RebelMac's GameSpot Friend's Reviews RebelMac's GameSpot Friend's Reviews RebelMac's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:20:41 -0700 GameSpot RebelMac's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 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/ Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:06:36 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed Journey for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/journey/user-reviews/812291/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Journey is hard to explain. You get dropped in to a world where nothing is told. Where there are no huds, tutorial or any instructions at all. This game does nothing to introduce you to the world or what you have been dropped into.

The Bad:
Don't get me wrong. This game has little to any flaws at all. But some people might not like the linear form this game has or deeper gameplay.

The Good:
Everything about this game is really sublime. The character, the story, the world, the graphics and music are all amazing.
The story is what you make it out to be. It can be an analogy for several things in life in general. I don't want to go deeper, because it's something the player has to go through and something each person have to decide for themselves.
The music is just stunning through the entire game. The game gives this game a lot of depth and meaning and is really amazing to listen to. It tells you how good a great soundtrack when the composer has won an emmy.
The visuals are stunning and simple at the same time. The game just looks so amazing. It really has it's own unique look and just looks amazing through the whole game.
The gameplay is solid and is also very unique with random nameless players joining in and going on the same journey without any way of communicating and not showing their names is something very unique.

Overall:
The game is an experience and every gamer or none gamer should experience this visual deep story. It has amazing graphics and unique game mechanics. The game is amazing and worth getting.

+Stunning Visuals
+Unique Presentation
+Unique Co-Op experience
+Unique experience and story

Get the full article at GameSpot

"The_Last_Ride reviewed Journey for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by The_Last_Ride on Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:06:36 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/journey/user-reviews/812291/platform/ps3/ Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:32:53 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed Medal of Honor for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/medal-of-honor/user-reviews/812268/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Medal of Honor takes on a realistic approach to war and soldiers. The games takes a squad in the war on terror. This squad gets in the middle of terrorism and the taliban. With this game they are trying to tell a soldiers side to the story without over the top action or fancy futuristic weapons or gadgets. In this game you also get to view the story from different perspectives from the squad you get to follow around.

The Bad:
The story is extremely linear. It makes no effort to make the player take different approaches or exploration. It makes every gun fight a straight up shooting gallery and keeps you shooting until the enemy or the player is down.
The gameplay doesn't really make it stand out. Even though it takes a realistic approach, there isn't a whole lot that makes this very unique compared to other shooters. It doesn't really stand out for those that hoped this games was something very different.
Even though the multiplayer has some interesting modes. It doesn't really set itself apart from other shooters with progression modes or different styles of playing the multiplayer.

The Good:
The story is really good. It has a really emotional ending that doesn't come out of nowhere, but is built through the game with having stackes in the characters through the game's story. It doesn't have anything over the top, but it makes it more realistic.
The audio is great and doesn't really do a whole lot wrong. It gets the job done in the end of the day.
The voice acting is good, and makes the characters believable. It gives them more life, and it's great to see not only jumping from one scene to the next without any context.
The graphics still look good on the consoles. It doesn't have any framedrops and has a really realistic look. And makes it a more down to earth game without the over the top action sequences
The multiplayer has some interesting modes and tries to differ itself from others. It does have some lasting appeal.

Overall:
It's a good shooter to at least have a look at and try for the story and also try some of the multiplayer. But compared to others only some that are in the shooter genre might want to try this out and it doesn't really stand out to others. It has a realistic story and tries to tell a good story from a soldiers view.

+Realistic story
+Good Audio
+Good Voice Acting
+Good modes for multiplayer
+Good looking graphics

-Doesn't stand out
-Multiplayer doesn't stand out
- Very Linear Story
-Gunfights feel the same

Get the full article at GameSpot

"The_Last_Ride reviewed Medal of Honor for the Xbox 360..." was posted by The_Last_Ride on Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:32:53 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/medal-of-honor/user-reviews/812268/platform/xbox360/ Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:07:42 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/the-walking-dead-a-telltale-games-series/user-reviews/812233/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

The story takes place when Lee, the main character. Get's a ride from a police officer to take him to to jail. Suddenly everything goes wrong and in the midst he meets Clementine. A girl he takes the responsibility over and gets dependent on Lee. Through the entire story you have to take hard decisions between what you think is right and wrong. There is no black and white in this story. Only doing what you need to do to keep yourself, friends and Clementine alive.You get to experience the story between Clementine and Lee through 5 emotional episodes of Walking Dead.

