Never thought I'd see the day...

I was quite aware of the Starcraft competitive scene over in South Korea, and had heard that Magic had been on ESPN or some such nonsense, but I was never aware of what it could mean. The eccentricism, or niche, or whatever that this has created is astounding, really.

If only I lived in Japan...

I could've gotten my hands on the RE5 demo early!... Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to wait it out, like people in Europe seem to do so often...

A healthy junk of reading.

Jeff Gerstmann wrote a fantastic article on game reviews that I think you should read. And he thinks you should also read the article he mentions, and so do I.

My two cents:I'm not a fan of things like metacritic and gamerankings. Reviews are, in essence, opinions, and like all things there are opinions that matter more to you than others. If you've read several reviews by the same person and relate to their tastes, then you're more likely to value that person's opinion. You shouldn't look at all the reviews to gauge the quality of the game, simply the opinons of the people behind them. sure, we're more lucky in the video game industry to have mroe glaring flaws to find (i.e. graphical tears, bad animations and the like), and more often than in other mediums there is a consenus, but when you get into games that don't have such easily identifiable flaws, opinions start to change from person to person. The bottom line is you can't just take the sum of all the reviews and say "this is how good this game is", but instead take in the opinions of people you value. I value GB's opinions on games because I've read stuff by them for a long time now and I relate to their tastes. When they give a review, I take their review into consideration when I'm thinking about buying a game, but I also value opinions from other websites as well. Take into consideration reviews of the people whose opinion you value, because reviews are two things and two things only: an opinion and buyer's guide, although at times people take them as much more than that.

You'll notice this a comment on the article. Guess who I am?

Edit: I just noticed that typo near 'glaring flaw'. I'm going to leave that there for irony.

Music!? What the hell is this!?

I've added a new blog to the list. It's a radio show done here in Nebraska, and in my opinion, the best radio show we have. If you're in the area, check it out on 89.7 from 9-11. The blog gives the complete song list, so if you can't listen, I suppose you could listen to the show anyway if you put those songs in order, and every once in a while you'll find a gem. Right now, it's Toe Jam by the BPA.
Have fun and good hunting!

Why Engineers are the baddest mofo's around.

I've never been one to agree that the so-called "horror games" are about what conditions you're playing the game in. Of course, I play them in the dark, for fear of losing content of the game that is in there but you somehow lose if you play it with the lights on. If I've learned anything from playing Dead Space, however, is that atmosphere is fundamental.

Dead Space is about a man named Issac Clarke, and the crew that is sent to repair the USG Ishimura in the depths of space (hey, that sounds sorta familiar). Issac wants two things out of this journey: To repair the ship and get his (space?) paycheck, and to see Nicole, the darling love of his life. Things quickly go awry, and you end up having to run around the Ishimura, getting problems fixed, killing enemies, and apparantly getting scared doing it. I won't spoil anything for you, but the game dives off into some weird stuff later in the game.

Stories in horror games aren't inherently important, but overall the story is a competent way to get the stuff thrown at you into some form of context. The story never compelled me to care for any of the characters too much, as most of them are pretty much your run-of-the-mill characters in a horror flick, but they did a much better job at delivery here than just about all horror flicks do nowadays. When you're doing something (like a quest, fighting a boss, etc.) you know why you're doing it. You'll get most of your story content out of things like text and audio logs, (similar to Bioshock) as well as video conversations you'll have with the crew as the game progresses, and the good thing is that these never take you out of the game, which keeps the atmosphere of the game going. There are a few cutscenes, but they all play in game, and in most of them you're free to move about as the story skips along.

The Gameplay in Dead Space most people should be familiar for most people who've played third person shooters, and this is especially true if you've played Gears of War. However, if you're used to the pace of third person shooters, you might want to rethink your strategy for Dead Space. It is a much slower game, and if you run in guns blazing, you either won't get out alive or you'll end up using all your ammo up.

While the gameplay itself if similar to TPS's, just about everything else about has the horror template attached to it. you start the game out with plasma cutter (which means pistol in space), and not much health to go on. You collect items and cash from enemies, but you have a very limited inventory to manage, especially early on. There is no way to heal yourself aside from med packs, as well as no way to refill your ammo aside from the ammo you find strewn about the ship. Enemies deal a good deal of damage per attack, things creep up from you behind, and stasis (something that is both essential to puzzles and to stopping some of the faster enemies), if not used sparingly, will run out when you least want it to.

However, this doesn't mean that the game doesn't have a good couple of layers of an action game sprinkled in as a cuddle to less hardened players. Money buys you more ammo, weapons, med packs, and anything else you might need, though it doesn't come cheap. You can upgrade your various instruments (which range from a wide line cutter to a flamethrower) and armor by using nodes, rare items that are scarce throughout the game, but can also be purchased. Save points are scattered everywhere so that when you die you don't go too far back, and if at anytime you should feel lost, you can press a button to see a light that guides you to wherever you need to go, meaning you don't carelessly spend time looking for anything. These additions make the game somewhat easier in the end, and while it's appreciated, it lightens the atmosphere that is so important to getting scared, because there's never that sense of urgency in any given fight. If you die, you'll go back to a checkpoint, even if you didn't save, and if you run low on health or ammo, you can almost always retreat to the nearest store.

Just because you have all these options open to you doesn't mean you can just wipe out every enemy in a given room, no problem. There are a variety of enemies to kill, ranging from your average zombie-looking thing to fat ones that spew tiny things at you, to super-enhanced soldiers, who are very, very fast. If you want to heal mid-fight, do it fast, because no menus aside from the pause menu (including stores and upgrade benches) can stop enemies from attacking you. Additionally, the game encourages that you not aim for the head with a dismemberment system, in which you'll waste less bullets if you aim at the limbs of enemies, and the guns allow you do so in various ways. Enemies will overwhelm you (especially in later parts of the game), and using stasis will become more and more useful.

