Star Wars: The Force Unleashed -- Initial Impresion.

Like most of you, I'm sitting on a rather large backlog of games made worse by the recent holiday season. I decided to go back and play the oldest game of the newer backlog comprising of games of this holiday season. So that means it's time for me to return to that long ago and far away galaxy of Star Wars. I'll be playing the Xbox 360 version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. The game is set between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and Episode IV: A New Hope. You'll take on the role of Darth Vader's apprentice. The story of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is actually considered to be a big deal as it has officially been accepted as canon by LucasArts. The game is an action title where you'll be using Force powers to essentially run amok with the Havok physics engine. My initial impression is that the game looks very cool and some serious effort has gone in to crafting a true Star Wars experience. The controls initially seem tight and responsive but there appears to be a decent learning curve as they ramp up in complexity. The game initially comes off a bit tough. We'll have to see where that goes.

Saints Row 2 -- Final Opinion.

Magus and I have completed Saints Row 2 for the Xbox 360 with a total time of one-hundred and three hours. That's one-hundred percent through the story, all of the activities and diversions, and all of the collection. Saints Row 2 is a massive game. You should know the drill for a sandbox title. A large open world to roam and cause mayhem within. Saints Row 2 retains the structure of the original Saints Row. You need to earn enough respect to advance through the story. Each activity or story mission nets you more respect. After initially messing around the world those first few hours Magus and I set about going through all the activities and diversions. That took us roughly seventy hours. As we did this we would paint a tag when found, or collect a CD, or do a stunt jump. And as we worked our way through the activities and diversions we were constantly rewarded for our efforts. New weapons, unlimited ammo, cars, improved sprinting, fire resistance, and a plethora of other rewards. That's one of the best things about Saints Row 2, you're constantly rewarded with unlockables as you go. Once we were done we set about finishing off the collection aspect. This took roughly another twenty hours. And then we set about completing the story which took roughly thirteen hours. Saints Row 2 is largely Saints Row unchanged. It's still the wildly fun sandbox filled to the brim with stuff to do. What's actually new is very substantial. The most important of the bunch being able to play the entire game in online co-op. While Crackdown might have done it first, Saints Row 2 is a major step up considering just how much there is to do and how much story there is. Having Magus along provided for some great comedy, the prevention of retrying missions by being able to resurrect each other, and some great and instant commentary. Talking about something as it happened or right after is superior to telling a story later on or comparing situations once the other had played through whatever game potentially months later. It'll be rough going back to a sandbox game without co-op. As for the particulars of the game, the graphics are decent. They get the job done but they're not going to win any awards. The design of Stillwater is however quite impressive. It's a great sandbox city filled with interesting locations. The sound is great all around. The voice work is top notch. The sound effects are great. The music is really good. Albeit there aren't a lot of tracks per radio station overall. But the selections are all around awesome. The game offers a large multiplayer versus mode. Unlike the first game's more stand alone versus mode, Saint Row 2's encompasses the core game and world. The versus has everything from the game and adds a large amount of strategy to team play. The game's story is again much like the first one. Smaller interconnected stories based on the different gangs with an overriding arc towards a main story. The game relishes in the over the top and pulls no punches. It's just all about the bombastic and fun. It doesn't even begin to take itself even remotely seriously. The game openly mocks itself. There are some flaws to the game however. A mention of just how buggy and glitchy the game is must be made. You will encounter a glitch or bug. Not the game is buggy and you might hit a glitch. No, you will be hit with a glitch. Luckily none of them were game or achievement breaking for us. And Gary Busey wasn't in the game. After those amazingly insane promos for the game, I was expecting him to be in the actual game. I really enjoyed Saints Row 2. I am giving the game a 9. I can't wait to see what they come up with for Saints Row 3.

Phantasy Star Zero -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me will be the Japanese version of Phantasy Star Zero for the Nintendo DS. I could not control myself and went ahead and imported the title from Japan. Oh, I'm sure it'll get a western release. It's just with Phantasy Star Portable not scheduled to hit the US until late March it makes me think that Phantasy Star Zero's release is more than just a bit further down the line. If it weren't for the thousands of hours I've spent with all the versions of Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Universe I doubt I'd be able to wander through the menus with any sort of enjoyment. My initial impression is that the game looks amazing for a 3D Nintendo DS title. I'm also initially impressed with how well it controls. And I'm initially absolutely delighted by how very Phantasy Star Online it all feels. As of this entry I've managed to clear the first area through the boss. It's good to note the boss was more involved than I was expecting. And that the first boss wasn't even the dragon featured in all the promo shots and movies like I was expecting. I don't know how far I'm going to be taking this game as I do want to save something for the US version where I'll be going online. Time will tell...

Saint's Row 2 -- Methodically Climbing That Hill.

I know it's been a while between updates but I haven't exactly been avoiding gaming. Magus and I have roughly fifty-seven hours into Saints Row 2 with a completion percentage of roughly forty-five percent. We've been methodically knocking off all of the extra things to do in Stillwater. The activities like Trailblazing and Snatch and diversions like taxi and the tow truck missions. We're almost up that hill. We have just one more activity to finish and that's Heli Attack. After that we'll have the rest of the story missions of which we've only completed four thus far. And we'll have the collection aspects of the graffiti tags, music CDs, stunt jumps, and barnstorming. We're almost done with the tags, and just under half of the CDs, and just over half of the jumps. We've yet to start in on the barnstorming. From playing with Magus I've noticed he's clearly a by-the-seat-of-his-pants type of gamer. He does what suits him in the moment. I wonder what it's been like for him playing with me, as I take a far more systematical and structured approach to getting through sandbox titles. This entry is really nothing more than a progress report and the next one should take on the subject of the game experience itself.

Hakuna Matata -- Final Opinion.

Hakuna Matata for the PlayStation 3 is one part infotainment and one part relaxation title as I said in the previous entry. The game is a series of missions conveyed via email at your base camp in eastern Africa. You have to go out into the African wilderness and seek out and take photos of various animals. As you begin the game you're limited by your equipment. You only have the one basic camera. As you complete missions you're able to purchase better cameras and better lenses and other tools to help you take better photos. The game guides you through the world expanding it as you go. As you get further along the more options you'll gain control over. With the cameras and lenses you'll start to be able to adjust just about every real life camera option photography has to offer. And you'll be able to start using tools like remote cameras that will allow you to take close up images of animals. The missions will ask for very specific images. A meerkat standing on its hind legs or an ostrich mid mating ritual for example. The game is truly peaceful and relaxing. It's fun to track down an animal type and attempt to get into the best position and take the best possible photo your current equipment allows. The graphics are a mixed bag. The game looks okay from far away, but some of the close up shots can be amazing. The animal animations are a tad stiff. Especially at a distance. The music is sparse but appropriately cinematic. On the infotainment side of things I was a little disappointed in how much information is given on each creature. You get a basic encyclopedia entry. I would have liked a little more in depth information and longer video footage. I was also a little surprised by the severe load times and especially the severe save times. We're talking upwards of forty-five seconds to save. Overall the game is a success at what it sets out to do. I'm giving Hakuna Matata a 7.

Hakuna Matata -- Initial Impression.

While I continue to wreak havoc in Stillwater with Magus in Saints Row 2 I'll be starting a new game to play on the side. That game is going to be Hakuna Matata for the PlayStation 3 as I have imported the Asian version of the game. You might remember Hakuna Matata as Afrika. The game was one of the first titles shown for the PlayStation 3, and it left everyone wondering just what the hell it actually was beyond looking pretty. The game turns out to be a photo safari title. You're out to take pictures of the animals in a specific region of eastern Africa. The game is a photo safari title. Not a hunting safari title. So there is no violence. You can't shoot any animals. You can't run them over. You can't blow them up or otherwise set them on fire. The game is a mix between edutainment and relaxation title. You should be able to actually learn something, and relax, and enjoy yourself, and have fun if Rhino Studios have done their jobs. My initial impression of the game seems they might have done just that, and maybe only that.

Saints Row 2 -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me will be a return to the city of Stillwater in Saints Row 2 for the Xbox 360. Things got a little hot the last time I was there. The story picks up years later with the player character from the original game having been in a prison hospital in a coma the entire time. You'll wake up looking a bit different based on your choices made in the insanely detailed character creation system. You'll break out of prison to find the Saints in disarray and that Stillwater has undergone some drastic changes. You'll then set about reclaiming all that was yours. What am I expecting from Saints Row 2? More of the same wildly fun and goofy good time from the first game. Only this time I won't be alone. Saints Row 2 offers co-op. Not just co-op, but the real deal. Full co-op throughout the entirety of the main campaign. Everything in the game can be done in co-op. I'll have Magus and his golden afro sporting character along for the ride. Based on the first night's playing, we're in for some fun. We essentially spent about an hour messing around in the character creation, it's that detailed. We then proceeded through the first two story missions. Getting out of prison, and arriving at our first safe house. We then proceeded to essentially just mess around and explore. Goofing around with the combat engine and seeing what the physics engine could do for roughly four hours. We spent most of that time laughing. While Grand Theft Auto moved closer to wanting to be taken far more seriously it's clear Saints Row 2 has no such allusions. And that bodes well, for the fun of it.

