Suikoden Tactics -- Elemental, My Dear Battle.

Suikoden Tactics is your standard turn-based strategy role-playing game in the same vein as Shining Force and Fire Emblem. You control a group of up to twelve players on screen from a pool of some fifty-plus possible characters against numerous enemies and monsters. Each unit takes their turn based on their speed rating. When it's time to move one of your units, you'll select move from the menu and squares will be highlighted showing the unit's possible movement range. You'll move your character next to an enemy unit and select attack. Your unit will attack the selected enemy. You'll watch the animation, you'll see the damage. You'll select which way to face, and that unit's turn will be over. It's the standard deal for the genre that you know and either love or hate. You can use items and magic as well as attack. Still all standard. So what does a company do to make sure it's offering something new (it's this philosophy that some might argue a flaw) to whatever genre it's creating a game for? Well, Konami has gone elemental. Every unit in the game has an elemental affinity. There are fire, earth, lightning, water, and wind elements. Each element is strong against another, and weak against another element. Fire is weak against water. Water is weak against lightning. You get the idea. With this Konami has made it possible for units to alter the terrain. You can charge the ground with the fire element. A unit with fire affinity that goes into the area charged with fire will find itself with stronger attack and defensive power. Attack that unit and you're barely going to hurt it. But if a unit with an affinity towards water was to change the terrain under the fire unit's feet to water, then the units attacking the fire unit will notice their attacks doing more damage because of his weakened defenses. The enemy units will often use this to their advantage, altering the terrain and reinforcing each other so you'll need to make sure you're countering them and using the elemental terrain to your advantage. If the enemies weren't enough, Konami has added in pure elemental creatures that don't attack either side at all, but instead alter the terrain to whatever element they are. They zip around the field throwing a wrench into the plans of both sides and offer up an element of chance. It's especially fun when there are three or four of them on the field at once. The elemental terrain is an interesting wrinkle to the genre's standard fare. A couple of the pitfalls of the genre are present in Suikoden Tactics to offset what the elemental system brings to it. The biggest problem is the fact that your units can die. As in the end, no coming back, gone for good. Units can withdraw, or they can die. Withdrawing units are just injured and can't continue for that battle. It appears that merely chance determines if a character withdraws or dies. And they seemingly happen to die at the absolute worst moments possible. I'm not going to finish a battle where a character has died. That's unacceptable to me. Having a character die an hour and a half into a tough battle when there are only two enemy units left is about enough to make you pull your hair out. The other pitfall of the genre the game employs is spawning enemy reinforcements. You start a battle, you look at the lay of the land and enemy position. You plan your strategy and you set about doing it. You've cleared a bunch of enemies from the battlefield only to have enemy reinforcements arrive. They don't arrive on the edge of the battlefield where they could at least logically be tolerated. No, they just spawn at preset spawn locations at preset times. Often right around or amongst your core grouping. The concept of enemy reinforcements arriving is sound, the implementation is cheap and unfair. Suikoden Tactics offers up some good in the form of the elemental system, but brings along a couple flaws of the genre. Next time should cover the story of Suikoden Tactics...

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis -- Initial Impression.

I'll be playing Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis for the Xbox 360 while continuing along in Suikoden Tactics. I've merely messed around with an exhibition match and completed the training levels. The game looks gorgeous. I realize it's just ping pong, but it's truly next generation ping pong. The sounds are also dead on. The controls are seemingly simple and intuitive. The training levels do a good job conveying everything you need to know. The game appears to feature the standard modes of exhibition, career, and online. There also seems to be an extensive system of unlockable content. When I first heard about Rockstar's first next-generation offering being ping pong I had to chuckle. But the more I actually gave it some thought, the more it seemed like a brilliant idea for an online enabled game. If done correctly it could be a pure old-fashioned versus game of the arcades of old. Where simplicity and fun rule the day. If that is, they actually pull it off. Did they? We'll find out...

Suikoden Tactics -- Vandal Hearts 2 Was Here.