The Bad:
The Playstation 3 version of this game has some really, really bad framrate issues. So bad that there are actually part of the conversations freeze and you only hear the conversation. This is takes the player really out of the experience and should be fixed.

The gameplay element of this game are really light. It's a point and click adventure. For those looking for really deep gameplay functions may be dissapointed. This can also make the game feel simple sometimes. The diffculty during the gameplay isn't much either, because for the most part it is straight forward.


The Good:
The game tells a really, really great story between several characters. The entire story has a thread going through it, and makes everything you do in the game matter. Whatever you do has consequences. This makes everything harder to decide and actually makes the player make really hard decisions sudden. This makes the story really dynamic and deeper. The main characters are really strong and have a deep relationship between them. The bond Lee and Clementine have through all of the episodes are heartwarming and hearbreaking. You really care what happens to the characters.

The audio and music really set the mood for the story and the setting in all the games. It's not any metal or known singer in them, but they are subtle and don't do too much or too little.

The graphical style of this game is also really good. It has a certain distinctive look and makes the game stand out. This also makes the game look really great. It won't look outdated, which is a really smart design decision. It's distinctive in the way it doesn't look too cartoonish, but make expressions and emotions for all the characters shine through.

Even though the gameplay isn't that deep or really that engaging doesn't mean it doesn't get the job done. It's also very easy for anyone that doesn't even like games to pick these games up just for the story.

Overall:
This is a cheap downloadable game worth gettting. It has a deep engaging story, with believable characters it makes the game stand out. While it doesn't heavily rely on gameplay mechanics other than solving puzzles it gives newcomers to gaming a chance to try out the medium. If you like a deep story driven game that is clever written, then you should try it.

+ Strong story
+ Great characters
+Good looking graphics
+ Easy to pick up
+Consequences that matter

- Frame drops for PS3 version
-Too simple for some gamers

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-walking-dead-a-telltale-games-series/user-reviews/812233/platform/ps3/ 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.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"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


Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> 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 16:55:52 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-bad-company-2/user-reviews/811537/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Bad Company starts takes place with a company that suddenly stumbles on something big on a military mission. With all the different personalities and actually a fun and good story spent on the singleplayer it makes for a great singleplayer story. The multiplayer doesn't lack anything either with a progression system and a lot of destructable enviroments that makes for dynamic gameplay.

The bad:
The graphic does take a hit in this game and does have framerate issues. If you don't care for the greatest graphics this won't be something to take notice of. But some may take notice.
Some of singleplayer events might be annoying with smaller glitches and sometimes quick time/live scenes events taking you out of the experience.
The multiplayer might feel a little familiar to most. The multiplayer does offer detructable enviroment, but doesn't really have anything new than any other shooter when it comes to multiplayer.

The Good:
The singleplayer really gives you a lot of options to approach the situation. Not forcing the player to choose just some random weapon the character is assigned. But actually choosing a weapons the level and what the player wants. The levels are linear, but don't feel linear as it actually might be.
The gameplay itself is really solid and does give the player enough to choose from in multiplayer and singleplayer.
The story is really solid in singleplayer and gives the player a story full of action story. With funny one liners and some great voice acting, it gives the story depth and purpose.
The level design is well done and never feels forced and gives the player enough variety to actually be a good change of pace instead of the constant gun shooting.

