The World Ends With You

I'm say this straight out, Ben, you're not gonna like this review because I generally liked the game and I know you hated it.

Anyway, I recently finished The World Ends With You ( often referred to as TWEWY from here on out) for the DS and thought I'd give it a review. It was actually an early Christmas present from my friend Adam, so props to him for getting me the game. It actually sorta reminded me in a few ways of that Contact game Chris had. You get stickers (though they give your partner a static bonus and you don't use them in combat) and eat and digest food and use the stylus in combat a lot. It's sorta like Contact and Kingdom Hearts mixed up and edgier and with more J-Pop.

The World Ends With You

Overall:

TWEWY is a RPG made by Square-Enix, in fact the team that worked on Kingdom Hearts worked on this game and it shows in the style, characters, and the dialogue. You play as Neku, a youth in Shibuya Tokyo who is a loner and one day wakes up to find himself not where he last remembers being. He is quickly attacked by "Noise" and flees, eventually running into a girl who informs him that he is playing The Game (no, seriously, The Game) and to win he and his partner have to survive for all seven days or they'll be erased. Neku and the girl (Shiki) partner up and tackle a specific challenge each day. Along the way they meet other players and "Reapers" who run and maintain the game. The game is an action RPG and your available attacks depend on the pins you have equipped with each one working differently and often involving touch commands. Your partner is on the top screen and fights by using the D-Pad to follow arrows that end in different finishers. While you can try to juggle both, I recommend letting the computer take care of the top screen and focusing on Neku over whom you have more control.

Pros:

The game has a neat little battle system that uses the stylus to move Neku and activate his pins(+0.75). To attack you might touch an enemy, touch empty space, rapidly tap an enemy, yell into the mic, slash an enemy, slash Neku, press and hold the stylus on Neku or an enemy, touch the pin in question, or a variety of other things. Now some pins sorta overlap so you can set some pins to only activate when you press L or R which lets you have multiple pins whose activating feature might overlap (touch empty space and draw a circle in empty space overlap as it automatically assumes you're touching empty space)(+0.25). Now to keep you from spamming one or two pins they can only be used so much until they have to recharge (reboot) so you need a couple of different pins and can't rely solely on one good ability.

Another nice feature is that there are no random battles (+0.50) (except for a day or two near the end and they only trigger when you move to different areas) and you fight enemies by scanning for them and picking the group or groups you want to fight. You can fight up to four battles in a row with the advantage of the enemy's drop rates going up considerably depending on how many fights you string together in addition to if you handicap yourself by lowering your level(+0.25). Since level only determines your HP you could cut your level in half and still be ok if you're decent at dodging enemy attacks (attack and defense are determined by the clothing and accessories you wear as well as a few other things).

The game also has all kinds of things for you to collect. Besides the different pins (which can evolve to better pins in a pokemon-like fashion) there are all kinds of cloths to get with different attack, defense, and HP bonuses in addition to each article of clothing having a special ability that you unlock by becoming friendly with that store's salesman (+0.75). So the game gives you a lot you can work towards at any given time and I ended up being overpowered due to always fighting extra battles cause a pin was close to evolving, I was close to leveling, I needed just a little more money for better equipment, ect.

The game also lets you change the difficulty on the fly which is good for getting enemies to drop different things and they're kind enough to give you a little guide that shows you what each enemy drops on each difficulty once you've gotten it once (it also shows what the percent chance of them dropping it is: both default and taking into account the improved chance with your level if you've lowered it)(+0.25).



There were also a couple of times you noticed the translators had a little fun and threw in things making fun of themselves like Neku wishing he had more zippers(+0.25).

They throw in a new game plus+ type deal. Instead of starting over, you can warp to any day in the game and play from there with all your items and pins intact. They even have some "secret reports" you can find if you complete certain objectives post game that tie up a few loose ends(+0.50).

The game has a little mini-game called Tin Pin slammer you can play for a few rare pins. It's decent and a nice distraction sometimes but nothing to write home about (+0.25).

+3.75

Cons:

The game does suffer from anime and RPG cliches and dialogue (as seen in Kingdom Hearts) though no more then most JRPG fans are used to (though I'm sure Mr. Hood would disagree)(-0.25). The fact that some pins are triggered by the same command can be annoying and while you have the sub slots to get around that a bit, you can have up to 6 pins at a time by the end of the game and having 3 pins that activate in the same or a similar manner is not unheard of(-0.25).

While I like the pins leveling up and evolving, there are three ways they can earn pp or pin points (battling, "mingling", or "shut down pp") and most pins require you get a majority of pp from a certain method or it won't evolve (and once it maxs out, it can't later evolve)(-0.25). That's sorta annoying but worse is that they don't tell you which pins require what or even how to evolve your pins at all(-0.50). I ended up looking it up on GameFAQs. It's not game breaking but it sort of is a pain in the ass.

Some of the enemies have really low drop rates, so anyone trying to 100% the game will find it a big pain in the ass (one enemy has by default a 0.05% chance of dropping its item on normal mode)(-0.25).

Some of the pins are sorta worthless or just are hard to activate. Granted with the number of pins in the game it's hard to make them all kick ass, but a few of them really do just straight out suck (-0.25) (most of the "repeatedly scratch an enemy" ones since the enemies move around too much for this to work easily).

Lastly the game sorta expects that you can easily control the character on the top screen and bottom screen at the same time when this just isn't feasible. This would be a huge problem if there was no setting for the AI to handle the top screen or the AI sucked but since that isn't the case this problem is fairly minor though occasionally your partner will get you in trouble since they can't dodge easily (-0.25).

-2.00

Overall Rating:8.75/10

Kirby's Adventure

Yes, I am still alive. Time does seem to fly sometimes. I'm always amazed how long it's been since I updated when I go to look at my last entry. Anyway today I wanted to do a NES game since I don't think I've reviewed one yet. I picked Kirby's Adventure since it seemed pretty solid. It was my introduction in the Kirby Series and until a year or two ago when I played that DS remake of Kirby Super Star the only real experience I had with it beyond Super Smash Brothers which obviously doesn't count.

Kirby's Adventure

Overall:

Kirby's Adventure is the second Kirby game and the only NES entry in the series. Kirby's Adventure came out near the end of the NES's life and looks pretty polished compared to other games the system is known for. Actually going back and looking at console release dates this game came out AFTER the SNES had so this was even further along the NES's life then I had thought. The basic plot is that King Dedede has broken the Star Rod up and given pieces to his minions and it's up to you to defeat them and King Dedede to get the parts back and restore the Star Rod so that everyone in Dream Land can dream again. The game actually has a plot twist beyond "The Princess is in another castle" which is sorta notable for a NES game. The game is a platformer and like pretty much all Kirby games the gameplay hinges on you eating enemies to get their powers as well as flying around for brief periods of time. The game also includes some pretty fun mini games that still hold up to today's standards.

Pros:

This is a fun game that reminds you why platformers were once king before the RPG and later FPS genres were(+0.75). The gameplay is simple but manages to stay fun and never gets dull even when all you have is a D-Pad and two buttons and the limited abilities that those enable you. The game isn't very hard but never gets brain-dead easy.

Like I mentioned earlier, the mini games you find spread through each world are really fun such as the crane game or the egg launcher game(+0.50). They have little benefits in the form of extra lives so finding them on the world map is always a treat. The little trampoline cloud thing at the end of each stage is also another enjoyable mini-game they threw in for the players.

The graphics are clean and bright and look nearly like they should be on a SNES so I have no complaints in that department(+0.25). The music is catchy and does a good job of staying with the bright happy atmosphere that generally accompanies Kirby games(+0.25).

The wide variety of abilities you can take from enemies was pretty impressive and though there were a few powers that most people would consider crappy, the developers did a good job of giving the player options for tackling the levels and bosses (+1.00). The little museums where you could go and get a power or two between levels was also helpful if you knew you can a boss coming up or the enemies in a level were giving you lame powers (+0.25). This really made the Kirby games what they were and if you only had the default breath exhale for a weapon the game would be much less enjoyable.

+3.00

Cons:

There were a few levels that you could mostly just sorta fly over completely as if you had a SMB3 P-Wing. While this wasn't true with all the levels, sometimes the game sorta let you cheap out by just flying over most/all of the enemies(-0.50). The limited flying time of later Kirby games fixed this.

Some of the bosses were really really super easy if you had a decent ability equipped and felt like they were normal enemies almost. Later games had this problem as well to a certain extent(-0.50).

-1.00

Overall Rating:9/10

xkcd

I was gonna review Secret of Mana cause I was really close to beating that, but every time Adam came over we'd just play magic the gathering until it was late and he needed to go. So that should be coming soon but I don't know exactly when.

I probably should have done another game in it's place and I would have, but I'm finding myself getting bored just reviewing games with this blog. I always turn to the blog late at night and it takes me a while to write a full game review so I think I need something else.