I'm about twelve hours into Suikoden Tactics and to me it's clearly borrowing from Konami's own Vandal Hearts 2. The game has an overworld, town, and battle flow. The overworld is just a map with hot spots and connecting dots between them. You just point and click and your icon moves to where you want it to go. The towns are just as they were in Vandal Hearts 2. They're menu screens. When you click on an area on the map, you'll go to a screen that will offer you a few choices. You can go to the outfitter, blacksmith, rune master, quest guild, or gossip. The outfitter is the shop. There you can buy and sell armor and items. As this is a Suikoden game of sorts, the blacksmith is where you can sharpen and therefore strengthen your weapons. You never get new weapons, you can only make the one you have stronger throughout the game. Again, being a Suikoden game, you can buy and attach runes to your characters with the rune master option. The runes provide you with magic and other abilities. The quest guild is an option available in Middleport. It allows you to earn extra potch and skill points by doing various jobs for people. There are two kinds of quests. Ones where you'll go out and do whatever needs to be done yourself. The other type are dispatch quests where you'll select a member of your group to handle the job while you go about the business of playing the game. Moving around the map causes time to pass in the game. The dispatch quests will require the character you selected to be unavailable to your group for the duration of the job.  The quests also require some conditions to be met to be successful. You'll need to select a character that will have certain levels high enough whether they be power, speed, magic, defense, or the like. Gossip is a menu option that will allow you to talk to the various people in the location for you to pick up on rumors and other information. Suikoden Tactics employs the exact same system style as Vandal Hearts 2 as far as the towns and overworld are concerned. I for one really like this system. It's very much to the point. The menus for the towns and the like are filled with nice art. The music is a collection of various Suikoden themes. The quest guild aspect allows for you to flesh out the world if you so want to. It's entirely optional. If you so wanted you could just go from battle to battle to battle. It's the best of both worlds in a how you want it package. Next time I'll cover the combat system, which of course is the actual heart of the game.

Suikoden Tactics -- Initial Opinion.

It's back to the PlayStarion 2 and back to Suikoden for my next game. Suikoden Tactics is an offshoot of the series proper. It's a turn-based strategy RPG. The game takes place in and around the time of Suikoden IV. It's so connected to Suikoden IV that it uses the completed save file from the game. Suikoden Tactics starts off with Snowe and the hero of Suikoden IV as children late at night in the back streets of Razril. That was something I wasn't expecting. I have played through the first three battles of the game and what's clear is just how much someone would miss out on not having played Suikoden IV before Suikoden Tactics. What's also clear is the game uses a cel-shaded graphic style that's very different from that of Suikoden IV. It's cool to see such a different graphic take on the characters and locations of Suikoden IV. The game employs an elemental system that might take some getting used to. I'm not sure at this point if I'm going to like it. Those wacky Japanese can't just do something traditionally, they have to add some system into the works. However at this point in the game, I'm definitely intrigued by such a strong Suikoden IV connection and I'm interested to see where it all goes.

New Super Mario Bros. -- Final Opinion.

I have fully completed New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS. The game is fully complete when you've met three conditions. You've cleared all the levels including the secret ones, you've collected all the Star Coins, and you've spent all the star coins. Your save file will have a star by it for each of those conditions. A three star save file represents a fully completed game. How did Nintendo do with their return to a classic? Except for the two problems I covered last entry, they did a great job. New Super Mario Bros. delivers ninety levels of 2D gameplay platforming bliss wrapped up in 3D polygons. The game's graphics are as sharp and vibrant and charming as they should be for a Mario game. The sounds are again as sharp and vibrant and charming as they should be for a Mario game. The less is more approach to the voices is a very welcome addition. The level designs are as good as anything that's come before it. They offer up a real challenge in the later levels. The controls are perfect. They feel the same as they ever did, in spite of the sometimes cramp-inducing NDS. The lack of any real story is also quite welcome. Everything about the game works except for hunting down needed items and the save system. Nintendo needs to get right to work on New Super Mario Bros. 2. If they deliver everything that is good about New Super Mario Bros. and fix the item placement and offer a save anytime system, they'd have perfection. As it stands now New Super Mario Bros. gets an 8.5 from me.

