It seems I have more or less forgotten I even have a blog since school started again, thankfully nobody really reads it - but whoa - look at my hit counter, its at 4 - seeing the last time I saw it, it was on 256, so the only plausible assumption I can make is that I had so many visitors that its gone past 99999 and reset... sure.. that's reasonable.
If ANYBODY cares at all (I'm sure all 99999+ readers do) I'm currently not really doing anything much, mainly schoolwork and watching anime... However I did manage to pull myself together and Platnium Burnout Paradise for PS3, that was a fantastic time waster and one of my all time favourite games now, and you know its good when I really don't like racing games that much.
I'm also in a bit of an anime slump; I've seen a few anime series, and right now i'm not sure what I should start to watch after i'm done with Vampire Knight Guilty, so if anybody has any reccomendations based on the following, please comment or send me an e-mail.
-Trigun (Loved it) -Vampire Knight (Right now I really love it) -Vampire Knight Guilty (Watching) -Death Note (Fantastic series) -Witchblade (Not that fantastic, but I really liked the characters)
Speaking of Vampire Knight, for some reason people keep comparing it or likening it to Twilight, the only thing they have in common is vampires, otherwise their fairly different.
So yeah, might just keep posting my opinions every so often on things I do/see/play, so keep an eye out.
JRPG's have been almost non-existent as of late, no longer do we have Triple A games coming out of japan in the genre, its a time where developers are experimenting with different game builds and engines made avaslible with new and better technology, with the main focus on pleasing both the western and Japanese audience at the same time. It really hasn't been going well either, with "The Last Remnant" being a good example.
Eternal Sonata was different though, It looked like what most JRPG fans had been waiting for, but the components that were lacking just made this another mediocre JRPG. It's sad when you think of what the game could have been with a few minor changes...
The first thing you’ll realise while playing the game is the horrendous voice acting, the opening cut scene isn’t that brilliant either and it’s just made worse with the unfitting or stereotypical voice acting for each character. The voices are just downright annoying. I honestly can’t get past how they even let some of these people do the voices, or maybe they did and couldn’t be bothered to change them that far into the development. Luckily, they realised they fucked up and included the Japanese Voices, which make the game far more bearable to sit through. There are a few English voices which are alright, and actually fit the character well, but...
Another incredibly distracting thing is the horrible attempt to try to sync the English voices to each character’s lips, in the end it just makes all the characters speak at a snail’s pace, trying to allow the lips to at least move while their talking. It’s instantly noticeable and just makes all the talking sections seem boring and drawn out.
You would hope that a game called “Eternal Sonata” would have good music, and thankfully it does, no doubt about it. The music is well fitting, and just has this nice theme running throughout the songs which make them worthwhile listening to outside of the game.
The story is average, there’s really not much to say overall – a typical “let’s go and beat the bad guy and form a party along our adventure” story which would be incredibly boring if not for the boss fights which keep the game interesting and slightly more entertaining. The story has a little twist with the main character being in a dream (that’s not a spoiler either, I personally think it would have been much better if that had not been revealed until much later in the game)
Combat is the games high point, the combat is balanced, well done and most importantly fun. It’s more of an active turn based style of game, and you’ll notice that throughout the game as you level up and become stronger the battle system actually makes itself harder with new rules to keep it interesting. It’s better if you just watch the video below to get a better understanding of combat then have me explain it badly.
Overall I wish I didn’t pay close to full price for the game, half price would have been a much better deal for what you get. Rent it over the weekend to see if you like it, or pick it up half price whenever you can, its more then worth if for that.
One little thing I noticed is that a character that looks about 20 has this really deep, manly voice and I wouldn’t figure out why – but after looking at his stats I found out he was 39, which really surprised me. I’m not saying that’s bad but it was a little confusing at first.
It saddens me when I think about the lack of JRPG’s that are coming out lately, with this being around the top of ones I’ve played. I really have little hope for final fantasy XIII after not liking XII at all pretty much, but we’ll see what comes of it if it ever gets released...
