Lucky_Krystal's GameSpot Friend's Reviews Lucky_Krystal's GameSpot Friend's Reviews Lucky_Krystal's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:20:33 -0700 GameSpot Lucky_Krystal's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:13:23 -0700 VictorReviews reviewed Let's Catch for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/lets-catch/user-reviews/812566/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Let's Catch attempts to be a unique experience. At a glance, the game is nothing more than a catching simulator, but the truth is it has its own charm, with funny moments and a heartwarming story. Still, considering the steep price (at least for a Wiiware game) is this enough to warrant a buy or are you better off buying a game with a more interesting premise? Keep reading to find out!

Gameplay:

The controls in Let's Catch are really simple. To grab the ball you press A+B and to throw it you waggle the Wii Remote. While it does take some time to get used to the game's timing, once you do, it is as easy as playing catch in real life.

The game has 6 different modes, almost all very similar. They are Story, Speed Catch, Nine Trial, Bomber Catch, High Score, and Free Play.

In Story, you play catch with other characters as they tell you about their lives.

In Speed Catch, you catch balls as they get faster and faster until you lose.

Nine Trial is about throwing balls at nine panels. The first player to hit all the panels wins. This is a precision game. This can be played with up to four different players.

Bomber Catch is a form of hot potato. Basically, players throw a bomb around until it explodes on someone. Up to four players can join in this one.

In High Score, you play catch until you lose. Your score is then recorded depending on how well you caught and threw. You can play with the AI or with another player.

Finally, Free Play is what it sounds like: just playing catch for as long as you want. It can be played solo or with another player.

All the modes felt great except for Nine Trial, because it is difficult to aim the ball and at times the way you aim seems random.

My only other complaint is that in story mode, it is a little difficult to read what the other player says while you play catch. Still, it's not that bothersome once you get used to it.

Overall, the gameplay is solid and well executed. The game plays as simply as it should.

8/10

Presentation:

This game achieves a relaxing atmosphere. The graphics are okay, and while there's not much scenery, it is understandable due to storage limitations.

The characters look cartoon-ish and mii-like, so your mii fits really well in the game's environment.

The music is really soothing and relaxing for the most part. Surprisingly, the music doesn't get annoying despite the fact that it's very limited. On the contrary, it fits really well.

Overall, this game has a good presentation, even when it is very limited.

8/10

Story:

The Story mode has you playing catch with many characters and listening about their lives and their problems. With your help, these characters will be able to reflect on their lives and make decisions.

The story was a very heartwarming experience. While it is not going to win a prize, it will entertain players, with both funny and serious moments.

7/10

Replay Value:

The different game modes make for a good replay value, especially since the game has multiplayer.

While the main story only takes around three hours to complete, the rest of the game should keep you entertained for a while, since you can always beat your high score or simply relax in Free Play.

7/10

Fun:

This game was fun most of the time. While sometimes it can be frustrating, especially in Nine Trial, the game's charm simply appealed to my senses so much that it became a very fun and relaxing experience.

People looking for something to do after a stressful day might enjoy this game a lot.

9/10

Overall:

While some may argue that this game lacks enough content to guarantee a purchase, it is still an interesting addition to the Wiiware service. People who are willing to pay what it costs will most likely be pleasantly surprised with the game, despite its lack of content.

8.1/10

Get the full article at GameSpot

"VictorReviews reviewed Let's Catch for the Wii..." was posted by VictorReviews on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:13:23 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/lets-catch/user-reviews/812566/platform/wii/ Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:06:18 -0700 ZanarkandTidus reviewed Tales of the Abyss for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/tales-of-the-abyss/user-reviews/812461/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Tales of the Abyss is one of the best 6th Gen RPGs I've played and it's good enough to have been rereleased for 3DS.

It's storytelling is great and it has a great love story and it's story in general is very heartfelt and creative and it's battle system is fun and typical of the Tales series and so is it's colorful,charming,anime-inspired visuals and it's music is beautiful and delicate at times and helps add to the heartfelt moments.

The story is about a male character with long red-hair named 'Luke' whom was mysteriously kidnapped and has lost much of his memories.After trying to defend his master from a female assassin,Luke and the female assassin named Tear get teleported to the other side of the world.The world has elements that allow people to use magic and power great machines and even see into the future and this means nations are in a race to see into the future before other nations to gain an advantage over them and being able to see in the future can help them become more prosperous because they can see new technologies and mistakes and events ahead of time and this causes a lot of political tension around the world.

There is more to the story than this and some of the story revelations are quite shocking and can contribute to some every emotional story moments and they're very creative too.Another reason the story is very emotional at times is because it's presented very delicately,especially for when the romance is building and the story is interesting from start to finish because there is so much going on in the world and because the story is creative.

The love story is quite heartfelt because it shows how the male and female will be trying to save each other and also because it's an imperfect romance in the sense the 2 people involved with tease and annoy each other but they do it because they love each other and feel comfortable together and it creates a realistic feel for the love story.

The cast of characters is quite good,the party members are quite likable and the story even shows the potential of a love triangle and the other party members besides Luke and Tear are involved in some intense and interesting story moments.

The battle system is typical of the Tales series,real-time and hack n slashy but quite fun and fast and the longer your combos are the more damage each hit on an enemy will do.Once again the artes system returns for magic use,but a new feature the battle system has is if you stand in a circle that appears on the battlefields and perform an elemental attack that corresponds to the circle it will do more damage and enemies are capable of using these elemental circles referred to as 'field of fonons' to power up their attacks too.

I like how ToTA is traditional in the sense it has towns to explore and lots of people in towns to talk with and a world mape to explore.The game uses anime scenes to give the story a more life-like effect at times and the cutscenes are quite stunning from an artistic perspective,especially when it blends with a starry night sky or sunsets and add a delicate romance scene to them it's quite something.The world has a nice blend of medieval and Sci Fi because even though you'll see castles and rural style towns and knights with swords you'll see quite a lot of futuristic buildings/structures and airships.

It would be nice if the game gave you more info on where you needed to go next for quests though because sometimes I found myself running around randomly not sure where I needed to go next/do next.

The artstyle is colorful and the world map,characters and towns have a charming visual look to them,even the futuristic environments have a nice use of color that makes them look high-tech and not too cold and lifeless but not too cutsey either.

The music is beautiful at times and it makes you feel the delicate and emotional story moments even more.

Overall,this game is not only one of the best RPGs from the 6th gen and if you like JRPGs you MUST play this game.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"ZanarkandTidus reviewed Tales of the Abyss for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by ZanarkandTidus on Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:06:18 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tales-of-the-abyss/user-reviews/812461/platform/ps2/ Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:02:31 -0700 ZanarkandTidus reviewed Tales of the Abyss for the 3DS... http://www.gamespot.com/tales-of-the-abyss/user-reviews/812460/platform/3ds/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Tales of the Abyss is one of the best 6th Gen RPGs I've played and now it's available for 3DS.

It's storytelling is great and it has a great love story and it's story in general is very heartfelt and creative and it's battle system is fun and typical of the Tales series and so is it's colorful,charming,anime-inspired visuals and it's music is beautiful and delicate at times and helps add to the heartfelt moments.

The story is about a male character with long red-hair named 'Luke' whom was mysteriously kidnapped and has lost much of his memories.After trying to defend his master from a female assassin,Luke and the female assassin named Tear get teleported to the other side of the world.The world has elements that allow people to use magic and power great machines and even see into the future and this means nations are in a race to see into the future before other nations to gain an advantage over them and being able to see in the future can help them become more prosperous because they can see new technologies and mistakes and events ahead of time and this causes a lot of political tension around the world.

There is more to the story than this and some of the story revelations are quite shocking and can contribute to some every emotional story moments and they're very creative too.Another reason the story is very emotional at times is because it's presented very delicately,especially for when the romance is building and the story is interesting from start to finish because there is so much going on in the world and because the story is creative.

The love story is quite heartfelt because it shows how the male and female will be trying to save each other and also because it's an imperfect romance in the sense the 2 people involved with tease and annoy each other but they do it because they love each other and feel comfortable together and it creates a realistic feel for the love story.

The cast of characters is quite good,the party members are quite likable and the story even shows the potential of a love triangle and the other party members besides Luke and Tear are involved in some intense and interesting story moments.

The battle system is typical of the Tales series,real-time and hack n slashy but quite fun and fast and the longer your combos are the more damage each hit on an enemy will do.Once again the artes system returns for magic use,but a new feature the battle system has is if you stand in a circle that appears on the battlefields and perform an elemental attack that corresponds to the circle it will do more damage and enemies are capable of using these elemental circles referred to as 'field of fonons' to power up their attacks too.

I like how ToTA is traditional in the sense it has towns to explore and lots of people in towns to talk with and a world mape to explore.The game uses anime scenes to give the story a more life-like effect at times and the cutscenes are quite stunning from an artistic perspective,especially when it blends with a starry night sky or sunsets and add a delicate romance scene to them it's quite something.The world has a nice blend of medieval and Sci Fi because even though you'll see castles and rural style towns and knights with swords you'll see quite a lot of futuristic buildings/structures and airships.

It would be nice if the game gave you more info on where you needed to go next for quests though because sometimes I found myself running around randomly not sure where I needed to go next/do next.

The touch screen allows you to access menus without having to press a button which is kinda nice.

The artstyle is colorful and the world map,characters and towns have a charming visual look to them,even the futuristic environments have a nice use of color that makes them look high-tech and not too cold and lifeless but not too cutsey either.

As for the 3D visual effects,the 3D effects look good in some places but in other places they don't.It's kinda nice to see this traditional style JRPG's environments pop up in front of you but in some of the environments the 3D visuals look kinda fuzzy.

The music is beautiful at times and it makes you feel the delicate and emotional story moments even more.

Overall,this game is not only one of the best RPGs from the 6th gen and now it's available for a handheld.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"ZanarkandTidus reviewed Tales of the Abyss for the 3DS..." was posted by ZanarkandTidus on Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:02:31 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tales-of-the-abyss/user-reviews/812460/platform/3ds/ Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:05:24 -0700 kbaily reviewed Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/sly-cooper-thieves-in-time/user-reviews/812458/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Sly Cooper never had the major stardom on the Playstation as Ratchet, Sackboy or Jak and for a while some of us wondered if he'd ever show up on the PS3 especially when Sucker Punch moved onto the Infamous series.

Thankfully Sansaru, who brought the Sly collection to us, wanted to pick up where Sucker Punch left off and I must say, they did a good job. The new Sly feels familiar but combined the elements from past games to make a great new adventure that I feel is the best in the series.

Picking up where "Honor Among Thieves" left off. Sly has given up his master thief life, pretending to have amnesia so he can live happily with his cop girlfriend, Carmelita Fox. Bentley is living with his girlfriend Penelope tinkering with machines and Murray is enjoying the demolition derby circuit but soon Sly finds himself itching to return to his old life and soon gets word from Bentley that pages of his family history, The Thievius Raccoonus are disappearing. Turns out a villain named Le Paradox is traveling back through time with his henchmen kidnapping Sly's ancestors and trying to ruin the Cooper family reputation as master thieves. Bentley has made his own time machine and the old team reunites to set things straight. The plot is pretty entertaining for what is essentially Assassin's Creed for kids but has all the charm of a Saturday morning cartoon. Seriously why isn't Sly a TV show? I'd watch the hell out of that. Also missed opportunity for "1.21 Gigawatts into the Flux Capacator" quote. Come on guys.

Sly's 4th outing takes the best aspects of Sly 2 and 3 and combines them. This time around Sly travels to five periods in time in attempt to find his ancestors as well as find the criminal who's gone back in time to try to change history. You enter each stage in a big open world with missions but you can waste a lot of time hunting around for bottles, treasures and masks that unlock all sorts of in game goodies as well as cash to upgrade your characters.

