Earth Sure Has A Lot Of Things

Shalom,

So much gaming, so little time. I have Okami sitting here, untouched. Final Fantasy XII is yearning for more attention. Rondo of Blood is addictive. I haven't put enough time into Virtua Fighter 4 yet. The same goes for Portrait of Ruin and Twilight Princess. Then of course there is the eight hours of Smash I play every week. Maybe if didn't blog I'd have more time to complete these self-appointed tasks, but I won't make all you loyal readers go too long without some of my witty, incisive commentary. Onward and upward!

Katamari Damashii (Damacy? There really is no right way to spell it.) is the kind of game Americans really like to play. They also love to point to it as evidence of how wacky and crazy Japan is. The Japenese on the other hand don't really care about it and don't purchase it. Kind of like Loco Roco. In the US, KD got tons of attention and enough sales to warrant at least two sequels. It is easy to see why: Katamari is incredibly different from most modern games in both aesthetics and design.

The first thing everyone notices about it are the graphics, which are....unique. Everything is blocky and flat. You won't find any fancy textures or lighting in the game; there is no bump-mapping or pixel-shaders to be found. Everything is strictly utilitarian, getting the point across with minimal effort. The upside of this is that the screen can be filled with hundreds of objects at once with no slowdown, which is necessary for the gameplay.

You play as the Prince (no relation to the King) who must remake all the stars in the sky, after your father, the King of All Cosmos, accidently destroys them in a drunken rampage. To do so, you are sent to Earth to collect mass, which is turned into those twinkling heavenly bodies. Your tool for this job is a Katamari (clump in Japanese), a sort of super-sticky ball the 5cm tall prince rolls around. Any object it touches clings to it. The object of each level is to reach a given diameter by running over as many objects as you can before in a given time frame.

The game is controlled almost entirely with the PS2's analog sticks. Push them both up to go forwards, both right to go right and so on. It is fairly simple and intuitive, but getting your clump to go where you want it to can be a challenge. Depending on what you pick up, your Katamari may become lopsided and require much more effort to move. It is also fairly easy to get stuck places if you are not careful. This does not break the game; most of the time it is still possible to wiggle yourself free, but it does waste valuable time. Another problem comes when trying to climb over lips; larger steps can be surmounted if your ball is big enough, but this is difficult to gauge. It also takes some trial and error to roll over them, so new players may not realize that they can climb over and get to new areas. Lastly, when your Katamari becomes very large, it becomes terribly unwieldy and difficult to move. I mean, I know moving a 50 meter sphere should not necessarily be easy, but it can be frustrating.

Despite these flaws however, it is a very fun game. It rewards the player very quickly and in a very satisfying manner. Mouse harassing you? Take five minutes of collecting stuff and you will be able to take your sweet revenge by rolling it up. It is entertaining to start a level at 10cm and end it ten times that size; there is a real sense of growth throughout each stage.

The level does not end when you reach your goal, but rather continues until time runs out. This lends the game some replayability, as you strive to make the biggest Katamari possible for each stage. Other than that though, it is a short game. It took me about six hours but as soon as I finished, I didn't want to play anymore. Tim Rogers put it best when he said the game breaks up with you. Once I realized that there is nothing more to roll up, that I had become as big as is possible, I felt depressed. I am probably just weird, but no other game has been quite like that. Of course, I would love to go back to it now. There is something relaxing about lazily amassing a ball of stuff.

The soundtrack also deserves mention because it is eclectic and weird but totally awesome. There is really no good way to describe it, but it fits the gameplay perfectly. I am sure it is not everyone's cup of tea but it seems impossible to like the game and dislike its music.



This is a speedrun of the last level (spoilers? I don't see how, but if you don't want to see it, don't watch it) that pretty much encapsulates the game. Obviously it is much better played than normal and not every level gets to 300 meters, but I think it gets the point across.

Katamari Damacy is a divisive game. A lot of people, myself included, really like it, but I also know that some people are completely repulsed at first sight. You can probably tell from the video which camp you fall into. It is far from perfect, but it was also initially released as a $20 budget title. In some ways, it is the predecessor to all of these small games that have been popping up on Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Store. It is a fun and addictive diversion I would recommend to anyone looking for a break from epic quests to murder rival gang bosses.

Royal Rainbow!,
The Kind of All Cosmos

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

2nd life Revolution!

I have a lot of opinions about second life. How it rewards hording, how it gets too much media coverage, how it's hardly a game, etc. etc. But one thing it gets right: French Politics.

The Washington Post reports:

PARIS, March 29 -- In a battle between push guns and pig grenades, the exploding pigs won.

The clash started on a January morning when protesters attacked the cyberspace headquarters of extremist French presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen in the popular 3-D Internet fantasy world Second Life.

Le Pen security forces responded with push guns, whimsical digital weapons that tossed bodies through the air "like rag dolls," according to one witness. Protesters fought back with pig grenades, firing fat pink porkers that exploded in neon pink splatters. When the shooting ended, Le Pen's headquarters lay in ruins, deserted by staff and guards.

So ya. That's awesome. A video of a previous uprising (Apparently it's happened before, and apparently they don't have the new one on youtube yet):

MEGA UPDATE MANEUVER! Okay, so wtf. This was on my google news thing as being 'news'. But it's in reference to a JANUARY thing. The youtube one was posted in february, and is probably more recent. So: YouTube searches more accurate news sources than the Post? This Blog more accurate than the post? I dunno... the story's really about kinda the whole situation...

The Daily Grind

Hello again,

Today I want to talk about a characteristic of RPGs that has always bugged me: leveling. The game's difficulty is inversely proportional to the time you are willing to put into mindlessly fighting enemies.

When I first played through Final Fantasy VII last summer, I did not take my time. It no longer had that quality it possessed back in 1997 to completely entrance any geek who laid eyes on its pre-rendered backgrounds and brief CG cut-scenes. At any rate, I got to Sephiroth at about 32 hours. We fought it out; it was a long and glorious battle in which I eventually succumbed. Cut to two hours of leveling later and I pounded his face in.

Everyone I know who played it way back when sunk many more hours into the game, getting all the ultimate weapons and the level 4 limit-breaks and what-not. Sephy did not stand a chance against their world-crushing power.

Now, I ask you, don't these people deserve more? They obviously love the game; it hardly seems fair to wimp out at the end. Shouldn't the battle be tough enough to yield a satisfying triumph? Personally I think bosses should scale depending on how powerful your party is. It might help foster camaraderie between players, rather than "Kefka killed me" - "God, how could you suck so hard? Kefka is so easy!"

I mean, I know it is a way for players who are having trouble to advance, but I feel like there must be a better way to balance RPGs. Or maybe I'm just complaining for no reason. It is not exactly my most thought-out idea. Comments are appreciated; maybe with your help I can nail down exactly what I mean.