Sonic Unleashed -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Sonic Unleashed for the Xbox 360. Or I should say I've gone as far as I'm going to go with the game. I've completed the main story and have seen the credits roll. There is still technically a lot of stuff to do towards one-hundred percent completion in the game. The game is quite massive in that regard. In Japan the title of the game is Sonic World Adventure. I have no doubt that Sonic Unleashed began production as Sonic Adventure 3. That's really what the game is. You'll explore towns and villages across the world. Each town or region in the Xbox 360 version has what's called an entrance gate. It's a little hub world for all of that region's missions. You'll have to explore and find the stages. You'll need to return to them later on after having acquired new moves and abilities to access areas within the hubs you previously weren't able to. It works in a very Metroid-lite kind of way. The game adds in the concept of day and night cycles and includes having Sonic transform in the moonlight like a werewolf. There are specific missions for night and day. And the gameplay changes entirely based on night and day. The day stages play just like every other 3D Sonic stage. The Sonic Adventure standards are all there. You can jump and boost and use a homing attack for enemies. You can speed along lines of rings with the light speed dash. For the night stages it's a far slower pacing and it comes off more like the combat of God of War. Combos and chain attacks with the slower platforming. The game takes a little bit from Sonic and the Secret Rings. It borrows the leveling up system. Sonic earns experience from defeating creatures and eating food. He can buy food in the towns with rings. In Sonic and the Secret Rings the control was entirely broken until you started to level up. That's not the case here thankfully. Sonic in the day stages controls well enough right from the start. But to gain the highest speed you'll have to level up his speed rating and his boost. And in the night stages you'll need to level up his combat, strength, life, shield, unleashed abilities. Sonic Unleashed is a great looking game. And the Hedgehog Engine moves along at a truly blistering pace. The sense of speed in the game is truly amazing. The sense of speed also creates a strange disparity. The day stages are blisteringly fast, but the night stages are plodding and slow. I know a lot of people actively despise the night stages but I didn't mind the gameplay all that much. Especially as you become more powerful through leveling. As far as the camera goes it's rather improved upon compared to the previous 3D Sonic games but it will still cause you to die every once in a while. The scripted lock on events as you're rocketing through the stages will also sometimes still fail if you happen to hit the stick just so. The bosses are fun and impressive. The music is great and worthy of being in a Sonic title. The voice work is decent. Entirely cartoonish and fitting. Who is out there taking the story seriously anyway? The story is again decent for what it is. Sonic Unleashed will provide you with some decent thrills and some decent frustration as it actually becomes truly difficult. It's very well worth playing if you're a Sonic Adventure 1-2 fan. If you're looking for that mythical return to the 16-bit Sonic form, this isn't it. Sonic Unleashed is a game you should pick up at a reduced price. I'm giving Sonic Unleashed a solid 7.

Left 4 Dead -- Final Opinion.

The final opinion on Left 4 Dead has been a long time coming. I wanted to knock out the achievements before posting the final opinion. That's taking too long. I am however down to the final two achievements. The monumentally tough Nothing Special and the time consuming Zombie Genocidest. In chasing Nothing Special in particular all of the game's flaws come to light. In a blisteringly bright light at that. Left 4 Dead is a fun game. An amazingly fun game. But a seriously flawed game. The game cheats. The more you play, and at the tougher difficulties, it just becomes too apparent. But let's break it down. The graphics are great and nicely detailed. The sound, and music are also very well done. Especially considering how integrated they are in the final game. You depend on sound and musical cues like no other first person shooter before to alert you to incoming hordes and the presence of special infected. The voices are great all around. The dialogue is smart and funny. The net code is very good. Halo 3 level stuff. And the controls are perfect. I'm also really rather fond of the level progression. The levels themselves are smartly designed. The game's much touted director could use some fine tuning. It would be oh so much better if they could only make him a little smarter by removing his ability to cheat. I pretty much liked everything else about the game but feel strongly enough about the cheating factor to deduct two full points from the score. I'm giving Left 4 Dead for the Xbox 360 an 8. I'm looking forward to the sequel, and I hope they spend the time to fine tune the director.

Sonic Unleashed -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me will be Sonic Unleashed on the Xbox 360. I hated Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii, an effort that a lot of people loved. I own but still haven't played Sonic the Hedgehog, the 2006 Xbox 360 effort that is generally accepted as awful. I didn't play Shadow the Hedgehog. I thought Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes were good. And as a launch title that showcased a true generational leap, I thought the original Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast was great. Sonic Unleashed is the latest entry into the 3D platformer genre of Sonic games. What am I expecting from Sonic Unleashed? I'm expecting some great visuals and a great sense of speed. I'm expecting an awesome soundtrack. My initial impression has me surprised to find a game that seems to take a little bit from Sonic and the Secret Rings and combines it with a whole lot of Sonic Adventure. What am I hoping for? I'm hoping for a better camera than the previous 3D efforts. I'm hoping to play exclusively as Sonic. I'm hoping the story isn't insufferable. I'm hoping for a return to form.

Valkyria Chronicles -- Final Opinion.

And to think, I hesitated. I did not start Valkyria Chronicles day-one for fear of the game not being able to meet my high expectations. Not so much for what I thought the game was, but for what it could be based on which SEGA team had made the game. As I stated in my previous post forever ago, Valkyria Chronicles comes from a mix of people who've had their hands in the creation of numerous entries into my all-time top twenty video game list. I completed Valkyria Chronicles with a time of forty-nine and a half hours. That's from me extending the playthrough wherever possible. And that fact alone sort of sums up things already. It was for me the kind of game you truly don't want to end. Valkyria Chronicles is a strategy or tactical RPG. So let's start with what one would naturally think to be the heart of a tactical RPG, the actual battles. It's the standard turned based system. There is a player phase and an enemy phase. You begin by placing your units into their starting positions on a map of the battlefield. You can select units from a pool of twenty that can be rotated in and out between battles. The number of units varies for each battle. You can choose between five classes of units. Most battles require the main character who happens to be a tank commander. Beyond that you have scouts, shocktroopers, lancers, snipers, and engineers. Scouts are your general soldiers, they have long range movement and mid range rifles. Shocktroopers are your close combat units, they have mid range movement and short range weapons like machine guns and flamethrowers. Lancers are your anti-tank and anti-emplacement units. Lancers have low to mid range movement. Snipers are obviously your long range attackers, but they have the shortest movement range of all the classes. Engineers are essentially scouts with special abilities. They have slightly lower movement range and less accuracy than the scouts, but they can disarm mines, and repair tanks and barricades. Once all units are in place you start the movement phase of the battle. You have so many command points and every action in the game requires command points to execute. It costs one command point to move a unit. But within that one point usage you get to move that unit up to the full allotment of their movement and complete one action such as attacking or healing. It's not limited to just moving and an action. You can move, fire, and then move some more permitted you still haven't depleted your movement meter. And you can use the same unit repeatedly, although each time you move a unit within the same phase their movement bar gets shorter. Once you've used up your command points in the player phase, you end your turn and the enemy phase begins. A round consists of one player phase and one enemy phase. Most battles have a twenty round limit among other conditions of defeat. As you progress through the game you're able to train your classes. They train as classes and not individual units. So when you're leveling up the sniper class, all your snipers level. You're also able to upgrade your tanks and weaponry. And it's actually quite deep. The rifles for example spilt into three categories. You're able to increase power, accuracy, and special features. Would you rather have a rifle that hits harder but is less accurate, or a more accurate but less powerful rifle, or would you want a rifle that would put some sort of status effect on the enemy like lowered defense or attack power? What sets Valkyria Chronicles apart in its battles is the use of action. When you go to move your character you'll select them on the sepia toned map. The camera pans down into the battlefield that suddenly springs to life with vibrant color. It's a cool effect. You then control the character's actions. You move out from the sandbags you're crouched behind and run down the field to take up position around the corner with bullets whizzing by. You actually aim your rifle and fire. You run and duck for cover behind more sandbags. You move each unit, you fire each shot, you run that gauntlet under a hail of gunfire. It's great stuff and it looks absolutely beautiful while you're doing it. The battles themselves are also extremely impressive. Each battle has you doing or introduces something new to the point where each and every battle feels unique. The strategy element is very well done. The AI can be dominated, but they'll also walk all over you if you given them any opportunity. The game has considerable depth in the strategy and weapon development aspects. Which is great considering most of your time will be spent in battle. But I wouldn't actually call the great battle system the heart of the game. No, it's actually the characters and story here that are the real winners. Shining Force surprised the hell out of me back in the 16-bit era with its charming characters and story. Something you just weren't expecting out of a strategy RPG at the time, or today for that matter. Valkyria Chronicles is that same reaction, only infinitely more powerful. Valkyria Chronicles is story intensive. And the story here is great, with awesome characters. Real characters, with depth and arcs to travel. There's something about the mix of truly adult themes and the beautiful graphics that helps to further surprise you with where the story is willing to go. I was expecting a good strategy RPG. I wasn't expecting to be introduced to a large cast of impressive characters that I would come to care for and root for. I wasn't expecting to become emotionally invested in the story. A story that will hit a few cliches along its route but that is so impressively well told that it ranks up as easily one of the best ever told in gaming. I found just about every aspect of this game to be perfect. The graphics are amazingly beautiful. The soundtrack by Hitoshi Sakimoto is great. It features all the bombast you'd expect with a game centered on war, but the character specific stuff will catch you by surprise. The voice work is excellent. And the cast is large with no repeat voices. The translation is about as good as they come. The story is one of the best I've seen. It's smart and funny and emotionally moving and just so well done. I'm giving Valkyria Chronicles for the PlayStation 3 a 10. This game has cracked my all-time top ten list. It's up there with games like Shinobi and The Legend of Zelda III: A Link to the Past and Super Metroid and Snatcher and Panzer Dragoon Saga. I could not be more impressed.

