Video Gaming Chat

Quote (Don)

Quote (Zolem)

Quote (Zanallen)

Then you enjoyed FF1...? As FF2 and 3(U.S. Versions) were for the SNES.

I also enjoyed the Gameboy versions, Finaly Fantasy Adventure 1&2. My next FF was the PS1's FFVII, and then the chronicals that were 4&5.

Are you sure they were Final Fantasy Adventures and not Final Fantasy Legends? Just asking, cause FFL2 and FFL3 are my favorite Gameboy games of all time.

Trivia: Did you know that the FFL series was actually Romancing Saga, just brought to America under the Final Fantasy label for better sales? : D

Right, Legends, sorry, I was working off the top of my head. And no I did not know that.

Quote (ZeroSaber)

I just bought Battalion Wars 2 today.

I must say, that game kicks ass. I've only played through 3 levels on the first campaign, and I'm hooked. It is a PERFECT mix of strategy and shooting.

Its like Advance Wars, only action packed. <3

But yeah... I played a demo of Galaxies, too, and that game is fun. And Brawl will be epic, with its STAGE DESIGNER. MYES.

"Win" just isn't a suitable description anymore.

(^.^ )b

Quote (Shuryou)

Stands did do awesome things like 'Za Warudo' and 'Ora ora ora ora ora ora'. Gotta respect that.

That's true. That is true.

_____///////////////Bleach : The Blade Of Fate\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\_____
Platform: DS
Game Genre: Button Masher Street Fighter Styled Fighting with Blades, Anime, Arcade style.
Features:
-Wi-Fi Compatable
-Multi-card Multiplier Compatable
-Fight as your favorite characters from the popular anime series
-Participate in some of the main stories of the first plot arc, some new stories also come out of the woodwork
-Voice Acting

Graphics: 8/10, B
The game hosts a wide cast from the original anime arc coming back in crystal clear imagery that stays true to the former appearances and replicating characters to the letter. The Backgrounds were well made and depicted some of the famous and most fun scenes of the first plot arc's story. Unfortunately, some of the cut scene's are not as good as they could be, which is somewhat of a let down when stacked against other titles.

Animations: 6/10, D
The battle animations were actually really well created and conceived, however what really killed the game in this regard was how horribly butchered some of the opening scene and ban-kai animations were and consequently the finished product suffered. In contrast to some works done by companies like Actiontech this was a notable weakness in the game.

Plot Line: 8/10, B
The plot line of the story mode for this game was kinda neat in that there was about 23-26 different "Episodes" to play after you finished the main story. However, some of these stories were rather shallow and held no bearing to the original arc or similarity too it, where as others somewhat replicated the original arc, and others went all out and pretty much completely copied the plot line of the past.

Flow/Interface: 6/10, D
The actual interface and game play is really entertaining and hands on, after you first few battles you will have all the tools you need to play the game effectively. The system for battle is easy to use and fun for all ages. You will enjoy how invigorating it is to battle some of the major characters from the series, and actually win with relative ease.

Unfortunately, this ease of use is part of a problem that forms. Some of the most powerful characters in the game are next to nothing when fought in Easy/Normal mode, and in Hard mode then become somewhat challenging. Various attacks that shouldn't be block able with a single blade suddenly quite blatantly are. Take Ichigo's Bankai form strokes, these should be next to unblockable right? Well simply by putting a small piece of metal in-between your character and the blast that is formed in a sharp essence that creates a blade, you can avoid ALL OF THE ATTACKS!!! Quite honestly blocking is just TOO easy and makes the game less fun because its an easy win if you simply crouch in the corner and guard until the opponent draws close, you build up Spirit presence or spirit pressure, and counter strike.

Bonus Features: 8/10, B
There was some excellent artwork and music files that you can purchase with earnings from your battles. Also with the fact that once you meet certain requirements you gain more chapters in story mode and characters to fight with in Arcade mode the games bonuses are well worth it. At Urahara shop you can also purchase character color's, but this is in my view kinda lame and nothing too special that made me go "WOW!!! @.@!!!". Also you can gain even a few modes like "Survival Mode" by meeting certain requirements it would seem, judging by the sound data that can be analyzed as another bonus after purchase at Urahara shop.

Another cool feature is the occasional spice of voice acting that seems to be a popular addition to DS games, I personally really enjoy those little things like that and really hope to see this becoming a more common trend.

The Battle Cards, or Spirit Cards, are a special addition that allows a user to manipulate some of the conditions of battle to there favor, this added some neat elements to the game but didn't cause NEARLY the wave they could have if they had been more seriously thought out.

