Phantasy Star Portable 2 -- Initial Impression.

This initial impression is a little late as I've put in nearly thirty hours and I'm nearing level forty. Then again maybe not as I'm expecting to put in a few hundred hours with the title. Phantasy Star Portable 2 was developed by Alpha System and published by SEGA. Phantasy Star Portable 2 picks up three years after the end of Phantasy Star Universe's episode three and leaves most everything behind. Phantasy Star Universe went under a slow metamorphosis where it was altered to become more Phantasy Star Online like. Phantasy Star Portable furthered that and Phantasy Star Portable 2 takes things even further. For me personally the closer you can get to Phantasy Star Online the better. From the time I've spent with the game so far I'm impressed by the visuals. It's quite impressive having an online game in the palm of your hands with the PSP. I'm already satisfied with the game and I've barely scratched the surface of the new content in the game. The game feels massive as it seemingly has every mission from Phantasy Star Universe in some altered form. It seems I'm going to enjoy the months I'll spend with this title as I wait on next year's newly announced Phantasy Star Online 2. Which is now instantly my most wanted title of 2011.

Halo Reach -- Initial Impression.

It's time for another release in the Xbox darling that is the Halo series. This time it's Halo Reach. Reach takes place before Halo: Combat Evolved and tells the events that mark the beginning of the invasion by The Covenant. What am I expecting from the last Halo title to be made by Bungie? I'm expecting Bungie to have further refined all their advancements to the genre. A more refined theater and forge. A further refined lobby system. Improved matchmaking and game creation options. More modes and options than ever before. I'm also expecting a pretty good game as well. Based on what I've done so far I was a little taken aback by how much I wasn't feeling the initial stages of the game. It's seemingly improved the further I've gone in the campaign. Polished or not, is the fifth time for Halo starting to feel long in the tooth? Maybe. We'll have to see.

Ys Seven -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Ys Seven with a time of thirty-eight hours. By Ys standards, Ys Seven is absolutely massive. In my initial impression I listed off everything I expected from Ys Seven. I got everything I wanted. It's safe to say I thoroughly enjoyed the game. It does everything it sets out to do just about perfectly. Probably the most important thing is that because the game was designed for the PSP it has no controls issues. The controls work perfectly. The graphics are great as is the art direction. It's all classic Ys. The music is up to the series standards. Read that as the music is excellent. The gameplay is impressively fast and good fun. The party system works surprisingly smooth. You're able to switch between the three party members on the fly to make use of their various skills. The enemies essentially come in three varieties and they're weak against a corresponding weapon type. So you're constantly switching between party members to use the best weapon type against any particular creature. They've also added some slight MMO conventions like creature drops and item harvesting for use in creating weapons and items. They've also added a sidequest system. It all fits in rather well with the classic Ys formula. The game features some twenty plus boss encounters. The game is packed with them. And they're all fun and more than a few are top tier bosses. Ys Seven's story is also classic Ys. It's focused on heart and character more so than the overarching plot. The story contained some real twists for me and I came away genuinely satisfied. I can't wait to see what's next for Adol with Ys 8. But I'm really looking forward to the remake of Ys 3 in a few months time and what should be the definitive version of Ys 1&2 a few months later. I'm giving Ys Seven an 9.5. Now we're just awaiting the arrival of Halo Reach tomorrow.

Mafia II -- Final Opinion.

I have reached one-hundred percent completion in Mafia II with a time of twenty-two hours and six minutes. That alone is key in getting a sense of Mafia II's sandbox light approach. Instead of the seventy to eighty hours it takes to fully complete a Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption it only takes twenty-two for Mafia II. The game throws out all side missions and runs lean and mean with a straightforward story. The story itself is inspired by numerous mafia tales. Nothing will come off as original by any means. But everything is handled with a deft hand. Especially when it comes to characterization and voice work. Mafia II takes an unflinching look at the mob. The story is structured over fifteen chapters and it takes place in a medium sized sandbox. You're only free to explore the city when you're on your way to and from missions. There isn't a whole lot to actually do in Empire City when not on a mission. You can shop for clothes, steal and sell cars for money, look around for wanted posters, and cause some mayhem for the fun of it. That's about it. A lot of people might have issues with this sort of empty sandbox approach. I actually enjoyed Empire City. It had a refreshing feel to it. The graphics are clean and sharp. I liked the look of the game, although there are some vertical synch tearing issues and some weird shading issues depending on the weather. The soundtrack deserves special mention. It's probably the best licensed score in a long time. It's made up of music from the 1940's and the 1950's. The combat in the game is entirely solid. Both in the fights and the gunplay. The gunplay is entirely cover based, and playing on the hard difficulty setting you're essentially never going to want to take a shot that isn't from behind cover as you're likely to be shot dead in about a second or two. I'm giving Mafia II for the Xbox 360 an 8. Entirely rock solid from top to bottom. Now to wrap up Ys Seven before Halo Reach arrives on Tuesday.

Mafia II -- Initial Impression.

We have ten days until Halo: Reach arrives. To help Ys 7 fill that gap I'm going to also be playing Mafia II for the Xbox 360. Mafia II was developed by 2K Czech and published by 2K Games. I never played the original Mafia title nor have I played anything by 2K Czech who used to be Illusion Softworks, developers of Vietcong 1-2 and Hidden & Dangerous 1-2. So what made me jump in with Mafia 2? The demo sold me. Why did the demo sell me? Mafia 2 seems to have a different voice, so to speak, than others in the genre. Not only in the story, which initially seems to be told with total reverence for the subject matter, but in the actual gameplay and setting as well. The game doesn't have the, depending on your point of view, granduer or pretentiousness of Grand Theft Auto or the wonderful comic insanity of Saints Row. It's a tight story played entirely straight. Initially the developers seem to want to faithfully keep the game far more grounded in reality than most games are willing to tread. And it's that faithfulness that initially comes off as refreashing. I've played through the game's first three chapters. I'm impressed so far. The graphics look great. I really like the look and sound of Empire Bay, the game's fictional city. The forties and fifties music alone is awesome, as are the news reports on World War II. I also like the matter of fact nature of the accurate portrail of racist viewpoints in the game. Nothing has been watered down or sacrificed for political correctness. And the best part is that it doesn't scream look at how edgy we are. Not a lot of companies can pull off that subtle little difference. The game plays mechanically sound. Everything initially controls well. I think one will all depend on how the story plays out. I have to say I'm interested to see where it goes. It's off to a great start for sure.