As you might know I like a decent number of web comics out there and I recently went and read through xkcd and added it to my list of webcomics I read. It's actually sort of a love/hate relationship really. Sometimes he(Randall Munroe) has funny stuff, sometimes he has cool stuff, and sometimes it just sorta feels like he's using the comic as a platform to boast about a bunch of obscure math and programming knowledge he has. Sometimes it's a combination of this. Apparently the guy has a huge boner for talking about the following:

*Firefly
*Perl
*DRM
*Summer Glau
*Python
*Love
*Math Formulas
*Word Play
*Geohashing

So if you like a decent number of those things or math/programming/literary/language jokes xkcd is for you. There are about 600 or 700 comics in the archive, thought the first 50-100 are kinda... eh. A lot of the early stuff is just sorta a place where he put random sketches he made that aren't supposed to be funny. It's kinda funny to say this about a stick figure comic but the art actually has improved from the really early stuff, the early characters sometimes look a little squiggly or smudged.

I had been linked to it a couple times but never read more then the specific comic I was being shown until a topic on Luelinks pointed to a xkcd comic about Ski-Free and how you apparently CAN out run the yeti monster by pressing "f" to go faster contrary to childhood wisdom. For some reason that mindfuck caused me to start reading the archive (backwards as I didn't really intend to read the whole thing until I had read 50 or so and then said hell with it and kept going).

It seems to update daily (that I've seen) so maybe give it a shot if you like feeling smart by occasionally getting an obscure reference. He also mentions "Geohashing" a bit, a system the author invented for meeting people near where you live (http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/Main_Page).

Well, it was sorta nice to review something in a laid back manner, might do again when I feel like taking a break.

Dead Space

Like I promised last time I'm reviewing Dead Space so let's get started.

Dead Space

Overall:

Dead Space is a 2008 third person over the shoulder survival horror game that has a higher focus on combat and action then most survival horror games. It released on the Xbox 360, the PS3, and the PC. I played the 360 version but to my knowledge there are few differences between the different versions. You play as Issac Clarke, an engineer, in the 26th century who is tasked to repair a large mining ship called the Ishimura (a planet cracker that literally breaks aparts planets to get at the minerals and ore) that sent out distress signals during a routine operation (and also coincidentally has your girlfriend on it). You'll quickly find that this is no ordinary mission and along with a handful of others sent with you to fix the ship and get you there you'll have to figure out what the hell is going on and more importantly survive as the crew aren't completely dead. The game was published by EA and developed by Visceral Games.

Pros:

The game is designed to be very atmospheric and it does it well. I was reminded of Bioshock in some ways in regards to how well done (and creepy) the location, scenery, and enemies were (+0.75). Even audio wise you can hear the necromorphs (the name for the reanimated mutations that you fight) slithering in the ventilation shafts above you and hear unsettling whispers that are just quiet enough to keep you from completely understanding what they're saying but loud enough to make you know they're there (+0.25). The game did a good job on the mood of the game and you never know when something is gonna jump out and attack you, which is exactly how the developers want you to feel. The audio, video, and text logs you find throughout the game give you additional backstory and give you hints of what you'll face later (+0.25).

The limb severing mechanic was also well implemented (+0.25). Most games with zombie-like creatures have you aim for the head, here the exact opposite is true, you want to aim for their limbs and cut them off. Many of your weapons fire in a horizontal or vertical plane and depending on the type of necromorph you are facing and which limb you're trying to remove, different weapons should be used. Once you cut off their legs or arms they develop new fighting strategies to use against you so even cutting their legs off doesn't mean you can relax.

Speaking of weapons, many of them (though not all) are useful and fairly unique compared the guns you normally see (+0.50). The flamethrower and pulse rifle aren't new to sci-fi games but the line gun, the ripper, the plasma cutter, and the force gun are all pretty neat. The Contact beam is basically a Spartan Laser from Halo 3 but it's still pretty cool. All of the guns have a secondary fire to give you some more options in a fight (+0.25) and you get to carry four around which lets you have some variety while not giving you every gun at the same time (+0.25). Ammo is often scarce enough that you never feel completely secure in how much you have left but plentiful enough that as long as you don't fire wildly or use the wrong weapons in a certain situation you should make it through (+0.25).

Another positive aspect of the game is the upgrade system. Every gun and your suit (as well as your stasis and kinetic abilities that I'll go into below) can be upgraded with power nodes that you find or buy at the stores located throughout the game (+0.50). Each item basically has a tiny little sphere grid like in FFX and you use the power nodes to unlock and upgrade your equipment to hold more ammo, do more damage, ect. It's all a big balancing act as you might need the money for ammo or health kits as well as purchasing the weapons and new suits (the upgrades to the suit stay when you get a new one) in addition to buying power nodes. I managed to find most of the ammo and health I needed in chests and dropped from enemies but there were a lot of times when I came damn close to running out so keeping some money on hand to buy what you need is a good idea.



The game has a kinetic and stasis module you get that give you some extra abilities in-game. Kinesis is basically the gravity gun in Half Life 2 and you can do it as much as you want. You will use it for a handful of simple puzzles (if you could even call them that) and to pick up explosive canisters and saw blades to shoot at the enemies (+0.25). It isn't as powerful as the gravity gun of HL2 fame so I didn't rely on it too much but it's a nice touch. The stasis ability is limited to so many uses but can be recharged for free at different stations throughout the ship. It allows you to slow down enemies or parts of your environment and is used to greater effect in combat and for puzzles where you have to slow down moving machinery to get something done (+0.50). Both add a little zazz to the game and increase your combat options.

Another neat little feature are the Zero gravity segments. First introduced in a special room inside the ship and then used more often when you go outside the ship, there are parts where you have to fight in or solve puzzles in zero-gravity (+0.25). You have some kind of special charge boots that keep you magnetically attached to the ship surface but you can jump across vast expanses in zero gee to other parts of the room or ship, and even walk around upside down on the ceiling or walls. You have to be a little careful though cause if you jump and there is nothing to land on but space you'll float away and net yourself a game over. You fight enemies in zero gravity as well and that is a bit of a thrill and a challenge since you can't hear them and they can attack you from any direction (+0.25).

The game features a New Game + that lets you keep all your money, weapons, upgrades, and items and I'm almost always a fan of New Game + though it is especially nice here since you can't upgrade everything on your first play through and if you want to see what all your weapons can do maxed out you'll need to play it a second time (+0.25). The experience doesn't seem to be much different but they do give you a couple of long logs giving you some extra back story if you want it (+0.25).

The game also makes an effort to get rid of any menus that your character isn't seeing himself, all your health and stasis energy is displayed on your suit and you ammo is displayed on the gun. The menu opens up a holographic image thing your character looks at, but it's done in real time and you can be attacked while looking at it. Not exactly a "pro" or a "con" just something sorta neat I noticed.

There are two mini games you find late in the game and they're neat to try a couple of times for extra ammo and items but nothing to write home about. Well, there is a part where you take control of a turret that would sort of count as a mini game and actually that was better then the other two so if you count that (and you do it twice) then the mini game department isn't doing too bad (+0.25).

+5.25

Cons:

The game does in its early chapters tend to have a "Oh no this broke, go fix it Isaac." to the point where I wondered if the coffee machine or their oven was going to be the next thing I had to fix. They need a reason to introduce you to the various areas of the ship and most of the stuff you fix would need to be fixed to help keep you alive so this is a small gripe but if they could have had more of the plot stuff happen a little earlier and distribute the "Fix a critical part of the ship" chapters more evenly it would have helped (-0.50).

The bosses you do fight are huge and impressive and look awesome but there are only 3 of them and one of them isn't a traditional fight really and more of a mini game. There are things that could qualify as mid-bosses perhaps but real boss fights are far and few between (-0.50).

Some of the weapons are sorta useless or notably underpowered. The flamethrower for example is just so incredibly crappy you have to wonder if it's a glitch (-0.25). Since the ammo you find is based on the weapons you're carrying, carrying the flamethrower with you means some of the ammo you'll find is flamethrower ammo, but since it's so weak and you'll use 50-75 units of fuel (you find them 25 at a time) to kill an enemy carrying it around will mean hurt you in the ammo department. The pulse rifle is also sorta weak, but not at bad as the flamethrower is (-0.25). The other weapons are fine, just those two seem to not be worth the ammo. You have a melee attack as well, but it is also pretty weak and if you don't kill an enemy when you hit them they'll probably hit you a couple of times so melee is best used as a last resort if you're out of ammo and nothing can be thrown at them (-0.25).

Another problem I have with the game is that you can't go back to previous areas unless the story calls for it. You use a tram to move to different areas of the ship but for some reason can't go back even when the chapter doesn't have you having to do something cause the ship is in danger of falling to the planet or whatever. Granted if the enemies respawned you could farm items and money and get too powerful or have enough ammo to not make things scary and if they didn't respawn it would be boring, but sometimes there are rooms you missed or you couldn't hold all the stuff and had to leave stuff behind. Again I can sort of see why they did it so this is a fairly small concern (-0.25).

I don't want to spoil anything, but the way they set up a possible sequel didn't really make much sense (though it did scare the shit out of me) (-0.50).

Lastly, they have segments where the "gravity panels" have been broken and some parts of the floor will send you violently into the ceiling and kill you. They're clearly marked, but that is just a dumb concept. They have a centrifuge thingie you have to fix at one point for gravitation stuff, why do they have "gravity panels"? Just feels like a random gimmick they threw in at the last minute (-0.25).