Along with Sly, you once again get to play as Bentley with his various computer hacking mini games, Murray, who's mission mostly boil down to mindless button mashing brawls, Carmelita who has a few third person shooting missions and each time period has a Cooper ancestor to control. With the exception of Bob the Caveman, most of them control like Sly with one extra ability. Rioichi has a shadow dash, Tenessee Kid can shoot a gun, Sir Galeth has a charge jump and Salim Al Kupar can dash up chains quickly. Only Bob feels totally different being a big lumbering caveman who can climb up ice walls.

Sly himself takes a cue from Mario donning special costumes to give him new abilities. Samurai Armor protects him from fire, the jailbird gives him a big heavy ball to attack with, the archer lets him shoot arrows and the Arabian thief was clearly inspired by "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" allowing Sly to slow down time. Sadly most of these are used a couple times in their respective time periods and aside from opening special treasure doors, you won't be using them as much as you'd hope.

Graphically they kept the colorful, cell shaded look in tact and it's nice to see an HD game do something besides gray and brown realism. Though there were a few times when I was detected by enemies and got chased that slowdown got real bad. I also will say this fourth installment had the best voice acting as well. They found a voice actress for Carmelita that can actually emote and Sly's relatives are a lot of fun.

If I had a complaint, it's that the game is overly easy. You're better off sneaking up on enemies to attack then trying to combat them head on. Boss fights boil down to watching patterns. Checkpoints are often making death more of a quick detour then a penalty and the final boss fight boiled down to nothing more than a series of quick time events. The hardest bits come with the few times the game decided to implement sixaxis controls because Sansaru forgot it's no longer 2006 making Bentley's one hacking game extremely frustrating.

But overall the game is a solid experience. You can spend a lot of time going back to find all the extra goodies and the ending leaves it open for a sequel. It released at a cheap $40 and probably cheaper now so it's worth picking up.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"kbaily reviewed Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by kbaily on Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:05:24 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/sly-cooper-thieves-in-time/user-reviews/812458/platform/ps3/ Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:53:29 -0700 ZanarkandTidus reviewed New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS... http://www.gamespot.com/new-super-mario-bros-2/user-reviews/812344/platform/3ds/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

New Super Mario Bros 2 is a fun game but it's a bit disappointing at the same time.It's level designs are fun and often challenging without being painfully difficult but it's levels are too short.I like how the levels take influence from Super Mario Bros 3 which means you'll see a lot of colored boxes and colorful environments and charming bosses and the boss battles are influenced from Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World(which means you'll need to knock dinosaurs off moving platforms and face various Koopa bosses whom will use various methods to try to defeat you).

It's gameplay is fun and it's controls are tight as ever,it does feel like I've played this game many times when I've played the other 2D Mario games which isn't a bad thing because they're all fun except the short levels and short story mode make the experience a bit disappointing and the new things the game has to offer revolve around coin collecting.

Graphically this game looks like a visually upgraded version of a Super Mario Bros 3 which isn't a bad thing because I love the artstyle of SMB3 more than the artstyle for any other 2D Super Mario game,however it would have been nice if instead of the typical desert and snow levels the developers could have gone for new types of environments to freshen the game up a bit,perhaps city levels or tropical levels(city environments are in the Mario Kart games and although tropical levels are in the first NSMB game for DS they could have been done a lot better).But I'm glad they kept the typical grassy area with the castle in the background which is part of Super Mario folklore.

The story is the same as usual,Princess is kidnapped but instead of being kidnapped by Bowser directly it's his goons who kidnap her but of course you'll need to rescue her from Bowser.The final boss battle is epic and has a creative design and does a good job of creating story suspense...you'll see why.

The game focuses a lot on coin collecting,you can collect coins in many places and there's powerups which give you coins just for running and the level designs encourage you to risk dying in order to collect coins because there's rewards if you reach 1 million coins but collecting 1 million coins doesn't really appeal to me because I play games to experience story and level progression.If collecting 1 million coins appeals to you then you'll need to make use of the tanooki suit's abilities as well as the ability of the suit that gives you coins for running and it can be quite challenging and would add replay value.Coin rush mode is another mode that lets you collect coins that count to your coin total and you're encouraged to rush through the levels since quicker level completion times means more coins whilst collecting as many coins as you can without dying.

Overall,like I said it's a fun game but due to it's short levels and focus on coin collecting I don't think it's a great game but it's a good game and fun game nonetheless.If you want to play a great and newer 2D Super Mario game I suggest you try New Super Mario Bros U(which has HD visuals and new and enjoyable features that don't revolve around coin collecting).

Get the full article at GameSpot

"ZanarkandTidus reviewed New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS..." was posted by ZanarkandTidus on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:53:29 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/new-super-mario-bros-2/user-reviews/812344/platform/3ds/ Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:14:31 -0700 GreySeal9 reviewed Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/shin-megami-tensei-persona-4/user-reviews/812131/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Since so many people have told me how much better Persona 4 was than the all ready fantastic Persona 3, I was curious to see the degree to which Persona 4 trumped the third entry. I was also excited to play what promised to be another excellent role-playing game. On both fronts, Persona 4 succeeds. It improves on the Persona 3 formula in some important ways while standing on its own as one of absolute best role-playing games money can buy. It doesn't absolutely destroy Persona 3 as some people claim, but it is a leaner experience that is not only more player friendly, but is backed up by a meatier story. If you're into murder mysteries with bizarre supernatural twists or if you just crave an excellent RPG with lively, well-developed characters, you absolutely must play Persona 4.

The story is probably the biggest improvement in Persona 4. Persona 3 had an interesting story as well, but the story you're getting in Persona 4 is denser with detail and is swarming with plot twists, misdirection, and psychological tension. This is because Persona 4 is essentially a murder mystery. You, as the nameless main character, are relocating to the rural Japanese town of Inaba because your parents are on some kind of overseas trip. You end up living with your uncle Dojima---who is a detective---and his adorable daughter Nanako. You make a few friends at school and learn about the Midnight Channel, which will supposedly show you your soul mate if you stare into a TV on a rainy night. Instead of confirming that rumor, you find that you can actually enter another world through the TV, but this world is anything but welcoming. It is foggy and strange and home to an equally strange bear-like creature named Teddie. On top of this, people are turning up dead in Inaba and their deaths are somehow linked to the TV world. Of course it is up to you and your friends to solve the mystery of their murders by saving people who are dropped into the TV world and killed there. That is all I will tell you, but it is an immensely addicting story that will have you pleasantly confused at times and pleasantly surprised once you realize what was really going on.

The plot by itself is fantastic, but the characters are extremely lively, well written and charismatic. This was also one of the things that made Persona 3 so excellent, but I think this game has a slightly better cast. The best characters in Persona 3 are just as good as they are in Persona 4, but Persona 4 is more consistent and has less "meh" characters. What makes the characters feel so convincing is that the game develops their personalities outside of the core plot and does this in a big way, so that your key characters eventually feel like a tight-knit family. With characters being one of the main staples of RPGs, it is nothing short of brilliant that Atlus was able to create such an effect.

The structure of the game certainly helps however. Much like Persona 3, Persona 4 progression is based on a calendar system. You have a small town and school to explore (which seems even smaller than Persona 3's town and school), but you must adhere to something of a time limit. In any given day, you can only do one major thing (luckily, purchasing weapons and items and what not doesn't count as a major thing), whether that be hanging out with friends (which is extremely important because of the game's "social links") or dungeon crawling to advance to plot or simply raising one of your character's personality stats (instead of Persona 3's charm, courage and academics, Persona 4 has you enhancing traits like knowledge, expression, courage, understanding, and diligence) through various means, so you'll have to balance your time, especially since you only have a certain amount of time to save the latest victim trapped inside the TV world. However, since the time limit is very lenient (which is a good thing for those who feel the added pressure of a time limit is a turn off), you will have tons of time to hang out with friends, which gives the developers tons of time to develop them into remarkably believable people.

Forming relationships with people is essential in Persona 4. Whenever you meet a new person, you form a social link with them. You have to basically level up these social links by navigating conversations in a way that is helpful or pleasing to whoever you've formed the social link with. You can mess up relationships, but it is extremely hard to do and most players will breeze right through the social links provided that they are taking enough time from grinding through dungeons to level them up. Each social link is tied to what is called an "arcana." Examples of arcanas are moon, sun, star, empress, fool, priestess, magician, strength, etc. Falling under these categories are Personas, which are creatures derived from the characters' psyches. Think Pokémon, but more adult and edgy. Since they are your main means of battling in Persona 4 (you have a normal attack, but Personas will provide you with all your magic and techniques), you'll want to level up as many social links as you can since social links enhance the Personas you create within the arcana tied to said social link. A Persona can go up several levels on the spot if the corresponding social link is high. This will provide you will tons of useful skills without the trouble of sloooowly grinding Personas up to the levels at which they acquire them. Unlike Persona 3, social links can also grant special abilities to characters in your party, which is a great addition.

However, enhancing your Personas is not the primary motivation for leveling up social links. For me, that was secondary. What captured my interest was the characters they are tied to and the side plots that unfold as a result. These side plots are not only believable; they are also at once sad and touching and you'll feel like you've made a big difference in these people's lives once the social link is maxed out and side plot has concluded. One social link in particular, involving a stepparent struggling to connect to her new child, stayed in my thoughts even when I was not playing the game. That one was my favorite, but all the social links are powerful in their own ways. Persona 3 also had well written, emotionally engaging social links, but I feel that they're a bit better written and emotionally engaging in Persona 4. You can ignore social links if you want, but the dungeons will be much harder on you and your game will lack variation.

Persona 3's dungeon exploration took place in a giant tower called Tartarus and one of the main complaints was that there were just too many floors and since they were randomly generated, they could get extremely repetitive. Persona 4 attempts to address this by sending you to separate dungeons within the TV world (and the theme of these dungeons reflect the victim's psyche, so they are very creative). These dungeons are more varied in terms of their overall appearance than Persona 3's Tartarus, but they are still made up of randomly generating floors that all look the same. Fortunately, these dungeons are very easy to get through, especially since Persona 4 drastically reduces the amount of floors you'll need to fight your way through, resulting in a dungeon crawling experience that feels much more streamlined and also more player friendly. I feel that Atlus should have added more scenic variety within the dungeons, but separate dungeons with more creative themes is certainly an improvement over Tartarus. Not to mention that in Persona 4 the developers let you re-enter the dungeons through the exact floor you were last on, eliminating the need for Persona 3's sometimes frustrating checkpoints.

Another thing that makes Persona 4's dungeons enjoyable in spite of their repetitiveness is the incredibly fun battle system. Not only are battles quick and flashy, but they also involve a good bit of strategy. This is because success is based on exploiting enemy weaknesses. If you use a skill that an enemy is weak to (and the only way to use these skills is through Personas), they will fall to the ground, and you'll get another turn. You can use this extra turn to attack the enemy again, but the better move is to attack another enemy, also knocking them to ground and getting another additional turn. The idea is to knock all the enemies to the ground, so that you can engage in a cartoonish beat-em-up special attack that will instantly kill all but the strongest foes. Most of the time it is easy to exploit weaknesses, but you don't always know them, so you have to experiment and some enemies have attack patterns or buffs that make it more difficult to exploit their weaknesses. Many times you don't have to go the weakness route and you can vanquish some enemies with your regular attack, but exploiting weaknesses is the most efficient way of dispatching enemies and it's a lot more fun to mess around with all your Personas skills and build a team of Personas that will majorly kick ass.

Persona 4's battle system is very similar to Persona 3's, but two key improvements have been made, resulting in a smoother, more player friendly combat portion. The first of these improvements is the ability to control all of your party members. In Persona 3, you could only control the main character and the game's friendly AI controlled everyone else. I felt that that set up was fine, but being able to your fellow party members is not only more strategically rewarding, but it insures that you are never burned by a dumb move by the AI. Of course you can let the AI control fellow party members if you want, but most players will opt to input everyone's command by themselves.