In the mean time, I just played way too much Virtua Fighter 4 Evo and am feeling kinda tired. I want to write something about it but I'm not I have enough experience to do so and not look like a fool. I'm not sure where that point will be either; it doesn't really have a defined "end". Oh well.

I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE YOU,
Kefka

I had good feeling

Final Fantasy Tactics is an amazing game. Tactics Advance has some flaws in comparison, but I actually spent more time playing it. I'm out of the running to get The Lion War at least for the time being, but Final Fantasy Tactics A2 has finally been shown to the public.

Here are the things I can tell from the screenshot
1. The artwork is still the same. For me, that is a plus. I enjoyed FFTA's artwork, and I'm liking what I've seen of Revenant Wings (Same artist, you see). It seems cleaner and simpler than other FF art, especially when compared to newer console releases.
2. They haven't changed the graphics at all. Way to cop-out, but I guess I can't blame them. It'll make the game for cheaper and faster to produce. I just hope it doesn't make the game too similar.

FFTA had some flaws that I would really like to see addressed. There was a complete lack of difficulty, for one. Secondly and far more importantly, the way jobs were distributed among races was incorrect. I am talking about the Viera. In their race-specific classes, they have Summoner, Red Mage, Sniper, and Assasin. Combine those in almost any combination and you have an unholy beast of death. Red Mage can doublecast magic, summoners can summon powerful monsters (combine the two to doublecast summons, of course), Snipers can turn invisible and cause status ailments from far away, and Assasins can INSTANT KILL anything for 32 MP. Add half-MP and that's friggin' 16. Either make all classes available to all races, or give some of the awesome ones to other races.
See, Ritz was the smart one. She got into a whole Viera clan and learned their ways. Marche gets stuck with being an (admittedly awesome) dual-wielding Paladin Ninja, but Ritz can eventually become a dual-casting Assasin. That is entirely gross. And Montblanc...well, he gets a gun, so I guess he is probably ok with anything.
And another thing: Final Fantasy Tactics games need to treat story-important characters as if they are important to the story. Ramza should've been able to become a Heaven Knight like his father before him. Marche should be able to do SOMETHING awesome. Don't leave it to the villains to get the ridiculously awesome classes. They aren't going to win anyway. We already know that. Unless of course you subscribe to the theory that Ramza is the villain of FFTA. Except that he didn't get a ridiculously awesome class. Seems to me, based on the rules of FFT, he ain't that badguy. He's just some jerk who hangs around with a moogle that named his clan "Nutsy."

....ok, last thing. I have an odd relationship with the whole SRPG genre, namely that I've tried a few and I've only really PLAYED the FFT series. That's kinda weird, right? Well the DS is going to test me. Luminous Arc looks pretty cool, and it is coming to America. Meanwhile Hoshigami Remix has been announced. It was originally released for PS1 around 2001. I was really interested in it up until almost everyone said it sucked way bad. I suppose we'll see how it goes.
But here is the important thing: Is any of these games have wireless battle options (or, even better, wi-fi) I'll be bugging all you jerks to throw down. I may not be good at tactics games, but I enjoy playing and grinding. And sometimes grinding really IS what it is about.

"Wii Tennis" vs. The Fence

Epic Match-Up: The headliner of Nintendo's Wii Sports, "Wii Tennis" pitted against what keeps your dead leaves from mingling with the Robinson's dead leaves.


INTRODUCTION
I hardly need to detail the reasons for this match-up. For ages, fences and "Wii Tennis" [editor's note: if you put chapters of a book in quotes, do you put a mode of play in a video game in quotes?] have been eager to get at each other like two rottweilers on either side of a "Wii Tennis". Or a fence, if that's more your style. I hope to once and for all put an end to the debate that has swept the nation like Nash vs. Kobe, Vanilla vs. Chocolate, Ocarina of Time vs. Rapelay.

THE CASE FOR THE FENCE
The fence, as the old saying goes, is as old as the border. That age gives it experience. Need two things divided? Need something to look over? Have a floppy hat, sage advice, and an acting role on Home Improvement? Then you need a fence. Fences can be made of any number of materials, such as wood, steel, lazers, or poor level design.

Most importantly, good fences make good neighbors. And really, what tastes better than a good neighbor?

THE CASE FOR "WII TENNIS"
As I'm sure about a gazillion different gaming blogs (This links to what scientists believe to be the worst blog ever, covering that topic), Wii Tennis has changed gaming. What can be more hands-on [without actually being hands-on]? The gaming is first boiled down to its component parts: we've got natural menus, simple character design, and intuitive gameplay. Then, the game is built up from that foundation. Spin, shot placement, serve stratagems, and (most importantly) real-life verbal intimidation are layered on to create the ultimate product.

Finally, what can a fence do that a bunch of posts jammed into the ground can't?

THE CONCLUSION
Fences. I have it on good authority, they will never break your TV.

A Miserable Little Pile of Secrets

Die Monster,

Last Wednesday, a game came to Xbox Live Marketplace and it was good. And IGA said unto them, "Play this game, be fruitful and multiply." The lesson here is as follows: If you own a 360 and do not but Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, you are going to have to stop being my friend. For $10 it is a steal, especially because you cannot find it for nearly that much on Amazon or similar sites. Besides, if enough people buy it, we might just convince Konami that a next-gen 2D CV is viable. Here's to hoping!

SotN, as its friends call it, was something of a rogue in its time. The year was 1997. While Sony was pushing 3D games for its fledgling Playstation, spurning two dimensions as a thing of the past, Koji Igarashi dared to make a high quality sidescroller. While the vast majority of PS1 games really show their age today, Symphony is almost as good now as it was then.

The game is turning point for the series; it forgoes the traditional level based structure of its predecessors and offers a large, interconnected castle that can cleared be at will. Much like Super Metroid, whose influence is evident throughout, the game rewards exploration, often with power-ups that allow greater mobility; as you accumulate these abilities, more of the map becomes available.

Symphony also marks the first occasion where a Belmont is not the main character; rather you play as Alucard, son of Dracula and fan-favorite badass with daddy-issues. Al travels to Drac's castle to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Richter Belmont, hero of Rondo of Blood/Dracula X. Along the way you meet Maria, also from Rondo, and assorted other characters who don't really matter all that much. The story is pretty basic, but does feature some of the most memorable voice-acting in all of gaming. It is totally horrible and over-the-top, but in a hilarious, endearing sort of way.

Control is pretty tight, though I have heard bad things about the 360's D-pad. Hopefully it won't pose too much of a problem.

RPG elements are introduced to Castlevania with this title as well. As you play, you gain experience points for defeating enemies and consequently become more powerful as the game progress. This is a welcome edition, but not completely well implemented; as you obtain higher levels, there becomes almost no point to fighting the weaker enemies as they yield little experience. Thankfully this is not too big an issue, especially if you are the collecting type. There are hundreds of items in the game, from health restoratives to projectiles to armor and no matter how much you play there always seem to be more you haven't seen. You can put various equipment for stat bonuses as well. Money is also collected for purchasing maps, spells, weapons and the like from the librarian, giving the game more depth and replay value than previous CVs.

