the appropriately sickening thuds you'd expect. The fights can be chaotic. Knocking their weapons from their hands will send them scurrying for another weapon, or into a further rage where they'll rush you in a last ditch crazed effort. And what fun it is to fight more than one at a time. Or to find one of them that happens to have a pistol or shotgun. I will also say that the game provided me with to what amounts to easily the biggest jump-scare in gaming. I love the level of tension produced by the game engine and combat. We'll have to see how the story affects things once it starts revealing its truths. As it stands now, the game's combat alone has me not wanting to go down that dark hallway. And that's in the best way possible.

Condemned: Criminal Origins -- Initial Opinion.

Still doubling up. Back to the Xbox 360 with the first game I bought for the system. I actually bought Condemned: Criminal Origins a couple weeks before the system launched. I'm finally getting around to it five months later. Condemned is sort of a first person combat game with a serial killer motif. I say first person combat because while there are guns to use most of the game you'll find yourself fighting with whatever you can get your hands on. You'll use lead pipes, sledgehammers, 2x4s, axes and whatever else you can find. My initial impression of Condemned is it's a good looking game in a very ugly sort of way. The game is very detailed visually with its dirty and grimy locations. The game initially oozes atmosphere. It's intense and scary as a result. The combat comes off as genuinely brutal. We'll see how the combat plays out as the game advances. We'll see if the atmosphere keeps things scary and hopefully the story will deliver an interesting tale.

Shining Force Neo -- Shining Force Gauntlet.

