Best of 2010

This will be short and sweet, but I suppose I will make this post as soooo many people are asking me these things. My favourite games of 2010... I guess it had to happen. There were loads of games this year; it was an awesome year for video games. There were also a load of great games, but here I will put only my favourites. Note too that I don't play every game as I am not made of money so I will post only the ones I have played extensively and/or beat.

Wii:

Sin and Punishment 2

Monster Hunter Tri

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars

360:

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Dante's Inferno

Assassin's Creed Brootherhood

Resonance of Fate

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Fallout: New Vegas

PS3:

Boshock 2

Darksiders

God of War III

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International

PSP:

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

DS:

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Pokemon Heart Gold/Silver

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Starry Sky

I'm already tired of this! Message ends.

Bioshock

I found my first review I ever wrote for a 360 game today :) It was for Bioshock! I thought I would relay it here for your perusal! It's quite unnecessarily long, I do think, but it's interesting to see how I used to write, compared to how I write now.

===

Nov 23, 2008

Bioshock spent a while in the making and I followed it from when I first heard it was in development. When it was released for Steam I grabbed it up. Playing it on the PC was great, and I must say that the graphics and game play blew me away. Of course I went into it thinking, " hey I know it's a creepy game, but I've played my share in my day and I can handle it." And so, I played it in the dark without a light on... and it freaked me the hell out. Most of what I could say for the PC version though, was eclipsed when I got it for the 360, and that's what I'll talk about here. I must say for all it's glory on the PC, the 360 version is much better. Maybe it was just me, but I noticed better graphic quality, sound quality, and game play over all. There is also a version for the PS3, but as I never played it, I don't feel I can review the qualities and flaws of that version here. Crashing into the water, at the beginning of the game, looked more realistic and gripping when the water hits your screen. Because water plays such a massive role in Bioshock, it had to be the best feature of the game, and it really excelled. Everywhere you find water it really feels like it's trying to invade the city and trying to submerge you. As you move through Rapture there is a constant aquatic presence and moving through it is beautiful. The splash effects are luminous and even when you run through a small puddle, you see it splash and ripple in other puddles and the ground. Plasmids are especially beautiful as well.

For instance there is a plasmid called Winter Blast which creates ice and cold, and freezes your enemy. When you have Winter Blast readied as your active plasmid, your hand becomes chilled and spikes of ice and frost surround your hand, coating it in ice. All very nice, right? Well the graphics are such that as the ice spikes emerge from your hand constantly, you can see little droplets and rings of blood on your hand every time this happens. It brings another quality to the play in that you can see this is probably a painful plasmid to have, it's continuously tearing through your skin,
causing damage. A price you pay for plasmids. Fire also plays an important role in Bioshock. Rapture is a city in ruin; a revolutionary society gone awry through war and torment, drugs and conflict. The city is in fire and destroyed from the inside out; the ocean is claiming it back, and destruction reigns. Fires can be seen everywhere, including through your scorched and bloody hand by using Incinerate ( a fire based direct damage and damage over time plasmid ). Through-out the city there are destroyed clusters of fires and ruin. The way the fire moves is incredibly beautiful. When you get close, heat is obvious and you see a wavering of space. Damage done to you through fire looks realistic and when you cause damage to the Splicers, it's a fantastic effect. The Splicers in general are done very nicely as well. Their costumes and attacks are surprising and creepy; all with a surreal context to them. Wandering through Rapture you see many kinds of Splicers along with Big Daddies and Little Sisters.

Big Daddies come in four types with two models which are quite beautiful in a surreal sort of way. Rosie's have several lights on their face and Bouncer's have a porthole. The best thing concerning them graphically is their aggression monitor. When a Big Daddy is passive it's face ports will be green, if it's suspicious of you or your motives, it will change to yellow, and when it will attack you, it's red. This is a useful way to determine threat, and doesn't ruin the immersion of the game. Little Sisters are only present with a Big Daddy for the most part. Their unhealthy greenish pallor and glowing yellow eyes are as unsettling as they are lovely to witness. The way they stab at angel's with their ADAM syringes is creepy to say the least. Over all the graphics are the best I've seen in a game, and I've played a lot of games
in my time. Everything meshes together in a unique way and fits the way the world of Bioshock works. The next big aspect is the music and sound of this game. I was highly impressed when the first song played as I entered the lighthouse. The game is filled with both instrumental pieces by Garry Schyman and old 1950's music. But here is the beauty of the 1950's music they play... it sounds like actual 1950's music. OK, let me step back for a moment. Usually when you hear music these days by artists such as the Andrew Sisters, Bing Crosby or Perry Como they are re-mastered tracks. They are digitally improved versions of the songs, which I personally hate. It makes then sound wrong, disturbed, and I feel somewhat betrayed. In Bioshock, none of this re-mastered crap happens to the music. You hear the sounds of the vinyl discs or tape recordings. It SOUNDS like it would if you heard it in the 1950's. A little distorted and tinny because the setting of the game is actually in the 1950's. They wouldn't have access to the technology to make the music better, and in that, it makes the game. Hearing the music as people in that time would have heard it, makes me forget a little that it's 2008 and we're in a time of CD's and DVD's and re-mastering. I love this so much. The music quality makes the game that little bit more disturbing.