-2.75

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Orphen: Scion of Sorcery

Today I'll be reviewing Orphen: Scion of Sorcery for your reading pleasure. I'm currently playing Dead Space for the 360, so next time I do a review I'll probably have that finished and ready to review.

Orphen:Scion of Sorcery

Overall:

Orphen was a PS2 RPG released around the time the console came out. It's based on some anime that is/was relatively popular in Japan but never (to my knowledge) made the jump to America. The game sorta seems to rely on this nonexistent star power but American audiences are likely to not really have any background going in. You play as a guy named Orphen who is as the title implies: a sorcerer. You get involved in a boat wreck while on a journey to find some quick money and end up stranded on an island with your two assistants and one of three passengers from the boat. The game has three possible paths for you to take and you can switch to a different person later in the game. While the game is marketed as an RPG there are actually very few battles and most of the gameplay is focused on dodging environmental hazards and a little bit of simple puzzle solving.

Pros:

For its time it had fairly impressive graphics as this was one of the earliest PS2 games but it didn't add to the game to a terribly huge degree (the fight near the end on the falling rocks was sorta a cool effect so I'll give them that)(+0.25).



I did like the idea you could do multiple paths and if you didn't like the one you were on you could go back and change it mid story(+0.50). And while checking something for this game I found out that you get something at the end if you complete all three story lines (I never did cause the game just wasn't good enough to be worth it) so if you have the patience you do get a scene and a "final" boss battle for sticking it out but I doubt many will actually care enough to play it for that long.

+0.75

Cons:

For a game that is supposed to be a RPG it doesn't have much in the way of RPG stat growth or battles, sorta a bait and switch(-0.50). This wouldn't be too bad if the adventuring and puzzle solving sections were up to snuff but they really weren't. Combat when it does occur is slow and fairly boring with not much beyond "attack with magic sword" and "attack with magic blasts" and it all happens so slowly you'd think it was lagging(-1.00). The characters that help you aren't that useful and the battles serve as a break from the bland... I dunno what you would call it, exploratory game? You don't do much platforming but you don't really search areas for hidden stuff like you would in Metroidvania type of game either. You basically just dodge hazards throughout the level and maybe a few small enemies that just hurt you when they hit you instead of a battle so you really don't DO much in the game (-1.00). While the battles technically serve as a break they're not very good and don't do much to improve the game(-0.50).

The fact the vast majority of American gamers have never even heard of the anime series hurts the game when they don't go into much more detail then "Orphen is a slacker, the chick is a prissy bitch, and the boy is a timid scaredy-cat" for characterization. So you have no real characterization(-0.50) and that extends to whoever it is your choose to help. There is very little story here and you're just sorta doing stuff the game tells you to do(-0.50).

-4.00

3.75/10

This game would have been fine for a tech demo and learning how to program stuff for the PS2, but it really shouldn't have been made into a game. Not a terribly long review, but there isn't much to say about the game other then it was lousy and had few redeeming features. When I wanted to review a really bad game a while ago and picked Eternal Ring, this came pretty close as I consider them both really bad release PS2 RPGs that had little to nothing going for them.

Drakengard

Sorry it has been so long (Seems I find myself saying that a lot), been involved with a girl recently and that has eaten up a lot of time. Literally every day for the past 5 days I have been hanging out with Ella or a friend from the time I wake up til like, midnight. Anyways, I finally got a chance to sit down and do some blogging and today we're doing Drakengard, a game I showed to my college friends for just how weird it is.

Oh by the way, Pandemic Studios (Known for the Mercenaries series and Star Wars: Battlefront series) shut down recently and some former employees made this Office Space http://www.giantbomb.com/news/pandemic-shutdown-leads-to-office-space-tribute/1768/ tribute.

Drakengard

Overall:

Drakengard is a PS2 RPG made by Square Enix who needs no introduction. In the game you switch between running around on foot killing hoards of soldiers and flying around on dragon back attacking ships and infantry. You play as Caim a man who made a pact with a red dragon to save his life at a critical juncture. In doing so he gave up the ability to speak (the game features a bunch of people who have made pacts and given up something in return.) but can ride around wrecking havoc with his bad ass dragon. You gain allies later on but can only play as them for a limited amount of time in each level and since each level is generally an exercise in persistence and patience with few bosses they don't help you too much. You are fighting an evil empire as part of "The Union", an army raised to fight for freedom and to resist the empire.

Pros:

The game does have a lot of weapons for Caim to use (+0.50) and they can level up so eventually you'll have quite a selection to choose from in regards to how you want to play the game (+0.25). It would take a lot of grinding to level them all up but all you need one good weapon of each type and you're set. You can bring a couple with you into battle so you can cover your bases in terms of having the right weapon for the situation (+0.25). As far as gameplay goes the dragon battles are usually pretty good with lots of explosions, a decent lock on system vs using a non-locked on but more powerful blast, and a bunch of enemies to fight (+0.75). They're also not too tough but you still have to try so the difficulty is about right.

I'm honestly stretching to think of other good points. The cut scenes looked really nice and were well done (+0.25). That's all I have.

+2.00

Cons:

The core gameplay here is the land battles where you fight on foot. The system is sorta interesting at first but quickly becomes really repetitive (-1.25). You don't have a lot of combat choices besides picking the weapon you use and whether you get a running start before you hit them or not (Charging in generally knocks over a formation of enemies and lets you pick off the survivors). You essentially run around in a circle until you get enough momentum and then charge into a group of enemies. And do that until you've killed the 100-300 enemies on the map. Since this is roughly 70-80% of the game this is a rather huge problem as you've seen all there is to the combat after 30 minutes and after 3 hours it has become really boring (if not sooner, I'm easily entertained).



Another problem is that the story is very very hollow (-0.75). You're part of this big rebellion but besides one or two story characters you literally never seen an Union soldier. I think you MIGHT hear one or two voices of an Union soldier during a cut scene somewhere. Even during a level that is supposed to be the ultimate clash between the Empire and the Union and you have to fight like 800 guys, you never see a single ally on the ground (-0.25) (it is a battle where you can go back and forth between the dragon) though you see the preacher guy NPC talk about what's going on in the battle you don't see squat besides a bunch of enemies. Usually they try to act like all the Union soldiers happen to be somewhere else for some reason, but there they couldn't hide it and didn't even try.

Another problem with the story is that it's a very basic evil empire type RPG story that has been done hundreds of times until the very end which is an Evangelion level mindfuck (-0.50). There are several endings and I'd usually count that as a plus, but they're all so crazy and nonsensical that they're only good to show to people for the WTF factor. I don't usually spoil endings but I would like to give an example. One ending has an armada of flying 8 foot babies descend from the sky and devour all of your party members before you fight them as they coo and giggle as you slaughter them. Then you fight a skyscaper sized pregnant woman who is apparently giving birth to these babies after being warped to modern day Tokyo. You fight her by completing a rhythm game. Then unlock a different possible ending that you complete by fighting a bunch of modern day jets firing missiles at you (-0.50). If that made sense to you, give yourself a pat on the back cause I am lost as hell. A different ending has you ending up falling in love with the dragon and wanting to fuck it (-0.25). I guess that's something for the scalies. Sadly GameFAQs/Spot didn't have a picture of the babies to show you.

The side characters they give you to switch between for a limited amount of time are rather lackluster and not very developed character wise (-0.50). They would be useful if you fought big bosses, but I generally only switched to them if I was running low on health and the level was almost done. The crazy insane chick killed babies pretty good but that was the only time I really used them.

-4.00

Overall Rating:5/10

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

I broke down and got the game 3 or 4 days ago, beating it in one extended sitting. I should have reviewed it a couple of days ago but real life gets in the way sometimes (Whoo hot date!) Anyway, I am now ready to review it.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Overall:

I'm gonna assume most people have heard of Modern Warfare 2 considering it had one of the biggest 1st day sales ever and has had plenty of controversy surrounding one of the levels (causing it to be banned in Russia actually). The game is a FPS made by Infinity Ward, known for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and basically all the "Good" Call of Duties. MW2 picks up where CoD4 left off with some of the same characters from the first one and set in the same world. You start off chasing a new bad guy, Marakov who is a Russian Ultra nationalist or some such. Basically he's a Russian terrorist and that's about all you need to know. In CoD4 you switched off between an American and an English guy and they keep that going in this one as well, but there are 2 Americans and 2 English guys this time you get to control. You'll travel all over the world, but this doesn't mean they send you on a bunch of random errands as they all are related to the overall story (which I won't go into too much out of fear of spoilers as the game does have a couple plot twists).

Pros:

This is a gorgeous game and the AAA work and polish really shows (+0.50). You occasionally see an odd texture here and there but overall the graphics are really good and the effects whether they be in-game or during a cut scene are very impressive. Speaking of cut scenes and action events this game has a lot of them which could be bad if done badly but this game does them right and some of them are jaw droppingly cool(+0.75). Now I wish I could tell you some of the cooler ones but again I don't want to spoil the plot twists and those are some of the best.