The Shining series has a long and quite varied history. It starts with Shining in the Darkness on the SEGA Genesis. That game was a first person view dungeon crawler with traditional turn based RPG combat. The next game in the series marked the first of many overhauls the series would see. Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention on the Genesis would turn out to be a turn based strategy RPG. The strategy RPG genre would remain for the next entry, but the game moved to the Game Gear with Shining Force Gaiden. Back to the Genesis for Shining Force II. And once again back to the Game Gear with Shining Force II: The Sword of Hajya. There was a third Game Gear game that would stay in Japan called Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict. Then on to the SEGA CD with Shining Force CD which contained graphically and musically updated versions of Shining Force Gaiden and Shining Force II: The Sword of Hajya, as well as Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict hidden away on the disc that took the completed save files from the first two games to unlock. The series moved on to the Saturn in the form of Shining Wisdom, an action RPG. The next Saturn entry saw a return to the series original form with Shining the Holy Ark. It was once again a first person view dungeon crawler and was a loose sequel to Shining in the Darkness as well as being connected to the next Saturn entry in the series. That entry was Shining Force III. Shining Force III was a return to the turn based strategy of the Shining Force games on the Genesis, Game Gear, and SEGA CD. Only this time they were in 3D instead of 2D. Shining Force III was so massive that it spawned three games in and of itself. The game was released in three scenarios. The US only saw scenario one as Shining Force III. Japan saw scenario two and three as well as Shining Force III Premium Disc as a bonus for those who purchased all three. Shining Force III scenario one was an exceptional game and not seeing scenario two and three remains easily the greatest Holy Grail type situation in the whole of gaming, in my opinion. The series moved on again with Shining Soul on the Game Boy Advance. This time turning the game into a Phantasy Star Online style dungeon hack and slash. The GBA saw the release of another entry with Shining Soul II. The GBA got yet another entry with the remake of the original Genesis Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention with Shining Force: The Resurrection of the Dark Dragon. It featured new characters and battles. The series moved on to the PlayStation 2 in the form of Shining Tears. Shining Tears took the basic combat of Shining Soul and expanded it out to large scale battles. Took it out of the dungeons and put it on the battlefields. The PlayStation 2 also got Shining Force Neo. Which as the name implies is a new take on the Shining Force part of the series. New is right. Before I get into Shining Force Neo, I'm going to mention the games that aren't directly apart of the Shining series but are in fact connected in some form or another. Going back to the Genesis you have Landstalker, which was an isometric view action RPG. The game takes place on an island off the coast of the continent on which Shining in the Darkness takes place. There is also Dark Savior on the Saturn. Another action RPG taking place within the same world as Landstalker.  Yet another action RPG named Climax Landers on the Dreamcast allows you to play as and interact with characters from Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, Landstalker, and Dark Savior. After Shining Force Neo, the series will return to the PlayStation 2 with Shining Wind, the sequel to Shining Tears. So that brings us back to Shining Force Neo. What did they do to it this time? They turned it into Gauntlet. Seriously. Shining Force Neo is what would happen if you made an RPG out of Gauntlet. You have a 3D based isometric like view in which you have no control over the camera. You can't rotate or pan or anything. This actually works very well because whatever gets in your way is able to vanish. You can see through trees or rooftops or whatever it might be. Your view is never blocked. Unlike the promise of this same device in Super Mario Sunshine, it actually works here. You progress through the game in the standard RPG fashion of towns, overworld, and dungeons. The overworld and the dungeons are true mazes. You have to find your way by going back and forth and around. You'll never get anywhere in a straight line. The overworld and dungeons are full of enemies to fight with the game's realtime hack and slash and magic engine. And I mean a whole lot of enemies. Just like in Gauntlet, waves of them. Wave after wave. In the game the enemy has the power to create energy spheres that spawn enemies into the world. To stop the flow of the enemies, you need to destroy the spheres. The spheres can't be destroyed while they're being reinforced by the enemies they spawn.They feed off the enemies and heal. You need to kill enough of the enemies to be able to take out the spheres which in turn stop the enemies. The back of the box boasts that you'll be fighting more than ninety enemies on screen at a time and they aren't kidding. You really can find yourself flooded by enemies as in Gauntlet. So much so that I've often lost sight of my own character and all I can see is a mass of enemies and their lifebars as I swipe through them with my big bastard of a sword. It really is a Gauntlet RPG. You have the pure Gauntlet lost in a maze facing hundreds of enemies at once thing mixed in with a full-fledged character driven RPG story complete with towns and items and the like. To connect the Force aspect of the title to the previous games, SEGA has included NPCs that fight alongside you. You're able to build up a Force. Just as in the original strategy RPGs, you're able to go to your headquarters and substitute characters in and out of your active Force. The game controls simply enough. You control the character with the left analog stick. The circle button is your attack. The triangle button allows you to use your currently equipped weapon skill or spell. The square button allows you to use your currently equipped item. The X button allows you to interact with the in-game objects like doors and chests. The D-pad allows you to select your current equipment. Pressing up or down on the D-pad cycles through your weapon skills or spells. Pressing left or right on the D-pad cycles through your items.  Pressing L1 will enlarge the radar display allowing you to see where you've been and where you need to go as the system draws in where you've been on the fly. Pressing R1 will hold your player to his current position allowing you to rotate him so you can fire an arrow or spell in a specific direction. Pressing L2 will bring up the full map screen allowing you to scroll it and see locations and names and the like. Pressing R2 will hold the NPCs to their current locations allowing you to scout ahead with less risk of initiating combat. The game allows for you to play it just like Gauntlet's three class types. You can be a warrior, an archer, or a mage. In the game all Forces wear Force Frames. You level up your character, but you also level up your Force Frame.  It's in the Force Frame that your real power comes. The enemies drop Force Crystals which are traded in for upgrades to the Force Frames. The enemies also occasionally drop Force Arts. The Force Arts are what you upgrade. They range from more HP, to more attack power, to higher MP, higher attack speed, to specific magic resistance to fire and ice and lightning, to far more specific things like dealing greater damage to lizards or great damage to undead. There are a ton of different Force Arts. It's in choosing what to upgrade that you shape your character. If you want to be a mage, you're going to trade Force Crystals in for stronger fire magic and stronger ice magic while also adding to greater MP and faster MP regeneration as well as some better magic resistance for good measure. A warrior is going to increase attack power and speed and strength and the like. It's a very cool system of building your character. On top of this they allow you to find a bunch of drops that you can pull out special skills or destroy them by converting them to Force Crystals. They even offer Phantasy Star Online like drops that you have to identify. You can also upgrade weapons and armor to make them stronger with money. There is a lot going on in Shining Force Neo, and it's not just what's on screen. The combat is pure hack and slash fun. There is a decent level of strategy in having to decide on what creature types are more of a threat and how to deal with the in the best possible way. The computer controlled characters who accompany you are actually much smarter than average. They tend to stay alive and actually will save your ass from time to time. I have put in roughly thirteen hours into Shining Force Neo and I'm finding it quite enjoyable. Let's see if it stays that way.