Surfing Youtube earlier I found this interesting, french video that had a fair amount of in game beta footage of Zelda: Ocarina of Time...
A lot of the game actually looks better (as in features, movements etc. not graphics wise) and I'm pretty sure the entire reason behind the drastic change to what we have now was due to the 64DD being delayed, delayed and again delayed, and as well all know, when released failed epicly. Due to this, they had to remove a variety of features from the game, some of which included things such as the game saving what you had done to the environment, your footsteps in the sand, along with other things. I'm not entirely sure about this, but I do remember hearing about this in an interview, if you know the link, please tell me =D
I may have been a little to hasty to declare the end of my blog posts, as I've once again regained the spark to start doing my reviews/opinions on games again!
I have the next few weeks off, and have started my own video channel on Youtube to share some interesting videos that I have, such as beta footage from Zelda Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time.
I am also in the process of making video reviews, but am currently highly unskilled at video making, don't really have any software apart from Windows Movie Maker and I'm not sure I have the right voice to do videos - while its not bad its also not the best - and I would rather not have people in real life know what I'm doing; so once I find a good voice changer I might start work on some more videos that actually feature me. One thing I refuse to do though is a video where its a web cam filming me and just having me talking for 5-10 minutes. I can't stand those videos personally, and the only people I can watch doing that is TvandLust, Spoony and the AVGN. If you are unaware of these reviewers, go and check them out.
I'll be posting review on Eternal Sonata fairly soon, followed by Burnout Paradise and UT3, along with many others.
Well, I've just recently started school again, and with it being the last year of school I think it might be best if I try to concentrate on that more then games at the moment.
I'm also not very interested in doing this any more, maybe it was just a spur of the moment thing but now i'm really over it...
So thanks to the people who come back and read posts, I might start doing it again if I fell like it or depending on response to this post.
Theres a very good chance most of you would not have even heard the name of this game before; it was a 1996 PC CD-ROM Claymation point-and-click video game created by animator Doug TenNapel and released by Dreamworks Studios.
I don't know if it's just nostalgia talking again, but its easily one of the best games ever to grace the PC and it might stay that way for a long time; newer games just don't have the soul or feel that games like this used to have, Being one of the very few games to be completely claymation, your sure to be in for an experience that can't be replicated by anything else.
In my mind theres not a single flaw in the entire game, that may sound impossible - but its true, this is a game where everything is carried out perfectly in every aspect. The graphics were mind blowing at the time and still manage to impress today, the music is just so simple but it fits every moment of the game perfectly, it's got a charm that's unexplainable, all I can say is that its brilliant.
Puzzles were everywhere in this game, seeing it was a point-and-click game and I have to say every one of the puzzles were well thought out and some can be quite challenging at times. These puzzles mixed in with hilarious cut scenes, a great sound track and amazing claymation animation just made this game phenomenal.
One of the best parts of the game has to be it's sense of humor - from funny animations to reciving letters like "Dear Klaymen, how do you spell Hoborg? - Willy". One part of the game actually forces you to walk 40 screens to the right, then back again - why? To get one seemingly meaningless item that you find out later you need to finish the game, which, in itself is a cruel little joke the creators put in - but what's interesting is you can zoom in on the text on the walls during your walk down these 40 screen and back, and you can read the entire history of the in game world; I don't think that much detail has ever been given to a game in a long time.
If you've never played this game, do it - however you can. It's a rare game that's almost 13 years old, so as you could imagine its going to be hard to get yours hands on (I guess you know where im going with this..). The fact that a game this game is so old, a point and click adventure and you can still get more enjoyment/fun out of it then a game like Crysis (which, as you all know, is one of the most advanced games out there right now) is just unbelievable. Unfortunately point-and-click adventure games have not made an appearance in recent years (with an exception being Zack and Wiki on the Nintendo Wii, which im yet to play) and don't appear to be making any sort of a comeback any time soon.