Overall:
It's a great shooter with really great singleplayer with humor and depth and a multiplayer that is solid but doesn't really add whole lot to formula, but is still fun to play. I would recomend this to anyone that is a fan of shooters to explore and some that haven't really tried the genre out yet.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-bad-company-2/user-reviews/811537/platform/xbox360/ 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.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/shadow-hearts-covenant/user-reviews/811512/platform/ps2/ Thu, 16 May 2013 21:17:45 -0700 Lucky_Krystal reviewed Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/hyperdimension-neptunia-victory/user-reviews/811401/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory is an extremely niche JRPG developed by Idea Factory/Compile Heart and published by NIS America. It is the third installment to the series, but knowledge of the past two games isn't really needed to understand Victory's story.

I'm going to say it again, because it's a very important point: Neptunia is an extremely niche game. Expectations are key. Neptunia is riddled with that quirky and silly brand of humor that parades almost all the games that NIS America localizes. It constantly pokes fun at itself and never takes itself seriously. If you try to take the game seriously for even a moment, your brain will explode. Trust me, don't do it.

It's heavily story driven nature, anime styled art, moe characters, and light hearted tone will undoubtedly turn some people off. But if you are okay with this sort of thing and give the game a chance, then you won't be disappointed.

Victory takes what mk2 established and further builds on it. In this installment, multiple additions are added to the gameplay. Victory introduces that scout system, used to send out your itty bitty minions to scavenge dungeons for loot. When they come back, they'll report to you, bringing you items, money, other scouts, and sometimes nothing at all. At rare times, they'll report that they've found a way to boost the amount of money and exp you can earn in a dungeon. Sometimes they'll report that they found a hidden area or a brand new dungeon for you to explore.

The game now features an in game achievement system. It calculates things such as number of jumps, damage dealt, damage taken, number of times KO'd, times fought on the front and back lines and so forth. Each time a character attains an achievement, a certain stat will increase.

The battle system has also undergone some slight alterations. The battle system is still turn based. When it's a character's turn, you are allowed to move a certain distance based on the character's MOV stat. You are given 3 kinds of attacks. One type focuses on raw power. Another focuses on breaking the enemy's guard. The last one is for building up the EXE gauge. The EXE gauge is a new feature that allows the characters to use powerful EXE skills as well as a special 4th attack, whereas in the last game, you had to build up a character's individual SP gauge to execute this. Characters are now given full SP stats. Your SP is fully healed only with items and by leveling up. So it's imperative that you spend your SP wisely.

You are allowed 4 members in your party at a time, but you are able to switch out with other members in the vanguard. Pairing up two girls will net you different bonuses in battle. It will also allow you to execute special assist attacks unique to different characters. Though this all depends on the revamped Lily system. In the last game, only Nepgear's relationships with the other characters mattered. This time around, each person has a separate level for every other character. The level must be at a certain point in order for the boosts to take effect.

The coliseum, item synthesizing, quests, and shares all make a comeback and play pretty much the same role as they did in the last game. Though this time around, the ending you get depends on if you've gathered a necessary set of items and scavenged for the hidden dungeons and viewed the cutscenes in these dungeons rather than shares. There are 3 possible endings: The normal ending, good ending, and true ending.

The battle system is addictive and loads of fun. One of my favorite parts is the ability to transform the characters into their far more powerful HDD forms. This mode jacks up their stats to give you the upper hand in battle. Some of your special moves and your EXE attacks will also don a different appearance. Also, the game once again gives you the option to customize your own combos.

The story is a silly, hot mess of gaming and anime references, playful banter, and random events. "It's so bad it's good" perfectly describes the story. It's intended to be something so thrown together and ridiculous that it induces laughter. Neptune gets transferred to an alternate Gameindustri in 1989. She meets alternate versions of the goddesses from her world as well as a new goddess ruling Planeptune named Plutia. A new group of enemies known as the Seven Sages opposes them. The Seven Sages aim to rid Gameindustri of CPUs and start a new nation without them. It's up to Neptune and friends to stop these dastardly evil doers.