New Super Mario Bros. -- Save Me With Your Charm.

I'm rounding up the last things to do in world 7. I just need a couple more Star Coins. I already have all the hidden exits. Then it's off to the final section of the game, world 8. Last time I said there were a couple aspects of the game that were less than great. Having played through most of the game at this point, I can say with more certainty that those aspects remain. The first one is the save system. You can't save whenever you want. They obviously decided on this to increase the game's overall challenge. You can save after key levels, like the tower and castle stages. Or by spending Star Coins on the world maps to unlock new paths. You'll be prompted to save after each path is opened. The problem is this method sometimes keeps the player playing longer than he might have wanted to. If you're going back to get that missed Star Coin or look for the hidden exit from some level and that takes you a good deal of time and effort once you're successful you'll have to advance forward up to a few levels to be able to actually save. It becomes about budgeting your time. It's I'll complete this level, and then I'll go back and look for that coin I'm missing, and then I'll go on and open that path so I can save. Or even worse, I'll go on and complete the tower or castle so I can actually save. It's a hassle. The other area that is less than great is in the having to go hunt down the items you need to get by certain parts of the game. Mostly in collecting the star coins and finding the hidden exits. You'll need a mini-mushroom so you can jump that extra bit, or you'll need a blue shell so you can break those blocks. The problem is the game doesn't make those available to you with any certainty. You'll have to try your luck in one of the item houses, assuming they're still around, try your luck with one of the random item generating boxes, or try your luck with the ?-boxes or Hammer Bros. that are moving about the map. It's compounded by needing to actually luck into getting the item you need, then actually holding on to it through whatever level you found it in. You must complete the level to keep it. Then you have to go back to the level you need to use it on, and actually manage to make it back through the level to where you'll make use of it without losing it. Then you have to manage to successfully use it, and then actually make it through the rest of the level. And then there is the save system coming into play again. Now that you've managed to pull that off, you have to play on to actually get to a save point. I know Nintendo feels the sleep mode is an answer. And for those who actually might use their NDS on the road, it might be. I don't.  I play at home. And the solution isn't to put my game into sleep mode. I want to save and power off. I don't agree with the design choices employed by Nintendo here at all. I think they're two real mistakes that detract from the game.

New Super Mario Bros. -- A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That.

New Super Mario Bros. is an amalgamation of the best bits of the previous Mario titles in the series. There is a little of this and a little of that from just about every entry in the series. You have the classic gameplay and tight controls as well as the hidden secrets from the original Super Mario Bros. You have the challenge of Super Mario Bros. 2, the real Super Mario Bros. 2, not the retooled Doki Doki Panic released in the US as Super Mario Bros. 2. You have the special items like the Mega and Mini Mushrooms and Shell Mario that are in the same vein as the Tanooki Suit from Super Mario Bros. 3. You also have Super Mario Bros. 3's overworld map and level structuring. They've incorporated Super Mario World's graphic and background style and are using that game's best feature, the ghost houses. Much like Super Mario World did before it, New Super Mario Bros. shows off the bells and whistles of the system. Super Mario World was a parade of graphical effects that they couldn't do before the Super Nintendo. New Super Mario Bros. has very much the same parade and vibe with what the NDS can do graphically. From Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island they've taken the red coin and "morphmation" systems. It really is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I believe the developers have taken what they feel are the best elements from each game and have cobbled them together in hopes of truly trying to create something special. It's a smart approach. I have opened up six of the game's eight worlds and have managed to fully complete the first three. I can say that parts of the game have reached greatness, and there are one or two aspects of the title that are clearly less than great. I'll cover those next time...

New Super Mario Bros. -- Initial Opinion.

