1995_1996_1997's GameSpot Friend's Reviews 1995_1996_1997's GameSpot Friend's Reviews 1995_1996_1997's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Mon, 20 May 2013 10:32:22 -0700 GameSpot 1995_1996_1997's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Sun, 19 May 2013 22:57:25 -0700 ZanarkandTidus reviewed Shadow Hearts: Covenant for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/shadow-hearts-covenant/user-reviews/811512/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 9.5!




I'm a big JRPG fan and I've played lots of JRPGs on my Playstation 2 and Shadow Hearts Covenant is not only one of my top 4 favorite JRPGs for the Playstation 2 it's also one of my top 5 favorite Playstation 2 games.

Shadow Hearts Covenant is quite a unique RPG indeed.To quickly explain what makes it a unique and captivating experience I'll say it's story is set during World War 1 and demons are corrupting humans and causing the war to escalate and become more brutal.The story has a love story and a romance triangle.The atmospheres for story scenes and environments are often incredible because they'll have a hazy or mellowed-out feel from the way it uses dim lighting beautifully or the way colors are used for the sky and it's combat system combines fast reaction-time and turn-based elements and Shadow Hearts Covenant has some great,diabolic-sounding music too.

As for a more in-depth review for it,I'll start off with it's story.

Like I've said,it's story is set during World War 1 and certain demons are corrupting humans/creating pacts with certain humans who have a lot of power in the world in an effort to control the world.This will cause humans who have formed alliances with demons to do despicable acts of evil and will even cause the war to escalate and brutality of the war to escalate.

The main character in the game is named Yuri who is a male who can transform into a variety of demonic forms and he's one of the good guys who is trying to use his demonic abilities to scare away invading soldiers and he lost the woman he loved named Alice in the first Shadow Hearts game.In Shadow Hearts Covenant he becomes inflicted with a curse and after certain events a busty German female officer named Karin accompanies Yuri to help him find a cure to the curse,after all he saved her life during an earlier story event.As you'd expect,the story becomes much more than about finding a cure and becomes about saving the world and a bunch of other characters will join your party and some of them are quite interesting because of their occupation(such as a puppeteer who uses his puppet doll in battle and one of the characters is a wrestler)and some of the other characters are involved in some emotional story moments that relate to them personally as well as the main story and you'll meet some interesting villains.

The story has a romance triangle since Yuri's heart still belongs to Alice and he hasn't given up being with her again but another female character has taken a liking to him too(I won't say who it is)and the story has great plot twits and can be very emotional and can be chilling from the shocking acts of evil by some of the villains.The story has some exciting,high-action moments too and will take you to numerous famous places in Europe as well as outside of Europe but I won't spoil it for you.

Other things that makes it's story great is the way it's presented,the love story-related scenes are emotional because of their delicate artistic effects and their delicate and heart felt dialogue and even from certain action scenes.As well as story scenes that have poetic narrative and are in relation to the love story or from dark but beautifully poetic story scenes accompanied by morbid-looking,dark-themed but at the same time beautiful cinematics that can send chills down my spine whilst being beautiful at the same time in a similar way to Demon's Souls story presentation does.

As for the game play,it's like most other JRPGs in the sense you'll travel to different towns/cities and you can/will need to interact with people in them and you'll level up your characters and will need to utilize various character abilities in battle.Even though each character has unique abilities they can also be equipped with abilities if they're equipped by items referred to as crests.So you can make most characters be a white mage(healer)or give them abilities to buff or do elemental damage.Yuri and another character are capable of transforming into demons,Yuri can transform into a wider variety of demons so he can gain elemental properties as well as a wide range of abilities for attacking or healing whilst the other character who can transform into a demon uses demonic forms that focus more on strength and speed.

The battle system is turn-based but the number of times you hit an enemy and how much damage you do and whether you actually hit an enemy or not or use a spell effectively or not depends on your button timing for the ring system.You can also customize the ring so you don't have to do as many button presses but it also means less chances to hit your enemy(meaning if you mess up the timing with a button press you will have less chances to damage an enemy or use a spell).It's a good risk vs reward system.The battle system also lets you decide whether you want to knock an enemy down,backwards or attack from a high angle and combining the right combination of these attacks can allow you to perform combos.I like the battle system for the game because it makes you concentrate and stops it feeling like another generic turn-based system as well as encourages you to experiment and gives you the option of trying a few risk vs reward systems.

The only thing I dislike about the game play is there is annoying obstacles in the way if you want to level grind such as areas where random enemies appear are often far from an inn forcing you to use healing magic and items to replace MP and stocking up on MP is a waste of money that could be used to buy better weapons/armor.

As for the games visuals,like I've said the atmosphere in the game is incredible and the dim use of lightning and and shades of yellow lighting and orangey sky affect and darker,evil-looking atmospheres and industrial environments all go well together but there is some charming little town environments too.The cinematics for the darker,morbid story scenes are beautiful and dark and the same time.For certain romantic scenes,the dim use of lighting and shades of yellow and the way it combines with being on a train and seeing Yuri and Alice there together is really quite something,and there is a nice haziness to these scenes to let you guess is this just a dream or a vision of something to come?

On a technical level the graphics have a decent amount of realism for a 2004 PS2 game and combine that with stunning artistic effects the game is really lovely to look at.

The music can suit the romantic moments quite well because of it's delicate piano music and there is some great,diabolical-sounding music for battles.Some of the voice acting sounds a bit silly and I would have liked it if Japanese voice acting was an option.

Overall,Shadow Hearts Covenant is a unique,special and heartfelt JRPG experience and is amongst the best RPGs released during the 6th gen and IMO is one of the best games released during the 6th gen period.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/shadow-hearts-covenant/user-reviews/811512/platform/ps2/ Fri, 17 May 2013 08:27:42 -0700 pigfish2 reviewed Tomb Raider for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/811411/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

It is easy to say that hitting the reboot button is the easy option with a franchise as it enables the developers to start from scratch once more. However in reality it is a difficult task to pull off. Make it too similar to previous iterations and people will wonder why you bothered but make it too different and existing fans will be up in arms. Thankfully with Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics has for the most part got the balance right, albeit opting for more that's different than the same.

Being a reboot, the game casts you as a young Lara Croft setting out on her first adventure. Lara and the entire crew of the ship The Endurance are shipwrecked on the island of Yamatai and as Lara you must uncover the islands mysteries, defeat a crazed cult and find a way to escape. All in all the plot and characters are pretty generic with some clichéd dialogue at times but it is the strength of characterisation put into Lara that stands out. She begins as a naive and frightened girl but over the course of the game develops into a strong and confident woman willing to do whatever it takes to survive. Her character development is handled well and is the stand out feature of the game. Most games allow you to advance in terms of abilities and weapons but it is rare for a developer to attempt such a degree of character development. Crystal Dynamics have pulled it off though. This is helped by capable voice performance by Camilla Luddington as Lara. Of course Lara also advances in terms of abilities which are earn using skill points and weapons which can be upgraded using salvage. Just like with the development of Lara's character these are satisfying. They also enable more tasks to be completed and improved combat capability but crucially without making the game too easy as you progress.

Gameplay can be split into three main types. Firstly there is combat. Whilst not groundbreaking the cover system is well implemented and useful in what are some pretty intense firefights at times. The enemy AI is competent too with foes hiding behind cover and making themselves difficult to take down. The combat is very much like that of the Uncharted series, which Crystal Dynamics have clearly taken a number of cues from for this reboot. This can be seen in the second type of gameplay, the exploration and platforming. Lara is just as acrobatic as Nathan Drake and makes use of whatever she can to climb and explore. Jumps and climbs are easy to perform and satisfying to pull off. In another cue taken from the Uncharted series, the scenery will often collapse as Lara climbs it, leading to a scramble to hang on and grab something else. This forms part of the game's edge of your seat tone. Set pieces abound and the game maintains a fast pace as Lara rushes to escape collapsing buildings, is swept down rushing rivers and much more. This lends the game a strong cinematic feel with Lara as the heroine of the piece. The fast pace works well due to the strength of its execution but at times it could do with slowing down. This pace is occasionally broken up the third gameplay type; puzzles. I was disappointed by the lack of puzzles in the early stages of the game and whilst they do increase in number as it progresses, I still would have welcomed more to slow the game's breakneck pace at times. The puzzles that do exist require some thought but none are likely to leave you stumped for long. Overall I feel the gameplay balance is about right though and the difficulty is appropriate too. An omission that fans of the franchise might find hard to take is the lack of tombs. There are seven, short optional tombs, hidden away to find but none that are compulsory for completion. This doesn't detract from the game's quality but existing fans could be left disappointed. It is worth noting though that despite its fast pace and lack of tombs the game is surprisingly lengthy, clocking in at over ten hours.

Graphically, Tomb Raider is not spectacular but it is a good effort. The dark colours and foreboding locales instantly set the island out as a place to be feared and lighting is effectively used to enhance the sense of unease. The music is well chosen and complements the graphical choices in making you truly believe that this is a scary place that Lara is desperate to escape from. In addition to the use of sights and sounds to create a dangerous atmosphere, the game includes a large number of collectibles that flesh out the islands backstory. These are genuinely compelling to discover and extend the games already generous run time. Relics reveal the islands physical history whilst documents are used to portray the experiences of individuals who have previously had the misfortune of ending up on Yamatai. I often find collectibles to be in a game simply for the sake of making it seem to have more value but the Documents and Relics as well as GPS caches (which reveal two secret documents if you find them all) actually complement and enhance the story of the game. Tomb Raider also features online multiplayer in an attempt to further enhance the experience. It is a woefully lacklustre though. Lag is commonplace and it is quite simply boring. As an additional feature that is entirely separate of the main game it can gratefully be ignored though and does not detract from what is a top draw adventure.

