Wren's Irrelevancy

Another Lagging Update...

2012-02-09T16:45:00.001-08:00

I'm late once again. I've completed another bunch of games without individual entries. Too many this time to really give any detailed impressions. So I'll just give the basics so I'll have them on the record. Which is essentially the whole point of my having done this all these years.

I've completed Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. The game was developed by Capcom Vancouver, formerly Blue Castle Games, and it was published by Capcom. Off the Record is a what if version of Dead Rising 2 with Dead Rising's Frank West replacing Chuck Greene. They added a whole new area with the Uranus Zone theme park as well as a couple of new psychopath battles and a slew of combo weapons. They also added a new final boss battle that comes off more like a true boss battle than anything the series has seen. Frank's a photojournalist and his camera mechanics make a welcome return. The story is interesting enough. They also added in a sandbox mode which allows you to mess around without a timer. Your experience and money transfer back and forth between sandbox mode and the main game. They added thirty challenges to get through in sandbox mode. There are co-op versions of each of them. The game engine is the same so most of the issues from Dead Rising 2 return. Especially in the broken saving in co-op. This retelling isn't drastically different but it provides enough content to make it well worth while for fans of the series. Especially if you've going through it all in co-op.

I've played Pushmo for the 3DS. The game is from Intelligent Systems, the makers of Wild Gunman, Fire Emblem, Paper Mario, Advance Wars and more. The game was published by Nintendo. Pushmo is a puzzle game where you can jump and push and pull blocks within a limited 3D space. You push and pull blocks out of structures so that you can essentially climb up to the top and rescue a trapped child. It's a simple concept that's great for a handheld where you just want to kill ten minutes here or there. I don't think it hold ups that well for extended play sessions but for bite sized play sessions it's great.

I've played Mutant Mudds for the 3DS. The game was developed by Renegade Kid. Mutant Mudds is a platformer that harkens back to the 8-bit era. It has great 8-bit styled visuals and sound. The controls get the job done in a game filled with tight timing and lots of platforms disappearing and reforming. The game's gimmick is a heavy use of parallax scrolling and the ability to jump in and out of the background at certain points. It works well combined with the 3D of the system. I'm not that big a fan of the strict time limit in each stage.

I've played Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword for the 3DS. The game was developed by Grounding Inc, and it was published by Nintendo. Sakurai Samurai is an almost bite sized action game that focuses on exacting combat. It's kind of like Punch-Out meets swordplay. The enemies all have tells that give away when they're going to attack. You're rewarded for successfully dodging their attack at the last moment. Once you've dodged their attack they're left open to your attack. You'll need to strike fast. The game has you moving across an overworld selecting areas to fight in. There are towns with inns to restore your health and save your game. You can upgrade and sharpen your sword. You'll talk to NPCs and play mini game based challenges. And there are shops to sell you items. The game has three bosses and can be completed in a couple of hours. It's a cool little game with great combat. I'd like to see it fully expanded into a full sized game.

I've completed LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars for the Xbox 360. There isn't a lot to say here. It's just like every other LEGO game. If you've played them, you know exactly what they are. I really like the games, so I keep playing them. And I like the Star Wars license so this one was inevitable. It does throw in a new wrinkle. You have ground and space battles for each of the sixteen star systems represented beyond the levels based on episodes from the show. The space battles are represented by challenges that last a minute or two. The ground battles are a very light real time strategy element where you can command troops on the battlefield. There is a lot of content packed into the standard LEGO game. I was at least able to escape any glitches this time around.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record -- 8
Pushmo -- 7.5
Mutant Mudds -- 7
Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword -- 8
LEGO Star Wars: The Clone Wars--8.5

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim -- All-In-One.

2012-01-19T15:12:00.000-08:00

I've completed the Xbox 360 version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Skyrim was developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. I thought the 140 hours I spent getting through Oblivion and its expansion Shivering Isles was about the max I'd ever spend in a game without any online aspect. I spent 190 hours in Skyrim. In that 190 hours I earned all the achievements of course, but I also found all the words of power and collected all the dragon priest masks. I also made the best weapon and armor set I could possibly make. I'm sure if you wanted to you could cut that time by well over half and complete everything major there is to do in the game. But to me that goes against everything Skyrim's design represents. Skyrim's design represents freedom of choice. Once you're through the opening quest you're free to essentially do what you want. Of course the game points you in the direction of the main storyline, but you're free to turn around and head off in any direction you so choose. You're free to explore the world and discover what's there to be discovered and that's exactly what I did. I ignored the main quest for thirty hours or more. I ended up discovering over 340 named locations within Skyrim. That's cities, towns, villages, mills, glades, caves, towers, forts, encampments, ruins, dungeons, and more. There is a lot discover and explore within Skyrim. The sense of freedom within how you can explore the world extends to the combat. Skyrim's leveling system is based on action and not experience points. You don't get a set value for killing any enemy or completing quests. You level up by doing. You want to level archery? You're going to have to use bows in combat. The same thing goes for one-handed weapons like swords and daggers. You want to level up the two-handed category then you're going to have to actually go use great swords and battle hammers and the like. This applies to all of the types in Skyrim. Such as each of the different classes of magic like destruction and illusion to heavy armor or light armor. It also applies to crafting. You'll need to enchant items to level enchanting or smith items to level smithing. Each time you level up one of these it adds experience towards your character level. Once your character level goes up you're able to add ten points to either health, magic, or stamina and you're able to spend one point on a perk within one of the types. So to actually make use of having leveled archery, you're going to have to spend the point to unlock the perk that makes bows do 20% more damage for example. You're going to unlock perks down the archery skill tree. This system allows you to create the character you want to create by actually doing what you want to do. But it's quite smart in that it's balanced so you can't just do everything. The higher your character level, the more experience you're going to need. So you'll have to pick and choose what skills you'll want to make use of. To be a jack-of-all-trades you'll have to be a master of none. To be a master in archery and stealth you'll need to ignore other skills entirely. For its genre, Skyrim is a visually impressive game. The world looks amazing. Skyrim's snowy forested mountains and tundra looks great and is full of rich detail. The NPCs are far more detailed and lifelike than they were in Oblivion. The wildlife and enemies are also greatly improved. Musically the game walks the line between ambiance and rousing score quite well. You'll spend large amounts of time with just the ambient sound and it works wonderfully. When the score comes in it has far more impact. One of the complaints about Oblivion was the voice work. Not that it was bad, just that it had the same five actors handling hundreds of NPC voices. Skyrim alleviates this a little bit. Instead of the same five actors you now have fifteen actors handling hundreds of NPC voices. Although these fifteen are more versatile and seem capable of bringing different character voices to the table. Outside of the repetition of voices, the voice work is well done and is a good fit within the Nordic theme of Skyrim. Not everything within Skyrim is a wonderful experience though. I have two complaints. One is in how buggy the game is. The complexity of large sandbox titles is no longer a valid excuse to me. Bethesda is famous for releasing horridly bugged software and Skyrim is no exception. You will have a quest bug out on you. Nobody I know that's played the game has escaped having some quest or another glitch out on them. The other complaint is with the AI for the dragons. All dragon encounters play out identically. They all exhibit the same stupid behavior. It takes what is meant to be an epic encounter down a few notches to something less than special. I truly enjoyed my time with Skyrim. It's not perfection by any means but it is a significant improvement over Oblivion in pretty much all aspects. As long as they keep gaining ground between iterations it makes it easier to overlook the imperfections. I'm giving The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a 9. After 190 hours I just sort of want to veg out and not really start anything. I have no idea what will be next...

General Update -- Catching Up.

2012-01-05T13:55:00.000-08:00

I've been chastised for not posting timely updates once again. It's a new year and with resolutions and the like maybe I can do something about that but first we'll have to play a little catch up. Going back to early to mid December I started LEGO: Harry Potter Years 5-7 because at the time The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was having technical difficulties and was awaiting a patch. I figured LEGO: Harry Potter would be a nice little way of filling the time while waiting for the patch. And it was, until I hit a glitch. A glitch that essentially prevented my from reaching 100% complete and blocked three achievements. The glitch allowed me to earn 99.8% complete. Needless to say I was more than a little annoyed and it's what kept me from posting initially. I went on to play another title and then went back and fully replayed LEGO: Harry Potter to get those last three achievements. It went off glitch free that time. And now that some considerable time has elapsed I can comment on the game without having some sort of conniption fit.

LEGO: Harry Potter Years 5-7 was developed by Traveller's Tales and it was published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. I played the Xbox 360 version of the game. Once again if you've played any of the LEGO games then you already exactly know what this is. If you haven't played them then you should know they're great family friendly action games that deliver a wonderfully charming take on a famous licensed property. They're entirely played for laughs and are genuinely funny. Essentially you'll play through the game in story mode. You'll then need to go back and play through the game in free play mode which allows for you to use all the various characters and their specific abilities to unlock and find all the hidden collectibles. It's very much a collector's series in that regard. If you're one of those types of gamers who has to collect every last whatever it is then any of the LEGO titles will scratch that particular itch. If you're not a fan of collecting then you're still going to enjoy yourself through the story mode and its charming humor and gameplay but you'll lose a considerable amount of the game. Graphically LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 is a very good looking game with its simple and clean aesthetics. The music is great as it's from the films. The game is actually quite sizeable as well. There is a lot to do in and around Hogwarts between the levels themselves. I'd still highly recommend the game even if you've sort of got to cross your fingers and hope for the best to play it without a glitch.

I've also been playing Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS. Mario Kart 7 was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development as well as Retro Studios and was published by Nintendo. Some of you might be asking Retro? Apparently Nintendo EAD handled the racing mechanics and Retro handled the art and track design. Mario Kart 7 features a lot of firsts for the series. The first Mario Kart in stereoscopic 3D, the first with racing underwater, and the first with flight, as well as the first with customizable karts. Even with all the firsts Mario Kart 7 still feels like every other Mario Kart. This is the first entry where I've really started to feel that the series is growing long in the tooth as the saying goes. Graphically it looks good in that sort of simple and clean Nintendo fashion. Nintendo games never push the boundaries graphically and Mario Kart 7 is no exception. The same can be said for the sound effects and soundtrack. They're well within that Nintendo safe area. The game's controls are responsive and won't cause you any missed turns or the like. The amount of cramping your hands will experience of course will depend on how well they get along with the system itself as not everyone finds it to be the most ergonomic device ever created. The track designs are rather good, but again well within the safe zone. Nintendo isn't taking any chances here. The actual 3D effect works rather well and I found myself playing in 3D more often than not. There are a couple of aspects of the game I didn't like however. One being the new kart customization. It's not that it exists, it's more in the how you go about unlocking everything and the balance of it all. You're able to collect coins scattered across the course while racing. Those coins are used to unlock new parts for the karts. In previous Mario Kart titles I essentially went right through the 50 cc and 100 cc levels and would spend the majority of my time racing in 150 cc. But in Mario Kart 7 you're not exactly racing the most competitive kart until you've unlocked the better parts for it. I found myself having to race the lower speed levels over and over again to earn the coins to unlock the parts that would make me competitive in 150 cc. I found that tedious and boring. The other area I didn't like was how Nintendo is still employing hideous rubber band AI and items like the blue shell. Your skill level is essentially irrelevant and pure idiotic luck is far more important. And the AI just absolutely abuse the damn blue shell among the other items. It's almost guaranteed that you'll be leading the race on the final lap and you'll be hit with a blue shell, or hit one after the other with like three items. You'll go from first to sixth on the last turn because the AI comes as close to just out and out cheating as I've ever seen in my 35 years of playing video games. It's amazingly frustrating. It's also bad design. And it amazes me Nintendo gets away with this crap without so much as a word of protest.

I've also played Sonic CD, the 2011 version for Xbox Live Arcade. Sonic CD was originally developed by Sonic Team and it was published in 1993 for the SEGA CD by SEGA, of course. We might need a little history here. Sonic Team essentially split in two after Sonic The Hedgehog. One of Sonic's co-creators, Yuji Naka went East leaving Japan for SEGA of America and SEGA Technical Institute. They went on to make Sonic 2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles among others. The other half of the team stayed in Japan under Naoto Oshima and began working on what became Sonic CD. In fact what became Sonic CD and Sonic 2 both started development as Sonic 2. What ended up released as Sonic 2 finished development first and got the title. The game's music is also worth discussing. Sonic CD ended up with two different soundtracks. One for Japan and Europe and one for North America. Japan's soundtrack was composed by Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ohgata while America's soundtrack was composed by Spencer Nilsen and David Young. The soundtracks have some differences in tone but both are very good. The soundtracks have different opening and ending tracks. The Japanese soundtrack famously features a sample of Work That Sucker To Death from Xavier, George Clinton, and Bootsy Collins in its boss theme. As for the game itself, Sonic CD is great. If you're expecting speed to be the focus you're going to be surprised. Sonic CD is easily the most platform gameplay focused title in the series and as such it's one of my favorites. The gimmick of Sonic CD is time travel. By hitting a sign post that says either past or future, then achieving and maintaining enough speed Sonic will travel through time. You're essentially trying to make a good future by traveling to the past to destroy devices placed there by Dr. Robotnik. The game features seven zones with three acts each. The third act in each zone being a boss battle. The game features graphic variations and different music tracks for the past, present, bad future, and good future of each act with variations for good and bad futures in the boss levels. The game also retains Sonic 1's method of needing to be carrying fifty rings at the end of the stage to make the large ring appear that acts as the gate to the special stages. Sonic CD's special stages are very cool but arguably the hardest in the entire series. The enhanced port for Xbox 360 was developed by Blit Software based on Christian Whitehead's engine and published by SEGA. You know how you've talked to people or seen posts on message boards where someone has said something to the effect of why doesn't company A just hire that modder or the guy behind some fan project to port one of their games? That's essentially what SEGA has done here. The result is one of the best ports in the history of gaming. They really went above and beyond with this one. Why is that? Well, you get Sonic CD, including all the hidden goodies in the original, in HD and true widescreen. You get three graphic filters that all look great. You get both the Japanese and American soundtracks. Although the Japanese intro and ending tracks are the instrumental versions. You get cool little things that only the most rabid Sonic fan would even care about like the ability to switch between the Sonic CD and Sonic 2 style spindash animations. You also unlock Tails as a playable character once you've completed the game. Tails wasn't in the original game. All of this and it's $5. This is how you do a port. It was clearly a labor of love for Blit Software and Christian Whitehead. I was thoroughly impressed with the Xbox 360 version of Sonic CD. It was great fun to play the game again after all these years without having to dig out my Genesis and SEGA CD and my copy of Sonic CD out of the closet. This version is now easily the definitive version of Sonic CD.

LEGO: Harry Potter Years 5-7 -- 8
Mario Kart 7 -- 7
Sonic CD -- 9.5

I've also spent around ninety hours in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. But I'll save that for another entry...

Sonic Generations -- All-In-One.

2011-12-09T16:47:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. A really good Mario game, and a great Zelda game, now a great Sonic game? What year is it anyway? I've fully completed Sonic Generations for the Xbox 360. Sonic Generations was developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA. Sonic Generations ultimately sets out to bridge the divide that exists between fans of classic Sonic and those that are fans of modern Sonic. You'll play as the classic short, potbellied, black eyed, voiceless Sonic from the Genesis games through nine stages of 2D based gameplay. You'll also play as the modern lanky, lean, green eyed, fully voiced Sonic from the Dreamcast era and beyond through 3D interpretations of the same nine stages. The stages are broken up into three eras. The Genesis era features stages from Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic & Knuckles. The Dreamcast era features stages from Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes. The Modern era features stages from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic Colors. Both the 2D and 3D stages look phenomenal. The game is just pretty. Everything is bright and colorful and lush with detail and it's all in crisp and clean HD. The sound design is even better. Every classic Sonic sound is there sounding amazing and clear. The soundtrack is arguably one of the best soundtracks in a long time. The game features fifty tracks to unlock from original versions of classic tunes to new arrangements and remixes. Once you've completed a stage you're able to select any track you've unlocked for replays. If you've always had the insane desire to race through Green Hill Zone to Super Sonic Racing from Sonic R the game allows for it. On the 2D side Sonic controls damn near close to perfect. On the 3D side Sonic is by far the most stable and responsive he's ever been. The level designs for both the 2D and 3D sides are great. It's really cool seeing 3D takes on Chemical Plant Zone and Sky Sactuary Zone for example. It's just as cool seeing 2D takes of 3D levels like Rooftop Run and City Escape. The game also offers up ninety challenges to complete. I found myself impressed with how creative these were. They really altered some of the stages to create a lot of these challenges. It's clear a lot of effort was put into the challenges. I essentially went in to Sonic Generations for the 2D classic side of things but I came away as equally impressed with the 3D half of the game. Sonic Generations is a high quality product from top to bottom and I had a whole lot of fun with the game. I'm giving Sonic Generations a 9.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword -- All-In-One.

2011-12-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

I have fully completed The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii. By fully completed I mean that I completed all the side quests, collected all the crystals, and found all the hearts on my way to completing the game. The game was developed by Nintendo EAD (Entertainment Analysis and Development, for those who may have wondered) and published by Nintendo. Much like Majora's Mask before it requiring the Expansion Pak and its 4MB of memory for the Nintendo 64 to be able to play it, Skyward sword requires Wii Motion Plus and its enhanced motion control to play. The game has been built from the controls up. The gameplay has been designed entirely around the controls. The Wii Motion Plus allows for 1 to 1 tracking of motion. Meaning wherever you move the Wii Remote Plus, the on screen image of Link moves his sword. Right down to the tilt of the blade's edge. Whether the edge is facing the ground or the horizon can be controlled. You'd think with this much degree of control that the sword play would be rather complex. It's really not. You essentially have forehand and backhand slashes for the horizontal and diagonal strikes. You also have the top to bottom and bottom to top vertical slashes as well as a stabbing thrust. Your shield is essentially turned on with the shake of the nunchuck. And you can perform a shield thrust with a further shake of the nunchuck. You also have Link's trademark spin slash for lawn care and some combat use. The enemies play into these controls. The humanoid ones especially tend to defend themselves so you'll need to pay attention to how they're blocking. If they're blocking for a vertical strike a horizontal strike will normally be able to land. The more advanced encounters will require you to shield bash their attacks which will stun them for a second allowing you to get in a sword combo. All of the game's tools also use motion control and for the most part the motion controls are a success. They will still fail from time to time. And especially in the tool usage, the controls will become misaligned. Nintendo has that covered this time around. You merely need to point the Wii Motion Plus at the center of the screen and hit down on the D-pad to realign the controls. It's a built in hot fix. Something Nintendo really isn't going to advertise as it really says, hey we know our motion control crap doesn't really function a hundred percent of the time. Graphically the aesthetic of Skyward Sword is a mix between Twilight Princess' supposedly more mature style and the cartoon look of Wind Waker which results in a decidedly watercolor look. I like the graphic style. It's a shame that the graphics will depend heavily on how your high definition television deals with standard definition input. Mine doesn't especially like working with the Wii so all of the seams are clearly visible for me. None of this would be there on a standard definition television and the game would look great. The sound design of Skyward Sword fairs much better. The game uses more than a few fully orchestrated tracks and the sound quality is great. The main themes are especially well done. It does take a while to get used to the classic treasure get fanfare being done with real instruments. At first it sounds a little weird. I felt the need for voice acting this time around. I think it would have helped with the emotional impact of the story they were going for. Skyward Sword is the first game in the time line, such as it is. You're getting a lot of origin story with this one. There aren't any great surprises and everything fits rather well. I liked it a lot for what it is. Although I will say I was a little surprised at how heavily Nintendo borrowed from Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue. I'm being polite with the use of borrow. There are a couple of things I really liked about Skyward Sword. One of those is in how thorough the developers were in pulling aspects from every other game in the series into Skyward Sword. There are shades of every single game in the series baring the CD-I titles in Skyward Sword. It results in twinges of nostalgia whenever one of these nods are recognized and that plays into the feeling of playing through a great Zelda adventure. Some of them are as blatant as 'It's a secret to everybody' and some are more obscure as the shape of certain headgear having the similar design as Midna's headgear from Twilight Princess. Another aspect I liked is the game feels full. The original Zelda, and A Link to the Past essentially had a secret on every screen. The games felt packed with content in that regard. The 3D Zelda games have lost that feeling. It's back with Skyward Sword. While not quite as true as a secret on every screen, Skyward Sword is as close to that as you can probably get in a 3D title. The game doesn't feel empty or small. Even when it doesn't really have a true overworld anymore. The dungeons and puzzles are great. The dungeons are large and varied with interesting new concepts and packed with puzzles. The game's bosses are also a treat. A lot of them break free from typical Zelda concepts and they make use of the tools and Wii Motion Plus in interesting ways. I really enjoyed my sixty-five hours with the game. Like a most great games, I didn't want it to end. I'm giving The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword a 9.5. Now bring on the Zelda games for the 3DS and the Wii U.

Saints Row: The Third -- All-In-One.

2011-12-03T11:20:00.000-08:00

I've earned the full thousand points on Saints Row: The Third. The game was developed by Volition, Inc., and was published by THQ. Saints Row: The Third was my most wanted game this year. It's the one that I knew was going to be a sure thing and deliver all the fun of Saints Row 2 and more. Saints Row: The Third turned out to be my most disappointing game of 2011. Is that to say it's just an awful game? No, it's not an awful game. This entry isn't late even though I finished the game a week ago. I needed to think about if I was actually giving the game a fair shake or not in the terms of was I judging the game for what it is or was I judging the game on what it wasn't compared to Saints Row 2 and if that's even fair. I decided it was fair as it's how I honestly reacted to the game. I've noticed all around the Internet people have been commenting and saying things like Saints Row 3 is the most fun they've had all year but that line has almost always been qualified by saying the game is their first experience with the series. If I had not played Saints Row and Saints Row 2 would I most likely have been blown away by Saints Row: The Third? I think it's safe to say yes. But I did play Saints Row and Saints Row 2 and I know that something is off when it comes to Saints Row: The Third. Saints Row 2 was grounded by some more serious content within its story. Saints Row: The Third isn't grounded by anything. It feels that Volition noticed how the wilder aspects of Saints Row 2 were received and decided that's what fans want. And that's all you get in Saints Row: The Third. The wild and wacky, with no grounding. So it's just wild and wacky for the sake of being wild and wacky. The result actually makes the game feel dumbed down and sort of hollow. Another more tangible aspect of why I get the overall feeling of disappointment is because the game feels rushed content wise. The city design, the gaps in story missions, the activities, everything just feels slapped together. It feels unpolished, unfinished. The new clothing system feels less than from Saints Row 2 as well. You no longer have the options of wearing clothes open or closed where applicable. It may sound like a minor quibble but when you spend enough time saying I wish I could do this or that, and you used to be able to do it in the previous game, it comes across more glaring. It's not all bad news though. The game controls great and it looks much better than the previous titles and it does provide you with fifty plus hours of co-op fueled mayhem. I just can't help but feel that this is less than and overall a disappointment. I've giving Saints Row: The Third a 7.5.

Super Mario 3D Land - All-In-One.