This initial opinion is a little bit different as I haven't played the game yet. This is more of a question. Can one return home again? In other words, does New Super Mario Bros. even stand a chance at living up to expectations? Is it bound to disappoint based on not living up to the nostalgia? Depending on who you ask, it's been eleven or fifteen years since the last traditional 2D playing Mario platformer has been released. Not everyone agrees that 1995's Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island belongs (it does) and would go back to 1991's Super Mario World as the last one. Whatever your take on it, it's been a long while and nostalgia has firmly set in. Can any title live up to it? I hope so, but I also doubt that it can. For the most part, the saying is you can never go home again. Meaning that nothing is the same when you do. You can never recapture your youth and innocence. Will people be able to judge New Super Mario Bros. for what it actually is, or will it be judged unfairly against a nostalgia boosted Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, or Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island?

Ys Eternal -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Ys Eternal within Ys I & II Complete and have thoroughly enjoyed it like almost every version of the game I've played. Falcom has done an amazingly cool job updating the original Ys: Ancient Vanished Omen. They've remained remarkably faithful to the original. They've updated the graphics from some of 1987s best to 2001s gorgeous 2D art. They've updated what amounts to the best gaming score of 1987 to very faithful 2001 MIDI. The level of animation is detailed and smooth. They've added a beautiful FMV intro. They've given every last NPC a name and expanded on the character of the story. They did alter the overworld just a tiny bit. In location placement specifically. Most notably the location of the abandoned mine and the existence of the entirely new Port Barbado. They did however remain totally faithful to the dungeon designs. They're exactly the same as far as their layouts go. And of course they left the battle system unchanged. They did however add a run feature for Adol. This fourth version of the game for me was just as charming and just as endearing as the original. The game was still a blast to play and reminds me of why I play video games in the first place. For the fun of it all. You won't find a more enduringly fun game than Ys. I'm giving Ys Eternal a 9.5. I won't be jumping right into Ys Eternal II as New Super Mario Bros. hits stores in about a day. I'll be killing time with Uno until then.

Uno -- All In One.

Uno was released on Xbox Live Marketplace a few days ago and went for four-hundred Microsoft Points. That's essentially five dollars for an online enabled card game. And easily one of the best purchases I've made so far. Uno is pretty much a perfect card game. This version of the game is a simple, but well made Flash based version that delivers everything from the card game you could want. Online four-player games are the heart of this one and there are enough options to allow you to play it your way. You can play a classic game with standard rules and scoring, or you can play in a mode that's called house rules where you set your own rules and scoring style. Depending on your luck of the draw with who you play with online of course, most games are about sitting around and bullshitting and goofing off as much as they are about the actual card game. Just as it is in real life. I mean listening to Riddel get goofy or ZBo flirt with a stranger of a mother from New Orleans is as much as part of the fun as the game itself. This is a wonderful facet allowed by Xbox Live. Uno is another title that just shows the brilliance of Xbox Live on the Xbox 360. I'm giving Uno a 9.5. Pure and simple fun.

Ys 1 & 2 Complete -- Initial Impression.

After completing Fight Night: Round 3 I needed something quick I could fit in before the must play day one title New Super Mario Bros. arrives in three days so I decided on Ys: Ancient Vanished Omen from Ys 1 & 2 Complete. This will be the fourth version of the original Ys I've played. I've played the SEGA Master System, Famicom, and TG-16 CD versions. This particular version of Ys was released in 2001 on Japanese computers. It features the best graphics to date, updated sound and FMV, and new scenarios and an expanded and more fleshed out story. I have played through the start of the game to completing Solomon Shrine. That's roughly one-third of the game leaving the abandoned mine and Darm's Tower.  That's enough for me to be sure how well this one is going to turn out...

Fight Night: Round 3 - Final Opinion.