Left 4 Dead -- The S & M Factor.

So yeah, Valkyria Chronicles. No, Left 4 Dead. I bought Left 4 Dead for the concept of the online play. You and three other living players shooting your way through the zombie apocalypse. Although they're not really zombies, in the Romero ghoul sense, they're infected in the 28 Days Later sense. The zombie horde can really move in other words. They come flooding out of just about everywhere and come at you in a full run. Also added to the mix are so called special infected. The special infected include five varieties. They are Boomers, Smokers, Hunters, Witches, and Tanks. Boomers are obese zombies who vomit on you from upwards of twenty feet away. They also explode when killed. Getting vomited on or being caught too close to an exploding Boomer results in the same thing and that's being covered with a substance that initiates a zombie feeding frenzy. A hell of a lot of zombies will pour out of everywhere and make a B-line for those unfortunately covered in goop. Smokers have a tongue they can shoot out and grab with. They're able to grab a survivor from what seems to be two-hundred feet. The grabbed have about a second and a half to shoot the smoker to break free. Otherwise they'll find themselves being dragged toward the Smoker or hung up and otherwise incapacitated. The other survivors will have to free the grabbed survivor before it's too late. Hunters can leap about the same distance the Smokers can grab from. They leap on their victim instantly knocking them down and the other survivors will have to knock or shoot the hunter off the victim. The Witches are emotionally unstable and can be found just sitting there on the floor crying. They don't like bright lights or loud noises and essentially just want to be left alone for a good cry. They get seriously pissed off if that good cry is in any way interrupted. They'll charge whoever disturbed them and one-hit incapacitate said survivor with a slash from their extremely long claws. If you can sneak around the Witches without disturbing them, they'll leave you alone. The Tanks are hulking monstrosities. A zombie with steroid rage, if you will. They are extremely fast, can one-hit incapacitate you, and have an immense amount of hit points. They're extremely difficult to bring down. All of that sounds great, doesn't it? Well it is great. But now we add in The Director. You remember what I said about The Director from initial impression, don't you? The Director is a the AI routine that controls the ebb and flow of the zombie horde. It sits there watching all the action and decides that it needs to spawn a horde of zombies out of that room behind you. Again, it all sounds great in theory. There is only one problem. The further you go up the chain of difficulties in the game the more obvious it becomes that The Director is a total sadist. And again there's nothing really wrong there in theory. Some people are masochists. Some people like the pain. And to a point the pain is pleasant enough in Left 4 Dead. The real issue here is that The Director out and out cheats. A couple of times a few of us have literally seen special infected or horde spawn before our eyes. It's actually a rare occurrence and can generally be forgiven. A slap on the ass if you will. But the following scenario is ultimately all too common for forgiveness. You enter a large office room filled with cubicles. It's filled with computers and desks and the like but it's devoid of any infected. There are doors to one side. You go over and open one up and look inside because you're on the lookout for med kits and pills and ammo and the like. You find out it's a storage room. Concrete walls on all sides, the single door is the way you've come in. No other possible exits, no windows, or even vents in the ceiling. You head back out into the room with the cubicles shutting the door behind you. A Hunter or Smoker has wandered into the room at the other end. You take care of it, no big deal. Suddenly a massive horde of zombies spills out of the storage room behind you. Even though there was no possible way for anything to be in there. And a Boomer waddles out and someone shoots in reflexively and three of the four are covered and the feeding frenzy flood starts. And when all is said and done you're limping out of the room much worse for wear. The pain there is a little bit much, a total sucker punch to the face if you will. In the campaigns you move through the levels until you reach the final location where a massive siege battle takes place. You initiate the battle in the guise of hitting a radio and awaiting the rescue vehicle. You have to hold out until help arrives. And it's the same basic pattern. Waves of base infected peppered with special infected assault your location. And then you'll have to face off against a Tank. That's followed by more waves peppered with special infected until you'll face another Tank. Then the vehicle will arrive amidst the final waves. Everybody boards the vehicle and the level ends. On expert, the display of cheapness on The Director's part especially in the final stage of a campaign is bordering on cruelty to the point of being purely unfair. The Director will spawn multiple special infected when the situation is at its worst. It's kicking you while you're down in other words, and mocking you all the way. Having to deal with a Tank while someone gets caught by a Smoker and another one is leapt on by a Hunter not half of a second later is obscenely mean. There is just no possible way to recover, at all. It's funny for a while but then it quickly grows otherwise. Maybe it would be acceptable if it weren't exacerbated by some of the problems in the behavior of the AI. The special infected know where you are entirely. In fact you'll often see them moving around backwards. You'll come across a Hunter with its back to you and it'll make the leap backwards and knock you down. Smokers will grab you with their tongues through open windows and under this and over that and at such extreme angles that no living thing could pull off. Only a computer could see that as a viable angle and it shows. It's made worse by how the tongue will clip through corners and the like and how it homes in on you. You're clearly moving beyond where it aimed by the AI adjusts over a few feet and grabs you anyway. The Tank will tear up slabs of concrete out of the ground and throw them at you. But it doesn't really do that. It throws where you're going to be. Which wouldn't be too bad if it didn't throw fast enough to close the gap of two-hundred feet in about a second. And it's made worse that it also throws through corners and other things in the level that it shouldn't be able to. At the higher difficulty levels Left 4 Dead just blatantly cheats and abuses the hell out of you. The question becomes how much of a masochist is the gamer supposed to be? Next time should be the final opinion on Left 4 Dead.

Banjo-Kazooie -- Final Opinion.

I've completed Banjo-Kazooie, the Xbox Arcade version, at just over seventeen hours. I collected everything there was to collect including the now active stop and swap items to be used in Nuts & Bolts. The gameplay has remaned unchanged. It's just as it was ten years ago on the Nintendo 64. Some things have changed with age and perception though. I remember the game's worlds as these massive sprawling levels. They're not really massive. In fact I was amazed at how compact they actually are. And I didn't remember the hub world as being as complex as it was. It doesn't change how fun the gameplay still is however. The gameplay is still a slightly more complex 3D platformer in the Mario 64 vein. The humor of the game remains funny all these years later. I was actually very surprised by how well the music holds up today technically speaking. It sounds great. And the composition is timeless and classic Rare. I'm amazed by how good the game looks. The higher resolution works wonders. The graphics are extremely sharp and crisp compared to the blury Nintendo 64 original. I was also really impressed with just how colorful the game is. Rare made great use of color. Something not that common these days, well, outside of Rare games. I'm thoroughly impressed with the Xbox 360 version of the game, especially considering it was a free title. But even at the $15 asking price, the game would be well worth it. I'm giving Banjo-Kazooie an 8.5. Now bring on Banjo-Tooie.

Left 4 Dead -- Initial Impression.

Finally, a follow-up entry on Valkyria Chronicles! No, not really. It's the initial impression of Left 4 Dead by Valve. I'll be playing the Xbox 360 version, no Steam for me. These initial impressions are a bit of a cheat really as I've played the demo numerous times over the last ten days or so. And now I've spent a few hours with the retail version. So I'm actually prepared to say quite a bit but I'll bite my tongue and just say that the game is an online multiplayer first person shooter in which you'll assume the role of one of four characters who must survive the zombie apocalypse. The game's big selling point is an artificial intelligence routine that's been named The Director. Its sole purpose is control the spawning of the enemies and ensure the game is different every time you play it. It watches over the events and decides on the spot that player two is camping too much so it spawns a boss type of enemy to deal with him. Of course the big question is how well does it do its job? And of course all the others will need to be answered as well. How are the graphics and sound and story and controls and the online experience? Are there enough modes to keep things fresh? And as always, time will tell...

Banjo-Kazooie -- Initial Impression.

I know I'm overdue on an update for Valkyria Chronicles but this entry is the initial impression of Banjo-Kazooie on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. Those people who preordered Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts were treated to a great preorder bonus. A code that enables you to download the original Banjo-Kazooie for free on Xbox Live Arcade a couple weeks before it's made available to the public for fifteen dollars. The title is a port of the Nintendo 64 game. The game has been bumped up to high definition resolutions. They've also reworked the controls for the Xbox controller. They've made some cosmetic changes along the lines of replacing the Nintendo logo on the xylophone in the opening with that of Microsoft Game Studios and the like. However the third save file slot still features a character playing a GameBoy. And they've finally enabled the near mythical Stop 'n' Swap. Back in the day players knocked themselves out trying to figure it out. Originally Banjo-Kazooie was supposed to connect to the sequel Banjo-Tooie by hot-swapping cartridges and sharing data that would unlock items but Nintendo revised the Nintendo 64 hardware and removed any such ability to pull it off. Those with an original model Nintendo 64 would have been able to do it but plans were scrapped because Rare thought it would be best to not fragment the user base. Stop 'n' Swap has been enabled with Banjo-Kazooie and Nuts & Bolts. The upcoming Xbox Live Arcade version of Banjo-Tooie will also unlock items in Nuts & Bolts via Stop 'n' Swap. Beyond those few differences, it's the same classic 3D platformer. My recollection is that at the time I considered Banjo-Kazooie a better game than Mario 64. It'll be interesting to see how it holds up these ten years later.