Multiplayer aside, Crystal Dynamics' reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise has done what it set out to. It successfully reinvents Lara Croft with a strong level of character development and a fast paced adventure full of memorable moments. Tom Raider has been brought up to date and whilst it may take many cues from the Uncharted series it stands out as a fantastic game in its own right and re-establishes Lara Croft at gaming's top table.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"pigfish2 reviewed Tomb Raider for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by pigfish2 on Fri, 17 May 2013 08:27:42 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/811411/platform/ps3/ Thu, 16 May 2013 20:23:03 -0700 naju890_963 reviewed Metal Slug 3 for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/metal-slug-3/user-reviews/811398/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Metal Slug, a series best known for it's frantic gameplay and challenging difficulty. SNK's third outing in the franchise, Metal Slug 3 is critically acclaimed and loved by many fans of the series and it's deemed to be the best game in the franchise. While I personally never played a Metal Slug game before this one, I can't deny that MS3 is incredible. Metal Slug 3 was originally released in the arcades on the NEO-GEO MVS hardware which was a dominant force in the days of the arcades. Along the years it has been ported to many different systems, including the Xbox, PC and PS2. The one I'll be reviewing is the PS2 version.

Metal Slug is a series that has always thrived on ridiculously frantic gameplay and Metal Slug 3 doesn't fail to deliver. It's as frantic as ever. It does have a few new additions since Metal Slug 2/X. While no new weapons were added, SNK brought in a couple of new vehicles. One of these vehicles is an ostrich with a machine gun mounted on it. That's why I love this game. It's just goofy, the whole series has a great sense of humour. Apart from a few changes, Metal Slug 3's gameplay is still classic Metal Slug. That's not a problem at all. Metal Slug is one of those games were it is easy to pickup but hard to master. It can really get overwhelming sometimes and death can become unavoidable. Metal Slug 3 has four playable characters, which all play and feel the same. Their's also some backstory, which I wasn't bothered to read because personally I come to Metal Slug for one thing, gameplay. But it might interest some die hard fans of the series.

Gameplay wise, MS3 is very similar to previous entries in the franchise. Almost identical actually, except for a few new mechanics. Levels can actually branch out and can be played differently each time. This adds a lot to replay value. Metal Slug is all about non stop action. I love how it keeps at it all the time and rarely let's down. Most of the time, the screen will be filled with gunfire, soldiers and gigantic bosses. Speaking of gigantic bosses, these are probably the craziest bosses you'll ever see in a 2D run and gunner. They take a lot of hits too and most of the time there are standard soldiers running with them. The bosses don't require much strategy but they are still challenging none the less. A few gimmicks are present in some levels. In a particular level if the player dies, he'll be transformed into a zombie were he is immune to gunfire but still can die if other zombies attack him. I feel like they are a worthy addition and can help break up the gameplay at times. Weapons remain unchanged but I don't feel like that's a problem because they are all fun to use. SNK compensated for that and brought in a couple new Metal Slugs.

Metal Slugs resemble tanks but way wackier. Most of them have machine guns mounted on them, but some might have some special secondary weapons. They'll offer extra protection too. There is one metal slug available for each level. Their isn't much to say about the controls, they work great for the most part but I have a small gripe with them. In one level in particular I found myself on a platform with enemy soldiers underneath me. But for some reason it doesn't allow me to shoot below me which was a real pain as I had to restart the level and take them out first before proceeding upwards. It's nothing to cry about but it did manage to bother me for a while. Graphically it looks very close to the MVS version, I personally see no difference and it's a well done port. Metal Slug features that iconic announcer, you know the one.

The soundtrack rocks too, perfectly fitting. The console versions feature two bonus modes that can be played after finishing the main game. They are fun to play for a while but I didn't find myself going back to them nearly as much as I did with the main game. I would definitely recommend this version for anyone who hasn't played Metal Slug 3 but for those who did play it, I'd see no reason to buy this version except for the bonus modes which aren't that special to begin with. Overall I found Metal Slug 3 to be fun as all hell, fans of 2D games must check this one out.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"naju890_963 reviewed Metal Slug 3 for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by naju890_963 on Thu, 16 May 2013 20:23:03 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/metal-slug-3/user-reviews/811398/platform/ps2/ Fri, 03 May 2013 04:19:30 -0700 naju890_963 reviewed Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis... http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-the-hedgehog/user-reviews/810955/platform/genesis/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

The Sonic the Hedgehog series has been running since 1991 when the first game debuted on the Sega Genesis. This was Sega's idea of a mascot. A blue hedgehog, with spikes on its back and red shoes. Sega created a platformer with this character, made him run very fast in colorful levels with lots of enemies, power-ups and bosses. This was a winning formula. It was the game that got the Sega Genesis up on its feet. Nowadays Sonic is on par with Mario when it comes to popularity but in the last 10 years we have seen a decrease in quality when it came to Sonic games. None the less, Sonic is still loved by many and his old games will always be cherished by Sega fans everywhere.

Sonic The Hedgehog was the first 2D platformer to feature a character so fast. At the time, Genesis owners were amazed at the speed that Sonic ran. He still runs fast nowadays but it won't blow your mind like it did back in the 90s. This contributed to fast platforming and an incredible flow that made Mario and other platformers seem sluggish. The main antagonist is Doctor Ivo Robotnik who was snatching animals and transforming them into evil robots. It's up to Sonic to defeat Robotnik and save the day. Sonic 1 features 6 zones with 3 acts each. This means that it has 18 playable levels with a special stage that can only be accessed in the first two acts of every zone. While most of the levels are pretty solid, I found the pacing to be poor. Let's see. The game starts of with the infamous Green Hill Zone. It's a fast and short level just like it should be. The second level is called Marble Zone. This is a platform heavy zone, so it's naturally quite slow. I personally find it fun but Sonic is not about slow platforming. All of the levels after Green Hill except Starlight Zone don't capture the feel of speed the first zone manages to achieve. Even so the platforming in these levels still managed to keep my attention and are pretty challenging.

Every zone has a boss of its own. The boss is always Robotnik with a new machine wreaking havoc upon Sonic. Once you get the patterns down, the boss fights are laughably easy, they're still fun to go through though. The levels are packed with rings, enemies and power-ups. Rings are very important. Sonic doesn't have the usual health system found in most platformers. If Sonic doesn't have any rings and gets hit by an enemy he will die. But if Sonic has one or more rings on him and gets hit, Sonic will simply drop all his rings. It's a great system and it helps keep the action fast. There are other things that the rings can do. If Sonic collects a 100 rings in one act than he gets an extra life. Rings are also necessary if the player wants to access the special zone. If Sonic collect fifty rings, a giant ring will appear at the end of the level. When Sonic jumps through it he'll be teleported to the special stage. Sonic will need to traverse a maze with multi-colored blocks while collecting rings. Collecting another hundred rings here will grant the player an extra life and a continue. But the main reason why the special stages exist is the Chaos Emeralds. If Sonic collects all the emeralds in all the special stages, a different ending will play instead of the normal one. These special stages get annoying sometimes, although the background and the music are kinda trippy. Keep in mind that special zones are not available at the end of act 3 of every zone, as a boss is present.

A bevy of power-ups are available, they can usually be found in computer monitors. There is the Super ring, which rewards Sonic with 10 rings, the Speed shoes, which make Sonic run even faster, a shield which grants Sonic an extra layer of protection against enemies, Invincibility, speaks for itself and a 1-up, extra life basically. Also keep in mind that invincibility won't help if Sonic falls on spikes or a pit. Sonic has a few attacks up his sleeve. He can jump on enemies or use the spin attack in which Sonic rolls up into a ball and charges his enemy. Speaking of enemies, theirs a plethora of enemies which are all Robotnik's robots. Theirs a couple of annoying enemies here and their but I think they look cool and most of the time they're fun to stomp on. Sonic has very simple controls, D-pad for movement and the A button for jumping. Simplicity at it's finest. The 16-bit sonic games are all beautiful to look at, and this is no exception. The colors are simply amazing, everything just pops out of the screen. It's ironic that a game this old can still wow gamers with its colorful graphics while newer games like Battlefield 3 can bore me to death with its various shades of brown. Also the infamous soundtrack for Sonic, unbelievably catchy and just a joy to listen too, truly a gem.

What can I say more? The original Sonic the Hedgehog is something that everyone must play, most of you must have already played it. It's available on tons of platforms but if you want to be a purist and buy it on the original console then it's not a problem at all. The Sega Genesis or Megadrive, depending on where you live is very easy to find, the sonic games are quite easy to find aswell, they were best sellers on the console after all.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"naju890_963 reviewed Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis..." was posted by naju890_963 on Fri, 03 May 2013 04:19:30 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-the-hedgehog/user-reviews/810955/platform/genesis/ Sun, 28 Apr 2013 03:20:10 -0700 pigfish2 reviewed LEGO City Undercover for the Wii U... http://www.gamespot.com/lego-city-undercover/user-reviews/810781/platform/wii-u/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Lego City Undercover marks the first entirely original game in Travellers Tales series of Lego games that began with Lego Star Wars back in 2005 and for the most part its better for this. Much of the charm of the Lego games is the way they poke fun at characters you know but free of the constraints of a familiar franchise the developers have kept the series' trademark humour intact with their own cast of likeable and funny characters. The story goes that as legendary cop Chase McCain you have returned to Lego City after two years away to help return the notorious criminal Rex Fury to prison. Undercover is still heavily indebted to films though with countless nods to and parodies of classic movies throughout. One of the best is a construction worker who is clearly a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The game is light-hearted in tone as you expect from a Lego game and genuinely amusing throughout with full voice acting for all the major characters. Said characters are for the most part well characterised but sadly Rex Fury is criminally underused with little explanation of his motives. All in all it is very much what you expect from a Lego game on the exterior but delve deeper and there is some noticeable tinkering and additions.