I have completed Fight Night: Round 3 for the Xbox 360 having earned all of the achievements. Is it the best boxing game ever made? Does it unseat Evander Holyfield's "Real Deal" Boxing as the champion? Almost, but not quite. The game has a lot going for it, but there are two issues that keep it from being the best. First and foremost is the front-end interface. You load up the game, and then it asks you to select the storage device. You select the harddrive, as it's the only thing you have. See how that works? Why doesn't it just check? Now it'll load your saved system settings, which for me will fully silence the hideous licensed hiphop music, and then the game will ask for you to select a profile to load. You select your profile and are then able to access the main menu. From there you'll select your game mode and you'll begin to play. Whenever it comes time to save something, it'll again ask you to select the storage device. Why not use the one I'm playing off of? The only one available? Does the system tell the game there is another potential storage device? No, it doesn't. Now I understand the logic here for EA. They're offering up a system in which multiple players can have their own profiles and various games and settings. But why the hell is it so annoying? It should be automated for the single user. All it takes is for the option of saving to current game, or save elsewhere to pop up when it needs to save. Why does it make you jump through considerable hoops every single time? Because it's a badly implemented front-end. So much so that I'm docking the game one full point for it. Now, the other issue is in the game proper. It's the cheapness in how Electronic Arts has artificially inflated the difficulty for the end game bouts. Even though I've trained my fighter so that his statistics are superior to whatever my opponent's may be, the numbers lie. The opponent is able to take whatever you throw at them. They aren't stunned or bothered by the hardest hits anymore. Their AI switches to just charge in nonstop. Never tiring. They never stop punching. You essentially end up pounding on them well beyond what should be needed to take them down. Whereas you're still susceptible to their attacks on the same level you always were. It doesn't take much for them to knock you around at this stage. And with them just bulldogging you relentlessly the entire time, it's not hard for them pull it off. For most ofthe game the challenge is perfect and honest. It's only near the end where they've unnecessarily inflated the challenge to silly proportions. Another point taken away for that. So Fight Night Round 3 ends up with an 8.0. The rest of the game is great. The controls are perfect. There is a configuration that will just about fit anyone. All boxing styles are well represented. You can set your basic style, punch, and defensive styles independently from each other allowing you to create a boxer that suits your own sense of style. The game offers up a few modes of play from classic, to fight now, to career, to Xbox Live. Fight now just allows you to select a pre-made boxer and jump into a single fight. Classic allows you to play as one side of a famous boxing match on the level of Ali Vs. Fraser or Hopkins Vs. Jones Jr. There are numerous classic matches to select from. Career mode is the bulk of the game. You'll create your boxer and take him through his entire career. You'll start off by signing a contract. In most cases you'll have a few to select from. You'll have to pay attention to details like the opponent's skill ratings, the purse offered, any bonuses for wining under certain conditions, and how long until the fight night. Your fighter will age through career mode. You need to get to the end before you're out of your prime as you'll start losing skills at that point and it will become tougher. Once you've selected a contract, you'll have to train for the fight. You'll select a trainer, each one with their own strengths to better help you raise a specific stat. There are three training minigames and you can only do one per training session and you get one training session per contract. Hitting the targeting dummy will raise your boxer's speed and endurance. Weight training will raise their power. Hitting the heavy bag will raise their stats regarding cuts and their ability to withstand damage and the like. You have to keep focused on where you want to end up and when to train what over the course of your career. After training you'll go on to the fight. After the fight it's back to selecting a contract. With each successful fight, you'll gain popularity. Gain enough popularity and you'll get a shot at a special fight. The special fights unlock achievements. You repeat this cycle all the way through trying to become the champion, and once becoming the champion, in unifying the titles. There is what's called the fight store where you're able to buy new outfits and better equipment for your fighter with the winnings from your fights. More stuff in the fight store is unlocked as you win more fights. Xbox Live mode is where you go online to face another player. Online you can use your career mode fighter once he's been retired. Otherwise you can use a stock created fighter or play as any number of famous boxers. The gameplay itself is very well done. It controls perfectly and effectively conveys the science of the sport. A button masher won't survive long against anyone who knows what they're doing. The player model graphics are impressive. And they react and contort amazingly to the punches and damage they're taking. The backgrounds are good, but not great. The sound design is right on target and some of the hit sounds will make you cringe. The announcer does a better than average job of calling the fight and isn't as annoying as announcers typically tend to be. I really enjoyed Fight Night Round 3 and I'll be interested to see what they do in Round 4. Hopefully they'll streamline the front-end and keep the end game challenge fair. Do that, and they'll have the best boxing game ever made. But for now Evander Holyfield's "Real Deal" Boxing remains, in my opinion, the best bit-for-bit boxing game in the world.