There is a sequel to the fantastic game entitled "Skullmonkeys" on the Playstation 1, which I believe is also fully claymation, but this time a sidescroller; I'd love to try it out one day, but I doubt that will be any time soon.
Just as a side note, apparently theres a movie based on the Neverhood's world currently under production set for a 2009-2010 release - so lets hope it turns out good =D
A special thanks to MitchieMcMouse from GameTrailers forums for helping me with parts of this post
What could I possibly say bad about this great game? Well, a few things actually; after playing through the game in one night with a couple of friends, we all had this same opinion on it, and that was that its a good game in its own right, but there were just some things that wern't right..
The First thing that comes to mind is the story, Which at first looks like a complete rip-off of National Treasure, which, it partly is, mixed with Indiana Jones and even going to the extent of copying an idea present in Pirates of the Caribbean, the "people who touch the treasure turn into monsters" idea - I mean come on, that's just a little to far.
The point in which the game introduced these monsters we all just said "..what the fuck?". It was completely unnecessarily and ruined the last section of the slightly interesting story.
Combat in the game was ridiculous, Regardless of difficulty setting the enemies had superhuman gun wielding skills, causing them to hit you 90% of the time you go out from cover, however this gun fire does not kill you, but it does get annoying when your getting hit so often from so far away... with a shotgun... (as a side note, I did not find the game that hard, the only times I died were just incredibly cheap moments or the stupid quicktime events)
Every enemy in the game is some form of stereotypical "Asain", "Negro" or "Latain" all armed with stereotypical voices and insults, even the main villain is replaced by one of the above (I can't even remember I lost interest in the story that much near the end)
Another thing I noticed were some effects such as the plant light reflection and the explosion smoke all look horribly fake, as if the plants were plastic and the explosions were small atom bombs.
Puzzles were placed throughout the game at good points, with most being satisfying to figure out, but then there are others which were just ridiculous and ones which are just so stupidly simple it deceives you into thinking it was harder.
But really, I'm just nitpicking the game to death - it was a damn fine game and deserves to be played and finished by every PS3 owner at some point in their life.
This game... It has to be one of the best games i've ever played in my life, and that's no joke - go ahead, laugh all you want - but to me it's a brilliant game that is massively underrated as a Final Fantasy game; I don't know what it is about the game but I just love it.
Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the graphics, maybe it was my complete lack of expectations for the game that made this game soar to the top of my favourite games of all time list, it seems as if ever since Enix joined with Squaresoft.. everything has gone downhill, but this is a turning point in that downhill spiral the company has descended into, expanding on a character in FF7 with such detail, that I actually like Zack more then I ever have Cloud.
Like I said, I had absolutely no expectations for this game - I bought it simply because it was FF7, I avoided all the reviews and media, everybody’s opinions about the game and it turned out fantastically, maybe its the hype that destroys a game for me...
The last time I felt like this about a game was years and years ago with Zelda:OoT, and for a game to bring back those feelings in me stronger then ever, it has to be good; the music is brilliant, the graphics are pretty much the best you'll ever see out of a PSP and the combat is just amazing, but could have been that little bit better in a few aspects of the combat.. but that didn't stop me enjoying it to its fullest.
The story in the game which focuses around Zack is brilliantly done, but other parts of the story are flawed, filled with holes and boring, but that’s only about 10%, so I think its forgivable to an extent. I just have to say.. If you haven't played it, play it now - just don't expect it to be as epic as FF7 was and you'll enjoy it much, much more.
This is one game I’m not sure if I like or not... I mean, it’s a good game but at the same time its flawed by many things...
I'll start off with what I liked about the game.
I Loved the graphics in Mirrors Edge, whether it be outside, in corridors or at night - its all fantastic, not one complaint apart from how characters look in the game, its like next to no detail was given to any 3D rendered character.
