Thursday, 27 January 2011

Trauma center:Under the knife

Gamespot score:7.8(good)

my score:7.5

(+)Pros:-Great concept and gameplay mechanics,-many different kinds of operations,-lots of tools all of which are useful and have distinct functions,-good story,-great cast of characters.

(-)Cons:-Pretty short,-very very very VERY hard,- too much talking too little operating

Gameplay time:Below 10 hours(Short)

Alright time for a review!!!Before that, some of my usal ranting. School is once again, being a bitch, and I do not have much time to do my own stuff. Anyway, purchased dead space 2, though I havent touched the main game and have only played extraction, great game so far. Ahem....back to this. Trauma center, much like the ace attorney series, is something never tried before, and works well. While I very much prefered AA, trauma center itself is a good series, though it is very VERY difficult. Luckily, the second one is much better, anyway, on with it.

Under the knife stars our main character as doctor stiles, derek stiles. Derek is pretty young for a doctor, and he just started picking up surgery, so he just does his job. But theres one thing, derek is damn carefree, he just doesnt really give a damn about many things. He likes to get things done and thats it, not care about it any more. One day, he almost loses a patient and gets yelled at by his partner nurse angie. Feeling all bad and stuff, he decides to quit. One day, a major accident takes place, and the hospital is out of docs, the only guy available is none other than derek. There, he rushes for time as he tries to save a near death patient, there he discoveres he has a power called the healing touch, where he is able to see things at super slow speed when doing surgeries. There, derek's career as a surgeon is restarted anew, and he starts a new life as a "reborned" doctor.

Trauma center is a very text driven game, like the ace attorney games. The game is split into chapters, each with thier own segments. These segments are mostly operations, but some include just dialouge between characters. So...yeap, thats alot of text and very little operating.
Still, AA is MUCH wordier, so if you can handle AA, trauma center should be just fine to you. The dialouge isnt bad anyway, its quite interesting actually, the characters are cool and funky in thier own way, hearing them converse is quite something.

Operating in trauma center, is obviously the fun part. You are always cutting people up, either to remove tumours or just to heal internal cuts. During operationgs, you are constantly being pressed for time, as your patient's pulse is constatntly dropping. Thats means you have to be as quick as that timer, or even quicker. Thats most of the time hard, since the timers going down pretty fast, and everytime you make a mistake, that pulse will drop even more. Thats alot to live up to. Anyway, during your many different operations, you will be using a very vast set of tools. You have the cutter, to slice things up, such as tumours. You have the syringe, to insert certain fluids into certain areas. You have the anti-biotic gel, to disinfect stuff. Theres alot to go on, but the gist is that during most of the operationgs, the tools are mostly all used, so theres equality, you wont be using one tool more than the other.

Now under the knife is a great game and all, but it seriously is plagued by difficulty. This is probably one of the hardest games I have played on the DS. You are constantly pressed for time, and the slightest mistakes you make cause the pulse to drop FAST. Plus, if you screw up your touchscreen or stylus, it makes this game almost impossible to play. This game caused my touch screen plastic piece to actually come off :X. The other issues are pretty much mentioned, theres too much talking and too little operating. Kinda beats the whole surgeon thing. Also, the game is short, it doesnt last more than 10 hours, and I doubt anyone would go for a 2nd playthrough since its mostly all the same. Challenge is even harder than normal, and even if you manage to clear them( I dont know how someone can physically do them), thats about it.

The 1st trauma center is good, but has alot of room for improvement. Luckily the second one solves most of its problems, and is a much better game overall. Still, if you are looking for a unique game like ace attorney, trauma center can probably satisfy you, just make sure to adapt to the extreme difficulty.

Happy gaming.


Opening songs:OP 1-Dream wing,OP 2-Crystal energy
Genres:Action,comedy,drama,romance,slice of life
Another great show! Original mai hime was awweeeessssooooomeeee to the max, and when I first saw mai otome, I seriously expected a sequel. But noooooo.....its a spin off, and it looked a little lame to boot. Luckily, the show is entertaining, as altough it is different, it still follows that "school life" thing they have going like they did in mai hime, and it really works out well. Also, about 5/8 through the show it steps up to an epic turn of events, and the show starts becoming awesome, until it reaches its conclusion, which I thought was pretty okay. Even if its not a sequel, mai otome is worth a watch.
As for the songs used in openings, dream wing and crsytal energy were used. Dream wing was kinda a slow and meh-ish song, but it grew on me after abit, never really got into loving it though. Crystal energy was much better, and a much more suitable song for the 2nd opening, following the events of the show at that point of the series. It certaintly had a more epic feel to it.
If you loved mai hime, the chances are you will love mai otome as well. The school life thing is really cool and is entertaining to watch for the 1st half of the show or so, and later when it becomes a more action or thriller like anime, its just great. Unlike in mai hime though, where only a few chosen "himes" can fight, almost everyone can fight in this show, which makes it a little more "involving" , since all the characters get thier own screen time.
Mai otome stars a new character by the name of Arika (kinda beats the point to naming the show MAI otome, when the main character isnt mai). Arika is a pretty beat up teenage girl, and one day she is just found and brought into a city. After abit of running around with her new found friend nina (who is an otome), she gets to experience a whole new world of possibilities when she sees the power of the otome itself. She gets enrolled into coral academy, with the sponsor of a cetain "Oji-san", where she is given her own gem, and her life there begins. But soon, she learns of her true nature and becoming, where her whole life position starts to change. Also, war starts to break out later in the anime, and there, things get even more screwed up.
Mai otome receives 2 thumbs up, its engaging and action packed at the same time. It also shows alot in terms of tests of friendships and some pretty damn cool scenes. The twists in the show also provide much anticipation into what might happen next. Mai otome is definetely a show worth picking up, and further more, if you are a fan of mai hime, the cameos will definetely stir you up and give you great moments of nostalgia.