Puzzles also make themselves known here, but really, they're not puzzles as much as enviormental obstacles to be overcome. You have your basic put-this-there puzzles, but the stage of space allows for two other kinds of experiences. The first are vaccums, which will puts your oxygen tank into account. You'll only have so much time to do something in these areas whether it be getting to the other side, or changing someting in the area in order to progress. The other is Zero-G areas, which are somewhat dissapointing due to them amounting to jumping from one flat plain to another, and you can't actually stay in an area with no ground beneath you. Had you been able to actually float in space, that could've made for some intresting areas.

Regardless of whether the game is more action or fear, it's hard to argue that this game isn't beautiful. The overall presentation is nearly flawless, with the only bug I've seen being that of light-weight bodies, but other than that everything works perfectly. Issac's movements are perfectly mo-capped, the voice acting is done well, and animations for all the creatures are done wonderfully. The textures and models also look wonderful, from Issac's suit to the ground and walls and all the digital menus.

The last great feature of the presentation is the lack of any HUD in the game. Your health and stasis are displayed on your back, you only see your gun's magazine when you aim it, which makes the game feel more cinematic. As mentioned earlier, no menus aside from the pause menu take you out of the game, meaning that even in buying things at the store and organizing items carry that tension that you will be attacked from behind unexpectedly, and it definitely adds to the atmosphere of the game.

A sever reduction of closet monsters and too much of a focus on action over horror means that this game might not deliver the chills of a horror movie or even some of the scarier horror games doesn't mean that it's not scary. The atmosphere is the lead here, and with monsters crawling on vents but not always showing up, the tension that comes even from selecting items, and the story that augments the feeling of the game quite well, Dead Space delivers the scary in a new and original way.

Two quick things.

One, following up on what I wrote earlier about the new DS, I guess I was sorta right? Personally, the biggest hit my crying wallet is going to take here is the battery life. I've had way too many long play sessions of Advance Wars and Tetris to have the battery life to be cut down to 9 to 14 hours at the lowest setting. The multimedia stuff is great (listen to music, download Virtual console games, take pictures), but I think I'll not sell my lite, good sir.

Second, this is old (by internet standards, anyway), but I felt it that anyone with any intrest in PC gaming should read this one. Heck, even if you don't play it, this stuff may apply to you some day as well. It's very well written, and I think everyone should take a look at it.

Peace

News post of the Day: New DS, huh?

Everyone is up in the hypestorm created by the report made by Nikkei-Net's report about a new DS that will apparantly be released by the end of the year. According the Japanese newspaper, the new DS will have a built in microphone, better wi-fi, and two touch-screens.

Judging by the source, I don't think it's bull, but that doesn't mean that the entire report is accurate, either. The release date is a bit odd, seeing as how if it was to be released by the end of the year, Nintendo could've announced it at E3. Announcing it at an October summit is sort of a 30-minute warning, no? It's not that it's too early (really, it's about time), but it just seems like a bad approach. Additionally, two touch-screens seems a bit overkill, but I can see its uses, especially in book form. The SD card is also a bit sketchy, but it's a welcome addition. I look forward to whatever comes down the pipeline on this.

Peace

Days off are the best, eh?

This blog ain't dead yet, folks! As mentioned earlier, I haven't been able to really write recreatively for a while because of the fact that my schedule is currently a clusterfuck of classes with lots of homework (thanks, counsler!). Now I finally have a day off, and there's things to talk about.

First of all, what the fuck am I supposed to about Mega Man 9? I happen to have the means to download it from all three of the consoles' download services, but I don't know which controller I want to throw at the wall ( and now that wireless is standard, controller throwing is a more viable option ). I know for a fact that it won't be the 360, mostly because 2D platformers and analog sticks don't mix, and the D-pad is for choosing weapons and other non-active things. It really comes down to the D-pad of the PS3 and Wii. I really like the PS3 one better, but not getting a retro Mega Man game on a Nintendo system seems like...I don't know, like I punched someone who gave me something in the face. Regardless, I need to get it, because of Protoman.

Next, on all those Street Fighter 4 videos. While I'm actually suprised that Capcom would go so far as to create a never-coming-out-for-real anime to promote the game, I don't feel like I needed them to get hyped up for this. The scenes are really a bunch of nonsense that is supposed to set up the story, but If you're really looking to a fighting game to deliver top-notch storytelling, you're getting off on the wrong foot here. Whenever you do pop in the game, you'll have a backstory, but that won't stop you from not being able to make anything coherent out of what you'll be presented with in the actual game. Now, it's possible that maybe this will be the fighting game that presents us with story worth telling and not just s framework around which to fight your fellow enthusiasts, but I think these videos are setting people up for disappointment.

Finally, I'm going to group the last to bits of info I'm going to talk about because they're more or less the same thing: The Halo Keep It Clean trailer and Metal Gear Solid Existence being trademarked. In all honesty, they can be summed it up by the following statement: Fans want more, companies will give it to them. Now, while nothing has been revealed about MGSE, I'm more than certain it will be Metal Gear Solid 4's Subsistence, and most of the fan hype is akin to what people were speculating about what Brawl characters were going to be in the game, only to be dissapointed by a great roster. The Halo video is much the same thing, except it gives to only a little more, which is kinda sad, seeing as how MGSE wasn't even supposed to be a news item, since there was no press release and it was just Konami trademarking the name, and Keep It Clean was supposed to be a juicy tidbit. As for what Halo is, it's a Campaign expansion, or at least that seems obvious if you watched the video, but that won't stop fanboys from thinking it's something more than that.

Peace

Does this mean I suck?