2011-11-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

I'm getting used to being late with these updates. I've completed Super Mario 3D Land for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was developed by Nintendo EAD Tokyo and was published by Nintendo. Super Mario 3D Land is the first game for Nintendo's 3DS that really makes use of the 3D capabilities of the system beyond some graphic fluff. The title was clearly designed from the ground up around the 3D aspect. It's the first title I've felt compelled to play with the 3D mode turned on for the entirety of the game. Super Mario 3D Land is something of an oddball. It takes from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario 64 to create it's own thing. It takes Super Mario Bros. 3's tightly focused levels and mixes them with Super Mario 64's smaller open world design. The resulting blend works surprisingly well. The game's camera is a large part of the success. It maintains perfect position at all times. They had to change a few things up as far as control is concerned. The long missing run button returns. And because of the 3D nature of things, pressing down to enter a pipe wouldn't work, so you'll use the shoulder buttons for that. The game first appears to be on the easy side, and once you've completed the game for the first time, a second more difficult playthrough becomes available. This second quest really extends the game for those who will feel the need to collect all the star coins and get the flag for every last stage. Graphically the game looks like your typical mainline Nintendo production. Everything is bright and colorful and clean and safe. They're not really pushing any graphic boundaries here. Musically it's much the same as the graphics. The music does a great job and feels entirely well produced and highly professional. But again it also feels rather Nintendo safe. I would like to seem them take a risk once in a while. Super Mario 3D Land is the purest Mario title produced since the advent of 3D gameplay. There's no fluff or filler, and the 3D is more than a gimmick for this one. And that's a good thing. I really liked my time with the game. It gives me some hope that future of the system might be more substantial than gimmicky. I'm giving Super Mario 3D Land an 8.5.

Battlefield 3 -- All-In-One.

2011-11-21T17:48:00.000-08:00

Here I am again with another late entry. This time it's for Battlefield 3, produced by Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. I played the Xbox 360 version. Battlefield 3 is a team based multiplayer first person shooter that aims to deliver the chaos of war. The Battlefield series has always excelled at delivering said chaos. Problem is, the battlefield itself has changed in this post Call of Duty world, and DICE and EA have positioned themselves and the game to take on the behemoth. The resulting single player campaign and co-op missions are less than special. They share the same faults as their Call of Duty counterparts. They're filled with that Tom Clancy peppery military banter and minutia and that oh my god go go go sense of action. And just like Call of Duty it's awful and is the very definition of hollow. It's a good thing you don't play these games for the single player aspects. Battlefield 3 delivers on the multiplayer side offering up numerous modes of play. Conquest remains the same as it was in Battlefield 1942 and is one of the best online modes ever created and it's still the heart and soul of Battlefield. They're also offering up Rush, Squad Rush, Team Deathmatch, and Squad Deathmatch for those looking for a change of pace. Battlefield 3 runs on the Frostbite 2 engine and offers up a mostly impressive destructible environment. You'll get stuck on a bit of rubble from what used to be a building too often for my tastes and it always seems to happen when you're being fired upon. The buildings come apart in amazing detail, but the physics of the character movement can't seem to cope as well as they need to. Battlefield 3 is a great looking game. It's graphically impressive. The music is minimally used to great effect and the sounds of battle are crisp and clean and boom through the speakers. The series tradition of planes and helicopters controlling like alien contraptions continues. Outside of the air vehicles the game controls beautifully. The unlock system is greatly successful in keeping you playing as you're never far away from the next new gun or gadget. The flaws in Battlefield are inherent to the genre whenever playing with the public. Especially in playing Conquest. Having to depend on teamwork from the public means you're going to be behind the eight ball a lot of the time. The great thing about Battlefield though is sometimes all it takes is one squad that knows what they're doing to turn the tide. In the eighty some hours I spent getting the thousand achievement points in Battlefield 3 I would say fifty of those were spent having fun, and thirty of those were spent being frustrated. Battlefield comes with a clear cost, and for me the good still outweighs the bad. I'm giving Battlefield 3 an 8.

Batman: Arkham City -- All In One.

2011-10-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

I've completed Batman: Arkham City for the Xbox 360. Batman: Arkham City was developed by Rocksteady Games and was published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game is the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum and successfully adds a bit of sandbox to the mix. The game is essentially the same with some added freedom and sidequests as you roam the streets of Arkham City, a walled off section of Gotham that has been turned into a prison ala Escape From New York. Arkham City is surprisingly small for a sandbox title and that works toward keeping things moving. It only takes a minute or so to get from one end of the city to the opposite end. The coolest thing about the game is how the Riddler's Challenges are integrated into Arkham City itself. They're everywhere and you just come upon them in the city. They're great puzzles that you'll have to figure out and some will stump you for quite a while. Once you've figured out all the base types however you'll just have to pull off the harder ones of the same types. There are a decent number of base puzzle types. The game offers up all the complex gadgets and combat moves of the original and adds upon them. I'm still not a fan of the combat. I know it's much beloved and most likely for the visual splendor of it all. It's truly impressive to watch with its amazing number of canned responses. But canned they are nonetheless. It's still too much Simon Says autopilot feeling for me. I am still a fan of all the gadgets in that half of the combat though. Graphically the game looks great. It has a nice art style that blends a lot of elements from various Batman sources and becomes its own thing. The game features top-notch voice acting all around. Musically the game reuses much of Arkham City's solid score. The story should appease Batman fans. The characterizations are especially strong. I was glad to see specific Batman: Arkham Asylum villains getting their chance to shine in Arkham City as they were criminally underused in the original. Batman: Arkham City is what every video game sequel is supposed to be, bigger and better, and it offers up more of what made the original a good game. I'm giving Batman: Arkham City an 8.5.

Dark Souls -- All-In-One.

2011-10-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

I have completed what I intend to be the first of three eventual completions of the Xbox 360 version of Dark Souls. I want that thousand gamerscore for this one but that would be insanity in the midst of the busy season. So I'll have to wait for the summer to truly complete the game. Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls and was developed by the great From Software and published by Namco-Bandai Games. Dark Souls, like Demon's Souls and the King's Field series before it, is an updated action RPG that acts as a love letter to the hardcore dungeon crawlers of yesteryear. The Souls series has a reputation for being extremely hard. I do not subscribe to that opinion. The game is challenging but that's the entire point. From Software is using this punishing style to bolster the eventual rush of satisfaction when you finally do conquer your current situation. Dark Souls offers the greatest sense of satisfaction I've ever felt in my three and half decades as an avid gamer. From Software has created a series of games that feature an almost overwhelmingly intoxicating atmosphere. Dark Souls features a hauntingly beautiful world in ruin filled to the brim with interesting characters and a wide variety of enemies who are more than capable of killing you. Dark Souls is the kind of game where the lowest enemies in the game can kill your end game character if you're not paying attention. The enemy AI is smarter than most and is both aggressive and tricky. I do have to say something about the enemy designs as they're some of the most original interpretations of classic creatures and visually impressive enemies you'll likely to encounter. Dark Souls continues Demon's Souls absolutely innovative online structure allowing for you to see phantoms of other players in their worlds. You can read hints or lies left by other players or leave your own. You can be invaded or invade the worlds of other players. It's easily one of the coolest online formats ever devised. The only real flaws are on the technical side as there a couple of areas where the frame rate just dies. I spent roughly a hundred and eighteen hours in Dark Souls. I came away extremely impressed. If there are games that define a console generation, I'd have to say the Souls series may just be that for me with the current generation. Dark Souls is currently the frontrunner for my Game of the Year 2011. Good thing there are actually serious potential contenders this year that have yet to be released. I'm giving Dark Souls a 9.5. A wonderfully rewarding gaming experience. Truly gaming at its best.

Resident Evil 4 -- Again.

2011-09-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

This is my third time I've bought and played through Resident Evil 4. I played the original release in January of 2005 on the GameCube. I then played through the game on the Wii in June of 2007. I've just completed the Games on Demand version of Resident Evil 4 on the Xbox 360 which released last week. Why? Well, it's a classic game. Right? Plus it's been brought up to high definition standards and has been given a full thousand achievement points. The game actually looks really good for what amounts to a six year old game especially compared to the Wii version. The gameplay is still classic and provides thrilling third person action. I do have to say that it took me a while to adjust to the outdated control method. The aiming initially felt tougher and far more twitchy than I had remembered it. In all the versions of the game I've always had the same complaint. It's the randomness inherent in the game's design. The randomness of whether a headshot is a headshot or not. How much damage a shot seemingly does. The randomness of which creatures will reveal themselves to have parasites and the random nature of what items you'll receive from drops. Sometimes it all works against you and can feel as if the game is just being mean and unfair. Overall Resident Evil 4 is still a classic title and the game is packed with content. Especially if you're a completionist. The main game is there of course, as are The Mercenaries, Assignment Ada, and Separate Ways bonus games. You'll get a lot of bang for your twenty bucks. I'm giving Resident Evil 4 HD on the Xbox 360 an 8.

Oh So Lazy, Oh So Late -- General Update.

2011-09-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

Like the title says, this is oh so late and I've been oh so lazy. Since the last update I've completed three titles and broken the 100,000 gamerscore barrier. I played Ninja Blade, developed by From Software. I played LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean developed by Traveler's Tales, and I've played Dead Island developed by Techland. So here are the very brief opinions of each title.

Ninja Blade is an over the top action game wherein a biological menace is invading Tokyo and you're just the ninja to deal with it. The game relies heavily on quick time events to progress through the action. How else are you going to kill a skyscraper sized menace by flipping through the air and throwing the motorcycle you're currently riding down into the mouth and timing a thrown blade into the engine causing the fatal explosion? You can see how over the top Ninja Blade is, and that's just level two. Ninja Blade is an all around average title and doesn't really try to be anything else. It knows what it is and doesn't have delusions of grandeur. It wants to be a decently fun little game, and that's pretty much what it is.

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean is merely the LEGO gameplay at its most polished and refined to date. Traveler's Tales has been rather smart, and lucky in the licenses they've managed to pair up with. Pirates of the Caribbean is a perfect fit for that classic LEGO gameplay. If you've played any of the LEGO titles then you know exactly what LEGO Pirates is. It's still a tad glitchy, but for the most part, it performs better than what's come before it.

Dead Island is a cool concept to be sure. Open world online co-op zombie apocalypse action with all the RPG trimmings. Techland has taken a decent first step in a concept that might have been a tad too ambitious for them. I guess that's a more polite way of saying that there is still a lot of fun to be had in what amounts to a title that's glitchy as can be and full of bizarre design choices. As far as glitchy goes I've never seen a game eat itself before as it crashes. Nothing quite compares to seeing the frame rate go to hell like you can't even imagine and the screen begin to blur before fading to gray while the sounds of the enemy attacking intensifies before the game finally locks up. The whole process taking ten plus seconds. And to have it happen to everyone in the game every time, not just one person is just an extra special treat. Also the game has a few functions like being able to warp to a key quest giver because people are waiting and everyone needs to be there to advance. That's a smart feature, if it worked. It does for some people, some times, with not so much as a clue as to why its being so fickle as to who it will or will not decide to work for. As far as design decisions, it's always fascinating to see quests that lock you out of other quests being accessible before you have any notion of such a possibility. It isn't all bad though. As I stated, the concept is great. The combat is visceral. The story is ludicrous and nonsensical to the point of being humorous in co-op because of having people there to laugh at it with. Like a great bad movie, and no, that wasn't intentional by the developers.

I'm giving the games the following scores:

Ninja Blade -- 7.
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean -- 8.
Dead Island -- 7.

Next up? I'm currently revisiting Resident Evil 4, this time in high definition via the Xbox 360.

Alpha Protocol -- All-In-One.

2011-08-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

I've completed Alpha Protocol for the Xbox 360. Alpha Protocol was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by SEGA. Alpha Protocol met with less than stellar reviews when it launched in May of last year. It also comes from Obsidian who are known for developing sequels to the games of other companies. In fact, Alpha Protocol is their first original effort not connected to something else. Obsidian are also sort of known for a buggy end product. Alpha Protocol is an RPG with an espionage theme. The game sets out to replicate a spy thriller and actually does a pretty good job at doing just that. If I were to compare Alpha Protocol to another game it would have to be Mass Effect. One of the biggest complaints you'll hear about the Mass Effect series is that BioWare have forgotten their RPG roots and Mass Effect is really just an action game with Choose Your Own Adventure character and story development. You'll go through the game until you're provided with a choice of A or B and that's the limit of Mass Effect's depth. The same complaints can't be applied to Alpha Protocol. In both the action and story or character development every little thing you do counts in ways you can both see and not see. Everything has a potential repercussion and everything hinges on your choices. And it's not just at the predetermined spots for the major choices. It's not as obvious as that. It's constant. No matter how insignificant the conversation may seem. And the changes can be extreme. To the of degree of not seeing entire levels or characters. The number of variables that can factor into the ending is rather impressive. The character progression side of the game is just as impressive. You'll be given a certain number of points to spend on leveling up. You can spend them in numerous categories that really can alter how you'll play the game on the action side of things. From specific weapon specializations to stealth and hand to hand and gadgets and more. You really can play it your way. Play the game like Rambo with assault rifles or shotguns, or like a ninja and take down enemies in silence, or use every gadget under the sun to outsmart enemies, or any combination thereof. I really liked the flexibility in the action half of the game and the depth of possibilities on the story and character side of the game. So what's the problem? Why was the game treated so harshly by critics? The game isn't going to win any awards for graphics. They're competent and a tad less than they should be for what amounts to a mid generation release. The game also continues Obsidian's track record for buggy games. I never encountered anything that was truly game breaking but it is annoying to lose progress and have to reload. And you will have to reload. Alpha Protocol was well worth the $20 entry fee. I'm giving the game a 7.

Forza Motorsport 3 -- All-In-One.

2011-08-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

I've been beyond lazy with timely updates. I've recently completed Forza Motorsport 3. The game was developed by Turn 10 Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. I used to be a big racing game fan once upon a time. Back when the best racing games were all SEGA arcade racers. The key word there being arcade. Back in the original PlayStation era they released Gran Turismo and racing games started to shift from arcade to simulation. I purchased Gran Turismo back then and was nearly bored to death by its simulation based gameplay. I haven't really bought any dedicated racing games outside of Mario Kart and Crazy Taxi since then. Cut to this summer and Riddel was wanting an online game we could play. She was playing Forza Motorsport 3 at the time and I was transitioning between games so the timing was good. I went out and purchased Forza Motorsport 3. Little did I know a huge chunk of my summer backlog time would be taken by a racing simulator. That speaks volumes to me how good a game Forza Motorsport 3 actually is. It makes a genre I haven't liked in ages fun again. First off, the game is great looking. The cars are modeled with the utmost attention to detail. The same thing can be said for the tracks themselves. Everything is handled with an exacting level of detail. The game is also just loaded with content. A single player campaign featuring two-hundred multi race events. A full online mode. Beyond the hundreds of hours of racing in the game, you can spend hundreds more tuning cars, browsing player shops and the online auction house, as well as designing decals to decorate your cars. The game has a wealth of options that allow you alter just about every single aspect of the game. They truly allow you to tailor the game to your liking. You can make the game as arcade or as simulation based as you prefer. I personally can't think of anything you don't have control over. Forza Motorsport 3 is the best racing game I've played in a long time and I'm giving it a 9.5. My one complaint is that the game almost has too much content. You can lose yourself in this game. It will take a Herculean effort to earn the final achievement in this one.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet -- All-In-One.

2011-08-08T18:12:00.000-07:00

Here I am late again. Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is the third title in this year's Summer of Arcade promotion. It's a metroidvania style action game that was developed by Fuelcell Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is an almost perfect game in my opinion. I truly enjoyed it. It has a simply gorgeous art style. It might be the best looking Xbox Live game I've played. You're playing as an alien in his ship trying to prevent a malicious shadow life form from corrupting an entire planet. The alien's ship has an arm that enables you to use weapons and tools. It's classic metroidvania in that you'll explore the world and you'll find your path blocked until you can acquire and use the weapons and tools that enable you to continue. The game's art style and graphics are second to none. The music is minimalist and works great with exploring an unknown planet. The controls are great with simple twin stick controls and radial menus. The game features some strong puzzles and some impressive boss battles. The only sort of flaw in the game is it's a bit short. Around five hours or so to one-hundred percent completion. And that's arguably not much of a flaw considering it's a downloadable title. I'm giving Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet a 9.5. You might balk at the $15 entry fee, but when this game goes on sale down the line on Xbox Live Marketplace, it'll be a steal.

Ms. 'Splosion Man -- All-In-One.

2011-08-03T13:19:00.000-07:00

This one is a little late. I've completed Ms. 'Splosion Man, developed by Twisted Pixel and published by Microsoft Game Studios. I've completed both the single player and co-op campaigns. 'Splosion Man was one of my favorite games for 2009, so it's a little surprising that I didn't like the generally improved Ms. 'Splosion Man as much. I say generally improved as it is the typical case of a sequel. Everything is bigger and tougher and better looking. The game is also more complex as they've added new mechanics into the mix. From gameplay that switches from the foreground to the background to taking a saddled bomb for a ride there is just more to contend with the second time around. The co-op frustration of de-synched gameplay returns. The game is great when it works, but all too often you're finding yourself having to adjust to altered timing because both players aren't in perfect synch. It drains the fun right out of the game. I'm giving Ms. 'Splosion Man a 7.5.

Bastion -- All-In-One.

2011-07-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

I've completed Bastion for Xbox Live Arcade earning the full two hundred points. Bastion is the first release in the 2011 version of Summer of Arcade. Bastion was developed by Supergiant Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Bastion is an action RPG with a gimmick. Yes, I'm using the word gimmick here as it didn't really work for me. The game has a narrator going throughout the entire game. An overly slick voice is commenting on everything you do and provides the story as you go. The voice is very mismatched to the in-game character it's supposed to be which also works against it. I found the narration to be mildly annoying. Especially where it tries to be smart and provide you with a little fourth wall breaking goose. They never really worked for me and I found myself saying I wasn't thinking that. I believe I probably would have had more tolerance for the narration had the story been more than it was. I wasn't impressed with the story. It didn't give me any sort of epiphany that it seemingly so wants to do. The biggest complaint I have against the story is that it just comes off as trying way too hard. The gameplay is solid and fun but not exactly deep. They do offer up eleven weapons to use so you can come up with a pair that let you play the game the way you want to play it. You're able to level up the weapons adding new power and abilities. The game also features passive skills tied to your levels to mix and match as well as numerous sidequests. Graphically the game is gorgeous. Hand drawn art abounds. It all animates rather well. But it does lead to some collision detection issues and being hung up on edges here and there. Musically the game is a mixed bag. The soundtrack is rather good. There are two songs in the game however and again I came away with the impression of the game just trying too hard. Especially with the ending song. Bastion is an all around solid game, but ultimately nothing special. I'm giving Bastion a 7.

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon - All-In-One.

2011-07-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

I've been playing Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon for the Xbox 360. The game is the fourth title in the series and the second game released in North America. It's my first entry into the series. This entry in the series was developed for the first time in America by Vicious Cycle Software and published by D3 Publishers. The first three titles were developed in Japan by Sandlot. The original games were developed under the Simple 2000 series, which makes them $20 budget releases. The third was released on the Xbox 360 as Earth Defense Force 2017, again as a budget priced title. Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon retains the budget price aesthetic but essentially provides a full-fledged game including online co-op for three players through the campaign and six-player online co-op through survival mode. Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is a third-person shooter versus thousands upon thousands of bugs. Through the game's fifteen levels you'll constantly find yourself swarmed by bugs and it's even more intense with three players in co-op. The game offers four distinct classes that truly play different from each other. The game also offers over three-hundred weapons that truly offer a rather impressive variety of unique graphic displays. Far more impressive than Borderlands, that's for sure. Graphically the game is solid. While clearly budget based the graphics are clean and the bugs animate well. The game's sound effects work well. The bugs pop with a satisfying sound and the weapon sound effects also prove satisfying. What's probably most surprising is the story and it's decidedly humorous take on things. The game is truly funny. The game is aware of itself as a video game and constantly mocks itself. The true ending, which can only be seen on the hardest difficulty level, especially mocks video game endings. The game isn't flawless though. I would say that the grind is a bit on the extreme side. Leveling your characters and killing set numbers of bugs for achievements takes way too long. Other than that though, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon proves to be great solid fun and I'm giving the game an 8. We're essentially taking a break from the game and expect to return to it to finish said grind and earn those achievements. It might take a a year of playing on and off. Yeah, the grind is like that...

Trenched -- All-In-One.

2011-07-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

I have completed the Xbox Live Arcade title Trenched. The game was developed by Double Fine and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game is a hybrid of tower defense and third-person shooter with a small dose of action RPG leveling. I liked this game more than I was expecting to as I'm not the biggest fan of the tower defense genre. Two factors come into play here as to the why of my enjoyment. The fact that the game leans closer to a third-person shooter and that the game offers four-player online co-op. The game works well in co-op and is easily the preferred way to play. It's a really solid fun little game. I'm giving Trenched an 8.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D -- All-In-One.

2011-07-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

I have completed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D with a time of thirty-seven hours and twenty-one minutes. The game was developed by Grezzo and published by Nintendo. The original The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released in November of 1998 for the Nintendo 64 and it went on to become the highest rated video game of all time. Was it worth playing it again all these years later? Easily, yes. The game is still a true classic and is as fun and rewarding as it ever was. Is it worth buying again? The 3DS version features updated graphics and a much improved frame rate as well as improved control. The 3D effect when looking around at each new area or cutscene is definately cool. The only real flaw here again is in the system itself and not the software with the limited window for the 3D stability. I spent the majority of the game playing in 2D. Which is unfortunately shaping up to be the norm for the system. I would definitely say that it's worth purchasing for a second time. I'm giving it a score of 9.5.

Shadows of the Damned -- All-In-One.

2011-06-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

I have finished Shadows of the Damned after three playthroughs and roughly twenty-one hours. Shadows of the Damned was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Electronic Arts. Shadows of the Damned is a collaboration between Goichi Suda, Shinji Mikami, and Akira Yamaoka. Suda is the man behind Michigan, Killer 7, No More Heroes 1 and 2, and others. Mikami is the man behind Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, God Hand, Vanquish, and others. Yamaoka is best known as the composer for the Silent Hill series. So you have Suda's brand of insanity, Mikami's pedigree of action titles, and Yamaoka's brilliant horror soundtrack skills. Sounds like you have all the ingredients for greatness in place so Shadows of the Damned has to be a great experience, right? Well, not so fast. Shadows of the Damned is an all around average title. The story is surprisingly straightforward and coherent from Suda. The game has a couple of great one-liners here and there but it also seems to be trying hard so when things fall flat they really fall flat. Your mileage will vary of course based on your appreciation of juvenile humor. I don't think any of the game's characters are up to Suda's usual standard. Mikami's gameplay comes off as Resident Evil 4 lite in spite of having a few technical improvements like being able to move while aiming. The game shares a lot of concepts and enemy behavior with Resident Evil 4. The gameplay doesn't feel as polished as most of Mikami's previous titles. The game also suffers from extreme linearity. The bosses however are all of the epic variety. They're all interesting and fun. Yamaoka's score sounds a bit too much like later era Silent Hill to me but otherwise is an interesting score befitting a Suda title. There are some issues about difficulty achievements not stacking requiring three full playthroughs of the game for the 1,000. Which wouldn't be so bad if you could skip dialog and cutscenes. Especially the third time through the rather restrictive early tutorial stages. I liked Shadows of the Damned, it's just that with such a lineup of talent it's that you're sort of expecting much more than you're getting. What you are getting with Shadows of the Damned is a competent little game. I'm giving Shadows of the Damned a 7.