Graphically, the game holds up pretty well. Alucard's animation in particular is very smooth and the different area's of the castle are nicely detailed. There are many great touches like the family of birds near the bottom of the Tower of Mist, or the confessional booth in the Chapel. Effects are also well done for the most part. The sky in the Chapel actually looks pretty bad if I remember; there are some bits through the game that just look crappy but overall it is aesthetically pleasing.

Aurally, the game is amazing. While the sound effects are not particularly spectacular, the game has one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard. Working on a CD-based system, Michiru Yamane has crafted a score of incredible quality and range. From the rocking Clocktower to the mournful Chapel to the stunning piano of Olrox's Quarters, every piece is instantly recognizable and completely awesome. Castlevania is a series known for its great music and this is certainly no exception.

Like most CV games, Symphony is packed full of nostalgia for long-time series fans. Familiar enemies abound and many scenes evoke previous titles. Hell, the entire opening is the end of Rondo of Blood.

There are a couple of surprises in store for intrepid players. The biggest one really artificially extends play time, but it is a nice touch. Not to mention that after beating that part, Richter become playable which is appreciated.

Avoid the Saturn version, though that should be easy because it was never released in America. Apparently the 360 version has a few minor sound issues, but don't let that deter you.

I played Aria of Sorrow (personal favorite CV) and Dawn of Sorrow before I played SotN, both of which follow its formula. I think this gives me a unique perspective on things. While later games certainly do some things better (SOULS!!!), it is impossible to deny Symphony's quality or importance. Very highly recommended.

But Belmont's power is supreme among vampire hunters,
Alucard

I NEED MORE SOULS

I need to write more in this thing. Seriously. DKaufman mentioned CV reviews. He's right.
HERE WE GO.

Aria of Sorrow is the best Castlevania ever for however many reasons I end up writing down. Are you ready?

1. Soma Cruz. This guy is on opposite ends of the awesome spectrum. He is a clueless jerk who doesn't know wtf throughout the majority of the game, and as evidenced by the extra bit of dialogue in the 100% Souls ending he is a giant dork. "I'm a whole lot cooler now!" Only a dork would say that. He is a highschool jackass in an extrodinary situation, and for that he is easy to appreciate. He isn't an unimaginably awesome Belmont or a little girl who ruins monsters' shit with cats. On the other end of that awesome spectrum, he is That is arguably cooler than any Belmont. So Soma is horribly awesome yet inherently approachable. Good call.
2. Awesome Supporting Cast: In AoS, which is what we are talking about, we can pretty much disregard Yoko and Hammer, which is why I'll get them out of the way first. Yoko teases Soma a little which is awesome, and Hammer is a scary black man who sells you the Soul Eater Ring. Movin' on: Julius Belmont is probably the coolest Belmont ever. The "worst" ending (Worst in this case apparently means BEST) will explain better then I ever could. Then we have Mina. Look, call me a woman but I'm all for a little barely-explored romantic subplot in my games that involve killing monsters. Genya and Graham round out the bunch as mysterious jerks who end up awesome and hilariously dumb respectively.
3. Souls. Let's cut to the chase, as this is the crux of everything: Getting a soul in Aria (this is actually amplified in Dawn) is one of the best experiences in any game ever. Every enemy has a soul that grants you special abilities that are way cooler than anything Simon Belmont ever did except the 8-way-whip. When you kill an enemy, if you are a lucky bunny, their soul will fly out swirl around and slam into you like a subway train. Every single time this happens it is like a tiny Christmas party in my brain. Seriously. No other game has such a simple and satisfying experience.
4. Here is the paradox: As cool as souls are, it is equally cool when they are NOT. NoSoul mode amplifies the challenge of a relatively easy game by denying you access to the central system at work, and that is just good times.

Mix in the really good Castle and you've got the best CV ever. Seriously, try to fight me on this. I'll bury you in a hail of gunfire...which, incidentally, is another awesome thing about Aria of Sorrow. But seriously: I've gotta get the shaq-fu outta here.

Breaking News: I'm awesome

Welcome to my underground lair,

Well, looks like my reckless and irresponsible rumor-mongering has finally paid off, as NiGHTS Wii and the XB0X 360 1337 have both been confirmed in the past couple of days. Apparently, Microsoft's new SKU does not include the newer, cooler 65 nm chips, which seems dumb, but who knows? Hopefully by the time I have the cash to buy one there will have been another revision.

In other news, Mario and Sonic are teaming up to take on the 2008 Olympics on the Wii and the DS. This should prove interesting; I am looking forward to seeing Nintendo's interpretation of the various events. Isn't Sonic a little unfair in any race? Mario seems like a shoe-in for the hammer toss or high jump....unless our blue hedgehog has all the emeralds. Ahem. /geeking out. With any luck they will continue their rivalry into Brawl.

I am currently playing Rondo of Blood (thanks go to Pkadden for providing) and not working as I perhaps should be. Oh well. Rondo! Never released in America, old-school Castlevania at its best. Expect to see some CV reviews here soon. Woo, 2D gaming.

What is a man!?,
Dracula

AARREEEEESS!!!

Welcome fellow worshipers of me,

Blech, I really should learn how to write. Thankfully, this is just a blog and I know our vast readership is filled with kind-hearted souls who will forgive my inability to use the English language. But enough talk. Have at you!

There has been a lot of talk here lately, mostly from me, of your Ninja Gaidens and your Devil May Crys, so I would be remiss not to talk about arguably the most popular entry of this developing subgenre, God of War.

You play a pale, Spartan, brute of a fellow named Kratos. The titular deity has done horrible things to him and it is up to you to help Kratos get his revenge. The story is simple but well told, never breaking up the action for too long.

You know what? I really don't feel like talking about this game all that much. It does not spark my imagination. The following is an unreview.

To me, GoW is like the Soul Calibur of neo-beat'em ups (specifically SCII as it is the only one I have any real experience with). It has ridiculously high production values and is fairly deep while maintaining a noob-friendliness about it. It is very easy to pull off lots of cool looking moves without knowing anything about the game systems. It feels unfinished because it is short and there are tons of things the developers talk about getting cut due to time restraints. A few battles are really poorly designed; the most egregious of these is the cage-hill. The game does a decent job at making it an adventure as well as a beat'em up but overall the game is too easy.

This was originally a much longer post. I could go into much more detail, but really, what's the point? It is a good game, a very good one even, but in the end, not my favorite cup of tea. It was not satisfying enough to live up to the hype. If it had been some obscure game I stumbled upon, I probably would be more impressed with it, but all the advertising and attention raised my expectations too high. Funny how that works.

