Okami -- The Brush Is Mightier Than the Sword.

The combat of Okami is for the most part entirely optional. Every once in a while the game will force you into a fight, normally to introduce a new enemy type. And of course the boss battles are obviously required. Normally creatures are represented by Japanese talismans floating around the overworld and dungeons. You can avoid these entirely. If you get too close to them they will attempt to collide with you initiating a battle. The battles are realtime action, but they're not seamless, they load in and out. The loading is fast and well disguised. Colliding with a talisman, intentionally or not, will cause you to be teleported to the demon world. Essentially you're trapped in a circular arena. There are cracks in the outer wall that you need to destroy if you want to flee a battle. I've personally never done that. The battles are fast paced and surprisingly strategic. You're awarded a cash bonus based on how you do as far as how much damage you've taken and how long the battle takes. End the battle quickly without taking any damage and you'll get the highest bonus possible based on the enemy types. Amaterasu is controlled with the left analog stick. The X button makes her jump. The square button is her primary attack. The triangle button is her secondary attack. The circle button is a humiliation move and is available only after having learned the move from the dojo. The same holds true for the surefoot move mapped to the R2 button. The surefoot move is a fancy name for a dodge ability. The R1 button brings up the celestial brush. So you're free to run and jump and dodge and use up to three attacks. The strategy comes into play in a couple of ways. One way is in how you've equipped Amaterasu. She's able to hold any combination of two attacks from three weapon classes. The classes each offer three attacks. So that's nine possible choices and a lot of combinations. She has a primary and secondary slot. The rosary class of attacks for example allows for projectile attacks. The reflectors allow for swipe attacks. And the glaive attacks allow her to hold a sword in her mouth. You can assign any combination however you wish. It allows for a lot of flexibility in how she controls and how the combat plays out. Another element of the strategy comes in the enemy behavior. They just don't stand there and die. They all have their own attacks and defenses. An imp with a lute for example will use said instrument to block your attacks. You can cut the strings with your celestial brush. And that's where the final element of the strategy comes into play. The creatures are very colorful and as you battle them you essentially knock the color out of them. When they're in this black and white state they're extremely susceptible to your celestial brush and it's slash attack. You just draw a line through the enemy for the slash attack. But the brush opens up numerous elements for your potential use. Almost every brush technique can be used in battle in some way. From drawing a cherry bomb to explode near an enemy to making fire from a torch leap on to an enemy to creating a gale of wind to knock an enemy off balance. There is a lot going on in the battles. You could just slash your way through everything, but you'll never be rewarded. The creativity and flexibility of the battle system make it fun to just explore the potential. I'm impressed with the battles in the game. They're fast and fun and far deeper than just hacking away.

Okami -- Painting by Numbers.

The chief mechanic of Okami is the use of what the game calls the celestial brush. You're playing as the goddess Amaterasu reborn in wolf form. You have the power to use the celestial brush. As you journey through the game you unlock more techniques that can be used with the brush. There are thirteen in all. At any time in the game you can press R1 to bring up the brush. Doing so causes time to freeze and the world goes sepia-toned. You use the left analog stick to move the brush around and either the square or triangle buttons to paint. The square button for a thin line, the triangle button for a thick line. The different techniques have different effects. Rejuvenation for example, allows you to mend a broken bridge so you can cross. You simply paint in the missing part. Greensprout-Bloom allows you to bring things such as dead trees back to life. You simply draw a circle around them. Greensprout-Water Lily allows you to create water lilies to use as platforms to make your way across large bodies of water. You simply draw a circle in the water to have the lily appear. Cherry Bomb allows you to create a small explosion. You simply draw a circle, then a line partially going out of the circle, and you have your bomb. Power Slash allows you to cut down trees, grass, bushes, and even rocks by just slashing a line through the target. These techniques don't only apply to the environment at large. You can use them in combat. All of the techniques use simple lines. It only gets as complex as drawing a circle. As long as you make the ends connect, it will register without issue. It already feels like I have a lot of techniques at the ready and I've only learned six of the thirteen. The use of the celestial brush quickly becomes very intuitive. The celestial brush mechanic works wonderfully even with the Dual Shock 2's lesser analog capabilities. It takes a few moments of fiddling with it to see what the game wants out of that technique. After that it's entirely second nature and you won't fail attempting to pull anything off. I'm impressed with the celestial brush and I've had more fun with it than anything I've seen implemented on the Nintendo DS.