At my local comic shop, we usually have tourneys on Mondays. We pay a 5.00 dollar fee for entering a tourney. We play. The number of people we have determines how many rounds we play, so that everyone plays everybody at least once. At the tournament's end, we distribute packs (2 to the winner, and depending on how many people came, 2 to second) and 1 for the rest. We distribute promo's in the following manner: 1st gets 4, 2nd gets 3, 3rd gets 2, everyone else gets one. Because of the number of people who show up (usually 5), we almost always have promo's readily available. If you'd like to play, contact The Game Shoppe for details.

What was that? An introduction to how I play UFS. But now I'm getting to the part that merits the title. At the latest tourney, I was lucky enough to pull this:

Yeah, she's a beaut, eh? When this baby came out of my pack, there were leaps for joy to be had for all, and I quickly got home and started tihnkning of ways to use this sucker. Now, for those of you who may not play UFS (and the majority who come here for games are the people I'm talking to), this is a good card. I think.

Here's where I get into something odd; I honestly don't think I need it in any of my decks. I do run a deck that have each of its symbols (the things that let you play it in the first place), but most of the time, I feel like its ability never helps me that much. In fact, I'm using abilities more than once per turn (Morrigan, Sakura, and Ken are the decks I'm talking about, in case you'd like to know), so It'd stop me more often than it'd help.

Now, the other option I have is to make a deck based around it. Ukyo is the idea I have in mind, but I'm not even sure if it works at this point, but I really don't feel like making that sort of deck, because it looks like a bitch to make.

Now, I do see that this card stops lots of degenerate crap, but I just don't see it fit with the kind of decks I like to make. And with lots of people jumping through lots of hoops (especially if they're made of money), I feel really weird putting it in my binder instead of in any of my decks. I'm just not sure I've found this card's strength, or at least where it benefits me.

So I ask the question again: Does this mean I suck? Do you have any suggestions on what to do with it? Because if you do, I'd love to hear them. Give me your thoughts in the form of comments, and maybe I can put this thing in a plastic sleeve someday.

Peace.

Look Ma! An RPG!

RPG's are often seen a genre that are mundane, repetitive, and unwilling to change (this is especially true for Japanese RPG's). This stereotype has been broken in the last two decades. Newer RPG's have made strides to improve on the concept of a party, equipment, and monsters. Several have innovated, and not all have succeeded, but some have taken positive steps to not only improve the genre, but to appeal to people who haven't touched a game of this kind. In the case of Final Fantasy III, none of the innovations are here, but is careful to include all of the things that typically make people hate the genre.

FFIII, is, for all intents and purposes, a remake. It originally came out long ago, in Japan, anyway. Now, because of all the confusion of Final Fantasy releases in the US (II here was IV there, III here was VI there), this version was never released here, officially. Recently, Square Enix remade III (getting tired of Roman numerals yet?) for the DS. Consequently, that meant they had to release it here, so now, 16 years later, Final Fantasy fans can enjoy what is basically the most traditional game in the series.

The story of FFIII is as basic as you can get. Your party are the Warrior of Light, a group of orphans who are destined to stave off the flood of darkness and save the world with their magical light force. In order to do that, you have to go around the world(s) and find several crystals scattered throughout, making progress on way to the final boss battle. Really, it's your standard RPG fare, the story really has no suprises, it plays out very linearlly, and I never really felt compelled to keep going for the sake of the story. I mean really, If you've ever played and RPG, you know what you're getting into here.

To be fair, though, you don't usually get into most RPG's for the story. You do it for the battle system. In this area, also, FF III sticks to as traditional a method as you'll likely find. The battles themselves are turn-based, speed applies as to what order the characters go, and that's pretty much the whole of battles. Nothing that FFI didn't do before it here. However, be aware that this one is harder than your average, and I don't feel it was for fair reasons. The AI is smart, and by that I mean cheap. It attacks whatever member you don't need it to attack most, and pretty if one of your characters dies, then you revive them, it'll ususally target them, so if you lose a character, have fun getting them back. Also, it seems to me that they're able to alter the order of moves. I don't know if this is true, but it seemed like the order would change to the computer's advantage, and to my dismay.

The graphics are probably this game's most notable feature. Unlike 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 for the GBA, III is rendered in full 3D, and does it gorgeously. Sure, it's N64 graphics, but on an LCD screen they sure look crisp. Everything from the overworld to the actual battles are fully polygonal, but the animations are somewhat lacking. They just look like they put the 2D motions on the 3D renders. The touch screen controls are also new. They allow to basically never touch the buttons at all, and while they were nice to use in the beginning, I found myself always going back to buttons, and never pulled the stylus out again.

The last new feature is the Wi-fi additons. You can send messages to friends and characters in the game, and they can reply back. Not much else to do here. However, it really bothers me that there is not only a class that you can only get if you send a certain number of messages to friends, but there is also a secret dungeon that you can also only get if you send out a certain number of messages. This won't be a huge problem for anyone near a router, but if you don't have internet (which most people should, the problem is getting that stupid dongle or having a compatible router), not having access to this stuff (and hindering content to those without internet when it could just as easily been available without it) is really, really dumb.

Now, something that FFIII did first was the job system. What this entails is basically the ability to choose what you want your character to do. Do you want them to be a tank class (such as a warrior, knight, etc), a Healer class (White mage, Devout), or a sort of specialty class (Bard, Geomancer, etc.). This allows to go through the game several times with completely different parties. My problem with this is that while what class you choose has a great effect on what the outcome of the battle will be, there are only a few classes worth using, and the rest of the classes just seem like gimmicks. My other problem with this system is that you only get more classes after beating certain bosses (the ones surrounding crystals), and no matter how much time you've invested on a certain class, the ones you end up getting will almost always be better than the ones you have, so you'll have to constantly switch classes.