Valkyria Chronicles -- Initial Impression.

No rest for the weary, or wicked, as they say. Next up for me is a jump over to the PlayStation 3 with Valkyria Chronicles from SEGA. This is one of my most anticipated releases this year. Not only because it's one of a couple titles for my underused PlayStation 3, but more so because of the game's development lineage in a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon sort of way. It comes from some of the best in the industry. Team members that go all the way back to Phantasy Star, Shinobi, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and more recent efforts like Skies of Arcadia and Sakura Taisen. Valkyria Chronicles is a strategy RPG with an action twist. It's based on SEGA's proprietary Canvas engine. A game engine that essentially looks like a watercolor painting come to life. My initial impression of the game is that it's absolutely gorgeous in motion. I'm also rather surprised to find how involved it is. And to find how story intensive it is. And how it's using these to become instantly charming. I really hope this one only builds on my initial impression. It initially seems as if I'm on to something great...

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Order of Ecclesia with a final time of fourteen hours and fifty-five minutes. That time tells me it's a much smaller game than the standard Metroidvania but it really doesn't feel that way to me. The game is more focused due to what amounts as the game's first castle being broken up into roughly ten smaller areas before you arrive at the nearly full sized final stage of Dracula's Castle itself. The game seemed the easiest to earn one-hundred percent as far as map coverage is concerned. There isn't a lot of focus on the hidden. I also never received the bad ending. It's far more clear as to what you need do to earn the good ending than any other Castlevania before it. We know the structure of the game feels new by incorporating a couple of old ideas from previous entries but how does the combat fare? The game also uses a modified mechanic from earlier entries for its battle system. This time around you're using glyphs. Glyphs can be absorbed from living enemies, or absorbed from drops by defeated enemies and statues. There are two types of glyphs. And it essentially breaks down as glyphs that be assigned to the X and Y buttons and glyphs that can be assigned to the R button. The glyphs that are assigned to X and Y provide magic that replicates swords, axes, daggers, hammers, fire, lightning, ice, shields and the like. They're your means of attack and they come off as traditional Castlevania attacks only with the pretense of being magic. The glyphs assigned to the R button can be toggled on and off and they are more of the status boosting or context use variety. Pressing up and either X or Y will unleash what's called a glyph union attack. The combination of the equipped glyphs is what will determine what actually happens in a glyph union attack. The combat system is essentially remixed enough to feel new. The sense of it being fresh is bolstered by the overall tougher difficulty. Especially in the boss battles. The game features either the greatest bosses in series history or the most torturous depending on your point of view. The bosses are far more complex and old school in design. They're all pattern recognition. There isn't any more going toe-to-toe and just slugging it out with a boss until it's dead. You'll have to learn their patterns to survive. The game actually throws a couple of its toughest bosses at you very early on and that might discourage some players. I'd suggest getting by bosses two and three before making up your mind as the game balances out for the remainder. The game is easily the best looking Castlevania game ever made in my opinion. I loved the new art style. All the way around, in the characters, the enemies and bosses, and the environments. The biggest flaw one could truly pin on the Metroidvania titles in the series is in how much they've blatantly reused assets from Symphony of the Night forward. That's no more with Order of Ecclesia, the game is full of entirely new and redrawn enemies and locations. I also really prefer the new more adult and realistic style over the anime and previous styles. Dracula's Castle has never looked better, the interior backgrounds are just truly impressive. The game has great sound. Really good voice for the Nintendo DS and clear and crisp audio. Nothing is muddled or tinny. Overall I'm rather impressed with Order of Ecclesia. It definitely feels fresh, I'm just not sure it feels better. I'm giving Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia a 9.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia -- A New World.

When I haven't been otherwise busy or working away at the final couple of achievements for Fable II I've been plugging away at Castlevania. I stated in my initial impression that I was expecting more of the same. But that's not really what I got. I still have a Metroidvania game, make no mistake about that. I just have a Metroidvania game that likes to pretend it's related to the original action style Castlevania titles. Portrait of Ruin used jumping in and out of paintings from within Dracula's castle as a means to try and expand and breathe some new life into the castle design. It's an illusion that worked moderately well. I mean it was greatly appreciated at the time but it failed in that it reused the same assets too much. Order of Ecclesia borrows a little bit from Castlevania: Bloodlines and a little bit more from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Bloodlines was a pure action entry on the Genesis that showed you moving around a world map. It gave you a sense of location. Order of Ecclesia does the same thing. Only this time you're allowed to reenter the stages as much as you want. Simon's Quest also offered up a sense of place with its structure of traveling between towns and mansions. Order of Ecclesia offers up a town of its very own. As you play through the stages of Order of Ecclesia you'll happen upon villagers to rescue. Rescuing each villager allows them to return to town. In town you'll be able to undertake quests for the villagers. A certain villager for example wants different types of ore that he'll turn into armor that will then show up in the village shop for you to purchase. Going on further quests down his line will result in better and better armor showing up in the shop. There is a villager that will do the same for accessories and another for healing items and others who offer up less useful but nonetheless cool items like classic Castlevania music tracks to play as the background music whenever you'd like. This new quest structure feels far more important because of the feeling of direct benefit instead of padding or busywork. The world of Ecclesia feels fresh. It feels good to be outside the castle. I'm sure we'll end there, which is fine, but for at least half the game you're somewhere else. And that goes a long way towards feeling fresh. Next time should cover the new combat approach...

Fable II -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Fable II earning forty-eight of fifty achievements. I haven't decided if I'm going to play it that much more to earn those last two achievements. Overall I would have to call Fable II a great success in spite of some rather large failures. The biggest failure being the much ballyhooed co-op game play. To call it outright broken would be an understatement. In theory you're supposed to be able to join someone's game and play through the game. People are bitching about not being able to play as your own hero, but that's actually fine with me. The problem comes in the fact that you're essentially playing couch co-op online. That means you're sharing the same camera view. Think about that, you're tethered to another player to the length of one screen with minimal control of your camera. That means if you go too far you'll suddenly hit an invisible wall and can't go any further. In a combat situation you'll need to back away if you're using guns or spell casting and with both characters doing that you'll be at the boundary almost immediately. And you'll be pinned there by the enemies. Hell, it's even extremely difficult to navigate around the world without even being in combat in co-op. Not all of the co-op functionality is broken. One aspect in particular is decidedly cool. And that's the player orbs. As Xbox Live is actively online while you're playing anything, you're able to see people who are playing Fable II moving around the game world as glowing orbs. You can talk to them via headsets or check their stats or give and trade items with them. It gives the game a slight massively multiplayer online RPG feel. The other major flaw against Fable 2 in my eye is the feeling that the game is barely stable. The entire time I was playing the game it felt as if the game was going to break at any moment. I can only describe it as that PC feeling compared to the extremely solid console feeling you'd associate with Nintendo during the 16-bit era. I would experience sound glitches and proximity issues with failing button prompts and the like. As well as standard random glitches associated with games trying for sandbox or open world. But it's not all bad. Almost everything else Fable II attempts, it does exceedingly well. In no small part due to concepts in art direction and the game's voice. It's a sort of Victorian aesthetic mixed with traditional fantasy and spiced with British humor. The humor is prevalent in everything. Fable II's main story is peppered with it. The world is filled with wit and whimsy. And it comes off as a breath of fresh air. The game's combat is diverse with three styles to choose from and any mix and match combination in between. You'll find a way to play it that's fun for you. The graphics and sound are all top notch. The voice work is especially great. As I stated earlier in this entry, Fable II is well worth playing in spite of its inherent flaws. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hopefully Fable III will be a tad more stable, and the co-op will be less insulting. I'm giving Fable II for the Xbox 360 a 9.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia -- Initial Impression.

What a horrible night to have a curse. But what a great night to start a new Castlevania game. What could be better night than Halloween? Next up for me is Castlevania: Order of the Ecclesia for the Nintendo DS. This game is yet another entry in the twenty-one year old series and yet another entry in the Metroidvania style which goes back seven games to Symphony of the Night. I began this entry with a quote from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, the game where the action RPG elements first appeared. I also used the quote because Order of Ecclesia is supposedly the closest thing we'll be getting towards a remake of Castlevania II. There is a great divide between Castlevania fans. On one side you have those who prefer the pure action of the original Castlevania represented by Castlevania, Castlevania III, Super Castlevania IV, Bloodlines, and Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. And on the other side you have those who prefer the action RPG titles represented by Simon's Quest, Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and now Order of Ecclesia. There is technically a third group. Those that prefer the 3D Castlevanias. But they're very weird and they smell and we don't tend to discuss those people. I tend to belong to the action RPG group. I like the Metroidvania style more than the pure action style. So what am I expecting from Order of the Ecclesia? More of the same actually. The exact same even. Although the initial reaction by the Internet to this one seems to hint that there may be some surprises in store. And more than a few have complained about the difficulty in the game's boss battles. We'll see what all the fuss is about...

Fable II -- A New Combat Experience.