The other improvement in Persona 4's battle system is the addition of a "guard" command. In many RPGs, guarding is useless, but it is quite important in Persona 4. Enemies can exploit weaknesses in the same way that the player can, so if you know you have characters that are weak to a certain element or ability, the guard ability will come in handy.

The one thing that hasn't been addressed in the battle portion of the game is that you get a game over when the main character dies. It is kind of bothersome that the other characters can't seem to find a way to revive him, but it's a small annoyance. It doesn't really harm the experience in any significant way.

Another improvement is the way the game is structured overall. Though Persona 4 shares Persona 3's calendar system, the structure of Persona 4, though a bit formulaic at first, is much looser and less predictable, resulting in pacing that is even more dynamic than that of Persona 3, which was all ready a very dynamically paced game, with surprise events breaking up the linear progression of days. Though some might be put off by the idea of a calendar system, they shouldn't be. Between the interesting and emotionally satisfying social links, all the little things you can do to raise your personality stats, surprise story events, and the visually creative dungeons, Persona 4 will never get boring, and much like Persona 3, it can get highly addicting in a "just one more day" kind of way.

One aspect in which Persona 4 doesn't improve on Persona 3 is the Persona fusion system. You can obtain new Personas by winning battles and picking the correct card in a post-battle shuffle, but your Personas will be more powerful if you fuse them by combining two or more Personas. This system was wonky and random in Persona 3 with no rhyme or reason to the various combinations, resulting in logic free experimentation that was no fun. In Persona 4, it is just as wonky and random with the only improvement being a "forecast", which helps, but doesn't address the core flaws in the system. If they make a Persona 5, Atlus really needs to find a more logical way of approaching Persona creation. However, that's not to say you shouldn't use the fusion system. The fusion system is the absolute best way to acquire powerful Personas.

Visually speaking, Persona 3 was extremely stylish, with lots of funky fresh Japanese flavor. Persona 4 takes stylish visuals to the next level. Everything from the menus to the enemy designs and dungeons is bursting with cool psychedelic energy. Being a rural town, Inaba itself is more low key and smaller than Persona 3's town areas, but the TV world is a much more visually exciting place than Persona 3's Tartarus with much more attractive dungeons that make better use of color. At the same time, Persona 4 retains the creativity of the enemy and Persona designs, some of which are lifted straight from Persona 3. And underneath all the stylishness and visual creativity are solid, if a bit modest, technical graphics. Not to mention the anime cutscenes, which are very well drawn and directed, visually punctuating some of the game's key moments. In short, this is a sexy game that will constantly entice your eyes while the game's soundtrack will entice your ears. Persona 3 had an excellent soundtrack filled with jazzy j-pop fitting the game's urban aesthetic. Persona 4's j-pop is not quite as jazzy and it's a little more feminine, but the songs themselves are great with their addictive and creative melodies. And since Persona 4 is a "brighter game", the less edgy soundtrack fits.

Persona 3 was a landmark title, and while Persona 4 doesn't quite have its new car smell or its scale, it is undoubtedly the better title due to improvements in dungeon crawling, the battle system and the overall structure and plot. With Persona 4, Atlus set out to make a game that is at once more streamlined and more engaging. In this endeavor, they succeeded admirably. If you haven't played Persona 3, I would recommend playing it before you tackle Persona 4; by doing that, you will undoubtedly be saving the best for last.

GAMEPLAY-4.5/5
DESIGN-4.5/5
STORY-5/5
VISUALS-4.5/5
PLAYABILITY-4.5/5
VALUE-5/5

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/shin-megami-tensei-persona-4/user-reviews/812131/platform/ps2/ Tue, 04 Jun 2013 08:44:00 -0700 benleslie5 reviewed Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for the PlayStation Vita... http://www.gamespot.com/metal-gear-solid-hd-collection/user-reviews/812038/platform/vita/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

It's been over 10 years since Metal Gear Solid 2 was released back in 2001 and almost 9 years since Metal Gear Solid 3 was released in 2004. During those years when the PlayStation 2 was around both games were summed up to be the best games to experience on its story, gameplay and memorable moments. Now you can relive those memories again in HD, Metal Gear Solid Collection was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and then a few months later got released for the PlayStation Vita.

Both games still play well and nothing has really changed from its gameplay, if you've played both titles back on the PlayStation 2 nothing much has changed, but do note that you'll be using the left analog stick to move and holding R button and Square to fire your weapon. Instead of using the shoulder buttons to select back and forth weapons and items, on the PS Vita you are using the touch screen to select weapons and items like you would do on a DS handheld or a touch screen mobile phone.

In Metal Gear Solid 3 you can use the touch screen to patch up Snake if he's badly injured during gameplay or getting rid of gunshot wounds. Apart from that nothing hasn't really changed much on its gameplay it is trying to be more touch screen related for the handheld version.

Yet both games do look impressive when they are in HD both cutscenes look very well detailed to look at on your PS Vita. The voice acting is still the best as it was over 10 years ago and the soundtrack makes a great a touch when you're playing both games when you are out and about either on a bus to work or hanging out with your friends. If you have a PlayStation 3 you can transfer both saves back and forth to your console and to your PS Vita, the only downside to the Vita version of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is that it does not contain Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker in the collection.

Not only that the HD Collection also contains both MSX titles Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 which makes another good feature being added into the collection also including the VR missions as well. Trying to obtain all trophies will be a challenge for trophy collectors, as a Metal Gear Solid fan I would recommend the HD Collection if you have played the games before or new to the series it's worth the purchase if you want two of the best stealth action games that made the series is memorable and great for what it is.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/metal-gear-solid-hd-collection/user-reviews/812038/platform/vita/ Sat, 01 Jun 2013 18:12:08 -0700 pokecharm reviewed Hitman: Absolution for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/hitman-absolution/user-reviews/811971/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

The Hitman franchise was one of the first stealth games I'd played when I got my PS2. The worlds were fairly open. You could move around and find a variety of ways to eliminate your targets. The AI was robust. The environments were varied. The story was passable. Some things haven't changed, while others have changed quite a bit. This is the first Hitman game on the next gen console, and the most noticeable difference is the polished graphics and environment. I never felt limited by the Playstation controls, but I didn't feel like there was a great leap in technology from the previous games, though my memory isn't what it used to be.

The game begins with Agent 47 on a mission to eliminate someone who worked within the agency and has seemingly betrayed them by kidnapping a valuable asset, a girl. When Agent 47 infiltrates the compound and has her in his sights, she divulges her reasoning for doing what she's done and the onus of the mission shifts to Agent 47. Once this shift occurs, Agent 47 must protect this girl and keep her from the clutches of the Agency. The two are separated and she is taken by a third party who has little to do with the Agency, but knows the value of the girl. Agent 47 must battle the crazed kidnapper and the Agency as he must go to great lengths to protect the girl and save her from a fate she didn't choose.

The game is broken up into sections, each one having a very different look and feel. The graphics are quite breath-taking, as I've discovered seems to be something Square Enix takes great pride in. What stunts the otherwise stunning visuals are the glitches that are far too frequent. Both the AI and Agent 47 seem to move through solid structures. Though the detail is clear in most environments and items, the detail doesn't surpass either Tomb Raider or even Deus Ex.

The voice acting is decent. The story isn't stellar, but the actors seem to do the best they can, playing up the stereotypical bad people they all portray. There was little depth in either the stories or the characters, no clear reason anyone was doing anything, other than because the story told them to. In many ways, it made the entire game seem inauthentic and difficult to feel invested in.

What keeps you playing, or at least kept me playing, was the game play. It wasn't amazing, it didn't do anything I hadn't seen before, but it made the game fun. There were a variety of ways to eliminate targets, in most sections and the gamer was rewarded for being creative and for not being discovered. I've always been a fan of stealth games, thank you Metal Gear Solid. And while this one doesn't bring much new to the concept, it brings just enough that I couldn't put the game down until I'd finished it.

The one thing I must comment on, the reason for a lower score than perhaps the game may deserve, the AI was predictable and yet unpredictable. At times, the game didn't seem to reset and I'd have to restart checkpoints to get the game to stop looping. It could have been me playing the game incorrectly, but the game should work and shouldn't glitch. This wasn't a terrible glitch, but it was frustrating at times. This is actually a very decent game, and for a lower price, well worth playing.

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"pokecharm reviewed Hitman: Absolution for the Xbox 360..." was posted by pokecharm on Sat, 01 Jun 2013 18:12:08 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/hitman-absolution/user-reviews/811971/platform/xbox360/ Sat, 01 Jun 2013 11:21:36 -0700 VictorReviews reviewed Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-my-life-as-a-kin/user-reviews/811957/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King is an interesting blend. The game combines the acclaimed Final Fantasy series with simulation and managing. On paper the idea isn't bad, especially for those familiar to the Rune Factory or Atelier series. Still, it raises the question, is simulation really what Final Fantasy needs or is the game yet another disappointment in the series? Keep reading to find out!


Gameplay:


In this game, you play as the son of King Epitav from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Your main job is to build a kingdom with the help of a crystal that grants you the power to magically make structures appear. All you require to do this is a place to build, memories of the structure that you want there, and magicite, which is one of the game's currencies. Memories can be obtained through various means. For example, you can look at a drawing of the place that you want to build.


When you build a house or another structure, people will magically appear inside of it, making your town's population grow. While initially you only have three characters in your town (the king and his two "helpers", Chime and Sir Yurgh), it eventually grows so big that it's hard to recognize individuals.


The game is divided in days, similar to others in the genre. Each day, you will receive taxes from your townspeople that you can spend in improving the kingdom. You'll also be able to do other daily tasks.


Even though you have to manage many things, most of your free time will be spent speaking to the townsfolk. Talking to others boosts the town's morale, which grants certain bonuses. Sometimes, when you talk to the citizens, they will give you special requests, similar to your typical RPG quests. However, these situations are very rare.


Speaking with citizens is the most boring task in the game, since they repeat the same lines over and over and most of these lines aren't even interesting. The game does a bad job at balancing the gameplay, making every day a tedious task. Fortunately, you can skip ahead in time and just attempt to do the managing part of the game, but that hinders your progress a little, since morale is needed for some parts of the game.


This game has an RPG aspect to it as well. You can hire adventurers to serve the kingdom and clear dungeons, which progresses the story and earns you some interesting things, like magicite. However, you can't really see what adventurers do, but rather read reports about it, which is understandable given the filesize limitation, but still a disappointment.


Another important aspect of the game is DLC. With DLC, you can buy costumes for your characters, extra dungeons, or more races among your people. These things, however, end up being no more than a neat extra, and don't add much to the gameplay.


Overall, the game utilizes some good ideas, but the execution is bad, due to long, tedious days spent talking and reading the same lines over and over.


5/10


Presentation:


The presentation is good. The graphics are nice, with pretty character models and buildings, but there's little variety. There are some cut-scenes which use the game's engine but they're nothing special.


The music is solid, but really repetitive, since there aren't many songs. A little more tunes would have been appreciated, but again, it's understandable because of the filesize.


Overall, this feels like any Final Fantasy game, but with noticeable limitations. It's not completely the developer's fault though, but more due to technical limitations.


8/10


Story:


The game's story continues where Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles left. Without a home, the prince is left to wander looking for a place to live. One day, he stumbles upon the crystal that grants him the power to make buildings appear (this power is called architekt) and decides to rebuild the kingdom.


The story is very clichéd and there's really not much to it. Given the game's nature, not much was expected, but having the citizens say more interesting things and talk more about their lives would've been a nice addition.


6/10


Replay Value:


After clearing the game, new game+ is unlocked. It lets you keep some items and play on a higher difficulty that makes dungeons harder for adventurers (which means you just have to order them to grind more), but since there's not much novelty to it, players are unlikely to be thrilled about replaying the game.


The DLC can add some extra hours of gameplay, but it's just in the form of some extra dungeons.


The game does a good job in terms of replay value, but the appeal of playing much after clearing the storyline once simply isn't there.