I am the God of War!,
Kratos

Broken Pixels

Hola,

I was watching the 1up Show's recent interview with the director of Ninja Gaiden Sigma when he made an interesting point. He said that Devil May Cry is not an action game (it is), but rather a combo game. Now, Team Ninja can kind of be assholes sometimes (see: Tomonobu Itagaki) but despite their history of ragging on competitors (Tekken), I think it has some validity.

As much as I love DMC3, most of the normal combat is you doing cool take downs on enemies. As hard as the game is, a lot of the normal battles are not that difficult. They are a lot of fun, but that is besides the point. The real action is against the bosses, which can't be knocked into the air or juggled with pistol fire. As entertaining as these encounters can be, it generally boils down to finding the most damaging thing to do and doing it repeatedly, while not getting hit. They take out the part of the best aspect of the game. I don't think NG is any different in this regard, but it is something the genre can work on. I stand by everything I said in my DMC3 review, it is a great game, I would just like to see if Capcom could address this.

I have not played nearly enough Ninja Gaiden to comment on it.

Speaking of broken games, the old Genesis Sonic titles. I have spent many happy hours foiling Dr Robotnik's (Eggman?) ill-conceived plots, but there is something inherently wrong with the game design. They are platforming games based on speed; as the levels progress the precision required increases to the point where going fast is no longer an option (unless you are Joe Stanski). I noticed this first in Metropolis Zone of Sonic 2: the running sections are really short and infrequent, focusing instead on a lot of tedious jumping. Better level design that takes into account constant motion would make a huge difference. I mean, look at games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or Spiderman 2. When moving is fun, the game is win.

One other quick gripe about Sonic: the bonus levels are too long. I only rarely go for emeralds because it takes you away from the main game for several boring minutes.

I hate Blue Sphere,
Yuji Naka

Hikware

Salutations,

How have you been? I am dead tired for some reason, so I'll try to keep this short, for the greater good; for Mother Russia.

Man, I love me some freeware shooters. Tonight's topic is Ray Hound, an odd but intriguing little game I found while browsing 1up.com's 101 best free games list. Lacking Cave Story, the list's validity is questionable, but that is a discussion for another day.

RH is a shooter where you can't shoot. It is neither horizontal nor vertical scrolling game, but takes place in an "arena" of fixed size. Enemies spawn and you must defeat a fixed number each level in order to progress. Naturally, the amount increases as you get to higher stages. You control your ship with the mouse, which takes some getting used to. Clicking creates some sort of magnetic, polarity reversing field around the spacecraft that you use to capture enemy fire. By holding down the button, you can pull around all the lasers you amassed and drag them into enemies. If you are really hot stuff, you can release the lasers and send them flying into the targets, but this requires some practice; the shots you trap are constantly circling you in a roughly elliptical pattern and leave at difficult-to-predict angles. However, destroying multiple enemies with one release does yield a bonus multiplier. It reminds me somewhat of Mars Matrix, but as I recall that was easier to control.

In the later levels, Ray Hound looks pretty cool, with laser beams criss-crossing the play field at every conceivable angle, but besides that the game is not much to see. Then again, what do you expect with freeware? There is no music, which is a bummer. A dearth of options also holds the game back, but again, it is not commercially distributed. If it sounds at all interesting to you, there is really no reason not to check it out, but don't expect anything more than a fairly unique time waster.

I really need to start linking more stuff. All the other kids are doing it, but I'm too lazy at the moment. That's all for now.

Special Operations Foxhound,
Revolver Ocelot

Roar of the Earth

Do come in,

I love Shadow of the Colossus; it is probably one of my favorite games on the PS2. However, I don't feel like doing a full review at the moment, so I am here to tell you what I think could be done to make the game even better. Exciting, no? Who doesn't love to listen to someone complaining?

The easiest aspect of the game to fix is the HUD. Fumito Ueda and his wonderful team at Sony were wise enough to keep it off screen when none of the information provided was relevant. Even when it is shown, it is fairly minimal, just your stamina, health, equipped weapon and occaisionally a colossus' remaining life. I believe that most, if not all, of these are unnecessary and only take away from the onscreen majesty. Do you really need a little icon telling you if you have a bow or a sword out? It is pretty obvious by cursory glance at Wander which he is currently wielding. Furthermore, is the option of having nothing equipped necessary? Only two situations come to mind when it is used: during the eleventh colossus and picking up upgrades. It seems pointless to have to switch to "empty handed" to pick objects and I feel this ability could easily be integrated into either of the other weapons. I know there are other items available, but because they are accessible only after beating the game, it can be assumed the player is sufficiently experienced not to be confused. Second, the boss' health meter. I found this to get in the way of the experience; rather than an intense struggle to the death, the display always informed me how close the colossus was to death. I knew I had the battle in the bag as my sword was raising and I was celebrating victory in my mind. To me, the best boss battles are down to the wire, where it could be you or it at any moment. For a game based around these encounters, this was most disappointing. It has a much better feature already built in with the glowing weak points; when it stops shining you know you cannot strike there anymore. It does not clutter the screen and helps immerse the player, without giving them too clear an idea of their progress. Personally, I would rather see the player health bar go too. If Wander's animation and other other visual clues were used to convey his status, it would go a long way towards improving the player's link with their avatar. At the very least, it could be integrated into the stamina circle, using a color based system to indicate remaining life. As the color becomes progressively redder, you are closer to death. Lastly, the stamina circle is probably the most important visual cue, but I would like to see that integrated into the animation as well. For instance, the more Wander flails when shaken, the less stamina you have remaining. I realize this kind of reliance on player observation and intelligence is something developers are loathe to implement, but a boy can dream, can't he? Elimination of the HUD is something I think most games should strive for, but it bothers me a lot in SotC because they are so close to that ideal.

Shadow is a beautiful game. There is no denying this fact. The artistry present is phenomenal, to the point where the vast and barren world becomes almost a character unto itself. The sense of scale is incredible and the use of motion blur is stunning; there were moments playing where I would have believed it to be a next-gen title had I not known better. The problem the game runs into then is that too often it painfully obvious that the game is too ambitious for the hardware and the poor machine just cannot keep up. The frame-rate suffers most of the time; once you get used to it, it's not too distracting but it does take away from what should be a seamless experience. Speaking of seams, the game has a pop-up problem. The draw distance is huge, but you will still run into occasions of "Hey, that mountain was not there before." As you approach a cliff face, you can watch the detail being rendered. Given the scale of the game, this is somewhat forgivable, though I can't help but wonder how good this would have looked if they had waited to make it on the PS3.

The hint system could use an overhaul. Personally, I would like the option of turning it off altogether, but that might just be me. The hints I did get were generally either so cryptic they were useless, or told me things I knew already. During the longer battles, having a hint repeated every three minutes got old quickly.

I wish the game was harder too. Staying on a colossus is for the most part not difficult or engaging enough. If you are standing on one and it begins to shake, you have plenty of time to jam on R1 as Wander is going through his exaggerated "I'm falling" animation and to be saved. The animation is not the problem; it's a great example of how developers can integrate visual cues seamlessly. Rather, there is little skill or danger involved when the colossus moves vigorously. If the player had to move the control stick in the same direction as the boss' movement or face a greater stamina loss, or something like that, it would make the battles much more interactive. As it stands now, all you do is hold onto the shoulder button and wait for it to stop.