Fight Night: Round 3 -- Initial Impression.

I've been playing EA's Fight Night: Round 3 for the Xbox 360. In my opinion, the best true boxing title in the world is Evander Holyfield's "Real Deal" Boxing by SEGA for the Genesis. And for that you'd have to go back to 1992. What I mean by true boxing is a game actually portraying any sort of realism. Punch-Out! and Super Punch-Out! are greatness, but they're not real boxing games. Evander Holyfield's "Real Deal" Boxing lived up to its name. It was the real deal. It was the first game to deliver the science of boxing. Boxing is referred to as the sweet science after all.  There is an art to it. It's not just two guys standing there blasting away at each other. Electronic Arts' has an advertising slogan of "If it's in the game, it's in the game" for all their sports titles which conveys that whatever is in the sport will be in the video game. That they're going to deliver everything that makes the sport the sport to you in game form. From what I've played so far I'd have to say that Electronic Arts has actually come very close to pulling that off. The game seems to deliver the whole science of boxing, as well as the spectacle, culture, and character. And it seems to do it with good control and great visuals. What's also immediately apparent is that Electronic Arts uses an annoying front end to both the offline and online games. It's rather clear that the immensely competitive Riddel is such the dirty fighter. Will EA's Fight Night Round 3 take the championship belt away from Evander Holyfield's "Real Deal" Boxing and become the best boxing game yet made? We'll have to wait until it's gone the distance.

E3 2006 -- Sony.