Lego City is fully open world and you can make your way throughout the entire city with no loading screens. This sense of exploration fits well with Lego and is improved further by the ability to take control of any of the over 100 types of vehicles dotted throughout the city. Impressively each vehicle has its own unique handling, which is an extra level of sheen than you would expect. The 15-20 hour story involves both exploration and completing goals in the city and 15 special assignments set in self contained levels. This works well and introduces variety to proceedings. The chief gameplay mechanic is the ability for Chase to switch between a number of disguises ranging from burglar to fireman. Each disguise once unlocked provides its own unique abilities for solving different puzzles. This is a good way of keeping the Lego games character swapping intact whilst casting you as a single character. One free play mode is unlocked you can use any of the games 290 disguises that there are to collect. These disguises include all of the games major and minor characters and beyond and fit into categories based on the disguises Chase can use in the story. Gameplay involves a mix of fighting, platforming and puzzle solving and whilst for the most part these are all simplistic they are nevertheless fun. In terms of gameplay there is little change from what you expect from the tried and tested Lego formula. The game is rarely challenging, but that has never been the point with the Lego games, instead it offers relatively easy childlike enjoyment.

Graphically the game is not groundbreaking but holds up well with minor blemishes only noticeable when the camera moves in close. The voice work for the game is well recorded and the sound work in general is good. The music whilst decent quickly becomes irritating though as the game only has a few tracks that constantly repeat. One area where the game falls down is in technical details. The loading times when starting or finishing levels, and entering the police station are horribly long and clock in at a minimum 40 seconds each. This can be in part understood by the huge open world nature of the city but nevertheless it is an irritating waste of times. More worryingly the game at times suffers from freezing and other minor technical problems but these are rare. Lack of multiplayer in such a family orientated game is another drawback. The gamepad is well implemented if hardly original, with it serving as a communicator, scanner and map.

Undercover is a fun, if hardly exceptional game that offers plenty of hours of enjoyment. The story can be finished in 15-20 hours but with loads to collect and unlock beyond that and a huge city to explore there is plenty of value to be had. It is one of the best games in the Lego series that benefits from being unchained by the absence of a license and whilst it may not be a classic, it is a welcome addition to the Wii U's library.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"pigfish2 reviewed LEGO City Undercover for the Wii U..." was posted by pigfish2 on Sun, 28 Apr 2013 03:20:10 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/lego-city-undercover/user-reviews/810781/platform/wii-u/ Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:46:48 -0700 clock0 reviewed Sonic Dash for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-dash/user-reviews/810718/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

This is one of the best apps I have ever played.This is a sonic version of temple run but even better then temple run you can chose to play as 4 characters Sonic,Tails,Amy and Knuckles.My favorite character in this game is knuckles but it doesn't matter which character you have because they all do the same moves but it is cool to add different characters to play as.This game is really awesome.What do you get when you put temple run and sonic in a blender? A pretty damn good smoothie.Temple Run + Sonic=A pretty damn awesome game.This is a free app and it is worth getting.If you liked all the temple runs then by all means get this really awesome game.I deleted subway surfer because I had this awesome game to replace it so goodbye subway surfer and hello sonic dash,but I didn't delete temple run because that game is too good to be deleted but this game I will NEVER delete it is just so damn awesome.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"clock0 reviewed Sonic Dash for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by clock0 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:46:48 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-dash/user-reviews/810718/platform/iphone/ Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:44:00 -0700 naju890_963 reviewed Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/duke-nukem-3d-atomic-edition/user-reviews/810705/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

It's time to go back to Duke's glory days. As you may know, Duke's latest game, Duke Nukem Forever was a flop. It was an outdated mess that made Duke look pathetic. DNF went through countless development cycles and it was basically a big old mess. But let's forget about that for now and go back to the time when Duke was still a force to be reckoned with in the gaming industry.

Duke Nukem 3D originally came out on MS-DOS back in 1996. This was back when games were harder to boot up than launching a rocket in space. But thankfully nowadays we have procedures that are much easier. There are numerous versions and ports of this game. The one I'll be reviewing is the Atomic edition. This contains another episode with eleven levels. You can try being a purist and buying the original DOS version but that would be a big pain in the ass. The easy way is to buy it off gog.com or get the Megaton edition from Steam. Let's dig in.

Duke Nukem 3D is an old-school FPS, were you control the always charming Duke Nukem. There are four episodes in total with eleven levels each, except for the first episode that only has seven levels. A multiplayer mode was also available but that is long gone. After the events of Duke Nukem 2, Duke finds himself back on earth. He finds out that an unknown force has taken over earth and it's up to Duke Nukem to save the day. It's a very simplistic storyline, although it doesn't really show itself throughout the game except at the occasional cutscene peppered throughout the episodes. But I believe that a simplistic, cliché storyline like this goes perfectly with Duke's outrageous character. Speaking about Duke, he's one hell of a character. Firing one liners at every opportunity he gets and blasting aliens without remorse, that's Duke alright. Duke is as two-dimensional as it gets. Nowadays characters in video games are more realistic and most of today's games have abandoned these macho one man army's with no soul, like we used to find in games like Doom or Wolfenstein 3D. I can't imagine what kind of controversy this game sparked up back in 1996. Why you ask. Well Duke 3D features strippers, (probably the first game to do it) and countless more nods to pornography.

Now that we have covered the setting and story, it's time talk about the gameplay. First of all, this game runs on the 2.5D build engine which is similar to the engine that Doom uses. Moving and shooting feels a lot like other 2.5D FPS's. It can be pretty weird to control Duke for players that never played a 2.5D game before. Unlike 3D shooters, the player is only allowed to look left or right. Eliminating enemies that are standing above or under the player can be done by shooting in the direction that the enemy is situated in. Unlike shooters of today, Duke 3D doesn't try to be realistic by giving the player only two weapons to use at a time, no it lets the player use the full arsenal once you unlocked them all obviously. Speaking about weapons, theirs a bevy of fun weapons to choose from like the chaingun, shrink-ray, microwave expander and others. It's so refreshing to play a shooter that doesn't have the usual military weapons like the M4, AK-47 and so on. Not to mention that all these weapons feel very different from each other. Theirs also an inventory system which is used to store items like Holodukes, health packs and steroids. To be honest the inventory is a bit of a pain to use and flip through items. I really like the levels in Duke 3D. I think that the level design is very clever at times. There are multiple routes to take to get to the objective and tons of secrets and easter eggs to find. The levels look awesome and the environments are very interesting to explore. These levels are filled with fun things to do like, tipping strippers, pissing in toilets and lots of other things to interact with.

Graphically it looks dated by today's standards, but it's totally playable. Even though graphically it looks dated it has this charm to it that makes everything all the better. As far as sound goes, everything sounds retro and awesome. To be honest some sounds from the alien enemies really creeped but I guess it's just me. I almost forgot to mention that the main theme is incredible. It's so awesome in fact that Megadeth actually made a cover for it. Duke Nukem 3D manages to still retain its charm after all these years and clearly stood the test of time. I doubt that you'll find an FPS as fun and creative as Duke 3D.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"naju890_963 reviewed Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition for the PC..." was posted by naju890_963 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:44:00 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/duke-nukem-3d-atomic-edition/user-reviews/810705/platform/pc/ Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:13:01 -0700 web966 reviewed BioShock Infinite for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock-infinite/user-reviews/810650/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

Bioshock Infinite is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had with a video game. Every aspect of this game is of such a high quality that it was all that I was able to do and think about since it was released. Video games this good do not come along often, it is a game that will talked and argued about for years. It is incredibly ambitious and while it does falter every once in a while the overall experience is mesmerizing.

The city of Cloumbia is the single most alive and well realized video game location ever created. From the second you enter the city you will be completely overwhelmed by all of the amazing attention to detail and fantastic art direction. This is one of the most awe inspiring games I have ever seen. My jaw was open in wide eyed wonder throughout the entire game. Every new area was just as stunning as the last and the environment is littered with audio diaries and other clues as the what is going on in this city. The fiction and mystery behind the city is fascinating and was the main driving force for me to having to play the game as much as I possibly could. The music and sound design is also stellar and really helps in creating the games atmosphere.

The story of Infinite is impressive for a multitude of reasons. It features some amazing voice acting and writing that really bring Booker and Elizabeth to life. The facial animations of Elizabeth really are amazing and help make her one of the most unforgettable characters in any game I have ever played. Booker and Elizabeth's relationship grows over the course of the game and by the end of it Ineeded to protect Elizabeth, not because the game was telling me I had to but because I honestly cared about her. Among all of the other amazing accomplishments of this game, Elizabeth is perhaps the most impressive. The relationship that grow between her and the player makes everything that happens in the game seem vital.

The plot of the game is not at all predictable and always surprising. The game is constantly giving you little hints and clues as to what is really going on but they never give it away. The ending took me completely by surprise. I had no idea what was coming, but now that I have seen it the rest of the game perfectly builds up to it. After finishing the game I thought about everything I saw that I didn't understand and it all makes sense. It makes me want to go back and play the whole thing again immediately so I can see all the subtle clues and make sense of them. It is a perfect ending that even makes the title of the game make sense. I wont say anything else about the story so I don't spoil it, but know that is probably the best story ever in a video game that touches on a bunch of interesting themes like racism, nationalism, religion and even video games themselves.

Bioshock Infinite is also just a really fun playing video game. The combat still feels very much like Bioshock but with some really great improvements. You still have plasmids, or vigors as they are called in this game, and you upgrade them throughout the game. There are eight Vigors in the game and they are all fun to use and offer different ways to play the game. There is also the skyline system which creates some of the most exciting fire fights I have ever had. Attacking enemies from the skyline is exhilarating and just looks cool as hell. There are a bunch of different types of enemies as well and they are all interesting in their own way even if none of them are as iconic as the big daddy.