The game lacks difficulty in the damage dealt too. I don't mind the regenerating health so much as how little threat the bosses pose to you. I was flung from the top of the tallest colossus, then had to be shot twice before I died. While the game does a good job in some regards of reinforcing the David vs Goliath theme, such as the prolonged recovery animation, the colossi were not usually intimidating enough. When I am stepped on by a small mountain, I think it should end my life.

The camera mostly sucks; you can tell by how much control you are given over it: a stick and three shoulder buttons. It often goes nuts during battles forcing you to wait to act. Don't get me wrong, you get many unbelievably epic visual moments throughout the game, but a smarter camera would definitely help take the burden off the player for such things. Wouldn't it be cool if it automatically pulled way back when you are running along the back of the second colossus to show the scale? Or when the fifth is doing all its crazy aerial maneuvers? Or if it automatically gave you the side view when you are trying to get on the thirteenth?

While trying to find the seventh colossus, I got lost and stumbled upon a ruin and spent the next half hour exploring it. I loved climbing over the dilapidated structure, seeing where I could get to and wondering about who had left it there. I was disappointed not to actually find anything and even more disappointed to find out it was the location of the fourteenth beast. The game is ripe for exploration; I spent countless hours just roaming the country side. Though I was rewarded by the beautiful landscape, there was really nothing else to find, no caves to wander into with some treasure waiting inside. Everything I found was just a place to fight. Then again, I really have no idea what kind of bonus would be fitting for intrepid tomb raiders in the context of the game. Concept art maybe?

I wish the temple of worship had been the last colossus. That would have been awesome.

I had a bit of trouble knowing when my stab had been started, a little rumble cue would be nice. Sorry PS3 early adopters.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the music in this game.

Wow, that was much lengthier than I had anticipated. Imagine how long this would have been if it was a full review. Do I seem overly harsh? It is a fantastic game that I would recommend to most anyone, but it falls just short of super greatness.

AGRO!,
Wander

Can't stop the blog

Welcome, world-weary travelers,

I want one. That takes some serious dedication, but judging from the amount of coverage, he'll fetch a pretty penny for it.

Did you know blog is short for web log? WERE YOU EVEN AWARE OF IT!?!?

While I'm linking stuff, I might as well mention this, as it is pretty cool. Nintendo gets publicity, Penny Arcade gets a big discount and sick kids get games. As cool as Child's Play is though, I kinda wish some of the money would go towards actually fighting whatever afflictions these kids may have. I mean, look at the response in the gamer community. Obviously, there is huge support for the program; hell, I went to a Magic tournament and they were taking donations for it. Keeping the kids' spirits up with books, toys and games is very important, but it seems like more can be done.

Don't get me wrong, I love what Mike and Jerry (Gabe and Tycho) are doing and I support it 100%, but let's see how much further we as gamers can go. And yes, we are on a first name basis.

I punched a baby once...in anger. But in my defense, the baby was being kind of a dick,
Gabe out

Help Me Marina!!!

Why am I Mr. Pink?,

First off, I would like welcome another member to our illustrious web-based publication. Do blogs count as such? Who cares!

Second, Drill Dozer was totally great. Sure the music is repetitive (but I still wish I could find the soundtrack) and it wasn't much to look at, but it was an interesting take on a tired genre. Some of the level design and most of the boss fights were pretty creative. Actually it reminded me a lot of some of Treasure's platformers, specifically Mischief Makers.

See what I did there?

MM is a similarly quirky and inventive platformer from the early days of the N64. You play as Marina, intergalactic Cybot G and all around swell gal. The professor is always getting kidnapped and it is up to you to save him. And the galaxy. Or something. The plot is of little consequence most of the time. Some of the characters are fun, if underdeveloped; nonetheless I still get a kick out of some of the exclamations. "HERE'S LUNAR!!!"

The real draw here is the game design. Though this is a platformer, you won't find much hopping or bopping in Marina's repertoire. Grabbing and shaking is the order of business in this title. Various level features, enemies and even projectiles can be taken hold of to help clear the stages. The mobility afforded by this is a lot of fun and plays very well with the intelligently designed levels. Plus, it is always entertaining to throw enemies around or into each other. Shaking objects will often yield unexpected, but usually welcome, occurrences such as a more powerful throwing object or collectible gems.

The stages are generally very short, emphasizing precision play over endurance. At the end of each, you are ranked based on your completion time; if you find the game addictive enough, you can try for all S ranks, a nigh impossible task. I don't have even a single one. There are also gold gems scattered throughout, usually hidden or in some hard to reach nook, that add replay value. Levels are for the most part unique, each offering some new twist or gimmick to keep you interested till the finale. It is a short experience, but there is plenty of enjoyment to be had, especially if you are are the 100% completion type.

The boss battles deserve special mention as they are awesome. Where else can you ride a cat, who is in turn riding a missile, while being chased by a dog on a motorcycle? That's what I thought.

Graphically and aurally, MM is nothing special. In fact, it might even be sub par depending on how much importance you place on such things, but it would be a mistake to let the production values get in the way. Highly recommended.

It is worth noting that I would not have had the opportunity to play either Mischief Makers or Drill Dozer if I did not have the pleasure of Pkadden's aquaintence. Thank you, kind sir.

Shake Shake,
Marina

Dig it to the center of the Earth!

Heya folks! I'm new but I'm awesome, so let's just get down to talking about games again:

I was recently called upon to defend Drill Dozer for the GBA, and I couldn't articulate very easily why it I enjoyed it so much. It is a platformer by Game Freak that didn't seem to make much of an impact in the states. I picked it up for $10 over the summer and I had a good time playing it.

And really, that's about it, but I'll elaborate for those of you who haven't heard of it. The character design isn't anything spectacular. You play a little girl in a giant robot, and you have some colleagues but they don't really matter. For the most part, the game play isn't really that spectacular either. But it is good. The drilling mechanic involves holding down the R or L button to start your drill, and then tapping the appropriate button again to shift into a higher "gear" for more power. You start out with 1 gear, and gain the 2nd and 3rd during the course of each level. It is a slightly more inventive way of attacking a dealing with environmental obstacles than simply punching or jumping, so I have to give Game Freak credit.

I've been burned out on platformers so a long while, so I was rather surprised when Drill Dozer managed to hold my interest. But if you asked me to spell out why, I don't think I could tell you. It is just a rather enjoyable, light-hearted, low-stakes experience. It isn't mind blowing, but not every game has to be.