Boss health

Skills:Swipe*, Pounce, Explosion*, Rage

Times died on 1st playthrough:10+

Ughhh the dreadful flamelurker. Hes simply one tough cookie, trying to beat him straight out like most of the game's other bosses jsut doesn't quite work here. 2-2 wasnt even terribly difficult, and suddenly they throw you such a powerful asshole. Flamelurker is the boss of 2-2, armor spider archstone.

The flamelurker is HARSH. You fight him in a rather small arena, and he likes to get up close to murder you, which he can do very easily if you decide to melee him. He is probably the only legit boss that I will recommend you to fight him with magic, since killing him the manly way might just net you more and more free deaths ( just like it happened to me).

Swipe*- The flamelurker does a simple swipe. It does pretty below average damage at first, but it stacks. Each other successful hit from the flamelurker increases the damage of the swipe, so take extreme caution.

Pounce- Pathetic. You should be glad to see this. The flamelurker growls and holds his both hands together, then he jumps up and tries to knock you. Does shit damage, and gives you alot of free time to hit him if you dodge it.

Explosion*- Gah fck this. Explosion is his most frequently used and most deadly attack. He just does a straight palm foward and causes a big explosion, dealing above average damage and heavy damage in rage mode. In rage mode this also has a larger radius.

Rage- The flamelurker gets angry! All of his moves become powered, increasing in speed and damage, as well as increasing explosion's blast radius. His swipes and pounces also gain fire effects.

Flamelurker has induced rage in many players, and has taken the lives of many. If you find this too fcked up, take my advice and summon a blue to help you, this makes the fight MUUUUCCCH more managable.

As I said, this boss you HAVE to do with magic. If you are a wanderer or something and have to melee or bow of luck to you. Melee is actually doable, but I have yet to accomplish this with a bow, my apologies.

For this fight as I said earlier, I recommend the use of magic, more specifically something from the soul arrow or soul light family. Stay AWAY from the flamelurker and shoot him once, wait for him to come at you, dodge carefully, run far away, shoot again, rinse and repeat. Make sure hes actually at a desirable distance away from you, since the boss loves to sprint, being too close might actually get you hurt before you even fire a shot. As for melee, you might want to come in with lots of sticky white stuff, since plain old normal melee does crap damage to him.

Now for his attacks, swipe is pretty short range but as mentioned, it stacks. Later in the battle his swipe might actually do more damage than his explosion. IT HAS HAPPENED TOO MANY TIMES TO ME SO I SHALL SAY IT. Its okay to get hit by swipe early on, but after you reach the halfway mark of the battle, do your best to avoid it, since it most likely spells doom. If you are meleeing him, avoiding this can net you a couple of strikes before running away.

Pounce is nothing special, since i find its damage crappy, even when raged. Its easy to dodge, and after that, you are free to shoot a spell at him or net him a couple of hits. Now his explosion, thats a very troubling attack. He usually sprints towards you when he does this, and when you see him coming, you should expect it to come out. Explosion SUCKS, it has huge radius, and this will hinder most melee fighters. This is main reason why magic is a much prefered method in this fight, just run for your pitiful life when you see him pause and prepare to thrust his palm fowards, since you know an explosion is coming, and after its over, pelt a shot at him.

For melee users this becomes a pain, since if you block explosion you will take a huge stamina blow and his next attack will without a doubt hit you. Prepare a purple flame shield and ring of flame resistance, this should prep you up abit, if you cant bring both even one is better than nothing. When you see him coming, hold up your shield, move back steadily and when the explosion is done, you will only be hit by the edge of it, and you will receive minimal damage on block both to your HP and stamina. After that, try to go in for a quick hit or 2, then move away before he does it again.

Do note that he will rage when his HP drops below half or so, when this happens do not panic and continue the fight like you were during the previous half of the fight. His explosions become more frequent, but if you are patient, you can find openings to attack him, soon, he will fall.