The campaign is well done and although short takes you to a variety of places and gives you a variety of situations to deal with. The selection of weapons is quite varied and uses the 2 weapons at a time system that the Halo series is known for(+0.50). Fortunately they don't force you to use a crappy pistol for your side-arm though you often start with one. They actually give you a reason to use a pistol, you can switch to it super fast unlike switching to a 2nd rifle. The predator drone missile strikes you get to use once in a while were pretty cool too, imagine the Nikita missile from MGS but you're firing it at the ground from high in the air and its 10 times as powerful and about 1/10 as controllable(+0.25). The vehicle segments were pretty fun(0.25) though the control on the boat and snow mobile were a little stiff. I appreciate the work they put into it considering that a very large (possibly the majority) segment of the people that play the game do so for Multi-Player.

The game also comes with a "Special Ops" mode where they test your abilities in a number of different situations such as holding out against waves of enemies or defusing bombs in a certain amount of time(+0.50). You can play these co-op or solo and you get stars depending on the difficulty you play them on. New ones open up once you get so many stars. It's not supposed to be the main thing you focus on by any means, but it gives you something to do to extend your non-competitive multiplayer time with the game and the missions are fairly fun yet still challenging.

Multi-Player is back and despite the backlash from PC gamers seems to be very alive and well on all systems that the game was released on. I haven't spent a huge amount of time on it, but while I got my ass kicked when I played it, I'm already desiring to play it again so I guess it did something right(+0.25). All your standard game types are there but the real star here besides the gameplay is the progression system where you game experience and rank up in an RPG fashion(+0.75). Now you can unlock little add-ons and modifications by doing certain things with a weapon like getting so many kills or headshots. They keep unlocking new stuff all the time so you always are close to getting something new via rank up (Your stats don't go up so newbies still have a chance of course)(+0.25).

+4.00

Cons:

My complaints about this game are all rather minor. Most people talk about the dedicated servers being removed and they took out the leaning feature in CoD4. I never used those but saying they were removed to "balance gameplay" does feel like just an excuse(-0.25). I think Infinity Ward didn't like how lean turned out but the gaming public liked it. One thing I actually did think was a negative was how short the campaign was(-0.25). I beat it in 5 or 6 hours my first time through and I by no means rushed. Not a huge problem, what there was of it kicked ass and there are a lot of parts where something awesome happens that I'm sure took a lot longer to occur then a regular level with no big set pieces.

Another minor complaint is how a lot of the weapons do the same thing, but you still have your standard variety, but a lot of the rifles and pistols are very similar. Tourney-fags might care that a certain gun does 1.1X as much damage or has one less bullet in the magazine but those don't count as significant differences to me(-0.25).

Lastly I've always sorta wondered why CoD4 and MW2 reward the team that's winning with airstrikes and weapon drops. I mean, if a team is doing well and gets killing streaks it probably means they're winning and if they're winning why give them stuff to turn the odds even more so in their favor? The predator missile reward is really powerful and can kill multiple people on the other side of the map easily. Just seems counter intuitive to give the winning team even more advantages(-0.25). Some of the minor ones are ok cause I can understand wanting to reward a player for staying alive for a while in a game where you die in 2 or 3 hits but spawning a helicopter gunship that hovers over your opponent's spawn and kills them just feels cheap(-0.50).

-1.50

Overall Rating:9.5/10

Killzone 2

Well it's time again for a review. Today I've picked a game that had a lot of hype when it came out, Killzone 2 for the PS3. I mentioned it in some of my previous entries and after getting sidetracked by Borderlands beat it a couple of days ago so now I suppose I should give my impression of it. It was supposed to be a big game that was gonna boost the PS3 and I know it caused its fair share of console war debates. Actually the original Killzone was sorta supposed to be the PS2's response to Halo but never managed to live up to that, apparently it did stir up enough debate that it got a sequel though and a second chance to prove itself.

Killzone 2

Overall:

You play the role of an ISA (Interplanetary Strategic Alliance) soldier named Sev who is with "Alpha Team" as they invade the planet of Helghan in response to the events of the first game where the Helghast invaded one of the ISA planets. As Alpha Team apparently has more experience and is battle hardened they (and thus you) tend to get sent behind enemy lines and to do the more difficult missions though generic ISA guys do appear fairly often to lend a hand. Your goal is to capture the Helghast leader Visari and assist in the capture of their capital city. The game plays as a FPS with a regenerating health and cover system and was made by Guerrilla Games (and published by Sony). It also incorporates the Six-Axis motion control thing in a handful of situations, but it was a pretty minor thing and I didn't consider it a positive or negative.

Pros:

The game looks good, really good. The graphics are definitely top notch and the explosions are frequent and well done(+0.50). While you do see a lot of destroyed city landscapes they do manage to give you a few different areas to fight in such as a moving train, a desert, and inside a spaceship so it's not all brown gritty city-scapes(+0.50). While there are only a few cut scenes they're really good, the opening propaganda piece done with Visari's speech in the background as you see the first wave of the ISA prior to the start of the game (you're in the second wave) get gunned down and totally dominated was really great and added a lot to the atmosphere of the game(+0.25). The ending one was also good but not quite as good as the opening one.

As far as in-game moments go you get a mixed bag. There are some moments that were really cool like holding a position near an enemy arc-tower early in the game and at the end when you're pressing forward with the last remaining ISA forces to reach your objective, that was really intense with gunfire everywhere and instilled a good frantic sense(+0.50). They're also good about keeping the ISA from doing too well and just being an overwhelming force because you're there as the super awesome human controlled player. You see a lot of cases where the ISA gets their asses kicked and it keeps the Helghast as a formidable enemy (if you just slaughtered them all the time they wouldn't be as dangerous)(+0.50). But as you'll see in the Cons section it isn't all sunshine on the gameplay front.



The game did have a good variety of guns to pick from and I liked the electricity gun enough to mention it as a small plus in its own right(+0.25). The enemies were cool, I like the look of the Helghast and they came in a couple of slightly different varieties so that was nice too(+0.25). The heavies served as cool mid-bosses and though it's not too hard to figure out how to kill them, they still look cool kicking your guys' ass(+0.25).

+3.00

Cons:

There are a number of gameplay issues that detracted from the Killzone 2 experience, some minor, others having a significant impact. One problem was that your character seemed so damn short, or at least where the camera was made it look that way, I always thought I was crouched and kept trying to uncrouch myself(-0.25). I came up to most of the other character's shoulders at best for some reason. Another issue I had was that they put in a bunch of "secret intel" to find and Helghan symbols to destroy but to find most of them you'd have to search but you nearly always have some guy yelling at you to keep moving so it was a pain in the ass if you wanted to look for them(-0.25). Also if you wanted to see what the intel said you had to go to some Killzone 2 website apparently and that's just lazy, the reason I halfway cared about the findable items in Gears of War 2 was cause it gave you a little more background info about characters and places, here where the story is better they could have taken even greater advantage of that but dropped the ball. The cover system was also slightly flawed in that you weren't completely covered and I died several times while in seemingly great cover(-0.25).

Another set of gameplay issues I had involved the weapons. There are plenty of weapons to be sure but besides the main ISA rifle, the generic Helghast rifle, and the heavy Helghast machine gun you would see most of the others maybe once or twice(-0.50). The sniper rifle has one level mid-game where they introduce it and it's common, and you see it during the last fight and that's about it. The best gun in the game, the electricity gun (I can't remember what it was actually called) was basically a Tesla Coil you carried around and kicked all sorts of ass with but you only get it for part of one level. Making this worse was the fact that you could only carry two weapons and one of them had to be your crappy pistol so you really could only carry one "real" gun(-0.50). This made it pretty hard to try out the decent variety of guns available as sometimes you basically had to drop a cool gun cause they had a section that was made for you to use a certain different gun.

Something else that bothered me were the difficulty spikes. The game itself was normally fairly average in difficulty with a few notable exceptions that made you want to rip your hair out(-0.50). The tank on the train and the infantry battle right before the final boss come to mind as the two worst. Questionable ally AI in these situations didn't help (Your teammate runs straight into literally 7 or 8 enemies and surprisingly enough goes down almost instantly)(-0.25).

-2.50

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

Yeah yeah, I know you guys bitch that I give too many games a rating in the 7 or 8s, bite me.

Hilarious thing I saw

Not a game review, just saw someone link to this on LL. Ben do you know anything about this?

NWS

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2009/10/16/oh-god-my-eyes-the-worst-sex-scene-in-comics/

Phantom Brave

I've finally gotten around to playing Killzone 2 and am making good progress with it, but I want to finish it before I review it, but I'm long overdue for doing a game review and while talking to Chris earlier we discussed Phantom Brave briefly and figured it would be good for a review.

Phantom Brave

Overall:

Phantom Brave is a strategy RPG by Nippon Ichi of Disgaea fame for the PS2 (with a remake on the Wii that I haven't played). You play as the "Chroma" Marona who is a young girl. A Chroma is their way of trying to be cool as mercenary sounds boring and the image doesn't mesh well with a little girl but that's basically what she does, though she takes on more benign missions then your average mercenary. She was born with the power to summon ghosts onto this plane of existence for brief periods of time by confining them to nearby objects. The ghost of her late parent's friend Ash hangs out with her and serves as a main character. The gameplay is a little different from Disgaea in that there aren't tiles you move around on, but your characters have a radius in decimeters (well it's dm, I assumed it was decimeters) for their movement and characters have a speed value for determining who goes when instead of the "your turn/my turn" Disgaea system.