General Update - Nintendo 3DS Edition.

2011-06-18T19:08:00.001-07:00

My 3DS is finally seeing a little action. A little less than two weeks ago Nintendo finally got around to activating the other half of the online aspects for the 3DS. We can now browse the Internet and spend money in Nintendo's eShop. Yay? I guess if you don't have one of the other seventeen ways of accessing the Internet on you being able to do so with your 3DS would be cool. The eShop is potentially important of course. You'll be able to access all the DSiWare and 3DSWare as well as the Virtual Console and 3D Classics titles. They have a bit of free 3DSWare up there in the form of Pokédex 3D. It allows you to keep track of your Pokémon from the Black and White titles. It tracks all the data one could possibly want to know about Pokémon and allows you to view each Pokémon in full 3D. It allows for you to trade Pokémon entries for the Pokédex. If I were eleven years old and gave a rat's ass about Pokémon Black or White then this might be the coolest freebie in existence. They also have for a limited time 3D Classics Excitebike for free. The 3D Classics line are NES titles that have been reworked to have 3D functionality. I was genuinely surprised by how 3D Classics Excitebike works in practice. I was expecting the background and the motorbikes to stand out from each other. And that's what happens. Those bikes really pop off that background in 3D. What surprised me is in doing that Nintendo has actually increased the viewing angle. In the original Excitebike, or with the 3D turned off, the view is three-quarters top-down from the side of the track. You can see the track and the bikes and the grandstand as background. When you turn on the 3D you'll literally see the view stretch further into the background where you'll now see the grandstand has a cover and there is a horizon and sky in the background. It's quite like watching a movie in pan & scan and then switching to letterbox on the fly only the increased view is vertically instead of horizontially. It's actually quite a cool effect and one that was wholly unexpected. The Virtual Console section has already proven itself worthwhile for me. I didn't jump in with the GameBoy until the GameBoy Advance. Having played the Game Gear, Lynx, and the Turbo Express back in the day I just couldn't ever bring myself to get a GameBoy. It seemed already outdated. I knew I was missing a handful of great titles but still never pulled the trigger. So twenty-three years later I'm finally getting my chance to experience those few good to great GameBoy titles. As well as the ones that have some sort of historical merit or place. In the two updates the eShop has had I've grabbed two GameBoy titles and one GameBoy Color. Super Mario Land from 1988, Donkey Kong from 1994, and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX from 1998. I've played through Super Mario Land for the first time and I've replayed Link's Awakening DX. It really feels as though that Nintendo through a bit of both hardware limitation and GameBoy brand identification wanted a distinct feel for its GameBoy software. This to me can best be discribed as Bizarro World. It looks like Mario, but something's just a tad off. It looks like Zelda but again something's just a bit bizarre. Donkey Kong on the other hand is just one of the coolest concepts and presentations I've seen. You play through the original four levels of the Donkey Kong arcade game and instead of repeating the cycle Donkey Kong grabs Pauline and exits the side of the screen and Mario pursues them into a whole new world of puzzle based action platforming. Being able to grab some missing classics for my collection is a real boon in my opinion. Especially once they start offering up some GameGear games like Shinobi. And eventually the retail software will come. It's just going to take its usual sweet time. Hell, we're getting Luigi's Mansion 2, that's a surprise and a half. It feels good to, you know, actually use the system. And of course this entry is on the eve of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. Arguably the first real game for the system...

Hunted: The Demon's Forge -- All-In-One.

2011-06-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

I've completed Hunted: The Demon's Forge for the Xbox 360 earning the full thousand points. Hunted: The Demon's Forge was developed by InXile Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is an online co-op enabled hack and slash action game. Think Gears of War with swords and spells. It should be noted that I played the game fully in co-op and I have no bearing on how the single-player experience rates. I imagine it's much like the Resident Evil 5 experience where the game is clearly designed with co-op as the primary mode and single-player as the secondary mode. Hunted: The Demon's Forge will clearly not set the world on fire. It's not a triple A title. However it is an entirely solid and decently fun game. The graphics get the job done. The story is standard fantasy and wholly irrelevant. The controls are workhorse and won't get in the way. The music is much like the graphics is just there. The score won't offend you. But you're not likely to find yourself humming any tracks. The gameplay has a few technical hiccups like snapping into cover from mid run when you don't mean to do so and some dodgy hit detection with projectiles like arrows sometimes clearly going right through enemies without registering hits. The game does feature some decent voice work and the two primary characters are really well done. They have great banter between them. On the whole pretty much everything about Hunted: The Demon's Forge is squarely average. The game is fun though. I'd recommend it to people when it hits clearance prices, especially if they have a co-op partner to play it with. I'm giving Hunted: The Demon's Forge a 7.

L.A. Noire -- All-In-One.

2011-05-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

L. A. Noire was developed by Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games. L. A. Noire puts you in the shoes of W. W. II veteran Cole Phelps as he rises through the ranks from beat cop to detective in 1947 Los Angeles. L. A. Noire was one of my most anticipated games of the year and in the end might make my most disappointing game of the year. Is it a terrible game? Not really as some of the aspects of the game are really well done. What's good about it? The graphics for one as the game just looks great. The character models and the world itself are wonderfully detailed. The facial animation is a true step above. They used numerous high definition cameras to capture the faces of the actors while they were giving their performances. They went through so much trouble because the majority of the gameplay hinges on reading the faces of characters as you interview and interrogate them. They wanted to employ subtleties that had been previously unavailable in facial animation in video games and for the most part they've succeeded. It's probably unfair of me to say that they spent so much time on facial tech that they neglected other aspects of the game but it does feel that way. Almost every other aspect of the game feels average. The handling of the cars is competent at best but the NPC vehicle AI is annoying and that really comes into play as you have to do a lot of driving in the game. The gunplay and cover mechanic are both rather clunky. Getting into cover is fine but moving around corners or getting out of cover just doesn't work very well. The well realized world is massive but it's also extremely empty. They've tried to fill out the world with random crimes, and both cars and film reels to collect. The bulk of the game is of course working the cases and it's there that the game performs best. But unfortunately here too the game is flawed. The cases are fun. You'll be dispatched to a crime scene. You'll investigate the scene gathering evidence and you'll interview witnesses and the like. The facial animation really comes into play when you're interviewing witnesses and suspects. You'll ask them questions and after their responses you're able to choose between truth, doubt, and lie. Essentially truth means you believe them, doubt means you think they're lying but can't prove it, and lie provides you with the opportunity to prove they're lying with gathered evidence or statements. Once you see how the facial animation and interview systems work the story becomes mostly irrelevant. It really is like rock, paper, scissors. Are they having any facial reaction beyond looking you straight in the eye? Then they're lying. Now, can you prove it? If so, pick lie. If no, pick doubt. You'll be able to get through the cases flawlessly as long as you're thorough in collecting clues so you can call them on their lies. The game has an issue between overarching story and the cases. It's like they had to hammer the square pegs of the cases into the round holes of the overarching story for a couple of cases. And that really hurts the game in the homicide desk. It would have helped a lot if they had just left the Black Dahlia alone. The overarching story is actually pretty good and it's too bad they've seemingly forced the cases to deal with it. It has a lot of smart connections to the era. The problem comes in being so tied to the story. You can't go off the rails in the slightest. Another issue is the repetition. There is too much repetition in the cases and in the random crimes. L. A Noire is a flawed but fun first step in spite of itself. Team Bondi has the potential to turn this into a great series if they address the issues present in L. A. Noire. A little freedom in the cases. More to do in the large and detailed world. More variety in the cases. The player needs to not feel like they're on such a short leash to the story's needs. I'm giving L. A. Noire a 7.

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation -- All-In-One.

2011-05-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

It took me sixty-five hours to run through Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation for the Nintendo DS. The game was developed by ArtePiazza. Square-Enix published Dragon Quest IV and V for the Nintendo DS and based on their performances it looked like we weren't going to actually get Dragon Quest VI but thankfully Nintendo stepped up as publisher. Dragon Quest V and VI were once among the holy grail titles that seemed destined to remain in Japan forever. But with the release of Dragon Quest VI in North America we've finally gotten the complete published mainline series. Was it worth the sixteen year wait? Yes. Is it the best Dragon Quest title ever made? No. Dragon Quest VI shares the same graphic style employed by the previous two remakes for the Nintendo DS. What that means is the game is graphically clean and well detailed and features some good battle animations. The game employs the series' lightning fast battle engine and returns to and updates the class system first used in Dragon Quest III. As with most Dragon Quest systems this means you can do as much or as little of it as you'd want. You don't need to focus a tremendous amount of effort to leveling up your character's job. The system is also as forgiving as possible as you retain all your learned skills and experience throughout every job. It's made even easier by a universal equipment system so you don't have to equip each character every time you change a job. The music is classic Sugiyama Dragon Quest score. You know it, you love it. Unless you're one of those who hate it. This score won't change your opinion either way. Surprisingly I found the story to be this entry's weakest element. It's a complex tale, and it remains a tad too confusing for too long. It's a case of wondering what the hell is going on for most of the game. It also suffers from Dragon Quest's VII's flaw in that past a certain point in the game it's rarely clear where to go or what to do next and it's compounded by the fact that there are dual worlds with shared locations to explore. And the game's hint system isn't as helpful as it should be. The characters are the typical Dragon Quest variety, colorful and interesting. The series party chat really shines here. Getting party commentary on every single NPC statement in the game is truly impressive. If you're a fan of the series then this entry is a must and it's been a treat to finally get the missing piece to the puzzle all these years later. I wouldn't suggest you use Dragon Quest VI as an entry point into the series however. I'm giving Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation a 7.5.

Mortal Kombat -- All-In-One.

2011-05-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

After the daunting task of completing Yakuza 4 to 100% completion I was in that post large game state of being spent so I really didn't play anything for a few days. I messed around with Pilot Wings Resort on the 3DS. The game was more a tech demo than a full fledged game. It showed off the 3D effects well enough. They work great when the system is in the sweet spot. But the game also showed off how incredibly small that sweet spot actually is. After that I didn't play anything for a few days still sort of feeling numb off Yakuza 4. That led me to check out demos and I stumbled upon Mortal Kombat on the PSN. I was there for the original Mortal Kombat in the arcades and the ensuing fervor regarding its console release. I picked up the Genesis version of course. I was there for Mortal Kombat 2, this time getting the SNES version. I even bought Mortal Kombat 2 on the 32X. Mortal Kombat 3 hit the arcades and the love affair soon ended. I rented Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the Saturn and never considered the series again. So it was sort of for a laugh that I downloaded the Mortal Kombat demo. To my great surprise I found a game that essentially took all the elements of Mortal Kombat 1-3 and blended them together seamlessly in a game that plays very much like Mortal Kombat 2. I ended up buying Mortal Kombat for the Xbox 360. This Mortal Kombat is the ninth game in the series proper. The game was developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Much like Street Fighter 4 before it, Mortal Kombat essentially is a reboot of the series and features 3D characters locked on a 2D plane. By returning to its roots the game has sparked larger interest than another standard entry probably would have enjoyed. Graphically the game looks good featuring large and detailed characters. The graphically updated versions of the classic stages feature more animation. The fatalities return to their comically gory origins. The gameplay remains frenetic. The game is loaded with great options. The story itself is presented more as movie you play through than the standard fighting game story which tend to have a general reason for the characters to be there and a what if ending scenario should each character win. The story will hopefully be a revolution in fighting games as most games should adopt this style. The arcade mode is there if you just want to fight through a string of opponents culminating in the bosses without the story. This mode even includes the what if ending scenarios. The game also features a challenge mode that features three hundred tasks that need to be completed. The tasks come in a wide variety from the challenging to the silly. The first half of the challenge mode is a cleverly disguised training mode. Near the end you'll find some true challenges. The game also features the standard online modes. One that's rather decent is entitled King of the Hill. You're able to have eight players in a room. Six players will be watching the fight and the winner will defend against the first person in line and the loser goes to the end of the line. The avatars of the people watching the fight are in the foreground and they're able to comment on the action by way of avatar animations. They're also able to award the winner respect points on a scale of zero to ten. Mortal Kombat comes off as an earnest reboot of the series. You can tell they really put forth a real effort here. It's graphically pleasing, but not actually impressive. It's clean and solid without a wow factor. The sounds of combat are classic Mortal Kombat. In all honesty the music is just there, low in the background. The controls work well enough on the standard Xbox 360 controller and I'd imagine they'd be very responsive with a stick. The game does have some faults though. The design choice of having the bosses being randomly invincible during attacks is a cheap. I don't care if the supposed reasoning is that the original Mortal Kombat bosses were cheap and these needed to retain that feeling. It's cheap regardless of the reasoning. Other than that though the game is a solid and fun time. I'm not suddenly in love with the series again. This game will satiate my Mortal Kombat needs for the next decade or so. I'm giving Mortal Kombat an 8.

Yakuza 4 -- All-In-One.

2011-04-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a while hasn't it? I haven't been slacking. I just stepped into a black hole named Yakuza 4. Magus threw down the gauntlet with Yakuza 3 by earning the platinum trophy. So I had to earn that as well. This time around I started Yakuza 4 day-one and decided to take things one step further and threw my own gauntlet down. Not only was I going to get the platinum trophy for Yakuza 4, but I was going to get 100% percent completion. Which means the bastard was going to have to get 100% completion. Earning 100% completion in Yakuza 4 took me 166 hours. Earning the platinum trophy beyond that added three or four hours to complete the Ultimate Skill mode, which is a set of thirty-five challenges similar to the Crazy Box in Crazy Taxi. And another ten hours playing through the game two more times while skipping all dialog and cutscenes so I could unlock Ex Hard mode and complete it. That's roughly 180 hours. Wow. I'm glad to say that Yakuza 4 is a vast improvement over Yakuza 3. The story is far more focused and personal. It doesn't spiral out to some ludicrous CIA conspiracy the way Yakuza 3 does. The motives of the antagonists are also much better this time around. When Yakuza 4 was first announced and it was revealed that there would be four playable characters I was rather turned off. Having fully played the game now, I can say that this approach was great. It breathed new life into a series that really sort of needed it. I just didn't know how much it needed it until I played Yakuza 4. Yakuza 4 was fresh and interesting. I also like how heavily it tied back in to the original game. Graphically the game has never looked better. The world is extremely busy visually. There is always something to look at. The facial animation in the cutscenes are among the best in the industry. You're getting some great subtleties. The Japanese voice cast is phenomenal. Having the game be in Japanese with English subtitles really adds a sense of place that is so needed for a game like this. Musically the game is more varied than it has been in the past. You still have Hidenori Shoji's great techno rock score fused with a collaboration of numerous composers. They've added a blues-jazzy sound like you'd hear in the Lethal Weapon films. It works very well and helps in making Yakuza 4 feel as fresh as it does. The game's combat is still the most brutal fighting experience you're going to get in video games. But now you have four distinctly different styles further adding to the freshness of Yakuza 4. I enjoyed all four fighting styles. There is one area where Yakuza 4 still fails. And that's how it's still one of the worst game structures in existence. I'm talking about having redundant confirmations and strange loading breaks and other antiquated structural designs. It still feels like the framework is from a few generations ago. Say you wanted to pick up a locker key off the ground. Instead of just walking over to it and hitting X and picking it up you get something like the following. You walk over to the flashing light on the ground. You get 'hmm, what's this?', you hit X and get 'you found a locker key' and are prompted with 'do you want to pick up the locker key?'. You hit X again, and you'll get the animation of your character picking it up. Then you'll get 'you picked up the locker key' to which you must hit X a third time to make the message leave the screen. You had to hit X three times instead of just once as it should be. Yakuza 4 is rife with such old Japanese design. The further the series goes on the more glaring it becomes. They really need to rework the entire system and streamline it up to modern standards. Hopefully Yakuza: Of the End will be the final game so stuck in the past. Hopefully Yakuza 5 is brought up to modern design levels. The actual in-game content is awesome. It's just built on ancient and outdated Japanese design philosophy. I truly enjoyed Yakuza 4 and I'm giving the game a 9. I sort of hope Yakuza: Of the End doesn't come out until next year though. I've put in nearly 300 hundred hours between Yakuza 3 and 4 in the last couple of months. I need a Yakuza break. Next up for me will be something considerably less heavy. I really need something smaller. A little more bite sized.

Torchlight -- All-In-One.

2011-03-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

I've completed Torchlight earning the full two hundred points in fifteen hours. Torchlight was developed by Runic Games for the PC and was released in 2009. It became an Internet darling and I forgot it even existed. The game was ported and became part of Microsoft's House Party promotion where I became aware of it once again. I ended up playing the Xbox Live Arcade version which was released just over a week ago. Torchlight is a Diablo clone. But it's not just a Diablo clone, it's a Diablo Clone from Travis Baldree, Peter Hu, and Max and Erich Schaefer. Travis Baldree made Fate as well as Mythos. Two popular Diablo clones, and the Schaefers were responsible for Diablo and Diablo II. You essentially couldn't have a better pedigree when going to make a Diablo style game. The game is a single player dungeon crawl wherein you'll slay thousands of monsters for loot. You can choose from three classes, Destroyer, Alchemist, and Vanquisher. Destroyer is your warrior or tank. Alchemist is your magic user. Vanquisher is your ranged attacker. I played through the game as a Vanquisher. The gameplay follows a specific formula. Get a quest, go to the dungeon and kill shit and grab the loot. Return to town to turn in quests, get new ones, stock up, and go back into the dungeon. Rinse and repeat. Every five floors or so of the game's thirty five floor dungeon you'll face off against a boss. The game looks great. It has a very lighthearted cartoonish style that is appealing. The controls are perfectly responsive and simple. Musically the game is just there. Nothing memorable about the music, but nothing offensive about it either. The voice work is toward the low end of the scale. The story is sparse and almost nonexistent. But that tends to be a good thing in these sorts of games. The dungeon is randomly generated moving forward. It saves previous floors should you have to return to them for some reason. The floors are large and well varied in theme and help keep things interesting. You're not slogging through the same looking floors for the entirety of the dungeon. Something that is extremely important in this kind of game is the loot. Torchlight keeps the loot flowing. You're constantly getting new loot to check and the game offers up various ways of altering it both with and without risk. Loot whores should be more than satisfied. The game has a couple of flaws in my opinion. The interface is a tad clunky to deal with originally but you do get used to it. I also really wish that the game was online. Adding just another player online would move Torchlight from a solid game pretty far towards being a great game. I'm giving Torchlight a 7.5. If the sequel hits Xbox Live Arcade and features online, I'm definitely there day one. If not, I'll wait for a sale...

General Update.

2011-03-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a good while since the last update. I ended the last update saying I was going to play an old classic and then I was going to do something probably a bit stupid. I did just that. The classic was Faxanadu, which hit the Virtual Console on Magus' birthday as I was looking around for his gift. Perfect timing I'd say. So I sent him a copy and then said why the hell not and got one for myself as I hadn't played it in forever. Not since a friend rented the NES original all those years ago. Faxanadu is still kick you in the balls hard and still just as fun. It's a weird little action RPG from the awesome Falcom via Hudson. Magus seemed to enjoy having it kick his ass. As for the doing of something stupid, that was replaying Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 to round up all the missing achievements. It took me roughly one-hundred and fifty hours and three and a partial playthroughs of Mass Effect and one playthrough of Mass Effect 2. The original Mass Effect having some of the worst achievements ever conceived led to the three and a half playthroughs. In doing this I was able to create a renegade character to import into Mass Effect 2 that enabled me to earn that final missing Mass Effect 2 achievement of completing the game on insanity. Mass Effect turned out to be the most time consuming as I needed to earn most of the weapon achievements and all of the complete the game with each squad member achievements. I played through the game from scratch in hardcore to unlock insanity. I earned two squad member achievements and all the weapon and tech achievements associated with the class. This was the difficult playthrough as I had to climb the hill here. I then started a game by importing that character for insanity, taking two other squad members along for those achievements. Doing this allowed me to start fully leveled and essentially at the top of the hill for my insanity run. Which was surprisingly easy. The rest of the time was spent completing the game in casual difficulty to unlock the final two squad member achievements. The half a game was a result of creating the classes needed to unlock the final weapon and tech achievements. I was ready to move on to Mass Effect 2. I imported my shiny new renegade character into Mass Effect 2 for the lone achievement I needed, the insanity run. Turns out I quite liked my infiltrator playthrough in Mass Effect so that's the renegade character I brought forward. Turns out that's one of the harder classes to play through Mass Effect 2's insanity difficulty. And I had to do insanity from the bottom of the hill, so that turned out to be a true bitch. And it all almost fell apart in the end. I lost the loyalty of one of the crew members literally right before the point of no return. I managed to have said character survive the game by avoiding using them at all for the entirety of the final mission. If the character had died in the final mission, it would have meant another full playthrough to rectify the situation. It really was a giant pain in the ass to do all of this, but in the end it feels well worth it as I'll be able to experience the end of the awesome Mass Effect trilogy from both sides with characters of my creation. My paragon soldier Erin, and my renegade infiltrator Asia. Another plus, I sparked enough interest in Magus that allowed him to talk himself into tackling the same project. As the saying goes, misery loves company, and I'll get to enjoy listening to him talk about his experience knowing what's ahead of him and behind me. I'm just glad there is a bit of time before the final Mass Effect 2 download content arrives. No pun intended as the DLC is called The Arrival, and it will bridge the gap leading into Mass Effect 3. Next up for me I'll be doubling up on a couple games. One digital, one retail.

Yakuza 3 -- All-In-One.

2011-02-26T16:41:00.000-08:00

It's been over two weeks since my last update. I didn't fall off the face of the Earth. I just put a hundred and seven hours into earning the platinum trophy in Yakuza 3. Yakuza 3 was developed and published by SEGA for the PlayStation 3. Why did I wait so long to play Yakuza 3? Truth be told, part of me held out hope that a patch would be released returning the infamous cut content to the game. That never materialized of course and with the release of Yakuza 4 rapidly approaching I had to get it in. As I previously stated it took me a hundred and seven hours to earn the trophies and this is with the twenty missing sub-missions and the missing cabaret content. Yakuza 3 is a massive game stuffed to the brim with extra content and you'll pretty much have to do it all if you want that platinum trophy. Even if you don't want it you'll find Yakuza 3 to be daunting in scope and scale. The story picks up a couple years after the end of Yakuza 2 with Kazuma and Haruka running an orphanage in Okinawa. Much like Michael Corleone, Kazuma finds himself pulled back in to the world of organized crime after seemingly leaving it behind. Pretty soon you find yourself involved in a crooked land development deal that spirals into a greater conspiracy. Yakuza 3's story is twofold. On one hand you have the main story and its focus on Japanese politics. On the other hand you have the day to day dealings with the orphanage and the more personal dealings with the characters in Okinawa. The two halves don't really mesh all that well. I enjoyed the more personal aspects to the story. The more main story focus side left a bit to be desired in my opinion. It took a step back from the quality found in the previous two titles. This is the series' first entry on the PlayStation 3 and as such it has never looked or played better. The static camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds are gone. In their place is a free flowing camera and a fully rendered 3D world. Just being able to stop and look around in 3D is very cool especially for a city you know so well from the previous games. The game looks great on the PlayStation 3 and there is a wealth of detail everywhere you look. The game is not without its flaws though. From a design standpoint, they're stuck in last generation as far as menus and the overriding game system are concerned. If you fail at a minigame for example, you have to load all the way out to the game proper and go back in choosing your way through four or five menu levels instead just having the option to replay it. The game seems built on a structure from last generation and has the load times to go with it. If I'm knocking the score a point for the story and a point for the overriding antiquated structure that means I'm giving Yakuza 3 an 8. Everything else about the game is great and it features an amazing amount of gameplay value, especially considering the entry price these days. What's next for me? I'm probably going to play an old classic. Then I'm going to do something probably a bit stupid instead of knocking out a few more backlogged titles or jumping in on one of the new games I've got sitting here.