8/10


Fun:


This game is tedious, so it gets boring fast. Talking to citizens couldn't be less appealing, which takes a lot from what is otherwise a well made game.


Still, if you're into managing games, there's some fun to be had, and the game can be addictive at times, but you shouldn't expect much.


5/10


Overall:


The game has an interesting premise. However, the bad execution turns this adventure into a chore. While there's some fun to be had, it doesn't justify the purchase. You're better off skipping this one.


6.1/10


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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-my-life-as-a-kin/user-reviews/811957/platform/wii/ Sat, 25 May 2013 18:43:18 -0700 pokecharm reviewed Saints Row: The Third for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/saints-row-the-third/user-reviews/811721/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Saints Row the Third has been compared to Grand Theft Auto, but silly and crude. That assessment, from what I can tell, is about right, though it doesn't give the game nearly enough credit. In Steelport, the Saints are a famous gang, one that does drugs, gets into trouble, shots up the place and generally carouses throughout the city. The game starts off with a bang as the leader of the Saints commits sepuka by taking an entire plane down to save the rest of the gang. You play the character that is then the de facto leader, or at least this was what I pieced together while only paying some attention.

Though it is perhaps not a fair comparison, Saints Row does remind me a great deal of Grand Theft Auto. The world is open, you can run around and to what you like, though there are always repercussions to your actions. The police and other gangs are looking for reasons to attack you. The controls are easy to understand, for the most part. There are variable rules, it seemed, for the controls of weapons while in a vehicle. Some vehicles came with weapons, some do not. When you have a gang member with you, they control the mounted guns, making some larger battle sequences amazingly frustrating because they don't shot or shot at nothing. This was the one down-side I found to the otherwise simple to use controls.

The colours, graphics and overall feel of Saints Row was authentic to the kind of city and atmosphere the game aims for. It does remind me of any big city with good and bad parts of town. Each gang had a different colour scheme, which helped slightly in understand what group you were challenging by driving through their area. The city is beautifully rendered, especially as the area becomes more Saints controlled and the royal purple surfaces more and more. Much like with the other open-world games, as you control more of the map, more of your supporters pepper the map, making it feel more homey.

The story was hilarious, I can't be more clear than that. I found it absurd, comical and a ton of fun. The voice acting made the outlandish plot that much more fun. My personal favourite was Shandi and the star-struck actor Josh who loved her. Silly and funny, and it doesn't take itself too seriously, which makes the whole game one that shouldn't be missed.

Having said that, the number of glitches I encountered were too many to count, and this is the major detraction of the game. When you have to stop playing, reload missions or shut the console down and still can't get things to work, the fun of the game becomes more frustrating than enjoyable. Some of the 'find' missions were just plain broken. I'm not sure how many times I attempted one of the vehicle thefts, but after an hour plus, I just gave up. The map, oftentimes, wouldn't work or display an actual direction, as if it didn't realise I was in the water and kept telling me to get on land or the other way around. Only when I was in the air did it seem to recognise that was where I was. The in-game GPS was like the one I have for real, for no particular reason, it would lead me to the longest, most convoluted ways around the map, purposely throwing me in the face of cars that materialised out of nowhere. Glitch after glitch after glitch and I finally couldn't take it anymore and burned through the last few missions just so the game would be over.

This is a fun game, no question about it. But technical issues, especially for a game that has been out for two years, is not acceptable. In retrospect, I might not have picked this game up at a low $30 had I known. And now that I've had this experience, I'm reluctant to drop money on a pre-order for the next one.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"pokecharm reviewed Saints Row: The Third for the Xbox 360..." was posted by pokecharm on Sat, 25 May 2013 18:43:18 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/saints-row-the-third/user-reviews/811721/platform/xbox360/ Fri, 24 May 2013 08:45:17 -0700 ZanarkandTidus reviewed BioShock for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock/user-reviews/811673/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

I am not a FPS fan,in fact the FPS genre is amongst my least favorite genres but Bioshock is one of the top games I've played from the 7th generation of video games.

The thing that makes Bioshock stand out to me the most is it's atmosphere,you'll travel to an underwater city named 'Rapture' that's at the bottom of a deep ocean and hidden from the rest of the world and it will provide an eery atmosphere because the city is surrounded by a bluish tinge from the ocean water and you'll even see fish swimming and from the start of the game you'll be shown an outside view of the city that shows all of this and it made me feel like I was going to enter a very daunting place.

The story for Bioshock is about a man named Jack who survives a plane crash and is lead to Rapture and hell has broken loose in the city and genetically modified psychotic humans referred to as 'Splicers' infest Rapture and will attack you on sight.All the 'normal human' survivors are hiding so basically you'll be alone against lots of splicers and you'll be trying to discover why you are there(it will make sense when you experience the story)and you'll discover dark secrets about Rapture and about your character and there is some big surprises installed.

Basically Rapture was created as a place where science could flourish without religion getting in the way and to be a place free from political oppression but obviously something/a number of things have gone wrong and you'll be trying to find out what they are,and there's quite a lot to learn about Rapture because it was once a city full of people with lots of scientific advancements and commercial things operating from within it.

The controls are quite fun for FPS standard,the aiming mechanics and character movements feel fluid and fast.Even though the story is set in the 1960's you can upgrade the weapons to make them feel high-tech.For example,a 45 magnum is known for being a very powerful handgun but it shoots very slowly but in Bioshock you can upgrade it so it fires much more quickly.You can also upgrade your machine-gun and shotgun to make them more advanced compared with the average versions of those weapons for their time.

You can also use plasmas which are abilities gained from genetically modifying your character and some of these abilities allow you to knock heavy objects over a distance without touching them and this can be used as a weapon or counter attack(if enemies have grenades)or to remove objects blocking doors.You can use plasmas to create fireballs,ice,electricity or for mind control and they definitely come in handy,for example you can shoot electricity into water and if enemies are in the water they'll get eletrocuted or you can use plasmas to make enemies attack other enemies or to stun enemies.

The combat in the game is fun because of the fluid and fast aiming mechanics and character movements.

The game has lots of fetch quests and they can become boring,especially when you have to search all over the place for an item needed to progress through the story.The brings me to my next point,Bioshock offers quite a lot of exploration for a FPS game because there's many rooms and passageways and many levels and many types of different environments to explore.Often a yellow arrow will point to where you need to go next but it doesn't always point to where items you need to find are and often you'll need to search many rooms for items you need.But being able to explore a lot is fun because the city has commercial areas and recreational areas and areas devoted to nature as well as office and science rooms and areas that let you see the ocean surrounding the city and it creates quite a daunting atmosphere.You can also search for voice recordings that have extra story information and you can try to rescue the little sisters which are little girls that are being hunted down by big daddies(enemies that use big,heavily armored suits with giant drills that makes them almost look like a mech suit) because people want to harvest the energy from the little sisters(this energy referred to as 'Adam')so they can use this energy to genetically enhance themselves.

A lot of the environments in the game will be dark and you'll hear the splicers yelling and screaming and it can create a creepy and great psychological horror effect.

The splicers are usually armed with weapons whether they be firearms or melee weapons and some splicers referred to as 'spider slicers' can run across ceilings like a spider whilst shooting at you and some splicers use explosive weapons and can teleport.You'll often run into big daddies which will make you use up lots of ammo and security robots if you move into the security spotlights or if they move onto you.

Even though the game is a FPS you can upgrade your stats such as max health,max plasma and your abilities to hack doors and devices(which often contain helpful items or so you can go through a door without having to find the code or so you can get cheaper prices for items)by using Adam which you get from either harvesting or rescuing little sisters that you save from the big daddies and Adam is kind of like experience points in the game.

You can buy items to heal your character or to restore plasma and you can customize which abilities you want to use because there is a limited number of slots for abilities but when you use Adam to upgrade your number of slots you can use more abilities.And of course you can upgrade your weapons too in a variety of ways(the damage they do to enemies,rate of fire,reload time etc.).Splicers respawn in many areas and often drop money and ammo and items.

From a technical perspective,the graphics look quite good and detailed for a 2007 release(even though the PS3 version was released in 2008 the Xbox360 version which is graphically similar to the PS3 version was released in 2007).But like I've said,it's the game's eery underwater atmosphere that makes it visually appealing to me in the way it uses the eery tinges of blue from the surrounding ocean to surround Rapture and I love the way Rapture has neon signs for it's buildings and a dark look to it's city,it feels like a film noir style environment at times,especially with the old style classical music playing constantly in the game.I also like other little touches to the environments such as how you'll see everyday objects in a messy layout to help create the feeling of knowing a lot of chaos has happened in the city and some parts of the city are flooded or dark and the fact you're alone makes you feel even more vulnerable.

Overall,Bioshock is a great game in terms of story,game play and atmosphere and even if you're not a FPS fan you should give this game a try.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"ZanarkandTidus reviewed BioShock for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by ZanarkandTidus on Fri, 24 May 2013 08:45:17 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock/user-reviews/811673/platform/ps3/ Mon, 20 May 2013 15:11:47 -0700 benleslie5 reviewed BioShock Infinite for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock-infinite/user-reviews/811535/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

It's never easy to find the best first-person shooter game out there on any platform there's been some classics in the past like Goldeneye and Timesplitters 2. BioShock Infinite is one of those that should be highly recommend to any gamer out there, if you haven't played the series before or you have played BioShock 1 and 2.

Set before the 60's during the events of BioShock 1 and 2, Infinite takes place in 1912 where Booker DeWitt heads to the lighthouse which transports him to Columbia with the mission from Luteces to "bring us the girl and wipe away the debt". Elizabeth plays a very important role throughout the main story; she is not like other people you'll meet in Columbia. Throughout the story you'll be escorting Elizabeth and finding out what is really going on its story.

Gameplay: Like the past two BioShock games if you've played them do feel a little similar on its first-person shooter with a mix of RPG elements you've still got your standard weapons like the pistol gun, machine gun and shot gun, you'll also get other guns which you'll use later on through various parts of Columbia. You'll also get to use the grappling gun which you can either attack against enemies or grabbing on railways connecting to buildings called skylines where you can ride your way around the city feeling like you're on a roller-coaster.

The fun part is when riding the skyline and shooting at enemies at the same time, you can also grab on to hooks which can help you get across various building and areas you can't reach; you can also assassinate your enemies from above if you see a star icon when they are not looking.

Another feature in Infinite by pressing L1 you can use powers and abilities using vigors, which is similar to BioShock's plasmids and tonics. You can burn your enemies by insinuating them or murder of crows can summon a swarm of crows to attack enemies. You will get more powers later on in the game and some of the powers are pretty cool to use, when you finally rescue Elizabeth she can help you lock-pick through certain doors and padlocks, she can also help you find money and items. You'll have a health bar and salt bar for powers, you'll find cash machines where you can purchase stuff and upgrade weapons and powers to help you get through the game. If you're not sure where you suppose to go you can press the up button where a green arrow will tell you where you need to go.

Graphics and Sound: BioShock 1 and 2 were setting in an underwater city, in Bioshock Infinite the floating-city of Columbia is set in the skies which feels more like a Steampunk game with it being set during the early 1900's. The stunning visuals and environments are extremely impressive to look for a first-person shooter; it does feel more like an open world game where you can go anywhere you like around Columbia.

The animation for the characters are very done and could have been perfect for an animated film if it ever happened despite the amount of violence and blood you'll see throughout the game. You can easily get yourself lost around the city if you're not too careful, and as I mention on the gameplay section riding the skylines do make it feel like you're on a roller-coaster ride making you feel that you're riding it.

Troy Baker does the voicing for Booker and Courtnee Draper does the voicing for Elizabeth, both actors have really much made this game perfect for its fine voice acting and also the same with the rest of the characters you'll meet in Bioshock Infinite with the setting being set in 1912. You will hear some remix music from the 80's and 90's but being done in the setting around that time making it more impressive to listen to.