The flamelurker is a total jerk. Feel free to celebrate all you want after you have defeated him, you get a hefty amount of souls to spend, along with a red hot demon soul to give to ed, in which he can craft you some exclusive weapons. Awesome. If you can beat flamelurker, you can safely tell yourself that you can take on most of the other game's bosses.


Boss health

Dirty colossus
Skills:Fly swarm*, Swat, Smash, Triple swat, Fly burst, Fly Disperser

Times died on 1st playthrough:0

Im doing 2 posts today so grab a chair. Anyway the 2nd of the part 2 bosses of the respective worlds I faced was the dirty colossus. I absolutely LOATHE the valley of difilement, especially 5-2, that was one of the worse and most annoying levels in all of video gaming history. Honestly the only reason why I killed this guy 2nd was because I wanted to finish the valley of difilement ASAP. Anyway, the dirty colossus is the boss of 4-2, leechmonger archstone.

Thats quite a number of attacks to go through, though I find it rather pointless since dirty colossus is simply another simple as hell boss. I wouldn't go as far as to say he is actuallly easier than old hero, but they are kinda tied in terms of difficulty, both easy pieces of shit. Still the only way you can die here is if you decide to range him, which is a stupid idea.

Fly swarm*- The dirty colossus shoots some swarms of flies in your direction if you are far away from him. Each swarm does moderate damage, but if are hit by 1 you will be hit by the rest, and that totals up to some pretty painful shenanigans. To top it off, the flies will stick to you, eating off your HP from time to time.

Swat- The boss just tries to swat you as if you were a fly. Does moderate damage.

Smash- The dirty colossus winds up his melee arm, and lets loose with a death defying blow, smashing through any forms of guarding and doing massive damage.

Triple swat- Just a simple 3 hit swat combo, nothing much to see here. Each hit does moderate damage, but 1 hit will knock you down so nothing much to worry about.

Fly burst- The dirty colossus does an explosion from within his body, bursting out flies in a sphere shaped explosion. Does moderate damage, with the same flies stickign effect as the fly swarm applying here.

Fly disperser-The dirty colossus hits the ground with his fly arm, and sends waves of flies underneath, causing towers of flies to sprout out randomly around him.

Thats alot of attacks, too bad most of them just waste your time are not worthy of mention. The key to killing the dirty colossus is only one thing. Melee. Yep, thats right, and of you who want to range him will find out that hes pretty nasty in attacking form afar, hitting him up close is 10 times easier. If you did a bow or magic build, so what? Dont be a wuss, just pick up a random melee weapon and fight him, even if your damage sucks, just apply turpentine, black turpentine, or sitcky white stuff, he is weak to magic and fire.

Your fighting arena is pretty big, but its kinda useless to use to your advantage since all you need to kill him is the very space less than 1 metre's reach within him. From afar, the boss will use fly swarm, and spray countless amounts of flies unto you. These do hurt, and the flies clinging onto you DO NOT help as they drain your HP over time. If you do get hit, you can patiently wait it out ( it will go away on its own) or touch one of the torches around you, to burn the flies away. You take some damage from the fire, but hey, at least you got rid of them flies.

In melee range the boss wont use fly swarm AT ALL, so you automatically win here. His swat and smash are VERY predictable and if you stay behind him, he probably wont hit you at all. Triple swat can be abit more unpredicatable but still nothing you cant avoid by staying behind him. Just hit him with your melee weapon and just take a few steps away when he starts attacking, you probably wont even get harmed.

Other than his physical hits, he has a few other tricks, though they aren't of much use too. Fly burst has pretty pathetic range, but if your stick too close you can get hit. Just move 3 steps away when you see him shivering himself up, since his about to blow. Fly disperser he only uses when his HP dips to a certain level, the towers of flies sprout about randomly, but arent too hard to notice. Just take a careful look around when meleeing him after he does that move. Anyway even if you get hit the damage is pretty lame but flies will stick to you, which is the only bad thing.

Taking all of these to mind dirty colossus is very easy, if you fight this one with caution, you will probably even make it out unscratched. The key here is not be be afraid, and get up close to dish out your hurt, taking this battle from afar just doenst work.

One more coming up!

Thursday, 20 January 2011

The awesomeness that is Dissidia Duodecim








Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Lunar:Silver star harmony

Gamespot score:8.0(great)

my score:8.2

(+)Pros:-Superb emotional tale with an amazing conclusion,-battle system absolutely receives a thumbs up,-lots of boss fights make up for the chore of long dungeons ,-main story is long enought to keep players occupied to at least 30 to 40 hours,-likeable party members.

(-)Cons:-some lousy voice acting,-some glitches during battle

gameplay time:30-40 hours(Above average)

According to my memory, lunar was suposedly a PS1 game, but it was my older cousin who played it, not me, and apparently it has been remade a couple of times....but meh, never played a single one, until silver star harmony. While I have to say that it was kinda old school, this is probably one of the best RPGs on the PSP, next to mana khemia, birth by sleep and crisis core. Amazing story, good battle system plus a long journey with tons of bosses, lunar is one solid RPG, and it will satisfy those who are thirsting for a good RPG. A few annoying things will get in your way here and there to hinder your experience, but still, overall your time will not be wasted if you play through the whole game.