The downside to the story would probably be the sheer volume of the dialogue. The game is very text heavy. And it's not even wordy for the sake of giving us some good exposition. Sometimes the characters just spend boxes and boxes of dialogue talking about NOTHING. There is both a skip and an auto advance option but even still, the dialogue could have been condensed considerably and the story probably wouldn't even have suffered. To add to that many of these cutscenes aren't voiced. Only a select few actually are, and it's great to hear the actual actors as opposed to just having music playing and reading unvoiced text. Whether you're playing in Japanese or English, the voice actors breathe life into these fun and hilarious characters each cutscene.

The English dubbing in particular has improved a great deal compared to the previous games. All the actors from the previous game make a great comeback, and it sounds like they have gotten far more comfortable with their characters. New additions such as Cherami Leigh as Plutia and Sandy Fox as Yellow Heart come in gun blazing, hitting all the right notes. But if you hate the English voices still or just prefer the original voices, you can switch over to the Japanese voice acting any time.

I have only a few complaints about the game. Dungeons and enemies are taken and reused from the previous game and stuck onto Victory with very little to no changes. There are some brand new areas and enemies but a lot of them are recycled. The fanservice is not as overblown or explicit as people make it out to be but it's still weird and unnecessary. The frequent innuendo the riddles Iris Heart's dialogue gets real old real quick. The game is also far more grind heavy than mk2. That isn't really a bad thing, seeing as it does give the game a bit of challenge. But not as much, seeing as all you really have to do to beat a particularly difficult boss is level up a bit, buff, and then spam your EXE attacks. The game still lingers on the easy side, though it is more difficult than mk2.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory is a splendid addition to the Neptunia franchise. Packed with a wealth of extra content and three different endings, this game will keep you coming back for more. Not everyone is going to enjoy this game. But the few people who do will find their trek through Gameindustri with Neptune and her eccentric band of weirdoes a marvelous and entertaining one.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/hyperdimension-neptunia-victory/user-reviews/811401/platform/ps3/ Thu, 16 May 2013 21:06:30 -0700 Lucky_Krystal reviewed Catherine for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/catherine/user-reviews/811400/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Catherine is a horror adventure/puzzle game that is engrossing, interesting, and a total blast to play. It's bursting with that unique brand of Atlus quirkiness that us Atlus faithfuls know and love. Everything from the music, graphics, animated cut scenes, gameplay, and story come together for an experience you'll want over and over again.

The story follows our hero Vincent Brooks on his quest through his personal troubles with relationships by day and his trek up a nightmarish tower at night. The story is excellent overall, complemented by its colorful cast of characters. The story deals with themes of infidelity, relationships, maturity, and commitment. You are given the choice of how you want to act in the game. Do you want to live a life of quiet and familiar comfort or do you want a life of chaotic excitement? It's a question the game makes you consider, and your choices mostly revolve around these two questions.

Catherine sports a lovable cast of characters that are brought to life by the superb voice acting and the hilarious and well written script. You won't see any cheesy one liners, flat tones, and cringe worthy delivery here. The all-star cast of veteran voice actors were obviously having a lot of fun with their roles. In addition to the more serious scenes, Catherine has a number of comical moments that even make their appearance in the various endings. Its story has the perfect balance of comedy and thought provoking themes to keep you hooked from the very start. Though to be totally honest, there was a lot of room for Atlus to do much more flesh out the characters and further explore the themes presented. But as it stands, Atlus did a very admirable job in trying to explore more serious themes in a game.

The beginning of the game shows you the basics of scaling the tower. You will push and pull several sets of blocks in order to reach the goal. Each stage has a different setup and requires a different strategy. Each night you are put in a different dungeon with a different boss at the end. It sounds simple enough but there's more to Catherine's gameplay than simply pushing blocks.

The bottom of the dungeon will collapse, so you'll need to get up that tower quickly. As you advance through the game, you will be taught and expected to master different types of techniques for scaling the tower, especially if you choose to take on the harder difficulties. Different types of blocks are also littered across the tower. You have your normal white blocks, heavy blocks, immovable blocks, cracked blocks, bomb blocks, trap blocks, monster blocks, slippery ice blocks, trampoline blocks, and mystery blocks. These blocks can be a big help or an annoying hindrance. In addition, other sheep will sometimes block your path to the top. They'll move blocks to mess up your path, knock you off a block, and some may even kill you. You can also nab some pillows to gain retries and special items that will help you out of a jam, destroy enemies, or give you a special boost.