Okami -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is the PlayStation 2 game Okami. The word is pronounced Oh-ka-me by the way. It's Clover Studio's via Capcom's attempt at making Zelda. The very first thing anyone is going to notice when playing Okami is the use of cel-shading graphics to replicate the look of the Japanese ukiyo-e art style. Ukiyo-e are wood block relief prints. The look is close to that of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker but are less Saturday morning cartoony and are far more stylized Japanese in nature. In short, the graphics are gorgeous, especially in the animation. Another thing that comes to mind initially is the depth of story. Okami seems packed with it where Zelda seems shallow. The controls seem fluid and responsive. However it seems there is a small learning curve with the game's celestial brush. The music comes off as heavily Japanese and perfectly fitting the visuals and scope of the adventure. Is Okami going out Zelda The Legend of Zelda? It's too early to tell. It's clear so far that Capcom is taking a real shot at it. They do have a good chance after all, they've made a couple of the best Zelda games in their GameBoy Color efforts. It appears early on that we have a real Game of the Year contender in Okami. Hopefully nothing derails that along the way. There is only one way to find out...

LEGO Stars Wars II: The Original Trilogy -- Final Opinion.

There is an awful lot to do in the supposedly kid's action game LEGO Star Wars II. Once you've been through the eighteen levels of the main game, there is a wealth of optional things to do. If you want to complete the game one-hundred percent, you'll have to play through each level in story mode once, accumulating enough LEGO Studs to earn True Jedi status. You'll need to repeat that for the tougher True Jedi status of freeplay mode. You'll have to collect the ten minikits in each level. You can collect the minikits in either mode. There are ten per level and finding them all in a level completes the full kit and recreates a Star Wars vehicle. Each time you complete a kit, earn True Jedi status, and various other actions, you'll earn a gold brick. There are ninety-nine gold bricks in all. The gold bricks are used to open special doors that access the bonus levels in each of the three episodes in the game. In each areas you'll get three types of bonus games. Super Story challenges you to play through an entire episode in one go in under an hour and to accumulate 100,000 LEGO bolts. The Player Bonus has you trying to earn one million bolts within a time limit. You'll run around an enemy infested original map based on an existing level. The Minikit Bonus has you racing against the clock to collect a million studs on an original map based on an existing level, only this time it's based around one of the vehicle levels. Each of these minigames are well done and good fun. They'll also earn you gold bricks for successful completion of the tasks. Also hidden in each of the game's main levels is a power brick. Power bricks open up new items in the shop for purchase. You'll need to buy out the shop for the totally complete game. You'll also have to buy out all the extra characters. You'll need millions and millions of bolts. The gold bricks also open up something called LEGO City, which is a bonus level where you'll have to find all one million hidden bolts. Another brick is your reward. I played the Xbox 360 version of the game and that of course means achievements. The game features achievements based on percentage of the game complete. Normally that isn't the preferred route in my opinion, but considering how all the optional stuff is taken into account, it turns out great. There are also eighteen achievements based on completing the levels without dying. A few of these come off asfreaking impossible at first. I have managed to do them all, except for the very last level.  Which still comes off as in the freaking impossible range at the moment. I am impressed with all the game has to offer beyond its eighteen main levels. Personally, I'd consider anything less than one-hundred percent incomplete, but everyone's mileage will vary. There is also a new feature allowing you to use all the parts from the characters in the game to create your own unique character for the freeplay mode. I took Leia and put her in the black Sith outfit, gave her the Episode IV bun hairstyle, and gave her a purple lightsaber. The purple lightsaber gives her the badass Mace Windu style. The game offers up a great amount of fun extra stuff on top of the same charming gameplay from the original. I really enjoyed it and I'm giving LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy an 8.5.