There is a part in the game where you come across a jukebox and when you hit it, you hear How Much Is That Doggie In The Window? by Pattie Page start to play. As this is playing and you move around the room, you find a switch to open a secret room that you enter and open a safe and upgrade your weapon, but as this music is still playing, you turn around from upgrading your weapon and this plaster encased Splicer is standing there in this ballerina position briefly then starts wailing on you with a pair of scythes. This surreal moment, when I first encountered it, left me momentarily stunned and confused. I'm sure this was the effect the creators had in mind... the light hearted music which plays around the game sort of lulls you into this awkward sense of comfort while the ravaged reality of this broken city sticks a claw hammer in your skull. Conflicting emotions and responses are a common part of it. The instrumental music by Garry Schyman sets in slowly in some parts, you aren't really aware that its there, but then you become aware of it and a chill sweeps down your back. It's beautiful and haunting in composition and equals the world
around it, really setting the scene. Sound effects are very well done in the game and the sound you get from hitting different objects or enemies really shows. When you hit a Splicer, you hear a gooey flesh type hit and it makes a big difference from when you smack a shaft of wood or a door. The twirling sound of a grenade heading your way or a Splicer talking to them self in the next room are very noticeable and sometimes where they're coming from is not immediately discernible, which makes the already creepy atmosphere all the more unsettling. Your plasmids also have their own unique sounds to them, and using them is a great experience. As you walk, you hear footsteps, and you can hear the footsteps of your enemies as well. Depending on which enemy is around, their footsteps sound different. It's a great set up and was very enjoyable.

Controls on the 360 work out very well in Bioshock. I think the controller was utilized very well and everything is easily accessible. Of course switching between weapons and plasmids is easier on the PC if you believe binding each to a key is easier, which for some it will be. After I first got my few weapons and plasmids on the 360, switching between them was hardly a noticeable action. I knew where everything was, and in the blink of an eye I could navigate to my desired plasmid or weapon. It didn't become a problem at all for me. Interacting with the environment was, in a few places, touchy for a small part, but mostly due to the fact that in some places it was too dark to see where I was going and so I chose the wrong actions and move incorrectly the first time through. Turning the contrast up in this game is highly recommended. Getting around and what to look for became second nature very quickly, it really felt like I was having
to adapt to survive, which I was highly pleased with. Immersion in a game is a big must for me. You get a choice in the game to be a good person or a bad person, and the choices you make have, all in all, a very little effect on the overall game play. I would have hoped for more of a game impact with the choices you make, but for the most part, all these choices affect is the very short ending sequence. You end up being able to access more Gene Tonics and Plasmids if you're and evil child eating psychopath than if you're a cuddly Father Christmas teddy bear man. And yes, the difference is really that extreme. There is no in-between here. You either end up consuming the lands of all their milk and honey, and unleashing atomic war on the world, or you become Mother Teresa and create life for these children by giving them all the things they missed by being genetically manipulated in an under ocean laboratory. For the 360, one has to mention the achievements you can acquire through-out Bioshock. There are quite a few and you will need at least two play-through's to get them. The first play-through can be done on Easy and I HIGHLY recommend you go through it first on easy to do this. I would also recommend not harvesting the Little Sister's on your first time through because in all honesty, easy is very easy. The way I would rate the difficulties is in this manner: Easy - You beating up someone in the school yard. Normal - You getting beat up in the school yard. Hard - You have 10 seconds to escape Chernobyl before the reactor blows.

Yes, this is an extreme jump between Normal and Hard and it's a very, very accurate jump. Hard mode eviscerates your friends who just happen to be watching you play. There are two achievements for the 360 which must be done in hard mode, and I have not completed them yet, but am slowly making my way through Hard mode to get them. One involves turning off all the Vita Chambers in the game so you cannot be instantly revived at one if you are to die. Vita Chambers are pretty much useless throughout the game if I'm honest. In easy and normal mode, I left them on... why not? But I didn't die at all in either difficulty setting, so their effectiveness was rather lost. In hard mode however, that's where they would be most useful and yet, the achievement decides you cut your eyes out at every turn. I hear there is another difficulty for the PS3 which is beyond hard, but the sheer terror this thought inflicts upon me has yet
to be formed into human words. Leading to the other Hard mode achievement: Brass Balls. Beating the game on hard mode. Some tips I learned for hard mode? Hack everything you can, every camera you see, every turret, every security bot.. they WILL come in handy have no doubt. Enrage, Target Dummy, and Security Bullseye are your dear friends. You will not survive long without them. Always hack first aid units, they will poison a Splicer if they try to use the and you've hacked it. Telekinesis is a great tool for Nitro splicers and Rosie's. Choose your ammo wisely... if you fight Splicers or such use those anti personal rounds and for armoured enemies make sure you have armour piercing rounds. Electro bucks are always nice too. Your grenade launcher has some nice bombs in it, figure out when best to use them... don't underestimate proximity mines. SAVE OFTEN. Because you can't use Vita Chambers in Hard mode, if you want the achievement, you will rely on saves you make to return you when you die... and you WILL die. I saved after each Splicer battle, after finding first aid kits, after hacking. It may seem an inconvenience, but it is vital to your game, and after a bit, it doesn't take long to quickly save at all. The vital and imminent death in Hard mode really changes the game. Even if you've played it 20 times on easy or normal, the threat of death takes on a whole new meaning. Corridors are darker, enemies seem tougher ( and of course they are tougher... a lot tougher ).

I could go on for hours about this game, but I'll stop here for now. Overall, Bioshock is great. Besides what I've mentioned, I honestly can't think of any other flaws the game has. It is a near perfect game with incredible replay. As an FPS game, many people are turned off by it, saying it's not for them, and it's true, it might not be. But it's not your average FPS game. A few of my own friends who do not enjoy an FPS game have played it and felt they enjoyed it quite a lot. With game play, graphics, and sound as I have stated, it really has a unique way of pulling you in and holding you. I recommend this game with all my heart for the 360, and if you don't have a 360, have a go at the PC version. It's great as well.