Two Worlds II -- Final Opinion.

2011-02-10T17:40:00.000-08:00

I have fully completed Two Worlds II earning the full thousand achievement points. Two Worlds II is a decidedly fun but flawed experience. Two Worlds II is one of those games that's on the brink of being a quality title. The combat is just a tad off, yet remains fun. You can mix and match between the standard warrior, mage, and archer. You have skill trees with decent depth that allow you to pick and choose skills to suit your play style or if you've got the patience you can level enough to max out everything. I actually managed to stay away from my traditional playing style of an archer and played the game as a pure mage. I also ran through the game again as a pure warrior. The game's magic system is actually quite cool. You create spells by mixing and matching cards. Want to increase the power of your fireball spell? Add more fire cards. Want to increase the speed the fireballs travel? Add more missile cards. Add a ricochet card and your fireball will bounce off your target with the potential of hitting other targets. Add a time card to increase the duration of your spells. It's really cool just to sit there trying out different combinations of cards never knowing what you'll create. I stumbled upon spells that let me turn invisible and jump five times my normal jump this way. The same sort of system is in place for the items you can collect. Mix items you've collected to create potions that do everything from heal life and refill magic to allowing you to walk on water or increase defense against particular elements. The game's world is an interesting place to explore. You'll have the standards of a European fantasy forest, swamp, and wasteland to explore, but you'll also have an African savannah as well as a Southeast Asian jungle. The game's story is a direct continuation from the original game. I never played the original Two Worlds but the story is not the reason to play Two Worlds II. The dialog is stilted. The voice work is as stilted. The translation is less than stellar. But somehow the game manages to pull off a very cheesy charm. The game offers up a surprising amount of content with an rather good online campaign separate from the single player game. A village mode wherein you'll build and manage your own town. Some online duels and team deathmatch as well as an online race to collect more crystals than your opponents. These extra modes are decent. I'm giving Two Worlds 2 a 7.5. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in a large European PC style action RPG on a console, especially when you can find the game for $30 or less. It's the kind of game that doesn't need to be played, but it's one you might not want ignore. There is potential here. This team might actually be able to grow this series into something really good.

Two Worlds II -- Initial Impression.

2011-01-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

After spending the last week going through all of the Dragon Age: Origins download content I've done something on the spur of the moment. I bought Two Worlds II even though I was determined to stick to my backlog for the foreseeable future. Oh well. Two Worlds II is developed by the Polish developers Reality Pump (worst name ever?) and is published by SouthPeak Games. It's the sequel to a game that sold rather well despite being blasted by critics and players alike. Two Worlds was technically a mess. Glitches, bugs, broken everything. So one might be asking themselves why anyone would buy a sequel to such a monstrosity. Two Worlds fans are a rare breed. They fully acknowledge how shitty the game is. They're not delusional. But almost to a man they talk about how there is just a special something that hooks them. Two Worlds II is supposed to be far superior from a technical standpoint, but still far from perfect. But there is the same talk of that special something again. The kind of thing that's present in titles like Onechanbara and Deadly Premonition. So I took the leap. I'll jump in and see if there is something to it all under the rather ugly surface. I've merely scratched that surface with a couple hours playtime. It's too early for me to have a true sense of what's to come as I'm still trying to come to terms with how everything works. It's a bit much to try and wrap my head around initially. It will take some time to figure out just how everything works. The game's magic and crafting systems appear to have some serious depth to them and everyone says the combat gets better with a few levels and a decent weapon under your belt. I am going to do something different for this type of game than my standard operating procedure. I'm going to play a mage and avoid my typical thief or assassin build. Or at least I hope to. Will this end up like Oblivion with a hundred hours put in? We'll see...

Dead Space -- All-In-One.

2011-01-20T08:20:00.001-08:00

Another single entry it seems. I'm attempting to be a little more steadfast in paring down my backlog. I can now remove Dead Space from said list. Dead Space was developed by Electronic Arts at their Redwood Shores location and comes from the team who made The Simpsons Game. Electronic Arts published Dead Space way back in October of 2008. Dead Space is by no means the oldest title in my backlog I'm sad to say. I originally played the demo for Dead Space back in 2008 and decided to pass on the game. The game was released to glowing critical response and player reaction and everyone talks about how the demo was a poor representation of the full game. Amazon has one of their crazy holiday deals and I end up paying half off for a month old game. I have such a weakness to those Amazon deals. Cut to over two years later and the game has sat on my shelf not having been played. The sequel is rapidly approaching and seeing how I'm trying to deal with my backlog Dead Space became an easy choice. I have fully completed the game earning the full thousand points which amounts to playing through the game almost three times. Dead Space is a third-person shooter with a horror motif. The game has the player character arriving to make repairs on a mining ship in the remote reaches of outer space. Of course he arrives to find something horribly amiss. The theme of Dead Space is heavily inspired by the film Event Horizon. As far as gameplay is concerned Dead Space is a solid game mechanically. The gimmick of needing to dismember enemies to kill them works well enough. The zero gravity sections also work rather well. As there was an achievement for playing through the game with just one gun, I did this on my initial playthrough of the game. It wasn't until the second playthrough that I got to mess around with the other weapons available. The different weapons all have a distinct feel and they're outside of the typical standards of pistol, rifle, shotgun, and rocket launcher. They definately give the game a unique feel in that regard. It's too bad the rest of the game doesn't feel as original. The story and stetting all feel familiar. The big plot twist you'll see coming miles away. The horror technique feels familiar as well. They borrow heavily from the Condemned titles. But where Condemned managed to keep me on edge from start to finish Dead Space's scares quickly become tame and predictable. Graphically the game looks good, not great. It's all entirely solid looking. The sound design tries its best to scare you with noises, not so much musically. The score is unremarkable and takes a back seat to sound here. Another thing of note is the ragdoll physics. It's sort of mood breaking. I'm there on a derelict ship in outer space, walking along in the dark, wondering where the next attack is going to come from. Or at least I should be, but instead I'm amused by the corpse that's somehow stuck to my shoes that I've been dragging along with me for the last forty feet. How about the fat enemies that sometimes bounce around the corridors with all the weight of a beach ball once killed? Overall I'd say that Dead Space was pretty good. Nothing about it really excels. I'll be interested in the sequel, when I can get it at reduced price. I'm giving Dead Space a 7.5.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn -- Final Opinion.

2011-01-12T20:17:00.000-08:00

I have completed Golden Sun: Dark Dawn with a total time of forty and a half hours. In the end the game turned out to be as good as I was hoping it would be. Dark Dawn picks up the story thirty years after the events of Golden Sun: The Lost Age and remains heavily connected to the preceding games. One of the brothers who founded Camelot has said a few times that Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age were just a prelude to the real event. Dark Dawn is the beginning of that event. And just like how Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age functioned as a pair telling one story from different perspectives, it's clear that Dark Dawn is only one half of the tale. They teasingly hint of previous characters and their current actions in Dark Dawn. I really hope the game sells well enough here to see the other half of the story told. Because it's still a charmingly told tale just like everything Camelot has ever done. I don't want to see another Shining Force III situation where we didn't get to experience the whole thing. I liked Dark Dawn's story and its characters. Golden Sun's battle system is still lightning fast for a JRPG. It's still as deep as you want it to be, even though it's rarely necessary for you to really have to use it to its fullest. Only a handful of boss battles will force you use some strategy. The game looks great, even with the Nintendo DS and it's less than appealing 3D capabilities. The control is perfect. The soundtrack is on par with the previous entries in the series. The game's puzzles are still great. And the game is still packed with them. Finding and figuring out how to collect every last treasure and djinn will take some effort. I really like Golden Sun's puzzle structure. It's almost like the original Zelda and one secret on every screen. They're that prevalent. I thoroughly enjoyed Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and am giving the game a 9. I just hope we don't have to wait another seven years for the sequel.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn -- Initial Impression.

2011-01-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

It's time for another one of those games. You know those games, don't you? The ones that speak to your gaming core directly. The ones you cherish. The ones that helped form your personal gold standard which you use to judge everything that comes after. There are a handful of series or teams that have had this impact on me. Phantasy Star, Ys, Shinobi, and the Shining series. It's strange, but I'm always a bit apprehensive going in to one of these games. They've never disappointed me. They've always delivered great gaming experiences. But as the years go by the fear that they will fail seems to grow a little more. Maybe because there are so few series left that remain untarnished in my eyes. Even the mighty Mario and Zelda have slipped over the years. I'm going to be playing Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It's essentially a Shining game without the name. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was developed by Camelot Software Planning and was published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. Camelot Software Planning started out as an internal team at SEGA named Consumer Development Studio #4. They were created to work with Climax Entertainment in the development of RPGs for the SEGA Genesis. Their first release was 1991's Shining in the Darkness. They would go on to create Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention with Climax Entertainment. They would cease co-production of games with Climax Entertainment and would become Sonic Software Planning where they created Shining Force and Shining Force II: Sword of Hayja for the Game Gear as well as Shining Force II: Ancient Sealing for the Genesis. They change names once again as Camelot Software Planning and go on to make Shining Force CD for the SEGA CD and Shining Wisdom, Shining the Holy Ark, and Shining Force III for the SEGA Saturn. During this time they make Beyond the Beyond for the PlayStation and then jump ships again landing at Nintendo and the Mario Golf and Mario Tennis games. They make Golden Sun and Golden Sun II: The Lost Age for Nintendo's GameBoy Advance. Then it's back to Nintendo sports titles until November of 2010 when they release Golden Sun: Dark Dawn after seven long years of waiting. As I said earlier the Golden Sun series is pretty much the natural evolution of the Shining series in everything but the Shining name. It's what would have been anyway had they remained with SEGA all these years. I've put a few hours into Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and everything seems to be on track for a great gaming experience. The story and characters initially retain that most important Shining charm. The graphics work much better than I was expecting giving the meshing of the Shining style and Nintendo DS 3D capabilities. The controls work well. They went the whole way and have created two control styles that allow you to mix and match between the extremes of zero touch capabilities and full touch capabilities resulting in the best of both worlds. The game's puzzles have been great so far. There have been a lot of them and a few of them took some thought. The story is deeply rooted in the previous titles and the game does a really good job of bringing you up to speed with the events of the first two games. Everything seems to be going great. I just need to see how the story plays out. At this point I'm rather confident this one will end up meeting my expectations.

Splatterhouse -- All-In-One.

2011-01-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

I've completed Splatterhouse for the Xbox 360. The game is a remake of the 1988 arcade game by the same name. Splatterhouse was developed and published by Namco Bandai Games. But that's not the whole story. Splatterhouse originally was being developed by BottleRocket until sometime in 2009 when representatives from Namco Bandai Games arrived at their offices and reclaimed the development kits ceasing development entirely. The game was then completed with an internal Namco Bandai team, the one responsible for the Afro Samurai games. The original Splatterhouse was a beat 'em up locked on a single 2D plane. The remake is a 3D action game. Both games have you playing as Rick trying to rescue your girlfriend Jennifer from the West Mansion after having been mortally wounded by West's minions and revived from a mask that has been fused to your face. The story is actually the best part of Splatterhouse. There is a lot of influence from H. P. Lovecraft and Poe. The mask is genuinely funny. The tale itself follows a classic path. The rest of the game doesn't fare so well. The graphics are downright ugly. And I'm not talking about the aesthetic. The graphics have an amateurish look about them. Musically the game uses licensed metal music that is just atrocious. The gameplay has its issues. Like bad collision detection. Cheap deaths. Enemies that can juggle kill you. It seems they designed enough enemies for half the game and then reused them for the second half. You know the deal, bosses become standard enemies. And how do they scale the challenge? You're on a harder level, so that means you now fight three of them at once! The game is also decidedly over the top and your tolerance for its humor may wane. You can only pull the colon out of a creature through its ass so many times before it gets old, you know? In spite of everything Splatterhouse remained almost fun throughout. I'd suggest plucking it out of the bargain bin, if only for the original three Splatterhouse games that are unlocked along the way of finishing the remake. I'm giving Splatterhouse a 6.5.

Dead Rising 2: Case West -- All-In-One.

2010-12-30T17:52:00.000-08:00

I have completed the stand alone Xbox Live Arcade epilogue that is Dead Rising 2: Case West. I earned the two hundred achievement points. Case West features the long awaited return of the original Dead Rising's Frank West. The gameplay of Case West is a little more focused than what's available in the full game. It's roughly the same size as the area in Case Zero, and about as complex, which is to say not very. As in Case Zero, you'll only get the one psychopath battle. There are nine or so survivors to find and help. The combo weapons return and there are handful of new ones to create. There is a collection aspect in having to destroy security cameras for an achievement, and photographing all the PP stickers for another. Overall gameplay wise, Case West offers another bite sized taste of Dead Rising just like Case Zero. The real draw of Case West was in the return of Frank West and the potential story revelations. As far as Frank West's return, it's good to see the character back and his slightly adversarial relationship with Chuck Greene is well done and their banter is fun to listen to. His character model however is not. The model looks awful in my opinion. He looks like Dan Aykroyd on a bad day. Also the big story revelations are sort of a letdown. Nothing revealed is beyond what you've already figured out and amounts to nothing more than a small tease for Dead Rising 3. I'd have to say overall it's a must play, but wait for the eventual Xbox Live sale. I'm giving Dead Rising 2: Case West a 7.

The Saboteur -- All-In-One.

2010-12-28T17:17:00.000-08:00

Again with being late and lazy. I have completed The Saboteur with the full thousand points with forty-seven hours worth of effort. The Saboteur was developed by Pandemic Studios and published by Electronic Arts. Pandemic Studios is now defunct with The Saboteur being their final game. The Saboteur is an open world sandbox title set in 1940 Nazi occupied France. You play as an Irish racecar driver who goes on to inspire the French Resistance. The game features a rather stylized visual style like something out of a graphic novel. The game kicks off with the world in black and white and raining to represent the oppression of the Nazis. There are splashes of color in the yellow city lights and the red of the Nazi flags and the swastika armbands and the blue of the French Resistance. It's a very striking visual style that I rather enjoyed. As you progress through the story you'll return color and clear sunny days to the world which represents an inspired French Resistance for that area. Beyond that the game otherwise plays like Grand Theft French Resistance. You're free to roam the world doing what you'd like in between the story and side missions. When you're not on a mission there are over a thousand free play targets to destroy. These include radio towers, sniper nests, propaganda loudspeakers, Nazi generals, anti-aircraft guns, tanks, V-1 Flying Bombs, V-2 rockets and radar installations. There are also monument postcards, vehicle jumps, and scenic spots to find and collect. The game features the climbing and stealth of Assassin's Creed mixed with the mayhem of Grand Theft Auto mixed with De Blob's color revolution and Just Cause's sabotage. The Saboteur really is a mix of a lot of games. They've thrown in everything but the kitchen sink. As far as story is concerned, The Saboteur is firmly tongue-in-cheek. It comes off as very pulp and isn't taking itself too seriously given the subject matter. The voice work is rather decent. I guess it depends on your tolerance to German and French accents. Musically the game features roughly ten tracks from the era, only a few of them vocals. They do a decent job of helping with a sense of time and place but become a tad repetitive after a while. Which is also the biggest complaint I'd have with the title's gameplay overall. There are too many free play targets to avoid repetitiveness. Clearing out the free play targets in an area makes the missions there so much easier that it's something you'll want to do, but it just drags on after a while. I enjoyed the game though and it's an all around solid game well worth the asking price you'll find it for these days. I'm giving The Saboteur a 7.5.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow -- Final Opinion.

2010-12-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

I have completed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow with the full thousand points. I have to say I'm impressed. This is how you do a reboot in my opinion. The limited edition of Portrait of Ruin came with a chart that had the timeline of the previous series explained in detail. That's how convoluted the story for the series had become. You needed a freaking chart to attempt to make any sense of it. Konami has done away with all that and MercurySteam has started over, at the beginning, before even Dracula exists. MercurySteam tell a very straight story. A story of love, betrayal, corruption, and the nature of good and evil. They also don't shy away from the religious overtones. They tackle everything head-on. I also was also initially sort of perplexed by the pacing but came to really enjoy it. They take their time. Something not many video game stories have the guts or the skill to do. You don't even get to the castle itself until the middle third of the game. And you'll be done with it before the final third of the game. This isn't your father's Castlevania. It feels entirely fresh. And I have to say that the after the credits tease is about the best one I've ever seen. It answers some questions, raises a bunch more, and shocks. Konami has had trouble creating 3D versions of the series. In a post God of War action game world, the solution became a little clearer. I really liked the combat of the game. Sure it's a God of War clone, but it does everything very well. The combat feels visceral and I enjoyed the light and shadow aspects to the battle system. The controls work perfectly and they pace the learning of new techniques rather well. You're constantly having to deal with new mechanics. I also came to really like the chapter system and the trials provided good challenges and a reason to replay every stage. Graphically the game is just impressive. It's perhaps the best looking game on the system. It still suffers a bit from that too shiny aspect of this generation's overall graphic design. The art direction is stellar. Everything just looks cool from environmental to creature and character designs. The voice work was also well done all the way around. Not a bad voice in the bunch and Patrick Stewart lends a bit of class to the game as with most voiceover work he's done. I truly enjoyed my time with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and I'm giving it a 9. I can't wait for a sequel, especially after that tease after the credits. Now, what to play next...

Dead Nation -- All-In-One.

2010-12-20T17:52:00.000-08:00

Again this one is a little late. I've been playing Dead Nation on the PlayStation 3. Dead Nation was developed by Finish developers Housemarque and published for the PlayStation Network by Sony Computer Entertainment. Housemarque previously had a hit with Super Stardust HD on the system. Dead Nation is a twin stick shooter set in a zombie apocalypse and heavily inspired by Left 4 Dead. I find the game to be great fun. Graphically it's rather impressive and features some of the best lighting and shadow I've ever seen. Everything casts a wonderfully realistic shadow. Which is impressive considering how dark the world is and that the two players carry flashlights attached to their guns. So the characters cast light anywhere they're actually aiming. Dead Nation features an impressive number of zombies on screen at one time. A literal flood of them at times. In fact the game is really about crowd control. The game provides a bunch of tools for the player to use to do just that. There is a good deal of strategy involved in best using your limited resources. Especially on the harder difficulty levels in co-op games. When you're on your game you'll never be touched. You'll herd hundreds of zombies to their demise without a scratch. The game features, for lack of a better term, special infected. Boss type mutations that show up to wreak havoc. Exploding fat zombies, screaming things that call hordes of zombies to come running, acid spitting mutant baby worm like things, leaping giants and a variety of giant that has blades for hands. There is also an impressive level of variety to the standard zombies. The game will give you your money's worth, especially if you're going for the platinum trophy. It's surprisingly large and has some great replay value. I'm truly impressed by the game and I'd seriously consider it in the running for downloadable title of the year. I'm giving Dead Nation a 9.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow -- Initial Impression.

2010-12-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

I'll be playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow on the Xbox 360. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is intended as a reboot of the Castlevania series. Faced with ever diminishing returns on the stale handheld Symphony of the Night clones, the disastrous fighting game on the Wii, and unsuccessful attempts at console iterations of the series over the years Konami had little choice but to start over. Konami tasked Spanish developers Mercury Steam with development, with supervision by Kojima Productions. The game was of course published by Konami. Longtime series producer Koji Igarashi has had nothing to do with the game. From the time I've spent with the game thus far, which amounts to through the first boss, the game initially comes off as a rather drastic departure from the series. The game is a 3D action title that follows the standard path. You know the drill, light and heavy attacks, combos, jump, block, dodge rolls, sub-weapons, magic, and quick time events. The game really only feels like Castlevania in name only at this point. I'm using a chain whip, I'm controlling a Belmont, I'm fighting dark fantasy creatures somewhere in Eastern Europe sometime around 1,000 AD. Maybe the biggest reason it has yet to feel like Castlevania is the music. I haven't heard any track from the series thus far. It's all new. And it's all cinematic score in style. I can say the game sure does look great. The graphics are impressive, in a too shiny sort of way. The controls seem solid. I'm also struck by how segmented the game is in its structure as well as how cinematic they've gone with the game. Lots of camera pans to reveal this or that. My interest has definitely been piqued. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Splinter Cell: Conviction -- All-In-One.

2010-12-11T13:44:00.000-08:00

I've been lazy again and haven't updated. After Epic Mickey I went into Splinter Cell: Conviction, spurred on by a $15 sale on Amazon and fifty percent off the download content sale the same week on Xbox Live. I had this game preordered originally, the limited edition even. But then the demo hit and it caused me to cancel. Splinter Cell: Conviction was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The series has always had leapfrogging teams developing the games. Montreal developed the original Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, and Splinter Cell: Conviction. Ubisoft Shanghai developed Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and Splinter Cell: Double Agent. In my opinion the series took a serious misstep with the fourth entry in Double Agent. Both in story and gameplay. Splinter Cell: Conviction was originally announced in 2007 with a release date for the same year. The reveal did little to assuage the fear I now had for the series because of Double Agent. It featured a longhaired and bearded Sam Fisher on his own being hunted by Third Echelon based on the events of Double Agent. He had the ability to blend into crowds in an Assassin's Creed sort of way. It appeared as a very drastic change, to the point of it not seeming like Splinter Cell anymore. Needless to say the fan reaction wasn't great and it never made its 2007 release date and was put on hold as it was taken back to the drawing board so to speak. The game finally resurfaced in 2009 and made its 2010 release date. The game now looked like Splinter Cell with a focus on action. Which is sort of a shame as Splinter Cell has never really been about action. Splinter Cell was the one stealth game that really was about stealth. It had decent stories and smart characters with great banter and the best stealth based gameplay in existence. All of that changed when Double Agent took the gameplay, story, and characters and drove them over a cliff. I have completed the main game of Splinter Cell: Conviction. I've been through most of the online modes. Magus and I are still working our way through the Last Stand mode for the remaining achievements and then we'll tackle the download content. Graphically Splinter Cell has never looked better. I personally like the black and white representation of being in the shadows. Magus however does not and would prefer the older game's meter on the HUD. Musically I'm not that impressed as honestly I can't even remember the music beyond the pounding full alert theme. And this is for a game I'm currently playing. Michael Ironside has done his normally great job of providing the voice of Sam Fisher. As a story Conviction does a rather admirable job of picking up the pieces from Double Agent although you can see everything coming from a mile away. The gameplay of Conviction is fine for what it is. But it's really no longer classic Splinter Cell. It's way too focused on action. Ubisoft has attempted to ditch the image the series had established with the first three games as being too hard. As being unforgiving. So now if you mess up, you can just blast your way out of most situations. I've resigned myself to the fact that Xbox era classic Splinter Cell is gone forever. Especially now that Conviction has sold as well as it has. I'm pretty sure Magus is a lot less forgiving as I am on this one. I think I might have been far more critical at a $60 price point, but at $20 for game and download content, Splinter Cell: Conviction has been fun enough. I'm giving Splinter Cell: Conviction a 7.5. I still have a few days left with the game for those achievements, and I'll have an entry on what else I've been playing, but as for what's next, that's going to take some real thought...