LEGO Star Wars II -- Today, In an Xbox 360...

I have made my way through the game for the first time. I've completed all eighteen levels which make up the original three episodes of George Lucas' epic space opera. The game plays identically to the previous LEGO Star Wars. It's classic run and jump with blaster or lightsaber combat with the vehicle stages thrown in. The setup is the same with story mode and free play mode. Story mode again restricts you to the characters who are appropriate for the story for each level. So you can't play as Han Solo on Dagobah because it didn't happen that way in the movies. Free play mode allows you to play as Han Solo on Dagobah, or anyone else as long as you've unlocked them. The game has wonderful visuals because of the art direction more than the graphics. They're appropriately next generation shiny on the X360 but they retain the charmingly sparse LEGO style. The music is all straight from the movies so it doesn't get better than that. The sense of humor and the good-natured fun of the title are what shine here. It's the same pure fun as in the original LEGO Star Wars, the only difference is the shift from episodes four through six from episodes one through three. The vehicle combat is improved and more detailed and complex this time around. To be honest, I was dreading the Hoth battle, just because I've virtually fought that battle numerous time before. I was going in with seen it a thousand times already, been there, done that mentality. I was pleasantly surprised by what they managed to do with each of the vehicle battles in this game. Purists might have a fit, but I think they've done the most important thing in making them fun again. Having played through the game you might be expecting a final opinion, but that will have to wait, as next time will cover the considerable replay factor of LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy.

Saints Row -- Final Opinion.

Saints Row versus Grand Theft Auto III, that's essentially what's happened here. For me there is a very clear winner. It's Saints Row. It's a decisive victory, but it's not a total shut out. Graphically Saints Row wins without much effort just based on its next generation nature. Beyond the next generation bells and whistles I would also say the art design is slightly ahead of GTA3. The structure of the game clearly puts it ahead of GTA3 for me. Everything is wonderfully organized and clear. Both in what needs to be done and in moving through the world. You always know what you need to do, what you've done, and where you've got to go. The onscreen map is a true improvement, there can be no debate there. The combat is also greatly improved from the purely manual targeting and weapon selection systems. No lock-on or weapon selection frustrations at all. And being able to shoot in any direction while driving is easily a welcome improvement. The voice acting in both games are very well done. I'd say they tie in that category. The stories of Saints Row and the three PS2 era GTA titles are very different beasts. The same humor level is there. They're just telling the same joke with very different voices. GTA includes a knowing wink that everyone is in on the joke. Saints Row use a voice that is a tad more subtle. The structure of the game offers up an as you want it method of telling the story. The story is split in three parts based on the three rival gangs. You can do a mission here and a mission there or you can go all the way through one specific gang at a time. I chose the later method. This structure results in a different narrative feeling to the more rigid style of GTA. Saints Row has a very cool ending in my opinion. It's going to piss off more than a few people and I'm sure it will end up much maligned. I find it quite bold and actually refreshing. The storytelling category is another in which I'd say it's a tie. It just comes down to your personal preference. Saints Row wins by default in the online category as it's the only game competing. Saints Row brings a surprisingly decent online mode. The co-op levels are fun and are far more tactical than I would have expected. The deathmatch and other like modes turned out to be a little more meatier than I also was expecting. They're not perfect by any means, but they're actually fun and interesting. Saints Row takes a back-seat in the fact that the game is missing motorcycles, boats, airplanes, and helicopters. All of which are GTA series staples at this point. Saints Row takes a hit in the music category. The music tracks they offered up, while actually being a huge amount of tracks, are hideously bad. There isn't a single decent track outside of the classical station. The game offers up a music player that needs to offer more control over the music. Part of it has to be what they're willing to spend on the music, and part of it has to be Rockstar's smart tastes in music selection. Special note must be paid to Saints Row's use of the Havok physics engine. The ragdoll physics just add a great amount of chaotic fun to the overall gameplay experience. I thoroughly enjoyed Saints Row. It turned out to be a great improvement in the mechanics of the genre. I'm giving Saints Row a 9.

LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy -- Initial Impression.

This initial impression is a little belated as I've been playing the game for three days now. The first thing that came to mind is that the spirit of the original game is clearly present. The same level of humor. The same love for the source material. It's also clear that the gameplay has also been carried over. The game seemingly plays identically to the original game as far as the on foot levels go. The graphics retain the same effect they had in the original game. They come off as charming. It looks like I'm in for the same good time the original game offered up.

Saints Row -- The Mechanics of Co-op.

There wasn't any patch but somehow the online aspect of Saints Row is now functioning. I've played the two co-op levels and I'm surprised by what's there. I was sort of expecting pure dumb run and gun fun. It is that on some level. I mean it's literally run and gun. But it's not that dumb. It takes real teamwork to get through the two levels. You have to cover each other's back. You will not survive going it alone. The levels break down as simply getting from point A to point B. You have a set number of communal lives and when you die you're set back to point A leaving the still living player wherever he was. The game respawns enemies so reuniting isn't easy. One level has you getting through an airport terminal and the other has you moving through a few blocks of city streets during a riot. The riot level has you having to move boxes through the level. That little wrinkle significantly increases the difficulty. You can't fire your weapons when carrying the boxes and they have a timer when put down. You need to deal with the steady stream of enemies and the boxes with their timers. It's far easier said than done. While playing the game it occurred to me that this is exactly how the next SOCOM game is going to play with its new online co-op mode. Of course without the stealth and military theme. The same concerns I've had about that game are realized in Saints Row. The spawning of enemies as a means of difficulty is rather frustrating. But Saints Row's online co-op is equally as fun as it is frustrating. Which I imagine is just how SOCOM is going to turn out. And if it does, then that's okay as it means it will be worth the frustration. I'd like to do without it of course, but I don't think it's going to happen.

Saints Row -- The Mechanics of Combat.

I'm roughly through eighty-six percent of Saints Row. I've completed the story missions for the Vice Kings and Westside Rollerz gangs and have started in on Los Carnales' story. I had completed all of the activities within the game before starting in on the story missions which took me about fifty-five hours. I have a couple of offline achievements to earn. The remaining achievements are all earned online. I've seen most of what Saints Row has to offer as far as offline gameplay is concerned. The changes made in the GTA formula for Saints Row coupled with the Havok physics engine result in some great action. The combat is fun and all around improved upon over GTA. Starting with the basics, the hand-to-hand combat has added depth. No longer a single button affair. You have two punches, left and right, and a kick tied to their own buttons. You can also block with a button combination. The physics of the game greatly come into play here. Punching someone in the back of the head can knock them sprawling face first into the ground. Or they can crumple down, or fall into a position based on their relation to the environment. You don't really know what you're going to get. It's a little thing that actually goes a very long way towards the overall entertainment value of the game. The same thing applies to the weapons within the game. The targets, cars and people alike, will react in surprisingly different ways because of the physics engine based on the force of the weapon and the environment. It makes for a situation wherein almost anything can happen and you'll see some freakishly funny things as a result. A couple of the design factors come into play that make the combat better than GTA's. First and foremost, there isn't any lock-on targeting like you'd find in GTA. Saints Row uses a fully manual aiming system. You have full control of the crosshairs. GTA's targeting system caused undue frustration because it would lock on to the nearest potential target instead of the greatest threat. In other words, it would lock on to the innocent bystander between you and the guy who is shooting at you. Later versions of the game would allow you to cycle the targets, but it didn't fix the problem. That issue is gone in Saints Row. Secondly, in GTA the weapon selection was also cycled. You would have to tap the button until your desired weapon came round. Effective, but not necessarily the best method. Saints Row uses a wheel system. Hit the button and the wheel pops up and you just point the stick in one of eight directions to instantly select your weapon. You don't even need to think about it after a while. You don't even need to pay attention to what you're selecting and make sure you've stopped on the correct weapon. The weapon types are locked into locations. So you know that your bare hands are at the twelve-o'clock position. The melee weapon is always at two. The thrown weapon is always at eleven. The shotgun always at six. You can instantly and confidently select the correct weapon at anytime. It's perfect really. Another factor is that you don't have to pause to load an interior location. The game goes seamlessly from most interiors and exteriors. This means no break in the action.  Another little plus that goes a long way in making a more enjoyable overall experience. I'm not sure what the next update will be about. Hopefully Volition will have patched the game so I can go online and give that a try and chase down those particular achievements. If not, it'll likely be on the storytelling of Saints Row. A final opinion will also most likely be stalled by waiting on the patch.