Catherine's puzzle type gameplay is oddly addicting and very fun. But it's also very hard, regardless of what difficulty you play on. You are given a choice to play on easy, normal, and hard (read: hard, torture, hell). It takes practice to get good at the game. That and the proper utilization of the techniques you learn. But the challenging gameplay never feels cheap. It's frustrating yes, but cheap? No way. Sure you'll rage quit quite a few times while playing, but you'll always want to come back. If not for the satisfaction of clearing a particularly difficult puzzle, then definitely to continue the interesting story.

Now that's all during the nightmare stage. When Vincent is awake, he hangs with his buddies at the Stray Sheep bar. Here you can drink to your heart's content, boosting your speed in the nightmare stages. You can also talk to the other inhabitants of the Stray Sheep. Many of the bargoers are deeply troubled individuals. The player will occasionally be prompted by various dialogue choices that will ultimately decide the fate of the character later in the game. You can also play Rapunzel, an adorable 8-bit version of the nightmare stages. You can also talk to Erica, Boss, Jonny, Orlando, and Toby for some often humorous and playful banter. You can send text messages to both Catherine and Katherine. When composing a message, you are given 2 or 3 lines to say your piece. Each line gives you 2 or 3 different sentences that you can mix and match to compose a text message. A lot of Vincent's actions will affect the little red and blue meter that pops up from time to time. This meter will play a hand in which ending you get.

It is possible to beat the game in a reasonable and even fairly short amount of time despite its difficulty. With 8 different possible endings that depend on your choices in the game, there is plenty of replay value.

Outside of the main story, there's the two player competitive coliseum and four extra stages known as Babel. Babel is a far more intense and punishing version of the nightmares stages that are unlocked by gathering enough gold prizes on normal and hard difficulty.

Packed with extra content, eight different endings, multiple difficulties, and a story you'll want to experience more than once, Atlus has really outdone themselves with this game. It's mature and interesting story along with its addictive gameplay truly make it one the most unique and enjoyable games I've ever played. I'd recommend everyone give this game a go. I guarantee you won't regret it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Lucky_Krystal reviewed Catherine for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by Lucky_Krystal on Thu, 16 May 2013 21:06:30 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/catherine/user-reviews/811400/platform/ps3/ Thu, 16 May 2013 17:24:48 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed Transformers: Fall of Cybertron for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/transformers-fall-of-cybertron/user-reviews/811396/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

The game Fall of Cybertron takes place after the first game that tells the ending of the war between the Autobots and Decipticons. You take control of both sides and getting a deeper perspective from both sides.
There is a multiplayer in this game that has a progression system. There are also several classes to choose from enabling the player to explore more than one way to play.

The Bad:
There is a certain level that totally has a harder difficulty then the others. This is totally different then any of the other levels. The enemies are way harder, and more then the other levels. It also gives you little oppertunity to get more health and ammo. Making it hard even on normal and easy diffuculty. This is something the developer should have taken notice before launching it or fixing it after release.
The campaign is also a little on the short side. There is also little replaybility to the campaign other than trying to get achievments or trying to do it on harder difficulty. It is a shame it is so short, because the story is actually pretty good. Feeling they could have explored the game more with characters. The characters have little screen time other than the many known ones.