Lunar's story is really old school, and for that its kinda cool. You play as alex, a typical village boy with a flying cat pet and a stepsister named Luna. One day his friend remus asks him to follow him to a nearby white dragon cave, and thus, out of curiosity alex and luna tag along into the cave. There, they really meet a great white dragon, who tells them of an old tale, and even gives alex a white dragon ring. Following that, the curious trio decide to travel further from thier village to find out more about the dragons, and from that journey, a string of disasterous events take place, turning the world into a fearful place where monsters can strike anytime. To make matters worse, the 4 heroes are out of commision, with no one to save the world, alex is the final hope, since he has the white dragon ring, he is the only one who can collect all the dragon pieces to become the legendary dragon knight.

Well, everything aside, Lunar is a pretty normal RPG. You move from town to city, forests to caves, all in an epic journey to save the world. Your journey takes you to many strange places with many strange monsters, while meeting a fair share of interesting people. The main party itself is fairy amusing itself. While alex himself is pretty much a silent protoganist most of the time, he is accompanied by a bunch of cool guys, we get nash, a cocky magician with a pretty demanding personality. We also get mia, a quiet kind girl who always wishes for peace within the party, since the rest of the party is usually butting heads with each other, since the other 2 members, jessica and kyle, are usually always arguing over trivial issues with nash. These amusing conversations themselves will entertain you for a fair bit. At least theres something to enjoy aside from all the interesting areas you will visit.

The game's battle system is rather simple, but can get technical after a matter of turns. You start the battle with the formation you set your party in, then start assualting the enemy. Though in this game you get to set in the AI to fight for you, its recommended to fight yourself to feel the heat of battle itself. But of course its not entirely useless, the AI feature allows you to fight enemies if you're tired of killing them youself, a single button press is all you need. Aside from that, everything is pretty much from other games as well. Normal attacking, using skills, items, blocking and escaping....yep its pretty much normal, until a few turns pass. After a turn or two of assualting, your party will be everywhere. If you melee your opponent, your character will move towards the enemy and strike. If you want to cast spells, you can choose to move to the further parts of the map to do so. So after abit of moving here and there, to get your formation right, you can fight properly, since enemies will have to move to strike you as well, unless of course they are using skills. Aside from this, there are alot of boss fights, so getting used to your basic formation and strategy in battle will serve you well.

Flaws-wise, this game has only 2 problems. Firstly, during battle, there ARE glitches. Sometimes when you have multiple characters trying to melee someone, they do get stuck, and refuse to move. Also, there are times where not matter what you press, you or your other characters refuse to do anyting. -.-. Finally, theres the voice acting, altough theres not much of it outside of the animated cutscenes, it quite bad, as GS says.
Lunar: Silver star is certainly a classic, and when remade, it was made even better. RPG fans should, in no way miss this game, its one to remember and the core story will stick with you for a long time. It also has a great conclusion where the whole story ends well, unlike most games, where the ending justs makes you beg for more, this games finishes it well, and you will be happy with the ending.

Happy gaming!

Sunday, 16 January 2011

Street fighter 4

Gamespot score:9.0(editor's choice)

my score:7.9

(+)Pros:-Great visuals,-easy to learn fighting mechanics,- loads of extra challenges and trials to keep players intrested,-arcade mode has high replay value

(-)cons:- controls suck ass on the keyboard,- online play lags really badly,- characters lack VARIETY and DIVERSITY

gameplay time:20-30 hours( average)

First off, I have no idea how this got so much good ass reviews, most of which are 9 or more. Also, this is my 1st street fighter game, and though I admit it was fun, I kinda expected something more when it had scores of mostly 9s or more. I was stupid to jump straight into street fighter 4 really, I should have played some of the older ones first, so that I would know what to expect. Whelp, time to go shoryuken-ing some fools, or perhaps a hadoken? Would you like to see them for 1/3 the roster? Hmmmmm.

As with every fighting game with story modes, story revolves around all of the individual fighters, with the main focus obviously being ryu and ken, our 2 pepsi and cola reprisentitives from capcom, have always known who they are but only used them in capcom crossover games, never in thier own street fighter games. Still though all the stories of the characters revolve around participating in the world fighting tournament, they all have seperate reasons. Well in the end they still all end up fighting seth for different purposes one or another. The characters have thier own prolouges, but the epilouges are so short and inferior that at times it looks like capcom doenst really care about the story. Ah well..., I can say the same for some of the tekken endings actually.

Wud you look at that. Street fighter 4 has actually quite a sizable roster, and lets see, we have a few clones here and theere. AHA. Anyway, back to topic, I cant say much about comparison, but the character wise, theres nothing much to say, its quite an okay roster. Also, it has character customization, which is cool, theres quite alot to choose from, so its actually quite a good thing. And from all of these characters, most are begginer friendly, so its quite simple to pick up any of them and start training for online. Street fighter 4 has only arcade mode and versus mode to keep yourself busy for the beginning, after you get used to the game and who you want, you can jump into the trials( which are ridiculously fun) or online, which should keep you occupied for awhile.