My last problem with this system, is that unlike FFV's job system, which encourages you to change classes by allowing you borrow skills from one class and take advantage of them in another class (thus leading to mixed sub-classes), FFIII completly discourages ever changing your class. It does this in three ways. First, whenever you change class, there is absolutely no description of what the job does. That means that aside from the obvious Warriour and Mage classes, you don't know what you're getting into when you change. I almost never changed classes to experiment with a new class, only going for classes that either had a cool name (Ninja), or one that I knew would be a better version of what I had (Dark knight). Most people won't want to change classes because they don't want to invest time in a class that isn't going to give them a good return.

This wouldn't really been a problem if it wasn't for the next problem, which is by far my biggest gripe with the job system. Whenever you change classes, there is a "job adjustment" phase where all of your stats are decreased. Yes, this is realistic or whatever, but it doesn't help that when you want to change jobs, you don't know what you're getting into, and you're also risking getting your ass kicked. It isn't entirly crippling, but I never wanted to switch classes for fear of whatever class I chose totally sucking, and having decreased stats may get my ass kicked, especially in the early stages of the game.

My last problem with the game may or may be influenced by FFV, and its skill system, but I feel it's still a valid complaint even if haven't played it. Whenever you change classes you don't carry anything over from the class you switched over from. Nothing. That means that all the time you spent increasing that class's level was for nothing other than getting you through the part of the game that you were using it. It's really irking to to switch to a better class and have to start over from square one with that class all over again.

My other big gripe with the game is that it just expects you to know everything, as if you had played the game already (in japanese, on a Famicom), it almost never hints as to what the hell you're supposed to be doing, and when it does, it's very vague about it. Things are hidden in places where you're likely to never look, don't hint as to their whearabouts, and you have to scan around whole towns just to find anything useful. The game doesn't guide your hand at all, and if you're lost, well get used to it. Now, for RPG (and especially JRPG) vets, this really won't be a problem, but someone who's never played one is going to feel really, really, confused.

FFIII is basically what you'd call an RPG. It doesn't do anyting new, in fact it's probably the most traditional Final Fantasy I've ever played. It's about as monotnous, grueling, and long as you'd expect it to be, and for most RPG's that's fine and all, but when you're getting kicked around by a game that doesn't help you get anywhere, triumphs on your every mistake and does it while laughing at you, it really doesn't help. It's not challenging, it's cheap. I beat the game in about 30+ hours, but any skill is easily replaced by leveling up, which makes it more tedious. If you've played any Final Fantasy game before, pick it up, in that sense it's really what you're asking for it's not better or worse than average, but if you'd like to get introduced to the RPG genre look elsewhere.

Casual Friday: Action figure get!: Electric Boogaloo.

I can't (don't want to) always write about games. After all, this is a blog! About me! Sort of. So, on Fridays, I'll talk about whatever it is that I happen to be thinkging.

This Friday, I'll talk about the new action figures I got recently. If you've followed the blog at all, you'll know that I got the Aquarious and Scorpio figures earlier. I got Cancer shortly thereafter. Then, I ordered three more (Libra, Sagittarius, and Dragon). Now, I did get 2 out of the 3 (the other one is on the way, either that or I've been ripped off), I don't have pics, so you'll have to settle for stock images:

Yeah, they look pretty badass. And I plan to collect more. Whenever I can. I hope.

See? That wasn't so bad. It was pretty short too. However, Casual Friday may or may not include longer posts, as well as rants (most not serious in nature), but hey, que sera, sera.

Peace

On a (Lots of) Hair Trigger.

Square Enix recently announced that they will be bringing The SNES RPG Chrono Trigger to the DS. Now, resounding "FINALLY!" aside, the announcement was met with pretty wholly positive reaction from fans.

In case you don't know, Chrono Trigger was an RPG on the SNES. Now, what makes it different from your Dragon Quests and your Final Fantasies (and you rap music, and your DVD's...) is that it's basically a combination of the two (so really, it's not that different, really), and the only work of the so-called "Dream Team" of the creators of both series, including (but not limited to) Hironobu Sakaguchi from Final Fantasy, and Yuuji Horii on the Enix side. Akira Toriyama handled the art (he drew Dragon Ball Z, guys!), as he did in Dragon Quest. The irony, of course, is that these companies would merge later, but the Dream Team was never reassembled.

I've never played Chrono Trigger (I'm not as old as you think), but so far what's been revealed about this remake makes me kinda skeptical of how much thought Square Enix is putting into it. First of all, it won't be 3-D, which the DS remakes of Final Fantasy III and IV had going for them. However, this actually makes me glad instead of angry (which many fanboys are), as, unless they scale the difficulty for a wider audience (which hasn't been the case with the remakes so far, in fact FF IV was even harder than the SNES version), I'll be able to experience the game mostly unchanged.

Of course, companies seem to think that remakes won't make money unless they pack in extra stuff to get those people who played them already. The new version packs new touch screen controls (ooooooohh!! Maaagical touch screen controls!), and an extra dungeon. The sound quality is also good, from what I've heard. Now, I don't really think that it matters. Sure there are people who will buy it for that reason and that reason alone, but those numbers really pale in comparison to: a) the new kids who got into FF IV from the DS version, and will buy it by the brand alone, and b) the obsessed fanboys who would buy it if the game asked to them code it them-damn-selves. It's not so much that I don't like the new content, (and really, no one should object to new content that you're getting for free), but if the game would come out earlier sans touch screen controls and new dungeon, I would much prefer that.

The game has also been priced and dated. The game will be 39.99 and will come out November 25th. The release doesn't bother me at all, but the price might bother some. But hey, more likely than not, Square is probably targeting the same audience that bought The World Ends With You for 40 dollars, so price really shouldn't be a problem for them. As for the rest of us, we'll just have to cough them up somehow, and enjoy what everyone else says is a timeless classic, or something like that. I'm obviously not old enough to enjoy this.

Peace.

My, what big flamethrowers you have...