Saints Row -- The Mechanics of Driving.

When I was playing the Saints Row demo I came away a little iffy on the driving aspect of the game. Having played nearly thirty hours of the final game, I can say that the driving aspect is great. Somewhere near a few hours into the game you entirely forget about the driving. It becomes instinctual. You become sure of your abilities and what you can pull off if need be. You know you can make that corner or thread that needle between moving cars. Between the steering, the brake, and the emergency brake, you're left with an agile handling system that controls well and allows you to do what you need to do. The game has a few instances of the car sticking upon contact with items in the game world. But these are truly few and far between. There are some instances of the game's AI drivers doing strange things and getting in your way, but again these are few and far between. In both of these aspects, driver AI, and collision detection, I would say Saints Row performs better Grand Theft Auto. Saints Row only offers car type vehicles for the most part. You don't get any motorcycles, boats, helicopters, or airplanes in Saints Row. It's a small slight against the game. I'd rather they not be there than be poorly implemented though. The game's ragdoll physics really come into play in the collision animations between vehicles and pedestrians. For lack of a better word, they add charm to the experience. They add that little extra something special. In Grand Theft Auto you can fire your SMG from the either side of your vehicle. It's a functional system. But many times I found myself asking out of frustration why I couldn't just shoot the guy straight in front of me. Saints Row allows you to fire in any direction from your vehicle. Not only does this make more sense, but it adds a great dynamic to the gameplay. It adds more of that chaos that this genre excels at. It offers you more choices. It allows you to tackle things in different ways. The driving mechanics in Saints Row are an improvement over Grand Theft Auto. Now they just need to get the motorcycles, boats, airplanes, and helicopters into the sequel. Next time should cover the mechanics of...

Saints Row -- The Mechanics of Organization.

I have spent roughly twenty-five hours in Saints Row just doing other activities beyond the story missions. The game offers a great system of keeping track of what's been done and what needs to be done as far as all the optional activities that exist in the game. While GTA offers a means of where things are in a general fashion via an in-game map, Saints Row offers a far more detailed and clearly organized in-game map that greatly helps in keeping tabs on everything. Couple the map with the game's waypoints system that shows up both on the map in the menu and the mini-map on screen and you have a system in place that makes it impossible to get lost. It's simple, thorough, and greatly appreciated. The game also offers up a log of all the activities in the game. You can tell how far you are in each individual activity at a glance. A couple of the activities in the game like Chop Shop and Hitman have you searching for very specific targets whether they be vehicles or NPCs. There is an extremely cool feature that allows you to pin their information to the heads up display. For the Chop Shop activities for example, you need to find a type of car. You can pin the image of the car, the required specifications, and the general area in which to locate the car to the upper left corner of the screen. So you can drive around without losing track of what you're looking for. The game goes even further. Once you've got something pinned to the HUD, the target will show up on the in-game map if you're within close enough range. This greatly helps reduce any potential frustration. It's because of these very well thought out systems that I've enjoyed just working on the optional stuff while ignoring the story missions. The as you want it approach of Saints Row is a definite step up compared to the as you find it approach to GTA. Saints Row results in a system that is clear and concise and without any confusion. Next time should cover the mechanics of...