I've been playing Fable II in such a way as to essentially avoid doing anything with the main storyline unless the issue absolutely forces itself. I had been avoiding warping to locations and I was fighting every last creature every time there and back and there again. I had also been leveling up the Skill abilities exclusively. I liked the gunplay. I had become a marksman of the utmost skill, a true badass. I could continue on through the game at this point. Take the story through to its conclusion. But there is an achievement for being a completionist. And that achievement involves learning every expression and dog trick and ability. Which means mastering magic and sword fighting. I've decided to go for that achievement. So what does that mean for me? It means I get to abandon my guns for magic and swordplay. Fable II's experience system means you have to use them to build experience. Whenever you defeat enemies in Fable II orbs will pop out. The orbs will be different colors based on how you've dealt with the enemies. Shooting them means yellow, magic is red, and swordplay is blue. There are general experience orbs that are green. Roughly half of the orbs that pop out from any given fight will be green as they're able to be combined with the other three in purchasing new abilities. So I could in theory continue to use my guns, and purchase magic and strength abilities solely with the green orbs. But I'm not going to do that. I'm going to try to earn the best experience bonuses by using the specific weapons and hopefully that will speed the process along. Because I focused entirely on skill initially, that means I'll be having to learn the new weapon and magic abilities while fighting tougher creatures. I won't get to learn the sword off of beetles and bandits. I'll be learning off of highwaymen and balverines. It was tough going at the start of this process. But using the potions I had stored and learning on the go I've managed to earn abilities rather quickly. I have the two of three sections of the strength abilities at level four of five and the other at maximum. I have the shock spell at maximum. Seems I'll be playing Fable II over the next few days with combat experience in mind. Probably something that wouldn't have ever happened if there wasn't that one achievement...

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen for the Nintendo DS. This is my first time through Dragon Quest IV. I had originally played the Dragon Quest series as rentals on the Nintendo Entertainment System when it was called Dragon Warrior in 1989. I played through Dragon Warrior II in 1990 and Dragon Warrior III in 1992. I tried to make it through Dragon Warrior IV in 1992 but just couldn't do it. Do you want to know what it was that prevented me from finishing the game? Dragon Warrior IV didn't allow you to have direct control over the other members of your party. You could only set tactics as basic guidelines as to what the AI should do with those characters. And to put it bluntly, the AI sucked big time. A simple heal would have saved the day, but more times than I could count the AI controlled characters wouldn't do what they should obviously do in said situation. I'm glad to say that Dragon Quest IV on the Nintendo DS fixes this fatal flaw and I was finally able to see the game through these sixteen years later. So was it finally worth it? Yes, it was. Dragon Quest IV retains the charm the series has always shown. The classic and streamlined Dragon Quest battle system is in full force. Dragon Quest IV's battles scream by feverishly fast. Especially with the battle speed set to one. The standard non-boss battles last roughly fifteen to twenty seconds in total. And they rarely see the need to reach three rounds. By comparison, some Final Fantasy summon spell animations last upwards of ninety seconds alone. The Dragon Quest IV battles are filled with lots of incidental animation in the creature attacks and spells, along the lines of Phantasy Star II. They're great to watch. The graphics are very good. They're easy on the eyes for a Nintendo DS game using 3D. Far better looking than the 3D in Final Fantasy III on the Nintendo DS. The sound and music are classic Dragon Quest and the Nintendo DS does a good job with them without too much loss in quality. The story is definitely from the 8-bit era. Although it's greatly spiced up by an excellent translation that features over ten dialects along the lines of Australian, Cockney, Irish, Scottish, and Romanian. The story is also rather bizarre at the core. It's a strange take on religion and evolution. I truly enjoyed Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen and I can't wait for Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI to make their debut in the west later next year. I'll be there for them. I'm giving Dragon Quest IV a rock solid 8. Here are my finished stats...

Time Taken Till Ending: 30:55
Battles: 1,362
Monsters Defeated: 3,601
Total Gold from Battles: 162,427
Victories 1,348
Times Wiped Out: 0
Times Fled: 13
Maximum Damage in One Hit: 317
Clear Level: 39
Title: Anti-Resurrectionist

Fable 2 -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is Fable 2 for the Xbox 360. Fable 2 is the Microsoft Game Studios published and Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios developed sequel to Fable. I do have to say that I did not like Fable. I did not like Fable to the point of never being able to complete it. There might have been some extenuating circumstances that played a part in my disapproval of the original. I bought Fable as a pick up bargain bin title late in the Xbox's life cycle. My particular Xbox was on its last legs. The drive would be extremely picky about what discs it would and would not load. I was getting disc read errors left and right. Cut forward to the arrival of the Xbox 360 and Fable hitting the backwards compatability listing. Now I had a drive that would load the game, but now there were a whole new set of glitches and audio bugs and the like tied to the emulation. And I had great issue with the ranged combat of Fable. Suffice it to say I never got far in Fable. So why am I here with Fable 2? Well, the promise of something new. Fable 2 is supposedly redesigned to the point of being an entirely different beast. And the promise of choices. Cause and effect taken to some grand level. I don't fancy myself an idiot. I'm well aware of Mr. Molyneux's history with promises left unfulfilled. The hype leading up to Fable and the post release reaction is one of the industry's most well known soap operas. And the build up to Fable 2 has been no less dramatic. With talk of promises and extravagant limited editions being neutered in the eleventh hour and drama over the will it make it on time for release day co-op. I've spent a few hours with the game so far. I can say that it's a good looking game. And the biggest surprise so far is the level of humor in the game. There is a lot of it, and it's actually genuinely funny and charming. And I already love the voice acting. We'll see where it goes...

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen -- The Chapter Structure

I have put in roughly thirteen and a half hours into Dragon Quest IV and I am saved just into the start of Chapter 5: The Chosen. This obviously comes from having completed the previously mentioned first two chapters as well as Chapter 3: Torneko and the Extravagant Excavation and Chapter 4: Meena and Maya and the Mahabala Mystery. I made a point of listing the chapter names as a means of heading into the topic for this entry. And that's the gimmick behind Dragon Quest IV being the chapters as storytelling device. Dragon Quest IV starts you off in a prologue that does nothing but essentially allow you to name and choose the sex for the chosen one. It also establishes the character in an ideal and secluded village. You're then whisked away into chapter one and introduced to an entirely new character. You'll play this character through his introductory story that lasts a few hours. You'll do all the RPG standards. You'll level up and explore and seek information from non-player characters. You'll shop for weapons and armor and items to assist you on your quest. And you'll complete the chapter with the death of a big bad boss. And you'll again be whisked off somewhere else in the world and introduced to another new character. And you'll play through their introduction. Even starting anew at level one. And so on for four chapters. And then you'll come to chapter five where you'll be reintroduced to the hero and begin their quest in earnest. You'll obviously go on to find and join with the previously played characters from the earlier chapters. So you might be saying big deal. Well you need to remember for 1992 (1990 in Japan) this was a major bit of mind-blowing originality. And I have to say that in 2008 it remains charming. Thanks in no small part to the great translation. Now I'm not saying the game is some masterpiece of storytelling and the epitome of high art. It's not. In fact it never escapes its 8-bit and 16-bit storytelling roots. It's filled with every Japanese RPG cliche you've seen a hundred times over. But it's charming like all the other Dragon Quest games I've played. The earnest and straightforward storytelling that's filled with good humor and brought to life by a strong translation really makes the game simply joyous fun.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me I'll be moving over to the Nintendo DS for Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen. The game is a remade port of the PlayStation remake of the original Famicom title. It's the first entry in what is often referred to by fans as the Castle In the Sky Trilogy or the Zenithia Trilogy. Said trilogy comprises the Famicom Dragon Quest IV and the Super Famicom Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI. The game's creator Yuuji Horii actively denies any intended official connection between the three games but sees how the fans could interpret it in such a way. They all share the same floating castle of Zenithia. This all probably stems from the fact that the first three Famicom entries in the series are an official trilogy commonly referred to as the Erdrick Trilogy. Anyway, that's what's next for me. The game itself still has the same three creative elements at work. Yuuji Horii handling the overall design and the story and scenarios. Akira Toriyama handling the character and monster design. And Koichi Sugiyama handling the score. What am I expecting from the game? Classic Dragon Quest gameplay with all the extra trimmings. The battle system should be the same old Dragon Quest, and all of the things like mini-medals and the monster book and the like that came after should be placed into the game. I'm expecting a good looking game with a bunch of enemy animation in battle. And I'm hopeful that the Nintendo DS can handle Sugiyama's classic score without too much quality loss. I'm also expecting a high quality translation on par with that from Dragon Quest VIII. I've spent a couple hours with the game. The game contains the full five chapters of the original title and adds in a new prologue and a bonus chapter six. I've completed the prologue and Chapter 1: Ragnar McRyan and the Case of the Missing Children. I'm saved at the start of Chapter 2: Alena and the Journey to the Tourney. Hopefully this 3D gussied up remake of an 8-bit game will contain all the charm the series is known for. And hopefully it will be a sign of great things to come when Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI hit the West for the first time ever later next year on the Nintendo DS.