Fallout: New Vegas

Coming back to the world of Fallout was an incredible experience. Being an avid fan of Fallout 3 & all the associated DLC, I was ecstatic when I heard about Fallout: New Vegas. With hundreds of hours & all of the many achievements for Fallout 3 under my belt, I felt confidant that I could experience Fallout: New Vegas with a full story of the Wastelands. A lot of people have been saying, in a most complaining form, that New Vegas is too much like 3 was. Too much the same & more like an expansion than a new game. Have you guys even played the game yet? Yea, it's very much the same in graphics & play, but the story is different, it's set several years past Fallout 3's story, & has so many new quests & areas to explore. Not to mention it's on the other side of the continent. It's definitely not expansion material. It deserved being it's own game & I think it works very well like that. In that it's so much like Fallout 3... I don't see a problem with this? My obsessive love for Fallout 3 has already been touched upon; another game in that vein cannot fail. That being said, there were some little things about the game which punched me in the stomach, but, thankfully, nowhere near as many as some people have reported. The game would freeze up a little, but I didn't experience this until I was something like 25 hours into the game? And one time I fell into a tree & couldn't get out, so I had to keep reloading & jumping as the game reloaded to get out of the tree... it worked eventually. OK then, I spent about 48 hours on my first play-through. This isn't being the actual main storyline is 48 hours long. I think a friend of mine finished it in 20-something hours, but he concentrated mainly on the primary storyline. For my first play-through I did everything I could the first time through. And though hundreds of quests, almost all the companions, over 100 locations discovered... I didn't even get through 75% of the content. So there's more out there. I have a rule that I never check achievements or guides the first time through a game unless I have been stuck on one particular thing for over three hours. I do this to preserve natural game-play for me. Surprises, exploration, game-play.

My first play-through was a Normal mode game, not using Hardcore as I wanted to get to know the game before I went through it in a more realistic way. The graphics in FO NV were very much the same as FO3... not bad at all, but not the best in the world. Regardless of that, they are very enjoyable. I love seeing all the weapons, armour, & terrains. They are, perhaps, better than I have said, even, due to that we are used to graphics making everything gorgeous & lovely, but the world of Fallout is not a gorgeous or lovely place. It's a murky, desolate, ruined world & the graphics do a very good job of portraying that. Things look genuinely grimy & grim. I would have liked better character creation, though. Sound & voice acting was wow.The world of Fallout has given us so many great Voice Acting that it demands it. There were some quite big names grappled for this game. Personal favourites like Liam O'Brien, Michael Dorn, Yuri Lowenthal, Fred Tatasciore, Wil Wheaton, Sam Riegel & Ron Perlman as well as more flashy favourites like Matthew Perry, Wayne Newton, Kris Kristofferson, Felicia Day, Jason Spisak, & James Marsden. The whole cast list can be found HERE. It was epic to say the least! The radio music is always great; I love those old 20-60's old time music so it's fantastic to hear those getting 'play' again. Aside from that, the actual ambient musics, which are hearable when the radio isn't on, are so nice. I had the radio off about half the time, just to hear the ambient music in different areas.

Combat is the same as FO3. You are in first person, unless for some god-awful reason you switch to 3rd, & you have melee or range weapons which you hack away at your enemies with. VATS is back & wonderful as ever, but it seems to act a little quicker this time. I found myself going in & out of VATS better & choosing which portion of my enemy to shoot off first was a little smoother. You can have two companions at any one time who help you out with some combat... on hardcore mode, though, if that companion dies, you're fucked as there is no way to bring them back. However, in a normal style game, your companions will just get up when all other enemies are eradicated. I ended up favouring Rex & Cass... How I got Cass is a funny tale actually, but that's another story, full of spoilers. I found that either fist weapons as melee or a Anti-Material gun were my favourites. Melee is so devastating! Just run at your enemies & bam, one or two shots to the kidneys. Woo.

I had such a great time playing FO NV & I am going to play it again as well. Not just for Hardcore mode, but I want to finish all things possible in the game, as I did with FO3. I finished my first play with 24/50 achievements knocked out. When looking through all the achievements, it's a nice bit, almost half. Most of the achievements are for doing 10k damage with certain weapons or finishing specific quest lines, so I will have a good time kicking those around in another play-through When I finished & checked out what the actual achievements were, I was a little surprised at them as they weren't so diverse as in FO3, but it's fine.

These achievements aren't BAD, but they could have been better I think. It's a great game & to be honest, even if you didn't play FO3 for some reason, give it a go! Buy it even, there's so much to do & so much time to put into it. I wholly recommend this game for those who enjoy FPS & RPG's as it combines a little of both. I do have a few friends who dislike FPS games who didn't get into it, & that's fine. I guess it does cater to a specific audience, but I do think those people will enjoy it a lot.

Lost Odyssey

There are some who would say that comparing a game to Final Fantasy X might not be a good thing, but I am not one of those people. Lost Odyssey sat on in my 360 shelf for months before I got around to trying it out & I am wholly saddened by this. To think that such a game sat neglected for so long... well I have discovered its joy now, so the past can remain just that. If we could have had this game as Final Fantasy X-2 or Final Fantasy 11, then my life would have been a lot happier during those dark times, but perhaps it was worth the wait for this quality of game. Mistwalker is responsible for making this game (with some help from feelplus) & some of you might know that they are the ones also guilty of making Blue Dragon, which isn't the worst game, but it could have been a lot better. On the other hand, Mistwalker (a Japanese game dev studio founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who created Final Fantasy) are supposed to release The Last Story later this year which I am eagerly awaiting.