Overall: I really don't want to spoil the ending or the main story for Bioshock Infinite you'll also hear some of the best quotes and see some of the most memorable moments in gaming. Clearing the game on your first play through can take you at least 20 hours or more pending on if you want to try and collect everything including audio tapes. There is trophy support if you want to collect trophies, there's even quite a few easter eggs being added in fans will really get a laugh out of it.

Unlocking 1999 mode after your play through is the biggest challenge with it being on the hardest difficulty setting making it more rewarding to play the game again and again. I rarely play first-person shooters but this one is highly recommended to any gamer out there for their collection.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"benleslie5 reviewed BioShock Infinite for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by benleslie5 on Mon, 20 May 2013 15:11:47 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock-infinite/user-reviews/811535/platform/ps3/ 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/ Thu, 16 May 2013 06:25:07 -0700 pokecharm reviewed Where's My Perry? for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/wheres-my-perry/user-reviews/811368/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

The Where's Perry app was the free app of the week at Starbucks this past week, so I took the time to sift through a little bit of it after playing the free version months ago. The principle of the game appears simple at first. The goal is to get Agent P, Perry the Platypus, through the tubes to thwart Doof by clearing the way of water through tunnels. The first few levels are simple, by using your finger, or a stylus, you clear the rubble away. Amongst the rubble are also secret agent files and other items as well as gnomes that can be collected. The water has to douse the gnomes in order for them to be considered collected.

The game is actually quite addictive. I played about 20 minutes yesterday, but thought it had only been five or less. The graphics are quite good, I'm using an iPad 2 and the voices, Major Monogram and Dr. Doofenshmirtz are spot on. There are, so far, no appearances of Phineas or Ferb as of yet. The unlockables as you move along are for either other agents, some seen in various episodes of the show. The other unlockables are for Dr. Doofenshmirtz's inators, which are also very amusing.

Though this game won't ever garner great recognition, it is a fun game, perfect for a tablet or phone. For the price, I believe $3 only, it is well worth the purchase.

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"pokecharm reviewed Where's My Perry? for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by pokecharm on Thu, 16 May 2013 06:25:07 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/wheres-my-perry/user-reviews/811368/platform/iphone/ Wed, 15 May 2013 07:45:17 -0700 pokecharm reviewed Bulletstorm for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/bulletstorm/user-reviews/811333/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Bulletstorm starts off with a bang and doesn't slow down, despite a heavy dose of sophomoric dialogue and meandering story. The game is a first-person shooter (FPS) style that follows Grayson Hunt who is the leader of a special operations unit. Within the first five minutes of gameplay it is soon discovered that Hunt and his team have been deluded and decide to take action against the man who set them up to kill innocent people. What follows is a quick game of shoot anything that moves with any variety of weapons.

What Bulletstorm lacks in story it more than makes up for with easy controls and game play. The weapons are varied and you're able to swap them in and out at regular intervals. The enemies are only slightly varied as you move through the game, but the way you interact with each does change based on what weapons you have and what is lying around. The game awards points based on skilful ways of killing people. If you just shoot them down, 10 points. If you use a piece of the environment, you can get 100 or more. This added element encourages you to use things around you and not just run and gun, as most FPS games do.

The voice acting goes only as far as the story will allow it. The story is predictable, but yet it doesn't feel stagnant. I didn't feel bored at any point even though I could have guessed what would happen next. The dialogue was purposely childish, pandering to the lowest common denominator for the target audience, yet I didn't find it nearly as distracting or disgusting as I thought I would. The fact that the story resolves itself in decent fashion makes the lacklustre story worthwhile.

The graphics were actually decent, not great, but decent. A had a few screen issues and once had to restart a checkpoint because I was lodged inside something. With no jump button, it made movement very linear. The sound was spot on, especially for most of the explosions that occurred throughout the game.

Bulletstorm will never be up for a Game of the Year award. What it lacks in story it more than makes up for in easy game play and just plain fun. The game is a hidden gem, one I acquired for a cool $2 used, no, I'm not kidding. For that price, I can't be disappointed with any of the game. There was a good variety of things to do and achievements to unlock. The game wasn't too hard, but did require precision at some points. Overall, if you can get it used, it is well worth getting.

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"pokecharm reviewed Bulletstorm for the Xbox 360..." was posted by pokecharm on Wed, 15 May 2013 07:45:17 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/bulletstorm/user-reviews/811333/platform/xbox360/ Sat, 11 May 2013 19:35:06 -0700 GreySeal9 reviewed Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation... http://www.gamespot.com/final-fantasy-vii/user-reviews/811218/platform/ps/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Regardless of one's personal opinion of Final Fantasy VII, there is simply no denying that the game is legendary and is one of the most important games of all time. It was a landmark RPG that brought Japanese role-playing games to new levels of cinematic gravity. However, many people argue that Final Fantasy VII doesn't deserve all the praise it gets and its legendary status is a case of coming out at exactly the right time. Many people have also argued that the game has aged poorly. However, after completing my most recent playthrough of the game, it is clear that Final Fantasy VII is still an excellent game, albeit one that has indeed been hit harder than other entries by the passage of years. Final Fantasy VII has its rough edges, but its powerful moments are still powerful and its pacing and storytelling is still very compelling. So while it indeed might have come out at the right time, quite a bit of credit must be attributed to what was and is a very high quality production.

Final Fantasy VII is the story of Cloud Strife, an ex-member of a military group called SOLDIER. At the beginning of the game, Cloud joins up with the resistance group AVALANCHE to blow up a "Mako reactor." These reactors are used by Shinra Inc. to suck the Mako energy out of the planet, which, as a consequence, is slowly killing it. Shinra Inc. also controls a slum city called Midgar, which is probably one of the most distinctive locations in an RPG. Shortly after the operation, Cloud meets a delicate flowergirl named Aeris, who is the last of a race called the "Ancients." Shrina Inc. is in pursuit of Aeris because the Ancients have a connection to a mysterious land of plenty called The Promised Land. Shinra wants to exploit The Promised Land for its own sinister purposes. Meanwhile, a super solider named Sephiroth---who shares a frightening mental bond and a bit of history with the hero Cloud---plots to destroy the planet once he finds out some disturbing revelations about his parentage and his origin. Eventually, Cloud and his friends take it upon themselves to stop him.

The tale is easily one of the most confusing, if not the most confusing, story in the series. However, it is well presented for the most part. It is well paced, with exciting things happening on a constant basis and plenty of extremely powerful moments that will stick with you well after you're finished playing; some of them are shocking but without being cheap or gratuitous. The dialogue is a little more mixed however. Tons of the dialogue, especially Cid and Barrett's, is lively and vibrant, but other characters, like the sex symbol Tifa, or the stoic hero Cloud, hardly ever say anything interesting. Anything of interest that they say is either a cool plot detail or an interesting revelation. The slightly clunky translation also doesn't help matters. However, even in spite of this, Final Fantasy VII has a fairly solid cast of characters, who are well designed from an aesthetic standpoint with the exception of the incredibly weird-looking Cait Sith (granted, Cait Sith is responsible for some of the most interesting plot twists). Overall, this cast is above average relative to other RPGs, but it definitely isn't one of the strongest casts in the series.

As I mentioned before, the game's pacing is excellent, with tons of interesting places to explore and an easily navigatable world map. Not to mention that no passage of the gameplay goes on longer than it needs to and the game always strives to keep your interest by serving up tons of exciting and interesting moments. However, there is one persistent annoyance with the structure of the game. Most Final Fantasy games have a few mini-games to break up the adventuring, but Final Fantasy VII throws them at you ad nauseum and the lion's share of them are not optional. One of these mini-games is excellent (this one involves you playing a war strategy metagame), two are okay (snowboarding and motorcycling), but the rest are pretty awful. The game has you doing everything from giving a young girl mouth to mouth CPR to setting up excavation points that are infuriatingly touchy. The mini-games don't break the game by any means, but they really begin to grate and you'll find yourself wondering why the developers insist on them when they are not very good.

The battle system in Final Fantasy VII is your standard ATB system. You give your characters commands through a menu system, but you have to wait for the ATB bar to fill up before you can attack, which gives the battles an exciting element of timing. Less conventional is the game's materia system, which remains one of the most elegant and intuitive customization systems in a JRPG. Basically, you can collect materia by purchasing it or discovering it as you explore the game's various environments. As in other Final Fantasy games, you equip weapons, armor and accessories to make your characters stronger, but the twist is that weapons and armor have materia slots. As you acquire stronger weapons, you get more slots in which to place materia. Materia is what gives you magic spells (offensive, defensive, and curative), summons, commands (such as steal or transform), or support abilities (such as block or counter). The game always provides the materia you need, provided you have enough money to purchase it or enough patience to seek it out. Any character can equip any materia and with the right materia, you can prevail in any encounter that the game throws at you. Not that you'll need that much assistance. Final Fantasy VII is an extremely easy game. You level up incredibly fast, regular enemies can be disposed of in mere seconds, the game's awesome-looking limit breaks are a bit too useful, and bosses are total pushovers with the exception of the last one. Still, the extremely easy difficulty didn't bother me whatsoever. Battles are quick and fun and the story is interesting and exciting enough that you might be secretly glad that you can mow down the bosses so easily.

Battling is always fun, but traversing the interesting-looking environments is sometimes a pain in the ass. Since the game does not support analog, character movement is stiff and since the environments---in typical Final Fantasy fashion---are rather confined, you'll often find your character moving in the opposite direction that you want him to. In fact, movement in general can be pretty clunky. Still, the game makes up for this by having tons of interesting places to explore. The dark slum-like Midgar is definitely the high point in terms of the game's environments, but there are plenty of interesting landmarks and locales in Final Fantasy VII's well-realized world.

Part of the reason the environments are so compelling to explore is because the artwork featured in the game's pre-rendered backgrounds is full of interesting details and is exceptionally well drawn. Where the visual package becomes much more mixed is in the character models. To say that they look poor is putting it nicely. The character models are blocky and messy looking and they are quite jarring when you consider the beauty of some of the game's exotic backdrops. Character models fare much better in battle because their proportions are a lot more realistic, but compared to later games in the PS1 era, even the in-battle character models leave a lot to be desired; the enemy designs leave a lot to be desired as well. In spite of the questionable quality of the character models, the CGI cutscenes are absolutely stunning and although they don't transition quite as well as they do in Final Fantasy VIII, the transitions from gameplay to CGI is simply mindblowing for a game made in 1997. Furthermore, the developers make excellent use of the CGI, making sure to use it at exactly the right time to punctuate some of the story's most exciting moments. As a final note on the visuals, battles look excellent with tons of cinematic flair and some of the coolest attacks animations that you'll see in a PS1 RPG.

The game's sound quality is mostly top shelf, but like the visuals, it is a bit mixed as well. Many of the game's songs have excellent melodies that will stay with you well after you are finished playing and the final boss theme is absolutely dripping with awesomeness, but the sound quality leaves a bit to be desired. It seems like a lot of the same instruments are used, making the music sound a bit samey in spots. And while there is no doubt that many of the compositions are stunning, they could benefit from rearrangement.

Final Fantasy VII is a game that is hard to review because its legendary hype must be taken into account. However, when viewed on its own merits, Final Fantasy is a game that shows its age, but is filled with so many powerful and exciting moments and has such a graceful and smart customization system that the game is just plain fun to play with the exception of the times when you have to suffer through an ill-advised mini-game. Many people will claim that Final Fantasy VII is simply another RPG boosted by hype, but Final Fantasy VII has more powerful moments than most RPGs can ever hope to have and that is why it remains an excellent RPG even despite its many wrinkles.