Silent Hill: Homecoming -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Silent Hill: Homecoming and unlocked all the achievements in the process. Yes, that means I completed the game enough times for the five endings. I played through the game three full times and then used a save right before the first major choice that determines the ending. I used another save right before the second major choice. So it took roughly forty minutes to achieve ending four, and another twenty for ending five. I do have to say that overall I'm very impressed with Double Helix's take on Silent Hill. As stated in a previous post, I loved the combat. It's just much more intense and feels far more like a fight to survive than previous games. The graphics are a mixed bag on a technical level. Some of the character facial models are just bad. But at other times they look good. The environmental graphics also range from bad to great. The bad is a water texture that fails to pull off what they were going for. And the good being anything having to do with the Otherside aspects of Silent Hill. The fog effect is good and it becomes awesome in Otherside segments. The creature designs are what I would call the overall best in the series. The Feral being the only one that fails to impress. And that's more from how it animates than the concept. Its animation allows for some cheap hits. The other creatures are all great. The creatures of Silent Hill have always been closely tied to a character's psyche and Homecoming's are exceptionally well done. The bosses in the game are the best the series has seen as far as execution is concerned. And they're conceptually among the best, if not the best. The final boss is easily my favorite of the series. The voice work in the game is exceptional all around. And good voice work always helps with a story. The story of Homecoming is also a highpoint. While not as impressive as Silent Hill or Silent Hill 2, the story is great. And it's easily the most coherent of the series. Every last thing makes perfect sense. And the story gets more impressive as you play through it a second time. Seeing all the little hints and knowing exactly what they mean this time around. The game manages to take bits and pieces from all over the Silent Hill series and still manages to feel fresh. It's interesting to note how much inspiration comes from the movie. Not only in the flip to Otherside but in the designs of certain characters and the look of the town itself. The score is what I would call a subdued Yamaoka classic Silent Hill score. All the elements are there. Everything sounds as it should. I really enjoyed Silent Hill: Homecoming. I hope it sells well enough to see another in the series from Double Helix. They've done well with the series in my opinion. I'm giving Silent Hill: Homecoming a 9.

Silent Hill: Homecoming -- Kicking My Ass And Loving It

I'm a huge Silent Hill fan. A very methodical Silent Hill fan. And I play Silent Hill in a very specific way. I kill everything. And I mean every last thing that can be killed in the game. Every last random enemy. And I do it with melee attacks. I almost never use firearms unless it's for a boss. I tend to end the game with ten health drinks and ten med kits. Playing through Silent Hill: Homecoming with this method has made for a new experience as the game's new combat engine has proved brutal. The game had been kicking my ass. It had me midway through the game with one health drink and one med kit and fearing that I might actually be wiped out and unable to proceed through the game. Every single encounter proved to be a massive struggle of life and death for one mistake and you could be done for. The combat proved far more intense than any other Silent Hill before it. The creatures in Homecoming are vicious and very capable in dealing out death. Not only that, but they're some of the coolest creatures in the series as far as concept and design are concerned. And for the most part the creatures are extremely well animated. The famous nurses of Silent Hill look the best they ever have while shuffling along better than they ever have before. The game's combat has a few new factors that added to this new experience. Being able to roll when not in a combat stance is one. The new camera and the environmental interaction added more to it. You had to be aware of your surroundings more. What kind of creature and how many there are plus what are your surroundings all added in to it. Almost any single creature can be taken out with relative ease in a wide open area. It's not so when there are more than one. And a single relatively harmless creature like a nurse can be exceedingly deadly if you're trapped in a corner or a small hallway with it. And holy crap if there are more than one. If you can't roll away, you'll have to dodge the attacks. And you'll need to be precise. You'll need to get the timing exact. If you miss on the first one you'll be hit and go into the hit animation while the nurse is swiping away again with the knife. She can effectively combo juggle you to death. Homecoming doubles up on the feeling of not wanting to go down that dark hallway. Because you're worried about what you might find there, and now you're also worried that it'll take you out. It's compounded further by the save points being few and far between. The game may sound like a bit of a struggle. And it is. But guess what? It feels great. It is survival horror after all. And Homecoming really makes you feel it. Really makes you earn it. I loved the sensation brought on by the combat. I do realize that the less dedicated will not. And that a great number of people who play the game will not likely finish it because they won't like being slapped around by the title. I wonder what that says about me...

General Update

Internet issues sure are fun! No, of course not, they're misery. We all know that. I've been experiencing them since last Saturday. My ancient modem from Verizon went out and took my Linksys router with it. It took hours of tech support calls with both companies to confirm this. I ended up getting a new modem and router in one combination device from Verizon. Apparently my old modem did not want to give up the ghost as it took another hour with tech support to sort that all out. So my computer was up and running again. Verizon made it clear that the video game systems would work with the new device but that they're not able to provide any tech support in such issues. I asked them where the port forwarding was in the new device so I could figure it out myself. They said that was an area for premium tech support. In other words, they wanted to charge me for just pointing out where the port forwarding application was. Not even for walking me through it all. To hell with that. So with some wandering around and further fiddling with everything I've gotten all the systems back online. Ports open where they should be. At least with the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The Wii is connecting and accessing the Shopping Channel just fine. I'll have to wait until later on to see if I can actually connect to someone in a game. You know how the Nintendo Wi-fi Connection is. At least there was some good news in all of this hassle. My Nintendo DS is now connected to the Internet. Which means I'll be there online for Phantasy Star Zero. My old setup wouldn't have allowed for that. Now, if it'll just stay working through the generation...

Silent Hill: Homecoming -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is Silent Hill: Homecoming for the Xbox 360. It's been a while since we've had a console version of Silent Hill. A proper Silent Hill, if you will. But that's part of the debate about Silent Hill: Homecoming now isn't it? You see this is the second game not produced by Konami and more specifically Team Silent. Which in all honesty is a good thing. Because as much as any other fanboy out there I'd love to see a Silent Hill game from the members of Team Silent circa Silent Hill or Silent Hill 2. But here's the thing, Team Silent, they don't want to make Silent Hill games. In fact Team Silent doesn't even exist anymore. So that's why we had Climax's Silent Hill: Origins and that's why we have Double Helix Games' Silent Hill: Homecoming. Climax played it entirely safe with Origins. How are Double Helix Games going to handle things? The hardware of the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 are going to allow them to at least be a bit more bold than Climax and change some things. And from my initial impression they have done that. Most obvious being the game has a new 3D camera that changes up the dynamic considerably. They've also beefed up the combat skills of the main character, Alex Shepard. He's not as entirely plodding as the other main characters. He can dodge and roll. I'm not sure what to make of the combat just yet. The game starts out in the town of Shepard's Glen, a town just seemingly down the road from Silent Hill. Another subtle but interesting change is the main character dealing with characters he's familiar with. People he knows from his past and people from around town. The story itself has Alex seeking his brother and returning to Shepard's Glen from time in a military hospital where he ended up from injuries received in the war. He comes home to find things considerably amiss as you could imagine. So far the story is off to an interesting start. We'll have to see where it goes. I'm not sure what to make of the game's graphics as they seem a mixed bag. The sound is all around awesome though. Which shouldn't be a surprise with Akira Yamaoka returning to handle the score. I have to say that my initial impression of the game is pleasantly optimistic.

LEGO Batman -- Final Opinion

I have completed LEGO Batman for the Xbox 360. The game is exactly what I was expecting it to be. It's that same LEGO gameplay that's found in both Star Wars titles and Indiana Jones. Punch, shoot, and kick your way through the locales of Gotham City while trying to collect enough bolts in story mode. And then go back in free mode trying to collect all the canisters and red bricks which are hidden throughout each of the game's thirty levels usually behind some sort of mild puzzle based on combinations of the abilities of the characters. You know, using Mr. Freeze to freeze some water so you can jump across to reach a high ledge where you'll have to use Poison Ivy's double jump ability to access which leads you to a metal box where you'll have to use explosive suit Batman to blow it open to get the canister. Playing through the story will result in a decent sized game. Those willing to get one-hundred percent completion, and would you play it otherwise, will find a large game. The game's thirty levels are broken into a hero story and a villain story. The game looks great. Everything is clear and crisp and high definition. That's not to say the art style is complex. It's still very simple, and that fits the LEGO universe very well. Especially the LEGO Batman universe with its comic book look. I'm impressed with the visual styles in the game. Traveller's Tales have pulled from the wide range of Batman's history. You have Batman himself closer to the current The Dark Knight look and the Joker looks like Cesar Romero from the 1960's television show. There are some Tim Burton's Batman visual nods as well. And as I stated in a previous post, the music comes from that film. Batman proved to be a great addition to the LEGO video game universe. I'm giving LEGO Batman an 8.5. Now, I wonder where Traveller's Tales will take the series next...

LEGO Batman -- Initial Impression.

Once more into the world of hard molded plastic we go. Next up for me is LEGO Batman for the Xbox 360. This is the fourth entry in Traveller's Tales' LEGO series. Batman follows hot on the heels of Indiana Jones and the two Star Wars titles before it. This is the first time the series isn't based around a LucasArts license. So what am I expecting with Batman? The same exact thing as the previous titles actually. The same great gameplay and humor, only with the not too dark Dark Knight. From my time spent with the title it seems to be just that. I am very pleasantly surprised by the music though. I wasn't expecting to hear selections of Danny Elfman's awesome Batman score coming booming out of the surround sound. So I can already tell you the music will be awesome. Now, hopefully it just won't take too long to complete...

Wario Land: Shake It! -- Final Opinion.