Sony had their E3 press conference today. The important details were revealed. The PlayStation 3 will launch worldwide on November 17, 2006.  It will be sold in two versions and two colors. The colors are silver and clear black, whatever that is. Version one features a 20GB HDD and retails for $499. Version two features a 60GB HDD, HDMI output, Wi-fi, Compact Flash / SD / Memory Stick slot and retails for $599. Okay, so the thing is expensive. So then, are the games so obviously superior to those of the X360? Not even close to that from what was shown at the conference. They made a big deal about playable content at the conference, and then proceeded to show replay footage of a Gran Turismo tech demo based off GT4 and bumped up on PS3 hardware. They had someone from the production team for Genji 2 come out and play a bit of the game. The guy appeared to have no idea what he was doing and was trying to show some new concepts the PS3 allows for with a boss battle. He couldn't find the boss. It took him a while to figure out where the boss comes from. This is someone heading up a team. He proceeds to flip over a giant crab and attacks a weakpoint. This ladies and gentlemen is a sample of the new concepts you'll be able to do on the PS3. Are they serious? There was a reel of footage for games that couldn't be played and would be out in the post launch window. Most of the footage wasn't gameplay. When your most impressive bit of footage is a bunch of zebras eating grass by a watering hole in a game named Afrika where it's impossible to discern whatever any gameplay might be like, you're not exactly putting your best foot forward in my opinion. They talked a lot about their online strategy. Which is best described as a complete and total rip-off of Xbox Live Marketplace, albeit free of charge. They're offering the bare minimum of services offered by Xbox Live. They're offering what amounts to voice chat, text messaging, email, video feeds and most importantly micro-transactions. They've made it clear that they want you to buy stuff. New music, new levels, new games. The free aspect comes into play in that it looks like a free service. It doesn't look as polished or as complete as Xbox Live from what was shown. This isn't even taking into account that their actual online game playing is still up to each developer to handle. None of Xbox Live's unity. None of its standards. You're essentially getting what you pay for here. A means to communicate with other gamers and a way to buy things from Sony and others. Sony had no shame in calling what they were offering innovative. That was only the first act. The second act of blatant thievery and audacity in calling something innovation came when they revealed the final controller for the system. Guess what? It's a PlayStation 2 Dual Shock 2 controller without the rumble, because they lost that lawsuit, you know the one where they were accused of stealing the rumble technology. But they didn't stop there. The controller has what amounts to a Xbox button on it. Just like the Xbox 360's controller. The controller is wireless now. The real surprise was in telling everyone that they've stolen Nintendo's Wii controller's tilt sensing functions. The PS3 controller can sense in six ways. X, Y, and Z give it a sense of where it is. Pitch, yaw, and roll give it a sense how it's positioned. So in other words you'll be able to tilt the controller this way and that to control an airplane and the like. In fact, they had a guy from the team making the game Warhawk come out and demonstrate the controller. He seemed to have decent enough control over the ship in the game, but he was jerking around like a near spaz. That's not something I'm exactly looking forward to seeing. My initial impression here is that Sony has messed up. The pricing may come to bite them in the ass. They didn't seem to offer any games that will wow the people to the point of justifying the price. They've reinforced Nintendo's concept and help to promote it as something other than a gimmick. They've reinforced Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace as the future. They've allowed for Microsoft to build on their lead as the place to play grown-up games, should Microsoft be able to deliver a few good to great exclusives for the system that is. A really good Halo 3 trailer might be able to do that alone at this point.  It will be interesting to see how Nintendo and Microsoft do with their respective turns. Right now, as of this day, I'd say Sony's in trouble. I think they have a hard sell right now, and I'm not sure that Jak & Daxter 17 and Gran Turismo 5 and the "We own everything, why try" version of Madden will do it for the average gamer. Not at that price. As for me personally, they announced that the only two games I consider must own titles on the system won't be out until 2007. They're Metal Gear Solid 4 and Virtua Fighter 5. So I don't need this system this year. They did do one thing right though, the PS3 will play PS2 and PSX games. I don't need to pay $600 for backwards compatibility. The only thing it has to offer me right now.

Suikoden IV -- Final Opinion.

Thirty-nine and a half hours later I've reached the end of Suikoden IV. The game is considered the black sheep of the series by most fans. I actually liked most of it a great deal. The no filler straightforward storytelling and world design really helped in streamlining a series that's always been stuffed to the gills with things to do. That's not to say that the game is empty. All the things that make Suikoden what it is are still there. The army collecting, the army battles, the duels, the world exploration, the dungeons, the minigames, and the collecting of items to decorate your base are all well represented. The graphics are sparse in style and work well enough. They won't be turning any heads though. That goes for the character models and world design as well as the bestiary and combat backgrounds. The music is standard Suikoden stuff. Not as many reused themes overall in this one. The story is still politics and lies just as it should be. It's well done and the least complex of the series. The battle system is classic Suikoden with four characters in the party instead of six. It's still fast and the attacks take place in an all-at-once fashion wherever possible. The game is just exceedingly solid. I enjoyed it far more than I expected to given its reputation. I'm giving Suikoden IV an 8.

Suikoden IV -- The 108 Stars of Destiny.

I'm just over thirty hours into Suikoden IV and have to my surprise already recruited all one-hundred and eight Stars of Destiny. As anyone who has played a Suikoden game knows the series is famous for building an army. Suikoden believes in the it takes a village theory. You need to recruit people to your cause. In Suikoden IV your cause is stopping the Kooluk Empire's plans for expansion by invading your region of the world. Of course that's just the premise as the story will twist and turn with all the political maneuvering and posturing the series is also famous for. Suikoden IV takes place a good amount of time before the original Suikoden and as a result there isn't a lot of connections to other games in the series. A few series regulars show up, but less than the series norm. I'm surprised how streamlined Suikoden IV is. This is a very focused story. Maybe it's just coming off the three point of view style of Suikoden III where the story focus shifted all over the place and jumped back and forth through time that is seems so focused. It might also be that the world design is sort of less filler and more to the point. There are roughly twelve locations in total with just open ocean between them. The map is drawn in as you go, but there is a pointer that will tell you where you need to head next to advance the story as long as you've discovered the location. It also makes collecting the Stars of Destiny much easier as they're scattered around fewer locations. Everything that is Suikoden is in place for Suikoden IV. It's just made more focused for this particular outing. I'm enjoying the game and really like the straightforward story. I believe I'm just before the final battles but might be woefully unprepared for them. I'm going to have to take some time and build up a few different party lineups. I'll need to get the cash to equip them in the best armor I can buy and to upgrade their weapons as much as I can. It shouldn't be long before the credits roll on Suikoden IV and the final opinion.