One More Final: Someone (on these very internets, no less!) complained that it lasted less than a week. Is that really what it is about? Does length make a game better? I submit that if you eliminate dealing with the cost (which is a major factor for me personally) it doesn't matter at all. I paid $50 for Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo Featuring Zone of the Enders when it came out, and I felt cheated after my 2:10 completion time for Z.O.E. But then I looked back on what a fantastic experience it was (for the time...) and realized that complaining about the length had me missing the entire point.
And Shaq-Fu, you guys: I wouldn't want to play a platformer for more than a week anyway.

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore

Herzlich Wilkommen,

I was reading Newsweek's review of 300 when I came across one of my biggest pet peeves, a film critic disparagingly comparing a movie to a videogame. Where do they get off acting so high and mighty? Sure, there are a lot of crappy games out there, but I assume Hollywood would not be too happy being judged based on Wild Hogs or Norbit. Why does this notion of video games as mindless, violent, juvenile pastimes persist? Sure, it is a relatively young medium, but I don't see its novelty as a negative. Rather, it means there are tons of exciting possibilities for continued development.

There are plenty of games that surpass anything shown in theaters. No movie I have ever seen is as hauntingly beautiful or touching as Shadow of the Colossus. No film has captured loneliness and isolation as well as Metroid Prime. Half-Life 2 is still the best vision of an Orwellian dystopia I have experienced. Few movies are as consistently clever or funny as Psychonauts. Final Fantasy XII is high fantasy on a scale that could never be attempted on the silver screen, with the possible exception of LOTR. The list goes on and on.

Obviously, there are areas where cinema will always have the edge. Most games employ cut scenes to tell the major plot points, after all. However, to treat them as an inferior form of story telling is to be willfully ignorant of an entire artistic medium.

Well, enough ranting for now. Maybe I am overreacting but it really gets to me when someone belittles video games. They'll see, one day. Or they'll die in a fiery helicopter accident.

What cat?,
Alyx Vance

Into Dreams

We meet at last for the first time for the last time,

So, rumor-mongering. My last post concerned the rumors flying hither and thither across this vast wasteland known as the Internet regarding the 360 hardware revision. The fact is though, this has yet to be announced by Microsoft. However many rumors do end up becoming a reality (See: PS Home, DMC4), it was unprofessional of me to write about unconfirmed speculation. I apologize; somehow you may find it in your hearts to forgive me.

I hope though you will understand why I did it. Speculation, gossiping or whatever you want to call it, is fun. Late last night I posted a topic on the lone forum I frequent about a new NiGHTS game for the Wii, only to have people more thorough than I shoot it down. This is not to say Yuji Naka's non-Sonic fan favorite is not coming to a next-gen console near you, but the confirmation came from a source of dubious reliability.

So, I feel pretty silly. As they say though, always look on the bright side of life. I think I have learned my lesson: speculate as much as you want, but do not leave an evidence in case you are wrong.

I'm outta here,
Sonic

Background

so, I changed the background. I felt it needed... more boobs.

It'll show up differently on diff. resolutions, and other bad things, so I'm gonna change it eventually to smaller tile pattern, but Joanna will probably find her way to the background of the nav bar or something. Or you guys can change it. It's your blog! I just live here.

Avocadoes

So I make a blog, and dissappear for a few days without posting. Why? I bought Final Fantasy XII.

After playing Fire Warrior, I tried another game from my cabinet: 007, Agent Under Fire. It was actually all right, i really like the GTA-style car level thrown in the middle, shown here.



But the controls were sloppy, the guns were silly, and the targetting was horrid, so I was a little down on the PS2's gaming selection (having unfairly associated the PS2 with "things in my closet")

So I went out and bought FFXII. And then played it for 11 hours in the first 24 I owned it (so little, only because I had to go to work).

And the game is really sweet. My dad sat next to me and just watched the cinematics and the gameplay, because the whole game is so artistic and well-produced. He particularly liked Fran and Asche. I'm so swept up with it that I can't articulate any specifics about why it is so awesome, but it is.

I'm reading this article by Dean Takahashi in the San Jose Mercury News. Its about the game developers conference in san francisco a few days ago. It quotes the designer behind TA and Supreme Commander, Chris Taylor as saying "Gamers want new experiences, but it's a struggle to get the game designers and the business people excited about delivering something original."

That gamers want new experiences seems like a truism. But I started thinking about it, and I don't know that it is. For starters, I play chrono trigger every year. And its fun, every year. I keep noticing new things, I keep trying the soda chugging contest, I keep trying to do everything right for the judgment scene. That's not a new experience, but I still want it. And I'd consider myself a gamer.

He's not wrong though. Gamers do want new experiences (I want to play Spore, for instance. Mostly because its new.) But I think the newness is often played up. Halo 1, 2, and 3 were all promoted as something new. "Combat evolved" and so forth. but that wasn't really the case. It was combat we had seen before, done pretty well and supported by pretty good online play. Gamers liked it, but not because it was a new experience. We'd been blowing our buddies' heads off for years before Halo. We liked it because it was done well, easy to pick up, and a vent for our competitive nature.

So, what's it mean that this rather omnipresent mantra of the gaming industry ("gamers demand newness") is really rather false? Nothing: gaming companies seem perfectly willing to ignore it for the benefit of profit. As much as I love Chris Taylor's games, maybe his 'business people' are right to promote proven game styles.

Postscript: WTF Chris Taylor, SC is not original! It's TA, repackaged. You added some nifty "efficiency" things, but you're not exactly inventing a new genre of game. It's an RTS, and like all RTSes, it has its own workings and rules. And it's really good! but it's not "original" per se.

XB0X 360 1337

Guten Tag,

Well, it was bound to happen, but so soon? I had been holding out on buying a 360 for a couple of reason. First, I'm mostly broke, so I'd need to wait for a price drop or a job. Second, I have a whole backlog of gaming that needs to get done before I even consider getting a new console. Third, I was hoping the Backwards Compatibility list would grow so that I would have no reason to get an original Xbox (Riddick, Orta etc) Most importantly however, I was waiting for a hardware revision a la slim PS2.

The 360 has made plenty of progress since its launch. Xbox Live is the current standard for online console gaming and Live Arcade has a decent selection of games with more on the horizon (Symphony of the Night tomorrow!). The library is shaping up nicely with exclusives like Mass Effect, Too Human, BioShock, Forza 2 and Halo 3 on the way. Speaking of exclusives, Sony has lost its sole claim on Virtua Fighter 5, Grand Theft Auto 4, Devil May Cry 4 and Ace Combat 6. Really, the only reasons left for me to get a PS3 are Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII: Fabula Nova Chrystallis; at this rate, who knows if they will remain exclusive for long.

But yeah, Elite. The 120 gig hard drive is a welcome addition and with HDMI support, the $600 PS3 is losing what little edge it had left. At $480, the new 360 SKU is a bit pricier than the Premium, but it is still cheaper than any of Sony's next-gen offerings. Though it lacks next-gen format support, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD does not seem to be catching on yet anyway.