Replay Value: 8/10, B
The charm of street fighters is in this game, you can come back time and time again and it seldom ever gets really boring. The story is somewhat on the backburner for this game though, it more focuses and providing a fun battle environment so that fans can duke it out as there favorite characters with either AI (Which is another a testament to the cliché "more artificial then intelligent") or other game owners.

Music: 9/10, A
One of the most noteworthy pieces of this game was its really beautiful musical tracks that was picked out really well in my mind and often fits the scenario at hand. Take Ichigo's story for instance, serious yet upbeat toons were common place. More comical characters and scenario's warranted more hilarious musical score. One of the things that boosts this games score by far is its tracks of music.

Final Score: 7.5/10, C
What Killed It
The game in closing gets a C due to its lack of well-created cut scenes and poorly created Ban-Kai animations correlated with there neglect of animation in the beginning. The plotlines tended toward shallowness, which is somewhat expected in a stereotypical movie/anime based streetfighter production. The game was just rather easily beaten and lacked that special touch that adds volumes to a production. The lack of a relationship building system was a personal pet peeve that made me somewhat unsatisfied with this creation.

What Saved It
The fact that the game had an easy to use system for battle somewhat offset its ease of defeating other characters, and a blocking system that seems to be just too much of a trump card. The bonus features were DEFINITELY a saving grace for this game, giving players a reason to keep going in spite of some rather poorly concocted components like a weak story and poor animation quality.

A game review? Not done by moi? Oh, you sir, you are good.

Note, do not read this post if you do not want to hear about new features concerning Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion Wars and Guitar Hero III

No big stuff from me, my Bioshock review is on hold for now due to a pile of writing on my hands and a bunch of games that I'd rather play. Quick update on Dead Rising, I survived 7 days (only took 14 hours out of game time, y'know no big deal... right...) and as a reward got two achievements and a laser sword. Unfortunately, I'm fairly certain it isn't Zero's sword as I'd thought it was (it's not green, sniff) but it does have some cool stuff. It's more of a lightsaber than anything else, just a lightsaber that can turn into a lance at the drop of a hat. Cool. It hacks through zombies like a hot knife through butter too.

I've also been playing Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion Wars. I'm very satisfied with the product. It doesn't really feel like a remake, it almost feels like a brand new game. All the dialogue has been redone with what I can only call (due to lack of personal knowledge) the Queen's Old English. It's really cool, although hearing Delita refer to Ramza as sir and lord is kind of not awesome. Argus (now Argath) is slightly cooler than his former self, but that's probably just my opinion in regards to one of his new lines (My lord! Give me a hundred men so I might hunt down the whoresons myself!). Other cool stuff, there's been animated cut scenes added in, which are awesome, voice overs added into the cutscenes, brand new in game events, multiplayer vs mode, multiplayer mission mode, and some brand new classes. I've only unlocked one of the classes so far, the Onion Knight, and let me tell you, don't bother. It's pretty easy to unlock, just get a character to be level 6 in Squire and Chemist to unlock it, but it's just not worth using. Not only does the Onion Knight have NO skills at all, you can't even equip skills while using the job class! No squire abilities, no monk counters, no thief movement bonuses, you get NOTHING. And just what does the Onion Knight do? It's got low magic and attack scores in comparisson to the higher end material and their only plus is that they can equip any item in the game. Sorry, but low health and low stats with NO skills at all don't make that worth using at all, in any situation. If I want a character to use a sword, I'll just have them learn Equip Sword from the Knight class and then make them whatever class I damn well please, and still get to keep counters, two skill sets, and a movement modifier. As for the Dark Knight class I've heard of, nothing yet. I'm assuming that I have to get a high level black mage and a high level knight, but that seems too easy considering the moveset... or what I think the moveset is at anyrate. It's probably something like Knight 6, Dragoon 6, Black Mage 6, Time Mage 6... or something. Hell, I'll look it up real quick.

...

...

Oh wow. Are you serious? That's... ridiculous. Okay, you have to MASTER the Knight and Black Mage classes (getting every ability), then be level 8 in Samurai, Dragoon, Geomancer and Ninja. Not only that, you have to ensure that 20 enemies die, as in get knocked out and then stay knocked out for 3 turns so that they turn into a crystal or treasure chest. Wow. That is not an easy class to unlock. Still, considering the moves, I think it's worth it.

Another reason I probably won't be reviewing dear old Bioshock any time soon is that I should be getting Disgaea for the PSP today. Woot.