Tomb Raider: Legend -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Tomb Raider: Legend with an overall rough time of twenty hours. I have fully completed the game and earned the full one-thousand Gamerpoints available in the X360 version. Developers have seemingly wised up as far as the difficulty achievements are concerned. I played the game on the hardest difficulty setting right off, and earned the achievement for completing the normal adventure instantaneously along with the one for completing the hard adventure. Crystal Dynamics really did the job with retooling the controls, but what did they do with the level design and puzzle elements? In the previous games in the series the levels were always massive. Nothing has changed in that regard. What has changed is how you go about them. In the other games of the series, finding the path through the levels was a good deal of the challenge itself. This was due to openness of the level design. Crystal Dynamics has narrowed the paths of progression through the level. They're not hidden. The focus comes in successfully running the paths. It's a streamlined design that further improves on the Tomb Raider series. The puzzles of the other games in the series were always finding this switch or finding that key and then getting it to wherever you would need to use it. Crystal Dynamics has a lot of experience with puzzle design with their Soul Reaver series. They've applied that experience to the puzzle aspect of the Tomb Raider series. The key fetch quest puzzles are gone. You still have to hit pressure plates and switches and the like, but they're all contained within the rooms for the most part. You're no longer flipping a switch that alters something two miles away like you were in previous games. There isn't any asking yourself now what after triggering a switch because you have no clue as to what you've just done. All the elements needed to solve whatever it may be are right there around your current location. The puzzle element is another aspect improved upon by Crystal Dynamics. There is yet another aspect they improved upon that I wasn't expecting. That's the story. I thought it would be a means to an end as to just providing a why for the events of the game like most other entries in the series. The story deals with the Arthurian legend and actually fits in wonderfully within the Croft universe. The story also deals with more of Ms. Croft's history concerning the death of her mother and her pre Tomb Raider one days. Crystal Dynamics knows how to tell a story. They told one of the best in the whole of gaming with their tale of Kain. The story of Tomb Raider Legend is well-written and well-voiced. There are some truly great lines. The graphics are good. They're still in the this is clearly a multiplatform port range. The music has also undergone a stylistic change with Crystal Dynamics at the helm and here again they've changed things for the better. Crystal Dynamics has done a great job with the series. They have managed to improve upon every aspect of the series. They've even added in a great unlockable system. Something not seen in the other entries in the series. As you complete each level, you unlock numerous bonuses. They've also hidden bronze, silver, and golden artifacts within each level and as you find more and more of them, you'll unlock things like weapon upgrades. You'll be able to increase your magazine capacity, accuracy, and increased weapon power. You'll also get character biographies, character and item models, concept art, and around thirty-two costumes for Lara. They added a level of replayability with a time trial mode. You have to race through a level within a set time to complete it successfully. You can unlock a movie of Lara's more memorable deaths and open a cheat code section that offer far more than the average codes. You can play without textures or play through the game actually wielding the Soul Reaver for example. There is a lot there beyond the main game. Tomb Raider Legend was one of those titles I was sad to finish. I still have the urge to play it. It left me wanting more. And that's the mark of a great game.  I'm giving Tomb Raider: Legend a 9.0 and am eagerly awaiting Crystal Dynamic's next entry in the series.

Tomb Raider Legend -- Controlling Ms. Croft.