Personally, I was hoping for something a bit smaller. Isn't it a bit soon to come out with a new model? Why not wait and release bigger update? The original launched less than a year and a half ago. Maybe Microsoft is hoping to stimulate console sales, which have been reportedly mediocre. Hopefully, these machines will feature those new 65 nanometer chips we heard about a few months ago. As long is it runs cooler and quieter than the current 360, I'll be happy.

Go! Go! Go!,
Peter Moore

MY BRAINS ARE GOING INTO MY FEEEET

Bienvenidos,

Let's see if I can keep this one short, m'kay? Its a small game and there is only so much to say.

Torus Trooper is a freeware schmup developed by Kenta Cho. The best way I can think to describe it is a cross between F-Zero X and Gyruss. Its goal is simple: get a high score in the two minutes allotted. This period can be extended by defeating bosses and beating levels. You obtain points while going fast and killing stuff; that is really all there is to it. The action takes place on the inside of an endless, undulating tube which you can move laterally about. You have two weapons, the normal spread shot and a charged attack that slows you down but can destroy enemy bullets and gets a combo multiplier. I'll be honest here, I don't actually pay attention to the scoring because it is secondary to the experience.

This is the fastest game I have ever played. When on extreme mode, you can literally go too fast to play. It is fun to see how long you can last going 10,000 km/h, but it won't ever be more than a couple of seconds, if you are lucky. At times it becomes a hypnotic experience, utilizing only wire frame graphics with neon colors. (This is where I would compare it to Rez, if I had played Rez) The music, while not "good," enhances the trance-like tone.

The hit detection is a bit wonky; because the game is so fast, I can't seem to figure out where the vulnerable area is. You will die far less than would appear plausible, with enemy bullets seemingly passing right through your ship. This becomes a problem because when I did die, I could not understand what was different from all the times when I thought I had lost but didn't, and felt cheated.

Still, it is an entertaining, if shallow, diversion and it is difficult to say no to free. Google Torus Trooper for best results and don't forget to GO FAST!

Don't ever give up, my son,
James McCloud

A bomb's a bad choice for close-range combat

Yo homeys,

Welcome back to another exciting edition of me talking! Since I have nothing better to do, (WOO SPRING BREAK!!!) I have decided to once again grace you with my inexhaustible wisdom.

I would like to talk about a little game called Deus Ex. Being a primarily console-focused gamer, I had not heard of this title until I saw it towards the top of one of those "100 greatest games of all time forever and for all eternity" lists. The brief description sounded interesting and I found it for 91 cents on Amazon, so I decided to give it a shot.

DX, as it is abbreviated, is the creation of the short-lived Ion Storm development group based in Austin. You may know them as the creators of the infamous Daikatana, but rest assured, this game was created by a different team and bears little resemblance to that bomb.

At first glance, Deus Ex appears to be an FPS, but attempting to play it as one will most likely get you killed. Despite Ion Storms claims that it can be played as one, the guns-blazing approach has not worked any time I have tried it, even on easy mode. Instead, this is an RPG. Or a thinking man's shooter. Or a stealth game. I am actually not sure how to classify it as it defies convention and blends genres.

You play as JC Denton, cop of the future and nano-machine enchanced superhuman. Throughout the game, you are given experience points to increase your abilities with skills ranging from weapon proficiency to hacking to medicine. This feature allows you to customize your experience and provides a huge amount of replayablity. In addition to this skill system, you can increase your abilities with canisters scattered throughout the game, yielding tricks like invisibility, health regeneration or greater speed. All of these augments can be upgraded three times, virtually guaranteeing that no two players will have the same JC.

The player-determined experience does not end there. Though you are given primary objectives that must be completed to advance the story, the game gives many secondary missions that can be completed at your discretion. Some yield equipment, others give experience and still others can help you out later in the game. For instance, at one point I told an ally to stay where he was and not leave the agency he was at. Later on, he contacted me and asked to meet in restaurant. When I got there, he informed me that an enemy had followed me, and that he knew the enemy's weakness. Though you cannot direct where the story goes, you always have a choice in what happens along the way. Characters can die, but it depends entirely on whether or not you make an effort to save them.

Game design is where Deus Ex really shines. Every obstacle has multiple solutions; a locked door can be blown open, the lock can be picked, a key can be found, or maybe there is an air duct leading to the room that you can crawl through. Short on cash? Hack an ATM. There are so many options, you are almost certainly not going to experience everything in the game the first time through. There are plenty of alternate routes and even whole areas that eluded my notice when I played.

Another strength lies in the story and atmosphere. DX takes place in a near-future dystopia ruled by conspiracies and paranoia. The game succeeds in this regard thanks to smart writing and some intelligent design choices. The world is fleshed out by newspapers and books that expand the universe without forcing the player through tedious exposition. The dialog is never too intrusive and can be skipped if you so desire. Players who do pay attention though will be rewarded with a well-thought out and believable vision of the near future, as well as an intriguing conspiracy driven plot.

Visually, there is nothing remarkable about Deus Ex. Much of this can be attributed to its age, as it is running on a modified version of the original Unreal engine. Artistically though, the game is very dark and nothing you encounter is likely to impress. The same goes for the animation, which is laughable by today's standards. This is besides the point however, as graphics fulfill their function and usually don't get in the way.

Sound-wise, the game holds up well. There is a ton of voice acting and the quality is decent or better. The music is generally very atmospheric but does a perfect job of evoking the dark and haunting atmosphere. Though it is unlikely you will find yourself humming one of the tunes throughout your day, hearing one will immediately bring you back to the world of Deus Ex. Sound effects are one of the game's weak points; the weapons are not satisfying to fire and nothing sounds terribly realistic but it is not a big enough gripe to actually hurt the experience.

A couple other things of note: The game should run fine on any modern computer, if anything too well. When I first installed my copy, it played too fast and I had to twiddle with my settings before it ran normally. Second, I found the default control scheme to be odd, but as it is fully customizable, it was not a large problem. Lastly, the game received a PS2 port, which you should stay away from. Though I haven't played it myself, I can't see how the complex controls could be translated onto a console with any success.

I would highly recommend Deus Ex to anyone looking for a shooter with a bit more brains than say, Halo. An ambitious game that rewards patience and intelligence, it is a unique experience that modern game developers could learn a lot from.

Holy Verbosity, Batman! I don't know what came over me. Apparently I just can't be concise when it comes to video games. Like everything I write, this could use some judicious editing but I know all you out there in Internet-land will forgive me for not spending more time on this.

Maybe I'll cap his ass too,
JC Denton

lol, dan's internet.

500 years later, fable 2 is.

"In roleplaying games, buying stuff is really important". I talked to my mom about this, in regards to second-life vs WoW vs UO. 2ndlife is about buying and showing off your stuff, WoW is about earning stuff, and to a less extent, showing it off, and UO was a really cool mixture of both, since there's real estate (a la 2ndlife) and merit-based earning (a la WoW).

I'm gonna put links in these posts. and maybe embed video.