Bioshock Infinite is a tremendous achievement. It feels like I have been waiting for a video game to reach these heights my whole life. Infinite perfectly combines an amazingly well playing traditional game experience that we all love with an incredible plot and characters with adult themes that really makes you think. Most games are either a really fun well playing adventure with an average story or they have an amazing story but have to sacrifice some of the gameplay to make it work. Infinite has it all. One of the greatest games of all time that every gamer needs to experience.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"web966 reviewed BioShock Infinite for the Xbox 360..." was posted by web966 on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:13:01 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock-infinite/user-reviews/810650/platform/xbox360/ Sun, 21 Apr 2013 06:25:04 -0700 ZanarkandTidus reviewed Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS... http://www.gamespot.com/fire-emblem-awakening/user-reviews/810504/platform/3ds/ ...and gave it a 9.5!


Fire Emblem Awakening is the first Fire Emblem game I've played and I can safely say it's one of the best and most addicting games I've played over the last few years.

There's numerous reasons why this game is great,it's story has great plot twists and can be emotional,the characters are charming and the game makes you care about them by allowing characters to get married and to make children with other characters and you can even use the children in your party! The battle system is very tactical and in order to succeed in the game you'll need to think multiple moves ahead and the game has beautiful art styles for it's visuals and it's music is beautiful too.There is also little extra things the game does to make you care about it's characters such as how it shows profiles about the characters and displays who their spouse and children are and the way the game has in-depth character stories for every party member(even minor ones).And the most distinguishable feature of all which is the permadeath which allows characters to die permanently which creates more tension to game play and can mean making good decisions during battle is important not just for winning,but to keep your most beloved characters alive,also if your most powerful characters die it can greatly reduce your chances of winning.

The story for the game is about how an evil force of zombie-like beings known as 'Risen' are plaguing the world and other nations are attacking the peaceful nation of Ylisse.Chrom is the prince of Ylisse and him and his group of soldiers go out to investigate and to put an end to all the madness from the other nations and to put an end to the Risen.For a while the story moves slowly but it's fitting because it shows a war happening.However,huge and great plot twists later come into the story and the story starts focusing a lot on mythological type things.

You'll create a character who wakes up and has no memory of who they are and they get caught in the middle of the war and I can't explain why the story is so great without giving away spoilers,but trust me it becomes great and emotional.Another way the story is emotional is the way you can create romances,marriages and children and the fact your spouse,children,friends can die and after you've been through many tough battles with them and have seen them in many story scenes you'll grow attached to them and if they die it can be quite heartbreaking to know you won't see them again.

Creating romance is fun,not just because you can make characters get married and have kids,but also because the way the characters flirt can be quite cute and funny.

As for the battle system and game play,the battle system places big importance on character relationships.When you place a unit next to another unit,you'll get some sort of stat boost at the very least but when some units are next to other units they can perform team style attacks or one of the units will block attacks directed for the unit they're standing next to.You can also 'pair up' characters which means you can ask a character to hide behind another character and they'll continue doing so until you tell them not to and this adds an extra element of strategy because when they're hiding behind another character they cannot be attacked but cannot perform any sort of actions whether they be attacking or healing,but this is a good way of keeping your more vulnerable units such as white mages alive and when you think it's safe to use them you can command them to stop hiding behind another character(but it consumes the turn of that unit so you have to wait until your next turn to be able to use that unit).

Each unit can be used one time per turn.When a unit attacks another unit,quite often the unit they're attacking will attack the aggressor back.Sometimes units will attack more than one time during their turn and the unit being attacked can attack their aggressor more than one time when they're retaliating and this can cause some epic exchanges,especially when the aggressors or units being attacked are paired up with a unit that's next to them and you see numerous attacks being exchanged by 3 or more units in one turn(I can't remember the AI enemies doing team attacks but my units could whether they were the aggressor or the ones defending during their turn.

The fact units will often fight back when they're attacked means you have to think more carefully about your strategy because the units you attack won't just stand there and let themselves be attacked like in many other turn-based style battle systems.

Your units can perform super attacks which I think are referred to as skills.Whether they use these skills or not is chance and it adds more excitement.

The be successful in the game you'll need to utilize the various character classes,which there's many of but basically there's swordsmen,heavily armored knights in horseback,dark mages,white mages,cavalry,units who can transform into beasts,archers and units that use flying creatures.There's also units which aren't heavily armored but have great agility due to their high luck stats and can dodge most attacks and whom can perform powerful attacks themselves.

Basically you'll need to utilize the scissors,paper,rock system,for example highly leveled knights can withstand a lot of melee attacks but they have shorter attack range.Mages can inflict big damage to knights when they use their magic and can attack units from a further distance away but mages have weaker armor making them vulnerable to melee attacks.Archers are effective against flying enemies but whether they're effective or not against ground units depends on how highly they're leveled and how well they're equipped.The units who can transform into beasts are interesting because they can perform extremely powerful attacks and can have great defensive stats and be great and dodging enemy attacks but there isn't many of these types of units to keep things balanced,and as the story says,some of them are from races that are nearly extinct.

To make things more interesting,your weapons can break,even your spells can break and transformation stones which units that can transform into powerful beasts use can break too.They break after you use them a certain number of times(I think they can break earlier too)which encourages you to utilize as many units as you can even more.You can get around this by buying and equipping numerous weapons,spells,beast stones for your units but it will be expensive and in the game you need to be careful with money because there's limited chances to find money,just like there's limited chances to level up,so you'll want to do as many side story quests and optional missions as you can to get more money,to get more XP and to find more weapons.

There's over 20 side story quests and they allow you to find new and helpful party members and they aren't directly related to the main story but relate to certain characters who need to be rescued or helped during missions and if you rescue these characters they can be helpful and powerful party members(at least one of them is someone who can transform into a dragon)but if you don't rescue them they don't become part of your party or if they get killed before you complete the mission you can't use them,even if you have permadeath off.

That brings me to my next point,the player can choose whether to have permadeath on or not and this means players who want to sit back and relax and enjoy the story and game play without the stress of worrying about losing party members can enjoy the game and people who want a more hardcore experience and the emotional experience of worrying about losing party members can enjoy the game too.

To create romance you'll need to raise the relationship level of two characters whom are romantically compatible whom are of the opposite sex to level S(prior levels will be C,B,A)and that means sometimes you'll need to pair up the two characters in battle by making the characters help each other or do team attacks in battle or you can pair them up(which is the same thing as when you make a character hide behind another character)and there is times when you can talk to a potential romantic partner outside of battle to increase the relationship level.The benefits of creating romance besides battlefield stat boosts when the characters stand next to each other is some romantic couples can create children who can be valuable party members.However,the way love stories build up is charming because of the flirting and humor and that's reward enough and you can choose to make two characters fall in love and get married even if they can't make children because you want to see them together.The scenes that show romance building up/happening are short and there's only a few of them but there is a surprise for you after you beat the game if you make characters get married and have kids,especially if the character you create gets married and has kids.Basically I like how the game play doesn't just focus on winning but trying to create romance for fun.Like I said,the game has character profiles that shows which characters the characters are married to and who are their parents/children.

But you can make characters relationship levels grow in terms of their friendship level and even characters who are friends will give each other stat boosts so it's beneficial to increase friendship levels as well as create romance and make children.

I don't like to play games in multiplayer so I have no opinion of Fire Emblem Awakening's multiplayer.

The game has beautiful art styles for it's visuals,there is scenes that look like they're from an anime and the battle scenes have 3D models and both have a lovely use of colors.You'll see things such as beautiful waterfalls and lush green grassy plains and scenes that have a more hazy atmosphere with lighter colors.The 3D feature works well with thie game and it makes the characters look like they're real 3D objects,even for the anime scenes.

The music is quite beautiful too and has a nice orchestrated sound to it.

Overall,Fire Emblem is one of the best JRPGs I've played in the last few years and is a must for 3DS owners.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"ZanarkandTidus reviewed Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS..." was posted by ZanarkandTidus on Sun, 21 Apr 2013 06:25:04 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/fire-emblem-awakening/user-reviews/810504/platform/3ds/ Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:04:46 -0700 naju890_963 reviewed Killzone for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/killzone/user-reviews/810217/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

Killzone is your typical Sci-fi FPS series, nowadays the 2nd and 3rd game in the franchise are very popular on the PS3. But let's take a look at the first game in the franchise, Killzone. Killzone is set during a Helghast invasion on earth. Helghast are basically the main baddies of the franchise. They wear their signature helmet which makes their eyes glow red. Basically Helghast are invading earth and the ISA, earth's defense force must save the day. I can't say much about the plot as it's pretty generic and uninspired.

Killzone takes itself very seriously and that's one of the things that I personally dislike about it. The setting and story are too boring to be taken seriously and therefore isn't fun to experience. Comparing KZ1 to shooters of this era is a bit unfair so I'll be going a little bit soft on it, so to speak. KZ is pretty standard when it comes to content. It packs a single player campaign that lasts around 10-12 hours which is pretty average for shooters these days. It also features a Multiplayer mode which is quite barebones when compared to today's robust multiplayer shooters.

Now let's talk about the campaign. First you'll be greeted by a character select screen. For now you'll be only able to choose one character but the others will be unlocked throughout the campaign. The only thing that differentiates these characters from each other are the weapons that they use. There are also a lot of cutscenes scattered throughout the campaign missions backed up by some solid voice acting. But as I said before, Killzone takes it self too seriously and personally I found these cutscenes to be quite boring. The controls are very problematic, they feel heavy and trying to aim can be annoying. This could be intentional. Lots of "realistic" military shooters like to incorporate these type of controls which feel a bit more realistic. While these type of controls work on games like battlefield, sadly they feel like crap on Killzone. Now let's talk about another important factor in an FPS game, the levels. KZ tries it's best to be a gritty realistic shooter and it definitely shows. While I would normally be against visuals like these, I have to honestly say that these type of visuals fit KZ perfectly. As I said before as a game that wants to be taken seriously, gritty visuals are a no brainier. But sadly everything looks drab and boring, level's aren't any fun to explore as everything looks the same.