Street fighter is quite easy to learn. There are a few button variations, specifically, the light, medium and heavy attacks, which are split between kicks and punches. These affect your moves, depending on which buton you press. Take viper for example, her shockwave activates either far, mid or close range, depending on your button presses. Also present are the special and fury gauges. Special gauges are used for your supers, and for powering up your other moves. By spending one special bar you can make your shoryuken hurt more, or make your lightning kicks even faster. These can help deal great damage. However if you wish not to waste these bars and save them, you get to use ur super, whcih of course, hurts even more. Your fury gauge,on the other hand, functions differently. It fills up when you get hit, when it reaches the max, you can unleash ur fury with an ultra, which, most of the time, if connects, will turn the tide of battle. Taking these in mind, online play and the trials will really keep you playing. As for trials, there are quite a few for you to do, and as you unlock more levels, things get more challenging. If you fail, you will just want to keep coming back to retry it. As for online, you are fighting real human guys who are stronger or just as strong as you, what more can you ask for?

The PC version of street fighter 4 sure lacks alot of things its console or arcade counterparts have. For one, if you aren't using a pad, fight stick or controller( like I am), the controls will suffer ALOT. Not that the game isnt fun anymore, you just wont be able to perform crazy controls like you would be able to with a controller, or fight stick. One other issue is the lack of fighter variety. The characters have very similar play styles, like abel or zangief, ryu/ken/sagat/sakura/guile my god theres really too much to go on. Its all hadukens and uppercuts, gawd. And finally we have the issue with online. If you challenge ping worthy fighters, be prepared for a very very laggy fight, and this happens most of the time.
On the PC, street fighter 4 doesn't translate well. Still if you can make out the most of the keyboard, you can still find yourself a pretty good fighter. Street fighter 4 does have one of the best looking visuals around, but lack of diversity really kills the game. Lets hope they add some more variety in thier next games.

Happy gaming.

Friday, 14 January 2011

Greatest game character:14 Jan 11

Well, you saw this coming. For a best game character today on 14 jan, we have none other than capcom's hack and slash icon, dante from the devil may cry series. Dante is the new word to describe "badass", anyone who played his game will know that.

NO ONE CAN COMPARE TO DANTE IN HIS OWN SERIES. Everyone in the series, he has pwned and made a fool out of them, MOCKING THEM. He 's trashed mundus, single handedly took down the savior, flicked nero away like a fly, and beat the crap out of countless badass bosses like beowolf, greyon and berial, just to name a few. His only equal in the series itself is probably vergil.

Yep, even a big badass 3 headed dog like this is nothing but a mere puppy to Dante.
I'll say it, dante is pretty damn cocky. Everytime before he starts to get into a fight with a big boss, he starts off insulting that boss and make smarty-ass comments to further piss off the already angry boss. Still, though he wins all the time, this could get him into trouble, if he runs into someone really strong. BUT STILL, this is part of his personality and one of the aspects that make him an awesome character.
His personality itself is very outgoing. He's pretty damn straightfoward in everything, and he's probably a pretty cool guy. He loves babes, he loves to kill demons, he loves to act cool and he's downright powerful to boot, but if the time calls for it, he can even be a typical hero who ends up saving the day.
Dante's so badass, he ROCKS enemies to death with his guitar, Nevan.
Dante's arsenal of weapons, up to date with his latest game, should be enourmous. He has gained a crapload of weapons through his carrier, and I haven't even played DMC 2 to know if he even got weapons from that game. His trademark weapons should be rather easy to identify, his sword rebellion, and his twin pistols, ebony and ivory. He has other weapons, but i won't mention them all, there really are too many.
Well there are a few notable ones, one of which is agni and rudra. These are twin fire blades that can be mass comboed into mass multi-hitting at huge crowds. Then theres the all so epic nevan, the gutair that's own rifts are able to cause surges of bats and electricity to the enemies. Theres also artemis, a chargable arm cannon thats able to hit multiple enemies. Theres also lucifer, which spurts explosive needles on enemies and cause them to explode all at once. Pandora is a badass weapon as well, disguising itself as a suitcase, it actually is a multi-morphing weapon, which can change from a gattling gun, to a saw blade, to a rocket launcher and a missle base!

You DO NOT fuck with Dante.

Dante is the king of ass kicking, and also the king of doing it in style. Even his personality is kick ass. If you haven't played a DMC game, shame on you, go play it now (expect DMC 2, I heard it sucked). Personally I like DMC 4 dante best, he's towards his mid-thirties, though abit old, it still shows that he hasn't lost it, and that he can still beat the shit out of anyone he wants to. Nero, whose devil arm was able to lift statues 30-40 times his size, and able to deflect hits from the false savior, is no slouch thanks to his arm. BUT, even with an arm like that, when he tried to punch dante with it, he just grabbed that devil arm with his bare hand! Thats how strong he is, its just raw strenght alone!