And I really want to do QA for Fable 2. Dunno how to get that going tho. but like, really want to.

Devils Never Cry

Hello again minions,

I say, you folks out there sure are lucky. You get not one but TWO whole posts tonight? What have you done lately to deserve such generosity?

Tonight's featured game is the ps2 exclusive (at least until Ubisoft gets its act together and releases the PC port) Devil May Cry 3. You are Dante, resident badass and Alucard look-alike. Being the son of a legendary demon who turned his back on fellow devils to help out the human race, its up to you to stop your evil twin brother and a bookish demon-wannabe from something something. It is all very silly and over-the-top, really nothing more than an excuse to kill demons. That having been said, the cut-scenes are well directed, featuring inventive fight scenes courtesy of Yuji Shimomura (of Versus fame). I found it to be a lot of fun, if not particularly memorable.

The real meat of the game is the action. Dante has a variety of melee and projectile weapons at his disposal to cut his opponents to ribbons. Pistols, rocket launchers, ice tri-chucks and even an electric guitar become available as you progress and defeat bosses. By defeating enemies, you obtain red orbs which can be used to upgrade your health, move repertoire or get more time in your super-powered demon form. This RPG-esque feature adds a welcome layer of depth to the beat'em up. But wait, there is more! At the beginning of mission, you can choose two guns and two swords (or guitars etc) to bring into the level. At any point you can switch between the selected weapons with the touch of a button. This seemingly simple feature greatly expands the combo opportunities and style of the game. Style is important; if you use the same stale moves over and over, you will not get as many red orbs as you would otherwise. Plus, it just looks cool to uppercut someone so hard they fly into the air, then keep them suspended there with lighting bolts as you wail on your axe.

But wait! There is yet even more style! You can customize Dante between levels to tailor to your preference. Love guns? Play as a Gunslinger and gain additional abilities with your firearms. Like mobility? Try Trickster for greater dodging capabilities. The game does a great job at letting you play as you wish. That is good, because you are going to need all the help you can get; the game is damn hard. Expect a big challenge on all but the easiest difficulty setting. Dante Must Die, the most difficult mode, is for the hardest of the hardcore only. If you dislike a challenge, then this game is most certainly not for you.

Graphically, DMC3 is very sharp with a lot of detail and the framerate holds up nicely. Plenty of Gothic architecture too, if you are into that kind of thing. The enemy design could be more inventive, rather than the "Sickles for everybody!" thing it has going on now, but overall it looks very good. The sound is a mixed bag; the voice acting is competent and appropriately campy most of the time, but the music was not terribly memorable. There is a lot of metal that all sounds pretty much the same, but a couple uses of an orchestra and a choir save it from being too monotonous. On the otherhand, the game really lends itself to being played to fantasy metal like DragonForce or Rhapsody of Fire, so give those a shot.

A few things hold the game back. The biggest flaw is the level design, which sucks. You are given no idea where to go most of the time, and not in the good Metroidvania way either. The stages are confusing and only serve to break up the action, always leaving you frustrated and wanting more enemies. Puzzles consist entirely of "find this artifact to open the door" monotony. The platforming sections are pretty painful due to the mostly fixed camera, but thankfully are usually short or optional. It could really take a lesson or two from God of War in these regards, though GoW might learn something from DMC3's combat.

If you are interested in this game, I recommend the Special Edition which is only $20, if not less. It adds more difficulty options, a revamped continue system, another playable character, the ability to increase the game speed and the Bloody Palace, which is basically a survival mode.


Devil May Cry 3 is, despite its flaws, probably my favorite beat'em up and highly recommended to anyone looking for a challenge.

Looks like this is gonna be one hell of a party,
Dante

Salutations und Introductions

Hello again devoted readers,

Welcome back to the deranged musings of Ryan and Dan! "Back?" you say? " I was not aware that these brilliant and dashing young men had blessed the Internet with their trademark wit and incisive commentary before," you continue. Fear not! Though you are part of a dwindling minority, all hope is not lost. There is yet time for you to become one of our loyal devotees and ensure your place in the afterlife.

For the uninformed, this is one stop shopping for your daily awesome. Please note, we cannot be held responsible for any awesome overload experienced while perusing this site; if such a situation arises, please consult a physician.

Video games are the primary focus 'round these parts, but owing to the fact that we are such handsome and well rounded individuals, we may occasionally stray to other topics. Who is to say what prospects the future holds for our intrepid bloggers? Stay tuned for further developments, same bat time, same bat channel.

From Russia, with love,
James Bond

Fire Warrior

Today was my first full day home for spring break. So what did I do? Game, of course.

My brother kept the 360 at school, and the old Xbox is so enormous there's no room for it under theTV, so I got out the slim little PS2. For whatever reason, I decided to play Fire Warrior, mostly because it was on the top of the drawer. I soon regretted that decision.

The opening of the game is really clean and promising, and I love the Warhammer 4ok universe. We're talking Tao, Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Necron, etc. This game sits on some really solid game design and source material, and rolls those premade races together into a really nice opening cinematic and exposition (first level is a rescue mission for a kidnapped leader).

Then everything goes down hill. I'm dumped into a set of trenches that seem to be ripped from Medal of Honor (in a bad way). I try venturing down on tunnel, but an artillery blast caves it in. Too bad the timing was late, and I got caught mid-cave-in. Grenaded myself to death to restart. That same cave-in graphic caused another glitch death when I backed into another blocked-passageway.

The Halo-style set up (2 weapons, rechargable shields, "Charge-in-and-and-shoot" style) makes the game playable, but doesn't exactly make up for the rest of the game's shortcomings.

I gave up on the game after being one-shotted by some distant snipers (ya, I'd been running through pwning everything, then I just suddenly die... then i go back, and same thing happens. This is the first instance of snipers in the game, and they just totally rock you, since you don't have a sniper rifle).

I can't decide if this is just how PS2 first-person-shooters were in 2003, or if this game was just bad. I do know that I'd rather play halo. Or checkers...

Now the question: Is this evidence for or against me buying a PS3? Certainly, it's just one game, but I believe a proper examination of any one sample can tell volumes about the whole (meaning that if you take a really good look at Fire Warrior, it will reveal truths about Gaming as a whole).

The game did a lot of things right. The controls weren't hard, the story had legs (if only a minimal brain), the levels showed thought (even if they included color-coded keys (keys = goofy glow sticks)), and the AI was reasonably competent (although unlikely to pursue me once my shields got low). But the game sucked nonetheless, and I don't think the the PS3 is going to guarantee that there aren't other sucky games in the future. They're just going to be more expensive.

So ya. Maybe instead of coming out with new hardware, they should've just come out with a way to smack people who make glitchy games. Like, after a month on the shelves and a bunch of "mediocre" reviews, games like Fire Warrior should just have to go back to the lab like a potroast that's not quite pink enough.

Or maybe I should just be all "oooh... polygons..."