The Tomb Raider series took the world by storm when it debuted in 1996 for the PlayStation. It was a large 3D action game with a focus on exploration and puzzles.  It introduced the world to Lara Croft. A female and very British modern day version of Indiana Jones. Lara Croft was easily one of the most nimble and acrobatic characters ever seen up until that point. She offered a wealth of moves with which to navigate your way through the ancient tombs of the game's locations. In the original outing, she controlled well enough. You had to press up to move her forward. No matter how the character was in relation to the screen, up was forward. It was by design so she could line up correctly for whatever jump or action she needed to take. The sequel focused more on making the levels much larger and filling them with far more complex puzzles. They added a couple of new moves to her repertoire. She was able to shimmy from side to side while hanging from ledges. It opened up further gameplay aspects. They also focused on upping the visuals. For the third game they left her controls alone and merely focused on new levels that were larger still and even tougher puzzles and combat. So began a trend that resulted in ever diminishing returns until the series was in danger of self-destruction with the sixth title Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. So what has Crystal Dynamics done about it with Tomb Raider: Legend? Lara now moves in whatever direction with the left analog stick. No more Resident Evil tank-like controls. Wherever you press the stick, Lara goes. She moves in three speeds depending on how hard you press the analog stick. She can sneak, walk, or run. The A button causes Lara to jump. Holding the A button longer will cause her to jump further. The B button will cause her to crouch. Holding the B button after crouching and moving the left analog stick allows her to creep around in a more stealthy fashion. Pressing the B button while moving will cause Lara to roll. The right analog stick allows you to control the camera. The left trigger has her readying her weapons. Holding the trigger down allows her to target specific enemies. While targeting pressing the right analog stick left or right will cycle through the enemies. The right trigger fires whatever weapon you have equipped. She can only carry two weapons at a time. Pressing the D-pad down will cycle between weapons. The right button allows Lara to throw grenades. Holding it down will result in a greater distance thrown. Pressing the D-pad up will have Lara use a medkit and heal herself. Pressing right on the D-pad will allow her to use the binoculars. The left and right triggers zoom in and out. Pressing Y while using them switches on a mode that allows you to scan the area for usable items and get some information on them. It essentially acts as an in-game help. Scanning something in the level might reveal it to be a mechanism, or something that can be moved or destroyed. It provides hints if you might be stuck. Pressing left on the D-pad will switch on and off the light source she wears on her shoulder.  Pressing the X button will have Lara use her magnetic grapple. She'll use this as a means of anchoring for allowing her to swing how she needs to for some environmental obstacles. It will allow her to interact with other types of environmental puzzles. Pulling items down, and assisting in moving them and the like. She's still as nimble as an acrobat in this version of the game, only now the controls are fast and responsive. They're not stop and go. No more lining up to the extent of the previous games. The game goes one step further and if you get close enough will allow you a saving grace. You'll latch on to a ledge or whatever you were jumping for with one hand and have a second or so to hit the Y button and pull yourself up. To that end they've also fully employed quick timer events for what used to be the toughest parts of the previous titles. The parts that had people pulling their hair out. So now they can have her doing the amazingly timed leaps and rolls needed to jump through a set of spinning blades for example without suffering the controls. This game's Lara Croft is the most agile and acrobatic of the series with an ease of control she has never known. The controls in this game are great and work flawlessly. The series has been successfully reborn in Crystal Dynamics' care in terms of control. What about the level and puzzle design? We'll save that for next time.

Tomb Raider Legend -- Initial Impression.