Dante is freaking awesome, but in the upcoming DmC theres really nothing for me to say....since that dante is not the dante we all know and love.....I hope. Lets just all hope that the new dante turns out to be some crazy DMC deprived freak who played too much DMC and thinks he's dante.

Patiently awaiting the next REAL DMC game, hopefully a DMC 5, not some damn reboot or spinoff. Oh yeah, and I have to mention dante is in shin megami tensei:nocturne too, as a boss and later obtainable as a demon. Now thats a good way to promote an awesome character.

"This is gonna be one hell of a party!"-Dante

Tuesday, 11 January 2011

Star ocean:Till the end of time

Gamespot score:7.9(good)

my score:7.5

(+)Pros:-Story starts off strong,-battles are simple yet effectively fun,-incredibly long adventure spread out across 2 discs,- some cool characters,- pretty good graphics for a PS2 game which was released during 2004

(-)cons:-Fayt kinda pisses you off as a main character,-pretty damn hardcore grinding,- story starts to drag and get boring after awhile,but it still rises back up towards the end.

gameplay time:40-50 hours(long)

Star ocean 3, the fantom of all star ocean games. This is probably the star ocean game out of the series to make that huge "step" to become a well reknowned series. While this is true, and tri-ace did a good job making star ocean:till the end of time, but its nothing more than a simple RPG game with a little bit of a fun battle system and an above average story, which sinks after you pass a certain mark. Though I am genrally a person who favours RPGs, I have to say that this is greatly overated (execpt by gamespot), it received lots of 8s and 9s, but I really dont see this getting over an 8.....maybe its just self opinion.

Star ocean 3's story takes place on the premises of earth, where we see or main character fayt and his childhood friends sophia enjoying thier time on a vacation. After abit of fun and games, our heroes have thier vacation ruined when a space organization known as the vendini start to attack thier resort, forcing them, along with all the residents to evacuate in escape pods. While successful in his escape, fayt is sent to a foreign planet with almost 0 technology, there he is forced to survive and after a turn of events he runs into a visitor that is not from that foreign world itself. He introduces himself as cliff, and together he brings fayt into an unknown world filled with an ordeal that he may never surpass alone, his fighting skills are put to the test, and he will discover what he truly is as he searches for a way to locate or contact sophia and his parents despite all this chaos.

Star ocean 3 sports some serious good looks, for a PS2 game. To top it off it has a bunch of cool and wacky characters, such as roger the fox kid or the crazy cool albel nox. Along with all these it has an easy to learn battle system that you will learn to like very quickly, due to flashy moves and over the top action. Whats more is that the main adventure alone is 2 discs long and lasts for no less than 40 hours, and if you do the side stuff it can go as far as above 50 hours. Star ocean 3 is what any RPG should have, a good story, a long gameplay experiene, a good battle system, and tons of extra content, its too bad its being held down by a few issues.

The battle system is star ocean 3 may seem complicated with so many different terms and attack types, but its actually really simple. In battle you pick 3 characters to enter battle, and can only control 1, but you can switch between all 3 anytime you wish. As usual skills and shit require MP, some even require HP. An interesting fact in this game is that if your MP hits 0, you die. Neat, that will teach those skill spammers a lesson. Anyway, each character has thier own specific move set and tier own fury gauge. Fury attacks hit alot harder but they take abit off the gauge every time you use them, and when your fury gauge hits 0% you become fatigued and cannot attack for a set amount of time. Along with all that, there are 3 range classes, long, mid and short, all of 3 are as simple as they sound. Each character should have thier own share of the 3 kinds of skills, but its better to build a team consisting of equality within the attack types. While to monsters in star ocean 3 may be seemingly powerful,especialy at later levels, optimizing strategy and other tactics to beat them make the experience all the more joyful, other than just hit and running.

Now while star ocean 3 sports a good story, especially at the start and towards the end, the middle dulls quite abit due to dragging and unnessacary moments. Many a time where the suspense of a cut scene is killing you and you wish to know what is going to happen next, you are sent on a petty mission to gather ores or locate someone's precious item. Seriously, if they didnt drag the game would be so much better. And, also an issue in this game is the grind. Seriously, its pretty bad. Monsters give crap EXP, and you have to kill tons of them to gain a level. Its a pain really. Finally, you are playing as a wuss. I mean it, fayt is so stupid, close to vaan in terms of stupidity, his character as a protoganist is totally unlikable. He freaks out over the smallest thing, and its kinda dumb that you never see him really acting as a "leader" or "main character".
Star ocean 3 had the potential to be great, if only they didnt give fayt such a lousy personality, and the fact that they cut off some scenes that were from the manga saddens me( dammit no nel fanservice in 3D?Damn). Still, fans of the serious should appreciate this game for what it is, just be prepared to be dragged on and on for the story, oh and lets not forget grinding. Still, for us RPG fans grinding shudnt be that big of a prob......right?