Just like with Viva Pinãta I'm not entirely complete with Wario Land: Shake It! but I'm offering up my final opinion. I think I've done all I'm going to do with the game for now because I just need to at least make some sort of attempt at getting out on top of this avalanche of seasonal titles before suffocating entirely. I've completed the main game with one-hundred percent treasures and challenges complete. That leaves the extra hidden levels mainly untouched. Shake It is an exceptionally pretty game with its cartoon level high quality animation. But that's not a lot if the gameplay isn't there. The gameplay is there. It's backed up with perfect controls, even with the Wii gimmickry taken into account. The game has been getting some criticism for its uninspired linear level design. Given how the challenges are set up and how they're actually to be considered the main course of the game, I have no problems with the level design. I don't need the freedom to explore to nowhere in Shake It. The game features an amazing soundtrack that walks the wonderfully bizarre line between '70's exploitation film score and '70's after school special  and or movie of the week. The game barely has a story. Wario is greedy, so he's tricked into doing something, the end. Wario is fun in the old fashioned way. It feels like a 16-bit game, in the best possible way. Again, I hope this one will get strong word of mouth and generate the slow burn sales to being a hit. Somehow I doubt it with this one though. And that's a shame. We need more of these types of games. Wario Land: Shake It! is a successful return to the 16-bit era. I'm giving it an 8.5.

Viva Pinãta: Trouble In Paradise: Final Opinion.

While I haven't completed every last thing there is to do in Viva Pinãta I'm going to give my final opinion on the game. I've made every last species of pinãta resident in my garden. That's the equivalent of catching them all from that other game. I'm not finished with the game as of yet. I'll be putting in a little time each day knocking out the challenges and chasing the more obtainable achievements in the game. As for the game itself. It's still very much the same game as the original only expanded with new pinãtas and co-op online play and some interface improvements and a means of dealing with any sort of glitches that could have happened in the first game. Trouble in Paradise is an infinitely more stable game in that regard to begin with. The game is still great looking. The art direction is still so very Rare, which means you'll either dig it or it will annoy the hell out of you. The Rare humor is also very prevalent. As they're British you get a very cheeky bastard sort of humor throughout the game. The voice work is great. The music while seemingly sparse is also very well done. I say seemingly because you're not hearing a lot of it for most of the tending of the garden. But there is a lot of it when you consider the romance dances for each of the eighty-eight pinãta types and all of the incidental themes. The core gameplay is still based on experimentation and reward. You'll change your garden around causing all kinds of six degrees of Kevin Bacon like chain reactions. Having this many bluebell flowers in the garden attracts such and such a pinãta which causes something else to react in the chain in a wonderfully interconnected way. Once it gets going you'll often find yourself blissfully lost and off your intended path with all the new coming at you. I wanted to work on those Walrusk but this came up and that led to this and before I knew it days had gone by and the Walrusk were still waiting. Viva Pinãta offers truly addictive gameplay. The kind where you'll be thinking about it when not even playing the game. It stays in your thoughts. Viva Pinãta is an all around improvement over the original. I'm giving Viva Pinãta a 9. Hopefully, like the original, strong word of mouth results in a slow burn of good sales and we'll get a third game in the series. I want more.

Wario Land: Shake It! -- Shakey Control In the Wii Generation.

Wario Land: Shake It didn't get any fanfare at Nintendo's abysmal E3 conference. It wasn't even shown in a B-roll capacity. Hell, it wasn't even mentioned at all. Animal Crossing and Wii Music are their seasonal focus. Shake It is a very good game, it might be a great game. It deserved more. We, the core gamers, deserved more. Especially considering this is our kind of game. Shake It! is a 2D platformer of old. Along the lines of Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog with some added Wii Remote functionality. But even the presence of Wii Remote gimmickry can't detract from this game. And that's mainly because the controls are pretty much perfect. Wario runs and jumps and does the old time butt bounce attack and the rushing shoulder charge attack. He can pick up enemies and throw them just like Yoshi from Super Mario World 2, only with more control. The Wii Remote's tilt and shake functions are put to great use. And that's mainly because there isn't really any allowance for error. The remote isn't going to flake out on you because the designers have seemingly not allowed it to happen. There isn't any pointing in Shake It!. Only the aforementioned tilting and shaking. Wario has a ground pounding punch attack that's tied to shaking the remote. Other functions like swinging on poles like a gymnast  or shaking coins from bags or health giving garlic from enemies are tied to shaking in a context sensitive way. The same applies to the titling functions. Tilting allows Wario to aim where he throws the enemies or it'll move vehicles like a hotrod or submarine. The remote handles these without fail. Something you can't really say about most Wii titles. Wario Land: Shake It's controls are impressive. Everything is as fluid and responsive as the best 2D platformers from the 16-bit heyday of the genre. Now the question becomes just how good a game is Wario Land: Shake It? Next time...

Wario Land: Shake It! -- Initial Impression.

Well this is it. My one Nintendo Wii game for the holiday season 2008. You would have thought Nintendo would have seen this coming. I mean they essentially shot their active intellectual property load in launching the Wii. You would think someone would have looked ahead at the schedule and realized that there would be nothing to offer core gamers in the all important holiday season. Maybe they did. Maybe they thought third party console support would fill the holes. Given the fact that they haven't had decent third party console support since the 16-bit era I doubt that's it. Maybe they just don't care about the software they're selling while they're still moving hardware like they are. Maybe they expect the Nintendo DS to pick up the slack. Maybe they're just caught with they're pants down. Yeah, that's the one in my opinion. Wario Land: Shake It! is the next proper entry in the Wario Land series which started out on the original Game Boy. Wario himself started in the Mario Land games as the villain before rising to become the lead and morphing the series into Wario Land in the third entry. Wario Land: Shake It! is the first effort of Good-Feel which is headed up by Shigeharu Umezaki, an ex Konami employee. Umezaki had his hands in various Konami titles like Castlevania, Life Force, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, and Contra. So what we have here is an old school 2D platforming game in the hands of someone with considerable industry experience in said genre. I'm expecting an old fashioned fun platforming romp. A game straight out of yesteryear, with added Wii Remote gimmickry. Hopefully it's of the far more functional variety and not just tacked on because it's the Wii. As always, time will tell.

Yakuza 2 -- Final Opinion.

Sixty hours and forty-six minutes was my after the credits cleared save file time for Yakuza 2. The original Yakuza took me roughly thirty-five hours. You can see the considerable difference in content. In both a larger main story and in a game packed to the gills with side missions and mini-game content. You could probably play through the story in under twenty hours if you just ignored everything else there was to do in the game. So how does Yakuza 2 measure up? Graphically it's much the same game with a little clean up here and there. It's a great looking game for a PlayStation 2 title, but it brings with it all the limitations of the PlayStation 2 itself. They did manage to improve the loading times considerably. The combat is almost entirely the same. It was lauded as much improved and new but that's not really the case. All the team did was balance the game by moving the order in which you earn moves around. And they started you with the ability to kick behind you right off to deal with being mobbed. The combat is still a blast, and it's as vicious as ever. The music is still a great mix of score and rock that really fits the mood. It underscores the drama of the story and provides you with great music to fight by. Something that probably isn't easy to pull off but Yakuza 2 manages it perfectly. The voice work here is great. Not only that it's in Japanese, but that it's clearly well done and appropriate. Japanese voice work tends to be cartoony to me. It always seems a tad over the top. Not so here. Everything feels dead on. The story of the original Yakuza was written by a famous Japanese author. The sequel was as well. It clearly shows that the games were done together. Well, not only because that's the known case, I mean they had the much larger sequel to a massive project out within a year, but because again everything just fits here. Except for a bit of chapter twelve where the game just takes a tiny misstep into inappropriateness. But it immediately rights itself and continues on toward the finish. And what a finish it is. Yakuza 2 has a genuine holy shit moment of a plot twist at the end I didn't see coming. And I was picking off what's what and who's who throughout the game. I had it all pegged until then. And that's great. Yakuza 2 is much improved over the original game in almost every respect. The only flaw I have with Yakuza 2 is probably in theamount of extra content crammed in there. It approaches overkill. And I'm not all that thrilled with how the completion aspect handles them. What counts for what isn't the most balanced system in the world. But those are minimal complaints at best. Yakuza 2 remains a must own PlayStation 2 experience.  I'm giving Yakuza 2 a 9. Now bring on Yakuza: Kenzan and Yakuza 3. And would you kindly be quick about it SEGA? No need for years in between this time around.

Yakuza 2 -- Submitting to the Side Missions.

Yakuza 2 kicked off my holiday season. It's the first in a litany of titles coming in the next few months. See, the plan was to buckle down and finish Yakuza 2 in a week and then go right into Star Wars: The Force Unleashed or Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen. The Force Unleashed arrived yesterday. Dragon Quest IV arrives tomorrow. And Wario Land: Shake It! and Kirby Super Star Ultra are next Monday. With LEGO Batman that Wednesday, and Sonic Chronicles and Silent Hill: Homecoming the following week. And that's just my September. Don't even get me started on October. The problem is, I'm just now into chapter seven of Yakuza 2's sixteen chapters. That's right, I'm not even halfway through the game as far as chapters are concerned. I've put in just over thirty hours into the game thus far. Yakuza 2 is a massive game. It's packed to the gills with side missions. So skip them some of you might be saying. I can't, because for the most part they're awesome. They are technically optional, but they offer up so much of the game's character, charm, and humor. Plus they're exceptional sources of money and experience. Not to mention the inclusion of the completion entry in the menus. A catalog of everything there is to see and do in the world of Yakuza just waiting there to be filled in. Yakuza 2 is demanding that I not shortchange it by the very nature of how fun the game itself is. And how rare is that? So I'm going to abide and not shortchange it. I'm going to take the time it needs to get it done in the way the game deserve. Schedule be damned.

Viva Pinãta: Trouble In Paradise -- Pester Me No More.