Epic Mickey -- Final Opinion.

2010-12-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

I have completed one playthrough of Epic Mickey. My initial impressions bore true through to the end. Warren Spector had an inspired original concept. The concept of a world of forgotten Disney characters and having it accidentally turned into a wasteland by the world's most famous cartoon character was brilliant. The real life events in the character of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and the subsequent creation of Mickey Mouse couldn't have been more perfectly suited for such a story. As a concept and story Epic Mickey is a great success. It's also a great success as Warren Spector's love letter to all things Disney. I have to wonder how the game comes off to those without the understanding of Disney history. The more you're a Disney fan, the more you're likely to enjoy the game. Your knowledge of Disneyland itself will also aid in your enjoyment. Most of the signature rides and attractions at Disneyland past and present feature in the game as locations. What's most amazing is how Spector has taken what's easily the most quintessential aspects of what Disneyland is and put them in the game. The story and presentation sides of the game are truly impressive. The graphics and music are well done. Especially in using some of the music from the original cartoons. The game is not perfect however. There are some technical issues and some design choices that will have you scratching your head and wondering why. On the technical side, the camera just plain sucks. It will actively fight your progress in certain situations. The platforming action seems a little amateurish. You'll jump to something and slide off. You won't grab a ledge when you should. It feels like this is the first time anyone at Junction Point has ever worked on a game of this genre. It doesn't feel polished. On the design side of things you'll wonder why things you repair don't stay that way when you leave and return to an area. Assuming you can return. You'll wonder why they made the decision to lock out action areas. If you talk to this character instead of that one you might accidentally clear the area and you won't be able to return there. You'll have to forget any quests you might have had for the area or any of the collectible items that might have been there. There were numerous times when I was asking myself why did you do that as it seemed like the wrong design choice to me. Ultimately Epic Mickey is a fun and worthwhile game. It feels like Warren Spector had a grand vision and his team at Junction Point just didn't have the experience to fully realize it and maybe six more months might have made the difference between a good game and a great game. I'm giving Epic Mickey an 8.

Epic Mickey -- Initial Impression.

2010-11-30T18:13:00.000-08:00

Wow, three Wii games in a row. And all within a two week release window. Too bad the system couldn't see more quality titles throughout the entire year. Next up for me is Epic Mickey. The game was developed by Junction Point Studios as led by Warren Spector and published by Disney Interactive Studios. Epic Mickey is a 3D platform adventure game with a basic morality system in place. The basic concept has Mickey Mouse being sucked into a world for forgotten Disney characters. A world Mickey Mouse has accidentally turned into a wasteland through a bit of mischief. Mickey will have the ability to wield paint or thinner through a magic brush and it's in how you choose to use the powers that the morality system comes into place. Do you use the thinner to literally erase your enemies or do you use the paint to convert them to your cause? Do you repair the world or further destroy it to get what you need or want? That's the kind of concept that's become the hallmark of Spector's design philosophy. He's all about the freedom in the how you go about whatever in your games. I've only played one previous Warren Spector title and that was Deus Ex. A game sold on the very same promise of freedom in the how you go about things. I didn't very much care for Deus Ex ten years ago. It'll be interesting to see if the change in genre, the Disney aspect, and a decade's worth of time and experience make a difference in how Spector does this time around for me. From what I've played so far it seems clear that Spector has an immense love and appreciation for all things Disney. He's clearly come up with a great concept. A concept based around Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks' original creation. The Oswald films were owned by distributed by Universal Pictures. When the series had become a hit Universal put pressure on Disney to produce them at a lower cost. Universal had managed to steal away most of the Disney staff working on the Oswald cartoons and made it clear that they really no longer needed Disney. Disney left with a few loyal employees and set about creating another cartoon character. A character that was little more than a modified version of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. That character was of course Mickey Mouse, and as they say, the rest is history. Disney would go on to form an empire off of Mickey Mouse and Oswald would fade into obscurity. I'd have to say that Epic Mickey has one of the coolest concepts for a game I've ever seen. From what I've played so far I think it's safe to say that he story and the Disney aspects of the game are in good hands with Warren Spector. What isn't so sure at this point is if the gameplay will live up to the other aspects of the title...

Donkey Kong Country Returns -- Final Opinion.

2010-11-27T22:34:00.000-08:00

I have completed Donkey Kong Country Returns with a hundred percent completion rate. It means I've completed every level, and I've found every last hidden item and secret. I however will not be doing the time trials nor the mirror mode. Donkey Kong Country Returns is about as successful as a revival can be. Much like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Donkey Kong Country Returns was well worth the decade and a half wait for the series return. If you liked the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy, you should like Donkey Kong Country Returns. The game offers crisp and clean cartoonish graphics with fluid animation. Among the best ever seen on the Wii. It features rock solid 2D gameplay. The series' collection aspect returns in full force. The K-O-N-G letters and the hidden puzzle pieces really provide some serious challenge. The K-O-N-G letters in grabbing them in one go, and the puzzle pieces in merely finding them as they can be truly well hidden. I wouldn't know how to rate the game for those who just want to play through it as it really is designed for a completionist. That's the heart of the series and the game. Musically the game is pretty successful. Especially in the arrangements of David Wise's original themes. The new tracks sound pretty good, though not as impressive as the originals. The controls work surprisingly well, even with the waggle. I used the nunchuck and remote configuration and didn't really have any major issues. My accidental deaths from mistaken waggle commands were rather slight. Much less than the average for other Wii titles with this much waggle going on. I would call Donkey Kong Country Returns the hardest game Nintendo has published since the NES era. Most of the time it's great but I do have to say that Retro employs a lot of rather unfair and cheap reactionary tactics. So you'll essentially progress through a stage a bit, die from something thrown at you out of nowhere. You'll play through it again to that point knowing what's coming and be able to deal with it and you'll progress a little further until they do it again. It's a lot of death, adapt, death, adapt. I enjoyed the challenge, but in all fairness, or the lack thereof in this case, you might not find yourself as tolerant. I'm giving Donkey Kong Country Returns a 9.

Donkey Kong Country Returns -- Initial Impression.

2010-11-22T16:49:00.001-08:00

I'll be sticking to the Wii for my next game with Donkey Kong Country Returns. The game was developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo. Donkey Kong Country Returns is a new entry in the series created by Rare for the Super Nintendo. The original Donkey Kong Country titles were among the best selling Super Nintendo games and featured much ballyhooed for the time advanced computer modeling based graphics. They also featured some great platforming gameplay focused on collection and offered some of the best music the Super Nintendo ever put out courtesy of David Wise's awesome score. The reveal trailer at E3 2010 for Donkey Kong Country Returns was a huge surprise for most fans of the series, myself included, as they fully never expected to see the series again given Rare's split with Nintendo. Fortunately Retro Studios was there to get the barrel rolling after completing their Metroid Prime trilogy for Nintendo. They've proven they can update a classic Nintendo series but will they be able to do it again with the big gorilla? From what I've played so far, which amounts to completing the first two worlds, it seems the series is in good hands. Donkey Kong Country Returns seems to have everything that made the originals great. Now with waggle. Donkey Kong's ground pound and roll are now waggle based. A new move, blowing, is also waggle based. Waggle plus the stick to either the left or right for a roll. Waggle with the stick to center for the ground pound. And waggle with the stick in the down position to blow. So far the waggle controls seem to work very well. I haven't really had any deaths because of them. They also don't seem to take a great effort to initiate like some other games. A very slight but fast movement is all it takes. The collection based gameplay has remained intact. You'll be collecting the letters to spell Kong in each level, as well as various puzzle pieces. Bananas still litter the stages and collecting one hundred gives you an extra man. Initially the game's challenge seems tough. It's clearly a throwback to the days when games were tougher. I'm initially rather impressed with Donkey Kong Country Returns. Let's see if it maintains that level of quality for the duration.

Sonic Colors -- Final Opinion.

2010-11-20T18:33:00.000-08:00

I've seen the credits roll on Sonic Colors. So, is Sonic Colors the greatest thing Sonic since the Genesis days? The short answer would be no. Sonic Colors is a pretty good game. It's not a perfect game. I have to admit the game does a rather decent job of trying to bridge the 2D and 3D Sonic camps. There is a great mix of both styles. The 3D sections perform better than they ever have with no camera issues and very few deaths caused by holding the stick in the wrong direction. The 2D sections predominantly provide platforming gameplay and are where the powers granted from the wisps come into play. The wisp powers work well and provide decent variety. They're absolutely necessary to completing the game one-hundred percent. There aren't any cheap deaths from bottomless pits anymore. The pits exist, but the game now warns you well in advance that they're near with an exclamation point on screen. So if you die by one, it's really your own fault as the game provided ample warning. The lock-on homing attack has likewise been improved from previous games. It just works better this time around. For the most part you're going to connect with what you're supposed to every time. The graphics in the game really are great. The game is filled with color and activity and there are little details everywhere. The story is non intrusive and is played just for laughs. I like this new Saturday morning cartoon approach. Sonic seemingly has been taking himself too seriously since Sonic Adventure. The voice acting is great. I really liked the performances of the new actors behind Sonic and Tails and Robotnik's voice has always been good. The music fits within the Sonic universe but comes off feeling new. The soundtrack seems to have broad influences this time as the tracks are all over the place. SEGA's Wave Master has done their usual exceptional job with the music for a Sonic game. I have to say that a couple of times the controls felt unresponsive but it's tough tell if it's the game or issues inherent to the Wii itself. Overall Sonic Colors is a big step in the right direction for the 3D side of Sonic games. I'd like to see them continue down this 2D-3D hybrid path while furthering their purely 2D efforts. I'm giving Sonic Colors for the Wii an 8.

Sonic Colors -- Initial Impression.

2010-11-16T19:26:00.000-08:00

Next up for me will be Sonic Colors on the Wii. Sonic Colors was developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA. Sonic Colors is supposed to represent SEGA's having heard all of the criticism of the 3D Sonic titles. It's supposed to bridge the gap between the crowd that prefers the 3D games with the crowd that wants a 2D Sonic. An impossible task if you ask me. From the time I've spent with the game thus far I can say that Sonic Colors feels like no other Sonic game I've ever played. It constantly seems to switch back and forth between 2D and 3D often within the same levels. The 3D segments feel like a heavily refined version of the daytime levels of Sonic Unleashed. And by refined, I really mean fixed. The 2D levels feature more intricate platforming than the series has ever seen. The biggest change comes with the inclusion of the wisps. The wisps are aliens that give Sonic limited time power-up abilities. Such as allowing him to float, drill through certain terrain, or shoot through the air like a laser and the like. Graphically the game looks great and has an art style that is rather unique for a Sonic title. The music sort of sounds like Sonic music but is different enough to be off. Sonic and Tails feature new and much improved voice actors. Even the story has a new feel to it. It's very much like a Saturday morning cartoon. I've found myself laughing out loud a couple of times already. This is hardly the serious Sonic of the 3D era. There isn't a single aspect of Sonic Colors that doesn't feel like it was left as it was. Everything feels tweaked. Only time will tell if the tweaking was successful. I'm interested to see where Sonic Colors is going.

Ys: The Oath In Felghana -- Final Opinion.

2010-11-14T14:25:00.000-08:00

I have completed Ys: The Oath in Felghana with a time of eighteen hours and thirty-four minutes. It's impressive that the game lived up to my own very high expectations for the title. I loved it. Falcom has done just an amazing job in updating Ys III: Wanderers from Ys. They've taken what was my least favorite and made it one of the best entries in the series while somehow remaining true to the spirit of the original. Everything about Oath in Felghana works for me. The game is just great to look at. The controls are perfect, which in and of itself is impressive as the PSP's design often works against itself in that regard. The music is as good as video game music gets. The story is filled with character and charm. The quest is sizable and fun. The game also presents a good challenge as the bosses aren't messing around. The fifteen boss battles are the star of the show. What's probably most impressive to me is that Falcom has managed yet again to pull of that amazing grand sense of pure adventure. The stuff that should appeal to the six year old kid in all of us, provided you're still in touch with that part of yourself. Ys provides the escapism that's at the very core of why I play video games in the first place. The Ys series to me represents pure old-fashioned class and Oath in Felghana fits right in. I'm giving Ys: The Oath in Felghana a 9.5. Now one can only hope that Falcom ports Ys Origins to the PSP and that XSEED releases it in North America. And for the truly committed, they can hope that Falcom decides to bring Ys IV: Mask of the Sun, and Ys V: Lost Kefin: Kingdom of Sand up to par with the rest of the series and those somehow see a North American release. Oh yeah, and there's always Ys IIX...

Ys: The Oath in Felghana -- Initial Impression.

2010-11-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

This one has been a long time coming. Ys: The Oath in Felghana was developed and published for Japanese computers by Nihon Falcom Corporation in 2005. The game is a remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys which was originally released in 1989. The original appeared just about on every platform of its day, including the NEC PC-8801, MSX2, Famicom, Super Famicom, Mega Drive, Genesis, and TurboGrafx CD. Falcom was dissatisfied with the ports of their games to other systems and decided to handle the ports themselves. Falcom released Ys: The Oath in Felghana for the PlayStation Portable in Japan in April of 2010. And now XSEED Games have published the North American version in November of 2010. Ys III: Wanderers of Ys has always been beloved by some but mostly maligned by others for its drastic departure from the format of the previous two games. Wanderers from Ys was a side-scrolling action RPG where you were locked to a single plane and it introduced sword swinging and enabled Adol to jump. The Ys games previously allowed you to move in four directions and didn't allow for control of Adol's sword or offer the ability to jump. Falcom built Ys: Oath in Felghana off of the Ys VI: Ark of Napishtim engine which really is the best of both worlds. You now have eight-way movement with the ability to jump and control over Adol's sword. In creating Oath in Felghana they've greatly expanded the scenarios and mechanics of Wanderers from Ys and have included new bosses and more. From the time I've spent with the game thus far, which amounts to clearing the first dungeon and the first two boss encounters, I can say that everything that makes this series so great is in place. The story is rich with character and detail. Sure the story is going to be filled with cliche, but you have to remember this story dates back to 1989. The graphics are wonderful for being both a PlayStation Portable game and a port of a five year old computer game. Everything is crisp and clean and richly detailed. The music is astounding. Wanderers from Ys has long been considered to have one of the greatest soundtracks in gaming history. Oath in Felghana literally contains Mieko Ishikawa's brilliant original score. You can select to listen to the NEC PC88 original, or the Sharp X68,000 version of the score, as well as the standard version of the score from 2005 which contains Yukihiro Jindo's amazing arrangements. The PlayStation Portable version has voice work for pretty much every character in the game as well as character portraits. Key scenes are voiced while most of the game is text. The game also contains that satisfying and fast Ys combat. And if the first two bosses are any indication, the game is going to have some great boss battles in the classic pattern recognition style. I have no doubt that I'm in for another great game with Ys: The Oath in Felghana. The kind of game you don't want to end. The kind of game you savor.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 -- All-In-One.

2010-11-06T18:19:00.001-07:00

Most disc based games get an initial impression and a final opinion. Star Wars: The Forced Unleashed II is getting just the all-in-one entry. I first played the game three days ago. Ended up playing through three levels and was lazy and didn't create an initial opinion entry. Picked it up the next day and played two more levels and the credits rolled. I set about rounding up the missing achievements and fully leveled up the Force powers and the like. Today I played through the hardest difficulty setting. The game is all but done. I just have the achievements that are tied to the challenges left to do. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 was developed and published by LucasArts. The game is the sequel to the 2008 original that was much maligned by critics but went on to sell upwards of seven million copies to date. The sequel seems to be even more maligned by critics this time around. Chief complaints are the game length and a rushed or unfinished feeling. There is no debating the game is short. Five or six hours. The game consists of a handful of rather long levels. You start on Kamino, head to Cato Neimoidia, then to Dagobah for what amounts to a scene with Yoda, then off to one of the capital ships of the Rebel Alliance, and finally you return to Kamino. Not exactly a whirlwind tour of the Star Wars galaxy. As for the other complaint of the game feeling rushed. I'm not sure rushed is the correct word. Incomplete would be more appropriate, as what is there is rather polished. As far as game play is concerned Force Unleashed II is an improvement over the original. Things just function much better this time around. Especially grasping and throwing items with the Force. Things go just where you want them to go this time around. The game also is far more balanced. It's especially clear on the hardest difficulty level. While still frustrating at times, it's nowhere near the hair-pulling experience it was in the original. Graphically the game looks gorgeous. There is next to no vertical-synch tearing this time around whereas it was obscenely prominent in the original. I was impressed with the facial animation and its ability to convey some subtleties. Musically the game borrows extensively from John Williams' Star Wars themes and is of course great. The original tracks do a pretty good job of feeling like they belong. I liked the voice acting. The guys doing Vader and Yoda do pretty respectable jobs with the characters. The other actors doing original characters also do a very good job. I enjoyed my time with Force Unleashed II, however ultimately brief. I can't shake the feeling that there should be more to the game though. I'm giving Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II a7.5. If you really liked the original, you should really like what's there in Force Unleashed II. The question will become do you feel that there was enough there...

Fable III -- Final Opinion.

2010-11-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

I have completed the main game of Fable III with all but two achievements. Those achievements are from trading weapons and clothing with other players online. I'll be working on those two, but essentially the game is done. Fable III is an overall success in spite of itself. The game is fun, and funny. The Fable games have always had a great sense of grand ambition tethered to a company in Lionhead Games that just can't ever seem to get it all the way done. The Fable series is full of great ideas poorly realized and Fable III is no exception. You sort of get the sense that they had a million ideas and set about trying to do them all and then it comes down to the wire and they just dump what they have onto a disc and call it a game. It's a testament to the core concepts at work in Fable that the game remains fun in spite of all the technical crap going on. Fable III seems to have more bugs than the previous two games. Everyone I know playing the game has encountered the bug where Jasper no longer speaks to you. Which is a shame, as John Cleese is fabulous as the character and his dry British wit is delivered with perfect comic timing. The gameplay in Fable has always been on the easy side, but with the new overall streamlining approach to every aspect of the game the combat has become even simpler. To the point where it's starting to become a detriment. It's too easy. There is no challenge. I'm not really a big fan of the one-on-one interaction within the game. It's just time consuming. I prefer the previous game's showing off for a crowd approach. I did enjoy the concept of the second half of the game wherein you'll become the king or queen and have to make decisions and try to keep your promises. Most of those promises are represented by financial costs to the kingdom. The problem is it's too easy to make money and by the time I got there I had so much money that it broke the second half of the game. I never faced the moral dilemma the game so wants you to experience. Graphically Fable III looks about the same as Fable II with some improved lighting effects that really work well. I really like the colorful approach to Fable's world. It would be great to see more western RPGs take this approach. Musically Fable III is as strong as ever. The whimsical fantasy scoring is reminiscent of Danny Elfman. The voice work is superb, and very British. The aforementioned Cleese and Stephen Fry as Reaver highlight a great cast of voice actors. The best part of the Fable series, the British charm and humor are in full effect for Fable III. For Fable IV, I'd love to see Lionhead focus on the technical side as much as they seem to focus on the story and character and acting of the series. If they could just get the tech on par with the other aspects of the series and maybe focus on a few things to the point of being polished instead of going halfway with every idea under the sun then they'd likely come up with a truly amazing game. As I stated previously, I enjoyed the game in spite of itself. I am docking a full point based purely on the technical side of things. Games shouldn't be this glitchy in 2010. Another point and a half for having too little focus. I'm giving Fable III a 7.5.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light -- All-in-One.

2010-11-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

This entry is considerably late. It's a few months late as Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was a game released as part of Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade 2010. I bought the game then and messed around with it for a bit. They announced right before the release that the co-op would be patched in a month later. A month later turned into two months later. Well, they patched it last week and Magus and I finally got around to playing the game but I haven't made the entry for it because I've been busy with Fable III. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square-Enix. The game is a drastic departure from the main Tomb Raider series, hence the new naming scheme that drops the Tomb Raider aspect. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is an isometric platforming game that loses absolutely nothing in the transfer between genres. Everything you've come to expect from Tomb Raider is there. The combat has shifted to that of an arcade eight-way twin stick shooter. Outside of that you have the series staples of action, intricate platforming, and devious puzzles. The graphics are really impressive for a download. The game was created using the Tomb Raider: Underworld engine which allowed for great lighting and other effects normally associated with a higher budget production. Keeley Hawes does her usual exceptional job voicing the character of Lara. The music is pulled from the previous three Tomb Raider games, Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld so it sounds great if unoriginal. The game has some great puzzles, especially in co-op. Having to work together to figure it out and then actually pull it off proves to be really fun. The controls are great, once you adjust to them, and there is definately an adjustment period. I really enjoyed the game considerably. I hope it does well enough to continue on alongside the standard Tomb Raider series. I'm giving Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light an 8.5.

Fable III -- Initial Impression.

2010-10-27T17:11:00.000-07:00

I have been sitting on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II came out the same day, but I've decided to go with Fable III as my next game. Fable III was developed by Lionhead Studios and has been published by Microsoft Game Studios. Fable III takes place fifty years after the events of Fable II and has you playing as the offspring of the hero character of Fable II. It's no secret at this point that you're out to become the king and you achieve this roughly halfway through the game. After that the focus shifts to you attempting to keep the promises you made on the road to becoming king. This shift in focus was put in the game presumably to keep things fresh. From what I've played so far the starting half of the game still pretty much comes off just like Fable II albeit with some rather extensive streamlining to the menus and the like. If you want to check the map, equip or compare weapon stats, change outfits, check the quest list or the like, you'll need to go to the sanctuary. Which just happens to be accessed by pressing start, you know, like a menu. The difference being the sanctuary is an actual location, it means you wander around to different rooms to access everything else you would have done in a menu previously. Fable II's menus were a pain in the ass to navigate and scrolling through the hundreds of items you were carrying around took too long. Fable III's sanctuary for the most part makes things much easier to deal with. It's still not the most intuitive menu system but it's definitely an improvement. Fable II seemed like a game that was about to crash. It just felt unstable. Fable III feels even more like it's going to crash at any moment. I've experienced buggy quests and enemy AI that just seems to shut off. Fable II turned out to be one of the best games of its year, largely in part to its wonderful sense of humor. That sense of humor is clearly in place for Fable III. I just hope the engine works well enough for me to see it through...

Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley -- All-in-One.

2010-10-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

Well, two out of three isn't bad. I have completed Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley for the Xbox 360. Comic Jumper was developed by Twisted Pixel Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Comic Jumper is Twisted Pixel's third game following The Maw and 'Splosion Man. Comic Jumper is an action game in the vein of Contra and Gunstar Heroes. A mix of mild platforming, basic melee attacks, eight-way right stick aiming for the shooting in the main action. With there being some third-person reticule controlled shooting while maintaining control over the character sections as well as what amounts to basic scrolling shooter segments. It's a total hodgepodge of styles. And that right there is the problem. It tries to do way too much without really doing any of them well. The game's graphics are great. The comics you jump into provide a wealth of different art styles. The music and sound effects are strong and follow the same sort of comic nature found in Twisted Pixel's previous games. Comic Jumper's biggest strength lies in Twisted Pixel's comic voice. It's a funny game. But I actually found the humor to start to grate on me as I became more disappointed with the combat. I just didn't enjoy the combat in this game. It wasn't at all fun for me. The production values for the game are really high. You can tell a lot of care and effort went into the production of the game. It just didn't click for me. I'll definately be interested in what comes next for Twisted Pixel, I just hoped they're jumping to a new genre. I'm giving Comic Jumper a 7.

Costume Quest -- All-in-One.

2010-10-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

I have completed the Xbox 360 version of Costume Quest. The game was developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ. Costume Quest is one part adventure, one part role-playing game. It's an adventure in that there is a decent amount of focus on exploring and tool based advancement. The role-playing comes in with the combat. Which features basic turn based RPG mechanics. You can use a normal attack, or a special attack that is charged up by two rounds of normal attacks. There is a single augmentation slot that makes use of stamps you'll find throughout the world that allow you to add more attack power, health points, higher chance to dodge attacks, and the like. That's it. It's very basic stuff. The game's graphics are absolutely adorable and feature great style. The music has that wonderful hokey quality of cheap horror films of the 1950's. Costume Quest is very much focused on the nostalgia of Halloween. It's a charmingly funny tale that acts as a love letter to Halloween. A great deal of the appeal of the game plays off of how fondly you remember Halloween. I love Halloween so the game tickles all of the best bits of nostalgia associated with it. If you're one of those soulless people who doesn't really care for Halloween then Costume Quest is probably not going to have any charm as the actual gameplay elements while entirely solid are very basic. The charm of the characters and story carry the game. I'm giving Costume Quest an 8.5.

Dead Rising 2 -- Final Opinion.

2010-10-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

I've completed Dead Rising 2 with the full one-thousand points. It took numerous playthroughs to accomplish. The game doesn't have an in-game timer but if I had to estimate it would be around seventy plus hours. The game's basic mechanic revolves around replaying the game but even then it's rather surprising it takes that much time or maybe I'm just not remembering the effort put forth for the original Dead Rising correctly. Either way you're not going to put in such a major amount of effort on a title that's lackluster. Dead Rising 2 is a great game. Not a perfect game by any means, but a great game. A game that's more refined than the original while offering up everything that made the original what it was. Dead Rising's story as pure cheesy goodness and Dead Rising 2's story retains that cheesiness. Chuck Greene's adventure through Fortune City is every bit as entertaining as Frank West's adventure through the mall in the original. As far as gameplay mechanics are concerned, the controls feel improved over the original. They're tighter and a lot more responsive. The survivor AI is so improved as to make the difference night and day. Graphically the game is also improved. More zombies on screen at once and the world is filled with more detail. There seems to be far more to look at and notice in Dead Rising 2. Musically the game doesn't really feature any sort of standout tracks. Everything is just there. What's there is appropriate for what's on screen. Dead Rising 2 does have a few flaws. Mostly dealing with the psychopaths, the game's bosses. They are all conceptually sound, and a few of them are rather inspired in design. The problem comes in some awful hit detection and some cheap use of invulnerability frames. In the hit detection, you're literally swinging right through them. Do a jump kick and you literally go through the enemy? And when you do hit them, they get an extreme number of frames where they can't be hit again. Another area that's flawed concerns the case files and the timing. A timer appears on screen under each case or scoop. You only have so long to find them and deal with them. That sound fair. It is fair. I took my time and got a few things done while a case was active. I went to deal with the active case and had plenty of time. I deal with it and it moves on to the next case, but it then reveals that the timer was for the whole run of cases in that chapter. Not just 6-1 for example. But 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, and 6-4. I had no way of completing the following cases because it decided to switch things up on me. This is happens rather late in the game and I found it to be truly cheap and annoying. The game also features some rather long loading times while transitioning between areas. Those issues aside, Dead Rising 2 is great fun on the whole. I enjoyed the rather long time I spent with the game. I'm giving Dead Rising 2 a 9. I'm looking forward to Dead Rising: Case West. I'm sitting on Castlevania, and The Force Unleashed 2 and Fable 3 are out Tuesday. What to do...

Dead Rising 2 -- Initial Impression.

2010-10-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

This initial impression is a tad later than usual as Magus and I went on the first night to round up all the online versus achievements. That would be weeks ago now. I also started playing the game in earnest a couple days ago. Dead Rising 2 is Capcom's follow-up to the first original IP hit for this generation of consoles. Dead Rising 2 was developed by the former Blue Castle Games and published by Capcom. I say former because they've been acquired by Capcom and have been rebranded Capcom Vancouver. Not bad for a company that had only developed a couple of baseball titles. What am I expecting from Dead Rising 2? More of the same really. The same restart the story with earned experience and moves learned game concept. I'm expecting the same multiple playthroughs for story, achievements, and messing around. I'm expecting to have to deal with the same tight deadlines for the case files. The same when to do what aspect of the gameplay to get it all done. I'm expecting to kill a stadium's worth of zombies and more. I'm expecting the same B-level cheese, in the best possible way. From the time I've spent with the game thus far I can say all of that is intact. The game looks great. Fortune City is full of eye candy wherever you happen to be looking. The survivor AI has been vastly improved. You're no longer having to fight the survivors every step of the way to get them to do anything. They're able to fend for themselves and do what they're told. It seems that most of the technical issues of the original have been solved. The game looks to be an improvement on the really solid original from a technical perspective. We'll save the heart and soul comparisons for the final opinion...

Sonic 4: Episode One -- All-in-One.

2010-10-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

Sonic 4: Episode One marks the return to the Genesis style of Sonic the Hedgehog games. It's been sixteen long years since Sonic & Knuckles hit the Genesis in 1994. The game was developed by Dimps Corporation and published by SEGA. I should say up front that the Sonic fan-base is one of the most vocal and embarrassingly idiotic fan-bases in gaming. They don't even know what they want anymore and whatever SEGA was to do they couldn't win for even trying. Sonic 4 isn't exactly like the Sonic games on the Genesis. What sane person would actually expect it to be? Dimps has included the lock-on homing attack from Sonic Adventure and beyond. It works well enough but it does change the gameplay quite a bit. Chaning enemies together to reach alternate paths and the like. Sonic 4: Episode One might as well have been called Sonic Remix. The game consists of four zones each with three acts and a seperated boss battle. Splash Hill Zone is a remake of the original game's Green Hill Zone while Lost Labyrinth is a remake of the Labyrinth Zone. And Casino Street Zone is a remake of Sonic 2's Casino Night Zone and Mad Gear Zone is a remake of Metropolis Zone. Each zone contains the same motif, enemies, and bosses from the originals. The final zone is called the E.G.G. Station Zone and is a boss rush topped off by Sonic 2's final boss battle with a twist. The boss battles have been reworked to include some surprises. They play out the same as the originals until you've taken half their life then they reveal their new tricks and change things up on you. The game's special stages harken back to the original game's special stages. Only with a slight twist. This time you're turning the maze to guide Sonic to the Chaos Emeralds. I have to say I found these special stages to be the best and most fun in the entire series. Graphically the game looks great. The game is true HD with widescreen and 720p. The graphics are detailed and super crisp and clean. I've been reading a lot of dissatisfaction with the music. I however actually liked the music a lot. I found it fitting and entirely Sonic sounding. The physics in the game take some getting used to. Once you adjust you'll find an entirely playable and fun game. If you're going to get so caught up in how this title isn't exactly how you remember Sonic on the Genesis then you should probably just skip the game entirely. If you're able to think rationally and enjoy a game for what it is instead of bitching about what it isn't, you might find Sonic 4 well worth it. I really enjoyed the game. I do have to say how refreshing it was to only have Sonic and Robotnik. And they don't even speak. Not a single word uttered in the entire game. Hopefully Joe Average Gamer doesn't hear the din of the bitching Sonic fan-base and the title sells well enough to see the future episodes as I'd be in for more. I'm giving Sonic 4: Episode One an 8.5.

DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue -- All-in-One.

2010-10-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

I have completed DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue for the Xbox 360 with the full two-hundred points. Pretty much just like the first game it took roughly twelve hours to complete. DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue is really just more of the same. The same great visuals and audio. The same great spherical world gimmick. The same fun gameplay with a slight shift based on more enemies having ranged attacks. And best of all the same great humor that somehow manages to remain funny from start to finish. It pretty much boils down to if you liked the first game, you'll like the second game. If you weren't impressed with the first game, nothing about the second game will change your mind at all. I enjoy the gameplay and humor enough that I'd love to see another DeathSpank title. I'm giving DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue a 9.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 -- Final Opinion.

2010-10-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

The credits have rolled on Phantasy Star Portable 2 for the PSP but that's only the beginning. I have a lot more game left to experience. Mostly in multiplayer. Phantasy Star Portable 2 is rather technically impressive. Especially after coming off the X360 version of Phantasy Star Universe. The graphics on the PSP are amazing for a handheld online hack and slash dungeon crawler. The new music is on par with that of Phantasy Star Universe so it's rather good, but not Phantasy Star Online great. The game controls absolutely fine as well. Again nothing is lost coming off of the X360 Phantasy Star Universe. The story picks up years after the events of Phantasy Star Universe and goes off in its own direction with a handful of cameos here and there. The story is heavily anime inspired and plays mostly for laughs and is a step up from that of Phantasy Star Universe. There are three aspects of the game that really make Phantasy Star Portable shine. First of all, the online works wonderfully. It's fully functional and works with ease. Which is great considering the online is really the heart of the title. The second aspect is how they've streamlined and trimmed the fat from Phantasy Star Universe and have added concepts from Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Zero resulting in an all around better game. Third, all of the content is there on the disc and accessible from the start. Nothing is being doled out in the illusion of a massively multiplayer game. We're able to play at our own pace and we're constantly progressing. We're not sitting at imposed level caps. We're not just spinning our wheels. It feels like we're constantly making progress, because we are. Phantasy Star Portable 2 is a great return to form and is probably the game Phantasy Star Universe should have been. I'm giving Phantasy Star Portable 2 a 9.

Halo Reach -- Final Opinion.

2010-10-07T18:03:00.000-07:00

I've been busy since my last update but I have been making progress even if it doesn't seem that way. I've all but completed Halo Reach. I have a few nights left of playing online multiplayer to grind out the credits to be able to earn the final achievement for the full one-thousand. Halo Reach is Bungie's last official Halo title and I'm sure they feel they've sent the series over to its new caretakers with a bang. And for the most part I'd agree with them. Certain aspects of the title are truly flawed however. But first lets deal with the good stuff. The Halo series has never looked better. The graphics are great looking. The frame rate is solid. And there is more going on in any given scene than ever before. The story of Halo Reach is actually really well done. But there is a problem inherent in most prequels. You know what's going to happen. And if you've played the series and have paid attention you'll have enough of an idea to have any emotional impact severely lessened. I really liked the story while Magus, the guy I co-oped the campaign with, kept cracking jokes and mocked crying. But who really plays Halo for the story? That's right, the bulk of the series is still represented by the online aspects. There again for the most part everything is improved as far as the actual gameplay. The addition of the equipment load outs adds some surprising strategy to the intense action of multiplayer. Having to deal with a guy with a jet pack, shield, or cloaking device, and any combination of really changes things up. The actual gameplay pretty much remains as fun as it ever was. So where are the flaws? You might have noticed I didn't comment on the music before. I'd have to say this is Marty O'Donnell's weakest effort. While the epic cinematic score is as good as ever the addition of some funky rock tracks throughout the action leaves me cold. The other real flaw comes from the online matchmaking. If you want the achievements you'll be forced to earn credits toward one. And it's bad that it's a truly large grind. But it's made infinitely worse by the fact that Bungie won't allow you to play the game you want to play. The game you actually bought the title for. To really earn credits you have to play public matchmaking games. Private games dole out obscenely minimal credits as to make them not an option. We're talking seventy versus eight-hundred towards a goal of four-hundred and fifty thousand. Now playing with the public isn't always bad. But it's compounded by Bungie forcing you to use their matchmaking system which has you playing through a bunch of variants on a general game type. I just want to play slayer, Halo's basic deathmatch. I want slayer. I don't want oddball or swat or infection or any other goofy annoyance. I just want to run around and shoot people for credits with all the available weapons and equipment. Matchmaking has a voting system. So you'll pretty much never get what you want even if it does show up. And you have no other recourse. You're stuck going wherever the mob takes you playing what you have no interest in. Bungie is forcing you jump through their hoops. I find it to be truly annoying and a truly awful flaw. The biggest flaw in the game though is the new spawning system. You spawn on other characters. Which means you could relatively spawn anywhere. Like next to a cliff with a fatal fall or at the far end of the map. But more often than not, it means you'll be spawning under fire. I've never been spawn-killed so much in my life. I've probably been spawn-killed more in Halo Reach than the entirety of Halo 2, Halo 3, and SOCOM 1-2. The spawning system is fully broken. Halo Reach is a tough title to come up with a numerical score for. On one hand the game is still very fun and it has impeccable production values. On the other it provides a great deal of frustration and it has some glaring mistakes as I see them. I'm giving Halo Reach an 8.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 -- Initial Impression.

2010-09-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-13T17:21:00.001-07:00

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.

2010-09-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-04T01:05:00.000-07:00

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.

Ys Seven -- Initial Impression.

2010-08-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

I've dusted off the old PlayStation Portable for my next game. That game is obviously Ys Seven. The game was developed by Nihon Falcom Corporation and published in North America by XSEED Games. Falcom is one of my all time favorite developers and Ys is one of my all time favorite series. Ys Seven marks the first time Falcom has primarily developed an Ys title for anything else other than personal computers. The Ys series has been the absolute epitome in video games for capturing that grand sense of pure adventure and that's exactly what I'm expecting from the seventh game in the series proper. I'm also expecting a sincere story focused on character. I'm expecting the series tradition of exceptional music to continue. I'm expecting fast and fun combat even though Adol is no longer going it alone this time around with the new party combat. I'm also expecting memorable boss encounters. From the time I've spent playing it, which amounts to through the first boss, I can say that everything I'm expecting seems to be in place. My initial impression is that I'm in for another great Ys outing. Which is awesome.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies -- Final Opinion.

2010-08-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

I have completed Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies with a time of one hundred and sixteen hours. I say completed but what I really mean is I've seen the main story through. My in-game save now reads one hundred and twenty-one hours. Dragon Quest IX is a massive game if you want it to be. You can see the story through in under thirty hours if you wished. Dragon Quest IX offers a ton of optional content well woven into the game. Each section of optional content is deep enough to lose yourself in. The class system is where I spent most of my time. Switching classes and leveling skills. Your characters retain abilities from class to class. This inspires the player to mix and match and create the perfect characters for oneself. Adding the thief's deftness and agility to your martial artist while making it possible for your mage to use an axe are a couple examples out of the many possibilities. If that sort of thing doesn't grab you, maybe the alchemy will. You're able to combine items and weapons and armor in order to create new and more powerful items and weapons and armor. Again you can easily lose yourself in hunting down ingredients and following recipes or even just experimenting with item combinations on your own. Or maybe you'll lose yourself in the grottos. Random dungeons with a harder than normal boss awaiting at the end and the potential for new and better loot. Completing a grotto earns you a map for the next one. The potential for finding certain metal enemies and their massive experience payout is enough to keep one going in the grottos. Or maybe you'll find yourself addicted to the game's sidequests. There are more than enough to add on a ton of extra hours to your completion time. Once you've completed the main game your game doesn't end. Dragon Quest IX features the most post-game content of any other game in the series. As for the main game itself. It can be summed up in one word in my opinion. That word is charming. Everything about it is charming. The story and scenario are as strong as they've ever been. Yuji Horii manages to pull off another great story. Just don't expect one with the character driven focus of Dragon Quest VIII. This one is feels like loosely tied vignettes. The stories run the gamut of Horii's staples and feature enough comedy and sadness to satisfy either preference. The graphics look great on the DS. More so than Final Fantasy's transition to DS 3D. Something about the simplistic art style just translates well. The music is pure Sugiyama brilliance and it sounds great through the tiny DS speakers. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Dragon Quest IX, in fact I'm finding it hard to stop. I'm going to have to will myself to or nothing will get done. And you know that's the sign of a great game. I'm giving Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies a 9.5. I can't wait for Dragon Quest X on the Wii. Especially if DQ IX is the blueprint for what they're intending. The only thing I'd ask for is true online support given the Wii. So people outside Japan can experience the multiplayer aspects without having to attend an event or otherwise go well out of their way.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair -- All-in-One.

2010-08-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

I'm nearing sixty hours in Dragon Quest IX. We've finally managed to get through all three bits of download content for Borderlands. We probably spent more time in the download content than the full game at this point. Too bad they announced a fourth one. We thought we were out. I'm running behind in my Summer of Arcade titles as well. Last week was Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. If you've played any of the Castlevania titles from Igarashi, then you know what to expect as far as basic gameplay. That's from Symphony of the Night through the three GameBoy Advance titles and the three Nintendo DS titles. In fact the game takes five characters from those games and six stages and transplants them over to Xbox Live and adds in some decent net code. The demo for the game really does a poor job of selling the game. Well, from a certain point of view. The game is very much designed for online co-op play. And there it performs quite well. It however pretty much fails as a single player experience. The stages have a thirty minute time limit. The goal is to reach and defeat the boss while grabbing as much loot along the way as possible. Each of the five playable characters play as they did in their original games. Meaning Jonathan levels up by using sub-weapons and Charlotte levels up by absorbing enemy spells and the like. The moderate loot whoring aspect, combined with the timed set stages, and the online co-op do come together to provide a slightly new Castlevania experience. It's a fun distraction, but utterly just a distraction. I'm giving Castlevania: Harmony of Despair a 7.0. They've proven a co-op Metroidvania can work. They've really milked this series over the last six games or so. They need to provide co-op for a full adventure next time around. Otherwise they're really stretching the limits of over saturation. And they need to start from scratch and create all new assets for everything in the game. I'll still be playing the game going for some achievements. And I have Monday Night Combat to play as well. And the seasonal flood starts in just a few weeks. I guess I'll be falling further behind.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane -- All In One.

2010-08-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

I'm still plugging away at the ever charming Dragon Quest IX. I've also been playing through the three Borderlands expansions since they were made available for half off as the Deal of the Week on Xbox Live last week. I've also been playing Hydro Thunder Hurricane, the second title in this year's Summer of Arcade. Hydro Thunder Hurricane was developed by Vector Unit and is published by Microsoft Game Studios. Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a speedboat racing title with a decidedly arcade style. Which is how it should be, considering it's the sequel to the arcade game Hydro Thunder. The game is pure pedal-to-the-metal bliss. It's the best kind of dumb fun. And unlike the first entry in this year's Summer of Arcade, Hydro Thunder Hurricane definately provides enough bang for the fifteen dollar price tag. There is a lot to do in the game over the course of the eight tracks. Four different modes of racing, and full couch and online competitive gaming. The game controls great. The focus is on boosting and drafting with some stunts thrown in. The track design is just pure fun. They're varied and all of them are a blast to play. I enjoyed the graphics, they're the kind that look great when they're whizzing by at a hundred miles per hour. The water physics add to the fun. They can create some hair raising moments. On the other hand get some bad luck with hitting a wave and you can be in for a rough time of it. If you remember arcade racing games of old, then Hydro Thunder Hurricane is for you. You know, games like OutRun, Daytona USA, and Crazy Taxi. If you're more in tune with the Gran Turismo side of things, then maybe Hydro Thunder Hurricane might not be for you. I however truly liked it. I've giving Hydro Thunder Hurricane an 8.5. Next up, Castlevania.

Limbo -- All-In-One.

2010-07-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

The third annual Summer of Arcade is upon us. The first entry this year is Limbo. The game was developed by PlayDead Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Limbo is a puzzle-centric platforming game along the lines of Out of This World and Flashback. You play as a little boy who has entered Limbo to find out what has happened to his sister. You have the one button to jump with and another button that allows you to interact with objects in the game and that's it. The game's visual style immediately steals the show. The stark black and white and gray visuals are matched with a minimalist sound design that create a truly creepy game world to explore. The game's puzzles are as equally brilliant as the game's aesthetics. The game employs a healthy amount of action within its puzzles. The controls handle very well and won't really get in your way. The game isn't entirely perfect though. I'm not sure I'm a fan of its reactionary action design. It's not really an issue when just playing the game. But there is an achievement for completing the game in one sitting with five or fewer deaths. The game has more than a few moments of cheap death. The game is also short. Which normally isn't an issue. But we're talking a fifteen dollar asking price for what for me was less than four hours of game one time through. I will be going back for a couple more achievements. I can't help come away feeling the game really should have been at least five dollars cheaper. I'm giving Limbo an 8. It's a good start to this year's Summer of Arcade.

DeathSpank -- Final Opinion.

2010-07-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

I've completed DeathSpank with the full two-hundred points. I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with DeathSpank. Purely comic games are rare. Purely comic games that are genuinely funny are even more rare. Purely comic games that are funny from start to finish are even more rare still. I found DeathSpank to be very funny from start to finish. It took me twelve hours to complete the game. The game was surprisingly large. I figured most of the gigabyte file size was due to the game's fully voiced story and the amazingly detailed graphics. Those things are part of it of course, but the other reason is that there is just so much game to be had. The production values of the game are top notch. It beats the pants off a lot of disc based games. The graphics are amazing. The entire world of Death Spank is essentially represented as a sphere with 2D trees and buildings and the like sticking out of it. It adds to the game's great aesthetic and is a technique I'd like to see more of. The game is a wonderfully colorful and stylized experience. Hopefully the game takes off as I believe the action genre is far more approachable to the modern gamer than the traditional graphic adventure nature of a lot of previous comedic games. I'd really like to see further adventures with the character. I'm giving DeathSpank a 9.

DeathSpank -- Initial Impression.

2010-07-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

Now that Crackdown 2 is winding down and I'm still playing Dragon Quest 9, I'll be playing the Xbox Live Arcade version of DeathSpank. The game was developed by Ron Gilbert and Hothead Games while published by Electronic Arts. Ron Gilbert developed Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. He also programmed the SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) engine which would be used in almost every single LucasArts adventure title. DeathSpank is a mix of the pure comedy of Monkey Island crossed with the loot whoring of Diablo. That's a pretty interesting mix, loot whoring and comedy. So far I've found the game to be truly funny. I'm also impressed with how good the game looks. It has a great cartoon aesthetic. It's a really good looking game. The combat is also rather fun. DeathSpank initially seems to be worth the $15 asking price. Now let's see if I can finish it before Limbo kicks off the Summer of Arcade for this year.