Before I start the run down, I want to touch on the writing in this game. Yes, the story's writing was spectacular, but not as fantastic as were the Dreams. Through-out the game are Dreams from the lives of the main characters which you can read through when you find. 'Read through?!' you might say, in a voice which China would recognise as a national threat, but this is not a bad thing. These Dreams, more to say Memories, are so well written that everyone I know, who takes the time to read them, is moved. Even those who haven't played the game. This probably isn't true for the entirety of the world, but for my small section of this universe it is. I have never encountered writing like this before in game form or book form. I was truly blown away. By far, the best part of the game are the moments I spent 'dreaming' & delving into the past of my characters. On to the game! Graphically, this game is beautiful! Not the best of the best graphics, but I think that it comes close, especially for a game released in 2007 (JP). As for the style of the graphics, that Eastern 'Korean' look as many called it (what?), I adored it. From the introduction of Kaim all the way to the end of the game & beyond to the option dungeon, the art style wooed me entirely. Maybe it's because I already have a love for that style & wholly wish more games would adopt it, but I really do think it was done exceptionally well. Animations were spot on & movement through-out the word was done great. Cities, villages, towns, mountains, forests, vast wastelands, & industrial sites all looked both realistic & surreal at the same time which is basically normal for how I see things anyway. Movements
were like being stuck in this fantastic dream-world for the entire game & every step you take through this world was a visual treat. Coming into this game, I was immediately in love with the music aswell. Little wonder since it was composed by Nobuo Uematsu who has managed to never compose something I did not love. Although, it isn't just the music, but the sound of the game. Everything about the audio. Yes, you can hear your footsteps, but there are parts of the game where if you didn't hear your footsteps you would start to get a bit paranoid about what was going to happen next. The music & sound effects blend well together, especially in the dreams; I didn't mind any of it; I craved it! The game play was very much like Final Fantasy X, but much improved upon. I went back & threw in FFX just to make sure I wasn't entirely crazy, wishing that they had made these similarities, & I was pleased to see it was very much the same. Again, this is a good thing, people. FFX had some of the best control & battle game play in any game, to me at least. Back in Lost Odyssey now, though. Battles are handled so well with your team of five characters in your battle party at any one time. At the final point of the game I had all four Immortals & one mortal in my team, but was surprised at the end boss when all my mortals decided to go 'save' the Immortals & I was left to fight the final boss with only my four Immortals. This might sound like shit on paper, but it actually worked out pretty well. I mean, my Immortals do have the abilities of all my mortal characters any road & I was about 50 levels over level by the time I got to the last boss (yea, I got distracted with the 40+ hours of side quests you can do). Overall, the game play through-out the game was great. I have no complaints about it. Even sitting here now & thinking about the game, popping it in for a quick refresher, I have only one issue with the game (to be said later). Even better actually is that if an Immortal dies in your party, after three turns they will automatically revive themselves (they ARE immortal after all guys) which means you only ever have to revive your mortals, or if you're in a super hurry you can revive your immortals as well. Some might see this as a cop out or lame game mechanic, but storyline wise it is right there! Your characters are IMMORTAL,
they aren't going to stay dead if they fall in a battle. I've already commented on the writing of the game, which was phenomenal, though I will say again that whereas the story is a great one & I was enthralled with how it was told, the Dreams were really the cream on the pudding here, but even the main story got a few tears out of me, especially the Epilogue. I know I often say I don't get emotional about games too much, yet most games I review I say, oh I got emotional blah blah, but I'll tell you know that the amount of games I review & the amount of games I play differ vastly. Vastly. So what you see here is a mere fraction of the amount of time I've laid into games, it would make sense than I would only review the ones which were so epic they mean something more to me than a normal game would. I won't review a game I didn't think was worth my personal time to play. I may get a little harsh in my reviews, but in the end, I wouldn't review a game that didn't give me some joy at some time to play (except Borderlands which was fake joy followed by failure). Another really wonderful part of the game were the side quests. While not grand in number, though there were a fair few, they were in depth & so great to do. Finding all the Dreams were one of them which I went after first. Giving insight to the world & also to your characters, the side quests were more than just 'mini-games' you could do for gamer points. They were mini stories you could follow through & at the end of each was a small phial of insight about the character the quest revolved around, or the city you got it in. The lives of those NPCs you met, the history of the land you walked on. It wasn't just fluff thrown in at the last minute; I really wanted to know more at the end of these quests. I wanted to become a part of the world I was traversing. All this being said, there is ONE achievement which I don't know if I will finish... the Treasure Trove one. Now there is a nice thing they've done with this... as you can probably determine, this achievement requires you to loot everything you can in the game, all treasure. This includes posters, chests, lamps, vases, pictures, grass, trees, rocks, steam vents... well you get the idea. The nice thing is that if you missed stuff in an area you can no longer get to, they appear at an Auction House in a city you will always have access to. You can go back to the city & purchase the items at Auction until you've bought all the items you can possibly get from areas you can no longer access. Of course, this still leaves places you CAN access which is a mother load of pain as the places are so intricate that you could spend hours & hours (& many have) looking for all this shit just for this stupid achievement. This is NOT fun. The one complaint I have in the overall of this game. 