Since I have such a backlog, I'm going to be doubling up wherever possible. So to go along with the hack and slash action RPG Shining Force Neo, I'll be playing the pure action game Tomb Raider Legend on the X360. Tomb Raider Legend marks the first Tomb Raider title not developed by Core Design, Lara Croft's creators. After the abysmal public reaction to Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Eidos the publishers and owners of the character decided it was time to either give her a fresh start with another developer or abandon her altogether. Lara Croft is still a viable and marketable character so they obviously decided to go with a fresh start. Enter Crystal Dynamics, of Gex and Soul Reaver fame. I have completed the first level of Tomb Raider Legend and there are a few immediate differences. Lara controls in a much smoother fashion. The level design is thus far more focused. The game is available on numerous systems and the graphics reflect that. They're a mix of prettied up last generation graphics and pure next generation bells and whistles. The story will most likely turn out to be just like every other Tomb Raider before it, but this one seems well written initially. A couple of the lines are rather smart. The voice acting comes off as top notch. But maybe it's just me and my ... um, appreciation of the British female accent. The game also seems to offer up a lot more than any of the games in the series as far as things to unlock. There seems to be a lot there in fact. I'll cover the details in a future entry of course. And as usual, we'll see how it all turns out.

Shining Force Neo -- Initial Opinion.

Next up for me is the PlayStation 2 game Shining Force Neo. The game marks another entry into SEGA's long-running and ever-changing Shining series. This time around it appears to be an action hack and slash adventure. The Shining look appears to be there in the world and character design. I haven't seen any classic enemies as of yet, but hopefully a few of those will show up.  The game employs anime styled FMV sequences and seems to be rather story intensive. The combat comes off as fun and the NPC characters who make up the force appear to be able to survive on their own in the realtime action combat. The game looks pretty. The sound quality seems high. The voices are really cheesy at first. The writing also seems to be a good-natured corny. The kind of writing that could suck you in when you're not looking. The characters seem to be a little more alive than the standard Japanese RPG and they're taking surprising turns initially. The virginal childhood sweetheart female Meryl turns out to be a bratty troublemaker with more attitude than her role normally sees. The story is very much following the standards of the genre right now, but it too shows signs of being capable of taking a few twists. They started out with a badguy hidden behind a mask and here I was expecting to get through eighty percent of the game before the revelation of who he obviously was but instead the game reveals him within the first hour. The game is showing a lot of potential. The combat seems fun. The characters and story might be going off the beaten path. The graphics and music seem well done. Everything seems good initially except the voice work. We'll have to see how this all pans out...

Ninja Five-0 -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Ninja Five-0. The game is easily one of the toughest I've ever played. The game is also one of the more satisfying to see through to completion. The story isn't going to be the reward. It's about a ninja cop. The graphics are rock solid and are presented in a bright and colorful way. The animation is top notch, but that's still not where the reward is. The controls are tight and responsive beyond the initial learning curve for operating the grappling hook effectively. The gameplay is tight and requires precision execution. The reward is in the challenge. The game has great level design. The further you progress, the more the levels become like pure gauntlets for you to navigate through. They're filled with enemies and environmental hazards alike. This is a game where the level design, enemy placement, and controls all come together to provide a high level of honest challenge. The game never gets cheap, it only demands the highest level of skill from the player. The game autosaves, and you only get one life, so you have to complete a level in one go.  You'll need to learn the level layouts and enemy placements and know what's coming and how you're going to have to deal with it to succeed. Hudson Soft managed to create a great old school ninja action game that comes off as an homage to the classic Shinobi. If you're a fan of ninja games or Shinobi in particular you owe it to yourself to track down Ninja Five-0. Too bad they're not likely to ever make a sequel. And if they did, odds are Konami wouldn't publish it here. I'm giving Ninja Five-0 a 9.0. Probably the best action game on the Game Boy Advance.

Ninja Five-0 -- Calling All Ninja.