Now that the fall school season has started, I have even less time to write without the need to turn in the next day, but I hope to occasionally be able to blog here and there, and when I do, it will be a review (I'm playing games, I swear! I just don't seem to be getting anywhere...), or just random crap, and some of it may or may not include games.

First of all, I felt like giving my thoughts on Call of Duty: World at War. The game seems fine and all, but most of the talk surrounding this game is that the developer is not called Infinity Ward (who made that one shooter you might still be playing). People were outraged (well, as outraged as a fat guy at a computer can be without causing damage) at the fact that Treyarch, devs of the sorta-lauded-but-kinda-in-a-weird-place-so-people-went-meh Call of Duty 3. I'm not going to defend the game, except for saying that even though it wasn't as good as 2, it sure as hell was better than many shooters that came out at the time.

That point aside, Treyarch really is in tough position. After making a name for themselves with Spider-man 2, then screwing up (by all intents and purposes, for not being named Infinity Ward) at COD3 and then Spider-Man 3. So, they needed something big to get people's trust back.





Judging by the image above, I think it's safe to say they're on the right track. Now, that looks like ordinary fire there, but see it in motion and I think you'll at least consider changing your mind. If you've played any games with fire (and you should have, hopefully), it always seemed to look so square and just crappy compared to its surroundings. But Treyarch seems to have nailed it. This may also be part of a trend, from what I've heard.


Now, beautiful fire a great game does not make. They're still in a shaky state. But I'm in a state to forgive them for whatever they've done in the past. And really, if you take off your stupid fanboy glasses and see the world for what it is, their sins are as heretical as you thought they were. Nevertheless, I'm going to forgive Treyarch on behalf of the gaming community. Treyarch, we forgive you. Even though we should be apologizing.


And even if the game does turn out to be crappy, let it never be said that it had crappy fire.

Post-Trip Impressions.

So I've returned from my trip to Mexico, and just now got around to setting up my systems, and have been digging around the Xbox Live Marketplace. Needless to say, I'm a little behind on game releases. On that note, I have been playing games for review (and some of them are pretty dated, so sorry about that), but I just had to play some of these games and give some impressions on them.


Too Human

I'd been hearing a lot about this one, and I wasn't really sure what to think. Opinions range from it being too action oriented to it being too much of an RPG. So when I was looking through the demos on the marketplace, I quickly downloaded it, waited for it to finish, then started playing.

Now that I have a modest idea of what the game is about (and really, demos can only give you so much of a glimpse of the complete product), I think I can say that I like it, but not as much as I thought I would. The combat feels...well, awkward. I think it's innovative to have the attack button be the right analog stick, don't get me wrong, but I just had some problems getting used to the right stick not being in charge of camera control. I would often find myself trying to get the camera to look where I wanted it too and end up swinging my sword. That's not to say the camera is bad (you can always center it by clicking one of the bumpers), It just takes getting a little used to.

But aside from the getting used to it thing, there are problems with the fighting. In the demo, the enemies would die so quickly at the hands of any melee weapons (keep in mind I was the barbarian) that I never felt like I was fighting anything, just sorta hopping from one enemy to another, killing everything I saw. Guns didn't seem to do much except hold enemies in the air (a la Devil May Cry 4), and did really tiny amounts of damage (again, I was the barbarian, which probably menas that gun-toting class will do more damage with those). It did feel fun, but it was more akin the Marvel Ultimate Alliance than to DMC4, I guess I wasn't ready for that.

The looting part of the game was fine though. After you beat certain enemies, they'll give you loot. Like that one game. At first the menu confused the living hell out of me, I didn't know where to go to see what stuff I had just gotten. After that small hump, equiping my guy with things became easy, though for someone like me, who has to check the menu everytime he gets something to see if it's better than the stuff he has, it made for a lot of menu time. The weapons certainly did feel different from one another, but only when the picture of the gun was different. Guns with the same little picture (like handgun versus a rifle and a two handed sword versus having one in each hand), all felt the same. The stats were different, but the weapons always seemed to really do the same exact thing. I guess I should expect that from lootfest games by now.

The story that I played was short, but I think I've had enough of the story to know that won't care about it. Norse mtyholgy in the future, with humans with guns fighting robots or something works and all, but it didn't really do anyting for me. The dialogue was horrendous as well. Sure, the sort of stuff the characters are spouting seems appropriate for Norse mythology, but I just felt the developers forget their game was set in the future, not in Norse times. As a whole though, I really did like it, but I really can't tell how much Until I get my hands on the final product.

Tales of Vesperia

Ah, finally, it's the latest game in that-series-that-I-haven't-played-since-Symphonia, otherwise known as the Tales Series. Now, it's very hard to actually make a demo of a RPG, because you only get such a small fraction of what the game really is, and since RPG's involve payoff over a long period of time, you miss out on more than you would than say, a First-person Shooter. Nonetheless, I commend Namco-Bandai (not sure if there should be a hyphen there) for releasing anything at all.

Out of the small amount of time the demo provided, I got a good vibe out of it. The graphics are far improved from the their PS2/Gamecuve predecessors, with sharper colors, textures, and animations, although it's a little hard to tell, what with the cell-shaded style and all. The demo opened with a cutscence that again exemplifies how bad acting in RPG's are, especially in the english dub versions. Then, I got to the part where you run around and find monsters, which wasn't all that bad, as it follows the same formula as other Tales games, which is you see an icon of the monster encounter, and you can choose to avoid or fight it at your leisure. This meant that there wasn't a lot of stopping my progress and getting annoying, like other RPG's tend to do.

The encounters are quick, but it took me a bit to get reaccustomed to the control scheme on a 360 controller. Regular attacks are handled with the B button, special moves are handled with the A button, or A and moving the right stick in a given direction, which held up quite well. I was comboeing regular and special attacks very early on, and it feels nice to do so. You control one character and the AI controllers the other three, but I don't know if you can issue them commands, like you could in other versions, I didn't really get a chance to experiment.