Before I end this, I want to comment on the post game or the new game+. Simply put, shit. You start at level 50, nothing else. That's all. Level 50, go play the game again. Lame, but not really a complaint since nothing is offered else in the post game, I have no desire to play it AGAIN, which isn't to say I don't want to play my end file again, which I am liable to do many more times... I still must max my levels after all. Also in this little end blurb I will mention the game is four discs long, but this doesn't matter to be honest. Just install one disc at a time if you'd like. There's no disc swapping once you move forward, so having to progress to the next disc ever 15 hours or so isn't a big deal. I really don't understand the shit people say about games being a few discs long. If it's a good game, I don't care if it's 10 discs as long as I don't have to keep swapping when I want to go back to another town (Star Ocean TLH, I'm looking at you -_- ) I enjoyed this game, greatly. I love this game wholly. I would put it in my top 10 greatest games of all time for sure & would recommend a play through of this game. When I finished it I had 840/1100, but I did get sidetracked with side quests & such which accounted for many points in the end. Now sitting at 950/1100 I will probably go all the way not for the points (well maybe a little! It is a large chunk), but I just want to see everything the game has to give me! I want to explore it thoroughly.

Final Fantasy XIII

I guess it's about that time again to make a review for Final Fantasy XIII. I have tried to write this review four times now, but I always forget I'm writing it & then shut down the computer without saving. I suppose that is actually how I have summed up the latest installation of this wonderfully epic storyline. I'm well aware of everything else people have said about the game & I don't really care about that. I enjoyed the game to the end & for a bit of post-game as well, but after that... I just couldn't bring myself to pick it back up for the mission grind or the Crystarium grind... it just held ZERO interest for me. I had absolutely no desire to do those things. I'll get to that, though. For now, we'll start at the beginning. Graphically, this game is the best in the Final Fantasy game series, hands down. I played the 360 version, of course, & it was phenomenal. One day I hope that the entirety of all game-play in a game will look like Advent Children through 100% of the game, but until that mythical day happens, FF13 has come pretty damn close. It was very obvious, still, the differences between the full FMV's & the actual game-play (even on the PS3, the graphics really weren't all that different). Movement was incredible, but seriously, the footsteps? I'm all for realism, but I can't even hear my OWN footsteps when I'm walking (granted if I'm out walking I have my headphones on so I don't actually hear my footsteps...).

I really don't want to spend 80+ hours listening to my character running around, but alas, that is how it turned out. But this is for graphics! Audio will come next! The spells were breath-taking &, ladies & gentlemen, the Espers (Eidolon's! Ugh) were the stuff of legends. I really can't rave about the graphics more, just to say that at times I put the controller down, peering over landscaping forests, steep cliff-sides edging out into an expanse of ocean... it made me very sad that I couldn't be there & at times I felt that I was there. It was a fairy tale world & so lovely. Now we can get into audio. The sound was nice, yea nothing really amazing, I'm sorry to say. Actually, though, the soundtrack was awesome... away from the game. During the game I listened to the music for about 2 hours, then turned it off & just turned on the actual soundtrack on iTunes. Gorgeous composition for which I give it the highest recommendation, but while inside the game..? No, it got very irritating. I don't really have a lot of experience with audio in a game apart from the music, so I'll just leave it with my comments about the music & afore mentioned aggravating footsteps. Of course, we come to what everyone else bitched about relentlessly. The game-play OK, yea it is so very, very linear at the beginning... & for about 24 hours of game-play you have no choice in what you do & your actions are heavily controlled. This annoyed me at first until I just

stopped caring & enjoyed the beauty of the game. Combat in the game was... well it's hard to say. I tried to queue up my own spells & choose what I was doing, but 99.9% of the time, just spamming 'Auto' is really the best thing to do, unless you want to do one of your OMGabilities which are quite OMG to be honest (or an Esper ability or item). FF13 employs an event in combat which has NEVER been good in ANY game EVER MADE & for some reason games still fucking put this in! The character you control, if they die... it's game over. WHAT. This is never a good idea, developers. Why on earth can't your party members throw a rez down? It just boggles my mind endlessly whenever this crops up in a game. It's like in DMC4 when you first run into the Dice room? And you finish & think wow that was the most annoying experiment a game dev has put in a game, glad that's over, but then for the last 40 minutes of the game when you have to do five more Dice games & you're thinking WTF is this shit, did they actually think this was a good idea? Yea, well it's like that.

So after your initial stint in Cocoon you get ferried down, by Bahamut no less, to Pulse where the game expands in quite a Deer-In-Headlights way & you are thoroughly humbled by how lame your characters actually are. You're introduced to more mobs than you could take in an entire evening & the wonderment of Missions. Don't be blinded by this beautiful, forever-stretching landscape though, your game is still pretty linear. You can only do so many missions before you're scooted off to the next area & your exposure to the most difficult mobs you've had to encounter. Good luck levelling up for the next three hours. My biggest disappointment in this was that I really thought there would be more LIFE on Pulse, but it's almost like everyone is either a monster or Esper down here. No towns! I was so distraught by this! My favourite thing is running around towns & taking in the life of a game. Well after you're guided around Pulse for a little while & finish up some more missions (or not as they get way too hard to even contemplate) you're glided back up to cocoon in an owl-ship (I'm serious) for more linear-linear game-play instead of the semi-linear game-play on Pulse. I finished the game at 59 hours I believe & I didn't really have to spend time levelling except when I first got to Pulse. The last boss is not hard at all... it's just very long. It's a stamina battle, so make sure you have two cans of pop next to you instead of just the one. The ending sequence is almost 1 1/2 hours.