Last thing, I played Guitar Hero III. And let me say that it RAWKS OUT LOUD. I was afraid that Red Octane was gonna screw things up without Harmonix there to hold their hand, but Activision really did manage to put together a good game. For the most part, they stuck to the original formula, although they added a brand new feature that is extra cool. Well, two, but they're mostly interrelated. Boss Battles and Rock Duels. A Rock Duel is a normal game against a friend where instead of getting star power, you get power ups that you can use to screw up your buddy's game, activated in the same manner as the old star power. Your goal is to get your opponent to fail. Boss Battles are the same thing, it's just that it's you Vs. an NPC controlled opponent. He hits every note normally so the only way to hurt him is through special powers. Also, his rock gauge never recovers, so all you have to do is survive and deal enough damage before the song ends. There are three bosses, Slash of Guns and Roses, some other dude who I'd never heard of, and... well... this last one deserves a story.

Me and my buddy are playing Guitar Hero III a night back. All of a sudden, we'd beaten a new venue and, like always, when a new venue opened up an animated cut scene ran (a new and very cool feature). It showed our band arguing with their agent about doing some crappy reality T.V. show, when the agent was so quick to point out their contract they'd sign... in which they'd apparently signed over their souls. The agent sprouts horns, cracks appear into the ground, and the characters fall into a burning inferno. Your next and last venue, Lou's Inferno. So, after rocking out in front of a big angry minotaur and a bunch of angry fans with songs from Metallica and Iron Maiden, I said to my buddy, "Hey, we're playing against the devil for our souls. Isn't that a song?" To which he responded, "Yeah, but that was on a fiddle."

We beat a song. All of a sudden, something strange happens, to which my friend says, "Oh, here comes a boss battle." A demon stepped out from behind the chair the minotaur was seated in, summoned a guitar made from a human ribcage, and then gave me a mean and nasty look. The song of choice came up. 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia'. And then it was on.

What followed was something that I can only define as epic. In a heated battle against the devil, I rawked and rawked and rawked some more, until the devil finally gave out before the pure power of rock and roll goodness. Urged on by a comforting "Finish Him!" and a whole new line of notes to hit while the chorus sang out victory, I hit every single note and bashed our bands way to freedom.

It wasn't over yet. As the credits rolled, I saw a strange title pop up, a list of notes, and a band name that made me quake with fear. Dragonforce. I thought the epic could go no further. I was so very wrong. I jammed out on that 5 minute song with my heart and soul as my fingers danced across the fret board, ending with a triumphant yell. God I was happy we'd played on Normal Mode.

Yes. Normal Mode. Not Expert. Not even Hard. Normal Mode. Guitar Hero III is easily the hardest Guitar Hero game ever. The presence of Dragonforce should be tribute enough to that. I can beat every song on Guitar Hero II on expert mode with the exception of Jordan, which is freakin' ridiculous. Guitar Hero III, I can't go even half way up the track list on expert mode, keeling out at 'Welcome to the Jungle' by Guns and Roses. Which is a ridiculously difficult song.

By the way, that Dragonforce song? On Easy mode, it has 1,000 notes. That is more than many Hard difficulty songs. On Normal mode, it almost hits 2,000 notes. And on Expert Mode, I fail 1% into the song. My friend laughed at me and said I was pathetic. He tried. He failed at 0%. Needless to say, I lol'd. But Dragonforce is truly epic, a force to be feared.

Oh, and another thing. Co-op campaign mode. Awesome. That is all.

Hey gang, Tom is back with some more video gaming reviewy-ness, thanks to a new issue of Game Informer and a month of procrastination and video games. Woo! Alright, so, what do we have this month?

Well, I'll be honest, I haven'th read the Game Informer episode in depth that much, so I really can't say much about what's coming out, coming up, etc. I did pick up a couple things though. Some previews of things to come, looks like Square-Enix has been very, very busy as of late. First we've got Final Fantasy - Crisis Core, the prequel to Final Fantasy 7, which seems to be avoiding it's RPG background is looking to be more of a good 'ol hack and slash adventure. Then there's the new Final Fantasy fighting game being developed Dissidia. Besides being a standard fighting game, it looks like it'll have a story/campaign mode as well, and with the enourmous Final Fantasy history to draw from, it looks like we're going to have some very interesting things coming from there. So far, the following fighters have been shown - Zidane and Kuja of Final Fantasy 9, The Warrior of Light and Garland of the original Final Fantasy, and Sephiroth of Final Fantasy 7. Both games are scheduled for release on the PSP, with Crisis Core coming out sometime in 2008. No releaase date for Dissidia though.

Kingdom Hearts fans rejoice, Square is also working on two, that's two brand new Kingdom Hearts games. Fans may not be so happy to hear that their being released on handheld platforms only, though, and what's more the two games are being produced on two completely different platforms. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days is scheduled to release on the Nintendo DS, while Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep will be released on the PSP. Not much information on those two games from me, all I know is that 358/2 Days focuses on Roxas and his time with Organization XIII, whereas Birth by Sleep focuses on some trio of Keyblade wielders who appear at the end of the second game (haven't beaten it myself, so I can only tell ya what I've read).