The demo (or at least for me) ends with a boss battle, who was quick to deliver my butt to the right address, mine. I don't know if there's more after, but I get a feeling you just get another cutscence and the demo ends. Whether I lost or not isn't really important, because I got enough out of the game to feel that's it shaping up to be just like the other recent games, and to me, that's a good thing.

Get Curious With Layton.

In the vast gaming pantheon, I like to think there are three types of games: The ones everyone knows about, you know, the ones that started out in the mid-70-80's, and are huge franchises today, and everyone should know. There are the new titles that are blasted in your face so that you have to know about them, are covered in great detail, and by the time you play them, they already seem like an established franchise. Then there are those games that not many people care about. You hear about them, yes, but because they're not blown in your face through multimillion dollar adverts, you often don't give them a second thought. Professor Layton and the Curious Village is definitely one of the latter.

Professor Layton, is, for all intents an purposes, one of those books you sometimes find at a Grocery store, filled with puzzles that you'd often show to your friends, solve the easiest ones you could find, and go to the back of the book for the answers to the ones you were too lazy to figure out on your own (or the ones you'd stare at for hours without making an sense of them), in a DS cartridge that you can carry around at your leisure. It's a collection of logic puzzles that range from simply getting a ball from one end of a block-filled maze to the other, to a riddle with a deceptively simple answer. Where it shines above said books, however, falls into two categories; its presentation and the story that connects all of the puzzles together.

The story goes something like this: You are Professor Layton, a skinny man in a top hat renowned for puzzle solving skills, and his apprentice, Luke. You are given a letter from a someone named Lady Dahlia (like the murder, yes.) To come help her find the Golden Apple in the village of St. Mystere, the finder of which will inherit a dead baron's fortune. Once there, you begin a Sam & Max like adventure, where you find clues, get to different places, and progress the story along the way. This is augmented by the fact that in order to get almost any information to help guide you along your way, you must first solve one of 120 puzzles (not all of them are mandatory, but for the completist there's a lot of work to do here). It seems like a shaky dynamic at first (why would all these people be so fascinated with puzzles?), but as the story works itself out, it does happen to make sense along the way (trust me).

The story is presented to you mostly in the form of dialogue between characters, with speech bubbles all present and accounted for. However, during rare instances, you are given gorgeously well made FMV cutscenes, with voice acting and everything. They're very few and far between at first, but towards the end of the story they get more frequent. The sound here is okay when listening from the DS speakers, but through headphones, the voice acting really pops.

When you are presented with a puzzle, it shakes out something like this: You are presented a picarat score from 10 to 80 (picaracts represent the value of a puzzle, 10 being easy and 80 being really, really, hard, and basically are a score of how well you've done). you are brought to the screen where you attempt to solve the puzzle, and are given the chance the unlock hints using hint coins (you start with ten and more are hidden throughout various places, found by touching said places). The first hint is usually pretty vague, but gives you how you have to think in order to solve it, and the other two hints are usually very specific, which can lead to frustration if you already know what the hints tell you, but are stuck in some other way.

When you think to know the answer to a puzzle, you enter it via touch screen, then Layton (or Luke) appear and tell you whether you're right or wrong. If you're right, you can continue solving puzzles, if you're wrong, you can try again, but the picarat value goes down when you do re-try (about 10 %), however it only goes down twice.

The problem with this system is that it is very easily exploitable. You can save right before a puzzle, enter it, get all three hints for it, try and try again until you get it somehow, then when you get the right answer shut off and restart the game, where you'll start off right before the puzzle, answer at the ready, and get it without the loss of hint coins or picarats. Thus, completing the game without ever losing a hint coin and a perfect score is easily achievable by anyone who's figured this out. It reeks of the Ace Attorney series exploit which allowed you to breeze through the game without ever thinking, but it goes without saying that even with this little pro tip, the game is still enjoyably difficult (the hints don't always give away the answer).

There are a wide variety of puzzles, from crossing chicks and wolves to riddles, and all of these types of puzzles range from easy to mind-crushingly difficulty, especially in the later stages of the game. This means that if you're a parent or have a younger brother or sister, you can let them solve all the easy puzzles, and when they get stumped, have them come to you. If you'd rather solve all the puzzles yourself, you can do that, then go to the puzzle index and have the younger person try to solve them there.

The puzzles given to you by strangers aren't the only ones, however. Not only are there hidden puzzles throughout the various parts of St. Mystere you visit (again found by clicking random places), but throughout the course of your adventure, after completing certain puzzles, you will be given one of three things: A gizmo, a painting scrap, or a piece of furniture. Each of these things are part of their own puzzle. Gizmo's assemble a robot (which is not only effortless to do, but gives you a hint as to the ending of the game), painting scraps form a puzzle you need to put together, and you must arrange furniture to make Layton and Luke happy (maximum happiness solves the puzzle).

Completing those then unlocks bonus puzzles found in various houses, and these puzzles are decidedly harder than the ones found in the main game, and completing all of those will unlock more bonus puzzles (probably the hardest ones of all). And after that, you can download even more puzzles via the game's Wi-Fi connection, though they're all already on the card, so don't expect an endless stream of brain hurt. Needless to say, however, there's a lot of puzzle solving to go around.

Professor Layton offers a great diversion from the routine run-n-gun, hack-n-slash gameplay usually shoved down our throats, and instead shoves 120+ puzzles down your throat. The story is a great way to connect all this puzzle solving, and since not all the puzzle solving is necessary, there's a stopping point for both people who just want beat the game and hardcore completists, but the fact that have to passively play the game (by thinking a lot), may not be for fans of the aforementioned types of gameplay.