GAMEPLAY-4.5/5
DESIGN-4.5/5
STORY-4.5/5
VISUALS-4/5
PLAYABILITY-4.5/5
VALUE-5/5

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"GreySeal9 reviewed Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation..." was posted by GreySeal9 on Sat, 11 May 2013 19:35:06 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/final-fantasy-vii/user-reviews/811218/platform/ps/ Tue, 07 May 2013 15:08:22 -0700 WTA2k5 reviewed BioShock Infinite for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock-infinite/user-reviews/811097/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Who dares doesn't always win, apparently. BioShock Infinite is a game that far too often goes only halfway in realizing its many grand ambitions. It dares to speak on ever-relevant issues of racism, classism, and nationalism, but in an odd twist of irony, it marginalizes these plot elements that, in the real world, often lead to oppression and marginalization to instead focus on some good old-fashioned mind-bending speculative science fiction. It admirably deigns to not fall back on jarring cutscenes, but predicates most of its major mechanics on familiar shooting structures, leaving most of its truly affecting moments to be navigated through singular button-presses, that is, if you are given the opportunity to have any real input in these moments in the first place. It wants you to lose yourself in the visually engrossing but philosophically abhorrent world of Columbia, but many of the floating city's major players are paper-thin caricatures, and the game's wealth of audiologs feels cheaper and more overly-convenient than ever.

Still, it must be said that the fact that Infinite even partly accomplishes any of the tasks that it sets out for itself is hugely impressive. Considering many games have difficulties spicing up even the most rote shooting mechanics, unleash a deluge of cutscenes and quicktime events on players at every possible opportunity, and often struggle to not, themselves, be racist, BioShock Infinite stands out as an important step forward for big budget games that strive for serious artistry and drama. Irrational's latest isn't the gaming medium's magnum opus of cultural expression that one might expect given the game's self-serious artistic posturing, and huge critical acclaim, but it's still an utterly important release, and a damn good one too.

This is because there are plenty of things that Infinite gets totally right. The game's astounding audiovisual presentation is perhaps the foremost place to start. The game doesn't overtly flex any technical wizardry in the way an id or Crytek release might, but its sheer artistic splendor makes it one of the very best looking games of this console generation. At the root of this is no doubt the game's stellar environment, which ranks among the pantheon of gaming's greatest settings.

In the game's opening hour, players are slowly, calmly introduced to the seeming utopia of Columbia, an opulent, sun-drenched city above the clouds defined by exaggerated American expressions. Bright, idyllic gardens surround grand Palladian building; a peaceful stillness remains pervasive even through bustling storefronts and chatting citizens, only to occasionally be interrupted by enticing music selections (seriously, pay attention to this game's soundtrack), or - as players will encounter soon after arrival - a gleeful carnival complete with silly games and booming fireworks.

The game is wise to devote such a long period of time to simply navigating and luxuriating in its enticing environment, as Columbia is a true marvel that demonstrates the fact that Infinite's surely ungodly budget was put to good use - Irrational's hugely talented art team seems to have been truly unleashed. And though the game reserves for itself a few more simple moments of quietude, players will also soon discover their chief motivation for the rip-roaring action that consumes the vast majority of Infinite's running time.

Lead by the self-righteous and disturbed Father Comstock, most of Columbia's denizens have adopted a worldview that takes notions of American Exceptionalism to ridiculous but no less frightening extremes. Here, other religions have been extinguished in favor of a faith that idealizes America's founding fathers, as well as Comstock and his family, and all but the Anglo-Saxon adherents to this dogma are marginalized, reviled and exploited. This, as you might imagine, is causing some problems within the floating city, and tensions continually escalate from the moment you arrive.

But don't ready your spinning skyhook just yet, as there's quite a bit to dissect with this hefty plot setup. As mentioned before, Infinite has no qualms about diving headfirst into seemingly risky storytelling territory. But, much like the original BioShock's awkward and contradictory critique of Randian Objectivism, Infinite handles its set of sociopolitical critiques in a rather bumbling, heavy-handed, and ultimately ineffective way. For most of the game, these heavy themes of discrimination are mostly shock with little substance. Early on, for example, players will find themselves in the headquarters of The Fraternal Order of the Raven, an environment whose every last bit of iconography - including statues of John Wilkes Boothe, and enemies garbed in darkened Klu Klux Klan robes - spews bigoted filth. Troubling, to be sure, but this environment is never explored to a satisfactory degree in a narrative context. We are never told what drove the Order's members to this disgusting mindset, or what function it plays in Columbian society as a whole; instead we're instructed to simply tear through the environment, dismembering every racist we can find. Indeed, almost every one of the game's on-the-nose explorations of racism and jingoism seems to exist as more out of a desire to simply justify Infinite's absurd level of bombastic violence than a willingness to earnestly and cerebrally comment on these weighty issues.

It's a true shame, but again, the fact that the game is willing to go to these dark places in an upfront and confrontational manner when most games dodge around similar issues or make heavy use of metaphor and allegory in order to indirectly speak on them is commendable, even if it keeps Infinite's apparent daring from being something to truly celebrate.

But there is a second major component of Infinite's ideological critique, one that is much more subtly woven throughout the game, and one that ultimately cuts much deeper. Forgiveness and rebirth, in regards to its inherent inclusion in many major religions, is relentlessly examined and scrutinized over the course of the campaign in some truly unsettling ways. This side of the game's narrative might be so uncomfortable, in fact, as to offend adherents to the faiths that Infinite draws some heavily parallels to with its own disturbing belief system. The fact, however, that these themes aren't merely dabbled in, as are the game's superficial commentaries discrimination, but rather made absolutely integral to the core narrative and explored fully and fearlessly leads Infinite, in this instance, to fully live up to its grandiose goals. This is the moment where Infinite's narrative triumphs, and I can only hope that more games follow in its footsteps in bringing to light serious thematic content in a more direct manner, as can be seen so often in other media yet so rarely within video games.

Alright, here's where you can start revving up your skyhook. As he progresses through the carnival that greets him as he first steps foot in Columbia, Booker DeWitt, the game's playable and decidedly not-mute protagonist, begins to fully unravel the noxious worldview of Columbia's inhabitants. On his way towards a strange raffle that serves as the fair's main event, Comstock's voice booms over a loudspeaker, warning the citizens of Columbia about the arrival of the False Prophet, a man who has the letters "AD" burned into his right hand. Sure enough, our anti-hero holds his hand up to reveal that exact marking. And sure enough, during this eerie raffle event, the Columbians take notice of the mark, and Booker DeWitt swiftly digs a spinning hookblade into the skull of the first police officer that attempts to apprehend him.

With this, BioShock Infinite reveals its heavy emphasis on twitchy shooter gameplay and ridiculous amounts of gore. Engaging in the game's slick shooting mechanics feels no different than it might in the latest Call of Duty game; guns have a fantastic sense of weight to them and the responsiveness and ingenuity of the game's heads-up display ensures steady environmental awareness despite the over-the-top freneticism of many of the game's combat sequences. But where Infinite's combat truly shines is in its surprising mechanical density. Vigors that grant Booker special powers like the ability to shoot electricity from his fingertips or absorb bullets and toss them right back at foes serve as the first extra layering. For those familiar with the series, these powers might seem quite like the Plasmids introduced in the first BioShock, and though they do perform the same function, they're implemented in a far more balanced way in Infinite than they are in its predecessors; they're powerful and readily available but must be dealt out conservatively, as the mana pool they run on is rather restrictive.

But as gleefully destructive as they can be, Vigors are decidedly uninteresting in the face of Infinite's more inspired new mechanics. Booker's ability to latch onto the aerial Skylines running throughout Columbia is perhaps the most mind-blowing gameplay feature of them all. Though the mechanic seemed rather unbelievable during its first E3 showing a couple years ago, it speaks to the ingenuity of the game's level design that fluidly navigating Skylines that weave throughout many of the game's rather conspicuous battle arenas while taking shots at enemies, a potentially disorienting feat, becomes effortless after only a few encounters. The verticality and freedom of movement this system grants the game is awe-inspiring, and almost attaches a sense of childlike wonder to the act of mass-murdering racists.

For the first few hours of gameplay, these are the mechanics that Booker is limited to. It's during this time that he seeks to accomplish a seemingly simple direction mandated by a mysterious client: "Give us the girl, and wipe away the debt." Though this phrase ends up holding more significance than an uninitiated player could possibly know, it nonetheless serves as the impetus for finding Elizabeth, a young woman whose power to tear holes in the space-time continuum has, perhaps expectedly, lead her to be sequestered on the looming, Statue of Liberty-esque research facility, Monument Island.

So, as one might expect, this ability of hers adds more than a few layers of complexity to what might've otherwise been a rather straightforward plot. As the extent of her powers is gradually revealed, a suitably mind-bending narrative begins to form that comments, among other things, on the frail nature of identity and the profound ways in which a single choice can influence personhood, for better or worse. Though the introduction of converging space-time might seem to risk devolving the story into an Inception-esque exercise in overly complex authorial self-indulgence, BioShock Infinite uses this storytelling conceit to build a truly tragedian narrative.

But Elizabeth isn't merely a means for crafting a brain-melting metaphysical storyline. Nor is Booker DeWitt a stupefied on-looker who hails from the same lineage of horribly flat shooter protagonists as Gordon Freeman, or Corvo Attano. They are both memorable characters whose defined personalities infuse the plot's affecting tragedy with a true sense of humanity. Elizabeth, on one hand, starts out as a surprisingly cultured and self-aware inversion of the classic damsel-in-distress trope, and her evolution over the course of the game's ten- to twelve-hour campaign is astonishingly well-paced and believable. Her exaggerated features and expressive animations that pay homage to the distinctive style Grim Natwick invented for Disney solidify her as one of the most memorable and empathetic characters in gaming. DeWitt, by contrast, is predominately a closed-book, limiting himself to practical, yet charismatic antics strongly reminiscent of classic swashbucklers like Han Solo until his dark past is fully revealed during the final act. When that happens, he extends far beyond his narrative role as a foil to Elizabeth, and the resulting revelations cut to the bone. Major compliments are due to Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper, who faultlessly brings this odd couple to life even through all the mind-blowing turns the story takes.

The duo also serve as a great team during Infinite's huge combat sequences. Though Booker, as mentioned before, is in charge of most of the direct combat, Elizabeth is a key ingredient in what makes the game's massive shootouts so dazzling. Most significantly, she uses her ability to alter time and space to bring objects into the battlefields that didn't previously exist. Asking for a wall of cover to hide behind when a dozen enemies are facing you down, or perhaps a Skyhook that lets you access a sniper perch adds an exciting tactical dynamism to combat that feels especially important considering the sheer number of foes the game throws at you. Since you can only select one object to tear in at a time, more heated battles require a constant mindfulness and economization of Elizabeth's power that is as exhilaratingly strategic as the best of tactical shooters.

A smaller, but no less genius touch is the fact that Elizabeth tosses you mana and ammo when it feels clutch. Even when it becomes obvious that she's scripted to do so whenever your resources are running low, the notion that an AI is looking out for you is relentlessly fulfilling, especially in a game that constructs a scenario that might've so easily fallen into the dreaded escort-mission trap. Indeed, going back to other first-person shooters has become tough, as Elizabeth is not just a delightful companion in a narrative sense, but she's also integral to the satisfaction of Infinite's moment-to-moment combat proceedings.

Each of the augments to the core shooting experience are satisfying in their own right, but once they all start working in tandem, Infinite's combat scenarios reach the upper-echelon of FPS sublimation. Not since Half-Life 2 has a shooter married pulse-pounding twitch thrills to a deeply strategic core so seamlessly, and while leaving so much room for experimentation. The gritty sound design that punctuates the action is equally superb; a combination of abrasive string stabs, impactful weapon sound effects and some truly horrifying enemy damage reactions unfailingly sell you on the weighty ferocity of the mayhem you cause.

All this, of course, sounds amazing, and on some level it truly is. But consider this: for all its fast-paced entertainment, Infinite's combat never fully works. In a mechanical sense, it's pretty much as polished as can be, but the game's massive amount of carnage doesn't quite work within the context of the story. In fact, story and gameplay don't feel merged at all. While there's a fair amount of narrative justification for the heavy degree of violence, the fact that shooting people and ripping their heads of with a spinning hook is pretty much Booker's only way of interacting with the world undercuts much of the arresting emotionality of Infinite's narrative.