Pros:

Like most Nippon Ichi games there is a fairly deep combat and leveling system at work here with many different classes of humanoid characters or monsters to pick from(+0.75). You have plenty of ways to construct your party though some are obviously better then others. The game also gets a nod for trying a gridless system when they could have easily stuck with what worked(+0.25). While the actual implication of the gridless system had a few problems (many of which were smoothed out in Makai Kingdom) it wasn't bad and I appreciate them changing up a fairly staple concept in strategy RPGs.

While they don't have the item world they have a random dungeon you can explore via the dungeon monk class. I don't think it's quite as polished or enjoyable as it could be as the benefits besides grinding as are somewhat limited. Still, kudos for having it as an option even if it's not as good or useful as Disgaea's Item World(+0.25).

The familiar pretty sprite graphics return to the game and are used well throughout combining some old school with the new(well, at the time new)(+0.50). The cut scenes use the anime cut scenes you see in previous and later Nippon Ichi games and do the job better then just text boxes. The game is mostly voice acted though in parts that can be a negative due to the painfully sugary sweet story and things they say(+0.25).



The combat itself is rather fun and the things you can use as weapons are humorous (fish, rocks, trees, ect.)(+0.50). Each character has different sword and magic proficiencies and the weapons you find or buy give you several different weapon and class combinations that are workable giving you further variation to your team. Being able to pick up allies and enemies as weapons was a nice touch (even if it's not usually very tactically helpful) as well(+0.25). The protection system where certain objects or enemies give protection to other enemies or items (which you can confine to for the bonuses) is an additional layer added to the combat for some more strategic fun(+0.25).

+3.00

Cons:

The story is waaaaay too sugary sweet(-0.50). Other games made by this company are often light hearted, here they just took it too far. In addition the game has a lot of chapters where nothing happens and they could have probably had half as many chapters without losing any important plot points(-0.25). Later on they get lazy and send you back to some of the previous islands you already went to cause they couldn't really think of any new places for you to go to and it probably saved a little bit on development time(-0.25).

Gameplay-wise one of my biggest annoyances was how all of your units except Marona would disappear after several turns of use because the ghosts couldn't stay in our world very long(-0.50). I think it was designed to try to have you make a large group of character besides just your "A" team. Once your guys started disappearing you could summon in some second stringers to finish off the fight. The reason I wasn't fond of this was that it basically required you to grind more to level up the extra guys or force you to try to rush in to take everyone out as fast as you could with your best guys before they were gone(-0.25). Ironically I tend to have a large group of generics in Nippon Ichi games but my team was relatively small here compared to their other games cause I went with the latter strategy.

A smaller gameplay gripe I have with this game is the stealing system and nerfed throw mechanics. To throw someone they have to not be holding a weapon so the usefulness of throwing one of your characters to reach an enemy is lessened(-0.25). You steal by basically trying to pick up an enemy while they are holding an item and if you're successful you pick up that item. Of course to steal you also have to not have a weapon equipped as a successful steal has you using that weapon(-0.25).

Also Ash needs to get some new lines cause he literally says the same damn thing before every boss battle. I can dig a character having a little motto or saying or something, but it just gets obnoxious here(-0.25).

-2.50

Overall Rating:7.50/10

Metal Gear Solid

Time again for another blog post. I bought Killzone 2 but honestly I keep getting sucked into Borderlands so I haven't really gotten to a point where I can review Killzone 2 (In fact I haven't even started it). So I'm gonna go back and review one of my favorite games of all time: Metal Gear Solid.

Before we start I found this earlier: http://xkcd.com/657/large/ and thought it was cool. xkcd is by no means new or even a comic I have in my webcomic reading list (Not that I think it's bad or anything) but someone linked this and while there is a joke at the end of the various movie time lines, the fact that the guy put that much time into the LoTR one is astounding.

Anyway, without anymore delay, Metal Gear Solid!

Metal Gear Solid

Overall:

Metal Gear Solid is a stealth 3rd person shooter (that has a weapon or two that takes you to first person) that played a significant part in creating the stealth genre. I am reviewing the Playstation version though a remake of it was made for the Gamecube called Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. In MGS you are Solid Snake (there is a tendency for phallic references throughout the series), a retired agent of Foxhound called out of retirement to stop a group of genetically enhanced super soldiers that formed the current Foxhound that have taken over a nuclear disposal facility on the Fox archipelago in Alaska. They're threatening to launch a nuke unless the American government gives into their demands and hands over the remains of Big Boss (a legendary mercenary from the original Metal Gear and later prequel MGS3). Snake is going it alone but has several contacts who have useful advice he can talk to via "codec". Originally your objectives are to rescue two hostages and find out whether Foxhound is bluffing about being able to launch nukes but things aren't what they seem and the story gets much more involved. I could go into more of the opening story but one could write a large blog entry (or several) on the story of MGS by itself so I'll move on. The game has you infiltrating a heavily guarded facility and you must find all of your weapons on-site cause you have to swim in and bulky weapons would have made that hard. You must sneak your way to various objectives and bosses who you have to fight and defeat in different ways meeting new enemies and allies along the way.

Pros:

This game has a strong story, easily the best of the games I've reviewed and one of the best I've played period(+1.00). There are always new plot twists and every time you think you've figured everything out something else throws you off and keeps you guessing. This is due in part to the strong characterization as most of the characters, even some of the bosses, have elaborate back stories and change as the game progresses, in many ways the game is a mystery that you unravel as you progress(+1.0). So this game gets high marks for story and characters.

The bosses all generally have a different way you fight them, the first boss involves a simple pistol fight to get you used to your side arm as well fighting a boss. Later bosses involve ones that have to have grenades used, melee, rockets, sniper rifles, and so on so you end up using most of your arsenal at some point and get a feel for all of your weapons(+0.25). The game also does a good job of making many of the boss fights stand out and feel epic (Anyone who has played the game remembers the trick to the Psycho Mantis fight) as well as plot important conversations(+0.50).

The game introduced stealth gaming to a wide audience and made people play the game in a way that many at the time had never done before (you could not go in guns blazing as even a single soldier could be a threat, especially in the beginning when you had only a tiny bit of health(+0.25). The game even had some laughs and often broke the 4th wall to good effect. That CD case confused the hell out of me the first time I heard it(+0.25).

The voice acting is really good as well and all the voices fit the characters as well as the VAs putting in emotion where it needs to be overall adding to the characterization mentioned early on in the pros section(+0.25). The music also added a lot and was quite well done, from the music for being spotted to post-boss fights to the escape scene. I still like the music after you beat Sniper Wolf to this day. The fact they changed it in the remake (along with redoing some of the voices) is one of the chief reasons I prefer the original (and the remake is less stealth based)(+0.50).

The little touches they added were cool too, at the time few expected footprints to be left in the snow much less for guards to notice them and follow them to you. The knocking one walls to alert guards was also useful and a nice touch. The infamous cardboard box was both funny and a helpful item, giving you another way to hide from your enemies. They paid a lot of attention to details like this, even in cases where it wouldn't be used much and they could have just skipped it to save time in development(+0.50).

+4.50

Cons:

Admittedly the gameplay with the socom (pistol) and famas (rifle) against regular guards is a bit awkward since the first person scheme they go with in later games is an improvement (though it does make the games more action oriented and less stealth based) and here you can't really see the guards from too far away(-0.75). You can look in first person, but unless you're using the PSG-1(sniper) or stinger rocket launcher you can't see them in the first person (or the guided missile I suppose) and attack and none of those are exactly good weapons to fight non-bosses with(-0.50).



The graphics are not anything to write home about nowadays of course and you can't really make out eyes or mouth movements in the character models (though some of the cutscenes still managed to be impressive such as those involving REX)(-0.25).

I honestly don't have many complaints with this game.

-1.50

Overall Rating:10/10

Little Big Planet

I figured I should probably review a PS3 game, show I play all the consoles and not just the 360 and the Wii. I decided to go with Little Big Planet, a game that had a good deal of hype before it came out and was supposed to be one of the big hits of 2008.

Little Big Planet

Overall:

Little Big Planet is a platformer for the PS3 with a focus on it's unique art style and the ability to interact with your environment and character in a bunch of different ways, as well as the ability to make your own levels and put them up for others to see. It came out at a time when the PS3 was struggling a bit and it was supposed to be one of the games that was gonna help the PS3 start taking back the market (it didn't). You play as questioningly named "Sackboy" and you travel around the world helping different people in different cultures with a variety of tasks that usually revolve around getting something back that was lost or stolen.

Pros:

This game does have a very unique style that makes it stick out and easily identifiable(+0.75). It's kind of like cardboard cut outs that came to life and the world is made of them. So I give them kudos on standing out. The amount of accessories for your Sackboy are fairly varied and while they serve no purpose as far as gameplay is concerned (well, I suppose it helps tell the players apart in co-op) they do let you make your own unique character and having a bunch of options for your character is a plus in my book(+0.50). They did put an effort in making the levels using the cardboard cut off theme and sometimes it was neat to see how things unfolded(+0.25).