Peter Jackson's King Kong -- The Official Game of the Movie -- Final Opinion.

I have completed King Kong. I've earned my one-thousand Gamerpoints. Nothing to it in fact. You'll earn all the achievements in just completing the game. See the credits roll and there is no way to miss your one-thousand points. King Kong is definitely not going to be the king of the video game jungle.  While it looks very pretty and has a great sound design, the gameplay just falls short. When playing as Jack, you're stuck on this very linear and constrained path. You never feel as if you're not having your hand held.  The game attempts to limit your ammo and wants you to have to think on your feet to get by the environmental puzzles and hazards. The problem is, there are like three puzzle types repeated again and again. It's the same situation with the combat for Jack. The game uses a food chain system. In other words, the animals on Skull Island eat each other and you can use that to your advantage in distracting the creatures higher up in the chain. Spear a larva with a spear or bone you're using as a weapon and then throw it somewhere so a predator will go over and eat it allowing you to sneak by unnoticed.  Or you might have to ignite a spear and throw it into a tangle of thorn bushes to clear your path. Pretty cool, if not for the fact that you'll be doing each one what seems like a few hundred times in an action game that's about eight hours long.  Kong's levels don't fair too much better. They are exceedingly cool to watch I'd imagine, but the problem is you have to play them. He's entirely on rails between the large areas meant for fighting. In the combat the camera angles aren't the best and you'll often find yourself facing into the screen trying to defend against something charging in from off screen. Kong has some collision detection issues. You'll often fail to grab an enemy or punch through them. Another issue is the game's pacing. You never get to stop and smell the roses so to speak. It's all "Oh my God! Run! Run! Run! (Pant pant pant) Oh my God! Run! Run! Run!" There are so many creatures and their attacks so constant that Skull Island has to be the most populated island on the whole planet. There isn't a single thirty square foot section of the island without some amazingly dangerous predator just waiting to bite your face off. And for there being such a food chain system in place, it's more than a little strange that they will seemingly work together when you're around and attack you in spite of what eats them being right there. Natives included. Must be really big fans of white meat. King Kong is a game that would be a great rental. It's worth taking the ride once. It's not something I'll likely ever come back to. I'm giving Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie a 7.

Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie -- Initial Impression.

I've started in on Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie for the Xbox 360. You have Peter Jackson's bloated take on the immortally classic 1933 film King Kong as the source material. You have Michel Ancel, the creator of the Rayman games and Beyond Good & Evil, handling the game itself. You have all the parts for something good in place. Did they make something good? I have no idea. From my initial impression I can say that the game is very pretty in the environmental detail. The human character modeling less so. Kong and some of the other larger creatures models are impressive. The voices are straight from some of the movie's actors and they're voicing new dialog. The human gameplay seems to be what I'd call nearly on-rails. You're free to move about on your own, but the paths available to you are tight and restricting. The one level of Kong gameplay I've played comes off as also partially on rails. Kong's initial level has him chasing after Ann who has been taken by Skull Island's other inhabitants. He moves between free movement areas where combat takes place by use of on-rails paths. It's to provide a very cinematic presentation for Kong. My initial impression makes me wonder if it'll be worth it in the end. It might be too little freedom. We'll have to see.