The Good:
Even though the story is short and not fully using the potential some of the stories could have had, it is by no chance bad. The story is really well paced and has enough actions and cutscenes to immerse the player in the experience.
The characters are colorful and well written. You never feel dull in the singleplayer experience. With funny and serious moments through the whole campaign makes it a really great game. Great characters and great story.
The gameplay itself is really solid. With a heavy gun and light gun and special abilities for each of the characaters. Examples are Stealth that gives you the ability to actually sneak up on enemies. The really great thing about this is that the level design actually makes you benefit when you use the ablities and it doesn't feel forced in any of them and go with them without any problem. This makes the gameplay even more diverse and giving players more variation. The player can also transform into a vehicle that makes the gameplay even greater, leaving the player to choose either form and playing as you see fit. Some stages in each level might be better to use in one or the other form. They never feel forced and gives the player the option to play how they want. The player also gets to upgrade weapons, perks, abilities, buying perks, etc. And gives a sense of depth to game.
The multiplayer is really good and gives the player the choice of making the robots to look how they want, giving them different weapons and in the end a lot of choice how they want to play it. There was no issue with lag when i played this.
The graphics has its own style and does stand out to the eye. It really is amazing at times. Especially when looking at cities and the horizon of large buildings. Just showing how great the world looks like.
The voice acting is really good. They really bring the characters to life and brining old actors back from the animated series is also a great plus for fans of the series. The guns sound also really authentic and makes you want to shoot a robot right in the face with great results.
Overall
With players given the choice between abilities, lots of weapons, transforming, great story and just a lot of choice for the player. The story might be linear, but they player gets to choose how they want to play. It never truly feels like you are just passing through and actually experiencing a greay game. If you can look past a few flaws, it is a really great game to have in your library

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/transformers-fall-of-cybertron/user-reviews/811396/platform/xbox360/ 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/ Sun, 12 May 2013 14:12:36 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2/user-reviews/811234/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Modern Warfare 2 continues the campaign and the pushes the franchise forward in the modern setting even further. The multiplayer returns as we are used to in the series.
Spec Ops is a nice change of pace making Co-Op avaliable over internet and locally. This mode contains of waves of enemies coming against you and trying to survive with a friend on your side. There are three difficulties for each map, and you are able to test your skills how much you can plan and use skills to get through the waves of enemies.
The multiplayer is also back with new perks, weapons, and levels. This time around there are 10 prestiges to do. If someone wants a real challenge and try to level up again 10 times with all the challenges and weapons, it's a nice change of pace.
The Bad:
The singleplayer is as forgetable as ever. The player takes control over several persons through the campaign and gets you a perspective of things. This had worked, if the story had some sort of depth. But all it really is, is a shallow attempt at an action movie. Some might also be shocked from the infamous airport level, but this game is also labeled as mature. The plot tries to take itself seriously, but when you eventually see plot twists coming from a mile away and all of the levels being very linear. When i mean linear, it's basicly either a stand off trying to survive enemies, escort missions, corridor shooting or simple running from A to B. There are no alternative ways to actually engage the enemy when the actual fire begins. Everything is control with smaller quick time events and very scripted events through the whole story. There are no alternate ways to play the levels. There are intel packs to be collected in each level, but there is barely any exploring. It does not give the player any creativity when it comes to the gameplay itself. The whole singleplayer is basicly just point and shoot with cinematics explosions with forgetable dialogue and characters.

The graphics on the console aren't as good as the pc counterpart, and it shows if you have seen the pc version. Some framerate issues can be seen on the console version.

The Good:
The gameplay is very solid, making tweaks to make it more solid. The gameplay mechanics really shine through in the multiplayer where you can choose your own weapons and perks to your liking and play the way you really want to. The multiplayer has enough depth and options to give the players of this game a good reason to play it.

The sound of the gun mechanics and the game itself are solid, and don't have any real flaws. The guns sound good enough to make the player believe the gun sounds coming out of the actual guns when shooting them.

Spec Ops gives the player also a reason to try out the Co-Op part of the game with several difficulties. Makes it possible to have a friend locally or over internet to play with you. These levels are well designed and could give players that want to explore this part of the game much fun to be had.

Even though most of the singleplayer is plain, the voice actors make it relevant to even take notice of these shallow characters. Making them believable and humane. If there is anything that is good about the singleplayer it would be the voice acting, even though the story and the way the character progress is really shallow.