Post-game! Wooo...? I was very excited about post-game. I really love doing things around the world & taking my characters to trounce the evils I could not vanquish before, but unfortunately, nothing at really changed. My Crystarium was open to the max now & all my people could be... anything. It kind of lost it's beauty at that point, to be honest. Sure, some characters are better at one thing that the other, but they can do everything -_- What happened to being stuck with a Thief, White Mage, Black Mage, & Bard & having to really try to make it work? No. Now you can do anything with anyone & you won't really fail. Well I took my awesome characters of awesome back down to Pulse to work on Missions. Okay, it was cool finishing all the D level ones, the C ones mostly done, & a lot of B & A one's taken care of... this is getting really boring. What? Now I have to grind even more CP because everything takes 2839472394 to level? This is really boring. That sums up the post-game for me. Really, really boring. I have absolutely NO desire to play this game any more, unfortunately. Not to mention it has ZERO replay value at all! There is nothing you can do differently. Nothing at all, not one thing that you can change to do in another way. Everything, right to the end is determined & you are guided along that path. Don't get me wrong, the game was awesome to play through & I do not regret getting the CE of the game. I loved to go through it, but I will say, I probably won't play it again for a while & then when I do, it will be to get the achievements specifically, not because I want to play it again for fun & joy & love. This is a great installation in the Final Fantasy series, I really did have a good time. There are some glaring flaws in it, some of which crippled the game-play a bit, but being crippled myself ( har har ) I am used to setting those flaws aside & focusing on the better areas.

I recommend this for rental or buying it used most likely. Unless you're crazy obsessed with Final Fantasy, don't buy a CE or new issue of the game because you'll probably be disappointed when the game decides to play 80% of it by itself & just let you watch. Also, you have to switch discs twice, which isn't anything big at all & once you're on the 3rd disc, you never go back.

Eternal Sonata

It's been about a 1½ weeks since I ended Eternal Sonata & now, after the reality of it has set in, I am ready to collect my thoughts. It took me a while to get into Eternal Sonata as I had started to play it at first & got to a cut scene where it started to tell me about Chopin's actual, real life. This was so incredibly boring to me, possibly because I already knew all this information, that I set the game down & had done with it. But earlier this year I decided to give it another try; I am happy that I did. Eternal Sonata has always been beautifully done. I love cel-shading so much & this game is gorgeous for that, but not that alone. The colours are vibrant, the characters are drawn very well for the style. The music sinks into the very fabric of the game with a wonderful emergence into audible wonderment. Even the boring Chopin cut scenes were done so well, but the fear that there might be more of them terrified me, initially. I realise that there is the option for skipping the cut scenes, but I am the kind of player who must watch all the cut scenes of a game at least once before I skip past them. I realised that the only way I'd be able to get through this is to play my DS during the boring Chopin cut scenes. I know that Bamco (namco bandai) were trying their hardest to allow us to get a piece of history explained with this game & hoped that people would embrace knowledge of the past in order to play, but seriously, it has NOTHING to do with the game at all. It doesn't help you understand the game any better & in the end you almost immediately forget the information when the cut scene is done. Aside from the pieces by Chopin scattered through-out the entire game, which are, in themselves, very beautiful, there is a well written score which is given to 
you with the game. So beautiful it is, dancing around everything you do, that even the 
sounds the game makes when you click things, seems like part of the score. The storyline is more or less based around the last moments of Chopin's life... & yet it isn't. Through out the story we are constantly being told that the world is a dream of Chopin as he is dying on the final night of his life, but as the story progresses you're opened up to the idea that quite possibly this isn't the case & that this is a world where people come to who are going to die. Something like a purgatory or whatever... not only the dying come here, but they are attracted to the world. Only those destined to die soon can use 'magic' & that is adhered to pretty well in the game. If you use magic, you're going to die, & most do eventually die. This is further solidified by some characters being vastly different in age, even though they can use magic... when magic users are ment to have very, very little time to live, how did one get so old with magic use? One acquires the ability to use magic whenever their death is soon coming. It's a little complicated & yet very simple when it's done being explained. Although it seems like this is giving away a lot about the game, but you learn all this pretty soon after playing the game & if you don't get the rest, well this IS a review & you ARE reading it. The combat system took a little getting used to, but after I got the hang of it, it flowed nicely. The only real qualm I have with it is the Party Level 6 function of the Harmony Chain. This Harmony Chain is when you cast a special ability, depending on how many chains you have, you can cast the special ability of another character in your party. You chain these together for incredible damage. Well in Party Level 6, it randomises the button that you need to press to chain to the next special ability. This is highly aggravating & you can't reset your 
Party Level until new game+. So I ended up saying fuck it to the optional dungeon until after I'd beat the game because the mobs were too hard to have to keep looking at which new button I had to use to chain. Another thing which happens in battle is something which should happen, but in a slightly new way. You earn your money, mainly, through taking photographs of battles, which your character Beat, & sell them in shops to Professionals in order to amass grand amounts of money. The only way better occurs in the optional dungeon I mentioned where a specific mob on floor 11 gives you 3mil a battle... but that is a ways off from 99.9% of the rest of the game. So you sacrifice DPS in your party to get some S or A rated photographs to sell... being smart about this game benefit you greatly with the best items & gear money at 30 minutes into the game... you will not want for cash for a while. The game is wonderful, I loved playing it. It's impossible to get all the achievements in one run, but you can grab quite a few before you have to start the Encore ( new game+ ). I am looking forward to playing this again on the Encore & I would recommend this gorgeous JRPG to anyone who enjoys the genre.

Gaming Week 2010 06 March - 12 March

Final Fantasy 13 (360)

     - So incredible my heart soars!