Action Figure Get! (and more...)

So, whilst stuck here in Mexico, under the mercy of its "It's either gonna rain today you're all going to die of heat exhaustion" weather system, I've found my cousins are fond of two things: Smash Brothers and Saint Seiya. Good thing, because I happen to be fond of both of those things. We'll often find ourselves talking at length about the Saints, be if from the various sagas (from the 12 houses to the hades saga to the movies), or be it about just how much of a stereotypical 80's manga it really was. That also usually leads to talks of other eighties mangas/anime, which make said talks even longer.

What this means is that while here, I'm usually always in a Saint Seiya fever. And while we were at a nearby shopping district (if that's what you would call a half a city of malls, beggars, and people selling you things on the street), I just happened to have money, and there just happened to be Saint Seiya action figures there. They weren't the cheap generic crap you'd expect from a place like the one I was in (though that stuff was there too). These were top notch, 65 dollar action figures, with full metal armor and nice looking plastic anime hair. So, I just happened to pick one representing my zodiac sign up(we also picked this one up).

Thing is, here, you don't just walk up and buy anything. You barter for it. So, I was able to barter mine down to about 60 dollars, which felt good, even if it was 5 dollars. Heck , I used that 5 dollars to buy lunch (keep in mind all prices were actually in pesos, so multiply each of those prices about 10 times, but they all lead to same result anyway, approximately). The action figures are pretty awesome, some of the best playable figures out there (they don't stand well against some of the better models out there), and boy are they shiny.

Moving on to smash bros (of course I speak of the new one), We've been playing it a lot, with a lot of people. In all the time we've played it, I've realized how much of a party game it is and how much of a competitive, tournament playable game it isn't. I used to argue with anyone who would listen that smash bros was as competitive as Halo or Street Fighter, that it deserved as much attention from the MLG/Evo scene as any of its affiliates. Now, I know that while that may be what the community did to it, that that wasn't the creator's intent. He (and probably nintendo) meant it to be part of it's casual reaching market, while catering to the hardcore. He even almost intentionally deterred its tournament playability (with tripping), to the point where it seems he was screaming "You're not supposed to play it for money, you idiots!" Of course, I can't speak for him, because I never could do that for any developer, and intentions are something to be seen from different perspectives, but I think the evidence speaks for itself.

That's not to say it's a bad game. At all. It's a fantastic one. All the nintendo nostalgia/nerdgasms to be had in the world are here, the characters are varied (albeit with clones, who still feel a little different). Items are pretty much designed to help weaker players win (and it works, too), to the point where if items are on, skill because much less of a factor in winning. It's a phenomenal game, you just have to not expect it to be virtua fighter.

I also need to give props to my cousin Pablo, who is awesome because he plays with every character my brother hates. And it makes him oh so mad when he loses, which, needless to say, makes me oh so happy.

Peace.

More to come.

If anyone is still reading, fear not! I haven't abandoned this blog. I'm currently in Mexico, which means places to go, things to see. I am however, playing through some games (a luxury you'll find is not as rare as you'd imagine here), which I will review when I get back. Right now...writing makes me lazy. However, I will concede to blog.

As of this writing, The L button on my DS is broken. Yeah, the damn thing won't work, but luckily the game I'm playing doesn't requre its competent use. I could always sell it, but it's a magical speical edition, and you can't just get rid of those. You have to...fix them, beccause they are special. You have to nurture them until they are old enough to thrive on their own. So anyone have a tri-wing screwdriver? It's either that, or ask someone to fix it for me. Whichever costs less, preferably. I realize that the reason they put them together like this is to hopefully cut down on modding, but the modders always win. They get around anything. Plus, that leaves the few of who want to open the damn things for useful purposes out in the metaphorical rain. And there's bad people out there.

Pretty flai for a Ninja Gai(den).

Ok, so here's how this will work: I will post reviews of games that I am currently playing. I won't go back and give a back catalog of every game I've ever played, because it is very tedious and quite frankly if you haven't bought Paper Mario, chances are I'm not going to convince you. So if I do go back and play older games, I will post them, but I won't go back for the sake of it.
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You know, I've learned that blogs without posts are pretty boring, so today I give you my first review of:
First of all, let me outline the cirsumstances under which I am playing this game: It's been beaten several times by my brother, who's keen to beat it until he's sucked the entire life of the game. He's gotten under the routine where if he so desired, he could beat it in one day. He's been through the game using almost all of the weapons on all of the difficulties. Needless to say, he knows what he's doing by now.

I, on the other hand, am conform to simply pick up a new run on his save file (which has everything and the kitchen sink unlocked), and just start off there. This has obviously lead me to one conclusion: The only way this game is ridiculously easy is because Mr. Ninja has half a battalion's worth of weapons at his disposal. So I go back, start a new file, and play as a Mr. Ninja, weilding only his sword and an ungodly amount of shuriken. This is when I got my ass royal handed to me on the first level. I was playing on Mentor difficulty, the meaning of which eludes me (why not just say hard or something?). I say the first level and first level only, because after that I got tired of it.

To answer the conjecture you've most likely made; yes, I am a wuss. I am not extremely hardcore, or gifted, a prodigy, the like. I like to play games that challenge me, but only for as long the challenge entertains me. So, my skill now assesed by the reader, I think we can move on.

To put it simply, Ninja Gaiden 2 is an action game. It's got all the gore, fighting and boss battles(and boobs) you'd expect out of a fast-paced game such as this, in no sparing amounts (that goes double for the boobs). Now, before I go and tear the game apart(no pun intended, unless you found it funny, in which case it was completely intentional), let me say that ze fighting...she is divine. The combat is fast paced, in-your face enough to make things intense, but lenient enough to not frustate you most of the time, with the regenerating life bar being the biggest difference from the original(though it really isn't "the original" for those who owned an NES) on the Xbox. The weapons feel like you're playing a completely different character all together, and boss battles are extremely challenging (albeit a matter of "can I get off my combo on this guy right now or not?"). Fluid, envigorating, and just plain fun to do, the combat is obviously the game's high point, and if it doesn't sound fun to you, then the game isn't going to do much else for you. It's just plain fun to kill things that Mr. Ninja happens to have a beef with (which seems to be just about everyone except the blonde chick in leather).