Happy gaming.

Sunday, 9 January 2011

Shin megami tensei:Devil survivor

Gamespot score:9.0(editor's choice)

my score:9.5

(+)Pros:- Story is incredibly aborbing,-multiple endings provides more replay value,-demon fusion is important and addicitng at the same time,- demon auction acts as a simpler way to attain demons,-skill crack is innovative,-battles are most of the time challenging and require a lot of strategizing,trial and error to win,-great cast of characters,-awesome music,-great boss fights.

(-)Cons:-Only one mother fking save file

gameplay time:50 hours+( long)

Ooookayy,today's game review will be of my 2nd favourite all time game, shin megami tensei:devil survivor. Being a huge shin megami tensei game, I, like many others, worried that the 1st SMT DS port would be rather inferior and pathetic. Thankfully, its quite the game, and FUCK YEAH, its got awesome scores, and after a while, I realise I was lost in the world of devil survivor. Devil survivor is definetely one of the best games on the DS, and is absolutely not to be missed by gamers alike.

Devil survivor's story highly mirrors that of the world ends with you. A city in japan, 7 days to death....seems like alot in common eh? Wrong. The world ends with you and devil survivor are 2 very different games with 2 very different stories. Devil survivor starts off as the hero(you) arrives in tokyo in the last week of summer vacation with his 2 best friends, yuzu and atsuro, to meet his cousin, naoya. While naoya doesnt show up in person, he hands the 3 some very pecuiliar comps to the 3 main characters. When computer geek atsuro tries to crack the comps,
demons come out of nowhere and the comp screen states the words,"lets survive". The city plunges into despair as a counter appear above everyone's head indicating that everyone has only 7 days to live, and a lockdown occurs, locking everyone in the yamamoto circle in, so like it or not, things start to get reallt bad.....

Devil survivor is a strategy RPG hybrid, kinda like final fantasy tactics advance. It has everything, ranging from a simple yet effective battle system to a great cast of characters filled with hot babes( yuzu and amane FTW). The game's concept requires you to stay alive for 7 days in the yamato cirle, where demons pop up here and there, requiring you to either avoid them or fight them. You are given a certain number of hours during a day to wander the streets of tokyo to answer or attend to events that appear on the list of areas. Each event you go to, be it a battle or just a conversation with a certain character, it takes up a certain amount of time. And when everything is said and done, the day is passed, and you will proceed to the next day. Its one of the game's main challenges, the time management, it all depends on how you wander the streets of tokyo to spend your time and how it all affects later events.....everything you do has its consequences, thats what makes your descicions so important.

The game's main battle system is simple. You make a team of 3, a summoner and 2 demons. Make 3 or 4 of these teams(based on the part of the game you are at), and you are ready to . Demons are split into races for classification, and each race has thier own special abilities, more on that later.On the field its just like your everyday tactics game, you move according to grids and attack enemies at range. When engaged, you fight enemies 3 on 3, like a turn by turn basic RPG. On the above screen is the enemy demon's stats and on the bottom are enemies up close and your HP/SP and the enemies' too. According to the demon statistics, each one has a weakness, and exploiting them will either give you an extra turn or rob an enemy of thiers. Needless to say this works for the enemy too, so it pays to be careful. Race skills come in use here, some allow you to heal, move after you attack, or even go as far as to attack twice in one turn. They all have thier own drawbacks, but its all depending on how you use it in the end. Also in previous SMT games where obtaining demons are a matter of shuffle time or pursuing the demons to join you, it a much easier process in this game, all you have to do it buy a demon from the auction. Plus, demon fusing is back, and irs concepct is the same as previous games, but its as addicting as ever.
Devil survivor even has some really epic boss fights, most of which are ridiculously hard, but like most of the game's difficult fights, heavy strategizing and trial and error are all part of the game, finding the best combination of demons or best fighting routes are some of the most satisfying things to do after you find out that what you did was the best choice in turning the battle in your favour. All of these combined with the game's solid soundtrack...its just pure win. While the game is awesome its only flaw is that you can only have 1 save point. With so much trial and error and other events such as picking multiple endings or making sure you made the right stat point attribution, its better to put more save files so the game is made much easier and more convinient for experimenting.
Shin megami tensei has always been an awesome franchise, and I would be more than glad to say that devil survivor, without a doubt, fits into the series well and is definetely one of the best games in the franchise, pairing right up with persona 4. This game is just too great, being my 2nd favourite game of all time, its just too good to ignore. All who wield a DS should definetely give this game a spin.

Happy gaming!

Friday, 7 January 2011

Marvel vs Capcom 3:The story so far

Yo, the week is pretty hectic, for both myself with school life and the marvel vs capcom 3 commitee. First, things were getting out of hand with the 0 amount of reveals, and then things got worse when haggar and phoenix were revealed recently. Plus, the CES stream with the marvel vs capcom 3 matches were kinda.....worrying. It looks to me that there will be OP tiers again, with some of the characters and attacks being too gay.