I have played through three of the game's six missions. You play as ninja cop Joe Osugi. What do you know? That now makes two Japanese ninja named Joe. The other being Joe Musashi of Shinobi fame. Joe must be a really common ninja name. The name isn't the only thing Hudson has borrowed from the arcade games Shinobi and Shadow Dancer. In each mission you're out to rescue hostages, wipe out all the badguys, and take out a boss. Each mission covers multiple stages. Each boss gets his own data sheet just like in SEGA's Shinobi arcade games. Level themes are also shared between the two. As is the use of ninja magic. Hudson did add in a few things to make the game their own though. You'll need to collect colored keys off enemies and chests to be able to open the corresponding doors and advance through the levels. They've also added the Bionic Commando like grappling hook to Shinobi's basic formula. You control Joe via the D-pad. He'll move left and right accordingly. Pressing down will make him kneel. Pressing up will allow him to enter the doors in the stages. The B button allows you to throw your shurikens. You can throw them while kneeling of course. Pressing the R button allows you to use your sword. The L button will allow you to use your binoculars and essentially let you scroll the screen in four directions to see what's there waiting for you off screen. You can't move or attack while doing this so you'll be using it at your own risk. Pressing the A button allows for you to jump. Joe can jump up and grab the edges of a ledge and then pull himself up. Pressing A in mid air after a jump allows Joe to use his grappling hook. It's in the use of the grappling hook and the nature of the enemies and the level design that the game becomes tough. In Shinobi and other games at the time, pressing up and jump would allow you to jump up onto another level within the stage. The grappling hook in Ninja Five-0 doesn't allow for that. You can't go through any platforms. So you have to hook the underside and then swing out, around, and finally up onto whatever ledge it is your trying to reach. Pressing left or right while hanging from the grappling hook causes you to swing and gives you the momentum needed for a jump or whatever it is you need to do. Pressing up or down while hanging from the grappling hook will shorten or lengthen the grappling hook rope giving you more or less momentum. As you kill enemies, your ninja magic meter will fill up. If you press A+B while the meter is full, you'll perform a magic attack that will kill every non boss enemy on the screen. If you press A+B while the meter is anything but full, you'll become invincible for however much time it takes for the meter to deplete. You can power up your shurikens by finding an icon dropped by defeated enemies. Level one is the standard shuriken. Level two is a set of three flaming shurikens. Level three is a laser shuriken. Taking a hit lowers your shuriken level. So on your way to rescuing the hostages, which in itself isn't so easy, and collecting all the keys to access and defeat the boss you'll be going up against some very smart enemies. Enemies that hide behind cover and pop out to take their shots at you with a knack for doing so at the worst possible moment for you. Standard enemies that take more than one hit to take down. Enemies with great accuracy and shots that are tough to avoid. You can't take very many hits and finding items to raise your life becomes crucial. The enemies guarding the hostages take them as human shields. If you kill a hostage it takes a considerable amount of health from you. You have to have good timing to free a hostage from their captors. At the end of each mission awaits a tough boss. These are long boss battles with old school unforgiving patterns and large lifebars. These bosses aren't the kind you're going to luck through. They're almost assured to kill you on your first meeting. You'll have to learn them and raise to their challenges. The gameplay is tough but very fun. Hudson obviously made this game with the hard-core and longtime gamer in mind. I for one am loving it. Ninja Five-0 delivers the goods as far as gameplay is concerned.

Ninja Five-0 -- Initial Impression.

After a couple of RPGs I felt I needed to go back to some good old fashion action. Some 16-bit era action in fact. It's coming via the Game Boy Advance by way of the Game Boy Player in the form of the game Ninja Five-0. Konami took the concepts of Shinobi and Bionic Commando and combined them into one Game Boy Advance title. You're a ninja. You're a ninja who is a cop. You're a ninja cop. You're the freaking Ninja Five-0! That couldn't be more out of the late 1980s if they wanted it to be. That story concept makes me want to be one bad dude vigilante and rescue a kidnapped Madonna from the skinheads! I have played through the first two levels of the game and my initial impressions are the game has a serious control learning curve. The game is really freaking hard, in what seems to be a good way. It's full of bright and colorful art with animation that is smooth and detailed. We'll see if the game is a throwback to all that was great in 16-bit gaming or all that was wrong with it...

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- Final Opinion.