Normally I'd shy away from this, but because 360 owners may just have had a taste of the action genre, especially those who just got into gaming this generation, I feel Devil May Cry 4 comparisons are useful. The game drops the gun fighting (which to me were some of the best parts of DMC4), as well as the emo's in long coats and white hair, and replaces them with more swords, shuriken, bows and a ninja in tight leather and a no-nonsense attitude. We'll call it a fair trade. Enemies are more challenging on a one-on-one basis then they were ususally in DMC4, but to say that any enemy can kill you is a bit much. Yes, it is true, but you'll find that in most games where you can die any enemy technically can kill if you let them (this is especially true if you don't use the controller to play the game, which can be quite the handicap), but I think the point of that statement is to say to not let your guard down around enemies, because they are tougher than enimies in DMC4 (which felt more like sword/gun fodder, if you knew what you were doing). This is compounded by the fact that since you gain some life back after every encounter, the game finds is a suitable counter to throw tons of enemies every time you turn a corner.

My praise of of the game out of the way, let's get down into what bothers me about NG2. Now, most people would say the story is horrendous, a stupid ploy to get Mr. Ninja into different enviorments and killing his wide range of demon oppressors. This is true, but once you take into account that the story doesn't really matter at all, and that it's only purpose of it is to say that it has one, you become so desensitized to it that you become indifferent of it (skipping cutscenes and the like), or you find so awesomely horrendous that you make fun of it and show your peers how bad it is that becomes entertaining. In this way, it's just like an old japanese action movie, which means Itigaki and team ninja are either idiots who can't write a story to save their lives, or are paying an homage to the genre that may have inspired them. If it is the latter, Itigaki is a fucking genious.

Now, story aside, there are some gameplay elements that do bother me. First and foremost: who's bright idea was it to put platforming or puzzles in the game? Whoever did so should be repremanded. The platforming is only difficulty when there is a camera issure involved (which is often), and when that happens, and you fail, it seems you failed not because of the difficulty of the puzzle(a term I'm using loosely here), but because the camera just. Won't. Look. .Where. YOU. WANT. IT .TO. There really should be no difficulty to getting to where the next people Mr. Ninja is going to kill.

Puzzles are also stupidly designed, uninspired, and unneccesary. In fact, about 90% of the puzzles involve a locked door, a chest, and a key. You will find a door that is locked, asses that you need a key, find said key, and open the door. You also will most likely not have killed anyone during this puzzle(again, loosely), which is bad. The other 10% involves not knowing where you're supposed to go (this happened a lot to me in particular). I'm honestly not sure what prompted this design choice. Did they feel it would engage the player? Challenge them? That they would solve this puzzle and feel like they accomplish something? I'm pretty sure the answer is no. I think they thought they could lengthen the game, if ever so slightly, by having you NOT kill people and play Sam & Max for a bit (not a bad game, I assure you, but this sort of game does not belong here), all for the purpose of having the game seem more meaty. It does not work here. It works in Zelda. It works in Shadow the Colussus, not in a game that revolves around killing tons and tons of dudes. Why would you take the player out of what you want to be doing most of the time and instead have them waste their time with puzzles that don't challenge them and therefore have no point? To anyone who wants to make a game of this nature: Either make puzzles work well, or DON'T DO THEM.

Now you probably think that I have a grim assesment of Ninja Gaiden 2: Quest to Unlock All The Doors, and the truth is, I don't. I'm still playing the game right now. The combat alone is enough for fans to pick this up, as it will challenge, make you want to play more, and is extremely well done. It's flaws, however, were things that were not needed, could have been easily been avoided had Itigaki and Co. realized that they cannot make puzzles of any sort in the action genre, and focused on making the game better. Heck, without puzzles or platforming of any sort, they could've had an extra level of more killing (and boobs). Additionally, should they ever feel the need to release another game, they could easily call it Ninja Gaiden 2: More Levels and just have rooms and rooms of killing demons( about 10 more levels' worth), no story, no puzzles, no platforming, at an expansion pack price, and I think the fanbase (as well as I) should be satisfied.

To those whom it may concern...

So now I've finally started a blog. This will mostly be about video games and the like,and I will post here about subjects that interest me, as well as give my thoughts on games that I play. REVIEW is not the term I'd give it, as I'll likely not attach a score, more of a preview...of a game that's out...but opinionated...um...there you go.

I'd also like to introduce you all to UFS, a card game I love to play. (Sell me on this, Suriel, you pale mexican bastard you!) Premis: It's a card game that plays like a fighting game. (wah? How can something like Magic the Gathering be as fast-paced as Street Fighter!? I call shenanigans!) Good point, but it really does. In games Like M:TG and Yu-gi-oh!(which I hope to never have to type again) UFS(Universal Fighting System) is very fast paced, with high level competion matches ending as early as turns 2-3, and turns don't last that long. Obviously there are stall decks like in any other card game, but you get the idea. I'm not great at explaining things, so hop over to the official site and get started (Don't be intimated by the unfamiliar characters: I can guarantee you, the game has the Street fighter, Soulcalibur, King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, and Darkstalkers liscences attached to it, I swear). Fantasy Flight Games also has some damn good PR guys, and they'd love to help you out. Speaking of which the forum community is small, which means less idiots, and most people on there grasp the concept of accountability, and will help you out.

So, that's it for now, will do some more stuff later.

Take care.