First, for a reveal we have to mighty Mike haggar, great mayor of metro city. Mike's reveal trailer was awesome,speechless, he looks like a zangief thats so much better, cooler, and obviosuly stronger. His level 3 looks awesome and all his attacks hit like hell, about time we get a hard hitter from the capcom side.

Next up we have phoenix, aka jean grey. Phoenix is abit strange, she can either be extremely broken, or extremely lousy. Her health is downright pathetic, when dante was hammering her in her reveal trailer her health went down really really fast, but she also looks overpowered. In 1 part of the video it shows her using a hyper where she actually HEALS, and in another part she actually REVIVES when killed by dante, and she is revived as dark phoenix, which is even stronger than what she usually is!

This may be problematic, though her heal is a level 3 and revival is a level 5, I see her as a pretty overpowered character....BUT, too early to judge her until I have played the game myself, hope she doesnt cause balance issues.

................................... Haggar definetely proves whose the manlier one in this shot.

Anyway, the game is shaping up to look amazing, but the CES stream looks to have some disturbing issues. Dante looks too fking gay, his combos are LONG as hell and when used by Marn he was totally DOMINATING. Another gay one was viper, for some reason ( I think it was cause of the unfinished build) her damage was too damn high, more than half a bar gone with just a 5-6 hit combo....thats just madness. Storm's hail storm does some extremely gay chip damage, and trish's trap banoonza just looks plain unfair.

Im starting to think MVC2 is gonna happen again....but lets just hope not.

Definetely looking foward to MVC3 as it hits shelves 15 february.

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

Little big planet

Gamespot score:8.0(great)

my score:7.5

(+)Pros:- Story mode level design is innovative and creative,- overall game and character designs are rather charming,-Sackboy creating and customisation is fun,- level creating is highly addictive

(-)Cons:- super short story mode,-limited sackboy movement and whatnot,-creating levels is fun but annoying and limiting at times.

gameplay time:10-20 hours(below average)

Its a new year! And to kick it off, school is being a bitch, and I'm constantly being hammered by loads of nonsense. Yipee! Anyway heres the first review of 2011, the PSP version of little big planet. Now I know the PS3 little big planet was awesome and had lots of good reviews, heck I even experienced the fun myself with my cousin's PS3 and his version of the game.....though its really sad to say that the PSP version is highly inferior. Though it is still an overall good game to play and enjoy if you have friends, I think that little big planet should have stayed for the PS3......though the PSP thing isnt a bad idea really, its good that Sony actually tried it for the PSP, and it didnt turn out half bad.

In little big planet you play as a sackboy, a fragment of imagination. Sackboy, being a fragment of imagination, is supposed to travel the world's imaginations and ideas, as well as participate in nonsensical fanatics. Sackboy is brought to many areas, ranging from mountains to forests to factories and even frozen landscapes. Also, getting on ships and riding around in retarded wheeled planks are all part of sackboy's adventure. While story doesnt play a big part here, the narrative and content is a good listen.

Little big planter is a very very simple platformer, that everyone can easily pick up and have no problem mastering it in minutes. Heck, even 5 year old players can learn the basic platforming in this game wihtout a cinch. You go in 2D like levels, jump over obstacles to move on or pits and poisonous gas to avoid death. You follow set paths and go through tedious steps to collect bubbles for points, you try extra hard to reach an extra high areas to get those super rare items. Its almost too simple actually, but the unique charm and creative concept design make it all the more a different platformer for most to enjoy.

There are of course many other stuff that make little big planet more than a simple platformer that looks charming. First off, what made little big planet flourish for the PS3 in the first place...... the level design. You can make levels as you wish, using the in-game level designing tools itself, to make your levels and share it with the world. While making levels can be a long and tiring process, when you finally finish your level and it looks and plays exacly as you want, it feels awesome. Also, customizing sackboy is really cool, it may take awhile to unlock all the available looks for sackboy, but finding your sackboy the perfect look is crucial if you want to feel awesome everytime you play LBP. When you look at others' sackboy's, you will then see that yours actually stands out from the rest :).
Now for the bad stuff. The PSP version of LBP, as mentioned just now, is good, but inferior to the PS3 version. For one, like he PS3 version, story mode is lacking, very lacking. Less than 10 hours, 5-6 hours tops, even lesser if you rush through it. Also in the PSP version, there is limited sackboy control, as well as the limited level creation. Due to the PSP's memory restraints, creating too big or compelling levels are a killer on the UMD, making stuff like not being able to mass make blocks and having your level space reduced, its kinda sad.
PSP's LBP is good, but nothing compared to its PS3 counterpart. That being said, those who enjoy a little casual play more than everything else, little big planet is your game. Though I do think that the PSP version of the game is being overrated by lots of sites, I do recommend what they recommend, which is getting this game for some casual play and enjoyment.

Happy gaming.