The music was brilliant, it had this certain charm to it that synced to the style of game perfectly, creating a perfect atmosphere for running around on white rooftops performing some awesome ninja moves on bad guys such as the flying kick and what I like to call the "nut stomp" (sliding into a guy and kicking him in the nuts) although no extra damage is done, its still amusing to do.
Controls for this game were fluid and consistent; I only had minor problems with them the entire game.
Now, the Bad.
The story was awful, I've never seen such a bad story in a game that received so much publicity before release in recent times, it somehow makes you care less and less for the characters as the game goes along - I won't tell you what the story is, but it pretty much has nothing to do with the premise of the game (i.e. not to do with runners delivering secret packages, although that's what the game is based on)
Half the game takes place on the inside of buildings, destroying the free running premise of the game, some of the rooms are so bleak it makes you want to cry; although there are some interesting puzzles to be done while inside, your always yearning to be outside again.
Now, this may sound crazy, but I’m going to put controls here again - why? Because they are horrible to get used to! for one the jumping and crouching is controlled by the L buttons, which might be good for left-handers but is confusing for awhile to right-handers, until you get the hang of it. A lot of times I kept reaching for the A (or X) button to jump, then fall to my death; but once your used to the controls, you'll be pulling off moves like a pro in no time.
Combat is just downright stupid, I’m not going to go more into this - people who have played it know what I’m talking about, and its not worth explaining - its bad.
The only reason you would continue to play the game after the story mode is for speed running or the time trails, which I seriously would only recommended for people that.. well.. like to do speed runs. Trophies/achievements in the game aren't entirely worth mentioning, a majority of them are obtained just by completing missions in story mode or completely by accident.
So in retrospect, I guess it was a good game… except it only lasted 6-7 hours, which isn't even worth the current $59 (Aus) price tag it carries. Seriously, you can finish the game in one rental period and you'll never have to play it again.
So, rent it – it’s a game definitely worth playing for $5.
What do you think of when you hear the word "scary"?
Zombies? Aliens? Creepy music? ...Toast?
Toast is exactly what comes to mind when I think of Dead Space; why? That's the only type of scare that Dead Space can muster, and it’s what I like to call "The Toast Effect", where the game attempts to scare you with Aliens or other objects popping out of nowhere trying to make you jump, and this isn't something I look in a game. With a game like dead space you would think they would try to create an atmosphere that was actually frightening, but it turned out to be an empty void of intertwining corridors, all gun metal grey.
That is my major problem with this game, its not scary for a game that should be.
The rest of the game is fairly well done, the controls are almost prefect (although way too similar to Resident Evil 4), the music is non-existent, which helps to create an atmosphere of loneliness (where the atmosphere should have been scary) with some great sound effects - the best way to describe the game is "Metroid Prime crossed with Resident evil 4".
A feature that I’m really not sure about is the "find-a-path" option, where the game literally shows you exactly where to go with a press of a button, which, in theory is a good idea, but takes away a lot of the exploration of the game - but without using it can get you lost and lose track of where your meant to be going, so its really up to you how you find this feature, I’m fairly indifferent on it.
Parts of the game your able to go into anti-gravity rooms and which gives you the ability to space jump, which is fantastic and well done - its fun to play around with and to kill things while like this (although enemies can become a pain)
The last thing I want to comment on is the amputation element of the game, and I have to say that it was used and implemented extremely well, although once the enemy is dead the rag-doll (or parts of the rag doll) move around just.. oddly.. as if they have no weight at all, and with that boxes and objects move across the floor as if on ice. Now, you might be thinking "well, it is in space you idiot" but it’s inside, nothing else seems to have less weight then it should while inside.
Although a great game at its core, I was sorely disappointed when I found out how lame of an attempt was made to make it scary, and when you go to play a game that you've heard is scary, its a real let down when it comes down to the scare being the equivalent of somebody yelling "boo" in the dark.