As mentioned above the game does have up to 4 player co-op(+0.50) though I played it with one other person and I think that would be an improvement over going it alone cause it lets you compete for bubbles against your friends and you get to share the game with someone else which is often a plus. No split screen, you just stay on the same screen (make sure not to get too far behind or you go pop) which is big enough to hold both players unless one decides to be a jerk and move ahead quickly to screw the other one over(+0.25). They even have special areas where you can get bonus objects and accessories only if you have at least a certain number of people involved.

Another good aspect of the game is the fact that they made an effort to have a strong online community where users could create unique fantastical levels and share them with anyone who has the game(+0.25). This didn't go without a couple of kinks, such as the level creator being confusing and hard to use in places as well as producing a large number of junk levels that are of low quality but some good levels did come of it and the attempt itself was noble(+0.25).

Lastly I did like the little checkpoint system(+0.25). If you died you went back to the last little circular door thing and 1/4 of the lighted circle around it would disappear and when the lights were gone you couldn't respawn anymore unless you activated another door (either further on or back earlier) so you weren't stuck with lives but you couldn't just die as often as you liked. You also shared these with co-op friends, so co-op didn't mean the game just got super easy. So if only 1 of 4 guys was left and activated a later door everyone would come back but only 1/4 of the door would be left(+0.25).
+3.25

Cons:

This game is a platformer at heart but seems like it spent a lot of time on style and not much on the core game mechanics. The platforming (and thus gameplay) isn't as good as it should be and I place the blame here on a slightly slow to respond control scheme(-0.25) and the weak sauce jump that Sackboy has(-0.50), it just feels like it should be a little more solid. Feels like they were working around a small jump instead of wanting it from the start(-0.50). A couple of spots did have difficulty jumps that were rather annoying as well (-0.25) (I remember one of the fire pit levels had a really really annoying part with spinning wheel things you have to grab on to).

The online component was a noble attempt but it never really took off on a scale that they hoped it would and like I mentioned was plagued by being hard to use and they had their expectations too high for user generated content(-0.25).

The game would have been better if it was just Sackboy exploring the world for the fun of it instead of trying to ram lame characters down your throat who you often never see again after one level (unless you count the cameo at the end)(-0.50) as well as a story that just was really forced(-0.50). I don't expect a platformer to have a really involved story and many of the best ones had no real stories or just a simple save the princess motif but this one was dumb and worse then if there was nothing at all. If you're trying to make a platformer focused on exploring a unique looking world with a couple of interesting set pieces like the foamy looking stuff you can grab onto then why not just have Sackboy exploring this world full of wonder and excitement? I guess they wanted to have a reason to have it end other then "well I guess this is everything" but they could have put the big bad guy in the background periodically stealing parts of the world or you'd see him screw you over by taking something and you'd have to work around it, then you could still have the final battle.

I also wish the little stickers and objects you found had more use then MAYBE being used once for an optional little trinket. You could cover everything with a plant leaf or a star or a bunch of stickers, but there isn't much reason to do so and after trying it for 5 minutes you'll grow bored of it except to occasionally make your friend's Sackboy look weird(-0.25).
-3.00

Overall Rating:7.25/10

Borderlands

Interesting day, almost got arrested for walking at the watertower trail. Police guy saw me walking by the part that goes near the waste treatment plant and asked for my ID and took down a bunch of info. He knew my brother Matt (who is in the state police) so he didn't do anything, but I wonder what would have happened if he didn't? Funny thing is I've been going down there for years and mom has literally gone down there six days a week for over 15 years. Guy said they had to be careful after 9/11.

So yesterday I finished Borderlands, a new game out on the 360, PS3, and PC. I played the 360 version though the shots I've seen comparing it to other versions doesn't make the other versions look any better or worse. Being that I just beat it, figured it would be a good game to review (the reason for the lack of updates being my playing the game so much). Also with the new system of giving the pluses and minuses per pro or con, I think I'm gonna remove the Closing Remarks section as it's sorta redundant as it was where I weighted the pros and cons.

Borderlands

Overall:

Borderlands is a fun FPS/RPG from Gearbox Software and 2K Games (whom you might remember from Bioshock and Elder Scrolls IV). You play as one of four characters (each one representing a different class, well rounded Soldier, melee and explosive oriented Berserker, elemental focused Siren, or sniper Mordecai) exploring the planet Pandora in search of a mythical "Vault" that is said to contain riches and power for whoever finds it left behind by an alien civilization. Obviously this won't be easy and the planet is essentially a series of slums and bandit camps. The game plays as a FPS but the damage you do is determined by your level, the feats you take at each level up, the damage stat your gun has, whether you critted, your proficiency with that type of weapon, and whatnot. The damage you take is the same way (though I don't think the enemy can crit on you) and you can take all kinds of skills that raise your max HP or shields or improve reload time or accuracy. You take missions from various townfolk and bounty boards to further your progress or just do side quests for fun.

Pros:

This game has a lot of quests for you to do (+0.50) so you have a lot of ways to explore the game world and level. If you do a lot of the quests you should never need to grind (+0.25) specifically to level or find better weapons, though you certainly can if you want. Speaking of exploring, there are all kinds of little things to find if you go out and check out different areas. From little Clap Trap robots (saving them gives you a larger inventory to hold more items) to caches of weapons that are usually better then what enemies drop, as well as just finding little (or large) groups of bandits or wildlife to fight(+0.75). The wildlife tend to appear in packs with different kinds of strengths (Pup Skags, Adult Skags, Spitter Skags, Elder Skags, Badass Skags, Alpha Skags, Fire Skags, Corrosive Skags, ect for example)(+0.50).

Another positive aspect is the incredibly large variety of guns(+1.0). They have several types that you can earn proficiency in (shotgun, smg, rocket launcher, ect) but even within that group there are numerous different guns per each level. You might have a pistol made by one of the 8 or 9 different corporations that you have to be level 10 to use, but that corporation might have several pistols for level 10 and up characters but each one of THOSE comes with random little positives and negatives (Slightly larger clip size, faster or slower reload time, better or worse accuracy, a mod to shoot fire/shock/explosive/corrosive rounds ect.) so even two guns for the same level character made by the same company could have different stats and work differently. Obviously the commercial saying "87 bazillion guns" is exaggerating but I could easily believe the number of different combinations is in the millions. So you're always on the lookout for better and newer guns as you go (obviously higher level enemies will drop higher level guns).



Multiplayer is another big aspect of the game, they strongly encourage co-op (either split screen or via Xbox Live but sadly not both at the same time) and to keep things interesting the enemies get stronger and the loot they drop gets better with more people(+0.50). It also helps to have different classes out there to cover your weakness or get you up if you're down (you go into a L4D like thing where you're on the ground shooting enemies as your health drains, though if you kill an enemy you come back with a tiny amount of health, other players can revive you as well if they get to you fast enough).

I like the humor and style of the game as well(+0.75). All kinds of neat little references and fun enemies to fight. Who doesn't like blowing away a "Psycho Midget" wielding a machete or fighting a boss named "Mad Mel" who drives a vehicle not unlike a certain famous similarly named movie character? The game doesn't take itself too seriously and that's a good thing cause I think if they did it would be too "extreme" to work well(+0.25).

+4.5

Cons:

I noticed a couple of glitchy quests where an item you were looking for wouldn't appear unless you left an area and came back, but these were limited to a sub-set of side quests where you had to find parts of a certain kind of gun and one of them wouldn't appear where it should and you'd have to come back later (or the game would get confused and keep pointing you towards a part you already got, not sure which was going on)(-0.50). A smaller glitch I noticed was that some achievements just don't unlock when they should. Granted that doesn't interfere with game play, but it's something that's pretty easy to catch (especially since the two I noticed were ones you'd have to try to not get) so I would have expected better of them(-0.25).

The game has a good intro but after that the story is told via the quests (usually the little text you see after you complete it) or in-game and Borderlands isn't able to do it in a way that the Half Life series can(-0.50). The story isn't bad, it could just be presented better, except the ending, that was just sorta disappointing(-0.25).

Another problem with the game is that the environments do tend to start looking the same after a while, being mostly a desert/junkyard cross(-0.50). That's sorta the theme of the game, but it could use a few different areas (the last area looks different but you need a little more then that) that stand out throughout the game.

Lastly, the classes all have a focus but could use some more specification(-0.25). I'm not saying don't allow certain classes to use certain weapons as that would diminish the fun, but I know there is some overlap in the skill tree and if they had more options and less skills that all or several classes could learn I think it would benefit the game. Also, the player vs player aspect felt a little tacked on (-0.25). You can melee a friend playing with you to fight them (they have to accept) but there's no reason to and until you get ways to quickly heal yourself later on is a pain in the ass to recover from (especially if you lose).

-2.5

Overall Rating:9.0/10

River City Ransom

So, first time in quite a while I beat a NES game. I found this at a local comic book shop for cheap and got it since I had never played this classic.

River City Ransom

Overall:

River City Ransom is a Brawler/RPG on the NES. Ryan's (oddly the second player character you would probably not use in a single player game) girlfriend has been kidnapped by "Slick" who controls various gangs of high school students throughout the city. To get her back you have to fight through the city, defeat bosses, and get upgrades and new techniques to kick more ass. The game plays as a brawler but the damage you do depends on your stat for that type of attack, your speed on your agility stat, ect. The action is broken up by various malls that contain a variety of shops where you can purchase stat upgrades and get health restored (in this way the money the gang members drop acts as exp and money). It all leads to a final battle at the top of River City High School for the fate of your (friend's) girlfriend and the school itself.