Oddly enough, even with all these problems, I can't deny that KZ can be very fun at times. I don't know if it's the way that the Helghast collapse when shot or how the weapons feel but there is something very satisfying. Speaking about the weapons, they are standard fare and fun to use most of the time. Both factions (ISA and Helghast) have their own set of weapons. Most of the time I found myself sticking to one assault rifle because most of them feel similar. Level design isn't bad for the most part but in some levels I found myself lost because I couldn't tell which way I should be going. It could be better but the basic design gets the job done. The AI could use some tuning for both friendly and enemy. They both suffer from the typical AI problems, like getting stuck or being dumb in general. From time to time my squad AI would actually do some work.

This one thing annoyed me throughout the course of my playthrough, the frame rate. It's plan awful. It's choppy as hell and frame drops are very common. Now I'm not saying that Killzone is unplayable, no. It normally holds up but in moments when a lot of things are going on the frame rate just drops very low. I understand that the PS2 isn't the most advanced system of all time but they still could have done better. Also I already talked about the artistic style and how drab it looks but I haven't touched on the technical side of things. I guess it looks quite good for a PS2 game, character models look decent, same for the gun models.

What about the multiplayer. Well unfortunately the official servers were closed down long ago so Online play is cut off. Their's still offline multiplayer though. You can either play on your own with bots or with a friend. It's very barebones and it's what you expect out of a 2004 FPS. If you enjoyed the core gameplay in the singleplayer than you will most likely enjoy the multiplayer aswell. All in all Killzone is a decent at best shooter, I won't recommend this for anyone who's looking for your average FPS, there are much better offerings on the market today. But for those who are fans of the series, I'd give it a shot.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"naju890_963 reviewed Killzone for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by naju890_963 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:04:46 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/killzone/user-reviews/810217/platform/ps2/ Thu, 11 Apr 2013 06:44:21 -0700 ZanarkandTidus reviewed Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/another-code-r-a-journey-into-lost-memories/user-reviews/810103/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Another Code:R-A Journey into Lost Memories,which I'll abbreviate as ACR is a sequel to a well-received title named Another Code:Two memories.ACR is much like a murder mystery story presented like a visual novel and it has puzzles and point and click game play too.If you've played Another Code:Two memories you'll probably feel more emotionally attached to the story,but if not you can easily pick up story events from the first Another Code game and still be able to get into ACR's story quite easily,I have played the first Another Code game but I didn't finish it but I had no problem getting into ACR's story.

Anyways,first I'll talk about ACR's story.It takes place 3 years after the events in Another Code:Two memories and Ashley has become distant from her father and has gone to visit him in a town called 'Lake Juliet'.She begins suffering flashbacks that seem to be related to around the time her mother died 13 years ago when she was only 3 years old.Weird things begin happening to her after she arrives in the town(I won't say what they are),and she discovers people in the town have gone missing and people in the town are acting very strange,even her own father.

She and her friend Matt(who's father disappeared under strange circumstances)will try to find clues as to why Ashley's mother was killed 13 years ago,and as to why Matt's father disappeared and as to why people in the town are acting weird and why bizarre things keep happening.The way the story is presented creates a lot of suspense and I like it how often when Ashely makes an important story discovery it will create a lot more questions/mysteries than answers and slowly Ashley will need to discover information by traveling around the town,sneaking into restricted places,searching for items that might hold clues and talking to people so she can discover why her mother was killed.

It's obvious from the start of the game the story is going to have science fiction in it and it uses science fiction quite well.Ashley's personality has a good amount of realism because she acts like how you'd expect many 16-year old girls to act,her personality isn't flawless and she can complain a lot but at the same time the story does a good job of showing you it's not all her fault.The story has some emotional moments and surprising revelations which fit into the story well and I found it's story captivating.Besides Ashely and Matt and her father there's other interesting or likable characters to meet.

As for the game play,most of the time you'll be reading dialogue and watching the story.Sometimes you'll need to solve a puzzle which will mean you'll need to move the Wii remote in certain ways and in certain sequences and at first doing so felt satisfying because it felt like I was really interacting with the environment but after a while it loses it's appeal and perhaps more variety of puzzles could have been used.Also the motion controls aren't responsive sometimes and it makes doing puzzles harder than it needs to be.

Sometimes you'll need to travel around the town and you can automatically go to another area by simply clicking on an arrow which is a feature I like.Sometimes you'll need to use point and click style game play and touch and search environmental objects for items that are needed for puzzles or for clues to the story.At times interacting with environmental objects such as opening drawers and and reading letters or digital data can be interesting because you'll never know what discoveries you'll find,not just in relation to Ashely's mother or her father's occupation but also to the weird and crazy things happening in the town.

However,this is not a game for everyone,as the game play is simplistic and like I've said,most of the game involves watching the story.The puzzles don't require much thought either.

This is a game for people who want to be presented with a great story.

The art style for the game is lovely and it has some nice environments with a lake in the background and trees and resort style cabins and seeing these things relaxed me.Also you'll constantly hear waves from the lake and it's very relaxing to hear.The flashbacks are presented in a hazy way to give them more effect.I like the detail with some of the environments such as people's home's are filled with personal items and restricted looking areas have signs indicating so and high tech lock systems which Ashley's TAS can open as well as high tech science style labs to explore/search as well as caves.Ashley will end up exploring/searching many types of environments,many are nothing unusual such as houses and cabins but some of them are quite adventurous/futuristic and it makes her mission to find out who killed her mother feel quite an adventure.There's also times you'll see beautiful sunsets in the background.

However,the characters are mute and sometimes during long dialogue it would be nice if I could hear their voices to add a bit of atmosphere but at the same time at least the character's great and sometimes fairly unique personalities weren't put at risk by bad voice acting.Also,not having overpowering music and voice acting means you can hear the waves in the lake and it gives a nice peaceful feel to the town.

Overall,I found this game to be a great experience but it's suited for people who can watch story scenes for a long time and isn't for everyone.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/another-code-r-a-journey-into-lost-memories/user-reviews/810103/platform/wii/ Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:37:57 -0700 clock0 reviewed Temple Run: Oz for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/temple-run-oz/user-reviews/809547/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

This game is a great game in the temple run series.It has all new stages and powerups.If you liked temple run 2 then you will really enjoy this game.This game is 0.99$ in the app store this is worth buying because it is fun and it will get you going for awhile.This game is the better then temple run 2 because it has better powerups and new and better improved techniques.This is like temple run brave but even more better.This is basically a 2nd version of temple run 2.If you are a big temple run fan then b all means you should really buy this game.Though in this game you can only use one character.This has 2 stages to play at. 1.The woods 2.The Dark forest.This is the best temple run game as of now.If you liked the first 3 Temple Runs then you will for sure like this version of temple run.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"clock0 reviewed Temple Run: Oz for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by clock0 on Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:37:57 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/temple-run-oz/user-reviews/809547/platform/iphone/ Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:30:46 -0700 naju890_963 reviewed Crysis 2 for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/crysis-2/user-reviews/809444/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Games made by Crytek are infamous for their jaw dropping graphics and Crysis 2 doesn't disappoint in that regard. But Crytek games are not all about graphics, Crysis 2 has a fun but short singleplayer campaign which tells the story of Alcatraz were he fights the CELL corporation and the Ceph. A race of aliens which was explored in the other entry in the series, Crysis. Crysis 2 also features a multiplayer mode, which left me a bit disappointed but more on that later.

Crysis 2 picks up were Crysis left off. This time the suit is given to Alcatraz a soldier that has been reduced to a bloody pulp. He's kept alive thanks to the suit. Later in the story, more characters are introduced and more enemies roll out. It's interesting enough to keep you going along. It's recommended that you play the original Crysis if you want to get the full backstory that is. The nanosuit is a very important gameplay element. It allows Alcatraz to survive ridiculous amounts of damage and gives him the key to several abilities. The two main abilities the suit houses are the "Armor" and "Cloak" abilities. The armor ability gives the player an extra layer of protection against damage and can help in desperate situations or for straight up rushing, while the cloak ability makes the player invisible which helps a lot for stealth gameplay. While using this cloak ability, the player will be exposed if he chooses to attack. Keep in mind that when using these abilities they will be draining from the suit energy. This is necessary to balance out gameplay. You can really feel that Alcatraz is helpless without his suit because when he is out of suit energy, he can barely run and can die easily.

Apart from those two major suit abilities there are also a variety of more passive abilities that can be unlocked with currency dropped by the ceph. These abilities aren't essential but they do help at times. The AI is surprisingly good. Enemies are often hard to hit and can often outsmart the player. There is also a weapon customization system which works well but I often forgot about it during gameplay. Weapons are fairly standard and nothing special but they do get the job done. A big change from the original is the level design. Crysis used to have more open world levels, were you could formulate your own path to the objective. On the other hand Crysis 2 is a much more linear game. I personally find the linear level design to be better as it shows the player what the developer really wanted out of the level. Like most FPS campaigns these days, Crysis 2 has a lot of set-pieces. These set-pieces love to show what the Cry Engine can do. But that's really what set pieces are all about, they look really cool though. There are also a couple of collectables scattered about in the game's levels, they're fairly standard and their sole purpose for being there is probably for the achievements.