Magna Carta 2 (360)

     - Such a wonderful & fun game

Left 4 Dead (360)

     - Death to zombies is NEVER a bad thing

Clive Barker’s: Jericho (360)

     - The amount of gore is noteworthy & glorius

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
     - Hilariously addicting.

Final Fantasy 12 (PS2)

     - Such a brilliant game

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PS2)

     - Addictive & wonderful in tale telling

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (PS2)

     - One of the best games ever made

Infinite Undiscovery

When I first started playing Infinite Undiscovery I was devastated by the game. Even more shattered was my poor materia heart at the mere thought that tri-Ace could produce anything other than gold. I pressed on through about two hours of agonising game-play in the hope that somewhere there would be a hitch I could grab on to... then I turned it off & put it away for the better part of a year and a half. Earlier this month I was working on some Star Ocean: TLH achievements and decided Hey, why not give my old Infinite Undiscovery another go? Maybe I've matured as a gamer! Unfortunately, this was not the case. Not that I hadn't matured as a gamer, which I have, of course, but IU was still agonising and defeating me at every turn. Resolved to NOT play the game on Pansy mode, I ploughed through the prison. Fought my way up the endless staircase and braved the black forest of what-the-fuck-I-can't-see-fucking-shit. Finally, I emerged into a clearing facing none other than... myself? A little disappointed by the seemingly brick walled storyline, I put the game down for another week as I grabbed a few more achievements in Star Ocean: TLH. Then one foggy, snowy morning I glanced over at my game shelves & my eyes caught the glint of Infinite Undiscovery, sparkling in the dawn's light. Why not? I put it in again, left the camp with Aya in my arms, dodging the dragon at every turn, somehow managing not to get fucked by his fiery breath.


Upon reaching the village of Nolaan I set my obviously eventual girlfriend (seriously, three hours into the game, if you didn't realise this would happen in the next 40 hours of game play you're retarded) and was bombarded by the stupidest party members I would meet in the game. Oddly enough, my rage at the annoyingness of their personalities fuelled me on. I refused to be beaten by twin spell casting twat whores. Slowly, gaining a grip on the combat mechanics (after forty minutes of reading online advice about combat because the game does shit for explaining it), I moved through the caves, learning to use my connecting skills for useful events and hidden secrets. 

By the time I emerged from the Shrine, flute in hand, I knew that something had occurred at some point in the last sixty minutes. Something I couldn't explain. Something magical. I found myself only playing Infinite Undiscovery from that moment on. I forgot about Star Ocean: TLH. I let other games slip away. I would turn on the 360 before even my computer when I came into the room. It was as though some veil had been lifted from my eyes and I could truly appreciate the glory of this game. Now, normally I say that if it takes you some time to get into a game, it's a failure as a game because you should be hooked from the beginning. I will remove that statement from my data banks now & admit that I was wrong. Infinite Undiscovery took me completely by surprise & captured me firmly in it's grasp. At first, it's graphics were a little meh, but as the game pressed on, the cut scenes really impressed me, & the general graphics of the game playing portions were nice in themselves. They weren't the best ever made, but they were very nice.

The voice acting was good, I suppose, as far as Western voice actors can take it. I would have liked to have the option of Japanese voice actors (I loved that option in Enchanted Arms) with English subs, but alas, some things are not to be. As well as good voice acting, the soundtrack was very lovely as well. Beautiful pieces fit into storyline events in a perfect symbiosis which wrenched at my little black materia heart during some very dramatic scenes. The story, I began to find out, wasn't as transparent and convoluted as I had previously thought.  Close to the end of disc one, occurred an event which I had no idea would happen and, to be completely honest, took me by surprise in a way which brought a tear to my eye. Surprised as the emotional impact this game had on me, I considered setting it down for a few days, but I found I could not. I had to le press on.  I couldn't believe it when the end of the game rode along, the final cut scenes of immense drama, & the epilogue. I was stunned to feel tears running down my cheeks & I am not ashamed to say it. I'm not an easily emotionally reactive person to 'touching' moments & the like, so for this to occur was an event. The story grew on me like Watermelon Sours. You have a glass thinking how nice it is.

This tastes like Jolly Ranchers and hey, why not have a few more glasses? Oh man, this is like candy, I wonder why it's not having any effect on me? ~Stands up~  How did I get on a desert island? 

That's the best way to describe the subtle grasp the story entwined me with. Even now, I am pained to take time away from the game to write up this review, but I realised I had to do it now or I'd loose another five weeks to the Compulsive achievement. As I moved through the game, I found myself not really giving a shit about the achievements; I just wanted to get through the game, to see the next stage. I felt like a gamer again &; not like an achievement whore. It was such a nice feeling. When I beat the game & saw my 600+ round up of points, I was shocked, I must say. I hadn't even realised I was getting the achievements, I had been so wrapped up in the game. So I started another play through on Normal (even though I unlocked Hard) & got a lot of the optional achievements in that run through, as well as some missables. Hard mode is what I shall do the Compulsive, Treasure Chest, & Cherubic Gate achievements on. The rest I will finish up on my Normal Clear Data. Infinity mode looks so ghastly and you only end up getting ONE, yes ONE, point for it... and that comes from defeating the Ethereal Queen on Infinity Mode. It seems a little retarded, to be fair. I have seen videos of Infinity Mode and well... tri-Ace, you never change. I will do it one day, but after getting the other 999 points, I will set the game down and very, very slowly work on Infinity. Star Ocean: TLH still requires my attention and soon Final Fantasy XIII will be out and my life will vanish from existence at that time. I never thought I'd recommend a game so highly as I do with Infinite Undiscovery. Shocked and amazed, I bring it to a game sitting in my top 10 games of all time. Please give it a go, get past the first few hours. After Castle Prevent it all gets so much better. Oh yes... download the vouchers from the 360 store. They are free & will help you so much for crafting (which is awesome by the way! I know I didn't mention it a lot, but seriously the crafting rocks!)