Crackdown 2 -- Final Opinion.

2010-07-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

Another game, another one-thousand points. I've completed Crackdown 2. I've found all the orbs, completed all races, and went through every stunt ring in the game. Oh yeah, I've also completed the story but that's not really saying much. The story is barely there and it's entirely irrelevant. You're not playing Crackdown for the story. You're playing Crackdown for the playground they've provided. You're playing Crackdown for the co-op. You're playing Crackdown for those maddeningly addictive orbs. I played through the entirety of the game in co-op with various people. I'm still messing around with the game helping others complete stunt rings or finding orbs. The game is both impressive and marred by its extremely short and fast development cycle. It's impressive they got it up and running and out the door while providing some decent new content. No matter how fun Crackdown 2 may be, there is a distinct lack of polish to the game clearly resulting from such a short development cycle. An extra six months would have done wonders for fixing some climbing issues and further refining the aiming and vehicles. The game could have been truly impressive. Hopefully we'll see a Crackdown 3 that has been given the proper amount of time to develop. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Microsoft. I think Ruffian Games have done rather well with what they were given. I had a great time with Crackdown 2. It scratched an itch for more Crackdown. I'm giving Crackdown 2 an 8.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky -- Initial Impression.

2010-07-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

While I'm still continuing to crackdown on the freaks in Pacific City in Crackdown 2, I'm going to be starting another game. That game of course is Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for the Nintendo DS. The game was developed by Armor Project, Level 5, and Square-Enix. It was published in the west by Nintendo. The ninth game in the mainline Dragon Quest series marks a few notable firsts. This is the first title in the series developed for a handheld. This is the first title in the series to ditch random battles. And this is the first title in the series to include a multiplayer aspect. Despite all of those firsts, from the time I've spent with the game so far, I can say that Dragon Quest IX feels like Dragon Quest. The holy trinity of Yuji Horii, Akira Toriyama, and Koichi Sugiyama are still in place as they have been for every entry in the series. Horii handling the scenario, Toriyama providing the concept art, and Sugiyama providing the score. I'm quite intrigued by the premise of Dragon Quest IX thus far. Horii's stories are always charming and focused on the human element more so than the quest itself. Everything seems on track for another classic Dragon Quest experience. I'm not worried about this one going south on me.

Crackdown 2 -- Initial Impression.

2010-07-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

I'll be returning to Pacific City in Crackdown 2 for the Xbox 360. Crackdown 2 was developed by Ruffian Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The Internet is ablaze with comments about how the game is ugly. How it's the same exact city. How it's not Crackdown. How the freaks ruin the game. How it's merely an expansion and shouldn't have the two in the title. How not having the transforming agency cars entirely ruins the experience. Blah blah blah. It's been one amazing bitchfest. Realtime Worlds developed the original Crackdown. They were keen on making a sequel and striking while the iron was hot. After all the original Crackdown was merely the game attached to the Halo 3 beta and wasn't actually supposed to amount to anything. Let alone a gloriously fun sandbox co-op experience. Microsoft initially didn't feel the need for Crackdown 2 and Realtime Worlds set about developing APB. A year and a half ago Microsoft comes around and asks them if they wanted to do Crackdown 2. Ruffian Games was born from a good percentage of designers from Realtime Worlds who wished to do just that. They were faced with an insanely close deadline right from the start. Obviously time saving considerations were made. It's amazing Ruffian Games was even able to get the game out the door on time. I could tell from the demo that's been out for a few weeks that Crackdown 2 was indeed more Crackdown. And that's exactly what I wanted. That's not to say that Ruffian Games hasn't added to the mix. They certainly have. They've bumped the co-op game up to four players from two players. That alone is massive. Crackdown was a fun game single-player, but it was a great game in co-op. They've added various new types of orbs to collect. From co-op orbs, which can only be collected online with more than one person, to the absolutely fiendish renegade orbs which actually flee from your pursuit on foot, via wing suit, or in vehicles. They've added new weapons and grenades. Is Crackdown 2 a real sequel as opposed to an expansion? Who gives a shit? Magus and I spent five hours in co-op last night having a blast doing nothing more than roaming the city leveling skills and not advancing the story in any way. And that's what it's really supposed to be about now, isn't it?

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 -- Final Opinion.

2010-07-05T13:21:00.001-07:00

I've completed LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 for the Xbox 360 with the full one-thousand points. If you've played any of the previous LEGO games from Traveler's Tales then you know exactly what to expect from the Harry Potter variant. They don't stray from the formula in any way. If you didn't like any of the previous entries in the series then you're not going to suddenly find yourself in love with the gameplay here. The Harry Potter universe fits in perfectly and it's as charming as all the others. The shift away from combat towards more puzzle solving is welcome. Also welcome is the use of Hogwarts as metroidvania hub. The graphics and sound and music were handled well. The plastic LEGO visual style has never looked better. The music is straight from the films so you can't go wrong there. I am however starting to wonder what's going on over at Traveler's Tales when the games still suffer from major screen tearing four games in. Judging from Internet reaction the game still seems as glitchy as ever. I've managed to make it all the way through the four games without getting hit. The kid in me still thoroughly enjoys the LEGO games. I'm giving LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 an 8. And I'm looking forward to LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars and LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 and whatever may come next. Bond perhaps? Lord of the Rings? Next up for me I'll be booking a flight to Pacific City to eradicate some freaks and to deal the Cell.

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 -- Initial Impression.

2010-06-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

Another late initial impression. As the title says, next up for me will be LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4. The game was developed by Traveler's Tales and was published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. This is the fourth intellectual property in the series beyond LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Indiana Jones, and LEGO Batman. I'm expecting the same fun gameplay I've gotten from the entire series. I'm expecting the same clean and very plastic looking simplistic graphics. I'm expecting liberal use of the source material's score. I'm also expecting the same great humor as the rest of the series. And I'm also expecting to collect millions and millions of LEGO studs. Based on what I've seen so far through year one at Hogwarts I believe the game is going to deliver all of that and more. Because of the source material it seems the focus has shifted from combat to puzzles. Hogwarts really doesn't have hundreds and hundreds of stormtroopers or non-Nazis or super villain thugs to shoot, whip, or punch. And again because of the source material they've essentially done away with a hub world as a point to jump into the levels. Because Hogwarts provides such a great opportunity they've changed the formula this time around. The game feels more like a Metroidvania experience. You'll be crisscrossing back and forth through Hogwarts and into the levels themselves. The world is presented more as a whole. It's a dynamic I'm really enjoying. Everything I've played thus far tells me I'm in for the same solid fun the entire series has provided.

Alan Wake -- Final Opinion.

2010-06-26T11:17:00.001-07:00

I have completed Alan Wake with the full one-thousand points. Alan Wake is a really good game. It does everything well. What's the most important aspect to a survival horror title? Some would argue story. Some would argue combat. Some might even argue music. I would argue the more intangible overall mood. Alan Wake's world of Bright Falls, Washington is wonderfully realized. It's full of detail. They even went as far as to the provide the proper constellations for the region at night. I enjoyed the world they created. Graphically it was impressive. The music takes both the cinematic score and soundtrack approach and it does its job well. The sound effects likewise do their job well and the voice work is entirely top notch. The characters are the real stars of Alan Wake. Not a bad one in the bunch. Especially the character of Barry who just so happens to be Leo Getz. You know, Joe Pesci's character from Lethal Weapon 2 through Lethal Weapon 4. Great characters make you get invested in a story. In the best case scenario you're just as sucked in to the events of the game as the character you're controlling. I really enjoyed Alan Wake's story. It's a good story. A sound story. A straight story. A safe story. And that last thing is part of the overriding issue with Alan Wake. As great as the individual parts may be, Remedy never takes a chance. They play it safe. The overall result is a well made and classy survival horror title. There is nothing wrong with being classy. It just means you know you're safe. To be classy you sort of have to play by the rules. So the more experienced audience members know that they're dealing with someone who isn't going to break the rules. If Silent Hill is trying to scar your psyche, and Condemned is trying to make you shit yourself, and Resident Evil wants to provide tension, then there is room for classy. Of course everything horror is subjective. I'm giving Alan Wake an 8.5.

Alan Wake -- Initial Impression.

2010-06-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

Another belated initial impression as I've been playing Alan Wake for the last two nights. Alan Wake was developed by the Finnish company Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Remedy initially had the idea for Alan Wake in 2001. It's been a long time coming. It was originally announced at E3 in 2005 via what amounts to a tech demo. It showed up again at E3 2006 and then sort went dark to the point where people were sure it had become vaporware. Over the years it transformed from an entirely open world survival horror title to a more restricted path format. The reasoning being they wanted to control the pacing and that the sandbox format worked against the story they wanted to tell. In fact the cover art on the box describes the title as a psychological action thriller. I've played through the first two chapters thus far and it's clear that this is a great looking game. It's graphically dense. There is a lot going on. Especially at night in the woods. The game also sounds amazing. From the voice work to the music to the sound effects everything works. The combat is surprisingly effective as it forces you to dance with the enemies before killing them. The basic plot has you fighting people that have been taken by the darkness and therefore have a shield of darkness that must be burned off with light before they can be killed by conventional weaponry. It's not a problem when you're dealing with one or two enemies but it can quickly become intense when there are multiple enemies. Especially when they're all throwing weapons at you. The best part of the game so far is in how the premise is really working. Alan Wake is a best selling author suffering from writer's block. He and his wife have come to Bright Falls in rural Washington state to get away from it all. Alan loses a week and finds his wife missing and he's also finding pages of a manuscript he's apparently written that seems to be coming true around him. The game has impressive characters. I've really liked almost every single one I've interacted with. I'm genuinely intrigued by the story. And in a survival horror title, that's a really big plus. The game feels really smart initially. Who knows, maybe it could all go to hell at some point. But it feels early on like they had a smart story and built a potentially great game around it. The game seems inspired by Stephen King's The Dark Half with some Twin Peaks thrown in. I'm really liking this one early on and I hope it stays on track.

3D Dot Game Heroes -- Final Opinion.

2010-06-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

E3 2010 has come and gone and the credits have rolled on 3D Dot Game Heroes. Turns out that maybe I didn't need to be so worried about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword as it seems to be going in a good direction. A few more questions will need to be answered before I'll know for sure. So then how did 3D Dot Game Heroes turn out? It turned out to be a solid and charming game. It however is not greatness. The aesthetic works well. The script is full of smart and funny references to a ton of 8-bit games. The overworld is lush with obstacles and the dungeons do get tricky towards the end. The bosses won't be too taxing unless you're going for the trophies. In fact that will greatly determine how much enjoyment you'll likely get out of the game as I found the trophies to be among the worst I've seen to the point of nearly being game breaking. Only the most dedicated should even consider the platinum on this one. The game also has some collision detection issues that will have you swearing to yourself. The swordplay will randomly just fail you from time to time. I think those people who have played the older games will appreciate 3D Dot Game Heroes the most. Especially those who were originally there for them. I'm not sure how much charm the game holds without understanding the references and the like. 3D Dot Game Heroes was worth the effort, but I just don't see myself returning to replay the game years down the line. I'm giving 3D Dot Game Heroes a 7.0.

3D Dot Game Heroes -- Initial Impression.

2010-06-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

As we near E3 for 2010 and the impending Zelda reveal, I'm going to be playing 3D Dot Game Heroes. 3D Dot Game Heroes was developed by Silicon Studio and published by Atlus. I'm playing this because I'm more than a little worried about the next Zelda. I'm sort of expecting a hybrid of Nintendo DS mistakes like boats or trains or some other means of removing the proper overworld to explore and Wii Motion Plus controls all made extra simple to insure grandmothers can play the game. I'm expecting them to ruin Zelda as I know it and want it. And 3D Dot Game Heroes is an embrace of everything 8-bit action adventure games once were. The story is about a kingdom that has gone from 2D to 3D and in the process enabled a trapped evil to be freed. You'll search the overworld for dungeons where you'll get a new tool that will further allow you to progress through the world in traditional Zelda fashion. Everything you'd expect is there from swords, shields, bombs, boomerangs, hookshots, potions, and sages to fairies. The game has a charming graphic style that accentuates its 8-bit philosophy. The game also has more references to 8-bit games than most will probably recognize. The music really seems especially designed to evoke 8-bit memories. This genre is my absolute favorite and I treasure almost every chance I get at an action adventure. If 3D Dot Game Heroes can maintain it's initial charm, then I should be in for a treat.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 -- Final Opinion.

2010-06-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

I have completed Super Mario Galaxy 2 with a total time of roughly twenty-one hours. I collected all one-hundred and twenty of the initial stars. There are double that in the second playthrough of course. But like the first game, I'm not compelled to play through the game again for them. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is an all around success. The graphics look great. They use the same simplistic art style for maximum graphical impact on the Wii as did the original. Being in true widescreen some of the noticeable artifacts from the original game are for the most part gone. The sound is what you'd expect. All the Mario sounds are there and they sound spot on. The music is great. Especially the mixes of older tracks and of course the Super Mario Galaxy main theme still sounds amazing. The controls actually seem improved. In the original game there were a few moments where the controls would just out and out fail you. Those are gone for the most part. Especially in the transitioning between being right side up and upside down. The game does use motion control and waggle rather extensively. In the more intense sections of the game, a slight bit of movement might cause a death or two. The Wii controls still fail from time to time. In this case it just seems not as much as before. The game initially feels harder but I don't think it actually is when everything is said and done. As I said previously it's more like they just start you off in the mid section of the game with less ramping up. I actually liked the New Super Mario Bros. map system. It's better than the hub world of Super Mario Galaxy or Super Mario Sunshine. But it's still not as good as Super Mario 64's hub world. I do have to say that Yoshi steals the show. Every level you get to use him in is a plus. He translates properly to 3D here. Unlike say his Super Mario Sunshine performance. The story has been toned way down for Super Mario Galaxy 2. Not that story matters at all in a Mario action game, but it does feel a tad hollow as a result. Super Mario Galaxy contains a lot of 2D sections and it also uses a lot more of the spherical worlds. The more open and sprawling planets of the original are by and large gone. I have to say I did find myself missing them. If you loved Super Mario Galaxy 2, then you'll be getting more of the same. Streamlined, and it hits the ground running. If you weren't a fan of Super Mario Galaxy, then there really isn't a lot to change things for you. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was a blast from start to finish and it'll provide a decent challenge and provide you with a lot of replay value should you be looking for such things. I'm giving Super Mario Galaxy 2 a 9. Will this generation see a third 3D Mario game? There is enough time...

Super Mario Galaxy 2 -- Initial Impression.

2010-06-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

Next up for me will be Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development Tokyo. Super Mario Galaxy is a first, a 3D sequel within the same generation of hardware. Nintendo has never done that for the Mario series before. The Nintendo 64 only saw Super Mario 64 and the GameCube only saw Super Mario Sunshine. From the time I've spent with the game thus far I can say it's pretty much more Super Mario Galaxy, and that's a good thing. There are some changes of course. They've removed the hub world and replaced it with the New Super Mario Bros. style level select map. New suits like cloud Mario and rock Mario add new abilities to the list of moves alongside returning ones like fire Mario, bee Mario, boo Mario, and spring Mario. They've also added Yoshi back into the mix. Which is a truly welcome addition in my book. The story doesn't matter as the Princess has been kidnapped again. If fact Miyamoto has gone on record saying the story of Super Mario Galaxy 2 has been toned down compared to the truly bizarre metaphysical crap of Super Mario Galaxy. The graphics seem to be improved upon from Super Mario Galaxy. The display is true widescreen. It's taken Nintendo years to get there, but it seems they at least understand that much now. The music seems to be the same high quality as the original. I've gotten the impression that Super Mario Galaxy 2 starts off a bit tougher than the original as well. I'm not saying it's approaching difficult or anything, it's more like you're dumped right into the heart of the game from the start. Let's see what I think once I've reached the purple coin levels and the like. So far so good with Super Mario Galaxy 2. It seems to be just what a sequel should be. More of the same with refinements and better graphics.

Red Dead Redemption -- Final Opinion.

2010-06-04T15:36:00.000-07:00

I have completed Red Dead Redemption with the full one-thousand achievement points. It took roughly forty-five hours to one-hundred percent complete the offline game coupled with the fifty plus hours I put into the online game. Ninety-five hours plus later and I can say I'm definitely burned out on Red Dead Redemption. Looking back I'm not sure it was wise jumping all the way into the online portion of the game first. Well, it probably was, as it insured I completed that half. However I probably should have then taken a break from the game and completed another title before returning to the offline game. That concept seems the most sound, and I'll try to remember it for the future. Red Dead Redemption is a great but flawed game. As an open world western it delivers everything you'd expect and want. The world is large, open, and beautifully rendered. The story is more tightly told than previous Dan Houser titles. I really liked what they did with the pacing and the final ten missions or so. It's an interesting gamble. One that pays off for me. It seems the Internet does not agree however as they are vocalizing hatred for the ending. I do have to say that the story does tend to drag through the later half of Mexico. Musically the game gets the job done but in the end never comes off as memorable in a game where you'll feel it probably should have. The voice acting is superb all the way around. The game is packed full of things to do. You'll always be busy. In fact you might be a bit too busy. The constant world events and animal attacks and the like get in the way when you're just trying to get something done. Very much in the same way as the phone calls from Grand Theft Auto IV. There will be a bunch of design decisions that you'll be questioning as you play through the game. Overall Red Dead Redemption delivers on the greater promise, flaws and all. I wouldn't mind a sequel, or more likely prequel. It would give them the chance to refine things to the point of greatness. I'm giving Red Dead Redemption an 8.5. But now I definately need something a little more simplistic in nature...

Red Dead Redemption -- Initial Impression.

2010-05-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

These initial impressions of Red Dead Redemption are intentionally a couple days late. I decided to jump into the online half of the game before the single-player half. The opposite of what I'd usually do. I've been playing games online enough to know that most of the time the first day's experience is going to be rife with technical issues until they've gotten the chance to work out the server side kinks. Red Dead Redemption was no exception. In fact, it was probably the worst offender I've ever seen. Or not seen, as the case may be. My character, his weapon, and horse all took turns being invisible. My character is there, but his guns aren't. Now my horse is gone. My gun came back but now my character is invisible. Other glitches included not being able to plant the bombs to end a hideout mission. Not being able to end another hideout mission because you have to kill every last guy but one of them has somehow worked his way under the game world beyond your reach. Worst of all were the constant disconnections and losing posse members. Some stranger joins the game, off goes a friend. It was not fun. It was this way for the first two days. The servers stabilized a considerable bit on the third. There are still technical issues, but they seem to be on the way out. Which is welcome news. As the game is proving to be great fun otherwise. Red Dead Redemption was developed by Rockstar San Diego with some help by Rockstar North and was published by Rockstar Games. I'll be playing the Xbox 360 version of the game. The brothers Houser are absolutely in love with twentieth century America. They've given us open world epics revolving around crime and the teenage years and this time they're giving us the end of the old west. The time where the federal government and encroaching technology finally tame the west. Red Dead Redemption offers up a free roam world heavily influenced by the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, The Wild Bunch, Deadwood, Tombstone, Unforgiven, and more. The online offers up the entire world in a mode appropriately called free roam. Free roam comes in two varieties, private and public. You're able to join with other players in posses. You can do your own thing, which include challenges like hunting, gathering, and sharpshooting. Or you can work together to take out a gang hideout or deal with another posse. You can also try your luck at taking on the law. Rockstar is offering up everything you've ever seen in all the classic westerns. I've spent over twenty-four hours playing Red Dead Redemption online and I've yet to even touch the single-player game. It's proven great fun in spite of the hideous server issues. It's safe to say we've got a winner, and a serious Game of the Year contender. The only question for me is just how many hours is this game going to suck out of my life.

Monster Hunter Tri -- Final Opinion.

2010-05-17T13:39:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow's impending releases pretty much insure that's all she wrote on Monster Hunter Tri. I'm just a couple hours shy of having put two-hundred hours into the title. Monster Hunter Tri is a title that you want to love in spite of the game doing everything in the world possible to make sure you don't. As I said previously, for every taste of satisfaction you get from the game you'll have to have also swallowed some serious frustration. The bad design choices and the awful collision detection start to drain on you the more you play the game until it feels like you have to fight for any satisfaction in the game. And it gets so bad that it genuinely started to feel like a war of attrition. About halfway through the online game it starts having you repeat everything you've already done. Even if it weren't for the impending releases of Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption we'd probably would have stopped there. But as I said before, you want to love it. I mean there is something there. You don't put in two-hundred hours without something being there. I just wish it didn't feel like it came at such a cost. I will be interested in looking at whatever is Monster Hunter Next. Especially if they continue to improve it. There is potential greatness somewhere beneath the bullshit of that much I'm sure. They just haven't found it yet. They need to look into not punishing the player at every turn. They need to ditch the posing. They need to fix the collision detection. They need to balance the game so it can at least see fairness somewhere far off in the distance. A monster shouldn't be able to combo you to death from full health because of pure bullshit. Monster Hunter can be saved. But what are the odds that Capcom would mess with success in Japan? Especially when it seems that success in Japan has become very hard to come by even for Japanese developers. I'm giving Monster Hunter Tri a 7.

Monster Hunter Tri -- Update.

2010-05-11T16:16:00.001-07:00

I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. I've merely put in a hundred and fifty hours plus into Monster Hunter Tri. I believe I can safely say I've never played a more schizophrenic game in my life. It's split right down the middle between gratification and frustration. Tackling a monster rewards you with immense feelings of satisfaction. But it seems to be because of what you have to put up with getting there. The game has serious balance and fairness issues as well as some of the worst collision detection and design choices I've seen in a long time. The worst offender is the collision detection. It would be okay if it were at least constant. It isn't. You will take hits that clearly you shouldn't have. You can be in the exact same place one time and you'll take damage and then the next you won't. So you can't even adjust because it's entirely random. Some of the design choices come off as seemingly just wanting to punish the player. After using a potion for example, the character does a muscle man pose. Right there in the middle of battle. It's only a second, but it stops you from being able to do anything until it's over. You can't use an item if you have your weapon drawn. You can't run if you have your weapon drawn. Now imagine if you're fighting the collision detection as well as fighting a monster. So you take some cheap shot you shouldn't have. You need to heal, but first you'll have to put your weapon away, but you can't put your weapon away because the unfair aspect of the game comes into play and the creature is instantly attacking you again after its original attack. They can do that. They can string together a combo that can be fatal anytime they wish. Oh, you're supposed to be invincible during the dodge roll to avoid attacks. But that's like a third-of-a-second window. See the game is actually balanced with four player online in mind. The creature is thrashing about wildly as if there were four players surrounding it. I've seen a lot of Capcom going on about how proud they are of the game's ecosystem. They shouldn't be. It's awful. I'll give you real life example. You're in the woods and you see three of four beavers. You smile and are like oh look at those beavers. Then comes along a grizzly bear. The bear roars and begins to chase and attack you as if you had just shit in its breakfast. Now this is somewhat understandable. But it's absolutely asinine for the beavers to join in attacking you while their natural predator is on a rampage. You see, the beavers should freaking flee in terror. But that's not what happens in Monster Hunter Tri. Every little annoying son of a bitch creature in the game ignores its natural instincts and wages an all out war against you. Couple that with the hideous collision detection, the balance issues, and the unfair multiple attacks and you can begin to see how much pure satisfaction one might feel at having overcoming such bullshit. I mean, this is one of those games that can get Magus so riled up that he begins to speak gibberish. More to come on Monster Hunter Tri...