Graphically Crysis 2 looks amazing. I didn't really have to say that, it speaks for itself really. I was surprised that the console versions looked pretty good and played at a decent framerate. As for sound design the same can be said. As I said before Crysis 2 also features a multiplayer mode. Basically it plays it safe by incorporating the CoD formula into it's multiplayer. It has the usual class system, challenges, prestige modes and the usual multiplayer modes. I hate how every FPS has to do this. I played atleast 5 hours of the multiplayer and I got bored out of my mind because I experienced the same type of multiplayer on plenty of other shooters. The only thing that Crysis implements In it's multiplayer to try and differentiate itself from the other countless CoD knockoffs is the power system. But this barely changes anything. At the end of the day you're still gaining XP to unlock new weapons, perks and other multiplayer stuff.

I had my share of fun playing Crysis 2, the campaign while short had it's moments and the good pacing made it even more enjoyable. While the multiplayer is a shameless CoD ripoff, it is fun for those who still enjoy multiplayer shooters but it's nothing to write home about.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"naju890_963 reviewed Crysis 2 for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by naju890_963 on Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:30:46 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/crysis-2/user-reviews/809444/platform/ps3/ Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:14:16 -0700 naju890_963 reviewed Altered Beast for the Genesis... http://www.gamespot.com/altered-beast/user-reviews/809218/platform/genesis/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Altered Beast was originally an arcade game which was ported over to several home consoles including the Sega Master System, Famicom, ZX Spectrum and obviously the Sega Genesis. By far the best home console version was for the Genesis. This was one of the many reasons why gamers loved Altered Beast at first because it had shown the potential that lies in the Genesis. It was also a pack in with early Genesis models so it's rather easy to find and cheap to purchase in cart form nowadays.

You're basically controlling a warrior that has been resurrected by Zeus and commands him to save his daughter and defeat the evil Neff. It's a pretty barebones plot but what do you expect from an arcade game. The story is not the only thing that's barebones in this game. The gameplay is very shallow offering no depth at all and can get very tedious after playing for a few hours. The gimmick that Altered Beast boasts is the beast transformations. By collecting orbs from dead wolves, your character will get stronger and stronger until he eventually transforms into the designated beast for the level. As I said each level has it's own beast.

Their are five beasts to transform into. A werewolf, dragon, bear, tiger and a golden wolf. They don't differ from each other that much but they are great fun
when experienced for the first time. Although these transformations help the flow of the gameplay it still feels weary after a while and the light platforming doesn't help either. The bosses aren't very challenging especially the final boss which is a complete joke. Graphically it looks the best out of the console versions and it looks quite good for a game this old. The soundtrack is decent aswell and some tunes match the style of the game greatly.

It's a worthy pickup for any Sega fan or collector but don't expect any complex level designs or anything like that. At it's core, Altered Beast is a drony side scrolling beat em up with a gimmicky transformation system that makes the game worth a try. This can be easily found in most Sega compilations and it's also very easy to find for the original system too.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"naju890_963 reviewed Altered Beast for the Genesis..." was posted by naju890_963 on Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:14:16 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/altered-beast/user-reviews/809218/platform/genesis/ Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:10:40 -0700 ZanarkandTidus reviewed Journey for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/journey/user-reviews/808641/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Journey is a truly spiritual experience.

You play as a mysterious hooded character in a mysterious but beautiful world.In the world you'll see ruins and remnants of civilizations but the story doesn't make it clear what happened to the people in the world nor does it make it clear why your character is there or who your character actually is but I like how it does this because it makes you think and observe and use your imagination as to why the world is how it is,you'll be given clues with story scenes and from what you'll see in some of the environments but the story scenes don't use any understandable language.

With this game,the first two things you'll probably notice are it's visuals and it's music.

The world has beautiful artistic effects and much of the visuals are made to be abstract and not focus on realism which allows for the sand dunes and the way your character looks in their red-colored robe and the way some of the environmental objects look to have some beautiful artistic effects.The way the yellowy/brown sand dunes combine with the beige-colored sky is quite stunning and the way the sunlight shines over objects is quite beautiful.The game does use realism for certain environmental objects and it creates a beautiful mix of art style and realism.Besides just desert landscapes you'll also be in snowy environments as well as in other types of places but I don't want to spoil the surprise.

As for the actual gameplay,you basically need to reach a certain points in the environments,however the point you need to reach is often up high or has obstacles in the form of light platforming puzzles before you get to it.Your character can touch scarfs in the environments which gives your character the ability to float up high(to a certain height)and your character always has the ability to glide through the air but your character can only float as long as they have power in their scarf which is indicated by the scarf your character is carrying having color to it.Certain environmental objects you need to use as platforms are too high for your character to float onto with one use of a scarf which means you'll need to look for other objects you can use as platforms so you can reach the place you need to go or sometimes you'll need to look for certain environmental objects which act like switches to construct bridges or make certain things happen in the environment so you can progress to where you need to go.

Sometimes you'll glide through the air and will touch scarfs which will allow you to float up again and sometimes you'll need to use certain flying creatures as platforms(fast moving,flying platforms)as a means to get to somewhere where you can't float to.

Part of the adventure in the game comes from finding where you need to go and how to get there because the environments are in 3D and even though they're not huge they still have enough space and sparsely placed objects which could be possible platforms/passageways to make you think how to get to where you're supposed to be going.

You cannot die in the game but I don't think the game needs a death penalty,if you fall when you're up very high you'll need to redo lots of work and I think that is penalty enough.Creatures in the game can attack you but when they attack you it just knocks you back a distance and makes you try to get past them again.

The environments can encourage you to explore,not only because they're so beautiful and full of mystery but finding certain items/symbols/creatures can get you trophies.

I'm not a big fan of online gaming but I like the way Journey incorporates the online gameplay.During the game you'll encounter other online players and they cannot send you messages or verbally communicate with you(there PSN name and your PSN name won't even show up on players met until you beat the game) and you don't know if they're trying to help you by leading you on the right path or if they're just exploring the environments and perhaps searching for hidden items for trophies.I think this makes it a more spiritual experience because even though you won't be alone for much of your journey because you'll see other online players,in many ways you are alone because you can't verbally or linguistically communicate with them.Another reason I like this feature is you don't have to listen to or read angry/rude comments from online players.I know people have the option of turning off message displays and turning down in-game chat volume when they play games online but it doesn't stop you from receiving hate mail and I'd like it if more online multiplayer games gave you the option of hiding your PSN from other players.

There's also times when your character will need to avoid powerful wind gusts which blow your character back by making use of environmental objects to avoid the powerful wind gusts.In the snow your scarf's energy will get drained quickly so you'll need to make more efficient use of it.I like it how in a thick snowstorm your character will begin to freeze and move slowly and there is more details I could give as to why it's emotionally draining but I don't want to spoil that experience for you.There is times when you'll slide down vertical slides made from sand/snow while trying to dodge obstacles and it's fast paced and epic.There is gameplay segments when you'll float in the air and will need to move quickly to a certain area and you'll need to make use of scarfs that are high in the air and it can provide quite a rush.

The game can be beaten in only 2 hours but it's trophies provide replay value such as searching for hidden things or playing through most of the game with the same online companion or playing the game after you haven't played it for a week.The game is a cheap price anyways.

The music is very beautiful and adds to the spiritual feel of the game.

Overall,Journey is a spiritual and emotional experience that was felt by my soul and it spirituality and gameplay blend magnificently.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"ZanarkandTidus reviewed Journey for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by ZanarkandTidus on Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:10:40 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/journey/user-reviews/808641/platform/ps3/ Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:41:21 -0800 clock0 reviewed Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for iPad for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/ultimate-mortal-kombat-3-for-ipad/user-reviews/808588/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

Mortal kombat 3 in your hands is a very great idea for true mortal kombat fans.If you like Mortal kombat 3 then you will love this game and you will love it even more now that you know you can play it on the go.This is not the best Mortal kombat game but this is a very great mortal kombat game now in your hands.I would prefer this over Mortal kombat advanced on the Gameboy advanced.This game is touch controls so the controls might be frustrating to some people but im not complaining about it.This game has a decent amount of characters and a nice list of fatalites.This game allows you to play mortal kombat 3 anywhere and at anytime.This is a nice classic on the go.If you played Mortal kombat in the past then this game will bring you down memory lane.Score 7.0 out of 10.Thanks for reading my review of Mortal Kombat 3 on the iPad,iPhone and iPod touch.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"clock0 reviewed Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for iPad for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by clock0 on Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:41:21 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/ultimate-mortal-kombat-3-for-ipad/user-reviews/808588/platform/iphone/ Wed, 06 Mar 2013 02:51:41 -0800 ZanarkandTidus reviewed Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/ni-no-kuni-wrath-of-the-white-witch/user-reviews/808335/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Ni No Kuni brings many of the things that old school JRPG fans love as well as giving us a creative real-time battle system which I find fun to use and quite tactical.

Ni No Kuni's story takes place in two different worlds,one of them is a world that resembles a 1950ish version of our world and when you're in this 1950's style world you'll be in a quaint little town called 'Motorville' and the other world is a fantasy world named 'Ni No Kuni' that's parallel to the world you begin in.

Much of the story is presented with anime scenes that look like they're from a studio Ghibli anime film and it works wonderfully well to make Oliver and his mother feel like they're real people with the types of lives/problems normal everyday people have.

The story is about how a 13-year-old boy named Oliver whom he and another boy were playing around with a motorized vehicle one night and Oliver ends up in the lake and Oliver's mother discovers Oliver isn't at home like he's supposed to be,she goes searching for him and sees him drowning so she goes into the lake and saves Oliver and everything seems well OK but Oliver's mother suddenly dies after this because she has a weak heart.

Oliver is obviously devastated about losing his mother and he feels guilty,however a strange doll Oliver's mother gave to him comes to life and it tells Oliver there's a way to bring his mother back if they travel to Ni No Kuni and find a person who shares their soul with Oliver's mother.