But these four games being developed just isn't enough for Square Enix. They have yet ANOTHER game being produced, and reading this made me absolutely giddy. The original Star Ocean is being remade for the PSP, with all new content and cutscenes. More importantly though, is the fact that it's being brought over at all, as the original Star Ocean was never brought to the States. This will be our first shot at the game. But even more important to me was the tiny announcement that took place in a little black box. Second Evolution. Yes, Square Enix also has plans to remake the second Star Ocean game, which I consider the greatest RPG of all time. Promised material includes new dialogue, cutscenes, and even playable characters! These two games are the ones to look out for, keep an eye on Star Ocean, ladies and gentlemen.

So, Square Enix is working on six games. Crazy. Let's not forget that they're also doing work on Final Fantasy 13, so I suppose that's 7 at once? Oh, bravo, Square-Enix, bravo.

Other interesting stuff, new information on Devil May Cry 4, it's been revealed that Dante will be a playable character halfway through the story mode to replace up and comer Neo. Also revealed are two new weapons, something called Lucifer, which lets you throw darts around the environment and then call on them to attack the enemy, as well as the introduction of Pandora's Box, a suitcase that can transform into some heavy weaponry, including a chain gun.

Lots and lots of really interesting stuff. I'll go over it more later, kinda in a hurry at the mo'. Tom's been doing more than reading about videogames, he's also been playing them, of course. I left off in my last post that I'd gotten Disgaea and I've since played through the new storyline focusing around Etna, very cool stuff, although it's not as large or as far reaching as the original story. It's mostly just a fun romp through a world dominated by a conniving demon girl... Kinda scary. You get one new character out of Etna's storymode that you can't get normally, but she's just a Named Succubus. A named Succubus with incredible stats and every succubus ability at level 25 and with 99 resistance to every bad status effect, but still just a buffed up monster clone. Etna mode is a lot f fun, play through it, haven't gotten a shot at multiplayer yet, but I'd like to. Hmm... I'd say that's it there.

The only other new videogame I've gotten a crack at since my last post is something I picked up yesterday, and my, my, my, what an adventure that has been. Rock Band, the 4 player rock out party, is a freakin' blast. The game is kind of weird first starting off though, or I guess I should say before starting off. First, you have to put the game together, which takes a little time, not too much if you have some help. Just don't lose any pieces. You get a four slot usb port, you plug all the instruments in there, as well as a power pack that you need to connect with a wall to give the port power. Then just nab another guitar controller, get an Xbox 360 controller so the guy on Vocals can operate the menus and then you've got a 4 player rock spree ready to go.

I immediately called all of my friends over who were on hand and was rewarded by four dudes showing up at my door half an hour later. We took turns at things, but for the most part it was like so... RX at the Guitar, my fellow Guitar Hero brother took up the mighty axe to rock out for us, hardcore, Cracker took up the Base and layed down some heavy stuff, Q took up the drums and beat 'em like a madman and Tom took up the mike and...

Oh jeez, guys, are you serious? I haven't sung since... yeah... 12 years ago, I'd say. The resulting cacophany frightened animals and small children, or so I'm told. Oh, it was terrible. But after an hour or two of my crooning that sounded so very much like an animal in its death throes, I started to sound ok, and by hour four I started to sound... good. It was weird, as we just kept playing and playing, the band really kind of developed a band unity, y'know? My voice couldn't hold out forever, and the band showed concern that made me just kind of shake my head and laugh.

We had a lot of fun. We tried everything out, the drums are really quite interesting and the new solo stuff for the guitar is pretty nasty stuff. But I gotta say, I really do like doing the vocals. But I'll tell you this, doing vocals for 6+ hours straight starts to hurt, ahah. I might have done some damage to myself, I do believe. So, on reccomendation of the band, I'm to take good care of my voice. How the heck else are we going to pass all these damn songs?

We haven't finished it all up yet, still a lot of songs to unlock, and like I said, want to make this quick. In closing, Rock Band is probably the best 170 dollars I've spent in a while, it's an incredible party game, multiplayer co-op tour band mode is freakin' awesome.... Yeah, I'd say that's it.

Rock on, RERN.

Heh, bit behind the time with news, but atleast theyare the greatest ones out of this months'.

Also, DMC4 demo should be available soon on PSN, vid here http://onaxis.blogspot.com/2007/11/devil-m...ystation-3.html

It gives off the same vibe as the good ol' DMC1 did, so I'm looking forward to it ^^

Hurrah for Square-Enix!

Must be awsome to have friends to play with.

I can't wait for when Kingdom Hearts comes to the DS. <3

They're making a new Bionic Commando game.