Pros:

This is a unique little game in that while brawlers were common back in the day and RPGs certainly existed and became more popular later on, few games combined the two to the extent this one did(+0.75). Sure some brawlers would have minor RPG elements or you would have action RPGs, but each of those were mostly one or the other. So I give the game kudos for mixing both genres in an enjoyable manner. The game also has a quirky "So bad it's good" plot and dialogue that made it a cult classic in America(+0.50).

Another nice part of the game is the 2 player co-op available which changes things up a little bit since you and your friend are competing for the same amount of money and you can throw each other to high points or fight one another if the mood strikes you(+0.75).

The weapons are a nice addition and you get a variety to choose from that range from fairly fast with reach to slow and short range to spice up your standard brawler punch, jump, and kick mechanics (+0.50). You also get some neat unexpected interactions with them such as batting some thrown objects back at enemies if you have the lead pipe or being able to jump on rolling tires to run over your opponents(+0.25). The graphics, while not cutting edge by today's standards of course, are clear and you know what's going on the screen and it has a distinctive style that is recognizable(+0.50). +3.25

Cons:

The game is fairly short and even if you do go to max out your stats you're looking at only a few hour long game, less if you don't grind too much though being a NES game I suppose I can cut it a little slack in the length department(-0.25). Speaking of grinding, unless you're experienced with the game or similar ones to it, you'll probably have to grind for money a little bit more then you want to(-0.50).

Certain techniques are a little overpowered, such as the three that let you do three lightning quick punches, kicks, or weapon attacks and a lot of the food items you can buy aren't worth the money (and it's hard to remember what gives stat boosts to what unless you use a guide or write down a whole lot of stuff)(-0.25). The music isn't terribly memorable either(-0.25).

You do get a few annoying instant death pits but they're kept sparse(-0.25). Sometimes you feel like the enemies get some cheap hits in, especially when you're down and they pick you up and throw you around a couple of times before you can do anything(-.50). -2.00

Overall Rating:8.25/10

Closing Remarks:

This is a classic NES game I would recommend to anyone who owns a NES and enjoys brawlers and RPGs but doesn't mind a little more grinding then the average RPG. It's simple and fun and goofy enough to be something you remember and laugh at it in points but not so goofy that it gets on your nerves. It has a few hic-cups here and there and there is only so much you can do with 2 buttons and a D-pad but it's still an enjoyable game, even decades later.

Clay Fighter and Capclave

Yeah, been a little bit of a gap in updates. I was gonna do one yesterday but I couldn't stay up too late cause I ended up going to that literary con (focusing on fantasy and sci-fi) I mentioned to Chris, Capclave 2009. It was sorta interesting, it definitely felt like it was too small to be a 3 day con (I only went on Saturday cause I didn't feel like paying for a hotel and didn't expect it to be that that great). Since they didn't have enough stuff to fill a normal con for three days they decided to just have 5 or 6 rooms with stuff in it so some of it had to be done on Friday or Sunday. It took place in a Hilton hotel in Rockville Maryland which is a little north of D.C. and a couple hour drive.

Of course it rained all day which bogged down the drive there and back and made it longer (I hate driving at night in the rain in the city cause all the lights reflect off the pooled water and make it harder to see then if just one or two of those conditions exist) as well as a traffic snarl about 10 or 15 miles outside of Rockville but once I got into the city I found the Hilton and a parking lot easily enough.

Right off the bat the differences between this and game or anime cons was apparent in the older average age group (most people were 30-50 though I saw a sprinkling of people my age) and the lack of costumes though I saw a handful. They did still have a dealer's room and panels and it took place in a hotel so there were a few familiar aspects. The Dealer's Room sold mostly books which wasn't a big surprise though I saw a few shirts on sale (less in-joke/witty things and more cute cats and stuff) as well a few little nick-nacks like necklaces and stuff. There was also a room for messing around as well as to Chris's delight: board games. Wish they had listed it in the little con schedule (I saw people with a more in-depth con program but never saw where to get one myself) but they had it in the middle of all the main con rooms so it was easy to find. I didn't have anyone to play a game with and I didn't recognize any of the games (though I heard a woman say she wished she had brought Flux) and felt a little weird going up to a group of 50 year olds and ask how to play.

I went to three panels: New Media, Battles in Space, and No Trespassing in Space. All three had the same format of 5 or 6 "experts" at a table in the front of the room discussing the issue and occasionally taking a question from the audience. The New Media one was pretty interesting and was a group of various people that had some sort of radio or blog or book they did and all of them discussing how new techniques had arrived from the new technology and where they thought it might go. It was better then I thought it would be, I originally went in there to waste some time til the more exciting sounding space panels. The Space Battles one wasn't bad but it wasn't as good as I hoped. They spent the entire hour either talking about how Show/Book X didn't have realistic Space Battles because of whatever or talking about how hard it would be to have Space Battles in real life. When they were asked what was there favorite space battle their only criteria was how realistic it was. Wish they could have gotten over that and talked about other aspects of Space Battles. The last panel I went to was No Trespassing in Space and was about the decay of the American Space Program. It would have been interesting but they had this one Japanese guy there with an accent so thick you could only understand like 10-20% of what he said. He kept trying to take over the panel too, his intro to who he was, was longer then the other 4 guy's combined and he kept going on 10 or 15 minute rants that no one understood and the guy moderating it had to wrestle control away from him. And you could tell the Japanese guy was pissed about that, he looked like he was gonna start a fight the entire time. A shame really, cause the other guys had interesting things to say.

They had an Erfworld party in Room 824 (I heard about the con from the webcomic and they were having a little party for the fans) but I didn't drink anything cause I don't drink much and I had to drive back right after that. They had some shot of various liquor with a candy corn in the bottom you had to chew before you could swallow, everyone seemed to think it packed quite a punch. There was a dude there that looked just like Parson.

Now, getting down to game review business today I'm doing the SNES game Clay Fighter. I am also trying something slightly new on request. In addition to the normal review I'm gonna list how much each aspect added or detracted from the score. Ideally this will pin down how strongly I feel about each point. This is just on a trial basis, if it proves to be a pain in the ass to do I'll go back to the old way. The game starts at 7 (average) and gains and loses points along the way til it gets to the overall score.

Clay Fighter

Overall:

This is a 2D fighting game for the SNES (not that the SNES had 3D fighting games) with a focus on quirky oddness and weird often non-human characters. In fact all the characters are made out of clay and you see bits of it fly off as a censor friendly fill in for blood. It was a bit of a cult classic but the sequels were not as well received and the series soon died upon their release.

Pros:

The game does a decent job of standing out from other fighters of the time with it's unique art style and some of the characters will probably bring a smile to your face the first time you see them(+1.00). Your basic fighting game moves are here so game play wise nothing is missing. The little things you hear the characters say when they win or lose are kinda cute, especially for the time period(+0.25). The music was good and fit the different themed stages for each character as well(+0.50). They do have a fairly varied selection of characters (though not a large amount, they're just mostly different from each other) and they do give them a few unique moves(+0.50). +2.25

Cons:

The story is pretty lame and while I often use the term paper thin in a case like this, I'm not even sure this game's story deserves that(-0.50). Also while I mentioned the basics of a fighting game exist here, that's all you get, the basics and nothing fancy to keep you coming back besides its style and a special move or two for each character(-0.25). The computer is also rather cheap at times, pulling off moves and moving with speed that seem a little beyond the set limits of the characters while other times they'll act rather lackluster and not do much at all(-0.75). I beat it as a kid by playing as Bad Mr. Frosty and sitting in a corner kicking until I got lucky and beat them and that seemed to work better then most other strategies I used(-0.25). The game also doesn't have much long term draw as it's not exactly deep and after a play through or two you've seen what it has to offer(-0.75). -2.50

Overall Rating:6.75/10

Closing Remarks:

Not a terribly long review simply cause there isn't a lot of intricate things to talk about. The game ends up just shy of average due to lack of any long term draw and some cheap AI which taint a game that does bring a unique style to the table. The bad story hurts it, but only a little compared to how bad it is because fighting games are a genre that don't rely heavily on them and if they even exist are just a reason to fight. The hit I gave it due to lack of variety of moves was also minor because they did give each character a few special moves.

Crackdown

I finished Crackdown with Colin today (well, technically yesterday but I'm writing this at 2 or 3AM so I still consider it the same day) and figured it would be a good time to review it.

Crackdown

Overall:

Crackdown is a third person shooter sandbox game on the Xbox 360. It was one of the early 360 games, so even though it's current gen, it's a few years old. You play as a super enhanced cop in a city that is practically controlled by three different gangs that each have their own 1/3 of the city. The police forces of the world have merged into one group known as The Agency and made their last stand on a central island, you're their last hope for taking the city back. You're tasked with finding a bunch of the head honchos in each group and killing them. Six guys that each control one aspect of the gang plus the kingpin. You can technically go for the kingpin first but the more of the little guys you take down, the easier he is (and he's still fairly hard so I recommend taking them down). You can take the three gangs down in any order you want (or even work on all at the same time) though there is definitely a suggested order as the power of the weapons each gang has is significantly different.