Oliver jumps at the opportunity that could bring his mother back.Meanwhile,a mysterious person has been watching Oliver and is happy Oliver has entered Ni No Kuni and I like how the story makes you guess at who this person is,it makes you guess are they good or evil? is this person the white witch like the title suggests?

The story becomes more than about Oliver trying to bring his mother back of course because like in most RPGs he'll find himself in a situation where him and a group of characters he's with will need to try to save the world(Ni No Kuni)as well as help people in the world he comes from(I won't say why because it's a spoiler)but the story scenes that are related to it are quite emotional and surprising.

The doll accompanies Oliver on his journey and the doll's name is Drippy and Drippy is quite a charming character and knows all about Ni No Kuni.Drippy is a party member but you cannot control him in battle and he cannot damage enemies(although he tries to attack them)but he occasionally casts healing spells when your party members are low in HP.The other characters who join Oliver include a blonde-haired girl who's around Oliver's age named Esther and a man who's a thief but who acts like a sailor named Swaine as well as a prince.You'll meet some other characters who are friends but whom won't join your party or who will join your party but won't fight in battle.

Of course the story will slowly reveal who the bad guys are and what their motives are and it does a good job of revealing it slowly and pacing it with the main plot/side stories.

The story has more than one love story and they're presented in a charming way and one of them is quite emotional too and the story has some good moral lessons as to why we can't have everything we want and the story also has a darker side and isn't always charming and Oliver will need to learn how to use magic and learn how to use it well enough to defeat powerful bad guys.

What makes the story enjoyable isn't just because of what it's about,but it's how it's presented with charming dialogue and
story scenes as well as emotional story scenes,like I've said the studio Ghilbi animated story scenes give the story more feeling to it and make you care about Oliver and his mother and combine that with interesting/heart felt side stories and a touch of mystery and it makes for an enjoyable story experience.

The battle system allows you to use creatures referred to as 'familiars' which you catch or are given to you that you can level up and equip with weapons and armor and you can also use your human party members whom have certain advantage/disadvantages compared with familiars,for example Oliver and Esther can cast spells that are very powerful and more so than those of the familiars but Oliver and Esther can be Koed much more easily than a familiar can.On the other hand,the familiars when leveled up highly and when equipped with good armor can withstand a lot more punishment than human characters and with the exception of Swaine in some instances many familiars are capable of doing much more physical damage than Oliver and Esther can and when they perform basic attacks it doesn't require any MP and for long boss battles where it's possible to run out of MP and it makes utilizing them in battle quite important.

Since the battle system is real-time,you control one character and the AI controls the rest.The AI is good for the most part although it does make some silly decisions at times such as when even I tell my AI controlled party members to use all out defense(meaning I want it to defend and heal)it won't heal my characters when they're low on HP.When I tell the AI to all out attack they do as asked without any problems but the all out attack or all out defense orders last for a temporary period and when you haven't ordered them to all out attack/defend the AI can make some pretty bad decisions,especially when my party members have lots of HP but they won't focus on being aggressive.

I understand the AI isn't supposed to do everything for me and I appreciate the fact it usually lets using buffs or attack spells for me to do,but it would be nice if the AI members would cast a healing spell when my party members are low on HP so I don't have to switch to the character and manually do it myself.

The all out attack and all out defend commands can be done with the press of a button and it's a nice feature because you're switching between all out attack and all out defense regularly it can make the boss battles become intense as you see them charging up a powerful attack and you switch to all out defense so they defend(block)the attack and usually focus on healing.And knowing when to take a risk and use all out attack can make battles tense as some bosses can inflict a lot of damage to all your party members with one attack if you're not defending.

You can manually make a character defend by choosing the defend command.As you would expect,there's commands for attack(basic attack)defend,spells.Some spells damage every enemy,some spells allow you to summon and often you'll be switching between characters/familiars so you can make use of the best spell for a situation and it makes the battles feel epic.Of course there's a command that allows you to use items.

Even though the battles are in real-time,there's a timer for how much time a party member has to attack or for how long they can defend.You can cancel commands such as attack commands which is useful,for example if one of your party members is in the middle of an attack command and you see an enemy charging up a powerful attack you can cancel their attack command and instruct them to defend.

You can have 3 human party members and each human party member can have 3 familiars with them,so technically you can use 9 different party members in a battle.You can also bring 3 reserve familiars with you and you can switch a 4th human party member(who also can bring 3 familiars with them) with another human party member.So technically your party will consist of 19 party members,9 of which you can use in a single battle.

There's hundreds of familiars that you can catch and they have a wide range of advantages/disadvantages,for example familiars from the volcanic area are vulnerable to ice magic.Some familiars have powerful attacks but move around slowly(and keep in mind it's possible for them to miss with an attack if the enemy moves and some enemies move around a lot)and some familiars have great healing abilities but are not good with physical attacking.

In battle,your party members and enemies can run around a battle area and like I said it's possible to run out of the way of certain attacks/spells but doing so means you cannot attack the enemy either.

I've mentioned how Ni No Kuni brings many of the things that old school JRPG fans love,well this includes a world map with diverse regions,towns to visit,towns people you can talk to and whom you can so quests for.The game has lots of side quests (over 100)and 40 or so creature hunts to do.The side quests can be simple errands but can be also defeating secret and powerful bosses.You can also learn new spells which aren't side quests but still something to discover.There's also alchemy so you can create useful items without having to buy them.

The game's difficulty level can spike up quite a bit at times,the enemies are easy for the first 10-15 hours but then you can face some enemies/bosses who can do lots of damage to your party,even if you do lots of level grinding.

For a bit of variation there's even environments in which you travel around in 2D style but it's quite charming and there's only a small amount of it.

You can also return to Motorville during most times in the game by casting a spell that will instantly take you there and it's nice being able to switch between a 1950's version of our world and a fantasy world,even though Motorville doesn't have much to explore but you can still go inside some of it's buildings where as Ni No Kuni is huge and has lots to explore and sometimes you'll be required to return to Motorville for some quests/story moments.

You can also use magic outside of battle and sometimes you will need to for puzzles in dungeons or to make people help you(you can take courage,enthusiasm from certain people and give it to another person who you want to do something for you).

The art style for the game is lovely.Motorville has a nice 1950 style look with 1950 style cars driving past.I like the town in the snowy region in Ni No Kuni called Yule that has people wearing fur coats and living in igloos and having fires inside their igloo(sometimes they're cooking things in pots).Hamlet is an industrial style city with a yellowish sky and it blends well together.Of course there's the more traditional little towns you'd see in a fantasy world and they have nice details such as watermills or people's homes.There's also arabian style villages.There's also some Sci Fi style environments too.I love the tropical village named Castaway cove and I love how some of the forest areas have autumn colored leaves.

I love when you see Ni No Kuni from above when you're riding the dragon because you're not too high up like when you're on an airship so the world below still looks fairly big and detailed and you can see sand dunes in the desert or high snowy mountains or the autumn style leaves or tropical areas.

I also love the aurora style sky effect when you're in Yule.

For some of the story scenes,there's some nice story book style scenes that use hand style coloring and it goes well for one of the love stories in the game and the music for these scenes is quite charming and especially suits the love story scene.

I like how the localized version of the game still offers Japanese voice overs(which I usually prefer)but with English subtitles.The music for the game suits the environments/story moments quite well(is delicate when it needs to be,charming when you want more of a lighthearted feel).

Overall,if you've been turned off JRPGs during the 7th gen,perhaps you'd want to give Ni No Kuni a try because it brings back many of the things old school JRPGs love such as charming dialogue/story/art style as well as a story you care about that's easy to get into without the intense Sci Fi,religious,political stuff that many other 7th gen JRPGs use.Ni No Kuni reminds me of the SNES/Playstation One JRPGs because of it's charm and JRPG fans should at least give Ni No Kuni a try,it's easily one of the best JRPGs of the 7th generation and can hold it's own against the best JRPGs of past generations.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/ni-no-kuni-wrath-of-the-white-witch/user-reviews/808335/platform/ps3/ Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:31:30 -0800 JokerPRO10 reviewed Assassin's Creed III for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-iii/user-reviews/808058/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

No Doubt that Assassin's Creed III compared to Assassin's Creed II [Which is my most favorite game of this generation] is a huge disappointment, since AC2 delivered a sequel that improved a lot of the mechanics of AC1, same was expected for AC3 to overcome AC2.

Sadly it didn't happen with this game, AC3 continues right after the ending of AC Revelations, And promises to end Desmond's Storyline, it does that only the ending itself is executed in the worst way possible! This time Desmond's Sections of the game include its own levels in Modern Day Era, there are 3 levels that are playable with Desmond only and while they are heavily scripted it was nice to see a change of scenery from the Italian Renaissance and the 18th Century America, the level design in these particular levels are very well done! However Something that is not well done is the facial animations of the Modern Day gang, they look Completely Different from the past 3 games, and Desmond himself looks the worst!

This time around there's a new protagonist and a new era, Connor is a decent character but compared to Ezio he is really bland and boring. The New setting which is Colonial America is interesting and perhaps even Highly accurate but its not fitting the AC franchise since all of the houses are small compared to the huge buildings of Rome and Venezia, which is a shame since the Free Running mechanic in this game is the best in the series! Combat is slightly different this time, unlike in the previous games where most of the times you will be using a hidden blade this time you will be using an axe and a pistol, its not drastically different but its a good change of pace since the previous games.

AC3 followed the tradition of including multiple Cities/Locations this time, as a full pledged sequel. [Since AC1 had multiple locations, and AC2 also Had multiple locations] This time you will be visiting Boston and New York with the addition of the Huge Frontier and Davenport Homestead. Frontier is particularly interesting since this time you can hunt for different animals, killing them with bows or the hidden blade will grant you their skin and sometimes even more, however shooting them will only give you a damaged pelt.