I have completed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. And I do mean completed it. My final save time was 137:03:04. That's right. One-hundred thirty-seven hours. In that time I unlocked all one-thousand Gamerpoints in the Xbox 360 version.  I completed the guild quest lines for the thieves, fighters, mages, and Dark Brotherhood. I completed the arena. I was at the one-hundred twenty hour mark before I even began the main storyline quests. As you can see the main quest took roughly seventeen hours. There is just an amazing amount of stuff to do and see in the game. I'm sure I didn't see it all. There are numerous ruins and caves I'm pretty sure I never even discovered let alone fully explored. Just a highlight of my final stats further reveal the size of the game. I passed 170 days in the game. I increased 652 skills and stole 2,624 items. I killed 865 creatures and 455 people. I picked 297 locks, and made 466 potions. I read 827 books and told 1,897 jokes. The scope of the game is just immense. I thoroughly enjoyed the game. How can this be after Morrowind made my worst games of the year list? They fixed the combat for one. It's not only fun, but it actually works. I wasn't pounding on a lowly mud crab for twenty minutes to kill it this time around. First creature I came across after escaping the sewers in the opening sequence was the mud crab. One shot and it was dead, imagine that. The combat system continued to work for me the entire game. Things remained fairly logical. Their use of first-person view and ragdoll physics went a long way towards making the combat gameplay fun. The game also has a great story considering the type of game it is within the genre. It's told in the lushness of the world itself. Each of the guild quest lines are rich with story and character. The main story is well done fantasy standards. The writing is presented in an if you want it style. You can talk to every last NPC in the game and read the hundreds of books for story. Hell, the limited edition of the game comes with a book that's over one-hundred pages of history for the game itself. There is enough there to get lost in if you so choose. If you're not of a mind to do such a thing, the game allows for you to just access the topics at hand for whatever quest. You can easily play through the game ignoring the story entirely. There aren't any FMV sequences and drawn out cutscenes you have to sit through. The whole style of the game is essentially here's the set up, a hundred plus hours of play as you see fit gameplay, and here's the ending. It's as deep or as shallow as you want it to be. The game looks great. It's just pretty. The game isn't flawless though. It's not going to get a perfect score from me. There are some technical issues with how the game loads. The load times are rather fast, the problem is they're also frequent. There are some draw in issues as well. The game has very good voice acting with a couple of big name celebrities. The three main characters are all very well done. As are the hundreds of NPCs. The problem there is, you have the three stars for the three main characters, and then you have like four good voice actors doing everyone else. Seriously Bethesda, would a couple more actors have broken the bank? The music is another area where this applies. What's there is quite good, but again it seems like there are only a few tracks. You're going to be hearing the same handful of tracks over and over again. As I said before I thoroughly enjoyed the game and I'm surprised to find myself actually eagerly awaiting The Elder Scrolls V. But they'll probably mess it all up again... I'm giving The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion a 9.0.

Tales of Phantasia -- Final Opinion.

I have finally completed Tales of Phantasia. I ended up at level eighty-two and had a total time of fifty-three hours and twenty-seven minutes. I found the hidden character who is designed to tie the game closer to Tales of Symphonia. I completed the hidden bonus dungeon. The last battle has a new round to it that is again designed to further tie the game closer to Tales of Symphonia. The game tells a good story with likable archetype 16-bit era characters. It uses a good level of graphics given the era. It's not as generally pretty as Final Fantasy 6, but it's a more complex art design. The battle engine is fun. It comes off as very complex for the era. There is a lot of depth to the tactics needed to win a few of the battles. The dungeon design is unforgiving and tough. The dungeons are laced with puzzles that will keep you in the dungeons longer than you'd probably like.  The music is good quality and the composition is strong. There aren't as many memorable tracks as say Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger, but they work well enough. The voices are a nice gimmick, but they never really rise above a gimmick. The quest is long and will keep you considerably busy even without going for the extra content. The ties to Tales of Symphonia are good and help make the story cool. Although Tales of Phantasia came first, I would suggest playing Tales of Symphonia first. I'm going to give Tales of Phantasia an 8.0.