Viva Pinãta is a game, unlike Animal Crossing. What does Viva Pinãta have that Animal Crossing does not? The answer to that is threat and a sense of purpose. In Animal Crossing you just go about your exceedingly boring lives without concern or any discernible goal. Viva Pinãta is very goal orientated, so you're always focused. The game doesn't tell you what you should be focused on, it leaves it all up to you. But it provides enough things to do in its very Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon interconnected ways to always keep you focused on your particular goals. And that alone is brilliant. But Rare takes it one step further with the inclusion of threat and annoyance. So while you're focused in on your goals the game continually throws a little danger and annoyance your way. Adds in a little chaos. The game's bad guy is Professor Pester. He's just your typical cartoon villain. He wants all the candy and he's out to get it. He'll enter your garden once a day after you've reached a certain level. He'll come in and browse around until he finds the pinãta he's looking for. Usually one of the more valuable ones filled with more candy. He'll proceed to kill it unless you somehow stop him. It's a pretty major threat. You can't get a pinãta back that he's killed without rebuilding it exactly and that can be a lot of work. There are numerous ways to stop him. They range from creative garden design to pure bribery to fighting back with certain pinãta species. The professor also employs what are called ruffians. They'll periodically enter your garden and cause you some annoyance. They can't instantly kill pinãtas like Professor Pester, but they have a variety of ways to annoy based on their type. Some will cough up sour candies that will make your pinãta become sick. The sickness can lead to death if you don't get them the medical attention they need in time. Other ruffians will throw dirt around messing up or otherwise altering the landscape of your garden. They might destroy flowers, trees, or bushes. They can get into fights with pinãtas themselves or start fights between pinãtas. The game goes further still with the addition hostile plants and pinãtas. Sour pinãtas will enter your garden based on your level and essentially do the same things as the ruffians. You'llneed to figure out what it takes to tame each of the sour pinãtas and turn them into tame residents of your garden. The weeds will plant and sprout themselves and fast rates compared to other plants. They'll mature and again attempt to wreak havoc in your garden. An unchecked weed will soon multiply and unchecked weeds will soon overrun your garden. Simple diligence and awareness is normally all it takes to combat each of game's threats. It amazes me to see the reactions to people who have come into the second game without playing the first one. A surprising amount of those people are freaking out over the game's actual game aspects. You know, win, lose, that sort of basic thing that actually makes games what they are. I've seen multiple screen shots of gardens overrun with weeds. Or posts bitching about how Pester killed their most favorite pinãta. It's these very aspects that make Viva Pinãta what it is to me. I've gotten to the point in the game where Professor Pester is now a non issue. In that time I've only lost one pinãta to him. And it was totally my fault in that I wasn't paying attention. He comes only during the day. Once a day. So you know to look for him then. Once he's been taken care of you're free to do whatever until it's that time again in game. I have only one sour pinãta left to deal with. And the ruffians have been dealt with. I'm at the point where I can start knocking off my goals. And once that's done, I'll be able to set up my ideal garden. Rare is aware of the nature of this and even goes so far as to offer up a for fun only mode with zero threat. Of course you can't earn any achievements in this mode. And people are actually bitching about that. If you don't want any game to your actual game, then I'd suggest playing Animal Crossing. But for the rest of us who actually like our games to have actual game to them, Viva Pinãta will offer you just what you're looking for. And I'm sure as hell am grateful for that.

Yakuza 2 -- Initial Impression.

It has begun. That snowball on top of the hill has been set in motion. There's no going back now. The expanded holiday season is upon us. There is a game to buy and sometimes two or three every week it seems through Thanksgiving. Next up for me is Yakuza 2 which is obviously the sequel to the original Yakuza, one of the PlayStation 2's better titles. Having just recently replayed Yakuza to get the completed save file onto the virtual memory card on the PlayStation 3's hard drive I'll be playing the game on said system. What's immediately noticeable about Yakuza 2? The voice work is all in the original Japanese. The English voiceover was left out. While SEGA is claiming it's a reaction to the fan outcry I'm more inclined to believe it's a money saving issue. While I had no problems with the voice work in the original, if fact I believe it's an example of the best in the industry, the original Japanese does indeed lend a sense of credibility to the overall immersion of the game's world. So for, having played merely through chapter one of sixteen, the script seems toned down as far as the number of expletives are concerned. What's also readily apparent is that the world of Yakuza 2 is just as engrossing as the original. It's good to be back. It's good to get down and dirty again in this gritty version of Japan.

Too Human -- Final Opinion.

I had hoped to earn the last achievement in Too Human before coming to a final opinion on the game but it looks like it's just not meant to be. I've completed the game with forty-nine of fifty achievements. I'm missing the one for a complete seven-piece epic armor set. In previous entries I've essentially covered the controversy surrounding the game, the great loot system, and the functional controls and the subtleties of the battle system. So what's left to talk about? The answer to that question is balance. And that's Too Human's only real fault. The game is incredibly unbalanced. It all comes down to polarity enemies and the roll of the dice. When you load up a level you're taking a roll of the dice as to what enemies will show up as far as polarity goes. I mean, there's always going to be a troll there, and goblins there, and a spider there and a leader there in their same spots. But what is going to be different is the enemy polarity. Certain enemies come in different flavors, they can be shielded, or explosive, or ice, or poison, or time based. And it's in these combinations and the fact that the enemies scale to your level where the game's balance goes to hell. My main character is a commando. There are certain polarity enemies that I just can't damage worth anything. My bullets do the bare minimal in damage, my grenades to nothing, my ruiner and finishers do nothing, and my sword attacks are a joke because if I get anywhere within its massive area of effect I'm dead in one hit. And this is at the maximum character level of fifty, with the epic rifle for a cybernetic commando. In other words, my class and alignment's absolute best weapon in the game. To the point where it will take me ten minutes to whittle the health down of a troll. Ten minutes might not seem like a lot. But if it's surrounded by thirty tough enemies and I'm not in a big open room but trapped in a corridor with the door shut behind me you're starting to see how messed up and unfair it gets to be. There has been much ado about Too Human's story and graphics. I find them both to be adequate. The graphics chug in the cinema scenes and the facial models aren't the greatest looking things ever produced but they get the job done. In combat, Too Human looks much better. The story is an interesting bastardization of Norse mythology set in a sci-fi future world. It's told in a out of order fashion thatwon't sit well with some people. You only really start to make the connections and get it all in subsequent playthroughs. One time through and you'll likely be left unsatisfied. And it's the setup for a proposed trilogy, it established the characters and world and some history and little more. The music is actually very good but in my opinion suffers from trying to so be Halo's score. Same juxtaposition of rock and cinematic orchestral score. The voice work is very good all around. When Too Human works, it's great fun. But when Too Human doesn't work on account of balance you'll want to pull your hair out. It provides fun and frustration in equal doses. I'm giving Too Human 7.5. I'm looking forward to the sequel and its rumored four-player online co-op, and its hopeful balance adjustments. The Too Human trilogy stumbles a bit coming out of the gate, but it still has the potential to finish up a real winner.

Viva Pinãta: Trouble In Paradise -- Initial Impression.

Just before the coming storm what should I be doing? I should be knocking off some Xbox Live Arcade and Virtual Console titles. That would be the wise thing to do. But no, not me of course, I'm going to add a major time sink right into the middle of everything. That time sink is Viva Pinãta: Trouble In Paradise. The game is the sequel to Viva Pinãta on the Xbox 360. The garden pet simulation title with surprising depth from Rare. What am I expecting from this one? More of the same honestly, and that should be enough. As long as all the charm and depth of the original are retained. We'll see if they've pulled it off. And we'll see if playing the game now proves to be an unwise decision.

Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty -- All In One.

I've completed Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty. Once again developed by Insomniac Games, the title is a series first in that it's being offered as a download only title in North America via Sony's PlayStation Network. Japan and Europe will be getting retail versions of the game.  The game goes for the asking price of $14.99 and offers up roughly a four hour experience. I've had a PlayStation 3 since a few months after launch and this is the first title that's compelled me to make a purchase on the American PlayStation Network. Quest for Booty is the bridging segment between Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and its upcoming sequel due in Fall of 2009. The big question here of course is it worth it for four hours of game at fifteen dollars? The game itself is all Ratchet without Clank as anyone who has completed Tools of Destruction will know the why of all that. Losing Clank takes away from the core gameplay mechanics. All of his abilities are naturally no longer there. They've compensated this by giving Ratchet's wrench some new abilities. They've also limited the number of weapons. And have shortened the time needed to level them up considerably. Of the handful of weapons you'll have access to, you'll only be able to level each one twice. They've removed the skill points and gold bolts and there are no further new items for use. So there is very little to do besides go straight through the game with next to no incentive for replaying the game. The overall size of the game is roughly one large planet from previous games in the series. The gameplay is still sharp and the controls are still silky smooth. The game is as gorgeous as Tools of Destruction. The humor is still exactly the same and everpresent. The voice work is still top notch. The overall challenge is rather easy on the middle of three difficulties. The story itself is good enough. The problem with the game is that it really feels like a shell of what a Ratchet & Clank game is supposed to be. It leaves you wanting more, which is its sole purpose really, but it's not exacltly in the best way. It's tough to fully recommend Quest for Booty based on the size versus price issue. If you're a big fan of the series, well you'll need it. Those looking to jump in here should probably look elsewhere within the series. I'm giving Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty a 7.