Dead Space

There are very few games any more which make me yelp in startled wonderment, let alone jump out of my chair. Dead Space managed both of these within the first 30 minutes of playtime. Sadly, it didn't last very long. As a survival horror third-person shooter video game, it did it's job okay, for most people. However, being desensitized from playing so many games & watching so many horror films, the novel terror wore thin after the first chapter. Coming into the game, I noticed right away how lovely it was. The graphics are quite nice & I was intrigued as my shuttle landed in the docking bay, yet there was my first annoyance. The movement in the game is like Mass Effect in 3rd person view... all the time. You can't switch to a first person view & your character is always slightly to the side of the screen. I understand this is because you need to see your health & stasis energy, but really, this could have been done with a HUD or something. All right I suppose we can let that one slide a little because you sort of get used to it... I guess. I had a little trouble adjusting to the way the camera looked when I was trying to spin around, but enough of that. So the graphics, as I said, were nice. They were great in fact, with one glaring flaw to wretch your eyes out. Because it's on a spaceship, Dead Space was very limited as to the scenery it could provide the player. It seemed that I was either in a steel grey hall with rust, a steel grey hall with rust & organic flesh everywhere, or a steel grey hall with slightly green organic rusty walls. & there were some pumpkins at one point, which I thought was very amusing, but I'm not sure why. So after the second chapter, when all the variations of organic ship structure had been offered to me, I started to find it boring to look at. Even the various graphical changes to my Rig & weapons didn't make it any better. Here was this game which presented itself so beautiful, torn into a slightly dark & dreary living vessel. These tiresome graphics added to the dulling down of my startles through out the game as well. After the first chapter ended I knew what to expect & so things didn't really startle me any-more. I jumped a few times, the whispering was a bit creepy, but after a very short period of unrest, I began to expect the enhanced whispering in the loo's & I knew that pressing a button near my objective would cause the blast doors to come down & dudes would come out of the walls to attack me. After the first chapter, the only part which did put the living fear of god into me was at the very end of the game, right before the credits roll. I won't say what it is though ;) The combat is pretty engaging, though the weapons are a little lack lustre. As soon as I got the Ripper, that's all I used until I got the Force Gun & then it was easy street. It was really at the Ripper once you realise that anything & everything will die from either being shot in the head with the saw-blade or hacked to pieces with the chainsaw like function. I didn't even use the other guns until the very last boss when I was forced to use the Pulse Rifle for two kills, then back to the Force Gun. I suppose if I had upgraded the other, inferior, weapons all the way & not touched my two overpowered BFG's, then maybe they would have been some use to me. That brings me to the upgrading system. It's... well I don't want to say broken as you're not really supposed to be upgrading everything to the
max on your first play-through. It got to where I was literally tripping over ammo for my two monster guns so I ended up selling everything else. I never once used an air container (& didn't even upgrade my Rig's air capacity until chapter 10/12 I think) so I sold all those, & I didn't use med kits until I was being thrown Medium kits, so I ended up selling all my small ones & just keeping one or two on me. Then it got to where I would sell the Mediums as I was finding Large ones everywhere. The whole point of this is that to upgrade your Rig, Stasis, Knesis, & various weapons, you need power nodes which are found or bought at the Store for 10k each. I upgraded completely my two guns, my rig, stasis, & knesis. I could have easily upgraded to the max a few more weapons, but I just didn't see the point. I was also being weighed down by my own credits at this point & at the end of the game I got yet another 50k & 10 more power nodes for my next play-through.

Also, I would like to briefly comment on something I absolutely hate in games like this. Mini-games. Shit like sit in this chair & shoot fucking asteroids with this unwieldy mining gun. This was the worst of the worst here. It took me 11 tries to complete this mini-game, unskippable of course, not because it was hard so much as the gun was almost impossible to control. I'd move it a little to the side & it'd fly to the other side of the screen. We just need to do away from these things. They are not fun! I would also like to say that I hate vehicle sections in games too, especially FPS' because I'm playing it to shoot some dudes, not ride around in a god-damn Jeep because the game wants me to get
from point A to point B in record time. I'll walk it! Anyroad, last, but not least, the music in the game left something to be desired. It sounded like someone was trying to scratch old symphony records. I shit you not. The surrealistic classical music that always seemed to be playing was only further driven into by a screwdriver when something was going to happen when it changed from symphonies written by a five year old to people franticlly hitting their string instruments against a wall. & all this happens about 20 seconds before you even run into something. Talk about taking the surprise out of something. Now I'm a fan of a lot of classical music, as well as other music, but this was just... chewing on tinfoil. Despite all these flaws, I do think it was a pretty okay game. I managed 29/48 achievements on my first run through of the game, & I didn't even try for them. I did enjoy the game for the most part. There's very little more fun than dismembering a lot of mutants (especially mutant deformed babies) with a saw-blade. However, I don't feel the urge to play it again. Even if I keep my upgrades, it doesn't make the game more interesting. The characters were dull & I didn't give a shite about them, & the voice acting was pretty emotionless. Lines spoken rather than lines delivered. I might buy the game somewhere down the line if I see it for really cheap, but I just don't want to play it again. I beat it once, it wasn't hard, I don't have a desire to do it again.