Monster Hunter Tri -- Initial Impression.

2010-04-23T18:17:00.001-07:00

This initial impression is a few days late. Monster Hunter is a huge hit in Japan. Outside of Japan? Not so much. But Capcom and especially Nintendo are out to change all that. Monster Hunter Tri is the third game in the series proper and the first one for Nintendo's Wii console. The game was originally being developed for the PlayStation 3 but when Capcom saw how the initial sales of the system were struggling and how the Wii had taken off development was switched to Nintendo's console. Nintendo has decided to really help make Monster Hunter Tri the Wii's online shining star and helped with product awareness and advertising. I was interested in Monster Hunter originally on the PlayStation 2 but it's hard to remember what kept me from jumping in with the original. The reasons for skipping the subsequent PlayStation Portable titles are a little more clear. Now here comes the Wii version. Back on consoles. And freed from Nintendo's Wi-Fi network, as Capcom will be handling the servers. No friend code hassles on one hand. On the other hand no real viable voice chat system on the Wii. The Monster Hunter series is heavily inspired by Phantasy Star Online. Same basic genre. Monster Hunter Tri shifts focus from the hunt for the ultimate rare to the hunt itself. While SEGA's Phantasy Star Online always promoted worldwide teamwork and other lofty concepts, Capcom's Monster Hunter makes cooperation essential for survival. They've also made the combat, especially with bosses, a knockdown drag-out affair. The combat is intense. Especially when dealing with anything new or relatively high powered. And they somehow manage to keep that intensity going upwards of twenty minutes a boss battle. Monster Hunter Tri also features a strong gathering aspect. You'll build your items and weapons and armor from the spoils found by gathering or hunting. The series is known for being rather difficult. I'm not sure if I agree at this point. It's unforgiving in that Demon's Souls sort of way. It doesn't hold your hand in either combat or in figuring out what needs to be done or what could even be done. There is a lot of room for experimenting. For figuring everything out. From the time I've spent with the game I can say it's fun and provides a real sense of accomplishment when you can finally take down a boss. I can also say that the interface can be exceedingly clunky. Time will tell if that will get better with age and familiarity. I can also say that the game looks great, if it were a PlayStation 2 game. The Wii just can't cut it graphically with this level of 3D. The game does have a charming aesthetic though. The game is also clearly a long haul. Expect to put in some serious time if you're going to be playing online. Right now Monster Hunter Tri seems like it's going to perfectly pass the time until next month's flood of games hits.

Heavy Rain -- Final Opinion.

2010-04-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

I have completed Heavy Rain earning the platinum trophy along the way. For me, I'd say Heavy Rain is a flawed success. Despite claims to the contrary by David Cage, Heavy Rain never escapes its video game nature. It doesn't quite reach his lofty goals. But the term interactive drama does indeed fit. Heavy Rain's overall tone sells the game for me. Cage was aiming for a hard boiled noir thriller that tries to genuinely move your emotions. I'll admit that I've felt things I've never experienced in gaming before in Heavy Rain. Most of those came during the segments where you play as the female journalist. As a male I can't say that I've felt the general vulnerabilities of being female all that often, nor have I had such a sense of humiliation conveyed in gaming. Heavy Rain manages to pull both off surprisingly well. The game also managed to make me cringe. The problems inherent with gaming are what detract most from Heavy Rain. There are eighteen potential epilogues to discover. A handful of the epilogues are mixed and matched based on your actions in the game to form the ending. That's eighteen aspects to the ending. Which means the story has to accommodate all of those potentialities. Which expands the potential for plot holes and the like. David Cage is no Agatha Christie. I will say that the identity of the killer actually came as a surprise to me which is a rarity. If you want to nitpick every detail then you can pick apart the story. If you're able to overlook those kinds of issues you should find an enjoyable ride. I more had issues with the strange voice acting and the weird technology and everything that goes along with it that the profiler character employs. As often is the case with these sorts of games you'll want to reach out and slap some of the characters because they're stuck going down the path the writer wants them to go down all the while avoiding common sense. For the most part the quick time events work well. The characters never really move outside of the realm of clunky. It's a pain to move them around from start to finish. I also don't understand why there was so much screen tearing in the game. Even in segments where nothing is going on. I enjoyed my time with Heavy Rain. While not quite the future of gaming experience its creator believes it to be, Heavy Rain proved to be a decently fun ride. It does give a glimpse of a possible future where interactive drama could very well be a viable genre. And I for one wouldn't mind that. It's just going to take a stronger creative force in both story and game design to really push it through to the masses. I'm giving Heavy Rain for the PlayStation 3 an 8.

Heavy Rain -- Initial Impression.

2010-04-11T05:44:00.000-07:00

I have a little over a week before my next day-one game arrives so I'll be filling the time with a more recent title from the backlog. That game is Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain was developed by France based Quantic Dream and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game was written and directed by David Cage who heads up Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain has a history worth noting. It started because of the studio's previous effort Indigo Prophecy had such a galvanizing impact on gamers. Those who loved it and those who despised it were paying attention to what was to come next, Heavy Rain. And of course, Sony used early shots of Heavy Rain to sell the power of the PlayStation 3. Like Killzone before it, Heavy Rain's reality didn't quite graphically live up to those early shots. It also didn't help that David Cage was there being rather vocal about how he didn't like referring to Heavy Rain as a video game. As he saw it, Heavy Rain was to be something beyond a mere video game. It was to be interactive drama. It was to be the future of entertainment. Heavy Rain is a third-person adventure that features four playable characters that are all swept up in the events surrounding a serial killer known as the Origami Killer. I've played through the first few chapters. From the time I've spent with the title so far I can assure you that it is definately a video game no matter what David Cage might think. The adventure aspect relies entirely on quick time events. Everything from brushing your teeth to all out brawls are handled by quick time events. Initially most of the quick time events feel intuitive. However walking around does not. Holding down R2 to walk will take getting used to. Graphically the game looks rather good. The character models work well. The voice acting seems off. It's off because most of the actors' native languages are obviously something other than English. And some of the writing has a European flair. Americans do not refer to vacant lots as wastelands. I'm finding it creates a subtle disconnect. The game uses an auto save in the strictest sense of the concept. The game is obviously branching based on your decisions. Decisions you have to live with because of the auto save. In fact, your characters can die, and the story will adjust and continue. Initially Heavy Rain is quite intriguing. It's all going to come down to how extreme the quick time events become and if Heavy Rain's story and characters come through. It's clear early on that the game is trying to draw true emotion from you. It's clearly trying hard. But is it trying too hard?

Just Cause 2 -- Final Opinion.

2010-04-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

I have put roughly one-hundred and forty hours into Just Cause 2, hence the considerable time between the initial impression and this final opinion entry. What do I have to show for it? The full thousand points at least. The game is great simple fun. It's a full on sandbox title, with the focus squarely on the action. Meaning, it stays in the shallow end of the pool. It's not the deepest of experiences. And that's actually charming. It works much like it did in Crackdown. The joy is merely in the fun of it all. The game is based around chaos. Causing chaos allows you access to the game's seven story missions. It took me eleven hours to complete the story on the hardest difficulty. Just doing what I had to do to maximize the chaos earned to see it through. I did this after having put a hundred and thirty hours into the normal difficulty. In the normal playthrough I fully completed each of the game's three-hundred and sixty-nine locations. I completed all seventy-five race challenges. I assassinated all fifty colonels. I completed all nine stronghold takeovers. I completed all forty-nine faction missions. I collected all three hundred faction collectibles. And I drove or piloted all of the game's one-hundred and four vehicles. I had earned an overall completion rate of ninety-seven percent before accidentally overwriting the file with a two percent complete save while going for the hardest difficulty achievement. Yeah, that sucked. I really liked the gameplay. You'll really need to like it if you're going for one-hundred percent. The entire game is played for laughs and is entirely self-aware. It's sort of surprising to see that a large portion of the people playing the game seem to miss that with how they bitch about the voice acting and writing. Both of which I found to be great and appropiately over the top and cheesy. The final battle is pure over the top bliss. The race challenges are another area I see people complaining about. The physics of the cars and motorcycles do take some adjusting to. The race challenges are actually quite forgiving. They're more about maintaining control rather than the fastest speeds. Once you've adjusted to this, they become truly enjoyable. The size of the world is massive and it makes the fact that the game looks as good as it does that much more impressive. The game looks really good. Especially when the game is transitioning between day and night or when there is something like weather or fog or dust in play. The lighting during dusk and dawn is truly impressive. The game controls rather well. Occasionally you'll have issues trying to grapple to certain locations. But for the most part the controls function fine. The game isn't perfect however. The enemies are of the always know where you are variety and they tend to spawn around you from time to time. They are also some of the most relentless enemies I've dealt with. Once you've put in enough time and get in the groove you sort of go about the business of the game under constant attack and you tend to forget about it. The enemies become like gnats. Nuisances rather than true threats. I'm giving Just Cause 2 an 8. The game never forgets its action focus. At its heart, it's a 16-bit action game transplanted perfectly into a current generation sandbox game. It's probably as close as we're ever going to come to seeing a current generation version of Jungle Strike: The Sequel to Desert Strike.

Just Cause 2 -- Initial Impression.

2010-03-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

Just Cause 2 was one of those unique cases where I pretty much ignored a game throughout its development only to try the demo on a whim and found myself sold on the game. Which is funny because it was the demo for the original Just Cause that told me I could skip that game. Just Cause 2 was created by Swedish developers Avalanche Studios under Eidos Interactive and published by their new overlords Square-Enix. I'll be playing the Xbox 360 version of the game. Just Cause 2 is an open world sandbox title where you're out to just wreak havoc by blowing stuff up. The game is set on the fictional island of Panau and offers up four-hundred square miles to play with. That is incredibly massive. That's like three times the size of the world of Oblivion to give you an idea of scale. The gimmick here is the character's grappling hook and parachute which allow for interesting means of travel and combat. Just Cause 2 wants you to get creative. It's less about missions and story and combat and more about just having fun in creatively doing things in their giant playground. That concept is always cool, but also always dangerous. It can be amazing fun, and other times it means the developers expect you to create your own fun as they haven't really provided you with much by default. Which one is Just Cause 2? I'm not sure yet. I can say that I like the look of the game. It's a pretty playground. The tone of the game seems entirely over the top and comic. After the first two story missions that just act as tutorials the full world is open to you. It's a little daunting deciding where to begin and what to do. I've put in thirteen hours and I'm looking at seven percent completion. Fully completing Just Cause 2 would be a massive undertaking. Have we potentially reached a place where they're stuffing too much into games? Standing at the base of the mountain before me that is Just Cause 2 I find myself really wondering this for the first time.

God of War III -- Final Opinion.

2010-03-23T02:00:00.000-07:00

It took me roughly nine and a half hours to play through God of War III. The combat is the most polished the series has seen and perhaps a little tame for it. The scale of the game is certainly awesome. Battling the Titans certainly provides a sense of scale and scope. Everything screams epic. But somehow it falls short. The boss battles were epic only in the presentation. But the actual mechanics were a bit more generic and were about just slugging it out with the enemy more than anything else. None of them topped the battles in the preceding entries in the series. I never lost a battle or died because of combat. All of my deaths were from failed quick time events or missed jumps. I did like the addition of the items into the combat. Being able to use the bow and the like helped to keep things interesting. I also like how they forced you to use the other weapons far more often than the previous games where there was rarely a need to use anything beyond the blades. Special mention needs to be made for the brutality and gore. The game really pushes both. The game wants you to cringe. I for one especially liked those aspects. I'm not sure the story wraps up in a truly satisfying way. They surely try to redeem Kratos. I'm just not sure I buy it within the game. Kratos truly remains a bastard and is still rather unlikable. His actions come off as being out of spite rather than for the greater good. As I was watching the credits roll I was thinking that if they at least stuck with what the ending implied then they might have something. That lasted as long as the credits as the after the credits bit seemed to imply what I didn't want to happen. I will say that I found some of the character interpretations to be interesting. Especially Hera as bitter alcoholic housewife. Graphically the game looked great. But I still say it isn't really as generation defining as the PlayStation faithful would like you to believe. I found most of the designs to be interesting. In both good and bad ways. I found Hades to be bizarre in design. I'm talking the god, not the location. And I was rather unimpressed with the designs of the labyrinth. Musically the game is right on target with its bombastic cinematic scoring. The voice work is as strong as it has been throughout the entire series. I enjoyed my time through the series. But like the other entries I don't really have any desire to go further with the bonus content. I'm giving God of War III an 8.5. Hopefully they take a few years off before starting in on the next one. I say that more about the integrity of the series rather that the quality of the series. Don't milk things dry. Give us a few years to want more. Know what I mean?

God of War III -- Initial Impression.

2010-03-21T00:49:00.000-07:00

Next up for me is God of War III. The game was developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game is of course the conclusion of the revenge saga that is the initial God of War trilogy. That's pretty much what I'm expecting out of the game. A hopefully satisfying conclusion to one of the better trilogies around. I do have my doubts though, as the character of Kratos seems to be further traveling down the road of being irredeemable. He is easily video game's most unlikable protagonist. From the time I've spent with the game so far I can say he's still a bastard. And I strangely find myself hoping he fails. I can't think of another game where I've actively rooted against the main character before. I can also say the game is rather good looking, but nothing that screams generation defining as some have claimed. The control seems to be right in line with the previous entries. The story picks up exactly where God of War II left off and is interesting although it continues to be a bastardization of mythology. There seems to be more puzzles this time around, which is always a good thing. The action is even more over the top than the previous entries. They've also seemingly expanded the collection aspect and there seems to be more replay value and post game content. But as always, we'll see how it is on the other side of things...

Final Fantasy XIII - Final Opinion.

2010-03-19T01:23:00.000-07:00

I've put ninety hours into Final Fantasy XIII and I've seen the credits roll. The ending actually came well over twenty hours ago. There is an awful lot of post game content to be had in the game. Completionists will surely get their money's worth. Assuming they make it through the game. A lot of people won't according to many Final Fantasy fans across the Internet. Boy do people hate this game. So much so even the despised Final Fantasy XII now looks good to them. I have to say I actually really liked the game. The story is relatively strong for a Final Fantasy title in my opinion. The story is clearly inspired by events of the past decade and comments on the repercussions of the climate of fear as a result of terrorism and goes on to deal with the use of misinformation as a weapon. They've even thrown in a variation on the Nazi's Final Solution. This entry of Final Fantasy is trying for heady themes. Of course a lot of people won't pick that out of the Japanese flavored soap opera that is every Final Fantasy. I've read a lot of hate for the cast of Final Fantasy XIII, but again for me I seemed to have gone the other way as I actually like the entire cast. It helps that there isn't a single whiner in the bunch. Don't get me wrong, the characters are still archetypes with Japanese mannerisms and other aspects that can turn off western players but I found them genuinely engaging. I also didn't have any issues with the voice acting which is another area people are going ballistic. The story is actually quite strong until the final two chapters where it degrades into the standard Final Fantasy end boss cliche. It wraps up just as almost every other game in the series seems to have done. Seriously Square-Enix, enough with the angels and or god and the destruction and remaking of the world reasoning behind every other freaking game in the series. Try something new. It's still a great ride up until that point. Another sticking point for people is how controlled you are for most of the game. I actually liked the controlled pacing of the game. The game kept moving forward. You're pretty much let off the leash once you reach chapter eleven. You don't even have control over your party members. The game dictates who goes where and when. This aspect didn't bother me in the slightest. People also don't seem to like the fact that they removed the towns and general world map exploration from the game. I never once found myself missing the towns. I liked how shopping was done via save points. How there weren't any non-player characters to chat with. Nothing extra or irrelevant. Every aspect of the story has a purpose and as a result was naturally more focused. The battle system seems to be a love it or hate it kind of thing. Again, I found that I really liked it. It demands your constant attention. It's the fastest battle system in series history. The tide of battle can turn in mere seconds and you have to be paying attention or you're going to die. The battle system is essentially the core concept behind the Grandia battle system only on speed crossed with a little bit of the Tales series. Boss battles become more like puzzles in that you need to figure out what combinations of roles to use in order to dispatch the enemy in the quickest fashion. A lot of people are complaining that the battles tend to play themselves as you don't have direct control over any characters other than the party leaders. Problem is that the battle system is so fast and visually chaotic that having to control your party individually would result in death more often than not. The battle system worked for me. The graphics are undeniably gorgeous. It's a great looking game both in the world and battle as well as the impressive full motion video. I found myself liking most of the game's score. It's a decidedly more relaxed score. After a while I didn't even miss the ending battle fanfare and the other missing series staples. The game isn't perfect though, I didn't really enjoy the gauntlet they make you run during the last two chapters. I was also disappointed that they fell back on the standard Final Fantasy theme in the end. The game also features some serious grinding for those looking for completion. I'm giving Final Fantasy XIII an 8.5. For me, a successful experiment. But judging from the Internet reaction, one we're not likely to see repeated. I'll be messing around with the post game content for a few days doing what I feel can be done. I'll also be debating whether I should start something from the backlog or maybe wait for Tuesday's releases. I'm looking at Heavy Rain, God of War III, Yakuza 3, The Saboteur and others. Or do I wait for Just Cause 2?

Final Fantasy XIII -- Initial Impression.

2010-03-10T03:03:00.000-08:00

I had been holding off starting anything after Deadly Premonition in hopes that Yakuza 3 would have arrived by Tuesday. It didn't happen, so I decided to start Tuesday's other major release. I'll be playing Square-Enix's grand experiment that is Final Fantasy XIII. The game was developed by Square Enix Product Development Division #1 and published by Square-Enix. Final Fantasy XIII marks the long awaited return of the series proper, after all it has been nearly four years since Final Fantasy XII hit the PlayStation 2. Final Fantasy XIII's development was headed up by Yoshinori Kitase. He was the co-director for Final Fantasy VI, and the director for Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy VIII as well as being the co-producer for the Kingdom Hearts series. The man has had his hand in some of Square-Enix's biggest hits. I'm making a note to mention all of this because Final Fantasy development stories have become as much a soap opera as the games themselves can be. With Final Fantasy XII's development seeing the nervous breakdown of producers and the like and Final Fantasy XIII taking four troubled years from reveal to retail. Even the mere announcement of Final Fantasy XIII being available for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 at E3 sent the Internet into a feeding frenzy among the system wars types. And with the PlayStation 3 finally starting to come into its own, that frenzy was as heated as it ever was leading up to the game's release. I went with the Xbox 360 version in spite of it being three discs compared to the PlayStation 3's single disc. And why? Because every X360 version sale makes the PlayStation faithful flip their shit, and for some reason this always amuses me. I had called the game a grand experiment. And that it is. They've removed towns and general exploration. They've streamlined the Final Fantasy experience to the core. They've gone with a predominantly linear approach to story and they retain full control over pacing. They've also ditched the random encounter. They've returned to the Active Time Battle system. They've limited direct control to only the main character in combat among other various changes. Initially upon hearing these details I thought that Square-Enix had lost its mind and that they've taken the series over a cliff. I've spent four hours or so with the game and have just made it into chapter three. I went in expecting to witness the crash for myself. But I have to say I've actually been pleasantly surprised. I've actually enjoyed the time I've spent with the game so far. I'm actually finding the characters to be interesting. The world they're setting up is also coming off as interesting. I'm liking the battle system a lot even though I've just reached the spot where it will actually start to truly show itself. The game is undeniably good looking. I like what I've heard of the music thus far. Although it is weird to not have the traditional battle ending fanfare and other Final Fantasy standards in place. I'm finding the voice acting to be surprisingly decent after the Internet has made such a huge fuss over how awful certain characters are. Of course being a Final Fantasy game, there is a long way to go and lots of room for them to mess everything up. But I'm genuinely intrigued at this point. Time will tell, as always...

Deadly Premonition -- Final Opinion.

2010-03-06T16:51:00.000-08:00

I have completed a run through of Deadly Premonition with a total time upwards of thirty-seven hours. The game is huge for a survival horror title. Of course it's the sandbox nature and the side quests that account for most of that time. Deadly Premonition started out as a PlayStation 2 title and they didn't move very much beyond that graphically when shifting the game to the current generation of hardware. The graphics are horrible. They're well below the generational standard. The voice acting is all over the place. You have a couple of strong performances mixed in with some awful voices. The music is hideous. The controls are workhorse. Which means they function. They get the job done and nothing more. The combat is somewhat interesting but ultimately shallow. It's a carnival shooting gallery. You can't move while aiming beyond a sidestep to the left or right and you're essentially trying to kill the enemies before they reach you. The story is batshit insane. It's one of those cases where the Japanese take on America creates a weird version that's so far removed from reality that you can't even recognize it anymore. The people behave with Japanese mannerisms and the like. You have a bizarre version of an American town to start with and then add in a heavy Twin Peaks influence and you might start to grasp how weird the game gets. However a couple of the characters are actually well done and rather intriguing and it helps the game actually arrive at a rather effective conclusion. Deadly Premonition is a surprisingly worthwhile experience that clearly won't be for everyone. If you're someone who can't grasp the concept of the whole being better than the parts then Deadly Premonition isn't for you. You'll also need to be someone with a tolerance for the weird or quirky. You'll have to just roll with it and maybe you'll find that it pays off in the end as I did. I enjoyed my time spent in Greenvale, the game's town, and with the twenty dollar price point, it's not too much a risk to see if you'd enjoy it as well. I'm giving Deadly Premonition a 7.5.

Deadly Premonition -- Initial Impression.

2010-02-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

With major releases a little over a week away, I'll be filling in the time with Deadly Premonition for the Xbox 360. Deadly Premonition was developed by Access Games and published by Ignition Entertainment for the budget price of twenty dollars. Access Games have developed Spy Fiction and The Dodgeball: World Championship Dodge Baller. Yeah... so I'd never heard of them either. Deadly Premonition is their third effort and it went under the name of Red Seeds Profile in Japan with the PlayStation 3 version going by Rainy Woods. Deadly Premonition can best be described as the Japanese take on sandbox titles like Grand Theft Auto meets survival horror. You play as an FBI profiler who has come to investigate the murder of a young girl in a small north western American town. The game features an eight kilometer square game world to explore. A full town and surrounding wilderness with day and night cycles and townspeople going about their daily lives. From what I've played so far the game has a pretty decent combat system. The controls are certainly workhorse at best. The graphics are well below the standard. The voice work bad. The story is insane. The main character is insane. Everyone in the town is insane. The music is inappropriate to the setting. They've also seemingly taken from every survival horror game in existence. There is a bit of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, D2, Clock Tower, Siren and more in this game. But with all of this I have to say there is something intriguing. You can clearly see the parts are bad, but somehow the whole is feeling fun and worthwhile. This might be one of those I'm glad to have in the collection years from now. We'll see.