Highlighting this problem is the fact that many of the game's most powerful moments either preclude player input, or limit interactivity to the push of a single button. Elizabeth's ability to tear holes in the space-time continuum, for example, may have been the basis for some ingenious puzzle solving and narrative interaction, but players are instead left to simply push a button to demand entry into a new reality where they can proceed to shoot more people in the face. Again, this feels like BioShock Infinite going only halfway in bringing its many fantastic ideas to life; some truly inventive mechanical structures may have been borne out of the game's central narrative conceits, but Irrational has disappointingly opted to instead rely on more comfortable and pre-established action gameplay.

This disconnect is furthered by the game's odd focus on scavenging between each firefight. While the opportunity to really dig into and appreciate each environment, as well as get a break from the nearly nonstop action is welcome, the context of the narrative doesn't really support these detours either. Booker's mission is given an impactful sense of urgency, so the fact that the game encourages you to stop down for long stretches of time to eat random food items littered about and try to uncover Columbia's many secrets is rather off-putting. Early on, for instance, Elizabeth finds herself in immediate danger. An objective indicator flashes on-screen telling you to go rescue her, yet you find yourself surrounded by lootable objects designated by a pulsating golden glow. Of all the moments to try and fish pieces of cake out of a trashcan, this may be the least opportune, but Infinite's structure, which evidently values narrative over gameplay in terms of pacing and logic, continues to tempt you astray regardless. This might all seem a bit nitpicky, but considering the fact that Infinite is so intent on being treated as a significant work of art, these small annoyances can't be ignored, as they gradually undermine the meaning the game tries so hard to construct for itself.

BioShock Infinite is a game worth any mature player's while, but it has come at an unfortunate time. Within the past year alone, the industry has been treated to games like Spec Ops: The Line, The Walking Dead, and Hotline Miami, just a few titles that are capable of eloquently and expertly exploring dark themes while being cognizant of their respective mechanics' impact on the narratives they try to weave, making a game like Infinite - one that never fully accounts for the ways in which its gameplay influences the meaning and effectiveness of its story - seem a bit clumsy by comparison. David Jaffe, the brilliant designer behind games like God of War and Twisted Metal once deemed the relationship between gameplay and narrative as being like the combination of "chocolate and tunafish." I would argue that this claim isn't necessarily true, and games like Spec Ops are perfect demonstrations as to why that is. In the case of Infinite, however, Jaffe's argument has a haunting validity. But take heart, the chocolate that is BioShock Infinite's gameplay and the tunafish that is its story are pretty much premium grade when enjoyed separately. Just accept the fact that the combination is going to taste a little odd and find something to savor within it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"WTA2k5 reviewed BioShock Infinite for the Xbox 360..." was posted by WTA2k5 on Tue, 07 May 2013 15:08:22 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock-infinite/user-reviews/811097/platform/xbox360/ Tue, 07 May 2013 13:42:46 -0700 WTA2k5 reviewed BioShock Infinite for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock-infinite/user-reviews/811095/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Who dares doesn't always win, apparently. BioShock Infinite is a game that far too often goes only halfway in realizing its many grand ambitions. It dares to speak on ever-relevant issues of racism, classism, and nationalism, but in an odd twist of irony, it marginalizes these plot elements that, in the real world, often lead to oppression and marginalization to instead focus on some good old-fashioned mind-bending speculative science fiction. It admirably deigns to not fall back on jarring cutscenes, but predicates most of its major mechanics on familiar shooting structures, leaving most of its truly affecting moments to be navigated through singular button-presses, that is, if you are given the opportunity to have any real input in these moments in the first place. It wants you to lose yourself in the visually engrossing but philosophically abhorrent world of Columbia, but many of the floating city's major players are paper-thin caricatures, and the game's wealth of audiologs feels cheaper and more overly-convenient than ever.

Still, it must be said that the fact that Infinite even partly accomplishes any of the tasks that it sets out for itself is hugely impressive. Considering have huge difficulties spicing up even the most rote shooting mechanics, unleash a deluge of cutscenes and quicktime events on players at every possible opportunity, and often struggle to not, themselves, be racist, BioShock Infinite stands out as an important step forward for big budget games that strive for serious artistry and drama. Irrational's latest isn't the gaming medium's magnum opus of cultural expression that one might expect given the game's self-serious artistic posturing, and huge critical acclaim, but it's still an utterly important release, and a damn good one too.

This is because there are plenty of things that Infinite gets totally right. The game's astounding audiovisual presentation is perhaps the foremost place to start. The game doesn't overtly flex any technical wizardry in the way an id or Crytek release might, but its sheer artistic splendor makes it one of the very best looking games of this console generation. At the root of this is no doubt the game's stellar environment, which ranks among the pantheon of gaming's greatest settings.

In the game's opening hour, players are slowly, calmly introduced to the seeming utopia of Columbia, an opulent, sun-drenched city above the clouds defined by exaggerated American expressions. Bright, idyllic gardens surround grand Palladian building; a peaceful stillness remains pervasive even through bustling storefronts and chatting citizens, only to occasionally be interrupted by enticing music selections (seriously, pay attention to this game's soundtrack), or - as players will encounter soon after arrival - a gleeful carnival complete with silly games and booming fireworks.

The game is wise to devote such a long period of time to simply navigating and luxuriating in its enticing environment, as Columbia is a true marvel that demonstrates the fact that Infinite's surely ungodly budget was put to good use - Irrational's hugely talented art team seems to have been truly unleashed. And though the game reserves for itself a few more simple moments of quietude, players will also soon discover their chief motivation for the rip-roaring action that consumes the vast majority of Infinite's running time.

Lead by the self-righteous and disturbed Father Comstock, most of Columbia's denizens have adopted a worldview that takes notions of American Exceptionalism to ridiculous but no less frightening extremes. Here, other religions have been extinguished in favor of a faith that idealizes America's founding fathers, as well as Comstock and his family, and all but the Anglo-Saxon adherents to this dogma are marginalized, reviled and exploited. This, as you might imagine, is causing some problems within the floating city, and tensions continually escalate from the moment you arrive.

But don't ready your spinning skyhook just yet, as there's quite a bit to dissect with this hefty plot setup. As mentioned before, Infinite has no qualms about diving headfirst into seemingly risky storytelling territory. But, much like the original BioShock's awkward and contradictory critique of Randian Objectivism, Infinite handles its set of sociopolitical critiques in a rather bumbling, heavy-handed, and ultimately ineffective way. For most of the game, these heavy themes of discrimination are mostly shock with little substance. Early on, for example, players will find themselves in the headquarters of The Fraternal Order of the Raven, an environment whose every last bit of iconography - including statues of John Wilkes Boothe, and enemies garbed in darkened Klu Klux Klan robes - spews bigoted filth. Troubling, to be sure, but this environment is never explored to a satisfactory degree in a narrative context. We are never told what drove the Order's members to this disgusting mindset, or what function it plays in Columbian society as a whole; instead we're instructed to simply tear through the environment, dismembering every racist we can find. Indeed, almost every one of the game's on-the-nose explorations of racism and jingoism seems to exist as more out of a desire to simply justify Infinite's absurd level of bombastic violence than a willingness to earnestly and cerebrally comment on these weighty issues.

It's a true shame, but again, the fact that the game is willing to go to these dark places in an upfront and confrontational manner when most games dodge around similar issues or make heavy use of metaphor and allegory in order to indirectly speak on them is commendable, even if it keeps Infinite's apparent daring from being something to truly celebrate.

But there is a second major component of Infinite's ideological critique, one that is much more subtly woven throughout the game, and one that ultimately cuts much deeper. Forgiveness and rebirth, in regards to its inherent inclusion in many major religions, is relentlessly examined and scrutinized over the course of the campaign in some truly unsettling ways. This side of the game's narrative might be so uncomfortable, in fact, as to offend adherents to the faiths that Infinite draws some heavily parallels to with its own disturbing belief system. The fact, however, that these themes aren't merely dabbled in, as are the game's superficial commentaries discrimination, but rather made absolutely integral to the core narrative and explored fully and fearlessly leads Infinite, in this instance, to fully live up to its grandiose goals. This is the moment where Infinite's narrative triumphs, and I can only hope that more games follow in its footsteps in bringing to light serious thematic content in a more direct manner, as can be seen so often in other media yet so rarely within video games.

Alright, here's where you can start revving up your skyhook. As he progresses through the carnival that greets him as he first steps foot in Columbia, Booker DeWitt, the game's playable and decidedly not-mute protagonist, begins to fully unravel the noxious worldview of Columbia's inhabitants. On his way towards a strange raffle that serves as the fair's main event, Comstock's voice booms over a loudspeaker, warning the citizens of Columbia about the arrival of the False Prophet, a man who has the letters "AD" burned into his right hand. Sure enough, our anti-hero holds his hand up to reveal that exact marking. And sure enough, during this eerie raffle event, the Columbians take notice of the mark, and Booker DeWitt swiftly digs a spinning hookblade into the skull of the first police officer that attempts to apprehend him.

With this, BioShock Infinite reveals its heavy emphasis on twitchy shooter gameplay and ridiculous amounts of gore. Engaging in the game's slick shooting mechanics feels no different than it might in the latest Call of Duty game; guns have a fantastic sense of weight to them and the responsiveness and ingenuity of the game's heads-up display ensures steady environmental awareness despite the over-the-top freneticism of many of the game's combat sequences. But where Infinite's combat truly shines is in its surprising mechanical density. Vigors that grant Booker special powers like the ability to shoot electricity from his fingertips or absorb bullets and toss them right back at foes serve as the first extra layering. For those familiar with the series, these powers might seem quite like the Plasmids introduced in the first BioShock, and though they do perform the same function, they're implemented in a far more balanced way in Infinite than they are in its predecessors; they're powerful and readily available but must be dealt out conservatively, as the mana pool they run on is rather restrictive.

But as gleefully destructive as they can be, Vigors are decidedly uninteresting in the face of Infinite's more inspired new mechanics. Booker's ability to latch onto the aerial Skylines running throughout Columbia is perhaps the most mind-blowing gameplay feature of them all. Though the mechanic seemed rather unbelievable during its first E3 showing a couple years ago, it speaks to the ingenuity of the game's level design that fluidly navigating Skylines that weave throughout many of the game's rather conspicuous battle arenas while taking shots at enemies, a potentially disorienting feat, becomes effortless after only a few encounters. The verticality and freedom of movement this system grants the game is awe-inspiring, and almost attaches a sense of childlike wonder to the act of mass-murdering racists.

For the first few hours of gameplay, these are the mechanics that Booker is limited to. It's during this time that he seeks to accomplish a seemingly simple direction mandated by a mysterious client: "Give us the girl, and wipe away the debt." Though this phrase ends up holding more significance than an uninitiated player could possibly know, it nonetheless serves as the impetus for finding Elizabeth, a young woman whose power to tear holes in the space-time continuum has, perhaps expectedly, lead her to be sequestered on the looming, Statue of Liberty-esque research facility, Monument Island.

So, as one might expect, this ability of hers adds more than a few layers of complexity to what might've otherwise been a rather straightforward plot. As the extent of her powers is gradually revealed, a suitably mind-bending narrative begins to form that comments, among other things, on the frail nature of identity and the profound ways in which a single choice can influence personhood, for better or worse. Though the introduction of converging space-time might seem to risk devolving the story into an Inception-esque exercise in overly complex authorial self-indulgence, BioShock Infinite uses this storytelling conceit to build a truly tragedian narrative.