The game is visually stunning however there are a lot of visual glitches which shows that the current gen of gaming start to show its age, Probably the best looking aspect of the game is the new Naval Warfare feature, which lets you control a ship and storm the Carribean and the Atlantic seas! Its a welcome addition to the series and probably the closest you will get to feeling like pirate in a video game.

AC3 in my opinion is a huge letdown, despite the combat and the free running being the best in the series the game feels rushed and the ending is extremely disappointing, there are too many bugs both visual and technical. MP is better than ever but only for those who like it!

I Give this game a 8/10!

Get the full article at GameSpot

"JokerPRO10 reviewed Assassin's Creed III for the Xbox 360..." was posted by JokerPRO10 on Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:31:30 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-iii/user-reviews/808058/platform/xbox360/ Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:47:57 -0800 ZanarkandTidus reviewed Chrono Trigger for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/chrono-trigger/user-reviews/807796/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Chrono Trigger is a timeless classic,released back in 1995,developed by Square and the likes of Sakaguchi(Final Fantasy creator who wrote the story for many popular Final Fantasy games),Kitase(director of the development of many Final Fantasy games),Toriyama(Dragon Ball Z artist)were involved with the development of this game.

What makes this game such a compelling experience is the way it's story is presented and what it's story is about.It begins in the year 1000 AD and the protagonist named Crono and his friend Lucca are at a carnival and they meet a girl named Marle.Marle volunteers to be teleported using some machine Lucca and her father invented but instead she is transported through time because the teleporter interacts with a pendant Marle was wearing.

Crono and Lucca go through a time portal to find Marle and discover Marle's presence in 600 AD lead to changes in the timeline(I won't say why)and time paradoxes are created and Crono,Lucca,Marle and other characters they meet go on a journey to correct these time paradoxes to restore history to normal and to also save their world from disasters.

The story might not sound like much but it's the way the story is presented that makes it a fabulous experience.You'll travel to distant regions in time,such as far in the future where much of the world is a frozen wasteland and robots and high tech stuff exist and you'll travel more than 60 000 million years into the past in a time where that's dinosaurs and you'll travel to medieval time periods which has knights and castles.

It's not just the fact you travel far into the past or future,but it's the way the group interact with people who are in the future or far in the past and the events that are happening far in the future or past that make the story interesting,the time paradoxes can create some very weird alternative timelines and I like it how when you're 65 million years in the past the human character you meet(Alya)looks,acts and talks like a primitive human.One of your party members is a talking humanoid frog from the medieval period and he talks like he is from that period too and some of your party members will consist of robots or the scientist Lucca and Marle is a cheerful character who brightens up the mood.

The story can be charming at times but at other times it can be quite serious and emotional.The story provides many different ending possibilities(including some wacky,crazy endings that relate to messed up timelines)as well as endings that are the type the player can hope for.

The story has hints of romance but personally I found the romance in the game could have been presented a bit better,especially for one of the endings,but this is the only thing about the story/game as a whole that I was a bit disappointed with,everything else for the game is great.

The battle system encourages you to experiment because besides having basic attacks,special attacks and spells(special attacks and spells are referred to 'techs' in the game)you can combine basic attacks and techs together by having multiple characters combine a basic attack/tech with your basic attack/one of your techs to make much more powerful attack and experimenting with different attack/tech combinations and finding the most effective ones can be crucial in defeating bosses.The battle system is an ATB one.

Being an old school JRPG,you'll travel a world map,travel to different towns and interact with NPCs.The fact the world and world map constantly change depending which time period you're in and how the timeline for that time period has been affect makes it feel more like an epic adventure.

There is no random battles and you can try to sneak/run past enemies which is a feature I like.

The DS version allows you to use the touch screen which makes it easier to maneuver around and easier to use the menu and the DS version has new dungeons and quests but you can play the SNES version too if you want(it's included with the DS version).

The DS version also has FMV which is a nice addition.

The visuals are charming and inside people's homes have good detail and the character designs from Toriyama look good and the visuals do a good job to provide different periods in times with very different atmospheres,for example far in the future you'll be in some frozen wasteland with high tech stuff and you'll even see computers scan the environment up close and in the medieval time period you'll be inside castles and in the present time(where you start the game)you'll experience a relaxing,carnival type atmosphere and in the past you'll see dinosaurs.Some of the environments have waterfalls or artistic views of the sun shining over the ocean in the background or beautiful mountain views from when you're high up on a mountain.There is lots of forest environments to give you the feel you're in environments with dangerous wild animals and there's dungeons of course,some of them futuristic ones with robot enemies,

I like how in the frozen wasteland you'll hear the wind blowing and for other environments you'll hear haunting music when you're traveling through the forest you'll hear music that suits the eery feeling of time paradoxes occurring or music appropriate for the theme of the environment.

Chrono Trigger is a great game,it's very well put together and even though the concept of time travel had been used many times in stories before Chrono Trigger was released,Chrono Trigger uses the concept of time travel in a very creative way and combine that traveling to vast regions in time and diverse characters from many different periods in history and add emotion and charm and a good battle system(for it's time)and old style JRPG goodness you have a great game that's a timeless classic to many people.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"ZanarkandTidus reviewed Chrono Trigger for the DS..." was posted by ZanarkandTidus on Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:47:57 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/chrono-trigger/user-reviews/807796/platform/ds/ Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:42:04 -0800 ZanarkandTidus reviewed Chrono Trigger for the SNES... http://www.gamespot.com/chrono-trigger/user-reviews/807794/platform/snes/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Chrono Trigger is a timeless classic,released back in 1995,developed by Square and the likes of Sakaguchi(Final Fantasy creator who wrote the story for many popular Final Fantasy games),Kitase(director of the development of many Final Fantasy games),Toriyama(Dragon Ball Z artist)were involved with the development of this game.

What makes this game such a compelling experience is the way it's story is presented and what it's story is about.It begins in the year 1000 AD and the protagonist named Crono and his friend Lucca are at a carnival and they meet a girl named Marle.Marle volunteers to be teleported using some machine Lucca and her father invented but instead she is transported through time because the teleporter interacts with a pendant Marle was wearing.

Crono and Lucca go through a time portal to find Marle and discover Marle's presence in 600 AD lead to changes in the timeline(I won't say why)and time paradoxes are created and Crono,Lucca,Marle and other characters they meet go on a journey to correct these time paradoxes to restore history to normal and to also save their world from disasters.

The story might not sound like much but it's the way the story is presented that makes it a fabulous experience.You'll travel to distant regions in time,such as far in the future where much of the world is a frozen wasteland and robots and high tech stuff exist and you'll travel more than 60 000 million years into the past in a time where that's dinosaurs and you'll travel to a medieval time period where there's knights and castles.

It's not just the fact you travel far into the past or future,but it's the way the group interact with people whom are in the future or far in the past and the events that are happening far in the future or past that make the story interesting,the time paradoxes can create some very weird alternative timelines and I like it how when you're 65 million years in the past the human character you meet(Alya)looks,acts and talks like a primitive human.One of your party members is a talking humanoid frog from the medieval period and he talks like he is from that period too and some of your party members will consist of robots or the scientist Lucca and Marle is a cheerful character who brightens up the mood.

The story can be charming at times but at other times it can be quite serious and emotional.The story provides many different ending possibilities(including some wacky,crazy endings that relate to messed up timelines)as well as endings that are the type the player can hope for.

The story has hints of romance but personally I found the romance in the game could have been presented a bit better,especially for one of the endings,but this is the only thing about the story/game as a whole that I was a bit disappointed with,everything else for the game is great.

The battle system encourages you to experiment because besides having basic attacks,special attacks and spells(special attacks and spells are referred to 'techs' in the game)you can combine basic attacks and techs together by having multiple characters combine a basic attack/tech with your basic attack/one of your techs to make much more powerful attack and experimenting with different attack/tech combinations and finding the most effective ones can be crucial in defeating bosses.The battle system is an ATB one.

Being an old school JRPG,you'll travel a world map,travel to different towns and interact with NPCs.The fact the world and world map constantly change depending which time period you're in and how the timeline for that time period has been affect makes it feel more like an epic adventure.

There is no random battles and you can try to sneak/run past enemies which is a feature I like.

The visuals are charming and inside people's homes have good detail and the character designs from Toriyama look good and the visuals do a good job to provide different periods in times with very different atmospheres,for example far in the future you'll be in some frozen wasteland with high tech stuff and you'll even see computers scan the environment up close and in the medieval time period you'll be inside castles and in the present time(where you start the game)you'll experience a relaxing,carnival type atmosphere and in the past you'll see dinosaurs.Some of the environments have waterfalls or artistic views of the sun shining over the ocean in the background or beautiful mountain views from when you're high up on a mountain.There is lots of forest environments to give you the feel you're in environments with dangerous wild animals and there's dungeons of course,some of them futuristic ones with robot enemies,

I like how in the frozen wasteland you'll hear the wind blowing and for other environments you'll hear haunting music when you're traveling through the forest you'll hear music that suits the eery feeling of time paradoxes occurring or music appropriate for the theme of the environment.

Chrono Trigger is a great game,it's very well put together and even though the concept of time travel had been used many times in stories before Chrono Trigger was released,Chrono Trigger uses the concept of time travel in a very creative way and combine that traveling to vast regions in time and diverse characters from many different periods in history and add emotion and charm and a good battle system(for it's time)and old style JRPG goodness you have a great game that's a timeless classic to many people.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"ZanarkandTidus reviewed Chrono Trigger for the SNES..." was posted by ZanarkandTidus on Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:42:04 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/chrono-trigger/user-reviews/807794/platform/snes/