Overall:
It's a good multiplayer game for those that want either a Co-Op experience or a massive online expeience, then this should be in your collection. But if you want to get this game for it's singleplayer, you should stay away from it. Because it has nothing of depth in there or even worth exploring.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2/user-reviews/811234/platform/ps3/ Tue, 07 May 2013 08:26:26 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed Assassin's Creed III for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-iii/user-reviews/811091/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

In this sequel to the Assassin's Creed games, we visit early colonial America. It starts with Haytham Kenway and him making his way to the new America to search for where his relics may be of use. He is also searching for clues left behind by Minerva and Juno that both Assassin's and Templars are looking for. This part of the story is very linear and serves as an origin story. There is a little plot twist after you are done with his story. After a few hours in you take over Connor, Kenway's son and continue the story from there.
There is a new setting setting in this game never shown before with the forest and animals being a part of the game. Hunting and skinning animals are also part of the game. This game does not have any upgrades when it comes to the home where the character is settled.
The whole setting takes the whole american revolution and takes the fictional characters such as Haytham and Connor and puts them right in the middle of them. They also have real characters such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and other known persons from that era.
The gameplay and combat itself has been changed a little bit. The counter system has been worked on and needs more timing than before. This can make confronting larger more challenging

The bad:
Something that sticks out right away after the beginning is that guards recognize you immediately if you just have one on your notorious level. You get recognized faster when you are on rooftops, it does not give you any incentive to actually climb the houses in the cities of New York and Boston. The posters for you to get noticed less is even removed from your map entirely making it harder for you to lose your character getting noticed by guards.

The modern part of the story also has a bigger role in this, which isn't bad. But the sour note the game. With the game ending on the biggest cliffhanger in the entire Assassin's Creed series. The other ones in the series, might not have a a real ending except for Revelations ending Ezio's and Altairs story. They just leave one big question mark and break the entire series with such a an ending. It will be a big dissapointment for those that have played all of the games and might even anger some.

The new homestead isn't upgradable and doesn't really give you any incentive to go deeper. It gives you more story to some characters if you are invested in the game and want a little more story to it. Some are interesting, but they consist mostly of fetch quests and mostly consist you doing the same with helping them with something they can't do themselves. They can be really tedious to do if you can't get invested in the characters. The upgrades and shipments you do with the homestead are pretty much useless and doesn't really give any depth to the game. Looking at the result of this design decision it is not clear what was suppose to be the meaning of this whole system.

The counter system doesn't always respond the way you want it to, and get often hit even though the timing is good.

The good:
The graphics of this game are a really big upgrade to the previous games in the series, and it is really stunning to watch, wether it is the cutscenes or exploring the world. It is truly beautiful to look at.

The characters of this story are strong, some might be used to the idea of a character of the likes of Ezio and Altair. They have to keep in mind that this is a whole new character, with his own story and problems. The voice acting is great, and give depth to the characters and the story itself. Even though that i have mentioned that the "modern" ending for the game ends on a big cliffhanger, doesn't mean that this game doesn't have a good story. Connors and Haytham's story through this game is really good and worth experiencing.

The audio and sound effects are well made and the mood it sets when traveling in the forest is really important, could have felt really empty if this wasn't case.

The gameplay has also improved. The climbing has never been this fun, even though the game does not give you any real incentive to actually climb and explore the rooftops because of troops, doesn't mean the mechanics for it are bad. Far from it, it's never been this much fun to actually climb which is really sad when the notorious system undermines this mostly.
The combat is more realistic and requires the user to time the counters more, it can be really fun when have a few opponents and really dominate them, but when you have several enemies against you it can work against you.

Overall this is a mixed bag, there is enough though to actually play this game, even though some might be dissapointed with this being the biggest and best in the series, it is far from being a bad game. It is worth a shot if you are an Assassin's Creed fan, but also keep in mind, this might not be the overall best game. I did not encounter many bugs in my Xbox version, but that doesn't mean this is free of bugs and glitches.

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"The_Last_Ride reviewed Assassin's Creed III for the Xbox 360..." was posted by The_Last_Ride on Tue, 07 May 2013 08:26:26 -0700
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