But Elizabeth isn't merely a means for crafting a brain-melting metaphysical storyline. Nor is Booker DeWitt a stupefied on-looker who hails from the same lineage of horribly flat shooter protagonists as Gordon Freeman, or Corvo Attano. They are both memorable characters whose defined personalities infuse the plot's affecting tragedy with a true sense of humanity. Elizabeth, on one hand, starts out as a surprisingly cultured and self-aware inversion of the classic damsel-in-distress trope, and her evolution over the course of the game's ten- to twelve-hour campaign is astonishingly well-paced and believable. Her exaggerated features and expressive animations that pay homage to the distinctive style Grim Natwick invented for Disney solidify her as one of the most memorable and empathetic characters in gaming. DeWitt, by contrast, is predominately a closed-book, limiting himself to practical, yet charismatic antics strongly reminiscent of classic swashbucklers like Han Solo until his dark past is fully revealed during the final act. When that happens, he extends far beyond his narrative role as a foil to Elizabeth, and the resulting revelations cut to the bone. Major compliments are due to Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper, who faultlessly brings this odd couple to life even through all the mind-blowing turns the story takes.

The duo also serve as a great team during Infinite's huge combat sequences. Though Booker, as mentioned before, is in charge of most of the direct combat, Elizabeth is a key ingredient in what makes the game's massive shootouts so dazzling. Most significantly, she uses her ability to alter time and space to bring objects into the battlefields that didn't previously exist. Asking for a wall of cover to hide behind when a dozen enemies are facing you down, or perhaps a Skyhook that lets you access a sniper perch adds an exciting tactical dynamism to combat that feels especially important considering the sheer number of foes the game throws at you. Since you can only select one object to tear in at a time, more heated battles require a constant mindfulness and economization of Elizabeth's power that is as exhilaratingly strategic as the best of tactical shooters.

A smaller, but no less genius touch is the fact that Elizabeth tosses you mana and ammo when it feels clutch. Even when it becomes obvious that she's scripted to do so whenever your resources are running low, the notion that an AI is looking out for you is relentlessly fulfilling, especially in a game that constructs a scenario that might've so easily fallen into the dreaded escort-mission trap. Indeed, going back to other first-person shooters has become tough, as Elizabeth is not just a delightful companion in a narrative sense, but she's also integral to the satisfaction of Infinite's moment-to-moment combat proceedings.

Each of the augments to the core shooting experience are satisfying in their own right, but once they all start working in tandem, Infinite's combat scenarios reach the upper-echelon of FPS sublimation. Not since Half-Life 2 has a shooter married pulse-pounding twitch thrills to a deeply strategic core so seamlessly, and while leaving so much room for experimentation. The gritty sound design that punctuates the action is equally superb; a combination of abrasive string stabs, impactful weapon sound effects and some truly horrifying enemy damage reactions unfailingly sell you on the weighty ferocity of the mayhem you cause.

All this, of course, sounds amazing, and on some level it truly is. But consider this: for all its fast-paced entertainment, Infinite's combat never fully works. In a mechanical sense, it's pretty much as polished as can be, but the game's massive amount of carnage doesn't quite work within the context of the story. In fact, story and gameplay don't feel merged at all. While there's a fair amount of narrative justification for the heavy degree of violence, the fact that shooting people and ripping their heads of with a spinning hook is pretty much Booker's only way of interacting with the world undercuts much of the arresting emotionality of Infinite's narrative.

Highlighting this problem is the fact that many of the game's most powerful moments either preclude player input, or limit interactivity to the push of a single button. Elizabeth's ability to tear holes in the space-time continuum, for example, may have been the basis for some ingenious puzzle solving and narrative interaction, but players are instead left to simply push a button to demand entry into a new reality where they can proceed to shoot more people in the face. Again, this feels like BioShock Infinite going only halfway in bringing its many fantastic ideas to life; some truly inventive mechanical structures may have been borne out of the game's central narrative conceits, but Irrational has disappointingly opted to instead rely on more comfortable and pre-established action gameplay.

This disconnect is furthered by the game's odd focus on scavenging between each firefight. While the opportunity to really dig into and appreciate each environment, as well as get a break from the nearly nonstop action is welcome, the context of the narrative doesn't really support these detours either. Booker's mission is given an impactful sense of urgency, so the fact that the game encourages you to stop down for long stretches of time to eat random food items littered about and try to uncover Columbia's many secrets is rather off-putting. Early on, for instance, Elizabeth finds herself in immediate danger. An objective indicator flashes on-screen telling you to go rescue her, yet you find yourself surrounded by lootable objects designated by a pulsating golden glow. Of all the moments to try and fish pieces of cake out of a trashcan, this may be the least opportune, but Infinite's structure, which evidently values narrative over gameplay in terms of pacing and logic, continues to tempt you astray regardless. This might all seem a bit nitpicky, but considering the fact that Infinite is so intent on being treated as a significant work of art, these small annoyances can't be ignored, as they gradually undermine the meaning the game tries so hard to construct for itself.

BioShock Infinite is a game worth any mature player's while, but it has come at an unfortunate time. Within the past year alone, the industry has been treated to games like Spec Ops: The Line, The Walking Dead, and Hotline Miami, just a few titles that are capable of eloquently and expertly exploring dark themes while being cognizant of their respective mechanics' impact on the narratives they try to weave, making a game like Infinite - one that never fully accounts for the ways in which its gameplay influences the meaning and effectiveness of its story - seem a bit clumsy by comparison. David Jaffe, the brilliant designer behind games like God of War and Twisted Metal once deemed the relationship between gameplay and narrative as being like the combination of "chocolate and tunafish." I would argue that this claim isn't necessarily true, and games like Spec Ops are perfect demonstrations as to why that is. In the case of Infinite, however, Jaffe's argument has a haunting validity. But take heart, the chocolate that is BioShock Infinite's gameplay and the tunafish that is its story are pretty much premium grade when enjoyed separately. Just accept the fact that the combination is to taste a little odd and find something to savor within it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"WTA2k5 reviewed BioShock Infinite for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by WTA2k5 on Tue, 07 May 2013 13:42:46 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock-infinite/user-reviews/811095/platform/ps3/ Mon, 06 May 2013 16:22:20 -0700 No_SuRReNDeR reviewed Mars: War Logs for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/mars-war-logs/user-reviews/811069/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Mars War Logs doesnt seem to have much to do with being in an actual war or exploring Mars at all for that matter. Heck it really doesnt seem to have much to do with logs but its a decent attempt at a Mass Effect/KOTR type downloadable via STEAM action RPG.

The game starts off with a monologue from what you ASSUME is the games lead protagonist, Innocence. And no I am not making this up the characters have really peculiar names almost to the point of absurdity. Innocence has been captured and is heading to a POW camp on Mars of course. This is turned on its head slightly after a near man rape get fouled by Roy the games ACTUAL protagonist aka YOU. Anyway after exploring around Roy eventually lets innocence in on his plan to escape the POW camp. As far as I can tell the bulk of the game seems to take place in this POW camp.

Graphics- 8.0
Well turned up all the way the graphics aren't half bad. Character models look pretty good and details like Roy's multicolored eyes are easily noticeable. The lighting is OK, the RED sandy look of Mars and atmosphere are OK too... for a $20 dollar game...they actually did put allot of work in here. My only gripe is the EXTREME repetition of character models. get used to seeming familiar faces*cough Witcher 1* cough....

Controlls- 6.0
Ok so you can play 2 ways Mouse keyboard or Controller. I use an X360 controller with the wireless dongle and I decided to go that route. Generally speaking I think its better in a NON FPS game to be able to play with a controller.... here NO NO NO.... Although they mapped everything well and the controls are not always responsive and you have to work your but off with the controller for 1 reason. NO lock on character, so you CONSTANTLY have to fix your camera with the right thumb stick and strange camera angles will get you killed here as the combat is rather unforgiving... at first. My advice is dont use a controller, the keyboard and mouse is more forgiving.

Sound- 7.5
Roy's voice at first seemed odd to me but it like many of the games quirks finally grew on me about 8 hours in. The voice acting is actually pretty good, not sure I agree with the casting but the acting is of quality here. Music is not very good in my humble opinion...its just the typical weird martian ambiance crud...nothing above good enough.

Story - 8

I think the prison escape thing is played out but I kinda like Roy and Innocence's plight and I enjoy the various characters and clever dialog. Its not the best story but it has me intrigued by its lack of grandiose themes....its not save the universe its much more personal and I like that.

Big GRIPES ---

I push the button to crouch and go into "stealth" mode.... there is no way of knowing how "stealthy" you are until a guard/prsioner screams "get him". Also once combat starts you cant re-stealth Roy till ALL the enemies are dead...You also cant pick up any loot these are very annoying and will cause you problems.
---- for time I will leave out my gripes about the combat system but its no Arkam Assylum I will say that.

Your AI partner --- So essential Innocence has a small purpose stand there as cannon fodder so you can focus on fewer enemies.... THAT IS IT... no matter how you slice it. Although some AI companions you get or will get I should say... will be much much better. Still more thought in this partner set up would have helped.
----------------------

Conclusion...

Ok so its not a BAD game...in fact Id say its a rather good one just allot of little issues that could have been fixed really keep it from blowing me away in way. The importing thing here is that ITS ONLY 20 BUCKS>> and if you like mature adult games in the vein of Mass Effect you are doing yourself a disservice by NOT checking out this game...stick with it at least until you get past the caves and do some weapon crafting...Mars War Logs may not be everything you hope for in a game like this but its still worth the LOW price of admission.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"No_SuRReNDeR reviewed Mars: War Logs for the PC..." was posted by No_SuRReNDeR on Mon, 06 May 2013 16:22:20 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/mars-war-logs/user-reviews/811069/platform/pc/ Sun, 05 May 2013 16:44:24 -0700 pokecharm reviewed Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS... http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-revelations/user-reviews/811037/platform/3ds/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

Resident Evil Revelations was the first game that drew my attention to the 3DS. The story is just as derivative as you would expect with a series that has such a lengthy history, at points you're not sure which was is up, and I strongly encourage you watch through the credits for any hidden pieces.

The story follows various different characters, two familiar to long-time fans, Chris Redfeild and Jill Valentine. With those two, you also pick up a bevy of new characters who are both memorable and forgettable. My favourite is the kid paired with Qunit who's name escapes me. The story is set between Resident Evil 4 and 5, placing this after Leon's adventure and by far my favourite of all the RE games. Jill and Chris are separated for the beginning of the game, introducing two new characters, Parker and Jessica. Neither are all that memorable, but at the same time, I did feel like they were very dynamic characters, their motivations and dialogue leading you to believe they were real people and not flat characters as you would see in a Gears of War like game.

The story gets dizzying at times, but what stood out for me the most was the variety of weapons. You start off with a pair of standard weapons and one melee weapon. As you move through the game and go into different areas, as you get more items, you get more and more powerful weapons. Upgrades are found that can be swapped in and out of each weapon. Much like the recent change to Dead Space, you can apply an addition to each weapon, if you don't like how it works, you can swap it to another with no penalty. I ended up sticking with the shotgun and machine gun as my most favourite weapons, putting the most powerful upgrades in each.

The game is featured on a smaller console, and while I could tell the difference in the 3D, once again, I can't say I was overly impressed by the 3DS display. The cut scenes were decently rendered, but the actual game play graphics are limited by the tiny 3DS screen and the passable 3D graphics. I do wonder how they will upconvert the graphics with the console cousin coming out soon.

The controls and game play were easy to pick up and understand. During some of the boss battles, things would seem get frustrating, forcing you to press a certain button repeatedly to get up or force you to press the reload button when your character should auto-reload when you ran out of ammo. There was very little dodge to the dodge button, which also made some sequences tough. At varying points, you couldn't avoid hits from the enemies, making boss battles especially challenging.

The length of the game was appropriate given that it is a mobile game. I finished the game over the weekend, putting in less than 10 hours. While this isn't the best RE game I've ever played, it is the best one I've played in recent memory. The game does feel a lot like RE4 in both controls and story. It is well worth playing, though perhaps not for the full $40 I paid when it was released.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"pokecharm reviewed Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS..." was posted by pokecharm on Sun, 05 May 2013 16:44:24 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-revelations/user-reviews/811037/platform/3ds/