Pros:

This game is fun, especially when you first get into it and have a whole world to explore. You have 5 abilities that grow throughout the game (Agility, Driving, Strength, Demolitions, and Accuracy) and your ability to explore is drastically altered and increased as these go up, especially agility which lets you run faster and jump higher. The exploring aspect reminded me of Assassin's Creed mixed with Spider Man 2, you have to grab on to ledges and window sills to get up high, but we're talking about jumping up 4 or so stories of a sky scraper at a time and your forward jump can take you from building to building if you're high enough. The freedom to go to any part of the city right off the bat is nice too. There are a variety of activities to do besides just taking the bosses down, you can do races to increase your driving ability, you can do roof top running races to help agility, you can search for agility orbs hidden high up that increase agility, you can try to drive your car through stunt markers to help driving ability, and a few other little optional things. The super cars the Agency gives you at their HQ are neat and morph depending on your driving ability and you can capture gang cars to use yourself (though there isn't much point as the agency cars are better in every way and there is no disguise mechanic). They do have a bunch of radio stations in the cars and I believe they're different for different sets of vehicles (it just plays music, don't expect GTA radio station stuff). The feeling of jumping around and throwing huge trucks at bad guys and jumping from roof top to roof top while firing rocket launchers at guys is done well and feels fun. The agility orbs and hidden orbs (orbs that give experience to all stats) are nice as they give you an easy way to upgrade your stats and you don't have to get them all to max out your agility (there are 500 agility orbs, I know I'm not gonna hunt them all down). For most of the game you're left with a feeling of always having a bunch of options for things to do which is always nice.

Cons:

This is a rather short game. You can kill most of the smaller bosses in 5 or 10 minutes if you know what you're doing and of the right power level to take them on and the big bosses might take 10 to 15 minutes. Some of the extra side stuff isn't terribly good (Stockpile missions of finding 100 orbs in a given area for a tiny bit of agility are boring and not worth it) or much too difficult. Even with maxed agility of 4 stars I still had problems doing some of the rooftop races that were meant to be done at 2 stars and the driving ones were only slightly easier. The story is sorta thin and just enough to give you people to kill, but they gave little bios and background info on each boss so they did try some, it just wasn't enough to be considered a good story. The stunt mechanic in cars is done sorta sloppily and doing stunts is very difficult except in one or two areas on the map until you've maxed out driving (the hardest stat to max out) and even then it's still somewhat difficult. I can't really recall any of the music from the game except the car stuff and I had to look in the manual on how to lower the volume or turn it off as a lot of it isn't terribly good. By the end you've sorted gotten a little bored of the system: you run in and blow away a bunch of guys making a beeline for the boss while hiding once in a while to get your health back (they do try to mix up the later boss fights with having to go through elaborate areas and stuff but it's sorta the same thing but a little harder). The melee mechanic is sorta weak as usually there is little reason to kick someone rather then shoot them assuming you have anywhere near a decent gun (and little reason to shoot them instead of blow them up unless innocent civilians are around to give you an experience penalty) but they do make it level up faster then shooting or demolitions so you don't have to do it as much to get it maxed out (and it does let you lift bigger stuff so it is useful in that regard).

Overall Rating:8/10

Closing Remarks:

This is a really fun game for the first half (it would get a 9 or so if the whole game was like that) but after you max your stats and get used to how going after the bosses works it gets a little boring. While some of your abilities are a joy to use (Demolitions, Agility, Accuracy) others have little use or are hard to level up (Strength and Driving). Overall this is still a good game with a lot of fun in it, it just needed some different end game stuff to keep it fresh.

God of War

This week turned out to be sorta busy. I went on one of my frequent Back Bay Cruises in Virginia recently. It's later in the year then we usually go but I hadn't gone much during the summer so I decided to go. They have a 4 hour trip in the morning and 2 2 hour trips during the afternoon (the afternoon trips used to be a single 4 hour trip but Captain Barry decided to have two trips and charge maybe 2/3 the cost of the 4 hour trips to make a little extra money). First he shows off the town of Chincoteague Virginia where it's based off which is nice for the tourists but a little boring if you've done the trip before. Then he goes out to the barrier islands and you get to explore them and they change every year so it's always different. On the 2 hour trips he just does tourist stuff and stops on 1 or 2 nearby islands so I tend to shy away from those. The trip I went on was a 2 hour one cause I'd have to get up at 6am or earlier to make the 4 hour one but since it was just mom and I on the boat we skipped the tourist stuff and went straight to the islands. One of the ones we went to is normally closed off because an endangered bird species nests there during the summer but by October they're gone so it was opened up. That was where I found most of the stuff, a whole bunch of whelk shells, horseshoe crabs, and the egg cases for whelks and this giant badass piece of driftwood I kept for some reason. I didn't take any pictures cause I'm so used to going on Captain Barry's boat that it doesn't seem like something to take pictures over (though dad takes plenty on the trips he goes on). We also saw two different pods of dolphins out swiming around and jumping out of the water so that was cool. They came really close to the boat too.

A crazy asian woman has been calling my mom and leaving messages in a foreign language. She called while we were riding up for the boat trip and mom flipped out at her and told her she would call the police if she didn't stop. I told her it probably wasn't a big deal (I honestly thought the whole thing was sorta funny) but later on when the lady left messages on mom's cell while we were on the boat mom called and talked to a detective (since then she hasn't called back).

I also saw Zombieland and liked it a lot. I sorta messed up and thought Colin had bailed on me to see it with his girlfriend but the plan was for all three of us to see it on Friday so I saw it early by myself which messed things up. Regardless, I enjoyed it a lot and the surprise guest star was awesome. I recommend it.

Lastly of importance before I get to the game reviewing was my date! A girl named Tarin I knew from when I was young and my dad would take me to the firehouse. It was nice to see she hadn't become a wild hambeast since I last saw her. We had dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and got along pretty well. We decided to go see a movie sometime in the near future but didn't lay any exact plans then. Hopefully this will go well. Actually I had met with a high school friend the day before at Ruby Tuesday's but you guys know I'm not gonna complain about eating the same thing twice in two days.

I'm not quite far enough in Crackdown to review it (Colin and I are playing it together so I can't just power through it) so today I decided to review God of War (the first one).

God of War

Overall:

This is the first of the highly acclaimed ultra violent hack and slash series, God of War. You are Kratos, "The Ghost of Sparta" and instrument of the Greek Gods. You used to lead Spartan soldiers around to kick all sorts of ass until one day you were going to die in battle until the Gods gave you supernatural powers in exchange for doing their bidding. Now Ares, God of War, is going on a rampage and destroying Athens and Athena wants you to stop him (the Gods can't fight eachother so they need you to do it). Kratos has some backstory with Ares but that would be a bit of a spoiler. Kratos has access to his chain blades and various magic he gets from the Greek Gods as he progresses through the game. The game focuses on fluid combat with lots of combos and dodging and moving around.

Pros:

This game has very fun and fluid combat mechanics and it's easy to string combos together. You also have a large variety of moves to choose from. Your weapons and magic level up as you spend the experience orbs you get on them so you have some light RPG elements mixed in. There are also a bunch of secrets hidden throughout the game behind hidden walls and over ledges and stuff that upgrade your health and magic meter so you have some exploring to do. The bosses are also very impressive and definite "Oh shit!" moments that are memorable battles. The graphics were very good for a PS2 game and the cut scenes were very well done so it gets a nod for it's character visuals though the backgrounds are hit and miss. The audio is ok and does it's job of bringing the game to mind when you hear it but isn't something that I would say is incredible, it's marginally in the pro category.

Cons:

They throw in some other melee weapons but they're generally not worth using as they're never better and you have to relearn all the timing and moves all over again. While there are hidden goodies, the game path itself is rather linear which isn't a huge complaint as it doesn't detract from the game very much but it wouldn't hurt to have a few branching ways to do things. While the bosses are awesome it would have been nicer if they had more of them as there are only 3 or so (the second game does this but makes the fights a little less epic). There are a few tricky bits that are a pain in the ass (usually instant death stuff or non-combat related things) and anyone who has beaten the game remembers the hellish spike wall thing near the end of the game that I know frustrated many gamers. While the combat is very engrossing it can get slightly stale after an extended time with it but it never gets annoying or painful. The story also takes itself a little too seriously when it's about a guy that half the time sounds like the guy from the Doom Comic (the RIP AND TEAR guy).

Overall Rating:8.5/10

Closing Remarks:

While the cons seem a little big compared to the pros for it to be an 8.5/10 most of the cons tend to be rather minor while the pros are pretty significant. Overall this is a fun game that won't win any awards for it's writing but has a fun combat system that has spawned several imitators (usually a sign that you did something right). You feel powerful kicking ass and taking names as Kratos and while the non-combat parts aren't as fun as the combat they do serve as a nice break from the hack and slash part and without them the combat would probably get boring. If you have a PS2 and don't mind intense violence and like action games with a tiny bit of platforming and RPG then I recommend this to you.